Aedan O'Brien

There is such a thing as not enough chaos. In a new study, scientists have discovered that complex calculations performed by computers can be off by as much as 15 percent, due to a “pathological” inability to grasp the true mathematical complexity of chaotic dynamical systems.   “Our work shows that the behaviour of the

We’ve watched the Spot robot quadruped grow up and evolve, from its earliest days as a larger, more cumbersome beast to a carefully refined machine capable of pulling trucks. Now maker Boston Dynamics is putting the robo-dog on sale.   The idea is not to provide a friendly pet that curls up in front of

We just entered a fundamental new epoch in computing. Maybe. Google scientists said we did. Then their declaration mysteriously vanished. Last week, a scientific paper by Google and affiliated researchers was uploaded on a NASA website. Its contents – if legitimate – are not insignificant. In the paper, the scientists claim that quantum processors have

Quantum computers exist today, although they’re limited, cut-down versions of what we hope fully blown quantum computers are going to be able to do in the future. But now, researchers have developed hardware for a ‘probabilistic computer’ – a device that might be able to bridge the gap between genuine quantum computers and the standard

Here’s your dismal fact of the day: if the world’s cement industry was a country, it would sit just behind China and the US as the third leading producer of carbon pollution. It doesn’t need to be that way, though.   We just might be able to change that ugly statistic by producing the ingredients

Wi-Fi just turned 6. Not in terms of years old (Wi-Fi is a lot older than that), but in terms of its version number: Wi-Fi 6 officially launched this week. What does that mean for you? Well, if you’re anything like me – meaning you spend a lot of time indoors using the internet –

Two years ago, one freezing December night on a California rooftop, a tiny light shone weakly with a little help from the freezing night air. It wasn’t a very bright glow. But it was enough to demonstrate the possibility of generating renewable power after the Sun goes down.   Working with Stanford University engineers Wei Li

Scientists have invented a new method for turning carbon dioxide into a liquid fuel that can efficiently store energy in fuel cells.  The fuel could one day be the future of green transport, cramming more energy into the tank than the same volume of hydrogen while also serving as a building block for a whole

China’s iPhone users have found a new craze – a new app called Zao which lets people convincingly and hilariously transpose their faces onto actors like Leonardo DiCaprio, Kit Harrington from Game of Thrones, and many others.   Zao topped the Chinese iOS download chart over the weekend after first launching on the App Store

Silicon has had a very good run as the material upon which all of our electronics are based, but it’s starting to reach its limits. Now there’s a new contender for running our computers and smartphones: carbon nanotubes.   Scientists just made the largest working computer chip to date out of this hugely promising material.

Sounds like the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was just kicked out of mom’s basement. In an inexplicable tweet, DARPA asked for help finding “commercially managed underground urban tunnels and facilities able to host research and experimentation.”   And nobody knows why. The ideal space would be a human-made underground environment spanning several city blocks

The brain is the ultimate computing machine, so it’s no wonder researchers are keen to try and emulate it. Now, new research has taken an intriguing step in that direction – a device that’s able to ‘forget’ memories, just like our brains do.   It’s called a second-order memristor (a mix of “memory” and “resistor”). The

Underwhelming sound quality while listening to music on Spotify is most likely a result of poor quality headphones, but maybe the equaliser settings in Spotify can help, at least a little.   Even with a high quality pair of headphones, using the equaliser settings in Spotify can help mould the sound to your preference. In

Popular video platform YouTube took down a number of combat robotics videos – robot vs. robot competitions popularised by the show BattleBots – on the grounds that they include “deliberate infliction of animal suffering or the forcing of animals to fight”, including “cock fighting”.   A recent video by YouTube channel Maker’s Muse brought the strange

When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped foot on the Moon in 1969, they helped to cement the idea of a “moonshot” – a goal or achievement that challenges what we thought was possible.   While few moonshots measure up to the Apollo program, many of the world’s greatest inventions were once thought of as

Researchers have developed an electronics heat shield just 10 atoms thick, a shield that has the potential to make our gadgets both safer to use and more compact in the future.   Heat and electronics don’t mix well, which is why you might find your laptop shutting down in protest if you use it in

As wearable technology grows ever more delicate and minute, some medical gadgets are on the brink of merging seamlessly with our skin. Researchers at Stanford University have now created a flexible electronic sticker that can wirelessly monitor a person’s pulse, respiration and muscle activity at the same time.   A recent description of the unique system,

People around the world may be worried about nuclear tensions rising, but I think they’re missing the fact that a major cyberattack could be just as damaging – and hackers are already laying the groundwork.   With the US and Russia pulling out of a key nuclear weapons pact – and beginning to develop new