Category Archives: Technology

Artificial Intelligence, Reviews, Space, Technology, Videos

Future Technology: Can AI Build Cities In Space?

December 12, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

The Economist (December 12, 2024): The EconomistFast forward into the future, when building in space is normal, from huge satellites and spacecraft in orbit, to entire cities on the Moon and Mars. Could robots guided by AI make it happen?

Video timeiine: 00:00 – Future of building in space 00:43 – Machina Labs 02:15 – Could we 3D print in space? 02:44 – Infrastructure on the Moon 03:25 – AI & robotics on Mars 04:41 – History of AI in space 05:41 – Challenges to space technology

Video supported by @mishcon_de_reya

Innovations, Magazines, Previews, Research, Reviews, Technology

MIT Technology Review – The Top Stories (11.24.24)

November 24, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

MIT Technology Review (Novemer 24, 2024): This week’s round up includes Google DeepMind has a new way to look inside an AI’s “mind”. Inside Clear’s ambitions to manage your identity beyond the airport. Who’s to blame for climate change? And more.

Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Previews, Science, Society, Technology

Culture: New Humanist Magazine – Winter 2024-25

November 21, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

New Humanist's winter 2024 cover shows a futuristic blue face with the words: 'Our cyborg future?'

NEW HUMANIST MAGAZINE – WINTER 2024/2025 ISSUE: The new issue features ‘Our Cyborg Future?’

The new age of the cyborg?

Neurobiologist and journalist Moheb Costandi explores the rapidly-developing world of brain-computer interfaces. For some people, these devices are already transforming lives – but the technology is quickly overtaking the ethics.

A dangerous calculation

Peter Ward unpicks the dark philosophy of the tech billionaires and how it is infiltrating some of our most powerful organisations.

There’s a product for that

A recent film, The Substance, explored the growing pressure on all of us – particularly women – to modify our bodies, not only through make-up and cosmetic procedures but also through digital filters. Clare Chambers, professor of political philosophy at the University of Cambridge, talks to us about the power of resistance and allowing our bodies to be “good enough”.

New life in the veins

Peter Salmon recounts the bizarre history of blood transfusion – and why the super-rich remain fascinated by its possibilities.

Analysis, Artificial Intelligence, Science, Technology, Videos

How AI Is Revolutionising Science (The Economist)

Video November 21, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

The Economist (November 21, 2024): AI is driving a transformation across all fields of science, from developing drugs for incurable diseases and improving the understanding of animal communication to self-driving labs.

Video timeline: 00:00 – How AI is revolutionising science 02:53 – Drug discovery 04:31 – AlphaFold 05:30 – Adoption of AI in science 07:08 – Animal communication 09:26 – Scientific fraud 11:03 – Self-driving labs 14:36 – Future of AI in science

Could this prompt a new golden age of discovery? Video supported by @mishcon_de_reya

Innovations, Magazines, Previews, Research, Reviews, Technology

MIT Technology Review – The Top Stories (11.17.24)

November 17, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Ai gaping maw with teeth and two clawed hands swallows artworks which tiny artists have put poison symbols on the reverse side. One carries a flag with Ben Zhao's face — Ben Zhao remembers well the moment he officially jumped into the fight between artists and generative AI: when one artist asked for AI bananas.

MIT Technology Review (Novemer 17, 2024): This week’s round up includes Generative AI taught a robot dog to scramble around a new environment; The AI lab waging a guerrilla war over exploitative AI; Life-seeking, ice-melting robots could punch through and Europa’s icy shell.

The AI lab waging a guerrilla war over exploitative AI

The tools Glaze and Nightshade are giving artists hope that they can fight back against AI that hoovers internet data to train. Are they enough?

Generative AI taught a robot dog to scramble around a new environment

A new system could help train robots entirely in generated worlds.

Why AI could eat quantum computing’s lunch

Rapid advances in applying artificial intelligence to simulations in physics and chemistry have some people questioning whether we will even need quantum computers at all.

AI search could break the web

Life-seeking, ice-melting robots could punch through Europa’s icy shell

Researchers are working on technology that could follow NASA’s Europa Clipper mission and hunt for life in the ocean of Jupiter’s moon.

Green Design, Reviews, Sustainability, Technology, Videos

World Economic Forum: Top Stories – Nov 16, 2024

Video November 16, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

World Economic Forum (November 16, 2024) – The top stories of the week include:

0:15 AI robot zaps weeds while saving crops – It’s called Concentrated Light Autonomous Weeding and Scouting or CLAWS for short. CLAWS uses AI-powered image processing to identify the crops, then targets weeds around the crop with blasts of concentrated light. This gets rid of unwanted intruders without damaging either crops or soil.

1:52 5 ways bioeconomy affects daily living – The bioeconomy uses renewable resources from land or sea to produce food, energy, and other resources. It focuses on leveraging nature’s processes and products to create sustainable economic outputs. The bioeconomy is already a part of our daily lives, influencing various sectors and industries.

6:08 Iceland sees benefit of a 4-day work week – The Nordic nation of 380,000 is rolling out a new way of working. Between 2020 and 2022, 51% of Iceland’s workers accepted an offer of shorter hours, such as a 4-day week for no loss of pay. The shift has had a positive impact on work-life balance and personal stress, new research shows.

8:17 Restored Amazon ecosystems beat logging – Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance is fighting to safeguard 35 million hectares of rainforest through a collaboration between 30 Indigenous nations of the Amazon basin. There’s an economic case for protecting the Amazon, says Atossa Soltani, Director of Global Strategy, Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance.

#WorldEconomicForum

Green Design, Reviews, Sustainability, Technology, Videos

World Economic Forum: Top Stories – Nov 9, 2024

Video November 9, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

World Economic Forum (November 9, 2024) – The top stories of the week include:

0:15 Finfluencer financial advice revolution – A finfluencer is a content creator on social media who shares information on budgeting, saving and financial investments, among other topics. Finfluencers use blogs, podcasts or videos to get their message out. They help widen financial access to groups who didn’t have it before.

3:49 These vegetables grow in-store without soil – Instead of soil, they use plugs of rockwool, irrigated with nutrient-rich water in a method called hydroponics. They come in different sizes producing from 2,000 to 15,000 plants monthly. These farms have a tiny environmental footprint. The largest models can grow as much as a 3-hectare farm.

5:44 Telehealth platform empowers millions – Altibbi offers 24/7 access to online doctors along with accessible, up-to-date medical information. It offers a cheaper, more accessible alternative to in-person consultations but it also aims to ‘change the narrative’ around the patient-doctor relationship.

8:43 ‘Underwater tractors’ replant seagrass – They were created by Reefgen, an UpLink Top Innovator. The robot scoots over the seabed, steadily and carefully restoring the ecosystem. Reefgen’s technology aims to aid conservation efforts by augmenting the efforts of human restorers.

#WorldEconomicForum

Magazines, Reviews, Science, Society, Technology

Science & Society: Caltech Magazine – Fall 2024 Issue

November 8, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Caltech Magazine (November 8, 2024): The FAll 2024 issue features ‘Chemical Codebreakers’ – Isotopes help scientists open window to the past….

Features

Journeys to the Past: Isotope geochemistry is helping scientists reveal secrets about the molecular histories of Earth, the cosmos, the human body, and more.

An Intriguing Red Planet Rock: The Mars Perseverance rover has found a “compelling” rock that could indicate the planet hosted microbial life billions of years ago.

The 2024 Distinguished Alumni: Meet this year’s awardees: David Brin (BS ’73), Louise Chow (PhD ’73), Bill Coughran (BS, MS ’75), and Timothy M. Swager (PhD ’88).

The Evolution of Trolling: A new theoretical framework explains why social media discourse can be so toxic.

Inside Look: Joe Parker: Step into the office of this evolutionary biologist, whose research nest is filled with real—and illustrated— insects.

Ripples from the Heart: Mory Gharib (PhD ’83) has leveraged his aerospace expertise to tease out some of the heart’s greatest secrets and use them to develop life-saving medical devices.

The Lab in the Sky Says Goodbye: A NASA DC-8 airplane that carried Caltech students around the globe for science has been retired.

Astronomy, Magazines, Science, Space, Technology

Space/Science: Astronomy Magazine – November 2024

November 1, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Astronomy magazine (November 1, 2024) – The latest issue features “Everything we kno about the Sun’….

Bringing the Sun to light

The closest star to Earth is also the best studied, but only recently have we truly begun to uncover its secrets.

For thousands of years, humans have worshipped the Sun. Our ancestors built monuments and temples to it, and used it to mark the annual cycle of seasons. For ancient Egyptians, their most important god, Re, was the personification of the Sun itself.

Today, we are no less in thrall to the wonders and mysteries of our nearest star. We’ve made strides in understanding its major systems and answered many questions about how it produces energy. But the Sun is far from an open book,

November 2024: What’s in the sky this month? Mars and Jupiter are improving, while Uranus reaches opposition

Mars is brightening and the giant planet Jupiter is reaching its best apparition in a decade for Northern Hemisphere observers this month.

Analysis, Politics, Polls, Reviews, Technology, Videos

Politics: Inside The World Of ‘Legal’ Election Betting

Video October 29, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

The Wall Street Journal (October 29, 2024): While polls show former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris in a dead heat in the final stretch of the 2024 election, the GOP nominee is dominating the Democratic candidate in the betting markets.

Chapters: 0:00 Election betting is legal 0:36 How it works 2:39 Prediction markets vs. polls 3:58 The reliability of betting markets

Once banned by federal regulators, Americans can now legally gamble on elections in prediction markets. Platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket have emerged as websites to place yes-or-no contracts. WSJ reporter Alexander Osipovich explains how these markets work, what they could tell us about the outcome of the election and the implications of trading on the future of the country.