At scale, use Natural Language Processing to swiftly scan legal and regulatory text for compliance concerns, and do so quickly. Manage thousands of documents without the assistance of a person.

The U.S. invested $5 million into early warning systems that would use Twitter posts to rapidly figure out where an earthquake is heading , which gives people about 60 seconds - more than enough time to take cover or pull a car over.

Scientists recently simulated half a mouse's brain on one of IBM's new Blue Gene supercomputers, allowing them to discover how memories are formed, retrieved, and updated. Some think this will lead to major breakthroughs in understanding human consciousness.

A new type of microscope developed by Stanford researchers could allow for faster and cheaper cancer diagnosis by teaching machines how to analyze images more quickly and accurately than humans ever could, according to MIT Technology Review. It's also small enough (about the size of an iPad) to be used anywhere in the world at a low cost.

Airbus developed a self-flying car with the same level of "passenger comfort" as conventional cars. This is impressive considering the biggest challenge to overcome with autonomous cars has been keeping them from bumping into things.