Science, Space, & Robotics

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have devised a way to scan people's faces to estimate personality traits and real-world success, and, according to the scientists behind the method, it actually works.

A new study has found that machine learning techniques can identify correlations between facial characteristics and real-world success, leading to the creation of predictors based on facial characteristics for specific aspects of life. The team used an AI system trained to estimate the likelihood of the Big Five personality traits from human face images.

The researchers took headshots from 96,000 MBA college graduates and fed them into the AI. The AI produced results indicating the likelihood of each student's personality traits: neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness, extraversion, and openness. The team then reviewed the AI's results and evaluated how each student's career had panned out, and found a correlation between the AI's predictions and each student's success.

A company has unveiled a new generation of a humanoid robot with synthetic skin designed to make it feel warmer and more intimate.

The company behind the new robot is Chinese EV maker Xpeng, and at its AI Day in Guangzhou, China, Xpeng showcased its IRON humanoid robots, which are the company's eighth-generation and third-generation humanoid design.

Xpeng's new robots aren't headed to factories like many other robotics companies, but instead the company intends for them to be used as receptionists, tour guides, or even a personal shopping assistant. Xpeng wants these latest-generation robots to lead tours of its facility, and also present new products at its stores across China.

Astronomers have detected the biggest black hole burp ever recorded using the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), tracing the event back to the supermassive black hole located at the center of a galaxy 10 billion light-years away.

A black hole burp, or what is scientifically referred to as a flare, is an astronomical event that occurs when a black hole consumes an object. In the instance of this flare, researchers traced the eruption back to the supermassive black hole known as J2245+3743 and a star estimated to be 30 times the mass of the Sun getting stuck in the gravitational pull of the black hole. The result is the star being absolutely torn apart, and its material being added to the swirling, flattened disk seen around active black holes.

Researchers call this devouring of a star a tidal disruption event, and according to researchers, the flare emitted as much energy as 10 trillion suns. Notably, the flare was initially spotted in 2018 by the ZTF, but it wasn't until 2023 and data from the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii that showed the true nature of the flare, further cementing the theory that the black hole consumed an unusually large star.

NVIDIA has just announced a huge partnership with Uber, to use its NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Hyperion 10 reference system, providing self-driving fleets, with Uber combining human riders and robot drivers in a worldwide ride-hailing network powered by DRIVE AGX Hyperion-ready vehicles.

The partnership will see the scale up of the world's largest level 4-ready mobility network, using Uber's next-generation robotaxi and autonomous delivery fleets using the new NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Hyperion 10 autonomous vehicle (AV) development platform, and NVIDIA DRIVE AV software purpose-built for L4 autonomy.

On the tech side of things, NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Hyperion 10 specs and features: NVIDIA has two performance-packed DRIVE AGX Thor in-vehicle platforms, which are based on the NVIDIA Blackwell architecture. Each of the platforms can deliver over 2000 FP4 teraflops (1000 TOPS in INT8) of real-time compute, with NVIDIA AGX Thor fusing 360-degree sensor inputs and is optimized for transformer -- vision language action (VLA) models and generative AI workloads -- which provides safe, level 4 autonomous driving backed by industry-leading safety certifications and cybersecurity standards.

Amazon is reportedly planning to cut as many as 600,000 human jobs over the next 7 years, which will eventually be replaced by robots.

Internal documents obtained by The New York Times show Amazon's plans to automate approximately 75% of all its operational processes, which will result in approximately 600,000 job losses by the year 2033. For those who don't know, Amazon is one of the United States' largest companies by the number of employees it has under its banner, having tripled its workforce since 2018 to a staggering 1.2 million.

However, Amazon's board has reportedly informed management that it will no longer need to hire additional US employees in the future due to advances in automation. The internal documents reportedly revealed that Amazon projects to save as much as $12.6 billion after the 600,000 workers are replaced by automation, and it will reduce the cost to sell each product it ships by approximately 30 cents. Amazon already has more than 1 million robots working for the company, and these robots support the 1.6 million workers.

It was last week when reports surfaced about a mysterious object potentially from space colliding with the windscreen of a United Airlines plane while it was traveling over Utah, with theories pointing to space debris possibly from a defunct satellite re-entering Earth's atmosphere, or even birds.

However, it was neither of those theories, and the object that struck the windshield of flight UA1093, which caused enough damage to shatter the windshield and injure one of the pilots in the cockpit, was a weather balloon from the company WindBorne. Speaking to Ars Technica, WindBorne agreed that it was likely one of its balloons after calculating the position of the balloon and cross-referencing it with the flight path of the plane.

The theory of a mysterious space-based object colliding with the 737 MAX aircraft came after one of the pilots described the object that impacted the aircraft as "space debris". Notably, the collision didn't cause any fatalities, only injuries, as images shared to social media show one of the pilot's arms being cut up by seemingly small shards of glass that sprayed into the cockpit following the impact.

Not a single human has set foot on the surface of the Moon since December 14, 1972, which was when Apollo 17 astronauts completed their final moonwalk. Since then, only robots have explored the surface of Earth's closest neighbor. However, that is about to change in the coming years.

NASA has announced the date for Artemis II, the mission that will take four astronauts on a 10-day journey around the Moon. Artemis II comes after Artemis I, which was an uncrewed mission that involved the Orion spacecraft being sent on a test journey around the Moon to see how the spacecraft would fare with mission goals and general journey. Artemis I was a success, and now NASA is moving to Artemis II, a crewed mission that will follow a similar path to Artemis I, but this time with humans aboard the Orion spacecraft.

Artemis II will be the foundation of future Artemis missions, with each of the four astronauts undergoing strenuous testing both before and after they return from the journey. For example, blood samples will be taken before the crew leaves and then taken again after they return, as researchers want to know if the human body experiences any significant changes throughout the mission, which, if found to be the case, preventative measures will be made before Artemis III, the mission where humans will walk on the surface of the Moon.

When engineers or companies discuss the future of humanoid robotics, they often focus on replacing menial tasks and monotonous jobs, allowing individuals to pursue more fulfilling endeavors. But what if you just wanted to kick the crap out of your new humanoid robot?

Unitree has demonstrated that technology has already been achieved, as the company behind the Unitree G1 humanoid robot has endured a beating, with the above video showing Unitree engineers running and kicking the poor robot to the ground over and over again.

Now, this isn't a demonstration of how buyers of this robot can kick the crap out of the G1; it's a demonstration of the G1's "Anti-Gravity" mode. Unitree is showcasing the G1's impressive stability and how it's able to pick itself back up quickly if it falls to the ground..

Tesla has just received a $10 billion order for its Optimus 3+ humanoid robots, with big pharma securing the robots and deploying them into farm operations, the making of prescription drugs, and lower-level jobs that are said to push Americans into higher-paid jobs.

Firstly, this marks some rather big history for Tesla and the future humanoid robot market, with up to 10,000 Optimus 3+ humanoid robots. Tesla is leading the charge, and big pharma will use the humanoid robots to restore US drug manufacturing sovereignty.

Bright Green Corporation has announced its merger with PharmAGRI Capital Partners, a federally aligned pharmaceutical infrastructure platform architected to restore U.S. drug manufacturing sovereignty. Effective immediately, Lynn Stockwell has been appointed CEO and chairwoman of PharmAGRI, with Stockwell to appoint a new board that will be made up of directors from her Drugs Made In America Corps, which includes a series of 4 Nasdaq-listed special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) formed to acquire DEA-licensed and FDA-compliant pharmaceutical businesses.

NASA has accelerated its plans to build a nuclear reactor on the Moon's surface, as part of its broader strategy to establish a sustainable lunar presence through a base.

NASA's Artemis program is part of the space agency's effort to establish a lunar base on Earth's closest neighbor by 2030. One of the most critical components of such a base is sustainable power. The nuclear option seems the most viable, as solar won't work due to the Moon's rotation being so slow. There are two-week periods where the Moon is in darkness. Nuclear reactors will enable a round-the-clock energy supply needed to keep bases maintained at healthy operational levels, ensuring human survival.

According to a report from Politico, NASA's interim chief Sean Duffy is set to announce a new ambitious plan in the next week that will involve NASA soliciting industry proposals for a 100-kilowatt nuclear reactor to launch by 2030, and that within the directive it states the first nation with a Moon reactor could "declare a keep-out zone, which would significantly inhibit the United States." The race for the first lunar-based nuclear reactor is between the US, China, and Russia, who announced a partnership to create their own lunar base.

The biggest earthquake to strike since 2011 has hit Russia, resulting in tsunami warnings issued for multiple Pacific regions.

Almost two million people are currently under evacuation advisories across 2020 municipalities along the Pacific coast of Japan, while Hawaii is bracing for impact as a "wall of water" approaches. The director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, Chip McCreery, said it could be "several hours" before the warning level in Hawaii is reduced. Reports indicate the biggest wave recorded so far is 4ft tall, and waves are arriving every 12 minutes. This figure was measured by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center at Haleiwa, Oahu.

Hawaii Governor Josh Green has urged people to evacuate all coastal zones as the state braces for a "forceful wall of water that will move across the shoreline into the community." Green also provided an update shortly after the expected arrival time of 7:10 pm local time for the first wave, "So far we have not seen a wave of consequence," but they have seen significant water recede.

YouTuber Benn Jordan, a musician and acoustic scientist, has achieved what may be a world first: the saving of data from a live animal, specifically a bird.

That bird is a European starling, or a songbird that is able to mimic sounds extremely effectively through its vocal organ called a syrinx. Jordan explains that starlings are able to precisely produce multiple tones at the same time, meaning they are able to mimic almost any sound they hear. The bird in the video is shown mimicking sounds it wouldn't otherwise hear naturally in the wild, such as the sound a camera shutter makes when it opens and closes, or synthetic sounds created by humans.

Using a spectral synthesizer, which is a piece of software that shows a spectrogram, or the visual representation of how the frequencies that make up a sound change over time, Jordan drew an image of a bird. Essentially, this image consists of a collection of sounds that make up the image Jordan drew. He then played the sounds to the starling, who was able to mimic it. Jordan then captured the mimicked sound in the spectrogram to see if the image was correctly reproduced, and it was identical.

Researchers from the Beijing Institute of Technology have created the world's lightest insect brain controller and injected it into bees.

A report from the South China Morning Post reveals that the scientists behind this technology believe that fleets of mind-controlled insects could be used to scout areas and help disaster relief operations. How does it work? Researchers developed a device that plugs directly into the brain of a bee via three microscopic needles.

Scientists then use electronic pulses sent through the needles to control the direction the bees fly, and according to research published in the Chinese Journal of Mechanical Engineering, the bees obeyed these commands 90% of the time.

NASA's Mario Rana spied a bright flash on Saturn last week over the weekend, marking the first time astronomers have spotted an object slamming into Saturn in real-time.

The volunteer astronomer at NASA's Planetary Virtual Observatory and Laboratory (PVOL) was using the telescope to image Saturn when they reported seeing a bright flash of light at around 09:00 UTC. As soon as the flash was detected, Rana put out the word to the astronomy community to see if anyone else saw what they just saw, specifically for more images or footage of the event.

Notably, Saturn, being a gas giant, doesn't exhibit any craters or scars from astronomical collisions such as this, making it hard to determine the size of the object or even if the event took place. Saturn's turbulent atmosphere of hydrogen and helium essentially swallows any evidence of a collision, with any remaining evidence being quickly swirled around in the thick outer layers of the planet. For this reason, it's remarkable that seemingly an object was caught slamming into the planet in real-time.

3D printers can make some weird and wonderful things, but scientists at the University of Hong Kong in China are taking it to the next level by experimenting with technology that is 3D printing functional organ tissue.

In a new report from the South China Morning Post, we're hearing that Professor Michael Chan and his researchers have developed a new system that involves organ tissue that isn't just 3D printed, but lab-grown. The combination of the two, as well as a custom organoid, ensures that there's a lower chance of the 3D-printed organ being rejected by the patient.

Professor Chan said that 3D printed biomaterial isn't something totally new, and that it can't perform the right functions without cells pertaining to the organ that it is replacing. This is where the researchers' organoid embedding is involved, with the organoids created using stem cells from the patient that makes sure they don't just function, but also have genetic compatibility.

Amazon has announced that it now has a million robots working behind the scenes in its retail empire, and a new AI model to help make those bots a lot smarter - which will ultimately mean faster deliveries.

In a press release that Tom's Hardware picked up, Amazon made the revelation that its millionth robot just went live in a fulfillment center in Japan.

The bigger story here, though, is that Amazon is introducing a new generative AI model to make its robots smarter.

UK-based startup Space Forge has successfully had its ForgeStar-1 satellite launched into orbit with the help of Elon Musk's SpaceX, with Space Forge to make semiconductors in space.

ForgeStar-1 is now the UK's first-ever in-space manufacturing satellite, which will build semiconductors (computer chips) in space, with the satellite designed entirely in-house in Cardiff, Wales, and launched into space as part of SpaceX's recent Transporter-14 rideshare mission. The satellite waited for approvals in the United States since April, before entering orbit today.

Joshua Western, CEO and co-founder of Space Forge explains: "We've built and launched Britain's first manufacturing satellite and it's alive in orbit, that's a massive technical achievement. Now, we take the next step: proving that we can create the right environment for manufacturing in space. This is the start of a new era for materials science and industrial capability".

The world's largest digital camera has been switched on and begun capturing images, and each of these images measures a staggering 61,440 x 51,200 in resolution.

The newly functional world's largest digital camera is located at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, on the El Peñón peak of Cerro Pachón, approximately 8,799 ft up a mountain in the Chilean Andes. The camera has been operational for 10 hours, and since it began snapping photos of the galaxy above, it has discovered 2,104 new asteroids in the solar system.

The camera weighs a staggering three tonnes and features a ridiculous 3,200 megapixel sensor. It is capable of capturing feverishly high-resolution images so high-resolution that if the camera were pointed at the Moon, it would be able to snap an image and see a golf ball on the surface. The first pictures released by scientists operating the capture show 10 million galaxies, which is a small start as it covers just 0.05% of the camera's overall goal to map out 20 billion galaxies through taking regular survey images.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has announced plans to develop a new nuclear power plant, which will be the first new nuclear power plant to be built in New York in decades.

The Trump administration has pushed for "energy dominance" in the United States, and with tech companies needing more and more power for their AI data centers, New York wants to be at the center of that action with a new nuclear power plant.

New York State Energy Research and Development Authority president and CEO Doreen Harris said in a press release: "The use of advanced nuclear technology can provide the State with a greater diversity of its energy resources that will support New York's goal of a growing economy with a reliable, zero-emission electricity system".

SpaceX has confirmed that Starship, the world's largest and most powerful rocket, has exploded on the launch pad during a routine test.

In preparation for its 10th test flight, SpaceX's newest Starship model has experienced a catastrophic failure, resulting in it exploding into a fireball on the launch pad at its Starbase site in South Texas on Wednesday night, June 18. The explosion occurred at about 11 pm, and SpaceX has confirmed that no personnel were injured during the event and everyone has been accounted for. Additionally, the Elon Musk-led company is now working to "safe the test site and immediate surrounding area in conjunction with local officials."

Moreover, residents living in the surrounding area are at no risk, according to SpaceX, with the company requesting that individuals do not attempt to approach the area while staff continue to make the area safe. So, what happened?