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It appears that while we were busy over the past month spreading the Greek pre- and post-bankruptcy balance sheet, and otherwise torturing Excel (something we urge other financial journalists to try once in a while - go ahead, it doesn't bite. In fact, it is almost as friendly as your favorite Powerpoint) our peer at such reputable financial publications as Forbes, and many others, were laying of carbon-based reporters and replacing them with... robots. As Mediabistro reports, "Forbes has joined a group of 30 publishers using Narrative Science software to write computer-generated stories. Here’s more about the program, used in...

Something tells me that the University of Pennsylvania is not in the toy business. Got to see this!

Microscopic-scale medical robots represent a promising new type of therapeutic technology. As envisioned, the microbots, which are less than one millimeter in size, might someday be able to travel throughout the human bloodstream to deliver drugs to specific targets or seek out and destroy tumors, blood clots, and infections that can't be easily accessed in other ways. One challenge in the deployment of microbots, however, is developing a system to accurately "drive" them and maneuver them through the complex and convoluted circulatory system, to a chosen destination. Researchers from Korea's Hanyang University in Seoul and Chonnam National University in Gwangju...

Robots from around Europe are flocking to London this week - but, thankfully, we won't need to call Doctor Who to fend off this particular onslaught. More than 20 cutting-edge robots from around Europe will be on display at the Science Museum's Robotville exhibition this week - including a robot designed to help autistic children, and a robot that can (sometimes) catch a ball. Naturally, many of the robots look like slightly spooky human beings - but other fields of robotics will be represented instead, including 'swarm' robotics, where tiny robots work together, a relatively new idea being pioneered in...

A debate on the future of the American economy and the role of intelligent computers and robots. Will rapid technological innovations aid American workers, or will it render large numbers of American workers obsolete?

Robots of a Feather... LIS/Swiss Federal Institute of Technology A rendering of flying robots in Switzerland; connecting lines indicate Wi-Fi links. Relying on algorithms created to render flocks of birds in computer graphics, engineers have created flying robots that travel in swarms.

On the September 14 edition of MSNBC's "Hardball," host Chris Matthews admitted to socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that it "sounds Marxist" but he truly believes that automation in the economy has killed jobs by replacing human clerks in CVS and camera operators at MSNBC with "robots" Read more:

On the September 14 edition of MSNBC's "Hardball," host Chris Matthews admitted to socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that it "sounds Marxist" but he truly believes that automation in the economy has killed jobs by replacing human clerks in CVS and camera operators at MSNBC with "robots":I don't want to skip to your left on this but.... [W]hen I see automation, when I go to a CVS that used to employ a lot of people just above the poverty level, above the minimum wage. And you walk in there now, it's all machines. Now it's very convenient for the customer,...

For some time I’ve been trying to justify owning a robot without coming across as “that weirdo with the robot.” Now, I think I finally found my cover: A robot that bakes cookies! Mario Bollini and Daniela Rus of the Distributed Robotics Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have taken a PR2 robot, which is made by the robotics company Willow Garage, and programmed it to mix dough from scratch, make a giant cookie and then bake it in an oven. There are some caveats though (besides the giant cookie part). The PR2 robot costs about $400,000. In June,...

AMP, as the program is called, will harness the power of public-private partnerships between universities, industry and governmental agencies in an effort to streamline innovation and bring products more quickly to market. "We need to reinvigorate our manufacturing sector to lead the world," Obama said in the speech. "We need to do it now. Not sometime in the future. Now." AMP will be co-chaired by Susan Hockfield, president of MIT, and Andrew Liveris, chairman, president and CEO of Dow Chemical. "I'm enthusiastic about the spirit and content of our joint work," Hockfield said in a press release. "and I'm also...

President Barack Obama says technological innovations such as robots can help pump jobs into the economy and spur growth in clean energy and advanced manufacturing. In his radio and Internet address Saturday, the president echoed a plan he unveiled Friday in Pittsburgh to join the federal government, universities and corporations and re-ignite American manufacturing with an emphasis on cutting-edge research and new technologies. "Their mission is to come up with a way to get ideas from the drawing board to the manufacturing floor to the marketplace as swiftly as possible, which will help create quality jobs, and make our businesses...

Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn Report Shows Taxpayer Money Spent on Robots That Fold Laundry, Shrimp on TreadmillsBy JONATHAN KARL and MATTHEW JAFFE May 26, 2011 You've probably heard of shrimp on the barbie, but what about shrimp on a treadmill? The National Science Foundation has, and it spent $500,000 of taxpayer money researching it. It's not entirely clear what this research hoped to establish. But it's one of a number of projects cited in a scathing new report from Sen. Tom Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma, exclusively obtained by ABC News. It's not just shrimp on a treadmill. The foundation...

Robots may soon be rolling through Japanese nuclear power plants, testing the air for radiation and evaluating the amount of damage to the facilities. Bedford, Mass.-based iRobot shipped four battery-powered robots to Japan late last week to help the Japanese military with the daunting relief effort in the wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11. The company, which in the past has sent robots to aid rescue and cleanup efforts in the area affected by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and at Ground Zero after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, also has six employees in...

U.S. President Barack Obama steps in to prevent a small robot from falling off a table during a demonstration of robotics at Miami Central Senior High School March 4, 2011. Obama visited the school with former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Education Secretary Arne Duncan for an event on the future of education funding. U.S. President Barack Obama holds a lazer-etched name plate made for him by students at Miami Central Senior High School March 4, 2011. Obama visited the school with former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Education Secretary Arne Duncan for an event on the future of education...

A Massachusetts engineering firm known for creating futuristic military robots has received multimillion dollar contracts to develop two more battlefield bots for the Department of Defense. Boston Dynamics, which in 2008 unveiled a four-legged robot called BigDog, has been tapped by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the research and development arm of the DOD, to create a human-like robot and an agile, robotic Cheetah that developers said will eventually be able to run 70 mph. WATCH VIDEO OF THE BIGDOG BELOW The human-like bot, Atlas, will have two arms and legs, but no head, and be able to...

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/01/german-researchers-build-terminator-robot-hand/ Because this is a wired.com article, it must be link only, per Free Republic rules.

n the 'Terminator' universe, Skynet was built as a Global Digital Defense Network, an artificial intelligence that could command all computerized military hardware. The military installed Skynet because it would remove human error and guarantee faster, more efficient reaction time. It also guaranteed nuclear armageddon when it gained self-awareness and forced the surviving humans into slave labor. So that part was bad. But the first thing, the network command of all computerized hardware, that was a good thing, right? Hey, guess what, everybody! That first thing is starting to happen, and its name is RoboEarth! And just in case you're...

Autonomous military robots that will fight future wars must be programmed to live by a strict warrior code, or the world risks untold atrocities at their steely hands. The stark warning, which includes discussion of a "Terminator" style scenario in which robots turn on their masters is part of a hefty report funded for the US Navy High Tech and secretive office of Naval Research

The cameras used for a documentary on polar bears were designed to be as unobtrusive and resilient as possible. Polar Bear: Spy on The Ice used hi-tech "spy cams" to get as close as possible to the bears during summer in the Arctic islands of Svalbard. But while they were built to withstand temperatures as low as -40C, in the end most could not cope with the curiosity displayed by their subjects. Polar Bear: Spy on The Ice is broadcast on BBC One at 2000 GMT on Wednesday 29 December - or afterwards on BBC iPlayer.

<p>Among the number of plant closings announced in the United States this week: A printing plant in Greenburg, Ind., costing 220 jobs; a tomato processing plant in Westover, Md., with 103 people fired; an office-supply facility in Mattoon, Ill., with 129 jobs lost.</p>