Telescope #122

Weekly horizon scan…

SUSTAINABILITY

• Agreement was reached on the basic rules governing carbon credit trading in Baku, Azerbaijan, late on the first day of COP29, which will be held from November 11-22. These rules are intended to regulate the functioning of the new UN carbon market established under Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement. DETAIL

• Carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels in 2024 are set to blow past last year’s record levels, dashing hopes this year will see the planet-warming emissions peak. “Reducing emissions is more urgent than ever and there’s only one way to do it: massively reduce fossil emissions,” says Pierre Friedlingstein at the University of Exeter, UK. DETAIL

• The European Parliament’s recent vote to delay the EU deforestation regulation signals a shift that could impact environmental and trade policies for years to come. While the law was originally set to take effect by December 2024 for large companies, it now faces a one-year postponement, pushing deadlines to the end of 2025, with smaller companies complying by mid-2026. DETAIL

• The 2024 EY Global Climate Action Barometer reveals that while climate disclosures have improved significantly over recent years, urgent action remains lacking among companies to combat the intensifying climate crisis. Despite an increase in disclosure coverage to 94% and a quality score of 54%, this growth is not sufficient to align with the global climate agenda. DETAIL

• IBM has released its first-ever State of Sustainability Readiness Report 2024, revealing that 88% of business leaders plan to increase IT investments for sustainability over the next 12 months. Conducted by Morning Consult and sponsored by IBM, the report surveyed 2,790 business leaders across 15 industries in nine countries between April and May 2024. This research underscores the growth potential of sustainability-focused technology investments, though significant challenges remain, particularly with AI adoption and measuring sustainability progress. DETAIL

HEALTH

• A 2024 study suggests that sleep can help us make more rational, informed decisions, and not be swayed by a misleading first impression. To show this, researchers at Duke University in the US had participants take part in a garage-sale game. DETAIL

• Air pollution is increasingly being linked to a raised risk of eczema, with the latest study showing a clear relationship between the exposure and the skin condition. Vehicles and power plants release pollutant particles with a diameter of 2.5 micrometres or less, called PM2.5. These have previously been linked to a higher risk of eczema, which is thought to be the result of an over-active immune system causing inflammation that makes skin dry and itchy. DETAIL

DIGITAL / TECHNOLOGY / SCIENCE / ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

• OpenAI is preparing to launch a new artificial intelligence agent codenamed “Operator” that can use a computer to take actions on a person’s behalf, such as writing code or booking travel, according to two people familiar with the matter.

• Uranus’s strange magnetic field may be much less weird than astronomers first thought, which means its largest moons could be much more active, and even perhaps have global oceans. Voyager 2 flew by Uranus in 1986, giving us our only up-close look at the planet, but unusual space weather just before the craft arrived has given us a misleading idea about the planet’s magnetic field. Now, Jamie Jasinski at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and his colleagues have reanalysed the Voyager 2 data and found that it was skewed by a rare burst of solar wind that squashed Uranus’s magnetic field just before the spacecraft arrived. DETAIL

• The ruins in Çakmaktepe, which is thought to have been built approximately 1,000 years before Göbeklitepe, which is known as the 'zero point of history' with its 12,000-year history in Şanlıurfa and changed the course of human history, are being unearthed. DETAIL

• Artificial intelligence models that generate audio are being trained on datasets plagued with bias, offensive language and potential copyright infringement, sparking concerns about their use. William Agnew at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania and his colleagues combed a year’s worth of audio-modelling studies to spot common datasets used to train AI. Of the seven most commonly used datasets, six used the words “man” or “men” more than three times as frequently as “woman” or “women”. Across datasets, “man” was strongly associated with words like “war”, “kill” and “history”, while words associated with “woman” included “store” and “mom”. DETAIL

• Black-footed ferrets were among the species thought to be extinct in 1979. Later, it was discovered that these creatures still exist somewhere in nature and were taken under protection. Scientists then proceeded to clone these cute creatures. One of the cloned ferrets gave birth to two babies, a male and a female. DETAIL

• Novel AI Technology Literally Sniffs Out Counterfeit Sneakers. Osmo AI uses sensors that analyze scent signatures to authenticate shoes and luxury goods. DETAIL

• Scientists Discover Lasers Can Block Light And Cast a Shadow. DETAIL

• A new energy solution is coming to Texas, promising enhanced stability and significant energy savings. NRG Energy and Renew Home are joining forces to launch a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) by 2035, capable of generating nearly one gigawatt (GW) of capacity. That’s enough to power around 200,000 homes during peak demand periods. This initiative is a game-changer for the Texas grid, combining the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced smart devices to support the state’s growing energy needs. DETAIL

• A team of researchers from Rice University, led by Lisa Biswal and Haotian Wang, has developed an innovative electrochemical reactor designed to extract lithium from natural brine solutions. DETAIL

• Google's glitchy Gemini chatbot is back at it again — and this time, it's going for the jugular. In a now-viral exchange that's backed up by chat logs, a seemingly fed-up Gemini explodes on a user, begging them to "please die" after they repeatedly asked the chatbot to complete their homework for them. DETAIL

ENERGY / TRANSPORTATION

• Tesla plans to add nickel-based cathode active material by replacing LFP or LMFP. The company's new patent points to this, and it provides significant improvements in battery life. DETAIL

• The German-Australian company Vulcan Energy has produced lithium hydroxide for the first time in Frankfurt-Höchst in Germany. It is said to be the first lithium hydroxide to be produced sustainably in Europe, from the raw material to the end product. DETAIL

• Sakuu and Eleqtrion to advance aluminium ion battery technology: The battery manufacturer and Quebec-based Eleqtrion want to develop scalable and sustainable aluminium-ion batteries with high energy density and reduced carbon footprint. DETAIL

CYBERSECURITY

• The online ticket sales company, Ticketmaster is continuing to deal with the fallout from a data breach earlier this year affecting over 500 million customers, and customers are taking the brunt of impact. Business Insider reported yesterday about a string customers checking their emails only to discover that someone had broken into their Ticketmaster accounts and transferred their tickets away. DETAIL

• The U.S. government has confirmed that hackers with links to China breached multiple U.S. telecommunication service providers to access the wiretap systems used by law enforcement to surveil Americans. DETAIL

HUMANITY / CURIOSITY

• The Guardian, based in the UK, has decided not to share content on the X social media platform, owned by Elon Musk, due to increasing racist posts, conspiracy theories and disturbing content. DETAIL