The Fourth Industrial Revolution represents a fundamental change in the way we live, work and relate to one another. It is a new chapter in human development, enabled by extraordinary technology advances commensurate with those of the first, second and third industrial revolutions. These advances are merging the physical, digital and biological worlds in ways that create both huge promise and potential peril. The speed, breadth and depth of this revolution is forcing us to rethink how countries develop, how organisations create value and even what it means to be human. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is about more than just technology-driven change; it is an opportunity to help everyone, including leaders, policy-makers and people from all income groups and nations, to harness converging technologies in order to create an inclusive, human-centred future. The real opportunity is to look beyond technology, and find ways to give the greatest number of people the ability to positively impact their families, organisations and communities.
Here's what smartphone apps are really doing to your memory
Smartphone apps can be memory aids for people with brain injuries and those without as well, according to new research.
Accelerating Gender Parity in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
These robots are teaching themselves to walk, run and jump
Researchers have managed to simulate robot learning of physical tasks.
Worried about AI? Relax it's dumber than you think
The future of AI looks fun and hugely profitable. But don’t hold your breath. They are likely much further off than the hype suggests.
This AI can create a video of Barack Obama saying anything
A new computer program applies lip-sync technology to create uncannily realistic videos of people speaking.
You don't care enough about data. Here's why that needs to change
“Big data”, “open data”, and “evidence-based decision-making” have become buzzwords, touted as solutions to the world’s most complex and persistent problems.
Here's how our bodies change the organisms that try to infect us
Immunological defences maintain a balance between us being a host and being healthy, but microorganisms are expert at confusing or escaping our cells’ defences.
It looks like a real heart, it beats like a real heart, but it's made by a machine
ETH researchers from the Functional Materials Laboratory have developed a silicone heart that beats almost like a human heart.
The science behind why you shouldn't look at your phone before you sleep
Bright phone lights can make the brain think it's time to stop producing melatonin, a hormone that gives your body "time to sleep" cues.
This golden banana could save thousands of lives
A banana positively glowing with added Vitamin A could improve nutrition for millions of Ugandans – and save thousands from dying – thanks to Australian scientists.
A glimpse into the future of technology, values and policy
How can we create policies that ensure our most critical values are protected from any unintentional effects of new technology?
These futuristic spacecrafts could nudge asteroids away from us
NASA has given the go-ahead for work to design a spacecraft that will test nudging an Earth-threatening asteroid out of its menacing orbit.