Welcome to the fifth annual “Neural’s AI predictions” article! That makes this one of the longest running series in Neural’s history. And, this year, we aim to set the bar higher than it’s ever been with our best round of insights yet. Gather round, grab some hot chocolate, and let’s see what the experts think is about to happen next in the world of AI: Natalie Monbiot, Head of Strategy atHour One:...

2021 will be remembered for a lot of things, but when it’s all said and done we think it’ll eventually get called the year quantum computing finally came into focus. That’s not to say useful quantum computers have actuallyarrivedyet. They’re still somewhere between a couple years and a couple centuries away. Sorry for being so vague, but when you’re dealing with quantum physics there aren’t yet many guarantees. This is because physics is an incredibly complex and challenging field of study....

Welcome to Neural’s series on speculative science. Here, we throw caution to the wind and see how far we can push the limits of possibility and imagination as we explore the future of technology. “When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.” –Arthur C Clarke. An exciting new study conducted by a huge, international team of researchers indicates some species of bird have a special protein in their eye that exploits quantum mechanics to allow their brains to perceive the Earth’s magnetism....

Neutrinos from our Sun hold the secrets to nuclear fusion For every reaction, there’s a harder-to-remember reaction The PP reaction, dominant in smaller stars like ourSun, begins with the fusing of two protons (ordinary hydrogen nuclei) into deuterium, containing one proton and a neutron. This reaction releases a positron (an antimatter version of an electron), and a neutrino, and an exceptionally low-mass, uncharged particle. This deuterium nucleus then merges with a third proton, releasing gamma radiation (this energy then spends hundreds of thousands of years working its way to the surface of the Sun, where we see and feel it as light and heat)....

Neutron star collision should have formed a black hole — but a ‘magnetar’ appeared instead I’m still going to need your insurance information… The discovery — the first time a collision ofneutron starshas ever been seen — was made through studies conducted in visible wavelengths of light, as well as infrared, radio, and X-ray frequencies. The first light from the event, 7.6 billion light-years from Earth, was seen in the form of a highly-energetic short-gamma ray burst....