All posts tagged: control

New plant pest control discovery will advance sustainable farming

New plant pest control discovery will advance sustainable farming

Published by skeptic

As global food demand continues to increase, effective pest control remains one of agriculture’s most pressing challenges. Worldwide, farmers apply nearly 4 million tonnes of chemical pesticides annually to protect their crops, representing a $60bn industry. While these compounds have significantly boosted agricultural productivity, their widespread use has raised concerns regarding environmental impact, health risks, and the long-term sustainability of modern farming. To shed light on this, a research team led by Professor Gen-ichiro Arimura from the Department of Biological Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, closely examined the fine molecular interplay that occurs between spider mites and their host plants to test the theory of plant pest control. Limitations in conventional pest control The two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae, exemplifies the limitations of conventional pesticide-based pest control in agriculture and horticulture. These microscopic arachnids infest a wide range of crops and fruit trees and can reproduce extremely quickly. More importantly, unlike many other pests, they rapidly develop resistance to chemical pesticides, making control efforts increasingly challenging. With pesticide resistance on the rise, farmers …

SpaceX Starship spirals out of control in second straight test flight failure

SpaceX Starship spirals out of control in second straight test flight failure

Published by skeptic

SpaceX’s Starship spiraled out of control while in space during a test flight Thursday, marking the second launch in a row that the vehicle has run into a fatal problem on its way to orbit. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) briefly halted flights into major Florida airports and appears to have diverted some others out of caution of “space launch debris.” The agency told TechCrunch that it is requiring SpaceX to perform what’s known as a mishap investigation into the failure. The company launched Starship using its Super Heavy booster and things looked normal for the first eight minutes of the flight. The ship successfully separated and headed into space, while the booster came back to the company’s launchpad in Texas, where it was caught for a third time by the launch tower. But at around eight minutes and nine seconds into the flight, SpaceX’s broadcast graphics showed Starship lose multiple Raptor engines on the vehicle. On-board footage showed the ship started spiraling end over end over the ocean. “We just saw some engines go out, …

How the risk of AI weapons could spiral out of control

How the risk of AI weapons could spiral out of control

Published by skeptic

Sometimes AI isn’t as clever as we think it is. Researchers training an algorithm to identify skin cancer thought they had succeeded until they discovered that it was using the presence of a ruler to help it make predictions. Specifically, their data set consisted of images where a pathologist had put in a ruler to measure the size of malignant lesions. It extended this logic for predicting malignancies to all images beyond the data set, consequently identifying benign tissue as malignant if a ruler was in the image. The problem here is not that the AI algorithm made a mistake. Rather, the concern stems from how the AI “thinks”. No human pathologist would arrive at this conclusion. These cases of flawed “reasoning” abound – from HR algorithms that prefer to hire men because the data set is skewed in their favour to propagating racial disparities in medical treatment. Now that they know about these problems, researchers are scrambling to address them. Recently, Google decided to end its longstanding ban on developing AI weapons. This potentially …

Daniel Craig breaks silence after Bond producers give full creative control to Amazon

Daniel Craig breaks silence after Bond producers give full creative control to Amazon

Published by skeptic

Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Daniel Craig has issued a statement after the surprise news that James Bond producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, handed over complete creative control of the franchise to Amazon MGM Studios. On Thursday (20 February), Amazon announced it had forged a new joint venture with Broccoli and Wilson to hand over the James Bond intellectual property rights. While the two will remain co-owners of the franchise, the transaction leaves creative control of all future productions in the hands of Amazon. Broccoli and Saltzman launched the Bond films in 1962 before Broccoli’s daughter and stepson took over. The Broccoli dynasty, cemented in the family’s UK-based production company EON, is responsible for the franchise’s most successful films, including Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, and Skyfall. Craig, who stepped down as Bond after 2021’s No Time To Die, has now responded to the sudden change about Bond’s future. …

Elon Musk Makes Huge Bid to Seize Control of OpenAI

Elon Musk Makes Huge Bid to Seize Control of OpenAI

Published by José

Billionaire and White House advisor Elon Musk is leading a gigantic $97.4 billion bid to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, the Wall Street Journal reports. Musk’s lawyer, Marc Toberoff, delivered the unsolicited offer to the ChatGPT maker’s board of directors today, signaling a dramatic escalation in his years-long beef with the company he co-founded alongside CEO Sam Altman in 2015. Musk rage quit the AI company after growing frustrated with its direction in 2019. “It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was,” Musk said in a statement provided by Toberoff, as quoted by the WSJ. “We will make sure that happens.” The timing of the bid is especially interesting, as Altman revealed that he regrets leading OpenAI’s transition ditch its open source roots in a Reddit AMA late last month. “I personally think we have been on the wrong side of history here and need to figure out a different open source strategy,” he wrote. Musk has repeatedly lashed out at Altman, going as far as to …

Scientists Discover “Zombie” Fungus That Seizes Control of Spiders, Suggest It Be Used for Human Medicine

Scientists Discover “Zombie” Fungus That Seizes Control of Spiders, Suggest It Be Used for Human Medicine

Published by José

What could go wrong? Zombie Spiders While filming a TV documentary inside an old Victorian gunpowder store in Northern Ireland, scientists made an intriguing discovery: cave spider “zombies” that were infected by a “Last of Us”-like fungus. In a study published last month in the journal Fungal Systematics and Evolution, as spotted by Live Science, scientists detailed the discovery of a “novel species” of fungus that infects “cave-dwelling, orb-weaving spiders,” called Gibellula attenboroughii — a name in honor of British biologist and natural historian David Attenborough. The scientists concluded that the “infected spiders exhibit behavioral changes similar to those reported for zombie ants,” referring to an insect-pathogenic fungus that forces infected ants to leave their canopy nests and head to areas that are more suitable for fungal growth. The way G. attenboroughii spreads is just as chill-inducing. The study authors suggest the fungus forces the infected spiders to crawl to more open areas where air currents can then disperse the spores — a fascinating new discovery fit for a dystopian TV series. Assuming Control Study …

How to get control of your time

How to get control of your time

Published by Sam

You wake up at 7:00 and reflexively reach for your phone. Between the stream of emails, WhatsApps and breaking news alerts, you see a worrying reminder: you averaged 11 hours of daily screen time last week. You swipe the notification away and open TikTok, where a woman in a matching athleisure set and glossy, slicked-back ponytail urges you to “get ready with me for my 5-9 before my 9-5”. You think about getting out of bed for a workout or meditation before you start answering those emails. But before you know it, it’s 8:57 – and if you don’t get off the apps and onto your computer, you’ll be late. Sound familiar? Though many people have more leisure time now than in the past, paradoxically, more free time comes with increased time pressure. For many of us, it feels as if we don’t have control over our time – rather, time is controlling us. This is because our collective experience of time both comes from and governs society. Instead of saving us time, the pace …

iPhone SE 4 Dummies Feature iPhone 14-Style Design With No Action Button or Camera Control

iPhone SE 4 Dummies Feature iPhone 14-Style Design With No Action Button or Camera Control

Published by skeptic

Apple is planning to introduce a new version of the iPhone SE this year, and alleged dummy models are starting to leak out. Sonny Dickson today shared some images of an ‌iPhone SE‌ 4 dummy model, giving us insight into what it could look like. For those unfamiliar with dummy models, they are non-functional mockups of new devices that case makers create based on information that leaks out of Apple’s partner factories. There is big money in being the first to have a case for a new device, and over the years, leaked dummy models have turned out to be accurate in most cases. Rumors have suggested the next ‌iPhone SE‌ will look like the iPhone 14, and that seems to be accurate based on the images. There’s an iPhone-14 style chassis with an aluminum band, a glass back, and a single-lens rear camera. There have been suggestions that the ‌iPhone SE‌ 4 could get an Action Button or the Camera Control button that’s available on iPhone 16 models, but neither of those features is …

Trump won’t rule out using U.S. military to control Panama Canal, Greenland

Trump won’t rule out using U.S. military to control Panama Canal, Greenland

Published by Sam

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump makes remarks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. Jan. 7, 2025. Carlos Barria | Reuters President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday declined to rule out using the U.S. military to take control of the Panama Canal and Greenland, expanding on a spate of recent remarks he has made about acquiring more territory for the United States during his second term. “We need them for economic security,” Trump said of both the Central American trade route and the autonomous territory of Denmark, during a lengthy press conference at his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago. A reporter asked Trump if he could assure the public that he would not use military or economic coercion in pursuit of either land. “No, I can’t assure you of either of those two,” the president-elect replied. “The Panama Canal was built for our military. I’m not going to commit to that, no … It might be that you’ll have to do something,” he said. Trump also expressed concern and frustration about China’s activity in both the Panama Canal and Greenland, sending …

Mediterranean diet’s neuroprotective effects linked to glycemic control

Mediterranean diet’s neuroprotective effects linked to glycemic control

Published by José

Recent research has uncovered a link between diet, blood sugar control, and brain health in aging adults. The study, conducted as part of the DIRECT PLUS trial and published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that dietary interventions, particularly a Mediterranean diet enriched with polyphenol-rich foods like green tea and Mankai duckweed, can slow age-related brain atrophy. These findings suggest that improved glycemic control not only reduces risks associated with conditions like type 2 diabetes but may also help preserve cognitive function by promoting a more youthful brain age. As people age, brain atrophy—the loss of neurons and brain tissue—becomes inevitable, often signaling the onset of cognitive decline and conditions like Alzheimer’s disease. However, factors such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and poor diet can accelerate this process. The study’s researchers aimed to determine whether improved glycemic control, through targeted dietary interventions, could mitigate these effects and preserve brain health. They hypothesized that controlling blood sugar levels and incorporating polyphenol-rich foods might protect against age-related neurodegeneration. “The brain is a vital …