Stories by John Pavlus

Melanie Mitchell says digital minds will never truly be like ours until they can make analogies

The first big digital currency gave us a glimpse of a new economic order—one that raises more questions than answers

Scientific American Mind weighs in on recent titles from neuroscience and psychology 

An approach to artificial intelligence that enables computers to recognize visual patterns better than humans are able to do

A way to design new molecules and materials that the periodic table does not allow

Space-based transmission of quantum cryptographic keys could make the “unhackable” Internet a reality

Remote-controlled origami robots can perform medical procedures from the inside out

Scientific American Mind weighs in on recent titles from neuroscience and psychology

Decades of research have warned about the human attention span in automated cockpits 

Why is it so hard to build a walking robot?

The mathematician Ken Ono believes that the story of Srinivasa Ramanujan—mathematical savant and two-time college dropout—holds valuable lessons for how we find and reward hidden genius

The psychology of intrinsic motivation and “hard fun” could improve education and, naturally, the next generation of video games

Researchers have figured out how to coax stem cells into becoming organized clusters of neurons

With the end of Moore's law in sight, chip manufacturers are spending billions to develop novel computing technologies

Expert advice on lighting, timing and hacking your dreams

Agreeable personalities produce more of the brain's natural painkillers

Whether or not machines can quickly answer yes-or-no questions could affect everything from national security to the limits of human knowledge

Algorithms inspired by Mother Nature help us run our vast digital biosphere

Bringing joysticks and scoreboards into our daily routine may be the key to making us better people

When research is like a video game, computers finish second

Ten thoughts, trends and technologies that have the power to transform our lives

It gobbles up wood chips, leaves and other “biomass” and generates electricity

Could modern civilization really come to an end? Experts take stock of eight doomsday scenarios

Our highly selective list includes Teflon, dropped calls and the space shuttle