NASA's Artemis program will mark a significant milestone in US space flight history when it lifts off in late 2024. Not only will it be the first time that American astronauts have travelled further than LEO since the 1970s, and not only will it be the first opportunity for a female astronaut to step foot on the moon. The Artemis mission will perform the crucial groundwork needed for humanity to further explore and potentially colonize our nearest celestial neighbor as well as eventually serve as a jumping-off point in our quest to reach Mars. Given how inhospitable space is to human physiology and psychology, however, NASA and its partners will face a significant challenge in keeping their lunar colonists alive and well. Back in the Apollo mission era, the notion of constructing even a semi-permanent presence on the surface of the moon was laughable -- largely because the numerous lunar regolith samples collected and returned to Earth during that period were "found to be dry as a bone," Rob Mueller, Senior Technologist in Advanced Projects Development at NASA said during a SXSW 2021 panel.

Renowned British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking died on March 14, 2018. The news generated an online view rate of nearly 500 million in China. At the same time, almost 250,000 viewers responded to the news with comments and messages. According to Agence France-Presse, Stephen Hawking opened a Sina Weibo account two years ago and started posting messages in English and Chinese. These were well received by the Chinese followers, as Hawking wanted to engage fully with his Chinese audience and learn from them.

When it comes to artificial intelligence (AI), perhaps very few people can claim they fathered a huge part of it. One such man is Jürgen Schmidhuber. Schmidhuber is considered the"father of very deep learning," and the pioneer of deep learning neural networks. In fact, he built the foundations for many of the AI systems we find in our smartphones today. If anyone can predict how far AI will go in the next couple years, it's him. During a talk at WIRED2016, Schmidhuber presented the future of AI as something beyond just taking over jobs.

When it comes to artificial intelligence (AI), perhaps very few people can claim they fathered a huge part of it. One such man is Jürgen Schmidhuber. Schmidhuber is considered the"father of very deep learning," and the pioneer of deep learning neural networks. In fact, he built the foundations for many of the AI systems we find in our smartphones today. If anyone can predict how far AI will go in the next couple years, it's him. During a talk at WIRED2016, Schmidhuber presented the future of AI as something beyond just taking over jobs.

Does your home really need a "smart speaker" that can answer questions, call you an Uber, turn off the lights or play music when you ask? You may be about to find out. Two years ago, Amazon introduced the Amazon Echo, an unassuming, 180 cylinder that sits atop a kitchen counter or bookshelf, acting as a personal assistant that listens to you and does your bidding. Initially, the gadget's main purpose was a little difficult to discern . But Echo and its Alexa voice recognition software have since become a sleeper hit, with an estimated 3 million gadgets sold as of April, according to research firm Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.