How to Train Your Robot
Scientists are teaching new robots old tricks by transforming their shape, reports Matthew Hutson for Scientific American. They train the robots by starting with an old one that has been trained to complete the task, then slowly morphing it to its new form. Robots often learn new tasks by manipulating their surroundings. AI researchers have found that this helps the machines learn about the real world. In June Allison Whitten reported for Quanta about the growing interest in "embodied AI."
eDNA Reveals Ancient Ecosystem
With environmental DNA extracted from soil samples, scientists uncovered a two-million-year-old ecosystem in Greenland, reports Maddie Burakoff for The Associated Press. This is the oldest ecosystem revealed by DNA samples. Ancient DNA used to be precious. But now that scientists can sequence the abundant environmental DNA fragments preserved in soil or rock, millennia-old ecosystems are coming into focus. Monique Brouillette wrote about this for Quanta in 2019. | |
