Activists in San Marcos, Texas, protested against proposed data centres that would power artificial-intelligence systems.Credit: Sara Diggins/The Austin American-Statesman via Getty As public opposition grows against the soaring energy and water demands of data centres powering the artificial-intelligence boom, some technology companies are talking about putting these facilities in space. For instance, businessman Elon Musk’s
For the first time, an artificial intelligence system has created a series of previously unknown viruses capable of infecting and eliminating certain types of bacteria. This breakthrough opens up new possibilities for combating bacterial resistance. However, it also raises concerns about the potential misuse of this technology to design biological weapons. For several years now,
The Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank, UK, faces closure if alternative funding is not secured.Credit: Christopher Furlong/Getty A growing clamour of voices is calling for the United Kingdom’s new prime minister, Andy Burnham, to reinstate funding for the iconic Lovell radio telescope, at the Jodrell Bank Observatory, near Manchester. UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the
A paramedic moves a person to an ambulance in Spain during a 2022 heatwave that killed more than 300 people in five days. Credit: Angel Garcia/Bloomberg/Getty Extreme heat is killing hundreds of thousands of people every year — and the annual toll is growing. An estimated 210,000 more people died of heat-related causes each year
The science and probably the first images might come from powerful telescopes in the Americas where the sky was still dark. Even then, turning the detection of a 14m object hitting a daylight part of the lunar surface i385,000km away won’t be easy but not impossible. Image processing to clean up the picture can take
After spending nearly $16 billion on artificial intelligence infrastructure in the second quarter, Elon Musk used SpaceX’s first earnings call as a public company on Tuesday to explain why he believes SpaceX is uniquely positioned to dominate the AI compute race: rocket scientists. Defending the company’s aggressive investment in AI, Musk argued that the engineering
