In 1949, famed mathematician and physicist John von Neumann delivered a series of addresses at the University of Illinois, where he introduced the concept of the "universal constructor." The theory ...

James is a published author with multiple pop-history and science books to his name. He specializes in history, space, strange science, and anything out of the ordinary.View full profile James is a ...

These non-living materials will have capabilities including self-healing, adaptation, growth and programmability. The University of Texas at Austin and collaborators at the University of Illinois ...

Chinese researchers have unveiled a remarkable breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI): advanced systems, particularly large language models (LLMs), now possess the ability to replicate ...

Closing the loop: IEEE Spectrum details how AI systems like GPT‑5.3‑Codex and AlphaEvolve are now contributing to their own development, though humans still guide key decisions. Replication ...

At least 187 code packages made available through the JavaScript repository NPM have been infected with a self-replicating worm that steals credentials from developers and publishes those secrets on ...

Although the genetic material of most living organisms is DNA, various self-replicating agents rely instead on RNA, including RNA viruses and viroids, which are infectious RNA molecules that are ...

Gray goo (also spelled grey goo) is a hypothetical disaster scenario in which self-replicating nanoscale machines escape control, copy themselves without limit, and consume the Earth's biomass to ...