Remember middle school physics? You were told it was impossible to see an atom with an optical microscope because they are smaller than the wavelength of light. Maybe you are in middle school right now taking physics, and you've just recently been taught this.

Dr. Mikkel Andersen, an associate professor of physics and leader of the atomic physics department at the University of Otago in New Zealand, was taught the same thing. …

Recently I've gotten into the idea of using machine learning to recognize microexpressions on people's faces. On my journey to learning how to make an algorithm myself, I thought id start off at the basics and make an algorithm that can detect normal macro expressions.

Using the CK+48 dataset found here, I was able to replicate a model that reached a top accuracy level of 66%. …

Let's try a challenge:

Below are a few statements. The challenge for you is to say all these statements out loud. The catch is that you must do it with a stone face. So no emotions. Are you ready? Here we go.

“I think puppies are ugly, horrible creatures.”

“Chocolate is the grosset food on the planet”

“The beach is the worst place to relax and chill.”

Alright, now you can show your emotions. Let your anger and disgust show as you think about the lies you just told. Are you worried someone saw you? With such a serious face…

We've all played with slap bracelets before. The accessory that, at first, just looks like a curved ruler but with a little bit of force, turns into a bracelet that can fit any size hand. I always had fun with these because it was as if the bracelet was making itself. You didn't have to bend it into place; the laws of physics did it for you.

Sometimes I imagine how cool it would be if we could create a pile of them in such an arrangement, that when you apply force to one, the whole pile self-assembles into a…

Imagine. After years of trying to make contact with aliens, we finally get a response. You freak out. I freak out. The whole world freaks out! The government hires a team to decipher the message to make it readable to humans. After a couple of days of work from the team and anticipation from us, we finally get to hear the message:

“Hello, we have received your messages throughout the years. We plan to come visit your planet. Taking precautions, we want to get an idea of your species before we land. Send up a subject who best represents the…

Moore's law states that the amount of transistors that can fit onto a computer chip will double every 18–24 months. This trend has been the driving force of our economy for the past 60 years. Innovation grew exponentially as the transistors got smaller. But what happens when we get too small, say the size of an atom. Richard Feynman once said: “There is plenty of room down at the bottom.” But with the current trajectory of Moore’s law, it appears there is not much room after all.

Well this sounds daunting! The driving force of our economy is about to…