Mind-Controlled Prosthetic Limbs

The latest installation of The New York Times’ video series “Robotica” examines the ongoing development of mind-controlled prosthetic limbs. The video follows the life of 59-year-old Les Baugh—who lost both of his arms in an electrical accident when he was a teenager—as he helps Johns Hopkins University engineers test the latest technological marvel, Modular Prosthetic Limbs (or M.P.L.). After strapping on two robotic arms, Baugh …

Link About It: This Week’s Picks

Self-driving cars, Cuba's lung cancer vaccine, Einstein's handwriting as a font and more in our weekly look around the web

1. Cornell Renames Institute After Carl Sagan Cornell University’s Institute for Pale Blue Dots is being renamed the Carl Sagan Institute: The Pale Blue Dot and Beyond in honor of the late astrophysicist and former Cornell faculty member. After Sagan’s wife and collaborator Ann Druyan visited the science center to give a speech, she was inspired by the innovative work being done and proposed the …

Google’s Self-Driving Cars to Hit Public Roads

Over the past six years, Google’s self-driving cars have accrued an equivalent of 75 years of US adult driving experience through test runs, with just 11 minor fender-benders. Now, the driverless vehicles are set to take to the publics roads of Mountain View, California—Google’s home town—for further testing. Each car will be capped at a 25 miles-per-hour maximum and will be accompanied by a driver …