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Race to AI: The Origins of Artificial Intelligence, From Turing to ChatGPT

Race to AI: The Origins of Artificial Intelligence, From Turing to ChatGPT

Today's poem-writing AI has ancestry in punch-card machines, trundling robots and godlike gaming engines

Science History: Yue Xiong's Great Leap

Science History: Yue Xiong's Great Leap

Yue Xiong is a microbiologist who emigrated to the United States from China to complete his doctorate in 1989. He is the chief scientific officer of pharmaceutical company Cullgen and was a professor of biochemistry and biophysics at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This article follows Yue Xiong’s quest for education and is based on an interview from the Science History Institute’s oral history archive conducted in 2000 by historian William Van Benschoten.

Four Incredible Objects That Made Science History

Four Incredible Objects That Made Science History

One of the first scientific findings signed by a woman is now online for the public to see for the first time. Martha Gerrish's descriptions of the stars in 1734 joins discoveries by Isaac Newton, Victorian fossil hunters and pioneer photographers. The documents have been digitised by the Royal Society in London.

The True Legacy of Gregor Mendel: Careful, Rigorous and Humble Science

The True Legacy of Gregor Mendel: Careful, Rigorous and Humble Science

The friar's experiments laid the groundwork for genetics - and his understated approach to his work is inspirational.

A 2,700-Year-Old Figurine Revives a Weighty Mystery

A 2,700-Year-Old Figurine Revives a Weighty Mystery

A bronze statuette recovered from a river in Germany may have been part of an early Scandinavian weight system, some archaeologists believe.

The Archaeologist Who Discovered Troy: Heinrich Schliemann

The Archaeologist Who Discovered Troy: Heinrich Schliemann

Born 200 years ago in Germany, the adventurer-archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann was obsessed with finding the kingdom of Troy described in Homer's "Iliad."

This 3,700-Year-Old Tablet is the Oldest Example of Applied Geometry

This 3,700-Year-Old Tablet is the Oldest Example of Applied Geometry

Ancient Greeks have been credited with the invention of trigonometry, but a mathematician reveals Babylonians used it about a thousand years earlier.

Scientists Find Perfectly Preserved Dinosaur Embryo Preparing to Hatch Like a Bird

Scientists Find Perfectly Preserved Dinosaur Embryo Preparing to Hatch Like a Bird

At least 66m-year-old fossil discovered in southern China reveals posture previously unseen in dinosaurs

Ancient Footprints Suggest a Mysterious Hominid Lived Alongside Lucy's Species

Ancient Footprints Suggest a Mysterious Hominid Lived Alongside Lucy's Species

A previously unknown hominid species may have left its marks in muddy ash about 3.66 million years ago in what is now East Africa.

What Did the Past Smell Like?

What Did the Past Smell Like?

When people entertain transporting to the past, 19th-century Berlin, say, they don't often imagine a dramatic shift in smellscape.

Caltech Confronted Its Racist Past. Here's What Happened

Caltech Confronted Its Racist Past. Here's What Happened

With a push from students and alumni, the university faced up to a legacy of support for eugenics. As it renames buildings and programmes, can its story serve as a model for others?

Human Species Who Lived 500,000 Years Ago Named As Homo Bodoensis

Human Species Who Lived 500,000 Years Ago Named As Homo Bodoensis

Species was direct ancestor of early humans in Africa and discovery has led to reassessment of epoch

The Disneyfication of Atomic Power

The Disneyfication of Atomic Power

John Jay Hopkins's visit to Japan in 1955, as an informal emissary of "Atoms for Peace," must have seemed surreal to everyone.

Insanity the Common Verdict on Suicides in 18th Century England

Insanity the Common Verdict on Suicides in 18th Century England

Official records contrast with witness evidence of loneliness and physical decline among older people in Georgian society