Cilia Are Minuscule Wonders, and Scientists Are Finally Figuring Out How to Mimic Them

Trouble viewing? View in your browser. View all Scientific American publications.

    

July 12, 2022

Dear Reader, Your body needs its cilia. The microscopic hair-like structures clear your lungs, lubricate your brain and drain your mucus, among other vital tasks. Now researchers are replicating them in order to exert precise control over tiny amounts of fluids. Their goal: create cheap, portable diagnostic devices that perform a chemistry lab's worth of tests on a single centimeter-wide chip.

Sophie Bushwick, Associate Editor, Technology

Biotech Cilia Are Minuscule Wonders, and Scientists Are Finally Figuring Out How to Mimic Them A new cilia-covered chip could revolutionize portable medical diagnosis By Saugat Bolakhe

Animals The Quest for a 'Tick Map' Scientists scramble to forecast where and when the disease-carrying arthropods pose the most danger By Kat Eschner

Artificial Intelligence Google Engineer Claims AI Chatbot Is Sentient: Why That Matters Is it possible for an artificial intelligence to be sentient? By Leonardo De Cosmo

Culture How Indigenous Groups Are Using 3-D Technology to Preserve Ancient Practices To safeguard fragile cultural objects, some groups are replicating them with digital models By Rachel Parsons

Biotech Electronic Skin Lets Humans Feel What Robots Do--And Vice Versa An integration of soft materials, sensors and flexible electronics is bringing robotic "skin" closer than ever to reality By Fionna M. D. Samuels

Artificial Intelligence AI Learns What an Infant Knows about the Physical World A computer model simulating how objects react to physical forces approximates how babies understand their surroundings By Dana G. Smith

Artificial Intelligence We Asked GPT-3 to Write an Academic Paper about Itself.--Then We Tried to Get It Published An artificially intelligent first author presents many ethical questions—and could upend the publishing process By Almira Osmanovic Thunström

Electronics Should Machines Replace Mathematicians? A "replication crisis" in mathematics raises questions about the purpose of knowledge By John Horgan

Artificial Intelligence Who Is Liable when AI Kills? We need to change rules and institutions while still promoting innovation to protect people from faulty AI By George Maliha,Ravi B. Parikh

FROM THE STORE Technology vs. Truth: Deception in the Digital Age In the digital age, information, both true and false, spreads faster than ever. The same technology that provides access to data across the globe can abet the warping of truth and normalization of lies. In this eBook, we examine the intersection of truth, untruth and technology, including how social media manipulates behavior, technologies such as deepfakes that spread misinformation, the bias inherent in algorithms and more.

QUOTE OF THE DAY "This is the picture we've all been waiting for: the deepest image of the cosmos ever captured." Lee Billings, Scientific American

FROM THE ARCHIVE 50, 100 & 150 Years Ago: July 2022 Count women as workers; cement from sewage By Mark Fischetti | July 2022

LATEST ISSUES

Questions?   Comments?

Download the Scientific American App

To view this email as a web page, go here. You received this email because you opted-in to receive email from Scientific American. To ensure delivery please add news@email.scientificamerican.com to your address book. Unsubscribe     Manage Email Preferences     Privacy Policy     Contact Us