Give a High Five to This Robotic Arm Made of Balloons

Video: Futurism/YouTube

The world's longest, lightest robotic arm is made of helium balloons. It weighs just 2.65 pounds.

Developed by the Suzumori Endo Laboratory at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, the snakelike robot is made from silver helium balloons, extending as far as 65 feet. Its 20 individual joints are controlled by small pneumatic muscles—devices that contract or extend, operated by an air-filled, artificial bladder-like contraption that fills or releases air.

Video: Futurism/YouTube

While the lightweight robotic arm has hardly any lifting capabilities, it can hold a small camera. This could be useful in inspections or search and rescue.

Also called the Giacometti Arm, named after the artist Alberto Giacometti who made slender sculptures of the human body, the robotic arm carries the risk of succumbing to strong winds. Something very sharp could also potentially pop its helium balloons. But because it's so light and only requires helium inflation, it can be transported almost anywhere and used in situations where other devices, such as drones, can't.

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The 'Objectifier' Teaches Your Appliances to Work on Their Own

What if the inanimate objects in your house reacted to your movements? Your toaster, phone charger, even the nearest music system could sync with your habits. Objectifier, an interactive design project, is hoping to make that the reality.

Objectifier was created by Bjørn Karmann and uses computer vision and neural networks to teach artificial intelligence about the habits and patterned gestures of people in their living spaces. The idea is that Objectifier—a device stationed close to objects such as lamps, water boilers or record players—recognizes a person's movements in relation to what the object should be doing. For example, if a person lies down in their bed, the bedside lamp turns off by itself. If the person gets up, the lamp turns back on.

Interacting with Objectifier has been compared to "training a dog," and a user teaches the device only what they want it to care about. Hence, each device is uniquely accustomed to an individual's habits. If a person slides their mug to the right of the water boiler, for instance, it may turn on, but if they slide their mug to the left, it won't. As the video shows, it takes some time for Objectifier to learn these patterns.

Of course, there isn’t some magic connection between all your household objects, so the objects need to be connected to Objectifier in order to work. The objects a user wants to train plug into Objectifier (like an extension outlet), and Objectifier plugs into the wall. What looks like a simple wooden box on the outside, Objectifier combines computer vision with a machine learning algorithm. In doing so, people can cultivate their own unique relationships with technology and the objects around them. And that movie Smart House just got even closer to reality.

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This Company Presses the Ashes of the Dead into Vinyl Records

It might seem sacrilegious, but a group of creatives in the United Kingdom have taken to memorializing their lost loved ones, not only by photographs, recorded voices, or scattered ashes, but a combination of all three.

They've used pressed human ashes to create vinyl records. Jason Leach's company, And Vinyly, first gained media attention for this practice in 2010, as a way to literally preserve a part of the deceased along with something that reminds you of them.

This Youtube video called Hearing Madge by Aeon Video portrays how the practice of pressing ashes of the dead onto records is either an "odd novelty" or a "tender remembrance." Rather than scattering a loved one's ashes out at sea, for instance, they get pushed into the grooves of a raw vinyl record right before it comes into contact with plates at the pressing stage.

While doing this does compromise the sound, making it less clear, that's just the point: those "pops and crackles" one would hear are the pieces of ashes, the deceased person making their sound on top of whatever the record itself is playing.

The company also offers RIV—Rest in Vinyl—art that includes the name and lifespan of the cremated loved one, or a portrait of them, illustrated with ashes mixed into the paint.

"It's a bit more interesting than being in a pot on a shelf," Leach told Wired in 2010.

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Massachusetts Bill Wants 100 Percent Renewable Energy By 2035

In President Trump's America, all mention of climate change may already be taboo in the White House, but the state of Massachusetts wants to rely totally on renewable energy resources by 2035.

Three state lawmakers in Massachusetts proposed a bill that would mandate that the state shift to 100 percent renewable energy within the next 18 years. The bill also mandates that by 2050, the state phase out the use of fossil fuels from the heating and transportation sectors, and instead require them to run on renewable energy like wind or solar power.

This is not the first time the state of Massachusetts has attempted to reduce its carbon footprint. The Massachusetts Global Warming Solutions Act already mandates a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050. And the state also provides incentives to residents to use wind energy or solar power.

"As President Donald Trump takes office, this bill sends a clear message to officials in DC: Massachusetts is determined to keep moving forward on clean energy," said Ben Hellerstein, state director for Environment Massachusetts, an advocacy group.

According to his "America First Energy Plan," Trump pledges to do away with Obama's Climate Action Plan, which aimed to reduce carbon emissions to address climate change. Trump's plan states that he wants to save the coal industry, permit application for the Keystone Pipeline, lift moratoriums on energy production in federal areas, and revoke policies that impose "unwarranted" restrictions on drilling.

Representative Sean Garballey, one of the bill's sponsors, called the measure a "bold step" to put the state on a "path to a cleaner and more sustainable future." Garballey added that eliminating the use of fossil fuels could lead to job creation, as well as health and environmental benefits. "More importantly, it signals to the country our commitment to long-term solutions in meeting the very real challenges of climate change," he said.

If the bill passes, Massachusetts' Department of Energy Resource would set targets to meet carbon-free energy requirements in major economic sectors to make sure the state stays on track for its 2050 goal.

The bill would also increase Massachusetts' renewable portfolio standard, a policy requiring that utilities purchase a certain amount of their electricity from wind, solar, or other renewable resources.

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Washington Bill Would Make It Illegal to Pay for Weed With Bitcoin

Cannabis may be among the country's fastest growing industries, but its status as a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law poses an inconvenient discrepancy with more liberal state policies.

It's well known that pot businesses have used digital currency, like bitcoin, to work around the issue of banking and use of credit cards, given that most financial institutions, complying with federal law, will not service green industry folk. But now, in Washington state, even that's under fire.

Read More: Weed Growers Are Racing to Register Their Strains On the Bitcoin Blockchain

State Senators Steve Conway and Ann Rivers proposed a bill to prohibit local cannabis businesses from buying or selling products using bitcoin. "A marijuana producer, marijuana processor, or retail outlet must not pay with or accept virtual currency for the purchase or sale of marijuana or any marijuana product," according to the bill, in which "virtual currency" also includes digital currency.

If this bill passes in the Washington State Senate, many businesses may be forced to return to all-cash transactions, making them vulnerable to robbery and poor accounting.

Likely, this bill will not be received lightly. According to Rob Fess, director of marketing for Tradiv, a wholesale marijuana sales platform, the proposal may cause legal backlash. "It seems like quite a stretch to single out a specific industry to be excluded from using a particular type of payment," he told CoinDesk. "I imagine the lawyers will have a field day with that."

Even so, using bitcoin has been a band-aid on top of a greater issue: that state-compliant, otherwise legal cannabis businesses are barred from operating like other normal, legitimate businesses. The only true fix would come from a change in federal law, potentially unlikely now with a Republican-controlled Senate and prohibitionist Jeff Sessions as Trump's nominee for the attorney general.

Proposals in Congress, such as the CARERS Act, however, have sought to fix the banking issue, among other things, like rescheduling cannabis altogether. If the CARERS Act had passed, it would have reconciled banking issues in the state legal cannabis industry. Nonetheless, as cannabis gains momentum both via economic growth and bipartisan political support (for instance, all the states to have legalized medical marijuana this year voted Republican), it's not altogether impossible for another piece of federal legislation to address this issue.

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This Is the Closest You’ll Get to Pluto For Now

Astronauts haven't yet made it over to Pluto, the dwarf planet farthest from the sun, but now we at least have an idea of what it would look like.

In July 2015, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft passed by Pluto for a few hours after its 10-year journey. The spacecraft was going too fast to orbit around Pluto or to land on it, but it was still able to capture some quality photos of the dwarf planet.

In an adaptation of a black-and-white video of Pluto published last year, NASA has now put together 100 color photos into a new video to roughly illustrate what it might look like if astronauts were to land on the mysterious tiny planet—of course, without actually showing what the landing might look like.

The New Horizons spacecraft flew within 7,800 miles of Pluto, so while the picture quality is good, it's not very close up. However, the camera does zoom in, showing more detail from 250 miles away, 100 miles away, 15 miles away, and so on.

It's not clear however, when astronauts will ever be able to get that close up to Pluto to begin with. It would take at least ten years to get to Pluto, and NASA has no plans for any Pluto missions in the foreseeable future. Until then, at least we have this video footage.

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Australia Plans to Replace Passports with Facial Recognition

Can't find your passport? In Australia, that may no longer be a problem at border control. The country is looking to replace passport checks with facial recognition technology.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Australia's Department of Immigration and Border Protection wants to introduce biometric facial or fingerprint recognition systems as part of Australia's Seamless Traveler initiative, aimed at automating and streamlining border control. The new system would also help officials more easily identify arrivals who are on watch lists, and it would be the latest in a push to use facial recognition software in airports across the world, such as in Washington, DC.

Facial recognition systems often struggle with non-white faces

Though the border officials don't have a particular system picked out yet, they can build on all the passenger data collected thus far: globally sourced and analyzed ticket information, travel history, criminal records, and more. The intelligence in the system can determine which passengers pose a risk, according to John Coyne, head of border security at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

But the technology has its own biases. Facial recognition may seem like a seamless way to make airport security checks more efficient, but it isn't perfect. Facial recognition systems often struggle to identify non-white faces, and the systems are usually a handful of points away from 100 percent accurate.

Read More: The Inherent Bias of Facial Recognition

Australian authorities have not settled on which specific system they want to use for the facial or fingerprint recognition, but a trial is planned at the airport in Canberra, Australia's capital, in July. The goal is to have the system in place by 2020 to automatically process 90 percent of travelers.

Meanwhile, it's important to remember that the new system does not do away with passports entirely. Australians will still need their passports when they go abroad, while foreigners will still need them to leave.

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The Science of Sean Spicer’s Compulsive Gum Swallowing Habit

Grown man and new White House press secretary Sean Spicer chews an insane amount of gum every day and swallows it whole. His preferred flavor is cinnamon Orbit (made by the Wrigley Company).

"Two and a half packs by noon," Spicer told The Washington Post in an old article. "I talked to my doctor about it, he said it's no problem." This revelation actually came in August 2016 in the midst of the Trump presidential campaign, back when Spicer was still the Republican party's chief strategist and spokesperson, but it gained new currency this week on Twitter as Spicer began his duties as Press Secretary.

We at Motherboard wanted a second opinion about Spicer's gum consumption habit, so we talked to a doctor about it.

Dr. Daniel Motola, a Manhattan-based gastroenterologist, agrees it's probably not a big deal, as long as Spicer doesn't have any side effects from his habit.

Several components in gum can be digested. Those that can't be are either fermented in the colon, or come out in the stool. "It's probably not completely digestible," Motola said in a phone call with Motherboard. "The theoretical risk in eating large amounts of gum is that it could create an intestinal blockage."

"The theoretical risk in eating large amounts of gum is that it could create an intestinal blockage."

"Chewing gum is even thought to have good effects for the teeth and salivation," Motola added.

So three main things can happen when you swallow gum: First, as your stomach enzymes try to break it down, the sugars and other ingredients can get digested. Then, those that don't get digested may ferment. Fermentation might cause bloating or gas, but otherwise can feel pretty innocuous. Finally, components like the rubbery parts might just end up in the stool—which Motola compares to loose pieces of corn, for instance.

"Overall it's not something that's too worrisome," said Motola. "Spicer himself has probably not had any issues from it, so he tolerates it. If a patient of mine wanted to do that and they were tolerating it well, I'd say that's your choice, it's up to you what you want to eat."

So there you have it. Chew on, Mr. Spicer.

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This Boat Will Run for Six Years on Nothing But Wind, Water and Hydrogen

Talk about energy efficient, this boat will use only sun, wind, and hydrogen for power to last six years as it travels around the world.

Called the "Energy Observer," the eco-friendly vessel is a converted multi-hull race boat powered by solar panels, wind turbines, and a hydrogen fuel cell system. The boat's captains, Jerome Delafosse, a professional diver and documentarian, and Victorien Erussard, offshore racer and Merchant navy officer, both from France, are preparing now to embark on this long, experimental journey.

"In the past, man explored to conquer territories and to appropriate wealth. With Energy Observer, we want to explore to discover and share solutions for a cleaner future," said Delafosse on their website.

Crafted by architects, navigators, and engineers, the boat is not only energy efficient, but totally autonomous: it creates energy onboard. It uses natural wind energy and hydrogen that's been decarbonized from ocean water, making it the first independent hydrogen-powered boat in the world. This model allows powering the boat to be both inexpensive and carbon-free. A smart traction kite will help convert the boat's engines into hydro generators.

The boat will visit 50 countries and make 101 stops in search of "innovative solutions" to environmental issues. The "Energy Observer" is meant to be more than a boat, but a form of media promoting the idea that creative, environmental solutions are possible, according to the project's website.

The "Energy Observer" expedition has two goals: It will test these technologies in real time out at sea, and therefore also in extreme environments, and search for environmental solutions as it circumnavigates the globe.

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This Soft Robot Squeezes the Heart to Pump Blood

Image: Science Translational Medicine

For heart failure patients, a new soft robot may soon be able to help by compressing the heart and coaxing it to beat.

Scientists at Harvard University and the Boston Children's Hospital are developing a customizable soft robot that fits around the heart and supports its natural pumping, according to a Science Translational Medicine report. The device is safer than the more existing devices we have right now.

"[The heart] is already beating, but not pumping much, [so] the device is beating with it, compressing and twisting with it," Ellen Roche, former PhD student at Harvard and the soft robot paper's first author, told Motherboard. "[The soft robot] gives [the heart] extra power to squeeze and twist and eject the blood. It's basically massaging it from the outside with a perfectly synchronized motion."

The device is so soft that it matches the material properties of the native heart tissue and conforms well to its outer surface, said Roche. The robot is made of silicone rubber, while the contractual elements are made of silicone or urethane and surrounded by nylon braided mesh. It's connected to an external pump, which uses air to power the soft actuators. In doing so, the soft robot helps the heart pump blood without actually touching the blood itself.

Unlike devices that are already on the market for heart failure patients, the soft robot, which Roche estimates will be available to patients in about five years, does not come into direct contact with blood. This reduces risk significantly, said Roche, since when blood comes into contact with foreign materials, it can lead to stroke. Patients who use the soft robot would have a lower risk of blood clot and less need to take potentially dangerous blood thinner medication.

"This is one of the first demonstrations of soft robotics as an implantable device that's inside the body," said Roche. "This field of soft robotics has been growing. It's exciting and has applications in the heart and can be extended to other organs inside the body and externally, as well."

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How a Solar Storm Almost Caused World War III

In 1967, a solar storm almost caused World War III.

At the time the Cold War with the Soviet Union was in full swing. Meanwhile, radar sensors meant to detect missile attacks against the United States were disrupted by a huge electromagnetic storm on the sun.

This Youtube video by SciShow Space explains how a potential misinterpretation of signals could have led to war, and how the crisis was ultimately averted.

To begin, it's important to understand how solar storms work. The sun is made of plasma, very hot charged particles. On the sun's surface, called the photosphere, all these electric charges lead to powerful magnetic fields. When energy builds up from the magnetic fields, it gets released in the form of a solar storm, which ejects clouds of plasma ions and radiation into space.

When the radiation gets close to Earth, it's pulled toward the north and south poles by the planet's magnetic field. That's how we get phenomenons like the Northern Lights: when air molecules in the upper atmosphere absorb energy from charged particles in the plasma and emit a glow.

However, if the storm is very powerful and more electromagnetic radiation than usual hits earth, the air molecules can't absorb all the energy, and it arrives at Earth's surface. That's what happened on May 18, 1967, when the United States Air Force saw a large group of sunspots—cooler, magnetized regions of the photosphere—and gathered that a storm was happening.

Then five days later on May 23, the sun released one of the largest bursts of radio waves in recorded history. They had a frequency of 440 megahertz, which was the same frequency used by United States and allied radar stations meant to look out for Soviet nuclear missiles. Using the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS), the US would have fifteen minutes upon learning of a nuclear strike to launch a nuclear counter attack.

So during the solar storm, the North American Air Defense Command, was picking up weird signals. The sun's radio waves overwhelmed the detectors at BMEWS, making it seem as if the stations were jammed, which ordinarily would be interpreted as an act of war and that missiles were en route.

Air crews would have been given immediate instructions to retaliate and drop missiles on the Soviets, which would have in turn actually caused them to attack the United States for real. It would have been world wide nuclear war.

However, the American solar forecasters reconciled readings from BMEWS with the air weather service, determining that in fact the odd frequencies were caused by the solar storm. There was no attack, and in 1967, we avoided World War III thanks to people who understand science.

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How That Female Zebra Shark Reproduced Without a Male Partner

This lady shark needs no man. She's figured out a way to reproduce on her own.

Leonie, a female zebra shark—the colloquial term for the Stegostoma fasciatum species—has lived alone since 2012. In 2016, she had three baby sharks of her own, according to New Scientist.

To provide some context, Leonie is no Virgin Mary. She lived with a male partner in an aquarium in Townsville, Australia, between 1999 and 2012. Together, they had 24 offspring. But in 2012, Leonie's partner was moved to another tank, and since then, she had no male contact.

So the question is, how did she conceive three more offspring on her own?

One possibility was that Leonie stored sperm from her former partner and user it four years later, but that was quickly discredited since the three offspring only have their mother’s DNA, according to Christine Dudgeon, a research officer in biomedical sciences at the University of Queensland. Hence, asexual reproduction may have been more likely.

Asexual reproduction isn't as uncommon as it may seem. Some species of sharks, snakes, turkeys, rays, and Komodo dragons have been able to reproduce without males. However, among those who have done so, the females were virgins. Switching from sexual to asexual reproduction is far less common, although not impossible, Dudgeon told The New Scientist, citing an eagle ray and boa constrictor who have done so.

Asexual reproduction in sharks happens when a polar body, or the cell adjacent to the egg fertilizes it, said Dudgeon. This process causes "extreme inbreeding," she said, and is not conducive to adaptability, or generational longevity and diversity. However, when there are no males around, asexual reproduction, despite its shortcomings, is the best option for species survival.

Dudgeon described asexual reproduction as a "holding-on mechanism," passed down along generations of women until male partners are available. How's that for some girl power?

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NASA Is Making New Robots That Can Control Themselves

NASA wants humans and robots to work together as teams. To ensure that, the space agency’s autonomous robotics group is currently developing new technology to improve how humans explore the solar system, and how robots can help.

"We want to interact with autonomous systems. We want to be able to create systems that we can trust in all kinds of circumstances," said Terry Fong, senior scientist for autonomous systems at the NASA Ames Research Center, in a recent NASA Ames Youtube video on autonomous robots.

When NASA began working with remotely operated robots several years ago, Fong said the scientists needed a piece of software that would allow them to look at terrain and sensor data coming from autonomous robots. That led to the creation of VERVE, a "3D robot user interface," which allows scientists to see and grasp the three-dimensional world of remotely operated robots.

VERVE has been used with NASA's K10 planetary rovers (a prototype mobile robot that can travel bumpy terrain), with its K-Rex planetary rovers (robot to determine soil moisture), with SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites) on the International Space Station (ISS), and with the new robot Astrobee (a robot that can fly around the ISS).

In 2013, NASA carried out a series of tests with astronauts on the ISS, during which astronauts who were flying 200 miles above Earth remotely operated the K10 planetary rover in California.

Because of time delay, astronauts can't just "joystick a robot," said Maria Bualat, deputy lead of intelligent robotics group at the NASA Ames Research Center. "You need a robot that can operate on its own, complete tasks on its own," she said.

"On the other hand, you still want the human in the loop, because the human brings a lot of experience and very powerful cognitive ability that can deal with issues that the autonomy's not quite ready to handle." That's why, according to NASA, human capabilities and robotic capabilities comprise a powerful combination.

The technology developed at NASA is used not only for astronauts. In fact, one of the goals at NASA is to transfer its technology to the commercial sector, such as supporting autonomous vehicles in partnership with Nissan. Applying its technology outside the space station, according to the video, NASA scientists can learn even more.

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Here's Sobering Info On Bad Shroom Trips Amidst the Psychedelic Renaissance

Psychedelics are finally gaining more acceptance in the medical world, but it’s important to know the risks as we look to embrace them.

In a recent survey of nearly 2000 people, a group of psilocybin (the main chemical in magic mushrooms) researchers at Johns Hopkins University looked at anecdotally reported "bad trips" to understand the enduring positive and negative consequences of a drug gone wrong. A majority of those surveyed said that the difficult shroom trip was among the ten biggest challenges they've ever faced, but also among the most "meaningful" or "worthwhile" experiences of their life.

Entheogens like psilocybin, MDMA (ecstasy), LSD, and ayahuasca have received increasingly positive attention for their psychological benefits in treating conditions like PTSD or addiction, or even for general well-being. But a lot of their reported therapeutic effects happen in a clinical setting, with supervision by trained researchers. Outside of that it can be more of a Wild West.

Among the 1,993 people who took the 45-minute long survey about their most challenging trip, 10.7 percent said they put themselves or others at risk of physical harm, 2.6 percent said they acted violently or aggressively, and 2.7 percent said they sought medical help. Five of the survey participants who said they already had pre-existing anxiety, depression, or suicidal thoughts attempted suicide during their worst trip—which researchers say indicates the need for a safe setting and a positive psychological "set" going into the trip.

Six people, however, said their suicidal thoughts disappeared after their worst trip, which fits well with the Johns Hopkins studies proving the antidepressive effects of psilocybin for cancer patients.

"Psilocybin can occasion experiences that are life altering. Many months after, [study participants] continue to attribute positive changes in attitudes, moods, and behavior to the psilocybin experience," Dr. Roland Griffiths, psychopharmacologist and professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and neurosciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, told Motherboard.

But Griffiths and fellow researchers wanted to understand the effects of tripping outside the clinic. Psychedelics were historically associated with overuse during anti-establishment or anti-war hippie movements in the 1960s. That created a substantial misunderstanding about the risks of these compounds," Griffiths said.

After government lash back causing psychedelic research to go on hiatus for several decades, scientists developed safety methods and procedures for administering these drugs safely. "We know now the research can be done, but left unanswered for us in the last ten years is what about these terrible experiences that are reported?"

Some of the participants in the survey also experienced enduring effects several months or more after the challenging trip ended, the most common being anxiety, depression, and fear. "The bottom line is, there are risks associated with taking these compounds. It's important that people don't read positive press and think this is great everyone should try it," said Griffiths. "The key is getting these results in perspective, not over or under emphasizing the negative effects."

But psychotherapist Neal Goldsmith, author of Psychedelic Healing, cautions against using terms like "bad trip”, even for these potentially depressing experiences. "I use the phrase difficult trip or experience [because] they are very much trying and difficult at times, but frequently they'll be one of the most beneficial or valuable experiences of the person's life once that difficult experience is processed," said Goldsmith. (Of course, if you have a family history of mental illness, such as schizophrenia, it may be best not to trip at all.)

Processing the trip, whether it's difficult or not, is part of what Goldsmith refers to as "integration." Psychedelic integration is not separate from the trip itself, but is should be natural part of the experience after it occurs. "Integration is about making the benefits or insights or clarities that these psychedelics might provide into a change in your life, or a growth in your life," he said.

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The UK Just Moved to Classify Cannabidiol Oil CBD as Medicine

The therapeutic effects of cannabidiol, the non-psychotropic chemical compound in cannabis known as CBD, have been well documented. Now the United Kingdom has effectively moved past the stigma to the science and classified CBD as an actual medicine.

In the UK, the US, and elsewhere, CBD has been shown to be an effective treatment for epileptic seizures, pain, inflammation, anxiety, and other ailments. It's often taken as an extract, such as in an oil or tincture form, separate from the other cannabinoids in the cannabis plant.

"The change really came about with us offering an opinion that CBD is in fact a medicine, and that opinion was based on the fact that we noted that people were making some quite stark claims about serious diseases that could be treated with CBD," Gerald Heddel, director of inspection and enforcement at the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), told Sky News.

Upon looking at the evidence, Heddel said it was clear that people were using CBD products with the well-founded belief that they would actually help.

But within the UK, most people have been getting their CBD products from unregulated sources, which could be selling unhealthy products with additives and other ingredients that could in fact make people sick.

According to Project CBD, for instance, CBD derived from industrial hemp, as opposed to whole plant cannabis, may lack critical terpenes (aromatic molecules) that work in harmony with the cannabinoids, while containing a great number of contaminants since hemp is a "bio-accumulator" that drains toxins from soil.

With the MHRA's decision, CBD manufacturers will need to show that their products meet safety, quality, and efficacy standards, but they’ll be completely legal if they are. Some worry, however, that the this move may also send mixed messages about cannabis altogether. Federal law in the UK, as in the US, does not recognize the therapeutic value of cannabis, and possessing it is a criminal offense.

Read More: Why This Cannabis Oil Has Lawmakers Stumped

On the other hand, for activists who want to see cannabis legalized in the UK, the MHRA's decision opens up the debate over the plant's medicinal value.

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Why China Was Able to Steal a US Drone

Following a drone clash between China and the United States, it's become even more clear that a set of rules are needed to govern drone behavior.

When a Chinese navy ship seized an American drone, the guidelines that already existed under the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES) were not enough to settle the dispute. The two-year-old CUES, which includes agreement from 21 countries in order to manage various kinds of crises, does not apply to underwater drones.

"Such encounters will plausibly increase, especially given on the one hand the proliferation of drones for military use—in both aerial, surface and subsurface dimensions—and on the other hand, the geopolitical context in the region favoring deon use," Collin Koh Swee Lean, research fellow with Maritime Security Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University told the South China Morning Post.

Though CUES does not currently apply to drones, it can be amended to include drone relations in an appendix, according to Yan Yan, maritime law expert at the National Institute for South China Sea studies.

Drones are only part of governing increasingly autonomous weapons and other military systems that aren’t directly powered by humans. While drones are directed by an actual person, other autonomous or semi-autonomous weapon systems like the Phalanx, used on American navy ships to target incoming missiles, need some form of governance to manage their independent actions.

Even drones, like the American one seized by the Chinese ship, are used in a low-intensity military mission for surveillance. However, it's not unlikely that in the near future, armed drones will come to be more commonplace in this region, according to Koh.

So as drones, not to mention armed drones, become more commonplace, while the US moves to use autonomous robots underwater and China builds a great underwater wall of robots, using sea drones, international law governing how all these developments engage with each other will need to be ironed out.

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Does Pot Legalization Mean More Kids Will Try It?

With adult use or medical cannabis legal in more than half the country, smoking pot is becoming more normalized. But does that mean kids will be more likely to try it?

According to epidemiologist Magdalena Cerda at the University of California, Davis, Violence Prevention Research Program, the answer is, largely,yes, but more so in states with conservative weed laws. In a study published Tuesday in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics, Cerda and her fellow researchers assessed the effects of marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington on attitudes about pot and on how minors were using it.

The researchers used surveys from Monitoring the Future (a yearly program funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse) between 2010 and 2015 to look at the perceived risks of occasional pot use and at self-reported pot use within 30 days among eighth, tenth, and twelfth grade students before and after legalization. The changes in Colorado and Washington were then compared to students in other parts of the country where weed had not been legalized.

The researchers found that the perceived risks of pot use declined everywhere, but more so and especially among Washington eighth and tenth graders, whose marijuana use also increased by eight percent among eighth graders and by 20 percent among tenth graders within a 30 day span between 2013 and 2015. (Between 2010 and 2012, Washington eighth graders' pot use increased by two percent and for tenth graders, by four percent.) The researchers also noted that the perceived risks of pot use declined everywhere, but more so and especially among Washington eighth and tenth graders, whose marijuana use also increased in within a 30 day span.

A little over 60 percent of Washington eighth graders and 47 percent of tenth graders saw marijuana use as a health risk between 2013 and 2015, in contrast to the 75 percent and 63 percent respectively in 2010 through 2012.

They didn't find these differences, however, in Colorado, or among twelfth graders in Washington.

Why did Washington experience a change that Colorado didn't? "The authors suggest that this may have been because Colorado's medical marijuana laws were much more liberal before legalization than those in Washington," according to JAMA. Since 2009, Colorado has had a medical marijuana program, with not only for-profit dispensaries but also advertising of marijuana products. After 2009, the perceived risk of marijuana use decreased among youth in Colorado.

"There was a more robust commercialization effort around medical marijuana prior to recreational marijuana being legalized," said Cerda. "That might have contributed to the fact that even before marijuana was legalized, the use was already quite high and the perceived harm was quite low."

Kids' attitudes about weed might also be connected to what their parents think of it. Dr. Scott Krakower, assistant unit chief of psychiatry for Zucker Hillside Hospital in New Hyde Park, New York, said that if parents think there's less harm associated with pot use, children will likely follow. "Combine that with a legalized market where you can readily buy it," he said, "and it will be easier to obtain, and children will be more likely to use it."

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Oh, You Forgot To Buy Your Drone a $189 Sweater for Christmas?

December got you feeling cold? Well don’t be selfish and forget about that drone, because now you can dress it up in a sweater for a cool $189.

"While this may at first appear to be a light concern to those who would scoff at the idea of dressing up a drone, there are still many drone owners who have seen their drones shiver violently after exposure to winter temperatures but hesitate to put clothing on their drones for fear of appearing odd," states the Drone Sweaters website.

The website, which seems like a big sarcastic joke, offers a decent argument as to why you should dress up your drone for the winter: some drones have lighter plastic layers than others and hence not as suited to certain environments where they find themselves. Your drone would be as uncomfortable as you would be if you went outside without the proper winter clothing.

Getting your drone a sweater is no easy feat, however. First you'd need to pick out the right material. Wool for instance is warm, but can get itchy, and may not be difficult to wash. If you weren't already catching on to the joke this next line about taking your drone's measurements is a fast giveaway: "Why would you want it to fit? So that your done cannot easily pull the piece off," the website states, and so on.

Hence, the obvious marriage of tech in its most obscure form, located, of course, in San Francisco. So if you forgot to get your drone a holiday gift, here's your opportunity to redeem yourself.

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How AI Can Become a “Third Hemisphere” of Our Brains

While artificial intelligence may replace truck dricers and beat us at chess, it also has much to offer: it can free up our minds and responsibilities for the tasks and social interactions we humans are best suited for. In this TEDx video featuring Felix Hausler, CEO of messaging interface Chatgrape, Hausler discusses how AI is becoming more a part of our daily lives, and how we can overcome the challenges this could pose.

AI can be used for good as much as it can be a threat: it beats us in every technical game, exercises tireless intelligence, and yet it also helps us with research, or drives us home when we're too drunk to drive, Hausler pointed out during his talk. Because of AI, 47 percent of jobs are at risk, he said, and humans will lose their jobs to automation in the next decades.

Truck driving, other transportation, production, and administrative jobs are particularly susceptible to AI. However, while it may threaten jobs, the ability to merge with technology, to coexist with AI could help us become "super humans," Hausler said.

Machines need us more than we think, he said, and we need machines to make our work more exciting. "If we accept that we need each other in this life, we'll both profit from it," Hausler said.

Machines have limitations, especially in that they are inept in social situations. To get the most out of AI, people need to understand the limitations of computation, and allow machines to do just what they're good at, freeing up humans to do what they're good at, such as social engagement, creativity, and logical reasoning. At the same time, humans need machines to counteract the "deadly dullness" of dry, monotonous work, since the human brain is not made for the dull or repetitive, he said.

Hausler proposed a "third" sphere of the brain, in addition to the left and right, the parts that govern logic and creativity, respectively. This third hemisphere has to do with repetition, accuracy, and speed. By taking care of the dull and repetitive, AI lets humans focus on what they're better suited for. Using machines to clear up ambiguities in communication, to mediate among people who think differently, and to translate a person's thoughts or patterns into tasks can help people find common ground, said Hausler.

There are a few ways people can connect with AI today, he said. One is natural language processing, in which the machine listens to a person, reads what they've been writing, and adds some intelligence to make that all easier. Another is behavioral, in which the machine is connected to a person's device and learns about the owner in order to offer adjustments based on their patterns. A third way is augmented reality, in which the machine improves a person's visual field, and gives them information while they're doing something else. And a fourth way is brain computer interface.

"The moment we're able to have a real brain computer interface, a frictionless, will be the moment we have access to this third hemisphere and can directly outsource every bulk task we have to a machine," said Hausler.

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Start Rolling Your Blunts: 2016 Was A Very Good Year for Weed

1. Weed won!

Let's be real, weed won the election. California, Nevada, Massachusetts, and Maine voted to legalize adult use marijuana, while Florida, Arkansas, North Dakota, and Montana legalized medical marijuana. Only in Arizona, the ninth state considering legalization, did the initiative fail.

2. Weed enhances cognition.

An ongoing study published in Frontiers in Pharmacology found that cannabis helps with cognitive performance, as in the way we acquire and process knowledge. The researchers tracked 24 medical marijuana patients over three months and measured their cognitive abilities through certain mental challenges and tests.

3. Your cells get high.

Okay, sure that's a given: If you're getting high at all, at the most basic level it's because the chemicals in cannabis are acting on endocannabinoid receptor cells throughout your brain and body. But in a new study, researchers discovered the structure of the CB1 cell receptors that actually bind to the THC from inhaled or ingested cannabis.

4. Cannabis to treat cervical cancer?

A study from North-West University in Potchefstroom, South Africa, used in vitro or test tube/petri dish analysis to find that the anticarcinogenic properties in CBD could act on cervical cancer cells, inhibiting their growth or causing them to kill themselves. In a good way.

5. Weed arrests are at a 20 year low.

According to new stats released in September by the FBI, marijuana-related arrests are the lowest they've been in two decades. The data looked at 2015, in which there were 574,641 arrests for marijuana possession. Possession arrests have not been that low since 1996. Meanwhile, however, though arrest rates dropped, someone still gets busted for weed just a little more than once a minute.

A man at the Cannabis Cup USA. Image: Christine Jump/Flickr

6. More people smoke weed and fewer people think that's a bad thing.

According to a study that came out in August, cannabis use increased from 10.4 percent in 2002 to 13.3 percent in 2014. Moreover, out of the 500,000 people the study looked at, it turns out that with increased use came decreased perception of risk: at the end of hte study, only 33.3 of the subjects believed that smoking weed once or twice a week was bad, as compared to 50.4 percent at the beginning of the study.

7. The most potent weed oil got made this year.

Denver's Organa Labs, the world's largest cannabis oil producer, announced the release of Bakked distillates in October. Thee product line includes cannabis oils with up to 97 percent activated THC—that's the most potent cannabis oil ever.

8. Researchers see atomic-level weed receptors in the brain.

For the first time, researchers have been able to create a 3D image of the brain's CB1 receptor, which is responsible for cannabinoids' psychoactive effects. The image can provide information as to how cannabis works in the brain and why THC compounds might be harmful. To create the 3D image, the researchers produced a crystallized version of CB1 in order to get enough information about its structure to produce a high-resolution 3D image.

9. We're getting closer to a weed breathalyzer.

CAlifornia police officers collaborated with Hound Labs, which developed a breathalyzer to detect THC levels, to pull over erratic drivers and ask them to voluntarily blow into the device. (Since this was only for testing purposes, the drivers didn't face arrest, unless they were drunk.) While other weed breathalyzers merely detect the presence of THC, the Hound Labs device detects THC levels in parts per trillion, which is more precise than before. Now, researchers and policymakers need to come up with standards, beyond a breathalyzer reading, for what actually constitutes impairment, versus under the influence.

10. Criminal records for weed in California can get expunged.

Under part of Prop 64, the California initiative that legalized marijuana, judges can resentence those who have been convicted of marijuana-related crimes or destroy records with prior marijuana convictions. Moreover, the initiative reduces several felonies to misdemeanors and misdemeanors to infractions. Already, many court cases have been dropped and people released from jail on account of the new law.

Doobie doobie do, indeed.

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