Google’s Plan To Eliminate Human Driving In 5 Years 

Google’s adorable self-driving car prototype hits the road this summer, the tech giant announced last week. Real roads, in the real world. The car has no steering wheel or pedals, so it’s up to the computer to do all the driving.

As cool as this sounds, it isn’t a huge technological step forward. The goofy little cars use the same software controlling the Lexus and Toyota vehicles that have logged hundreds of thousands of autonomous miles, and Google’s spent the past year testing its prototypes on test tracks.

And, in keeping with California law, there will be a human aboard, ready to take over (with a removable steering wheel, accelerator pedal, and brake pedal) if the something goes haywire.

What’s important here is Google’s commitment to its all-or-nothing approach, which contrasts with the steady-as-she-goes approach favored by automakers like Mercedes, Audi and Nissan.

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New Mobile Phone Microscope Uses Video To Detect Infections 

A research team led by engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, has developed a new mobile phone microscope that uses video to automatically detect and quantify infection by parasitic worms in a drop of blood. This next generation of UC Berkeley’s CellScope technology could help revive efforts to eradicate debilitating diseases in Africa by providing critical information for health providers in the field.

This is a schematic of the CellScope Loa device, a mobile phone-based video microscope. The device includes a 3-D-printed case housing simple optics, circuitry and controllers to help process the sample of blood.

CellScope Loa can quantify levels of the Loa loa parasitic worm directly from whole blood in less than 3 minutes.

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Why Has The U.S. Stopped China’s Supercomputer Upgrade? 

China and the U.S. are at it again. The U.S. government has refused to let Intel update China’s Tianhe-2, the world’s largest supercomputer.

China, in a series of upgrades this year, wants to upgrade the machine’s capacity to over 110 petaflops. To do this, China relies heavily on Intel being allowed to ship new Xeon chips.

Intel applied for a license to be able to export tens of thousands of chips. The Department of Commerce refused Intel, saying they were concerned about nuclear research being done with the machine, said Next Big Future.

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