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A small cylinder called Le Grand K has defined the kilogram for more than a hundred years.

Le Grand K was forged in 1879 and is held in a locked vault outside Paris—revered and kept under lock and key because its mass, a little over 2 pounds, is the official definition of the kilogram.

If Le Grand K gets heavier or lighter—or absorbs atoms of something from the air—the definition of the kilogram literally changes.

Bill Phillips, a Nobel laureate from the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Maryland, told the assembled delegates at the international General Conference on Weights and Measures that basing the kilogram's official definition on a hunk of metal held in a vault was "a situation that is clearly intolerable." His colleagues clearly agreed, as no country voted to keep the old definition. 

Going forward, the world's system of mass measurement will not be based on some special hunk of metal, but rather on unalterable features of the universe—such as the speed of light, time and Planck's constant, a number that helps scientists figure out the energy of a photon of light, given its wavelength.

The new definition of the kilogram will go into effect in May 2019. Meanwhile, Le Grand K will remain in its lonely vault.

Think about what you look for when you’re deciding on the perfect travel destination. Is it rich history? Cultural experiences? Lots of delicious food or shopping opportunities? Comfortable and unique places to stay? Or, perhaps, you just want to go somewhere with truly breathtaking views that you can’t get anywhere else in the world.

Guess what? You can find all of this and more in Japan.

Travelers across the globe love to visit the country for its fabulous natural spas, or even its quirkier relaxation offerings like baths of beer, red wine, or even ramen, for a one-of-a-kind experience.

Tokyo in particular, while being a fast-paced and dynamic city on its own, is also one of the major fashion capitals of the world, with hundreds of distinctive shops, impressive designer stores, and street fashion that is recognized for its creativity and individuality the world over. Plus, it practically goes without saying that the rich, cultural history and delicious food are the key reasons why people want to visit this special country in the first place.

Thanks to Japan’s bustling cities, beautiful countryside, and whimsical experiences, travelers keep coming back for more. That's why Travel + Leisure decided to make the country the 2018 Destination of the Year.

Japan's Cabinet has approved a draft bill that would allow the entry of more foreign blue-collar workers as the country's rapidly aging population faces labor shortages.

The bill is a major revision of Japan's policy on foreign labor. The country has long resisted accepting foreign workers, except for doctors, teachers and others in highly skilled fields. The proposed legislation would create two new visa categories for foreigners employed in more than a dozen sectors facing labor shortages, such as nursing, farming, construction and services.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe denied that the new policy means Japan is opening its doors to immigrants, to reassure his nationalist supporters. Opponents are concerned about crime and jobs taken away from Japanese, while proponents say foreign workers are indispensable in sectors facing labor shortages.

Under the draft bill, applicants for the first visa category need certain skill levels and Japanese language ability, cannot bring their families, and can stay up to five years. Those in the second category with higher skills can bring their families and eventually apply for permanent residency.

The government has projected that the number of foreign blue-collar workers would be about half a million within a decade.

A European-Japanese spacecraft set off on a treacherous seven-year journey to Mercury to probe the solar system's smallest and least-explored planet.

The BepiColombo mission, only the third ever to visit Mercury, blasted off from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana aboard an Ariane 5 rocket at 10:45 p.m. local time on Friday, October 19 (0145 GMT on Saturday), according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Few spacecraft have visited Mercury because of the planet's proximity to the sun—less than 60 million kilometers (37.3 million miles) away compared with Earth's almost 150 million kilometers (93 million miles)—which makes any trip there challenging. Surface temperatures on the planet can reach highs of over 400℃ (750℉) during the day and drop to -170℃ (-275℉) at night.

BepiColombo will reach its orbit of Mercury around December 2025. At that point, it will release two separate spacecraft it is carrying: ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO), and JAXA's Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO). MPO will study Mercury's surface and internal composition, to determine the planet's iron content and examine why its core is partially liquid. MMO will collect data on the planet's magnetosphere and its interactions with the sun.

In the US, the widespread belief that the poor are simply lazy has led many states to impose work requirements on aid recipients—even those who have been medically classified as disabled. Limiting aid programs in this way has been shown to shorten recipients’ lives, creating a difference of more than 20 years in life expectancy between the rich and the poor.

When the wealthy are revealed to be drug addicts, philanderers, or work-shy, the response is at most a collective shrug. At the same time, behaviors indulged in the rich are not just condemned in the poor, but are used as a justification to punish them, denying them access to resources that keep them alive, such as healthcare and food assistance.

We don’t hear much, however, about laziness, drug addiction or promiscuity among the wealthiest members of society. Many even present themselves as homeless—for tax purposes—despite owning multiple residences. Meanwhile, the poor can end up being “resident nowhere” because no one will allow them to stay in one place for very long.

It is as if the right to move around, to take up space, and to direct your own life as you see fit have become luxury goods, available to those who can pay instead of being human rights.

The British government has joined press freedom advocates and journalists in expressing dismay and disgust with Donald Trump's remarks at a rally, where he praised the unprovoked assault on a Guardian US journalist by the state's congressman, Greg Gianforte.

Trump fondly reminisced about the physical assault that occurred on 24 May 2017 when Jacobs, the Guardian's political correspondent, asked Gianforte a question about healthcare policy in the course of a special congressional election in Montana.

In a statement, PEN America, a nonprofit organization that works to defend and celebrate free expression, said Trump's "Explicit praise" for Gianforte's assault "marks a startling new low in terms of the White House's open hostility toward the press".

At the rally, Trump said that anyone who could perform a body-slam, as Gianforte did on Jacobs, was "My guy", and that news of the attack, which occurred the night before the special election, probably helped Gianforte win.

There are few technologies being more rapidly adopted and expanded in 2018 than voice A.I. In just a few years, the use of voice systems has evolved from simple voice commands to entire ecosystems of applications and interactions.

We’ve only begun to predict the ways voice A.I. will influence interactions between humans and technology in the decades to come. For instance, consumer behavior may shift to verbally purchasing items through smart speakers as they realize they’re running low, rather than creating a shopping list and then purchasing them all at once later. One possibility in the health care space is self-directed physical and occupational therapy done through A.I. voice assistants.

In a survey by Edison Research and NPR, 39% of respondents indicated they're very interested in having smart speaker technology in their televisions and 24% want it in their cars—two environments that are not conducive to using smartphones.

We believe A.I. voice assistants will unlock a new world of user interactions and that the key to leveraging their full value will be thoughtful design to ensure they're as relevant, ethical and useful as possible.

Japan landed two unmanned rovers on a 1-kilometer-wide asteroid named Ryugu in late September, 2018. It was the first time robot rovers have successfully landed on an asteroid surface.

"I felt awed by what we had achieved in Japan. This is just a real charm of deep space exploration," Takashi Kubota, a spokesman for the space agency, told CNN. The two rovers together are called MINERVA-II1 and came from the spacecraft Hayabusa2.

The rovers hop and float across the asteroid—thanks to its low gravity—to capture information including photos and the asteroid's temperature. Since landing, the rovers have sent back photos and data. This asteroid is believed to be a particularly early one, with a wealth of water and organic material that will shed light on the "Building blocks of Earth."

In early October, JAXA, Japan's space agency, plans to launch a third rover from the spacecraft. At the end of next month, the spacecraft itself is supposed to land on the asteroid and blow a small crater in it to reach samples that haven't before been exposed to space.

The spacecraft will leave the asteroid in December 2019 to return to Earth by the end of 2020.

Two scientists who discovered how to harness the body’s immune system to fight cancer won the 2018 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine. James Allison, of the US, and Tasuku Honjo, of Japan, shared the 9m Swedish kronor ($1m/¥113m) prize.

The scientists’ groundbreaking work on the immune system has paved the way for a new class of cancer drugs that are already dramatically changing outcomes for patients. It is the first time the development of a cancer therapy has been recognised with a Nobel prize.

Allison said he was in a “state of shock” about having achieved “every scientist’s dream”. “I’d like to give a shout out to all the [cancer] patients out there to let them know we’re making progress here,” he said.

Honjo, who began his research after a medical school classmate died from stomach cancer, said: “I want to continue my research...so that this immune therapy will save more cancer patients than ever.”

The idea of mobilising the immune system to tackle cancer was first proposed more than a century ago, but it was only after the discoveries of Allison and Honjo that this tantalising possibility could be turned into a clinical treatment.