But critics caution the online test isn’t quite ready for prime time. The classic eye exam may be about to get an upgrade. Researchers have developed an online vision test—fueled by artificial intelligence (AI)—that produces much more accurate diagnoses than the sheet of capital letters we've been staring at since the 19th century. If perfected, the test could also help patients with eye diseases track their vision at home... Read the full story at Science Magazine.

These traditional handicrafts require exoskeletons, magnolia buds, and a steady hand. Along the gray brick houses of Beijing’s hutongs, or traditional neighborhoods, stores are lined wall to wall with the typical Chinese arts and crafts—paintings and calligraphy, engraved lacquer, or cloisonné vases. In a shop across the street from the Temple of Confucius, calabash gourds dangle from the ceiling while shelves are stacked with handmade wooden appliances. Furry little figurine

A conservation tale 120 years in the telling. When visitors enter Nanhaizi Milu Park, they step onto a long wooden bridge that stretches over a marsh. It’s the perfect place to see a herd of odd-looking deer in the distance—large and tawny, with big hooves, branched antlers, long tails, and shaggy coats. On a gray and blustery November afternoon, the deer are spending their time leisurely, placidly kneeling near feeders stocked with grass. It’s a sight that wouldn’t have been

Driving along the highway in northern Alberta, Canada, around two hours north of the provincial capital of Edmonton, the seemingly boundless prairie is punctuated by a pale yellow community hall, a church, and a cemetery. Today, Amber Valley looks like any number of small, rural communities. But a couple of dilapidated log cabins hint at what was once Canada's northernmost all-Black settlement. “It’s surprising how many people didn’t know that Black Canadians have been in Alb

Researchers dressed in black, bulky spacesuits and large white helmets lumbered across a barren, rocky landscape that crumbled beneath their feet. The Canadian research team was dressed for Mars, but they were actually in the HI-SEAS, or Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation — a Mars-like locale that scientists use to run cosmological experiments. After an afternoon exploring nearby lava tubes, the team — from universities in Calgary, Victoria and Kelowna — returned

New to the colorful exhibit halls of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, a robotized silicon nose and mouth spouts AI-generated prayers in a mechanical voice. The syntax is correct, but the mish-mash of words fail to form a cogent narrative. “Sometimes it comes up with things that are quite funny,” giggled Diemut Strebe, the artist who created the art piece. The artwork, called The Prayer, is powered by an algorithm that draws from religious texts and prayers from around the world.