Experimenting on AI can (sometimes) teach us about ourselves - Nature

This piece is the first of a series of conversations hosted by FAS CEO Daniel Correa aimed at highlighting issues ripe for deeper discussion, and bringing together thinkers with valuable perspectives on how to drive positive change in public policy. The following transcript has been lightly edited for concision and clarity. Daniel Correa, FAS CEO: Thank you both so much for joining me for this conversation. Seemay, I’m going to start with you. So you’ve practiced science. You’ve taught and now you are running several organizations that have as their mission a desire to encourage more experimentation, and to provide more funding and support for ambitious, scientific and useful breakthroughs. At the same time, you’ve done a decent amount of writing about how research institutions that perform and support science need to be more experimental.

A swimming robot does not necessarily need a bulky motor or powerful mechanical parts to move through water. MIT researchers have demonstrated that a single, carefully engineered layer of living muscle cells can generate enough force to propel a tiny robot forward. The engineers developed an extremely thin swimming robot that uses living muscle tissue to move its fins. Described in a new study published in Advanced Functional Materials, the device has a flexible gel framework roughly the length and width of a stick of gum. The gel forms two fins, each coated with a layer of muscle cells far thinner than a human hair. These cells have been genetically modified to contract when exposed to light.

How staff and students from a trio of universities in London, UK are working together to produce resources that showcase minoritised chemists ‘We often learn about the same well-known scientists,’ says Anisah Hussain, a fourth-year student at Imperial College London, UK. ‘I was really interested in the opportunity to shed light on some scientists who have equally as important contributions to chemistry but have perhaps been overlooked.’