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Earth is a treasure trove of biodiversity, with over 8.7 million known species alive today, and that only represents an estimated 20 percent of all of the existing species that currently exist. But despite the sheer diversity of lifeforms, be it plant, animal, or microbe, we all share a common single-celled ancestor that started to diverge into new species 1.6 billion years ago. And because of that common ancestor, all species have a lot in common when it comes to our DNA: chimpanzees are nearly genetically identical to us; we share 69 percent of our genetic makeup with the otherwise oddball platypus; and we have even one-quarter of our code in common with rice.
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Researchers at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia has developed a new method that can allow liquid metal to self-arrange its own shape, using external chemical inputs. The substance is made up of a highly-conductive liquid-metal core, surrounded by a film of semiconducting oxide skin, allowing the arrangement to be completely malleable, resembling the mimetic polyalloy used by the T-1000 from the Terminator movies.

The technique used to cause the metal to rearrange its shape involves changing the chemical makeup of the water that the metal is kept in, altering the pH levels and salt content of the solution. This prompts the skin surrounding the metal to change its shape, to the point where this change can cause the metal blob can propel itself.
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Speaking at the Annual International Conference on Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures in New York, professor Alexi Samsonovich, from Moscow’s National Research Nuclear University Cybernetics Department, stated that Russian researchers are on the verge of a major breakthrough in AI. But Samsonovich feels this breakthrough won’t necessarily be measurable in terms of artificial consciousness — we can’t even prove that humans are conscious, let alone an entity that might be as alien as AI — but rather that true advancement in AI would be seen in terms of AE: artificial emotions.
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Researchers at Harvard University have built a light-sensitive, self-propelled artificial machine-organism, in the form of a tiny robot stingray. The project was done in an effort to test the feasibility of making hybrid replacement organs for human patients, such as bioartificial hearts, that could use natural muscle motions to function, as opposed to the electrical operation that today’s prosthetics require.
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