Ray Kurzweil, director of engineering at Google, speaking at the recent SXSW Conference in Austin, Texas, has predicted that the 'singularity' — the point at which machines become more intelligent than humans — will occur around 2045. And the point at which they pass the Turing test, where artificial intelligence becomes as smart as us, will happen in just over a decade from now. He has also predicted how technologies such as nanobots and brain-to-computer interfaces, like Elon Musk's Neuralink or Bryan Johnson's Kernel, will lead to a possible future in which both our brains and bodies are mechanised. So far, around 86 percent of Kurzweil's predictions, including the collapse of the Soviet Union, the growth of the internet, and the ability of computers to beat humans at chess, have come to fruition. To find out more go to Kurzweil Claims That the Singularity Will Happen by 2045.
A thorny issue for coral
The increasing acidification of our oceans may lead to an increase in the growth of juvenile crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci), according to researchers from Southern Cross University in Australia. The starfish, which feed on pink 'coralline' algae, were found to grow quicker in the higher-carbon dioxide (CO2) oceans that are predicted to occur before the end of the century. This species is already destroying coral reefs, and as the oceans become more acidic by absorbing increasing concentrations of atmospheric CO2, the algal blooms, which the starfish feed on, are less able to defend themselves as the hard calcium carbonate in its tissue is inhibited by the higher acidity, becoming more edible and nutritious for baby starfish.
Lean on me
Cook pines (Araucaria columnar) can be found around the world, but the tall, slim trees don't always grow straight up. instead leaning to one side. Why they do this is still a mystery to scientists, but thanks to a new study we now know that they lean in the direction of the equator. By taking measurements from 256 trees growing across 18 regions on five continents, researchers, for the first time, have observed that leaning patterns appear to be hemisphere-dependent. The found that, on average, pines tilt at 8.55 degrees, leaning south in the northern hemisphere, and the opposite direction in the southern hemisphere, with over 90% of the trees studied following this pattern. To find out more go to Worldwide hemisphere-dependent lean in Cook pines.
Facing up to the future of air travel
Boarding passes could soon be a thing of the past as JetBlue — in collaboration with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and SITA — becomes the first airline to use biometrics and facial recognition technology to verify customer identities at the boarding gate. The pilot (pardon the pun) program will provide passengers at Boston's Logan International Airport and Aruba's Queen Beatrix International Airport with the option of joining a normal boarding line, or one with a camera that will take their picture. The image will then be sent by SITA to CBP's database of passport visa images, where a match will be found; the process will be instant, according to JetBlue. To find out more of to Board in a Snap: JetBlue to Launch First-of-Its-Kind Self-Boarding Program Using Facial Recognition.
The world's largest floating solar plant just went online in China
On the day that President Donald Trump pulled America — the world's second largest greenhouse gas emitter — out of the Paris Climate Accords, the world's largest emitter, China, has announced that the world's largest solar plant in now online. The 40 mega-watt floating plant is located on a lake — formed on land that collapsed and filled with rainwater in, ironically, a former coal-mining region — in the city of Huainan, Anhui province. China, once among the worst offenders in terms of climate change, is now a world leader in renewable energy. To find out more go to The World's Largest Floating Solar Plant Is Finally Online.
May the (fifth) force be with you
Physicists are hinting at the existence of a fifth force of nature, and have devised a way of putting it to the test. Its existence could help to fill some gaps in Einstein's theory of general relativity, and would cause a re-think of how the Universe works. According to the Standard Model, four fundamental forces govern the Universe: gravity, electromagnetic, and the strong and weak nuclear forces. But there's a problem; there appears to be more gravity than can be produced by all the visible matter in our Universe. Dark matter is the current frontrunner to explain this disparity, but we still haven't been able to observe or measure it — leading many physicists to consider dumping gravity as a fundamental force. Now, a team of researchers from the Galactic Center Group at the University of California, Los Angeles, are probing this hypothetical new force by using 20 years of observations from the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. To find out more go to Test of general relativity could potentially generate new gravitational models.
Great Barrier Reef meets criteria for ‘world heritage site in danger'
In a meeting last week of the Reef 2050 advisory committee, which provides advice to state and federal environment ministers on the progress of the Reef 2050 Long Term Sustainability Plan — released in 2015 with the aim to “ensure the Great Barrier Reef continues to improve on its outstanding universal values,” experts have told the committee that the plan is no longer achievable due to the impacts of climate change. Back-to-back bleaching events in 2016 and 2017, have contributed to the worst coral die-off ever recorded, killing almost half of the coral, with the risk of such events increasing in the coming years, virtually guaranteeing further loss of coral and biodiversity, and leading environmental lawyers to say the reef meets criteria for 'in danger' listing by Unesco. To find out more go to Great Barrier Reef 2050 plan no longer achievable due to climate change, experts say.
Flies in space
1,800 fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) will travel to the International Space Station tomorrow so that the impacts of weightlessness on the heart can be studied. Living in near zero-gravity conditions is known to have a detrimental effect on the cardiovascular system, and fruit flies share 75% of disease-causing genes with humans. Eggs and parents who will lay eggs, will spend a month in space, enabling researchers from the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in La Jolla, California, to study flies that have spent their entire life in an almost zero-gravity environment. To find out more go to Fruit Flies Journey to International Space Station to Study Effects of Zero Gravity on the Heart.
DNA barcoding combats fake food
The substitution or mixing of higher value food and beverage ingredients with inferior or sub-standard products is an increasingly lucrative market, and of continued concern to the health of consumers. According to a study by Allied Market Research in 2015, the counterfeit food and beverage market is estimated to be reach US$62.5 billion globally by 2020. To counter this, researchers from Italy have developed a cheap and efficient technology, called NanoTracer, that uses DNA barcoding to not only identify the substitution of higher value ingredients, but also its dilution with cheaper ones. To find out more go to DNA barcoding meets nanotechnology: development of a smart universal tool for food authentication.
Sleepless in Seattle
Researchers in America have analysed data from 765,000 Americans surveyed between 2002 to 2011 by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Combining responses on sleeping patterns with weather station records, they calculated that every 1 degree Celsius increase in nighttime temperatures produced an additional three nights of restless sleep per 100 people per month. Scaled across the entire population of America, this translates to over 100 million extra nights of insufficient sleep each year. To read more go to Nighttime temperature and human sleep loss in a changing climate.