The endangered pygmy slow loris is the only known venomous primate on Earth. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. As 2025 drew to a close, the Bronx Zoo in New York welcomed one of the most adorable animals you could imagine into the world: a pygmy slow loris (). In the picture shared by the zoo, the tiny endangered primate baby stares out with its giant dark eyes so intensely you'd think it was born with its eyes open. Indeed, that's exactly how slow lorises come out--as well as completely covered in fur.

As pandemic-led isolation triggers an epidemic of loneliness, Japanese are increasingly turning to "social robots" for solace and mental healing. At the city's Penguin Cafe, proud owners of the electronic dog Aibo gathered recently with their cyber-pups in Snuglis and fancy carryalls. From camera-embedded snouts to their sensor-packed paws, these high-tech hounds are nothing less than members of the family, despite a price tag of close to $3,000 -- mandatory cloud plan not included. It's no wonder Aibo has pawed its way into hearts and minds. Re-launched in 2017, Aibo's artificial intelligence-driven personality is minutely shaped by the whims and habits of its owner, building the kind of intense emotional attachments usually associated with kids, or beloved pets. Noriko Yamada rushed to order one, when her mother-in-law began showing signs of dementia several years ago.

Experience life with an endearing, big-eyed robot with lifelike features -- including artificial body temperature and affectionate personality -- that is being marketed as an alternative to pet ownership in Japan. At an event for families that kicked off Tuesday, several Lovot robots developed by Tokyo-based venture Groove X Inc. frolicked with visitors to the EQ House facility in Tokyo's Roppongi district. Upon entering the exhibition room, one of the 43-cm robots wheeled over to reporters and flapped its arms, beckoning to be held. Just like pets, the Lovot (yes, a combination of love and robot) develops a varying degree of attachment to people depending on the amount of care provided, such as gentle stroking or a hug. Once administered, the Lovot will in turn follow people around and beg for physical contact as a sign of affection, though it will stay away from those who treat it violently, Groove X officials say.

Can research psychologists use traditional measurement techniques to measure personality, group behavior, and other typical "psych things" on robots? And it turns out that many of the perceptions we form and biases we hold in creating first impressions also apply to the world of robots. Recent research suggests that we project personality characteristics on to robots based on physical characteristics, how they sound, and what function they serve. In general, when we anthropomorphize, or give human-like qualities to an inanimate objects, we feel emotionally closer to that machine. But this only works up to a point.

If you want to put an eye out, by all means, fly a quadcopter indoors. Shred the houseplants and ruin the linens. Give the dog a complex. After all, they'd be immensely useful for, say, decommissioning chemical and energy plants by providing a view of overhead pipes and such that terrestrial rovers can't reach. Rescue roboticist Robin Murphy of Texas A&M may have solved this problem--with marsupials.

FORTY years ago, at the height of the race between the United States and the Soviet Union to lay claim to the cosmos, a much-anticipated science-fiction movie made its debut, and sci-fi was never the same again. Kids whose parents dragged them along to the theater were alternately bemused, disturbed and mesmerized. We knew we'd seen a grown-up movie, even if we couldn't completely make sense of it all. We were being initiated into a cultural dialogue that was, after all, about our future. The movie, of course, was Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey," and many critics and much of the public instantly recognized it as a landmark. It was, wrote L.A. Times film critic Charles Champlin, "the picture that science-fiction fans of every age and in every corner of the world have prayed (sometimes forlornly) that the industry might some day give them."