Month: April 2016

The researchers told study participants that they were taking part in an anatomy lesson. As each body part was named, they were asked to touch it on the robot's body. Meanwhile, researchers measured their levels of physiological arousal. (credit: Jamy Li)

Humans didn't evolve in an environment full of machines, and as a result we have a lot of instinctive reactions to robots that mirror our reactions to other humans. Studies have shown that people have a hard time being rude to a robot's face, just as we do with other people. We even use the same part of our brains to recognize robot and human faces. A research group at Stanford recently wondered if our instinctive reactions to robots would extend to the way we touch their bodies. And they did a series of tests in which subjects were asked to touch robots in "accessible" regions like the hands and then "inaccessible" ones like the buttocks and genitals.

The researchers will present the results of their work this week at the Annual Conference of the International Communication Association in Fukuoka, Japan. They wanted to focus on people's reactions to touch because there is already a large body of evidence showing that humans have complex reactions to touching each other, ranging from emotions to physiological changes we aren't always aware of. As robots take on the roles of caretakers, workplace helpers, and service workers, it's important to explore whether touch should be incorporated into how we design robot interfaces. But first, we need to understand whether humans react to robot touch the way they react to human touch.

To answer that question, the researchers used a human touching scale developed back in the 1960s by Sidney Jourard. Jourard used the term "body accessibility" to rank body parts based on how willing people were to allow others to touch them. As the researchers wrote:

Human stem cells. (credit: Nissim Benvenisty)

For years, stem cell-based therapies have promised myriad breakthroughs in healthcare—from cancer treatments and re-growing teeth to preventing brain damage and degeneration. While some therapies have met with much more success than others, they all face the same challenge of working with live cells. This work can be tricky. Getting some types of cells can pose ethical issues; a patient’s immune system can attack those cells once they're used; and stem cells can sometimes go haywire and generate tumors.

But for one promising stem cell therapy—one that thwarts brain damage—scientists may have found a way around the problems.

By extracting wee cellular bundles called microvesicles from stem cells, scientists can harness the same neuro-protective and healing properties seen with whole stem cell treatments. Microvesicles normally act like cell-to-cell mail, and they bud from one cell, bearing proteins and snippets of genetic material that tame the immune system and coordinate neighboring cells. In rats with irradiated brains, the bundles safeguarded brain structures, reduced inflammation, and preserved cognitive functions compared with rats that didn’t get the cellular cargo, researchers report.

(credit: Getty Images)

On Tuesday, payment processor PayPal said it was abandoning plans to open a new global operations center in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the wake of the state's new legislation that discriminates against the LGBT community. The news comes just two weeks after PayPal, based in San Jose, California, announced plans to bring 400 skilled jobs to the state. But on March 23, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed legislation making his state the nation's first to require transgender people to use bathrooms that comport with the sex listed on their birth certificates.

"The new law perpetuates discrimination and it violates the values and principles that are at the core of PayPal’s mission and culture. As a result, PayPal will not move forward with our planned expansion into Charlotte," Dan Schulman, the PayPal president and CEO, said in a statement. "This decision reflects PayPal’s deepest values and our strong belief that every person has the right to be treated equally, and with dignity and respect. These principles of fairness, inclusion, and equality are at the heart of everything we seek to achieve and stand for as a company. And they compel us to take action to oppose discrimination."

The move is the biggest economic backlash to North Carolina because of the recent legislation. Braeburn Pharmaceuticals of New Jersey announced last week it was reconsidering its plans to build a $20 million research and manufacturing plant in the state, which would include 50 new positions paying an average $76,000 annual salary. Lionsgate and the A + E network announced last week that they won't film in North Carolina either.

The world of Dark Souls 3 retains much of the series' bizarre desperation.

No, what I learned to put behind me in Dark Souls 3 was my undying, almost slavish admiration for the original Dark Souls.

Superficially, Dark Souls 3 couldn't seem more similar to its forebears. But Dark Souls 3 isn't really that much like the previous games in the series, at least not when you dig down into the deep, esoteric mantle found in every Souls game.

The most distinct, most immediate, difference is in the way Dark Souls 3 looks. I was instantly struck by how fluidly my newly spawned character's cape swayed in the mountain breeze. The opening hours are spent with the familiar humanoid Hollows—undead whose apathy turned to directionless bloodlust—but now, they just look so much better. I was just as impressed when the first boss exploded into snakes made of writhing black oil. Here was Dark Souls living up to its paradoxical promise of delivering unexpected dangers and looking damn good while doing it.