Science & Tech

About fifteen years ago, nine planetary boundaries were determined that must not be exceeded in order for Earth to continue to be a similar planet to that which it was before the Industrial Revolution. Recent scientific studies show that six of these nine limits have already been exceeded.

Since the end of the last ice age, approximately 11,000 years ago, there had been no significant change in environmental and climatic conditions for a very long time. Until human activities slowly begin to degrade nature... Today, it is suggested that the Holocene period, which began after the last ice age, has ended and a new geological period, called the Anthropocene, has begun, in which human influence on the Earth's geology and ecosystems is clearly seen. There are even scientific studies being conducted on how the beginning of the Anthropocene can be defined.

Until about 200 years ago, people lived on a relatively empty Earth. The population was small, natural resources were abundant. When local conditions deteriorated, they could easily migrate to other places more suitable for living. After scientific and technological developments in the last two centuries, public health has improved significantly. The total human population on Earth began to increase rapidly. We live in a full world now. Avoiding the environmental and climate problems we are causing is not as easy as it used to be. Moreover, it is difficult to predict today the final point that the changes caused by human activities will reach. Necessary steps need to be taken to ensure that natural conditions remain within safe limits. Otherwise, devastating consequences may arise for human societies.

In a 2009 paper, a group of researchers identified nine planetary boundaries that must not be exceeded in order for Earth to continue to support human societies as it did in the distant past. These limits were under the following headings: climate change, biosphere integrity, ozone depletion, ocean acidity, nitrogen and phosphorus pollution, deforestation, freshwater, atmospheric aerosols, and synthetic chemicals. When the first article was published, the amount of data available was small and quantitative values ​​for the boundaries in all headings could not be determined. However, in the meantime, many studies have been conducted. In a recently published article, quantitative criteria for all topics were determined for the first time. The results show that the trend is worsening in all but one of the headings.

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Materials Discovered by Artificial Intelligence

A group of Google DeepMind employees recently developed a new artificial intelligence application that helps discover crystals with desired properties. The application, called GNOME, predicted 2.2 million new crystal structures. It is stated that approximately 380,000 of these structures are relatively more stable and have the potential to be used in technological devices in the future. from computer chips. 28,000 new materials discovered with its help were added.

Crystalline solids are used in many technological devices, from solar panels to solar panels. Not until recent years, researchers trying to develop new materials tried various combinations through trial and error, but these studies took a very long time. Nowadays, many researchers trying to discover new crystals first resort to theoretical methods. Although theoretical predictions made using the speed of computers do not provide definitive results, they do give an idea about which components and which structures will create a material with the desired properties. In the past decade, with the help of theoretical calculations, 28000 new materials were added to the International Inorganic Crystal Database.

736 of the structures predicted by GNoME have been synthesized by various research groups around the world. Additionally, a research group working at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has conducted another study showing that materials predicted by GNoME can be synthesized autonomously in robotic laboratories. Studies conducted by both Google DeepMind and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researchers have been published in Nature. Nature is a British weekly scientific journal founded and based in London, England.

The researchers first trained the artificial intelligence application they developed with information from a database about crystal structures. The database can be accessed via The Materials Project's website.

The predictions made by the program during the training were also tested through a theoretical method called DFT. Among those discovered by GNoME are one-of-a-kind crystals, potential superconductors, conductors that could improve the performance of lithium-ion batteries, and many other materials that could be used in future technological devices.

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LANGUAGE LEARNING MAY BEFORE BIRTH

Experiments with new-born babies show that babies become aware of their native language while in the womb, pointing out that language learning may begin before birth.

Judit Gervain from the University of Padua in Italy states that it has been known for some time that babies in the womb can hear towards the end of pregnancy. In fact, new-born babies can recognize their mother's voice. To investigate further, Gervain and his colleagues examined the brain activity of 49 babies of French-speaking mothers at ages 1 to 5 days. Each new-born was fitted with a small cap containing 10 electrodes placed near areas of the brain associated with speech perception. The team then played the recordings to the babies in different orders, starting with 5 minutes of silence and continuing with 7 minutes of English, French and Spanish pieces from the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and then exposed the babies to silence for a while.

When the babies listened to the French recording, they showed an increase in a type of brain signal called long-range temporal connections, which are involved in perceiving and processing speech. As babies were exposed to other languages, these signals decreased. The team found that in a group of 17 infants who had last heard French, this increase in neural activity continued during the subsequent silence.

According to Gervaine, these findings may indicate that babies recognize their mothers' native language as the more important language. The team now plans to conduct experiments involving babies born to mothers who speak different languages, particularly Asian or African languages, to see how general their results are. She also wants to investigate how the development of speech perception in the womb might differ in babies with less prenatal experience, such as premature babies.