Telescope #102

Weekly horizon scan…

Life changes, people change, understandings change;  Science also changes in parallel.  This is the most important difference between science and belief.  Mahfi Eğilmez

SUSTAINABILITY

• The long-term economic effects of tropical cyclones far outweigh the direct damages from high winds and flooding, with local incomes declining for years after the storm hits. DETAIL

• Punishing heat across the central and eastern U.S. could dent this year’s corn harvest as some farms begin reporting signs of crop failure. DETAIL

• Droughts and flooding have become so common in some of the poorest places on Earth that the land can no longer sustain crops, the director of the World Food Programme’s global office has said. Martin Frick told the BBC that some of the most deprived areas had now reached a tipping point of having “zero” harvests left, as extreme weather was pushing already degraded land beyond use. DETAIL

• New Climate City Capital Hub to support EU cities in achieving climate goals. €650 billion investment needed for 112 cities to reach net-zero by 2030. EIB earmarks €2 billion for cities’ climate projects. DETAIL

• The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) has launched Spring, a stewardship initiative backed by over 200 investors managing $15 trillion in assets. The initiative focuses on reducing the financial risks associated with biodiversity loss by engaging with 60 key companies across various sectors. The effort emphasizes responsible political engagement and aligns with global biodiversity targets, aiming to mitigate operational risks and ensure sustainable practices. DETAIL

• The government of Canada passed a series of new rules into law aimed at tackling greenwashing, or unsupported claims by companies about the environmental benefits of their products or business activities. The new laws were passed as part of amendments made to Canada’s Competition Act, based on proposed changes introduced in the Government’s Fall Economic Statement in November 2023, which the government stated would “enhance protections for consumers, workers, and the environment, including by prohibiting misleading “greenwashing” claims.” DETAIL

• A major solution to the climate crisis may lie at the bottom of the ocean. Across the planet, basalt rock deposits on the sea floor have the potential to trap carbon dioxide, removing the heat-trapping gas from our atmosphere. That's why a team of scientists wants to build floating rigs at strategic offshore locations. Rather than extracting oil from the ocean floor – as offshore rigs currently do – these futuristic platforms would be injecting CO2 into it. Powered by their own wind turbines, the floating stations would suck carbon dioxide out of the sky (or even out of seawater) and pump it into holes in the sea bed. The scientists call their project Solid Carbon because, if it works as they expect, the CO2 they inject will forever be rock at the bottom of the ocean. DETAIL

HEALTH

• People who have recurring bouts of lower back pain seem to avoid the discomfort for longer if they go for regular walks. DETAIL

• An inescapable form of human pollution is seeping into our bodies in ways we never fully realized. University of Birmingham scientists have shown using models of human tissue that 'forever chemicals' like PFAS (per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances) are surprisingly capable of passing through our skin. DETAIL

• Moderna Inc respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) shot mRESVIA showed 50% efficacy in preventing RSV after 18 months, the drugmaker said on Wednesday. DETAIL

• Savara, said on Wednesday its experimental therapy met the main goal of a late-stage trial by improving a measure of lung function in patients with a rare disease that causes breathing difficulties. DETAIL

DIGITAL / TECHNOLOGY / SCIENCE / ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

• GPT-5, the next evolution in AI from OpenAI, is set to achieve Ph.D.-level intelligence in specific tasks by late 2025 or early 2026, according to CTO Mira Murati. Internally codenamed “Gobi” and “Arrakis,” GPT-5 will be a multimodal model with an expected 52 trillion parameters. DETAIL

• The Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) is suing two AI music generation companies, Suno and Udio, for training their AIs on unlicensed music created by top artists. DETAIL

• Gene editing technologies have been in our lives for a long time.  Especially with the advent of CRISPR, developments in this field have accelerated.  But researchers from the University of Sydney have enabled more accurate and flexible gene editing beyond CRISPR with a technology called seekRNA.  The new technology has the potential to revolutionize genetic engineering in agriculture, medicine and biotechnology.

• Seven content-licensing sellers of music, image, video and other datasets for use in training artificial intelligence systems have formed the sector's first trade group, they said on Wednesday. The Dataset Providers Alliance (DPA) will advocate for "ethical data sourcing" in the training of AI systems, including rights for people depicted in datasets and the protection of content owners' intellectual property rights, the companies said in a statement. DETAIL

• Two rare asteroids will zoom past Earth at close range this week, within just 42 hours of each other. Due to their size and trajectory, both of these space rocks are labeled "potentially hazardous." But that doesn't mean they pose an immediate threat to Earth.

• Crypto regulation was accepted by the Turkish Grand National Assembly and became law.   According to the regulation, crypto platforms will also be regulated and supervised by the CMB.  Unauthorized platforms will not be able to make transactions in Turkey.  Promotion, advertising and trading advice, investment consultancy activities will be regulated and subject to permission, just like in FX.  Crypto accounts will not be included in the insurance fund.  All transactions and transfers will be monitored and reported periodically.  Platforms will be responsible for asset losses due to cyber attacks, information security or personnel.  It will be essential to keep crypto assets in customer wallets.  Assets that they do not want to keep in their own wallets will be stored on a registry basis by institutions that provide authorized custody services. DETAIL

• NASA on Tuesday said it had picked SpaceX to build a vessel to carry the International Space Station back through Earth's atmosphere and on to a final resting place in the Pacific Ocean after it is retired in 2030. DETAIL

ENERGY / TRANSPORTATION

• Electricity prices in Europe are going negative - and that's bad. Periods of excess electricity production are on the rise thanks to the growth of renewable energy, forcing commercial power generators to sell for negative prices. Unfortunately, this doesn't mean lower household bills. DETAIL

• Chinese EV brand Nio has installed its first fourth-generation Power Swap Stations in China. When drivers pull into a station, a tap on the dash screen triggers a robotic arm to remove the vehicle's battery pack and replace it with a fully charged one from the inventory. The process takes just 144 seconds—22% faster than the third-generation swapping stations.

• The new REWIND project aims to improve battery recyclability. Its goal is to develop a battery prototype with components that can be almost completely recovered while preserving their structure. This would allow the project team to bypass the current shredding and dissolving process. DETAIL

CYBERSECURITY

• BtcTurk, one of Turkey's leading cryptocurrency exchanges, announced that they were exposed to a cyber attack.   While this incident drew attention to security vulnerabilities in the cryptocurrency world, it also increased concerns about the security of users' assets.   The company stated that the attack affected some of the balances of only 10 cryptocurrencies in hot wallets. DETAIL

• Hackers disrupted an online broadcast of Poland's Euro 2024 match with Austria on Friday, the state broadcaster said, the second cyberattack targeting the Polish soccer team during the championships. DETAIL

• Hackers have hit Neiman Marcus and accessed the data of 64,000 customers, according to the luxury department store, though the scammers claim to have a much larger trove of data. DETAIL

HUMAN / CURIOSITY

• A 3,300-year-old ship has been discovered at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, making it one of the oldest shipwrecks ever discovered and rewriting our understanding of sailing in the ancient world, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority. The vessel is estimated to be from the 13th or 14th century BCE, the authority said in a statement. It was discovered 90 kilometers (around 56 miles) from the shore, in waters 1.8 kilometers (1.1 miles) deep, with hundreds of intact jars still on board, the statement added. DETAIL

• It has been announced that the short-term rental licenses of nearly 10 thousand residences will be gradually canceled until 2028 in order to prevent the housing crisis in Barcelona, ​​one of Spain's leading tourist centers. DETAIL