Inspired by one of nature’s most efficient swimmers, bio-roboticist Auke Ijspeert and his team are building a sinuous robot that can venture into toxic waters.

Economist Robin Hanson thinks the era of ems — robots with artificial copies of human brains — could occur in the next century. Read his astonishing predictions … and prepare for your jaw to drop.

Neuroscientist and philosopher Sam Harris describes a scenario that is both terrifying and likely to occur. It’s not, he says, a good combination.

Let's kickstart science in America | ideas.ted.com

Science funding is broken. To fix it, we need to empower a new class of makers, citizen scientists and explorers

Cloud robotics, belief space, and more ideas from the robot future.

Roboticist Raffaello D’Andrea describes his work on three new autonomous flying machines, including one that “knows” what to do when it loses a propeller. (Hint: it doesn’t crash.)

In 2009, futurist and venture capitalist Juan Enriquez had big ideas about how the human species is about to evolve. As a complement to his TED Talk, “The next species of human,” he compiled this useful list of important research we should all be tracking.