Telescope #104

Jul 18, 2024

'The voice of the sea, if it suppresses your thoughts; you are at the right place.' Pablo Neruda

SUSTAINABILITY

Denmark is on its way to introducing a world-first tax on greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture in 2030. DETAIL
Amazon used sun and wind to power 100% of global operations in 2023. The net-zero target of the company was initially set for 2030. DETAIL

Petroleum company Marathon Oil will pay a record $64.5m penalty and invest around $177m in “pollution-cutting measures”, to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Air Act, the Washington Post reports. DETAIL
China did not approve any coal-based steelmaking projects in the first half of 2024, for “first time since announcing its major climate neutrality goals in 2020”, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), Bloomberg reports. DETAIL
United Kingdom Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced a new $9.37 billion National Wealth Fund (NWF) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from heavy industry by investing in areas like green steel and gigafactories, reported The Guardian. The fund is part of a push by the new Labour government to raise billions in private sector funds for infrastructure projects. DETAIL

The Key Largo tree cactus (Pilosocereus millspaughii) has become the first Florida species to become locally extinct due to the climate crisis, according to researchers from the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and the Florida Museum of Natural History. DETAIL

Without easy access to freshwater lakes, streams, and dams, roughly one out of every four humans depends on reservoirs beneath Earth's surface for survival. By the end of the century, tens to hundreds of millions could be deprived of even this tenuous supply of moisture as rising temperatures risk turning shallow groundwater supplies into toxic sumps. DETAIL

HEALTH

Scientists have created a modular genetic circuit that turns cancer cells into Trojan horses, enabling them to self-destruct and kill drug-resistant cancer cells.

Twisted and tangled proteins are found in the brains of many of those who die with Alzheimer's disease. Some scientists suspect these neural knots can harm and even kill brain cells, but so far in clinical trials, drugs that have tried to target the tangles have shown limited success. A promising new medicine has now been introduced by an international team, led by researchers at the University of Texas. The nasal spray can bypass the blood-brain barrier and blast tangles of tau proteins in living mice. The drug also works at clearing tangles from within and between human neurons in the lab. DETAIL

DIGITAL / TECHNOLOGY / SCIENCE / ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

SpaceX's plan to supply cellular service through its Starlink satellites has reached a new milestone: more than 100 “direct to cell” satellites in orbit. DETAIL

Neuralink had planned to surgically implant one of its brain chips in a second human patient last month, but the surgery was called off due to a medical issue with the patient. The Elon Musk-founded company is now looking for a different candidate to receive its brain chip as its human trials continue. DETAIL
YouTube Music lets users create a custom radio through prompts, thanks to its new generative AI feature. DETAIL
The new Siri experience, supported by Apple Intelligence, will meet users in 2025. DETAIL
A new high-performance quantum chip built by Oxford Ionics, a spinoff from the University of Oxford, has broken previous records in the quantum computing domain. The achievement is commendable since error correction was not used during the process, and the chip can also be manufactured at existing semiconductor fabs. The company expects a useful quantum computer to be available to the world in the next three years. DETAIL

Amazon Web Services (AWS) introduced its new artificial intelligence-focused product, App Studio. App Studio lets you create an enterprise software application through prompts. According to the information shared; The tool produces the required application in a few minutes using the provided command and directed data sources. Moreover, in this process, it undertakes all critical issues related to coding, from testing and deployment to operation and maintenance. DETAIL
Samsung held the highly anticipated "Galaxy Unpacked" promotional event in Paris, France. At the event, the company also confirmed that it is collaborating with Google to integrate the artificial intelligence model Gemini into Galaxy devices. DETAIL
OpenAI will work with Los Alamos Laboratory against the threat of biological weapons production with artificial intelligence. DETAIL
A team of roboticists and AI specialists at Google's DeepMind have demonstrated a robot capable of giving context-based guided tours around its offices. They have posted a paper describing their work, along with demonstration videos, on the arXiv preprint server. DETAIL

ENERGY / TRANSPORTATION

BYD will establish an electric and rechargeable hybrid car production facility in Turkey with an investment of approximately 1 billion dollars. It is aimed to start production at the end of 2026. DETAIL
China issued draft rules yesterday that tighten investment regulations for solar manufacturing projects, Reuters reports. The rules, if enacted, will increase the minimum capital ratio of such projects from 20% to 30%, as the country seeks to reduce overcapacity in the sector, the newswire adds. DETAIL
Long lines at public electric vehicle (EV) charging stations aren’t common. But they tend to happen at the worst times. One major operator of charging stations has a solution. Electrify America plans to limit how much energy customers can use at some charging stations during busy times. The company’s new “congestion reduction pilot” will see it allow customers to charge batteries to just 85% during busy periods. DETAIL

CYBERSECURITY

The vulnerabilities were discovered in an open-source software project called CocoaPods, which is widely used to help operate iOS apps. These software deficiencies exposed 'almost every Apple device' to hacking. DETAIL

HUMAN / CURIOSITY

A pair of lion brothers have made the longest swim ever recorded for their species – about 1.5 kilometres across hippo and crocodile-infested waters. The swim – equivalent to the aquatic leg of an Olympic triathlon – was the pair’s fourth attempt to cross the Kazinga Channel in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda, and was recorded by a drone-mounted thermal camera at night. Researchers think the brothers crossed the channel to reach lionesses.DETAIL

The Neolithic culture, which produced megastructures such as Stonehenge in Europe, entered a period of great decline approximately 5400 years ago. We now have good evidence that this decline was caused by the plague. Sequencing ancient DNA from 108 people living in Northern Europe at the time revealed that the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis was present in 18 of them when they died. DETAY

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