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Artificial intelligence has the potential to impact almost every area of life. In this first of a two-part series explaining the technology behind the headlines, this article looks at the different branches of AI technology, and what they can do When we think of artificial intelligence (AI), most of us teeter between excitement and concern about its rise. And with AI, just like anything, the unknowns fuel our concerns. AI and generative AI are unleashing amazing opportunities that will enable governments to be much more productive and effective – getting more done – better, faster, and easier. These technologies will enable us to run virtual simulations before taking real actions, prevent adverse events, prepare for changing conditions, detect areas of concern sooner and with greater accuracy, engage in more meaningful ways, and manage our resources better. So, what is AI? Artificial intelligence is the science of designing systems to support and accelerate human decisions and actions....

Four and a half billion years ago, our solar system was a swirling cloud of gas and dust around the sun, known as a protoplanetary disk. This cosmic nursery eventually condensed to form asteroids and planets. While astronomers can observe protoplanetary disks around distant stars, it is impossible to see what our own solar system looked like in its infancy. However, meteorites that have fallen to Earth provide valuable clues about the early solar system. These metals, such as iridium and platinum, typically condense at high temperatures and were expected to form close to the sun. Surprisingly, the study found that these metals were more abundant in meteorites from the outer disk, which was colder and farther from the sun. The researchers proposed that the early solar disk did not have a ring structure like those observed around other stars, such as HL Tau. Instead, it resembled a doughnut, allowing metal grains to migrate from the inner to the outer disk as it expanded. This migration...

In the ever-evolving landscape of manufacturing and automation, the quest for efficiency, quality, and flexibility remains paramount. However, achieving these goals has become increasingly complex due to a myriad of challenges faced by modern manufacturing facilities. Fortunately, advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies offer a beacon of hope, promising to revolutionize industrial automation and address these challenges head-on. Challenges Driving Interest in AI and Machine Learning Manufacturers today grapple with the pressing need to predict manufacturing performance with unparalleled precision. Rising operating costs, including energy and software license expenses, coupled with the escalating costs of quality errors such as product recalls, underscore the urgency for solutions that optimize process efficiency. This imperative for efficiency gains drives the heightened interest in AI and machine learning technologies. Generative AI and machine ...

In late 2019, the previously unremarkable galaxy SDSS1335+0728 suddenly started shining brighter than ever before. To understand why, astronomers have used data from several space and ground-based observatories, including the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT), to track how the galaxy's brightness has varied. In a study out today, they conclude that they are witnessing changes never seen before in a galaxy—likely the result of the sudden awakening of the massive black hole at its core. "Imagine you've been observing a distant galaxy for years, and it always seemed calm and inactive," says Paula Sánchez Sáez, an astronomer at ESO in Germany and lead author of the study accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics. "Suddenly, its [core] starts showing dramatic changes in brightness, unlike any typical events we've seen before." This is what happened to SDSS1335+0728, which is now classified as having an act...

The vicinity of Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way’s center, is hyperactive. Stars, gas, and dust zip around the black hole’s gravitational well at thousands of kilometers per hour. Previously, astronomers thought that only mature stars had been pulled into such rapid orbits. However, a new paper from the University of Cologne and elsewhere in Europe found that some relatively young stars are making the rounds rather than older ones, which raises some questions about the models predicting how stars form in these hyperactive regions.   Astronomers have known about the highly mobile stars surrounding Sgr A* for over thirty years now. They even have their own categorization, known as S stars. However, researchers lacked the equipment to analyze the age of some of these stars, and theories pointed to older, dimmer stars being the most likely to survive near a black hole. But then, as it does so often with science, evidence that challenged the old and ...

Stromatolites are ancient structures formed by layers of algae that grow toward the light and precipitate carbonates. First appearing 3.48 billion years ago, these formations dominated Earth as the sole living carbonate factory for nearly three billion years. They played a crucial role in the Great Oxygenation Event, which introduced oxygen to our atmosphere and drastically altered Earth’s environment. Algae layers and stromatolites Stromatolites are layered structures formed by the activity of algae, specifically cyanobacteria. These ancient formations date back 3.48 billion years and are some of the oldest evidence of life on Earth. Cyanobacteria in stromatolites perform photosynthesis, capturing sunlight and producing oxygen, which was crucial in transforming Earth’s early atmosphere Stromatolites thrived for billions of years, dominating Earth’s shallow marine environments and playing a pivotal role in the Great Oxygenation Event around 2.4 billion years ago. This event introduced...

As global food demands continue to rise, technology is becoming increasingly essential in the integration of advanced strategies into farming. A recent review paper from UC Riverside underscores the transformative potential of nanotechnology in agriculture. Already pivotal in medical applications for targeted drug delivery, nanotechnology could similarly revolutionize agricultural practices by precisely delivering agrochemicals to plants. “Nanocarriers (NCs) that can precisely deliver active agents, nutrients and genetic materials into plants will make crop agriculture more resilient to climate change and sustainable,” wrote the study authors. “As a research field, nano-agriculture is still developing, with significant scientific and societal barriers to overcome.” Understanding nanotechnology Nanotechnology involves manipulating materials on an atomic or molecular scale. To put its scale into perspective, a nanometer is one billionth of a meter – roughly 100,000 times smaller than a h...

Observing the earliest stars is one of the holy Grails of astronomy. Now, a team at the University of Hong Kong led by astronomer Jane Lixin Dai is proposing a new method for detecting them. If it works, the approach promises to open a window on the origin of the cosmos itself. The earliest stars in the Universe formed very soon after the Big Bang. Astronomers call them “Population III” (or Pop III) stars. They’re different from the Sun and other stars in the modern cosmos for a variety of reasons. They formed mainly from the hydrogen and helium in the newborn cosmos. From there, they grew to outrageous sizes and masses very quickly. That growth had a price. Those stars had very short lives because they blew through their core fuels very quickly. However, fusion at their cores and the circumstances of their deaths created the first elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. Those new elements seeded the next generations of stars. So, why can’t we detect these early stellar behemoths? F...

As AI advances with generative AI model architectures on edge devices, and as semiconductors and networks continue to improve, we should expect to see new and innovative ways of using AI for good. In one use case that I’d like to take a closer look at today, generative AI is being used for synthetic training data to dramatically improve the accuracy of drone-based land mine detection. A large portion of Ukraine’s territory is still exposed to the war. At the current pace and utilizing conventional methods, the task of clearing this area seems insurmountable, with projections suggesting it could take over 750 years to achieve. Once deployed, land mines pose a threat that extends beyond the immediate battlefield. They remain active for years, or even decades, posing a danger to anyone who unwittingly crosses their path. Land mines are difficult to demine, and they are also extremely dangerous to the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) personnel, who tragically face death with every mission...

Global warming caused by humans is advancing at 0.26 degree Celsius per decade – the highest rate since records began, according to new research by over 50 leading international scientists. The second annual Indicators of Global Climate Change report, which is led by the University of Leeds, reveals that human-induced warming has risen to 1.19 degrees Celsius over the past decade (2014-2023) – an increase from the 1.14 degrees Celsius seen in 2013-2022 (set out in last year’s report). Looking at 2023 in isolation, warming caused by human activity reached 1.3 degrees Celsius. This is lower than the total amount of warming we experienced in 2023 (1.43 degrees Celsius), indicating that natural climate variability, in particular El Niño, also played a role in 2023’s record temperatures. The analysis also shows that the remaining carbon budget – how much carbon dioxide can be emitted before committing us to 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming – is only around 200 gigatonnes (billion tonne...

A red giant star and white dwarf orbit each other in this animation of a nova similar to T Coronae Borealis. The red giant is a large sphere in shades of red, orange, and white, with the side facing the white dwarf the lightest shades. The white dwarf is hidden in a bright glow of white and yellows, which represent an accretion disk around the star. A stream of material, shown as a diffuse cloud of red, flows from the red giant to the white dwarf. When the red giant moves behind the white dwarf, a nova explosion on the white dwarf ignites, creating a ball of ejected nova material shown in pale orange. After the fog of material clears, a small white spot remains, indicating that the white dwarf has survived the explosion. Around the world this summer, professional and amateur astronomers alike will be fixed on one small constellation deep in the night sky. But it’s not the seven stars of Corona Borealis, the “Northern Crown,” that have sparked such fascination. It’s a dark spot among th...

In the end, price is the deciding factor. This is the conclusion of a study by Cambridge University, which took a close look at the economic viability of wind power in particular, based on prices in the UK. The entire life cycle of the turbines was considered, from installation to grid connection, operation and maintenance through to dismantling. The comprehensive analysis also revealed other important characteristics that could have an impact on other areas. Particularly noteworthy is the sharp drop in electricity costs, which are usually calculated in megawatt hours. When the expansion of offshore wind farms began, the megawatt hour £160, which would correspond to US-¢20 per kilowatt hour. Taxes, grid fees and other charges are added to this. Currently, however, the price is only £44, or a quarter. If inflation were factored in, the fall in costs would be even more drastic. This means that you currently pay US-¢5 for a kilowatt hour of offshore wind power fed into the grid. In compa...

As the global population approaches the 10 billion mark, the reliance on fertilisers to boost agricultural production has become an essential, yet environmentally challenging, practice. A Century-long dependence on these additives has allowed food production to keep pace with the growth in human population. However, the use of fertilisers across various farming systems is now causing severe ecological stress. The leaching of nitrogen into natural ecosystems, coupled with the release of greenhouse gases, is pushing the Earth’s environmental limits to a critical threshold. To address this, an ambitious new research initiative aims to shrink the nitrogen footprint of agriculture by developing a breakthrough technology based on nature’s own solutions: a natural process called biological nitrification inhibition (BNI). The Novo Nordisk Foundation has awarded CIMMYT a grant of up to USD 21.1 million to lead an innovation research initiative called CropSustaiN that is designed to reduce the ...

Chennai: Researchers with the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT- M) have shown that common minerals can be broken by water microdroplets to make corresponding nanoparticles, making it the first research paper from the institute to be publis... Atmospheric water droplets such as clouds and fog can be charged due to ionic species present in them and by contact electrification. Disintegration of minerals make nascent surfaces and on such surfaces, different types of catalysis may occur, formi... The researchers says that ‘microdroplet showers’ composed of nanoparticles and molecules falling on Earth may be of importance to the chemical and biological evolution of the planet. Science is considered to be one of the world’s top academic journals with articles that consistently rank among the most cited in the world. The research was led by Prof. Thalappil Pradeep, institute Professor, Chemistry Department, IIT Madras, a Padma Shri awardee, and B K Spoorthi, the first author of the ...

This striking astronaut photo shows the intense color and intricate shape of Madagascar's Betsiboka River as it meanders through an archipelago of mangrove islands that have helped to stabilize and reshape the waterway as destructive human practices push it to the brink of collapse. The Betsiboka stretches around 326 miles (525 kilometers) from one of Madagascar's central highlands to Bombetoka Bay on the island nation's northwest coast. As it approaches the sea, the river splits apart, forming a network of braided waterways, known as a delta, as the discolored water is diverted around a series of small islands. These lemon-shaped islands are made of sediment held together by the deep intertangled roots of mangrove trees. Some of the larger islands have visible erosion features near their center where water has trickled through the stubborn trees, according to NASA's Earth Observatory. Without the roots, the islands would be quickly washed away by the river, which could...

The ongoing transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources has never been more important as climate change and sustainability awareness continue to rise. This transition requires a robust information structure to ensure a smooth shift. Wind and solar power is among the most abundant sources of renewable energy; however, engineers and researchers in this field need an established data pipeline to effectively integrate solar and wind power into their process design. Abdullah Al-Aboosi is an interdisciplinary doctoral student in the Department of Multidisciplinary Engineering. He is working with Dr. Aldo Jonathan Muñoz Vazquez, a multidisciplinary engineering professor at the Higher Education Center in McAllen, on a neural network that they hope can provide such a pipeline. The catalyst for this research resulted from a discussion between Munoz Vazquez and Al-Aboosi. The idea evolved into a comprehensive project, drawing on the expertise of various collaborators, including Wei Z...