Laboratory Equipment points the way for the next big breakthrough in thinking machines:

Many quantum algorithms require that particles’ spins be “entangled,” meaning that they’re all dependent on each other. The more entanglement a physical system offers, the greater its computational power. Until now, theoreticians have demonstrated the possibility of high entanglement only in a very complex spin chain, [...]

Laboratory Equipment reveals how computers can now ID you by watching you walk:

he National Physical Laboratory (NPL) has developed a walking gait recognition system that, in combination with other tools, can help track an individual though a CCTV monitored area by analyzing the way that they walk.

New technology developed by NPL, the Centre for Advanced Software Technology (CAST), [...]

Machines, BBC reports, are one step closer to personhood, thanks to Yale researchers inventing Nico, a robot who knows himself:

“It is a spatial reasoning task for the robot to understand that its arm is on it not on the other side of the mirror,” Justin Hart, the PhD student leading the research told BBC News.

So far the robot [...]

In all likelihood, that is. New Scientist doesn’t actually *know* your password, of course. But they know that if you’re over 55, you’re more likely to be secure than if you’re under 25:

People over the age of 55 pick passwords double the strength of those chosen by people under 25 years old. That’s according to the largest ever [...]

Image from Wikimedia Commons.

These symbols show steps in various chemical processes – the things you can do to change substances. Well, the things chemical engineers can do, one step leading into the next.

The symbols represent:

fan/stirrer, pneumatic line, pneumatic line vertical, measurement, simple heat exchanger
simple heat exchanger vertical, alternative heat exchanger, alternative heat exchanger, fixed-sheet heat exchanger, [...]

Time reveals more of the Pentagon’s social media warfare research:

The new Social Media in Strategic Communication (SMISC) program was submitted under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), an arm of the Department of Defense. The goal is to “develop a new science of social networks built on an emerging technology base” to help the agency keep [...]

That’s what DARPA launched to test new ways to use the internet – and social media specifically, the Guardian says – to solve problems rapidly (and to locate targets, I’m guessing). Find the balloons, get a prize. Unsurprisingly, M.I.T. won the game in a matter of hours:

The winning team has not explained precisely how they came to discover [...]

BBC News tells the story of a blind man whose life has been changed by his bionic eye:

Ron, who has not revealed his surname, told the BBC: “For 30 years I’ve seen absolutely nothing at all, it’s all been black, but now light is coming through. Suddenly to be able to see light again is truly wonderful.

“I can [...]

Nature’s Nascent blog has a call for volunteers to help evaluate abstracts and comments on PLoS ONE, the Public Library of Science:

I agree with Deepak’s assessment:

Is the commenting on PLoS ONE at a level that we hoped it would be? Not quite. Is it as bad as some might like to believe? Not quite.

… in [...]