Telescope #115

Weekly horizon scan…

“Every breath of air we take, every mouthful of food that we take, comes from the natural world. And if we damage the natural world, we damage ourselves." — Sir David Attenborough

SUSTAINABILITY

• Climate change, deforestation and unusual weather phenomena are driving the worst drought in Brazil since records began seven decades ago and the highest number of forest fires seen in 14 years. A total of 190,943 blazes have been recorded in Brazil so far in 2024 — more than double the 94,829 recorded for the same period in 2023. The fires are a symptom of an accelerating climate feedback loop, says Luciana Gatti at Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research. Fewer trees leads to less water evaporating into the atmosphere and less rainfall. Less rainfall means more trees are lost to fires, which in turn causes even less rainfall. “This is the acceleration of climate collapse,” she says. DETAIL

• Across ten countries, 27% of consumers believe living sustainably would cost them less. DETAIL

• A goal to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030 and cut fossil fuel use is within reach, the International Energy Agency said in a report on Tuesday, but will require a huge push to unlock bottlenecks such as permitting and grid connections. DETAIL

• French oil and gas company TotalEnergies is expected to appeal a South African advertising regulator ruling that it was “misleading” to “tout its commitment to ‘sustainable development’ in a campaign with the country’s national parks”, the Financial Times said. DETAIL

• A former climate chief of the World Bank has been appointed to lead the UK’s efforts to forge a global coalition on climate action, the Guardian can reveal. Rachel Kyte, who previously served as special representative for the UN and a vice-president of the World Bank, will take up the role of climate envoy to lead the UK’s return to the front ranks of global climate diplomacy. DETAIL

• At least 30 people were reported dead across the Southeastern United States after Helene made landfall Thursday night as a Category 4 hurricane. More than 4.6 million customers were without power in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas on Friday. DETAIL

HEALTH

• A new study concludes that individuals who only exercise at the weekend get the same health benefits as people who stay active throughout the week. The researchers also find that adequate physical exercise — about 150 minutes per week— reduces the risk of more than 200 diseases. The benefits were most pronounced for cardiometabolic conditions, such as type 2 diabetes. DETAIL

• Fatigue is one of the most frequent and debilitating symptoms of long COVID, and yet it is also one of the hardest to measure objectively. A new study suggests the extreme mental and physical fatigue experienced by many long COVID patients is, in fact, observable in the central nervous system. DETAIL

• Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital have developed a nasal spray that could provide broad-spectrum protection against various respiratory infections, including COVID-19, influenza, common cold viruses, and bacteria that cause pneumonia. DETAIL

DIGITAL / TECHNOLOGY / SCIENCE / ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

• The U.S. Commerce Department is expected on Monday to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on American roads due to national security concerns, two sources told Reuters. DETAIL

• Deep technology company Beam has launched what it calls the world’s first AI-driven autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). The vehicle can perform complex underwater inspections autonomously, helping to enhance efficiency and lower the costs of underwater surveys related to offshore wind energy installation. DETAIL

• As artificial intelligence and robotics technologies are rapidly developing, NVIDIA has come up with a new prediction. NVIDIA's senior scientist Jim Fan stated that there will be a major leap in the field of robotics in the next 2-3 years and that this process will have a revolutionary effect similar to the one created by GPT-3 in the field of artificial intelligence. Fan said that robots will not only have technical skills, but will also be more widespread and accessible in every aspect of our lives. DETAIL

• Boston Dynamics' famous four-legged robot Spot has gained the ability to unlock doors autonomously. The partnership with Assa Abloy, one of the leading door hardware companies, aims to increase Spot's functionality in security patrol sessions and inspection tasks in facilities such as power plants and oil refineries. DETAIL

• A research team led by Song Wang from the Chinese Academy of Sciences carefully examined the data obtained by the European Space Agency's Gaia space telescope. As a result of this examination, it was revealed that there was a mysterious object at the center of two red giant stars orbiting each other, located approximately 5,825 light-years from Earth. This mysterious object was a runaway black hole with a mass 3'6 times that of the sun. Scientists have long wondered whether such small-mass black holes exist in the Milky Way Galaxy. This newly discovered black hole provides important evidence on this subject. DETAIL

• Japan currently has Fugaku, one of the fastest supercomputers in the world.  However, Japanese scientists plan to take this system to the next level with a major upgrade in the coming years: the Fugaku Next supercomputer, which will be about a thousand times faster. DETAIL

• Two new AI systems, ALOHA Unleashed and DemoStart, help robots learn to perform complex tasks that require dexterous movement like tying shoelaces or tightening a screw. DETAIL

• The northern English city of Manchester on Friday opened the first phase of a 1.7 billion pound ($2.3 billion) hub for science and technology companies, part of a large-scale project driven by university and private investors. DETAIL

• Researchers in Australia have found a whole new type of cell that fills a major hole in our understanding of how the mammal body heals. For over a century, scientists have hypothesized that a cell like this existed – and now, an adult version has been found at last, hiding in the aorta of grown mice. DETAIL

ENERGY / TRANSPORTATION

• In March of 1979, Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear plant — which was powered by two pressurized light-water reactors — experienced a cooling malfunction that caused part of the core of the second reactor to melt, releasing radioactive material into the environment. Constellation Energy has plans to reopen Three Mile Island, and Microsoft has agreed to buy power from it for 20 years. DETAIL

• ZF presented a hydrogen recirculation blower at the IAA Transportation. The product was developed to optimise the hydrogen content of fuel cell vehicles and thus improve consumption and performance. DETAIL

CYBERSECURITY

• Technology company Meta has been ordered to pay a €91 million data protection fine for failing to have adequate user password protection, the Irish data watchdog has announced. DETAIL

HUMANITY / CURIOSITY

• In a major coup for the artificial intelligence company, Stability AI says that Avatar, Terminator and Titanic director James Cameron will join its board of directors. DETAIL

• 73% of Generation Z dream of starting a side hustle, and artificial intelligence seems to be their biggest supporter in this regard. DETAIL