Science & TechnologyS


Tsunami

Scientists discover 'dark oxygen' on seafloor, challenging ideas on the origin of life

Michael Riojas
EcoWatch
Thu, 25 Jul 2024 00:00 UTC
seafloor nodule
© NOAA Ocean ExplorationMetallic nodules collected from the North Atlantic Ocean seafloor
Scientists have discovered "dark oxygen" being created on the ocean seafloor by "polymetallic nodules" that potentially support life, new research in the journal Nature Geoscience shows.

Andrew Sweetman, the study's lead author and member of the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), believes the nodules create oxygen because they behave like natural batteries. Sweetman told the BBC:
"If you put a battery into seawater, it starts fizzing. That's because the electric current is actually splitting seawater into oxygen and hydrogen [which are the bubbles]. We think that's happening with these nodules in their natural state."
Scientists dubbed it "dark oxygen" because, as opposed to photosynthesis, which was previously thought to be responsible for the bulk of oxygen creation in the ocean, the production of dark oxygen doesn't require sunlight. In fact, the nodules that seem to create it are far deeper than light can penetrate.

The discovery calls into question how big of a part dark oxygen truly plays in our oceans, and has the potential to completely reshape our understanding of the origin of life.
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Butterfly

'Like telekinetic superheroes': 'Electric butterflies' create a charge so strong they can pull pollen through the air

Daniel Graham
Discover Wildlife
Fri, 26 Jul 2024 22:24 UTC
butterflies electrostatic pollen gathering
© GettyButterflies and moths collect so much static electricity in flight that pollen grains can be pulled across air gaps of several millimetres or even centimetres. Note the spiral of pollen rising out of the blossom.
A new study has revealed that the electrostatic field created by butterflies and moths in flight allows them to attract pollen grains from flowers across air gaps up to several centimetres wide.

Researchers from the University of Bristol also observed that the amount of static electricity carried by butterflies and moths varies from species to species depending on variations in their ecology, such as the type of flowers they visit, whether the insects fly at day or night, and the habitat in which they live.

The new findings, published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, suggest that this electric field increases their efficiency and effectiveness as pollinators.
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HAL9000

GIGO: AI produces gibberish when trained on too much AI-generated data

Scott J Mulligan
MIT Technology Review
Fri, 26 Jul 2024 02:52 UTC
digital oroborus
© Stephanie Arnett / MIT Technology ReviewPhotos of photos: “If you take a picture and you scan it, and then you print it, and you repeat this process over time, basically the noise overwhelms the whole process,”
As junk web pages written by AI proliferate, the models that rely on that data will suffer.

AI models work by training on huge swaths of data from the internet. But as AI is increasingly being used to pump out web pages filled with junk content, that process is in danger of being undermined.

New research published in Nature shows that the quality of the model's output gradually degrades when AI trains on AI-generated data. As subsequent models produce output that is then used as training data for future models, the effect gets worse.

Ilia Shumailov, a computer scientist from the University of Oxford, who led the study, likens the process to taking photos of photos. "If you take a picture and you scan it, and then you print it, and you repeat this process over time, basically the noise overwhelms the whole process," he says. "You're left with a dark square." The equivalent of the dark square for AI is called "model collapse," he says, meaning the model just produces incoherent garbage.

Comment: There is a place for AI in narrowly targeted fields, such as analyzing x-ray or CAT scans, or helping to decipher ancient texts. Considering all the warnings coming from Elon Musk and others, it may be well to confine its use to such applications. More positively:

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Magnify

Komodo dragons discovered to have teeth coated in iron


PhysOrg
Wed, 24 Jul 2024 02:27 UTC
kimodo dragon
© Charlotte Ellis, Zoological Society of LondonKomodo dragons are the largest living reptile, growing to more than three metres in length and weighing 80kg on average.
The fearsome Komodo dragon, native to Indonesia and the world's largest living lizard, has a coat of iron on its razor-like teeth to help it kill its prey, scientists found in a study published Wednesday.

A study led by researchers from King's College London, who carried out their work with advanced chemical and structural imaging, revealed protective iron coats in orange pigment found in the tips and serrations of Komodo dragon teeth.

"This feature has never been reported before in a carnivorous reptile," said the study published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
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Robot

Tesla to deploy prototype humanoid robots next year

Vytautas Valinskas
technology.org
Wed, 24 Jul 2024 11:27 UTC
Tesla Optimus Bot. Image credit: Tesla AI Day 2022
Tesla Optimus Bot. Image credit: Tesla AI Day 2022
Tesla will begin "low production" of humanoid robots for internal use next year, CEO Elon Musk announced on Monday, revising his earlier timeline of a rollout by the end of 2024.

Musk also indicated that these robots, named Optimus, could enter "high production" for external companies by 2026, as stated in a post on social media platform X.

In April, Musk had projected that Optimus would be capable of performing factory tasks by the end of this year, with potential sales starting as early as the end of 2025.

Comment: See also:

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Nuke

China unveils world's 1st meltdown-proof nuclear reactor with 105 MW capacity

Ameya Paleja
Interesting Engineering
Mon, 22 Jul 2024 13:20 UTC
HTR-PM Nuclear reactor
© CellThe commercial scale High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor Pebble-Bed Module (HTR-PM) in Shandong, China
In a global first, researchers at Tsinghua University in China have successfully demonstrated a meltdown-proof nuclear fission reactor. The twin reactor design can generate 105 MW of power each and has been in the works since 2016. The technology is a welcome step for the nuclear energy industry after the meltdown at Fukushima in Japan more than a decade ago.

During nuclear fission, large amounts of heat energy are generated, which is useful in generating electricity but is also a risk for the reaction. Nuclear reactors are designed with in-built cooling mechanisms that take the heat away from the reaction, failing which the reactor can overheat or even explode.

Typically, the cooling mechanisms use water or carbon as cooling agents and are backed by external power supplies to ensure that the reactor temperature stays within control. In 2011, the Fukushima nuclear reactor experienced a rare event in which the standard and emergency power supply to the cooling mechanism failed, leading to a meltdown.

Researchers have since pushed to build a nuclear reactor that is passively cooled and uses natural cooling methods. One such design is a high-temperature reactor with a pebble-bed module (HTR — PM).
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Magnify

Dogs can smell human stress — and it alters their own behavior, study reveals


NY Post
Mon, 22 Jul 2024 19:38 UTC
doggie
© University of Bristol / SWNS
Dogs can smell human stress — and it alters their own behavior, reveals new research.

Our four-legged friends experience "emotional contagion" from the smell of human stress — leading them to make more 'pessimistic' choices, say scientists.

The University of Bristol-led study is the first to test how human stress odors affect dogs' learning and emotional states.

Previous evidence in humans suggests that the smell of a stressed person subconsciously affects the emotions and choices made by others near them.

Bristol Veterinary School researchers wanted to know whether dogs also experience changes in their learning and emotional state in response to human stress or relaxation odours.
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Telescope

Astronomical analysis methods useful for detecting AI 'deepfake' faces

Sarah Wild
Nature
Tue, 23 Jul 2024 19:27 UTC
ai deep fake face deepfake
© Stu Gray/AlamyDeepfake images and videos can be used to spread misinformation.
Analysing reflections of light in the eyes can help to determine an image's authenticity.

Researchers are turning to techniques from astronomy to help spot computer-generated 'deepfake' images — which can look identical to genuine photographs at first glance.

By analysing images of faces using methods that are usually used to survey distant galaxies, astronomers can measure how a person's eyes reflect light, which can reveal telltale signs of image manipulation.

"It's not a silver bullet, because we do have false positives and false negatives," says Kevin Pimbblet, director of the Centre of Excellence for Data Science, Artificial Intelligence and Modelling at the University of Hull, UK, who presented the research at the UK Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting on 15 July. "But this research provides a potential method, an important way forward, perhaps to add to the battery of tests that one can apply to try to figure out if an image is real or fake."
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Fish

'Dark oxygen' produced by metals on deep-ocean floor, study finds

Nina Massey
Independent
Tue, 23 Jul 2024 06:23 UTC
Coral Reef
© NOAADeep Coral Reef (NOAA Ocean Exploration)
Metals on the deep-ocean floor produce 'dark oxygen' 13,000 feet below the surface, a new study has suggested.

The finding challenges long-held assumptions that only photosynthetic organisms - those which use sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to create fuel and oxygen - such as plants and algae generate Earth's oxygen.

It may even call into question how life on Earth began.

The study indicates oxygen also can be produced on the seafloor, where no light reaches, in order to support the oxygen-breathing (aerobic) sea life living in complete darkness.

Andrew Sweetman, of the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), made the "dark oxygen" discovery while conducting ship-based fieldwork in the Pacific Ocean.

He said: "For aerobic life to begin on the planet, there had to be oxygen, and our understanding has been that Earth's oxygen supply began with photosynthetic organisms.
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Magnet

Nuclear fusion experiment hits new record for magnet strength

Tim De Chant
TechCrunch
Thu, 18 Jul 2024 19:34 UTC
plamsa strongest magnetic field new record
© Mason Yu/University of Wisconsin-MadisonPlasma held in the WHAM experimental fusion reactor. Plasma held in the WHAM experimental reactor lasted only a fraction of a second, but it was enough to set a record.
A nuclear fusion experiment at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has set a record for the strongest steady magnetic field confining a plasma, ushering in new hope that forthcoming demonstration reactors will deliver on their promises to produce more power than they consume.

The new magnets came from Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), a pioneering startup in the fusion industry which delivered the devices to UW-Madison's WHAM experiment earlier this month. Once the WHAM team chilled the magnets down to operating temperature and applied a strong electrical current, the high-temperature superconductors produced a 17 tesla magnetic field. That's more than twice as powerful as high-resolution MRI scanners use to image the human brain.
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