All posts tagged: helping

How Birmingham pupils are helping to break bad travel habits

How Birmingham pupils are helping to break bad travel habits

Published by skeptic

Our school’s work on travel and sustainability was recently recognised when we were crowned Modeshift STARS national secondary school of the year. This followed local and regional awards last year. We’re a city school so most of our young people do not get to us by car. But we believe there is always more we can do to encourage sustainable travel among children and young people, families and staff. Traffic and congestion are key issues in our local area and our pupils have driven a wave of initiatives that are reshaping travel habits across the school community. Source link

Fears of helping the enemy are blocking international agreements on AI in weapons systems

Fears of helping the enemy are blocking international agreements on AI in weapons systems

Published by skeptic

The third in a series of military AI summits was held in La Coruña, Spain in February 2026. The aim of the meeting was to convert previously agreed principles on the military use of AI into action. The summit was attended by government officials, military personnel, representatives from industry and researchers from thinktanks. The goal of many experts and policymakers in this area is to usher countries towards a regulatory framework on using machine intelligence in warfare. To this end, the latest Responsible AI in the Military Domain (REAIM) summit presented a non-binding commitment for countries to sign. The REAIM agreement affirmed the need for human oversight of military AI systems, called for countries to carry out risk assessments and robust testing, and committed to transparency on how decisions are made when using AI in conflicts. The reasoning behind such recommendations is sound. However, translating such a framework from plan to action faces multiple hurdles. Ultimately, less than half of the countries represented at this year’s REAIM summit signed the non-binding commitment. To understand why, …

The Pennine hills are full of holes – here’s how they’re helping fight climate change

The Pennine hills are full of holes – here’s how they’re helping fight climate change

Published by skeptic

Thousands of holes are appearing in the Pennine hills, as part of efforts to improve carbon storage by restoring damaged peatland. Peat itself is carbon rich and so as it grows it will help to capture the CO₂ that is produced by industrial fossil fuel use that is warming the atmosphere. Meanwhile, damaged or drained peatlands turn into a carbon source, releasing greenhouses gases themselves. About 15% of the world’s peatlands have been drained, making these kind of restoration projects essential. But now a new project is attempting to bring these wetlands back to life. On Holcombe Moor in the West Pennines, 3,000 bunds were created in 2021, with a further 700 in 2024 as part of Natural England’s Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme. Improvements are already starting to be seen. What’s the history here? The hills of the West Pennines are no stranger to holes, with a long history of lead and coal mining stretching back to the Roman period. Coal fired the mills nearby during the industrial revolution in cities such as …

Living robots could transform medicine, helping rescue missions

Living robots could transform medicine, helping rescue missions

Published by Jenni Sidey

Tiny robots face a brutal problem. The smaller they get, the harder it becomes to power them, guide them and keep them useful in messy places. A rigid machine may work well on a lab bench, but the human body is not a lab bench. Neither is a flooded tunnel, polluted river or collapsed building. A new review argues that the answer may not come from better chips. Instead, engineers may need to partner with life itself. Researchers are building living biohybrid miniature robots, or LBMs, by combining living organisms with synthetic tools. These systems use bacteria, algae, immune cells, sperm cells and insects as natural engines. They can move, sense, adapt and sometimes repair themselves. The relationship diagram and size range of LBMs in the field of robotics. (a) Schematic showing the relationships between robotics, miniature robots, biohybrid miniature robots, and LBMs. (CREDIT: International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing) Why Biology Solves A Robot Problem Traditional miniature robots can be precise, but they struggle in complex settings. They often need outside power. They may fail …

It’s a barracuda! It’s a shrimp! It’s a robot helping coral reefs.

It’s a barracuda! It’s a shrimp! It’s a robot helping coral reefs.

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Coral reefs may soon have new swimming visitors observing their life-rich aquatic metropolises. But  that visitor isn’t a fish—or even a human. It’s an autonomous, multi-sensor survey robot. Developed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Reef Solutions Initiative, this new underwater surveyor uses a combination of hydrophones, high-resolution cameras, and an onboard computer to find signs of marine life hotspots. It then moves in closer for a better look, creating data-rich maps that would likely take many human divers multiple trips to produce. The system, appropriately called the Curious Underwater Robot for Ecosystem Exploration (CUREE), does all this all by itself. Well, that’s the goal, at least. In actual testing around Joel’s Shoal in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the curious robot was able to home in on the distant crackle of shrimp, and even tailed a barracuda for more than 984 feet. That last barracuda tracking bit required some human intervention to get it back on course, but …

Jupiter-like exoplanet helping scientists rethink how solar systems form

Jupiter-like exoplanet helping scientists rethink how solar systems form

Published by Jenni Sidey

A planet so distant that its starlight began traveling toward Earth around the Middle Ages has given one University of Cincinnati graduate student the kind of first look astronomers wait years for. Last fall, Paul Smith sat up through the night as data from the James Webb Space Telescope started appearing on his computer. Webb, orbiting about a million miles from Earth, had been pointed at TOI-2031A, a faint star 901 light years away. If the team’s calculations were right, the giant planet circling that star would pass in front of it during their narrow observation window, letting them examine its atmosphere in unusual detail. For Smith, who leads data analysis for the project’s first planet, the moment felt personal as well as scientific. “It was a lifelong dream of mine coming true. I was up all night to get the first look at the data,” he said. Paul Smith, pictured with the Cincinnati Observatory’s historic telescope, is using geology and physics tools to study exoplanets light years from Earth. (CREDIT: Connor Boyle/UC Marketing + …

Runway started by helping filmmakers. Now it wants to beat Google at AI.

Runway started by helping filmmakers. Now it wants to beat Google at AI.

Published by skeptic

AI video generation startup Runway doesn’t have the typical Silicon Valley pedigree. No Stanford founders, no ex-Google founders, no nine-figure seed round that bought them time to ignore revenue. Its three founders — two from Chile, one from Greece —  met at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and built the company in New York. Runway also could be, depending on who you ask, one of the most consequential AI companies today. Not because of what it has built, but because of what it is trying to build next.  For the past several years, the AI industry has largely operated on the premise that intelligence lives in language. Large language models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude reflect that bet.  Runway, alongside other competitors, is making a different one. Its founders believe the next form of AI intelligence won’t be built from text, but from video and world models that learn how the world works, not just how humans describe it. That distinction sounds academic. Its implications are not.  Runway co-Founder and co-CEO Anastasis Germanidis …

Iran attacked Kuwait island where China helping build port, Kuwait says : NPR

Iran attacked Kuwait island where China helping build port, Kuwait says : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system fires to intercept as air raid sirens sound in Tel Aviv, on Oct. 23, 2024. Nathan Howard/AP/Pool Reuters hide caption toggle caption Nathan Howard/AP/Pool Reuters DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Kuwait accused Iran of launching a failed attack earlier this month on an island where China is helping build a port in the Middle East nation. The accusation brought Tuesday came just before U.S. President Donald Trump was to depart for Beijing where he’ll meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a high-stakes visit over the war and other issues. Iran didn’t immediately acknowledge the allegation by Kuwait, which came under attack by Iran in the war and during the shaky ceasefire still holding. But that allegation and ongoing attacks throughout the region have threatened to reignite open warfare. This is a locator map for the Gulf Cooperation Council member states: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates. AP hide caption toggle caption AP The narrow Strait of Hormuz remains in Iran’s chokehold, the U.S. is maintaining …