A daily report on countries weaving a safety net using artificial intelligence
The strange blobs in the earth’s mantle as remnants of Theia’s collimation into the Moon
The neuronsresponsible for syncope have been identified in mice. Plus, chunks of a different planet are stuck in Earth’s mantle and how a starfish would wear trousers.
There are two strange blobs in the Earth’s mantle, they may be remnants of the planetary smash up that formed the Moon. The formations sit in the layer between the crust and the core, are thousands of kilometres long and are slightly denser than their surroundings. The simulations show they are from the time when Theia smashed into Earth 4.5 billion years ago. Theia’s remnants coalesced into the Moon when they were flung into the air.
Source: Daily briefing: We finally know what causes fainting
Ethical Artificial Intelligence Could Help Combat Bullying, Harassment and Infertility in Children’s Lives
The rise of a drug resistant form of the bacterium could be addressed by the first new gonorrhoea antibiotic in decades. The disease is often symptomless, and can cause infertility if left untreated. In a trial with 930 participants, the new drug, called zoliflodacin, was as effective and safe as two older drugs in curing infections. The researchers warn that it’ll have to be used carefully to avoid resistance to it.
Academics and staff members at several UK universities have set up an initiative to combat bullying and harassment. People can turn to an independent advocate if their institutions handle complaints badly, according to the 21 Group. “Perpetrators are almost always protected, while targets frequently face retaliation,” says anti-bullying researcher Morteza Mahmoudi.
Can artificial intelligence be taught to make ethical choices? Human judgement is shaped by social interactions — and virtual ‘peer pressure’ for chatbots, in which ones trained with ethical standards interact with others to teach them how to behave, could mimic this process. One approach is to remove the parts of the system that are responsible for bad behavior in a sort of brain surgery. How AI systems are supposed to deal with differing opinions is an open question. Cognitive scientistSydney Levine says they are looking at governance ideas. Ethical AI could even lead to insights about why humans make the moral choices they do, “to help humans be better at being human”, says computer scientist Oren Etzioni.
Nature outlook: Robotics and artificial intelligence, an editorially independent supplement, is a part of this article.
Source: Daily briefing: We finally know what causes fainting
Analyzing Artificial Intelligence: How starfish and toddlers will behave together in the environment of a future quantum computer (and the future of AI)
“Your data could already be lost to a future quantum computer, even though one hasn’t been built,” says mathematician Dustin Moody. One of the scientists working on ways to protect data from quantum computers is working on a way to do that. The task is urgent: spy agencies or cybercriminals could collect encrypted data now and simply wait for the technology to catch up. Of 69 potentially quantum-resistant algorithms that the US National Institute of Standards and Technology chose in late 2017, up to 30 have already been broken or suffered significant attack. Moody says that the strongest will survive.
• The United States and the United Kingdom both committed to funding expensive computing infrastructure that AI researchers need. The capabilities to work with these systems are currently held by companies that want to make money from them, according to an AI pioneer who attended the summit. Government-funded organizations and academics must be able to understand these systems better to protect the public.
A starfish is getting ready for a day out — but would it pop its trousers on over each of its arms, or maybe over each little tiny-tube foot? The video shows how the silly question shows a puzzling problem with bilateral symmetry and how the starfish’s body plan evolved.
Pediatric-obesity researcher David Ludwig says that parents and others must fight back against the normalization of ultraprocessed foods to reduce the epidemic of childhood obesity in the United States. (The New York Times | 29 min read)
The US and leaders at the UK-hosted summit Plus have come up with new plans for safety of artificial intelligence, which includes calling for the right to science.
A summit in the United Kingdom attended by world leaders and representatives of big tech produced the Bletchley Declaration which pledges international cooperation to manage the risks posed by the most advanced systems.
Using brain chemistry to help scientists understand the consequences of climate change: how to better support eugenics, racism, and ethnicity in scientific research
A region of the brain that processes smells knows which nostril is emitting the smell first. Researchers pumped smells into the nostrils of wide-awake people who were undergoing brain surgery and recorded neural activity in the piriform cortex. When a scent was delivered to a single nostril, the side of the piriform cortex that was closest to that nostril reacted first. It was believed that the scent on both sides synergize after Odours were delivered to both nostrils. Receiving dual signals could help the brain to double-check what it is smelling.
The American Psychological Association (APA) has released its first recommendations for authors, reviewers and editors on how to address race, ethnicity and culture more equitably when publishing research. The guidelines build on work done by the APA to make amends for fostering racism in the United States, including the use of psychological research to support eugenics.
Poor countries are only getting a fraction of the money they need to deal with climate change, as rich countries are most to blame for causing the problem. “Studies show that for every US$1 billion invested in coastal flood protection, you avoid $14 billion in damages,” says climate researcher Henry Neufeldt, the chief scientific editor of a new report from the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). It is getting worse and worse because of floods, droughts and heatwaves all over the world. This newest data is a wake-up call.”
An array of spreadsheets, courses and online resources are available to support investigators in their first research groups. “You’re used to being a scientist and now, all of a sudden, you’re a manager, you’re teaching classes and you have to physically build up your lab,” notes bioengineer Katharina Maisel. The feature helps with tips to manage money, sort out supplies, build lab culture, find a community and get leadership training.
Source: Daily briefing: Countries begin weaving an AI safety net
What will we learn from a scientific discovery of an orange petunia? A photo of a marine biologist and the UN high commissioner for human rights
The UN high commissioner for human rights said in a letter that science and human rights should be the guides of the era of global boiling. Too many governments, policymakers, and big-industry leaders are deliberately shutting their eyes to science to sow doubt about scientific facts. Human rights are more than simply laws, they are the crucial part of survival of our species.
Understanding marine microbes is vital to predicting the future state of the oceans, their wildlife and the food systems that depend on them. He writes that there isn’t any consensus on predictions of how marine organisms will react to changes in the climate. He gives a list of priority areas in which marine scientists will be able to work together.
“In this photo, I’m collecting floral tissue samples from a white petunia to analyse its pigments and the genetics behind them,” says biotechnologist Sara Abdou. The orange petunia was found growing at a railway station by a colleague. The sale of plants with an unauthorized genetic modification was banned in some countries. By fixing the genetics of petunias, I could create orange petunias that were naturally orange. It takes 3 minutes to read Nature by Francesco Rucci and Francesco Marinelli.
Scientists at the UK-hosted summit Plus have come up with a new plan for the safety of artificial intelligence (AI), which includes calling for the right to science. Researchers pumped smells into the nostrils of wide-awake people who were undergoing brain surgery and recorded neural activity in the piriform cortex. The guidelines build on work done by the American Psychological Association (APA).