A device that projects holograms onto brain cells could one day help replace lost senses and change our memories. The system, which uses flashes of light to control neurons, can trick the brain into thinking it is experiencing something it isn't. The technology could be used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder by changing a person's recollection of events. Researchers say it could also someday'allow the blind to see or the paralysed to feel touch'. The aim of the device is to read neural activity constantly and decide, based on that activity, which sets of neurons to activate in order to replace lost sensations.

In April, two semiautonomous drones, developed by Saildrone, a marine tech startup based in Alameda, California, in close collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Washington, D.C., are set to return from an 8-month tour of the Pacific Ocean. This the first scientific test for the drones, which are powered only by the wind and sun, in the Pacific Ocean. The voyage is an important step in showing that such drones, carrying 15 different sensors, could help replace an aging and expensive array of buoys that are the main way scientists sniff out signs of climate-disrupting El Niño events. If successful, scientists envision fleets of similar drones spreading across the ocean, inviting thoughts of what it could be like to do oceanography without a ship.