Kate Darling researches human-robot interaction. She explains why we are prone to forming emotional connections with robots and what we can learn from our relationships with pets and other animals

Inside a mountain in the Arctic, Microsoft is building a backup of open-source software that it says will keep the code safe for 1000 years

The road to haircut hell is paved with good questions. Questions like: Is the coronavirus pandemic the Flowbee’s time to shine?

Jurgen Klopp never got to manage Steven Gerrard at Liverpool but the pair still have a strong relationship given their connections to the club.

The summer transfer window is nearly upon us as Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and the rest of the Premier League look to strengthen for whenever the new season starts. Express Sport brings you the latest updates throughout the day.

Strange blasts from space called fast radio bursts continue to puzzle astronomers with their odd behaviour, as they seem to come from a variety of galaxies

The first US woman to spacewalk flew on three shuttle missions and says nothing beats space flight – but her proudest achievement is helping to repair the Hubble Space Telescope

A strange supernova that’s 100 times brighter than it should be has long been a mystery, but it may be explained by the explosion slamming into a cloud of gas

Astronomers have spotted a star that is exploding with a brightness 100 times less than expected – and it’s a mystery exactly why the explosion is so dim

There’s nothing like crash-landing on an alien planet. Journey to the Savage Planet doesn't always get it right, but it has echoes of classic Metroid Prime, says Jacob Aron

A private satellite that is low on fuel could survive five more years because another satellite has come to its rescue – a technique that could be used by future service spacecraft

Venus’s surface is covered in strange wiggling lines that may form when colossal stacks of lava are carved by gentle winds over hundreds of millions of years

Brown dwarfs, which are halfway between huge planets and small stars, have extremely powerful winds whipping around them at speeds of about 650 metres per second

An explosion 4.6 billion light years away has released 10 times more energy than the sun will put out in its lifetime, making it the most extreme supernova ever found

Start harnessing the power of data today – learn how in this whitepaper

Ready-to-connect readycables® save you time on cable assembly and are guaranteed to last 36 months

Interrogate the data, consider possible incentives, and look for the dreaded “hype salad”

Human movements can teach robots the skills they need to dig holes and—maybe someday—build the first colonies on Mars

The unique body and locomotion strategies of echinoderms inspired this robot that emulates a juvenile sea urchin

Creepy robots and the strange phenomenon of the uncanny valley: definition, history, examples, and how to avoid it

Your weekly selection of awesome robot videos

In 1966, the Eliza program couldn’t say much—but it was enough

If Stephen King keeps writing ‘em, we’ll keep seeing ‘em.

Former engineering high flyer Ausenco has become the latest mining services company to be swallowed by private equity.

In there's no way Vader signed off on this news, this is the 'Nino Star Products Pool Float Black Outdoor' available from Amazon. It costs around $25, kinda looks like a Darth Vader a kid drew, and I can't imagine Darth doesn't wish they all melted in the destruction of the first Death Star. "What am I, a joke to you?!" I imagine him demanding as he Force-chokes the commander who signed off on using his likeness for a cartoony pool float as the other who signed off on the line of upcoming Vader sex toys casually backs out of the room intending to catch the first dropship to Tatooine. Keep going for one more shot of Vader at his most humiliated.

This is a video from The Action Lab where they've set up a vacuum chamber with a fan inside along with a number of tiny Styrofoam balls to see if the fan is capable of blowing the balls around after the air is pumped out of the chamber. Well, can it? SPOILER: Only if you turn the fan up past 11 since there's still a tiny amount of air in the chamber on account of it not being a perfect vacuum like my roommate. So yeah, if your spaceship design relies heavily on a fan for propulsion it may be time to head back to the drawing board and hopefully draw something impressive enough for your mom to hang on the fridge because you belong at home. Keep going for the video, but the fun bit starts around 1:50.

This is a terrifying elevator cam gif from Korea of an elevator that begins ascending before a man enters, tripping him and almost creating a classic horror movie death scene in real life. Thankfully he was able to escape. And this is exactly why I don't take elevators -- or escalators. "So you're a stair guy?" Please *jiggling belly* jetpack or grappling gun only. Thanks to PK, who agrees they always say use the stairs in case of emergency, and what's 2020 if not a nonstop emergency? Besides, how do you social distance in an elevator? I mean if somebody farts everyone smells it.

Ubisoft debuted some in-engine footage of the latest Assassin's Creed game during the Inside Xbox stream

The new Nightlife reactive skin is now live ahead of the Fortnite Party Royale event which starts later today.

Final Fantasy XI announces its plans for its golden years. Fossil Fighters still exists. Then Phil either recommends or doesn’t recommend Avernum. I’m still not...

Chris gets 100 fisted by a tarutaru. Alice finds a new pastime in countryside lifepod touring. Anna Marie pushes things to the limit. And Alex...

Alice delivers missiles and then takes a shower. Anna Marie crosses her exes and upgrades her goggles. Chris kickstarts all the games and laments over...

Square Enix comes up with an incredibly innovative idea to make money. Kickstarter proves itself to be the answer to everyone’s needs once again. And...

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese regulators have approved Novartis' Mayzent to treat relapsing multiple sclerosis in adults, the Swiss drug maker said in a statement on Saturday. Other drugs approved by China's National Medical Products Administration to treat MS include Novartis' Gilenya, Bayer's Betaferon and Sanofi's Aubagio. China has an estimated 30,000 patients with MS. (Reporting by Roxanne Liu and Kevin Yao in Beijing; Editing by Edwina Gibbs

• France Galop lobbied Emmanuel Macron for go-ahead
• Longchamp one of three meetings to take place on Monday

France Galop, the ruling body of French racing, confirmed on Saturday it will resume with meetings at Longchamp, Toulouse and Compiegne on Monday, but only after what is believed to have been urgent behind-the-scenes lobbying by Edouard de Rothschild, FG’s president, late on Friday night that persuaded Emmanuel Macron, the French president, to finally give his approval to the resumption.

De Rothschild thanked Macron and Édouard Philippe, France’s prime minister, for their efforts in a tweet in the early hours of Saturday morning that confirmed racing had seen off last-minute objections to its return.

Continue reading...

In the wake of Covid-19, We Are One: A Global Film Festival is taking the experience online. But cinema is a bigger encounter

Every year, at Cannes (and other festivals) there’s a plaintive argument about what Cannes (or other festivals) are really all “about”. Some Savonarola-type person will dash the glass of rosé out of your hand, throw your canape into the Med and tell you Cannes is not about red-carpet narcissism, not about stars preening in the flashbulb glare of celeb-worship, not about L’Oréal sponsorship, not about getting drunk at a million late-night parties. It’s about the movies, about cinema itself.

Of course. And that’s what the new Covid-19-related We Are One: A Global Film Festival appears to offer: the 10-day online festival, beginning 29 May, curated by Jane Rosenthal of the Tribeca film festival, featuring arthouse films (though not the big-ticket Hollywood items) from Cannes, Venice, Berlin and many more, streaming for free in return for an optional donation to the World Health Organization’s Covid-19 fund. So there you have it. A festival with all the frills and extras and flummeries stripped away. Just you, in your bedroom, with your laptop, communing with cinema. Isn’t that what it’s all about?

Continue reading...

The Hollywood Reporter says numerous attendees returned from the late-January festival with coronavirus symptoms

A new report suggests that January’s Sundance film festival, the annual gathering of cinephiles in Park City, Utah, may have been a key early hub for coronavirus in the US. The article, in the Hollywood Reporter, cites numerous attendees who experienced Covid-19-like symptoms either during or immediately after the festival. None were believed to have been tested for the disease.

Sundance this year attracted about 120,000 people to the small mountain resort, to watch films and party in confined spaces. The snowy conditions that make Park City perfect for skiing mean that socialising indoors is common, as are some flu-like symptoms as a result of the low temperature and high altitude.

Continue reading...

Astronomers using NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory have tracked water loss from 2I/Borisov, the first known interstellar comet to visit our Solar System, as it approached and rounded the Sun. Their findings were published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. 2I/Borisov was detected on August 30, 2019 by Gennady Borisov, an astronomer at the Crimean Astrophysical [...]

A species of plant that grew about 400 million years ago (Early Devonian period) produced a spectrum of spore sizes, which is an essential innovation necessary for all advanced plant reproductive strategies, including seeds and flowers. The Devonian period is one of the most important time periods for the evolution of land plants. It witnessed [...]

Multiwavelength observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and Gemini Observatory combined with close-up views from NASA’s Juno spacecraft reveal that lightning strikes and huge storm systems that create them in Jupiter’s atmosphere are formed in and around large convective cells over deep clouds of water ice and liquid; the observations also confirm that dark [...]

Valve is calling it quits on macOS support for its virtual reality platform. A Valve employee posted an update to the company’s SteamVR forums, noting that “SteamVR has ended macOS support so our team can focus on Windows and Linux.” Apple introduced “Metal for VR” back in June 2017 and highlighted a partnership with Valve. […]

New Delhi, May 09 (ANI): An Air India flight carrying 129 passengers from Dhaka, Bangladesh has landed at Delhi airport. The stranded Indian nationals are being brought back to the country through government’s initiative, ‘Vande Bharat Mission’.

A long-standing hypothesis suggests the BCG vaccine also serves to generally enhance the immune system, meaning it could protect against covid-19, and trials are under way to find out

Trials of experimental coronavirus vaccines are already under way, but it’s still likely to be years before one is ready and vaccination may not even be possible

The BCG tuberculosis vaccine boosts the production of immune cells and this may explain how it protects newborns from dying of sepsis

Scientists are working hard to understand how age changes the immune system so that they can better protect seniors against current and future infectious diseases