News
October 14, 2022
"Ugly? Bad? Good!": what is artificial intelligence ethics and how it helps make algorithms useful and safe for humans
How can AI have ethics at all? It's inanimate after all! Of course, AI itself cannot distinguish between good and evil. The task of humanity is not to make an AI similar to humans, but to teach it to act on the principles of justice and morality, rather than the way most people usually behave. We answer popular questions about who formulates ethical principles for AI and why, and where and how they are applied.
September 28, 2022
Nord Stream Gas Leaks Could Be ‘Unprecedented’ Climate Disaster. The 700-meter wide pool of bubbling water in the Baltic Sea caused by the rupture of the Nord Stream gas pipelines points to a climate disaster.
It’s the most visible of three major gas leaks emanating from the pipelines connecting Russia to Germany. Scientists are scrambling to work out just how much methane, one of the most powerful greenhouse gases, has escaped into the atmosphere. The fear is that it could be one of the worst releases ever.
September 2, 2022
Oder environmental disaster. During the summer of 2022, a mass mortality event involving fish, beavers, clams, crayfish and other wildlife occurred in the Oder river. Over 100 tonnes (98 long tons; 110 short tons) dead fish were removed from the Polish section of the river, and a further 35 tonnes (34 long tons; 39 short tons) from German sections, causing concern that the water was poisoned.
September 1, 2022
Nasa’s Moxie instrument successfully makes oxygen on Mars. Researchers hope scaled-up version could one day generate oxygen to sustain humans on Mars. An instrument the size of a lunchbox has been successfully generating breathable oxygen on Mars, doing the work of a small tree. Since February last year the Mars oxygen in-situ resource utilisation experiment, or Moxie, has been successfully making oxygen from the red planet’s carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere.
August 17, 2022
Fossil fuel companies’ projections won’t meet Paris Agreement climate goals. Decarbonisation scenarios produced by BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Equinor are incompatible with Paris Agreement goals for a safe and habitable planet. This is the finding of new research underscoring how global decarbonisation scenarios outlined by these energy companies show delayed reductions in fossil fuel consumption and run the risk of overshooting vital climate goals.
August 17, 2022
Fossil fuel companies’ projections won’t meet Paris Agreement climate goals. Decarbonisation scenarios produced by BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Equinor are incompatible with Paris Agreement goals for a safe and habitable planet. This is the finding of new research underscoring how global decarbonisation scenarios outlined by these energy companies show delayed reductions in fossil fuel consumption and run the risk of overshooting vital climate goals.
August 15, 2022
The Arctic Is Warming Four Times Faster Than the Rest of the Planet
One study after another is coming to the same conclusion: the Arctic is heating up much faster than earlier research suggested.
One study after another is coming to the same conclusion about the rapidly warming Arctic: It’s heating up a lot faster than earlier research suggested.
The latest figures indicate that the planet’s northernmost region is warming a whopping four times faster than the Earth as a whole.
That’s a significant update compared to earlier estimates.
July 19, 2022
Europe that has ceased “to be green”. Andrey Nagibin, leader of the “Green patrol” Movement announced that the European countries will be the first to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. According to him, the green agenda is no longer urgent for Russia’s western neighbours for the EU has ceased to be “green”.
July 1, 2022
Putin transferred the property of the Sakhalin-2 operator company to the state. President Vladimir Putin signed a decree Thursday ordering the transfer of the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project in Far East Russia to a new domestic operator in response to “unfriendly” Western sanctions and threats to Russia’s national interests and economic security.
Foreign investors will be required to apply to retain their existing shares in the new limited liability company within a month, according to the decree.
June 30, 2022
How the world's rivers are changing. The way rivers function is significantly affected by how much sediment they transport and where it gets deposited. River sediment—mostly sand, silt, and clay—plays a critical ecological role, as it provides habitat for organisms downstream and in estuaries. It is also important for human life, resupplying nutrients to floodplain agricultural soils, and buffering sea level rise caused by climate change by delivering sand to deltas and coastlines.