Science & Technology News – Page 246

Analysis, Economy, Report, Science & Technology News

European Millennials are not like their American counterparts

October 5, 2019

Under-30s in Europe are more disposed than their parents are to view poverty as a result of an individual’s choice.

In public perception, age is often related to political views. “Not to be a republican at 20 is proof of want of heart; to be one at 30 is proof of want of head,” the 19th-century French monarchist François Guizot is supposed to have said. King Louis Philippe’s prime minister was swept from power by the 1848 revolution, presumably by a combination of republican under-30s and older Frenchmen who had lost their heads. Since then, Guizot’s famous one-liner has often been updated.

Continue reading… “European Millennials are not like their American counterparts”

Analysis, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News, Transportation

The fastest growing commute is no commute at all

October 5, 2019

A growing number of commuters have found that the fastest way to between Point A and Point B is if Point A is Point B.

More than 1 in 20 Americans now usually work from home, new 2018 data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows. Telework has recently overtaken public transit as the third-most-popular commuting method in the country.

It remains nowhere near the most popular American commute, however. Three in 4 workers, or more than 111 million people, still drive alone to the office or factory each day.

Carpooling comes in second, well above working from home. The share of Americans who carpool has lost ground since the Great Recession, though it remains far more popular than other methods, such as walking, biking or taking a cab.

Continue reading… “The fastest growing commute is no commute at all”

Analysis, Employment, Historical Perspectives, Science & Technology News

Why the Fourth Industrial Revolution could spell more jobs – not fewer

October 4, 2019

Automated packaging at an Italian factory.

If automation drives down prices, the result could be a net increase in jobs.

Ever since Homo erectus carved a piece of stone into a tool, the welfare of humanity has been on the increase. This technological breakthrough led first to the hand axe, and eventually to the iPhone. We have found it convenient to organize the most dramatic period of change between these two inventions – beginning roughly in the year 1760 – into four industrial revolutions.

As each revolution unfolded, dire predictions of massive job losses ensued, increasing each time. The first three are over, and these concerns were clearly misplaced. The number of jobs increased each time, as did living standards and every other social indicator.

McKinsey predicts that 800 million workers could be displaced in 42 countries, or a third of the workforce, because of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). When reminded of the experience with the previous revolutions, the comeback is often that this one is different. Although this has been said at the onset of each revolution, could there be something more to it this time?

Continue reading… “Why the Fourth Industrial Revolution could spell more jobs – not fewer”

Artificial Intelligence, Dating, Machine Learning, Science & Technology News, Video

Online dating in a world of deepfakes

October 4, 2019

Facebook has teamed up with the Partnership on AI, Microsoft, and academics from Cornell Tech, MIT, University of Oxford, UC Berkeley, University of Maryland, College Park, and University at Albany–SUNY to build the Deepfake Detection Challenge (DFDC).

Deepfake detection is an enduring arms race that will never end. In case you are wondering… no, this technology will not protect the 2020 election from deepfakes. No science is up to that task.

Facebook’s goal is to commission a realistic data set that will use paid actors, with the required consent obtained, to contribute to the challenge. This “benchmark data” will be used to help developers build better tools to detect deepfakes. Everyone should applaud this effort! As I’ve written about recently, deepfakes will be used extensively by both good and bad people.

Facebook also announced it was bringing its dating service to the U.S. after testing it in roughly 20 countries since its launch last year. These two stories may not seem to have much correlation at first glance. But when combined, they present a potential reality as sinister as it is deceitful. Imagine online dating in a world replete with deepfakes.

Continue reading… “Online dating in a world of deepfakes”

Biotech, Genetics, Science & Technology News, Stem cells

Scientists create a device that can mass-produce human embryoids

October 4, 2019

These human embryo-like structures (top) were synthesized from human stem cells; they’ve been stained to illustrate different cell types. Images (bottom) of the “embryoids” in the new device that was invented to make them. Yi Zheng/University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Scientists have invented a device that can quickly produce large numbers of living entities that resemble very primitive human embryos.

Researchers welcomed the development, described Wednesday in the journal Nature, as an important advance for studying the earliest days of human embryonic development. But it also raises questions about where to draw the line in manufacturing “synthetic” human life.

Continue reading… “Scientists create a device that can mass-produce human embryoids”

AI, Elon Musk, Microsoft, Science & Technology News

Elon Musk’s AI project to replicate the human brain receives $1billion from Microsoft

October 3, 2019

Elon Musk founded OpenAI in 2015 with the hope of creating AI capable of matching and surpassing the cognitive capabilities of humans ( AFP/Getty Images )

Microsoft has invested $1 billion in the Elon Musk-founded artificial intelligence venture that plans to mimic the human brain using computers.

OpenAI said the investment would go towards its efforts of building artificial general intelligence (AGI) that can rival and surpass the cognitive capabilities of humans.

“The creation of AGI will be the most important technological development in human history, with the potential to shape the trajectory of humanity,” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Continue reading… “Elon Musk’s AI project to replicate the human brain receives $1billion from Microsoft”

New Viewpoints, Science & Technology News, Space

This is how long the human body would survive on every planet in the Solar System

October 3, 2019

Let’s assume that people learned how to breathe in space without special equipment and we found a way to reach any planet in the solar system. Despite the fact that this information is not likely to be practical in the near future, let’s have a look at how a person would feel on the different planets of our solar system without any protective devices. And looking at big ambitious plans from Elon Musk, who knows, we may start space-traveling sooner than we expect.

We think that the world around us is so fascinating and can’t wait to share some facts about it with our readers.

Continue reading… “This is how long the human body would survive on every planet in the Solar System”

Batteries, Energy, Engineering, new technology, Science & Technology News

First fully rechargeable carbon dioxide battery is seven times more efficient than lithium ion

October 3, 2019

Lithium-carbon dioxide batteries are attractive energy storage systems because they have a specific energy density that is more than seven times greater than commonly used lithium-ion batteries. Until now, however, scientists have not been able to develop a fully rechargeable prototype, despite their potential to store more energy.

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago are the first to show that lithium-carbon dioxide batteries can be designed to operate in a fully rechargeable manner, and they have successfully tested a lithium-carbon dioxide battery prototype running up to 500 consecutive cycles of charge/recharge processes.

Their findings are published in the journal Advanced Materials.

Continue reading… “First fully rechargeable carbon dioxide battery is seven times more efficient than lithium ion”

Green Friendly, Science & Technology News, Shopping, Solar Energy, Wind Power

IKEA will produce more energy than it consumes by 2020

October 2, 2019

It hopes to be ‘climate positive’ by 2030.

Many companies are pouring money into renewable energy, but how many can say they’re producing more than they need? IKEA thinks it will, at least. Its holding company Ingka revealed that IKEA will generate more renewable energy before the end of 2019 than the energy its stores use. The firm only expected to draw even by 2020. The furniture chain added that it had invested about $2.8 billion in solar and wind energy over the past decade, and told Reuters that it intended to continue funding that renewable tech, including two stakes in American solar farms this week.

The retailer expects to offer home solar panels in stores across all its markets in 2025. Ultimately, it plans to be climate-positive (reducing more emissions than it puts out) by 2030.

IKEA’s timing isn’t a coincidence. Like Google, Amazon and other companies, it’s using both the Global Climate Strike and the UN’s Climate Action Summit to build goodwill and avoid controversy. This isn’t a selfless act. With that said, the move could illustrate the next step for companies hoping to burnish their ecological credentials. Instead of merely striving for neutrality, more companies might try to counter the effects of climate change. There’s no guarantee they’ll act in a timely fashion, but it might be more a question of “when” than “if.”

Via Engadget.com

Aviation, Big Data, Hot Issues, privacy, Science & Technology News, Travel

Gatwick Airport commits to facial recognition tech at boarding

October 2, 2019

Gatwick first trialled facial-recognition-based checks at some of its departure gates last year

Gatwick has become the UK’s first airport to confirm it will use facial-recognition cameras on a permanent basis for ID checks before passengers board planes.

It follows a self-boarding trial carried out in partnership with EasyJet last year.

The London airport said the technology should reduce queuing times but travellers would still need to carry passports.

Privacy campaigners are concerned.

Continue reading… “Gatwick Airport commits to facial recognition tech at boarding”

Energy, Engineering, Green Friendly, New Inventions, Science & Technology News

This “Anti-solar panel” could generate power from the darkness

October 2, 2019

A new poll confirms that the majority of constituents in the United States are still opposed to president Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement, as well as his overall views on climate change. According to reporting by Time Magazine, “while the administration has rolled back regulations to cut emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide from power and industrial plants and pushed for more coal use, wide shares of Americans say they want just the opposite, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.”

Meanwhile, the scientific community continues to release studies showing that the need to address the threat posed by global warming is greater than ever and growing more dire all the time. At the end of last year, the premiere global authority on the state of global warming, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released a report showing that compiled data and research indicates that in order to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial averages this century, we will have to cut global carbon emissions by 45 percent by 2030 and down to zero by the middle of the century.

This is going to be extraordinarily difficult to do with just renewable resources. As Vox reports, explaining the tension between whether going 100 percent renewable is really an option, “at the heart of the debate is the simple fact that the two biggest sources of renewable energy — wind and solar power — are ‘variable.’ They come and go with the weather and time of day. They are not ‘dispatchable,’ which means they cannot be turned on and off, or up and down, according to the grid’s needs. They don’t adjust to the grid; the grid adjusts to them.

Continue reading… “This “Anti-solar panel” could generate power from the darkness”

Aviation, new technology, Science & Technology News, Space Flight, Travel

This ‘Spaceplane’ could get you from Sydney to London in four hours

October 1, 2019

There are plans to start running test flights of the ‘hypersonic’ jet in the mid-2020s.

Developers are working on a “hypersonic” jet engine that could see commuters flying from Sydney to London in four hours, and London to New York in one. It’s called a SABRE—that is, Synergetic Air Breathing Rocket Engine—and it allows planes to hit speeds of Mach 5.4 (6400 kilometres per hour). Hence the “hypersonic” moniker: whereas “supersonic” refers to a rate of travel that simply exceeds the speed of sound, “hypersonic” speeds typically exceed it five or six times over.

The hybrid hydrogen-oxygen engine is also way greener and cheaper than current air travel, The Telegraph reports, and will give aircraft the potential to fly in space.

Continue reading… “This ‘Spaceplane’ could get you from Sydney to London in four hours”