ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 537

Watch A Live Feed Of Bald Eagles Raising Their Chicks

Plants and Animals





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This is the first time the pair of eagles have successfully hatched chicks in three years of trying. Dennis W. Donohue/Shutterstock

If you need a break from hectic city living, then you could do worse than tuning into a live feed of bald eagles raising their chicks. Well, that’s exactly what you can do thanks to the National Park Service, who have pointed a camera at a pair of eagles in Channel Islands National Park.

 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2N-w...]

 

500-Year-Old Shipwreck Dating To The “Age of Discovery” Found Off The Coast Of Oman

Editor's Blog





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Diver working at the site, just off the southern coast of Oman. P.Holt/David L. Mearns et al 2016

In a bid to find a maritime trade route from Europe to the spice markets of India during the mid-15th century, many nations sent explorers out onto the high seas during what is known as the Age of Discovery.

Mystery Of Bright Spots On Ceres Deepens As “Surprising” Changes Observed

Space





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Artist's impression of bright spots on Ceres. ESO/L.Calçada/NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA/Steve Albers/N. Risinger (skysurvey.org)

Those bright spots on Ceres refuse to stop being interesting. While the Dawn spacecraft continues to orbit the dwarf planet, bringing us closer to understanding them, scientists have used a telescope on Earth to spot something strange. 

Researchers Propose Method To Convert CO2 Into A New Building Material

Technology





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A new approach to carbon storage. Ungnoi Lookjeab/Shutterstock

Tackling global warming is the greatest challenge of the 21st century and researchers worldwide are investigating how to reduce our damaging impact on the planet. Power plants are one of the largest producers of carbon dioxide, but now that emission could turn from a problem to a resource.

An interdisciplinary team at UCLA have found a way to potentially reduce the amount of carbon emission from power plants by converting it into a new building material, named CO2NCRETE, which would be fabricated with 3D printers. 

Learning Complex Tasks Helps To “Retune” The Brain

The Brain





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Learning to read braille can train the neurons of the visual cortex to process somatosensory stimuli. Africa Studio/Shutterstock

Traditional understandings of the human brain tend to portray it as the most breathtakingly complex biological machine on the planet. Like all machines, it consists of a series of bounded components – or brain regions – each of which performs a particular task.

Google’s AlphaGo Beats Go Champion 4-1 In Landmark Victory For AI

Technology





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AlphaGo is now the reigning Go champion. Getty Images

AlphaGo, Google’s artificial intelligence (AI), has trounced the current world champion Lee Se-dol at the game of Go, four matches to one. Despite having very simple rules, this ancient game has trillions upon trillions of possible moves and permutations, so AlphaGo’s victory is seen as a landmark in the evolution of AI.

Building Of Dams In The Amazon Will Cause “Countless” Extinctions

Environment





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There are already 191 dams in the Amazon basin, with another 243 planned. Bill Ohl/Flickr CC BY-ND 2.0

Considering the Amazon accounts for around a fifth of all water discharged by rivers globally, it is unsurprising that the river system is considered to have great potential for hydroelectric power. This has given rise to 191 dams that have already been built by nine countries through which the Amazon River flows, and with 243 more in the pipeline it seems the dam building boom is showing no signs of slowing anytime soon.

Oldest Human DNA Ever Sequenced Could Rewrite Human Evolutionary Tree

Plants and Animals





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It now seems like the Sima de los Huesos remains were likely from Neanderthals. © Kennis & Kennis/Madrid Scientific Films

Researchers have managed to sequence a section of the oldest human DNA ever, taken from the 430,000-year-old teeth and thigh bones of fossils found in northern Spain. What they’ve been able to determine from this impressive feat could rewrite the evolutionary tree of ancient human species, including those that eventually gave rise to us.

China Announces New Space Observatory That Could Outperform Hubble

Space





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Hubble, one of NASA's "Great Observatories," as seen from Space Shuttle Discovery. NASA

Hubble is singlehandedly responsible for producing the most incredible, awe-inspiring space imagery in human history.

Third Global Coral Bleaching Event Reaches Great Barrier Reef

Environment





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When coral gets too hot, it expels its colorful algae and turns white. We could be seeing this occur on an unprecedented scale. Ethan Daniels/Shutterstock

Worldwide record-breaking temperatures are having an impact on coral reefs. Reports are now coming in of widespread bleaching on the northernmost section of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), amongst the most pristine coral regions on the planet. A large survey has been launched to determine the scale of the problem, although researchers say we may not know the severity for some time.