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A socially intelligent robot, which looks like a human, has been revealed by Nanyang Technological University (NTU) scientists in Singapore. The robot, named Nadine, has been created by Professor Nadia Thalmann and looks just like her creator. Nadine has brunette hair and soft skin. The robot has been programmed to have her distinct personality, along with moods and emotions.

On December 29, 2015, the humanoid receptionist was unveiled at NTU. Thalmann believes that such physical social robots are likely to become a part of our offices and homes in near future. Nadine has the capability of greeting you with a smile and looking in eyes while having a conversation. The robot, which will also shake hands, can change her moods from being happy to sad while talking to people.

On Wednesday, a state panel took a move to cut standard prison terms for some drug offenders in Minnesota. The move was taken with the motive to treat drug consumers differently as compared to the ones, who peddle them.

The Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission has also formed new mitigating factors, allowing judges to send more drug addicts to chemical dependency treatment and not to jail.

While speaking to KARE, Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Christopher Dietzen, who chairs the commission, said, “We think that a drug dealer is more culpable than a drug user. We want the drug user who wants to get better to go into treatment. We on the commission view that as positive thing, and a matter of public safety”.

A research has revealed that policies to verify brain death differs vastly from hospital to hospital and policies are full of lapses. The rules to ascertain brain death vary broadly from one hospital to another, even though national standards exist.

The research has discovered that the hospital policies to determine brain death are astonishingly conflicting and don’t comply with parameters decided by health authorities.

The American Academy of Neurology (AAN) came up with a clear and detailed set of guidelines in 2010 to differentiate a brain-dead patient from one who might come out of coma. The motive behind the written guidelines was to make judgment 100% accurate and to make one completely confident on whatever call is made.

Mark Fayloga got to fight with cancer, but cancer didn’t know Fayloga is a Marine. At a gym Fayloga, on the day after Thanksgiving, he began having severe breathing issues and was ultimately diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, which is a cancer of the lymphatic system.

The Reserve staff sergeant has now decided to document his fight with the disease in a series of short videos. The series will have a provoking title ‘F--k Cancer’.

Fayloga works with the office of Marine Corps communications as director of digital engagement He said that when he was deciding the name, his cousin texted him to name the series: 'F--k Cancer,' because f--k cancer!’

Taiwanese researchers have come up with an app that can distinguish between varieties of crying sounds made by babies. They have developed the app named the Infant Cries Translator at the National Taiwan University Hospital, Yunlin.

The app can differentiate between four separate crying sounds. It records the sounds of babies and compares them against a huge database.

Researchers collected nearly 200,000 crying sounds from roughly 100 newborns over a time period of two years. They uploaded the sounds on an online database. Researchers, led by Chang Chuan-yu and Dr Chen Si-da analyzed the frequency of individual screams and this analysis helped them in distinguishing subtle differences in acoustics.

Shedding light on devil facial tumor disease (DFTD), a new study has found that this communicable cancer has been spotted in eight Tasmanian devils across southeastern Tasmania. The diseases was first discovered in 1996 when it had brought the species to the brink of extinction notwithstanding efforts put in for their captive breeding and preparing an effective vaccine.