Study finds new hope for endangered tiger populations Tigers could be on course for doubling their numbers in the wild, according to a new study. The research, published Friday in the journal Science Advances, used satellite imagery to measure the decline from 2001-2014 of tiger habitat in the 13 countries that host wild tigers, finding that the loss was far less than anticipated. Because of the vast tracts of land involved, and the myriad jurisdictions, a significant challenge has been in monitoring the situation, but the researchers involved in this latest study hope they have found a solution not only for tigers, but one that can be replicated to the benefit of other species, too. "After St. Petersburg, a group of scientists asked whether this idea of doubling the wild tiger population was even possible," says lead author Anup Joshi of the University of Minnesota, in a telephone interview with The Christian Science Monitor. At the 2010 International Tiger Conservation Forum in St. But the question was how this monitoring would take place.
Ray Kurzweil’s Mind-Boggling Predictions for the Next 25 Years In my new book BOLD, one of the interviews that I’m most excited about is with my good friend Ray Kurzweil. Bill Gates calls Ray, “the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence.” Ray is also amazing at predicting a lot more beyond just AI. This post looks at his very incredible predictions for the next 20+ years. Ray Kurzweil. So who is Ray Kurzweil? He has received 20 honorary doctorates, has been awarded honors from three U.S. presidents, and has authored 7 books (5 of which have been national bestsellers). He is the principal inventor of many technologies ranging from the first CCD flatbed scanner to the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind. In short, Ray’s pretty smart… and his predictions are amazing, mind-boggling, and important reminders that we are living in the most exciting time in human history. But, first let’s look back at some of the predictions Ray got right. Predictions Ray has gotten right over the last 25 years In 1999, he predicted…
The Amazing Secret Intelligence Of Plants When I walk into my garden, I am always amazed at the beauty and bounty supplied by the vegetables, berries, herbs, fruits and flowers. Outward appearance and taste are easily appreciated, but I also admire the unquestionable intelligence at work in my garden and in the forests where I live. Plants communicate, adapt to their environments, defend themselves and build intricate internal and external systems to ensure their survival. They are also some of the smartest friends we have. Many plants find innovative and stealthy ways to protect themselves in their natural environment. The experiment revealed that plants supplemented with additional sand or soil above naturally occurring levels were less damaged (by herbivore chewing) than plants in which entrapped sand was removed from stems, petioles and leaves. Love This? Thanks for subscribing! Many plants allow certain fungi to colonize on their roots to provide nutrients in exchange for carbon. Dr.
What is the singularity? Picture yourself trying to explain the experience of streaming a movie to William Shakespeare. First, you'd have to explain movies. Then you'd have to explain TVs (or computers, or tablets or mobile phones, or maybe even Google Glass). Then you'd probably have to explain the Internet. And electricity. Maybe credit/debit cards and the modern banking system too. That, in essence, is at least one definition of a singularity: a moment in time where our technological and cultural realities have changed so drastically that our way of life would be incomprehensible to those who lived before that shift. Another, narrower definition of the singularity refers to the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) and, specifically, the point in time when AI has advanced to such a level that it can design and replicate ever more sophisticated forms of AI that greatly outstrip the capabilities of the human mind. What the next singularity will bring may indeed be almost impossible to predict.
6% Water Left In Marathwada Dams, Farmers Blame Government For Suicides Latur: This 45-year-old farmer in Maharashtra ended his life just a day before the state cabinet toured the drought-hit Marathwada to assess the ground-level situation in the region. The situation is so grim that the dams in the region are left with just six per cent of water. Sanjay Jadhav in Latur's Ujni village had taken an agricultural loan of Rs. 3 lakh that added to his debt of one lakh which he had borrowed for his father's cancer treatment. This 45-year-old farmer in Maharashtra ended his life just a day before the state cabinet toured the drought-hit Marathwada Sanjay Jadhav's brother-in-law, Annasaheb Patil told NDTV: "We feed the entire nation and we ourselves are starving. The drought in the region is so acute that just 6 per cent of water remains in Marathwada dams. The NDTV team visited the dams and reservoirs in the region and found that most of them have dried up.
Salim Ismail on Singularity University [Transcript] Endeavor is pleased to make public the following transcript from a presentation at the 2011 Endeavor Entrepreneur Summit in San Francisco. The event, which assembled over 450 entrepreneurs and global business leaders, featured dozens of entrepreneurship-related presentations by top CEOs and industry experts. Overview: Salim Ismail, successful angel investor and entrepreneur, former vice president of Yahoo! and current executive director of Singularity University discusses what Singularity University is and does and how technology will radically change the future. Bio: Salim is a successful angel investor and entrepreneur – his last company, Angstro, was acquired by Google in August 2010. From the full remarks: Salim: Singularity University is a nonprofit organization in Silicon Valley. And the question is, what will we do with that kind of computing power? Question: But even if it is so small, would people still buy something that tiny? Salim: Yes. Are you familiar with 3D printing?
There is Inherent Sexism in How We Talk About Biology Sexism is still pervasive in our society. Women being paid less than men is a rallying cry in this upcoming election, a problem both Democratic candidates say they are going to fix. Less well known is that sexism pervades the hallowed halls of science. For instance, one study published in the journal PNAS found that female applicants going for a lab manager position at Yale, with similar credentials as male candidates, scored lower in aspects such as competence and hire-ability (whatever that means), and were thought to be less willing to mentor students. The starting salaries offered to the female candidates was also lower. By examining scientific textbooks, Martin found that our reproductive systems are usually depicted as factories to produce sperm or eggs. In contrast, the production of sperm is written about with awe and mystery, regardless of whether or not it fertilizes the egg. Martin also expands on how explanations of gametes are portrayed.
The Unique Challenges of Exponential Leadership Salim Ismail The term “exponential” refers to a sequence or process by which desirable results are achieved. As Salim Ismail explains in his eponymous book, written with Michael S. Malone and Yuri van Geest, an exponential organization (ExO) “is one whose impact (or output) is disproportionately large — at least 10 times larger — than its peers because of the use of new organizational techniques that leverage accelerating technologies.” Such organizations pose unique challenges to those who aspire to lead them. Here are the six characteristics of exponential leadership, accompanied by Ismail’s comments: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. “How exponential is the leadership throughout your own organization?” Salim Ismail is a sought-after speaker, strategist and entrepreneur based in Silicon Valley. Salim has spent the last six years building Singularity University as its founding Executive Director and current Global Ambassador.
At Chernobyl and Fukushima, radioactivity has seriously harmed wildlife The largest nuclear disaster in history occurred 30 years ago at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in what was then the Soviet Union. The meltdown, explosions and nuclear fire that burned for 10 days injected enormous quantities of radioactivity into the atmosphere and contaminated vast areas of Europe and Eurasia. The International Atomic Energy Agency estimates that Chernobyl released 400 times more radioactivity into the atmosphere than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. Radioactive cesium from Chernobyl can still be detected in some food products today. The first atomic bomb exploded at Alamogordo, New Mexico more than 70 years ago. However, in the past decade population biologists have made considerable progress in documenting how radioactivity affects plants, animals and microbes. Our studies provide new fundamental insights about consequences of chronic, multigenerational exposure to low-dose ionizing radiation. Broad impacts at Chernobyl There may be exceptions.
Can We Control Our Technological Destiny—Or Are We Just Along For the Ride? - Singularity HUB “Man becomes, as it were, the sex organs of the machine world…”– Marshall McLuhan A standard assumption of technological progress is that new innovations are born in our mind, and we humans choose which of those visions to bring into existence. We imagine stuff, we want stuff, we build stuff, and repeat. We assume that our brains are the center of the innovation universe. But just as Copernicus’s sun-centered model of our solar system taught us how physically marginal our place in the cosmos really is, a new class of techno-philosophy is similarly displacing our understanding of technological innovation. Susan Blackmore has spent a career studying memetics—the idea that Darwinian principles of natural selection can explain which memes (ideas, beliefs, and patterns of behavior) get passed from one brain to another. Memes are the very bedrock of innovation, the raw ingredients of cultural and technological progress. Consider highways and roads that humanity has built for itself.
Title for ‘Earth’s first animal’ likely goes to simple sea creature The first animal to appear on Earth was very likely the simple sea sponge. New genetic analyses led by MIT researchers confirm that sea sponges are the source of a curious molecule found in rocks that are 640 million years old. These rocks significantly predate the Cambrian explosion — the period in which most animal groups took over the planet, 540 million years ago — suggesting that sea sponges may have been the first animals to inhabit the Earth. “We brought together paleontological and genetic evidence to make a pretty strong case that this really is a molecular fossil of sponges,” says David Gold, a postdoc in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS). The results are published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. See how MIT researchers found that sea sponges are likely to be Earth's first animal Video: Melanie Gonick/MIT Ancient molecular clues Growing an evolutionary tree
The Futurist: Are You Acceleration Aware? The single most necessary component of any attempt to make predictions about the future is a deep internalized understanding of the accelerating, exponential rate of change. So many supposed 'experts' merely project the rate of progress as a linear trend, or even worse, fail to recognize progress at all, and make predictions that end up being embarrassingly wrong. For example, recall that in the early 1970s, everyone thought that by 2000, all of the Earth's oil would be used up. Equally simple-minded predictions are made today. "By 2080, Social Security will no longer be able pay benefits, leaving many middle Americans with insufficient retirement funds." 2080?! Or how about this one? "Immigration to the US from third-world countries will make such people a majority of the US population by 2100, making the US a third-world country." 'Third-world'? In any event, the world of 2100 will be more different from 2006 than 2006 is different from 8000 BC. Here is why :
Did all animal life on Earth begin with a sea sponge? Scientists estimate that there are about 8.7 million species of animals on Earth – give or take 1.3 million. But in the beginning there could be only one. That animal was very likely the simple sea sponge, according to a study by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Based on new genetic tests, the team of scientists can say with confidence that molecules produced by sea sponges have been found in 640-million-year-old rocks. These rocks significantly predate the Cambrian explosion, the period 540 million years ago in which most animal groups took over the planet, suggesting that sea sponges may have been the first animals. The researchers write in the study, which was published Friday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that their testing provides “the oldest evidence for animal life.” Paleontologists have long struggled to determine which type of animal was the first to the evolutionary line.
Ray Kurzweil Speaking at Geek Park Innovation Conference, Beijing, China - Futurism Ray Kurzweil Speaking at Geek Park Innovation Conference, Beijing, China Share This Tweet This Join .wp-social-login-connect-with{}.wp-social-login-provider-list{}.wp-social-login-provider-list a{}.wp-social-login-provider-list img{}.wsl_connect_with_provider{} Connect with: