Can software help scientists deal with the extremely large and fast-growing body of research in their own field? Can it locate relevant studies, tools, and knowledge from other fields? This column describes several ongoing efforts to achieve this goal. Putting ...

If scientific research programs were movies, computers would always be cast as the sidekick: essential to the plot’s progress, but always serving the main character’s goals and motivations. Created by scientists and engineers, computers labor tirelessly to perform all the ...

Humans are better than machines. However, the advantages of humans over machines have been in steady retreat – we gave up on physical strength first, then on some mental capacities such as computation, and now we’re in the process of ...

Held for the third time since its outset in 2004, the DARPA Grand Challenge is the largest scale research and development program for autonomous vehicles. Taking place in the U.S., the event features robot cars built by teams from all ...

Imagine asking a computer program for advice on how to get rid of the cat’s fleas. The software loads all the information it has about fleas, and tells you that there’s a guaranteed and cheap way: burn them. Actually, given ...