Chinese scientists claim to have created a'real-life Death Star' capable of devastating enemy satellites in orbit. The science-fiction-inspired weapon combines pulses of microwave radiation into a single powerful beam - just like the planet-destroying lasers shown in Star Wars. In order to merge, the electromagnetic pulses must hit the exact same target within 170 trillionths of a second. That requires levels of timing more precise than the atomic clocks on advanced GPS satellites - a feat previously thought to be impossible. However, the weapon has now completed experimental trials for potential military applications thanks to breakthroughs in'ultra-high time precision synchronisation'.

It might look and act like a little girl, but this creepy entity may just be the next big breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI). Tong Tong, meaning'little girl', has been dubbed the world's first AI child after it was revealed by scientists from the Beijing Institute for General Artificial Intelligence (BIGAI). According to its creators, the AI child can assign itself tasks, learn autonomously, and explore its environment. And, although it sounds like the plot of the science-fiction movie The Creator, Tong Tong's engineers say the AI can even experience emotion. In a video, BIGAI says that Tong Tong'has her own joy, anger and sorrow'.

What Did Ray Kurzweil Predict? Communicating with someone across the world by smartphones, lighting the house with electric light bulbs, and even traveling outside the earth with spaceships are all things, which human beings could have never ever imagined before and which have come into the reality in the past hundreds of years. Human beings have conquered countless difficulties and crossed technology thresholds, and that leads to a question: when the next breakthrough will happen and what it will be like. Historian Yuval Harari points out that human immortality is possible in the future, and humans change it from the imagination to a technical problem. This idea is approached by Michio Kaku, a physicist, in two ways: one is to create brains that have consciousness and processing functions exactly like real human beings, and the other one is to model a real brain in a biological way.

Scientists in China have developed a laser that can locate a hidden object from a mile away. Researchers hid a mannequin inside an apartment and fired a laser emitter at its location, determining the dummy's location by calculating how long it took photons to hit different parts of the room and travel back to the laser. The technology, known as non-line-of-sight (NLOS) imaging, could be utilized by the military to find enemy targets or rescue teams to find victims. It could also be beneficial in helping self-driving cars detect pedestrians and other vehicles from behind buildings. A team at the University of Science and Technology of China perfected the new technique.

The novel coronavirus has been circulating among humans for barely three months, but several bio-tech firms have already created drugs that target the COVID-19 disease. One of the secret weapons for the fast response is artificial intelligence. The Chinese government initially was criticized for downplaying the severity of the coronavirus outbreak that originated in Wuhan last December. However, researchers around the world applauded the quick work of Chinese scientists in decoding the genetic sequence of the virus, dubbed SARS-CoV-2, and posting the results in a public database on January 10. Researchers quickly went to work.

Are our current institutions and global governance architecture sufficient to solve the new challenges the world is currently facing? According to Lee Howell, an executive of the Switzerland-based World Economic Forum, the existing institutions and systems around the world, created in the 20th century, are no longer capable of dealing with today's challenges. These have been triggered by multiple geopolitical, economic and environmental crises, as well as newly emerging issues involving innovative technologies. That is why it is important to have conferences like Davos, Howell said in a recent interview in Tokyo, referring to the WEF's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. The meeting will see some 3,000 global leaders from politics, business, academia and nongovernmental organizations gather to discuss pressing issues across different sectors. The meeting, dubbed the Davos conference, will kick off on Jan. 22 with discussions on problems ranging from climate change to trade issues and geopolitics to the "Fourth Industrial Revolution," in which artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies are expected to drastically transform how humans work and live.

SHANGHAI/HONG, KONG – A Chinese researcher's claim that he successfully modified the genes of human embryos may force the country to make a stark choice about the future of its burgeoning biotechnology industry -- one with significant implications for an emerging technology arms race with the West. He Jiankui, an American-educated scientist based in Shenzhen, announced on Monday that he'd used Crispr, a powerful gene-editing tool, to make recently born twin girls resistant to HIV. He's statement, which was not backed by peer-reviewed data and hasn't been verified, prompted widespread condemnation from scientists in China and elsewhere, with many calling it an irresponsible use of a technology whose long-term effects are still poorly understood. Yet whatever the veracity of He's claims, it's likely that China, with its aggressively entrepreneurial start-ups and less stringent regulation, will be the country where researchers most rapidly test the currently accepted boundaries of genetic manipulation. That presents its leaders with a dilemma: Whether to follow the U.S. and Europe in strictly regulating its application, or take a more hands-off approach, catalyzing rapid innovation in a strategic industry at the cost of what could be serious risks to patients.

This is the Frankenstein breakthrough that the medical world has long been dreading. A Chinese scientist yesterday declared that he has changed the fundamental genetic code of human babies, using methods that are banned in most of the world. The potential consequences are as alarming as they are unpredictable. No less an authority than Professor Stephen Hawking feared such experiments would one day create a race of'super-humans', ending mankind as we know it. Researchers have already discovered that gene editing may cause a host of cancers as a result of interfering in a genetic code so complex we will perhaps never be capable of understanding it fully.

An ultra-realistic robot was unveiled last week by researchers from the University of Science and Technology in China (USTC). Jia Jia, as the female robot has been named, is apparently capable of basic communication, interaction with nearby people, and natural facial expressions. Unfortunately, many of her pre-programmed interactions appear to be highly stereotypical.