Any robot NASA sends to harsh, distant worlds has to be tougher than garden-variety machines. Since every component has to be able to withstand extreme conditions, a team of researchers over at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are looking at the possibility of using bulk metallic glass for their gears. Metallic glass is a metal with glass-like atomic structure -- it has low melting temp and can be blow-molded when heated. Gears made out of the material don't get brittle and won't need lubricants even in extremely cold environments. NASA says the Curiosity rover has to heat up lubricants every time it wants to move -- metallic glass gears could save precious energy when exploring alien worlds.

Do you need a chat with a Data Doctor? The Data landscape is vast and ever changing, it can also be a place where we are bombarded with buzzwords, new trends and an onslaught of tools and services. Your body needs a check-up every now and then, so does your data journey need a check-up too? The Data Lab are running drop-in sessions with industry experts, "Doctors", who offer practical, executable advice to attendees covering 3 of the current big themes in data. Each Doctor has nine 12-minute slots available during the day, so request your 1-2-1 slot quickly before they are fully booked out.

Google, as a search engine as well as a company, has come a tremendously long way since the days of a simple web page and a list of links. Nowadays, there's little that we don't think Google is possible of, and with their recent approach to Artificial Intelligence, the company's historic motto of "don't be evil" could be helping the whole human race in the near future. Google's AI research has focused on training these algorithms to make decisions for themselves, and speed up the process exponentially. The firm has already been training their AI to improve the quality of smaller images when enlarged, but the Google Research Blog is sharing something much more important with us this week, the idea of using AI to catch Diabetic Blindness sooner, rather than later. Diabetes is a serious condition, and while many will know about the dangers surrounding the need to amputate a foot because of the disease, few will be familiar with Diabetic retinopathy (DR), a disease which puts as many as 415 Million diabetic patients at risk of blindness all over the world.

Five findings from YouGov's European mega-survey (YouGov) Some more findings from YouGov's European mega-survey On that NYT democracy chart… Corrective 1 (Tom van der Meer) and Corrective 2 (Cas Mudde) Six charts that are key to understanding Italy's referendum (FT Data) Economists are prone to fads, and the latest is machine learning(The Economist) How to better communicate election forecasts -- in one simple chart (Monkey Cage, Washington Post) Clinton would have won if the United States looked like this(Kevin Hayes Wilson) Six charts that are key to understanding Italy's referendum (FT Data) How would you describe Fidel Castro? 'Warning Signs Are Flashing Red'(New York Times) Shift Your Point of View to When America Was "Better" (Flowing Data) How would you describe Fidel Castro? How would you describe Fidel Castro? 'Warning Signs Are Flashing Red'(New York Times) Shift Your Point of View to When America Was "Better" (Flowing Data) The OGN steering committee writes to Ben Gummer on the future of open government (Open Government Network) Where we've got to; the OGP Summit; & what's next (Open Government Network) Open Government Change We Can Believe In (Tom Cochran) Where we've got to; the OGP Summit; & what's next (Open Government Network) Why GOV.UK Verify is safer (Government Digital Service) Troubled Families and the Digital Economy Bill (Data in government) Why GOV.UK Verify is safer (Government Digital Service) Friday lunchtime lecture: Creating a web of cats (ODI) Christmas 2015 Was Filled With Hoverboards -- And Hoverboard Injuries (FiveThirtyEight) A Normal Distribution (of Legs): Etiquette and equality may be openly encroached by manspreading, but efficiency is the act's hidden victim (Walker Harrison) A Normal Distribution (of Legs): Etiquette and equality may be openly encroached by manspreading, but efficiency is the act's hidden victim (Walker Harrison) Would a different style of voting have changed the 2016 election? Would a different style of voting have changed the 2016 election?

American veterans needing health care are about to get help from an unusual source: artificial intelligence. The Department of Veterans Affairs and Flow Health have forged a 5-year alliance that will see the two build a massive medical knowledge graph (based on the records of 22 million veterans) that uses deep learning to customize health plans for vets. The system aims to identify the common genetic factors that make people vulnerable to given diseases and not only improve diagnoses, but recommend treatments on a case-by-case basis.

American veterans needing health care are about to get help from an unusual source: artificial intelligence. The Department of Veterans Affairs and Flow Health have forged a 5-year alliance that will see the two build a massive medical knowledge graph (based on the records of 22 million veterans) that uses deep learning to customize health plans for vets. The system aims to identify the common genetic factors that make people vulnerable to given diseases and not only improve diagnoses, but recommend treatments on a case-by-case basis. Government interest in AI is nothing new, and we've seen multiple efforts to implement deep learning in health care. However, the combination of the two is promising.

Google's image recognition software, which uses artificial neural networks to simulate an actual human brain, is very capable of dreaming . When Google engineers fed photos of random objects to a network taught to identify images of animals, the network "dreamed" of disturbingly distorted dogs and other hybrid creatures, set against a kaleidoscopic backdrop of clouds and mountains. Shortly after publishing the outcome of their experiments, Google developers made the code for the "DeepDream" software public, enabling anyone to feed images into the machine and see what comes out. Fear and Loathing, which stars Johnny Depp as a drug-using hedonist, is basically just one long acid trip. Now that none of us are going to get any sleep tonight, here's a two-minute clip from the movie that was fed through the software:

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Psoroptes cuniculi mites are non-burrowing parasites that chew the skin in the ear canal of rabbits. Kitchen sponges can accumulate food and microbes when used for long periods of time and are not thoroughly cleaned. Millions of dust mites inhabit the home, feeding on dead human skin that are common in house dust. Pseudoscorpions are generally beneficial to humans since they prey on moth larvae, carpet beetle larvae, booklice and mites. Watch video Raging bull destroys car with horns at Spanish festival Watch video Wes Anderson gets festive for H&M 2016 Christmas collection Watch video Meet Reagan and Little Buddy whose friendship inspired a book Watch video Three pen tricks explained in this amazing magic tutorial Watch video Angry Trump supporter goes on wild'racist' rant inside store Watch video Hilarious moment baby boy joins in with twerking girls Watch video Shanghai Jiao Tong researchers test facial recognition software Watch video Man films the moment after woman jumps out the plane by the gate Watch video Moment Dolphins and 49ers fans start massive brawl in the stands Watch video LOVE Magazine's Hype Williams advent teaser for Christmas 2016 Watch video Aleexandra is'selling her virginity' to the highest bidder Watch video Road rage attack shows driver smashing lorry window with spade Watch video Angry Trump supporter goes on wild'racist' rant inside store Watch video Hilarious moment baby boy joins in with twerking girls Watch video Shanghai Jiao Tong researchers test facial recognition software Watch video Man films the moment after woman jumps out the plane by the gate Watch video Angry Trump supporter goes on wild'racist' rant inside store Watch video Hilarious moment baby boy joins in with twerking girls Watch video Shanghai Jiao Tong researchers test facial recognition software Watch video Man films the moment after woman jumps out the plane by the gate Watch video Angry Trump supporter goes on wild'racist' rant inside store Angry Trump supporter goes on wild'racist' rant inside store Watch video Moment Dolphins and 49ers fans start massive brawl in the stands Watch video LOVE Magazine's Hype Williams advent teaser for Christmas 2016 Watch video Aleexandra is'selling her virginity' to the highest bidder Watch video Road rage attack shows driver smashing lorry window with spade Watch video Moment Dolphins and 49ers fans start massive brawl in the stands Watch video LOVE Magazine's Hype Williams advent teaser for Christmas 2016 Watch video Aleexandra is'selling her virginity' to the highest bidder Watch video Road rage attack shows driver smashing lorry window with spade Watch video Aleexandra is'selling her virginity' to the highest bidder Aleexandra is'selling her virginity' to the highest bidder The scans were taken by scientists Steve Gschmeissner, who is one of the world's leading scanning electron microscopists in the world and award winning photo-micrographer Dennis Kunkel.

Getting tickets to Beyoncé and Hamilton is already hard enough but it can be nearly impossible if you're competing against the automated purchasers used by 21st century scalpers. These so-called "ticket bots" are specifically designed to get around the strict per-customer purchase limits on sites like TicketMaster and LiveNation, allowing a small handful of individuals to buy a lion's share of a show and then offer them on the resale market for a massive profit. But that's no longer the case in New York where, governor Andrew Cuomo recently signed legislation banning these robots. "It's predatory," Governor Cuomo said at a press conference yesterday. "It's wrong and, with this legislation, we are taking an important step towards restoring fairness and equity back to this multi-billion dollar industry."