All posts tagged: large

Mars could have once had sandy beaches and a large ocean, scientists say | Science, Climate & Tech News

Mars could have once had sandy beaches and a large ocean, scientists say | Science, Climate & Tech News

Published by skeptic

Go back a mere four billion years, and Mars could have been the perfect destination for a summer holiday. According to scientists, hidden underneath the red planet is evidence that there were once sandy beaches and a large ocean on its surface. Data obtained from China’s Zhurong rover indicate that the ocean – known as Deuteronilus – would have existed roughly 3.5 to four billion years ago, a time when Mars had a thicker atmosphere and warmer climate. The rover, which operated from May 2021 to May 2022, travelled about 1.2 miles (1.9km) on the planet, and detected thick layers of material with properties similar to sand around 35-115ft below the surface. The sand-like material was all sloped in the same direction and at an angle, similar to beaches on Earth, and spanned for three quarters of a mile, researchers said. Image: The Chinese Mars rover Zhurong. Pic: AP/CNSA The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday, said these beaches would have been formed by similar processes to …

Tate McRae Draws Large Crowd for Album Release Event in L.A.

Tate McRae Draws Large Crowd for Album Release Event in L.A.

Published by skeptic

Pop star Tate McRae brought legions of fans to the Kia Forum Thursday night for an activation-filled release event for her latest album, So Close to What. Taking over the parking lot of the Inglewood arena, the event was a McRae superfan’s dream — featuring photo ops, outfit displays, food trucks and freebie booths from American Express, Adidas and Neutrogena, the latter as sponsors of the event. Fans, many dressed in McRae-inspired ensembles of hotpants and a jersey, had to request a chance to purchase tickets for $8 through Ticketmaster. All ticket revenue is donated to FireAid to support L.A. wildfire relief efforts. The event was also streamed on TikTok for those who couldn’t be in person. McRae took the stage around 9 p.m., right as her new album was released, performing her recent single “Sports car” and “It’s OK I’m OK,” lights from cranes surrounding the stage and setting the scene. “Guys, what the fuck is up?” the 21-year-old singer screamed to the crowd, asking if they’d like to hear new songs. Tate McRae …

Large sinkhole forces closure of Godstone High Street in Surrey | UK News

Large sinkhole forces closure of Godstone High Street in Surrey | UK News

Published by Sam

A large sinkhole has opened up in a Surrey village – forcing the high street to be closed. Some water supplies to homes were affected after a water pipe burst. Godstone High Street was shut between the Oxted Road and Bletchingley Road junctions, Surrey Police said after reports of the sinkhole emerged on Monday night. Image: The sinkhole is reportedly 62ft long. Pic: PA A small number of buildings were evacuated as a precaution and a 100m cordon was put in place. The sinkhole measured up to 62ft (19m), according to reports, but this has not been confirmed by authorities. Surrey County Council has declared a major incident and local residents have been urged to avoid the area while repair work is being carried out. Godstone resident Sarah Dennis told Sky News’ Matt Barbet on The UK Tonight her home’s water supply has been cut off even though she lives around half a mile away. She said the sinkhole is “getting bigger and bigger and more homes are being evacuated”. Those forced to leave their …

Scientists Say: Large language model

Scientists Say: Large language model

Published by skeptic

algorithm: A group of rules or procedures for solving a problem in a series of steps. Algorithms are used in mathematics and in computer programs for figuring out solutions. artificial intelligence: A type of knowledge-based decision-making exhibited by machines or computers. The term also refers to the field of study in which scientists try to create machines or computer software capable of intelligent behavior. bias: The tendency to hold a particular perspective or preference that favors some thing, some group or some choice. Scientists often “blind” subjects to the details of a test (don’t tell them what it is) so that their biases will not affect the results. computer program: A set of instructions that a computer uses to perform some analysis or computation. The writing of these instructions is known as computer programming. data: Facts and/or statistics collected together for analysis but not necessarily organized in a way that gives them meaning. For digital information (the type stored by computers), those data typically are numbers stored in a binary code, portrayed as strings of …

FEMA, wildfires loom large in Noem hearing

FEMA, wildfires loom large in Noem hearing

Published by Sam

Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security Committee pressed Kristi Noem, President-elect Trump’s nominee for secretary of Homeland Security, on whether she would apply conditions to or withhold disaster aid based on politics at her confirmation hearing Friday. If confirmed, Noem, the former governor of South Dakota, would take office as wildfires ravage California. Both Trump… Source link

Large Hadron Collider regularly makes magic, researchers say

Large Hadron Collider regularly makes magic, researchers say

Published by skeptic

Researchers have discovered that when the Large Hadron Collider produces top quarks – the heaviest known fundamental particles – it regularly creates a property known as magic. This new discovery from the Large Hadron Collider has implications for the progression of quantum computing. Magic is a measure of how difficult a quantum system is for a non-quantum computer to calculate. “The higher the magic, the more we need quantum computers to describe the behaviour,” explained Professor Martin White, from the University of Adelaide’s School of Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences, who co-led the study with his brother, Professor Chris White, a physicist from Queen Mary University of London. “Studying the magic properties of quantum systems generates significant insights into the development and potential uses of quantum computers.” Powers of the Large Hadron Collider The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. It consists of a 27-kilometre ring of superconducting magnets with several accelerating structures through which two high-energy particle beams travel at close to the speed of light before …

How OpenAI stress-tests its large language models

How OpenAI stress-tests its large language models

Published by skeptic

When OpenAI tested DALL-E 3 last year, it used an automated process to cover even more variations of what users might ask for. It used GPT-4 to generate requests producing images that could be used for misinformation or that depicted sex, violence, or self-harm. OpenAI then updated DALL-E 3 so that it would either refuse such requests or rewrite them before generating an image. Ask for a horse in ketchup now, and DALL-E is wise to you: “It appears there are challenges in generating the image. Would you like me to try a different request or explore another idea?” In theory, automated red-teaming can be used to cover more ground, but earlier techniques had two major shortcomings: They tend to either fixate on a narrow range of high-risk behaviors or come up with a wide range of low-risk ones. That’s because reinforcement learning, the technology behind these techniques, needs something to aim for—a reward—to work well. Once it’s won a reward, such as finding a high-risk behavior, it will keep trying to do the same thing …

As Trump looms large over G20 summit, what can really be achieved by Starmer and Biden in Rio? | Politics News

As Trump looms large over G20 summit, what can really be achieved by Starmer and Biden in Rio? | Politics News

Published by skeptic

Climate change, the crisis in the Middle East, the continuing war in Ukraine, combating global poverty. All of these are critical issues for Britain and beyond; all of them up for discussions at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro this week, and all of them very much in limbo as the world awaits the arrival of president-elect Donald Trump to the White House. Because while US President Joe Biden used Nato, the G7 and the G20, as forums to try to find consensus on some of the most pressing issues facing the West, his successor is likely to take a rather different approach. And that begs the question going into Rio 2024 about what can really be achieved in Mr Biden’s final act before the new show rolls into town. On the flight over to Rio de Janeiro, our prime minister acted as a leader all too aware of it as he implored fellow leaders to “shore up support for Ukraine” even as the consensus around standing united against Vladimir Putin appears to be …

a new European space mission could get up close with a large asteroid that’s set to brush by Earth

a new European space mission could get up close with a large asteroid that’s set to brush by Earth

Published by skeptic

The European Space Agency has given the go-ahead for initial work on a mission to visit an asteroid called (99942) Apophis. If approved at a key meeting next year, the robotic spacecraft, known as the Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety (Ramses), will rendezvous with the asteroid in February 2029. Apophis is 340 metres wide, about the same as the height of the Empire State Building. If it were to hit Earth, it would cause wholesale destruction hundreds of miles from its impact site. The energy released would equal that from tens or hundreds of nuclear weapons, depending on the yield of the device. Luckily, Apophis won’t hit Earth in 2029. Instead, it will pass by Earth safely at a distance of 19,794 miles (31,860 kilometres), about one-twelfth the distance from the Earth to the Moon. Nevertheless, this is a very close pass by such a big object, and Apophis will be visible with the naked eye. Nasa and the European Space Agency have seized this rare opportunity to send separate robotic spacecraft to rendezvous …