From streaming movies or games and sharing photos on Instagram to the growing use of ‘smart’ devices and growth in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, the amount of data being processed is escalating. As a result, energy consumption of data centres in the European Union (EU) is expected to rise from 2.7% of electricity demand in … Read more
Sometimes it can seem like we’ve uploaded our whole lives to the internet: bank accounts, social media posts, dating profiles, work emails – it’s all out there in that nebulous cloud of digital information that is the world wide web. The problems with this new digital way of life are well known. Social media is … Read more
Tiny nano-sized robots and vehicles that can navigate through blood vessels to reach the site of a disease could be used to deliver drugs to tumours that are otherwise difficult to treat. Once injected or swallowed, most drugs rely upon the movement of body fluids to find their way around the body. It means that … Read more
Four huge robot arms surround the gleaming metal shell of what will soon be a top-of-the-range automobile. They jerk into life, attaching the bonnet, the wing mirrors, and other panels. It’s the kind of precision operation you can find at car factories around the world these days. But here’s a question worth considering: could we … Read more
Only in cancer medicine do we aim to attack and kill legions of our own cells. But healthy bystander cells often get caught in deadly crossfire, which is why cancer treatments can cause severe side effects in patients. Doctors know that we need smarter medicines to target the bad guys only. One hope is that … Read more
Scientists are developing virus-sized robots that could defuse blood clots, explore human cells or even scrub water of impurities. But as these inventions get smaller, the laws of motion that govern these machines are not very intuitive, so researchers are drawing inspiration from nature, says Brad Nelson, professor of robotics at ETH Zürich, Switzerland, who … Read more