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Nuclear reactors might be built more efficiently by using supercomputers to artificially “evolve” their design, engineers from the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee have found. Each design produced by the genetic algorithm is tested in a simulation to judge its performance, running costs, and safety, and those that perform best are then recombined to create the next generation of designs.

Do you ever find yourself missing calls because your cellphone is out of earshot at the bottom of your bag? Wristwatches to be launched next month by Citizen Watch in Japan could help. The watches,…

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