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☆ Could these Verto air purification towers tackle India’s pollution problem?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Oscar Holland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Designed by architecture firm Studio Symbiosis, which has offices in India and Germany, the towers contain five air filtration “cubes” stacked inside a geometric shell. Studio Symbiosis said that a construction company in the US has meanwhile ordered around 40 of the towers to tackle dust and fine debris at building sites. Using filters from German firm Mann+Hummel, the Studio Symbiosis architects focused on creating the most efficient shape for the towers, with digital models simulating different wind conditions. “Our core business is architecture — we did not want to get into air purification,” Amit said. Avesh GaurIronically, by using electric fans to suck in air, the towers are contributing — albeit negligibly — to the very emissions they are trying to mitigate.

☆ Sudan one month on: Why cease-fires are failing, and what global leaders are missing
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Elliot Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

KHARTOUM, Sudan - May 6, 2023: Sudanese Army sodliers walk near armoured vehicles stationed on a street in southern Khartoum, amid ongoing fighting against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. AFP via Getty ImagesOne month after fighting between Sudan's two military factions broke out in the capital, Khartoum, internationally-brokered peace talks in Saudi Arabia have yielded no solution. Almost a million people have fled their homes, both to locations within Sudan and across the border to neighboring countries. The World Bank and several global powers froze aid to the country after the military takeover, honoring calls from civilians not to legitimize its leadership. Targeted and collaborative efforts by the international community to exert pressure on the countries supporting Sudan's military factions were needed, Abdel-Magied said.

☆ I lived and worked in Antarctica for 5 months without WiFi or running water. Here's what surprised me.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-14 | by ( Sarah Jackson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Lucy Bruzzone is one of several women who spent the last five months working in Antarctica. I've always been fascinated by ice and the polar regions and I'd been exploring opportunities to visit Antarctica for many years. At the same time, changes in Antarctica affect our lives at home, destabilizing systems we depend on for food, water, and security. Lucy Bruzzone spent five months in Antarctica. Work was more physical day-to-day, but I still spent a lot of time working at a laptop for someone in Antarctica!

CNN —A Swiss village has been ordered to evacuate amid warnings a large mass of rock looming overhead could come tumbling down in the coming days. Leaders in Brienz held a town hall event on Tuesday evening and told residents they would have to leave by 6 pm local time on Friday. Rebecca Dell, a researcher at the University of Cambridge warns that climate change is driving glacier melt in the Alps. If a slope becomes too unstable, events such as rockslides may occur,” she told CNN. The village, which houses under 100 residents, according to Swiss public broadcaster SRF, is located in Switzerland’s eastern canton of Graubünden.

☆ Return of Benin Bronzes delayed after Nigerian president's decree
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Macdonald Dzirutwe | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

But an official gazette signed by President Muhammadu Buhari on March 28 said the Oba of Benin was the rightful owner of all returned Benin Bronzes and was responsible for the management of all places where the artefacts were kept. The commission has in the past signed agreements to return looted artefacts, including from Cambridge college and Germany. The University of Cambridge's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. There have been questions on whether Nigeria has capacity to safely keep artefacts returned from abroad. The palace has previously said it planned to build a museum to house returned artefacts.

☆ A 'tinderbox' with no easy off-ramps: What the Sudan conflict means for the world
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Elliot Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

Smoke rises during clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Khartoum, Sudan on April 19, 2023. "We urge the Sudanese army to respect the ceasefire and its conditions to alleviate the suffering of innocent civilians. - | Afp | Getty ImagesNotorious Russian mercenary force Wagner Group has been linked to various commercial and military operations in Sudan. Italian citizens are boarded on an Italian Air Force C130 aircraft during their evacuation from Khartoum, Sudan, in this undated photo obtained by Reuters on April 24, 2023. "The RSF is likely to target oil infrastructure linking South Sudan with Khartoum and the export terminal at Port Sudan," Verisk Maplecroft's Hunter suggested.

☆ Science Proves the 4-Day Workweek Prevents Burnout, Helps Productivity
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Shubham Agarwal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

At the time, back in 2018, a New Zealand firm had just wrapped up a landmark trial to test the efficacy of a four-day workweek. A lot of the benefits of the four-day workweek come down to a simple, everyday activity: sleep. A lot of the benefits of the four-day workweek come down to a simple, everyday activity: sleep. Less time, more productiveThough the four-day workweek may seem like a recent phenomenon, it's been decades in the making. But for now, the four-day workweek certainly has the potential to be a far-reaching antidote to pressing workplace concerns such as mass resignations and the burnout crisis.

☆ An academic used ChatGPT to write a letter of recommendation that helped a student win a prestigious scholarship from Cambridge
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Matt Huculak, a university librarian, used ChatGPT to help write a letter of recommendation for a student. The "heartfelt" letter may have helped the student win a prestigious scholarship to Cambridge. A screenshot of the ChatGPT-generated reference letter Huculak used as a template of what not to write. After all, writing a reference letter, Huculak said, "is a tremendously difficult task" that he finds "anxiety producing." "I think committees will quickly learn to spot ChatGPT letters," Huculak said.

☆ Deadly heat waves fueled by climate change are threatening India's development, study says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Helen Regan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Deadly heat waves fueled by climate change are threatening India’s development and risk reversing its progress on poverty alleviation, health and economic growth, a new study has found. Since 1992, more than 24,000 people have died because of heat waves in India, the study said. And the impacts are expected to get worse as heat waves become more frequent, intense and lethal due to the climate crisis. More than 90% of the country could be severely impacted by heat waves, falling into an extreme heat “danger” zone, according to the heat index, the study found. The heat index is how hot it feels and considers both air temperature and humidity to assess the heat’s impact on the population.

☆ Type 2 diabetes: Coffee, tea lower risk of heart disease and early death
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Sandee Lamotte | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —If you have type 2 diabetes, drinking more coffee, tea or plain water may lower your risk of dying prematurely from any cause by about 25%, a new study found. However, drinking more sugar-sweetened beverages raised the risk of heart disease by 25% and the risk of dying from a heart attack or another cardiovascular event by 29%, the study said. Adults with type 2 diabetes who drink more coffee or tea lower their risk of heart disease, a new study said. There was a 26% lower risk of early death associated with drinking coffee, 21% for tea, 23% for plain water and 12% for low-fat milk. When both sugar-sweetened and artificial no-calorie drinks were replaced with coffee, tea, plain water and low-fat milk, there was an even lower risk of heart disease and death from any cause.

☆ India's heatwaves putting economy, development goals at risk - study
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SINGAPORE, April 20 (Reuters) - Killer heat waves are putting "unprecedented burdens" on India's agriculture, economy and public health, with climate change undermining the country's long-term efforts to reduce poverty, inequality and illness, a new study showed. India is now "facing a collision of multiple, cumulative climate hazards", with extreme weather happening almost every day from January to October last year, they said. As much as 90% of India's total area now lies in extreme heat danger zones, and it is not fully prepared, he warned. "India has already done quite a bit in terms of heat mitigation - they actually now recognise heatwaves as part of their disaster relief package," he said. The researchers also warned that heatwaves were weakening India's efforts to meet its "Social Development Goals", a list of 17 U.N. objectives to cut poverty, hunger, inequality and disease.

☆ Fact Check-Images purporting to show ancient alien artifacts unearthed during World War Two are AI-generated
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Images created through AI of ancient alien artifacts alongside Nazi soldiers have been shared online, with some claiming they show secret discoveries in Antarctica or Egypt. Similar posts were shared on Facebook (here) and (here). The images, however, can be traced back to the Instagram page of Infinite Odyssey, an online magazine that claims to be “the first fully A.I. The post sharing the images carries a disclaimer that reads “WRITTEN BY A.I. Images purporting to show ancient alien artifacts were generated through AI.

Launched in February 2022, the FTX Future Fund was part of the FTX Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto empire which fell apart last year, in what U.S. prosecutors called an "epic" fraud. Representatives for FTX also declined to comment and declined to say whether the FTX Foundation is included in the bankruptcy proceedings. The FTX Future Fund supported research into topics that "improve humanity's long-term prospects" and was funded primarily by Bankman-Fried, according to a profile of its activities published on Twitter. FTX's statement did not reference the FTX Future Fund specifically. One FTX Future Fund beneficiary in the U.S., who asked not to be named, said they received a grant of more than $150,000.

☆ Medieval monks' observations of the moon reveal unexpected
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Katie Hunt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Medieval observations of the moon are helping present-day researchers study a mysterious cluster of volcanic eruptions on Earth. Monks, and other scribes from the era, made detailed descriptions of lunar eclipses, when the moon is fully in Earth’s shadow. Guillet believes medieval manuscripts contain an important source of information about a string of large but little-understood volcanic eruptions on Earth. These dates correspond with five major volcanic eruptions identified from traces of volcanic ash found in polar ice cores — in 1108, 1171, 1230, 1257 and 1276. “These eruptions were significantly more powerful than some of the most well-known volcanic eruptions in recent history,” Guillet said.

☆ 'It's honestly changed my life': Employees from one of the biggest 4-day-workweek trials say working less improved their lives but was a big adjustment
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Employees working four-day weeks told Insider having the extra day off was an adjustment at first. "It's hard to overstate how good it's been," Jo Sims, a senior case manager at AKA Case Management, told Insider, adding: "It's honestly changed my life." Sims said the extra day off had improved her mental health, eased her stress levels, and left her with a new perspective. The study was led by academics from Boston College, the University of Cambridge, and the research organization Autonomy in partnership with the campaign groups 4 Day Week Global and 4 Day Week Campaign. A representative for the 4 Day Week Campaign put Insider in contact with the four employees that are referenced in this article.

☆ AI 'prompt engineer' jobs can pay up to $335,000 a year and don't always require a background in tech
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The rise in generative AI tools like ChatGPT has created a hot market for "prompt engineers." Sam Altman, the CEO of ChatGPT developer OpenAI, has spoken about the need for prompt engineers. Anna Bernstein, a prompt engineer at Copy.ai, was a freelance writer and historical research assistant before she started working with AI tools. Prompt marketplace PromptBase, which launched last June, allows people to hire prompt engineers or sell their prompts. Don't dwell too much on the current state of prompt engineering.

☆ Locks of hair compose a symphony of genetic information on Beethoven
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Will Dunham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Researchers said on Wednesday his genome showed the German composer was both genetically predisposed to liver disease and had hepatitis B virus infection. The new findings suggest there were multiple factors behind his liver disease including genetics, viral infection and alcohol consumption. "Prior to this study, alcohol was the only definitely known risk factor for Beethoven's liver disease." Beethoven experienced progressive hearing loss starting at age 29 and by 44 his hearing loss was complete, though he continued to compose masterpieces. There was no evidence found for conditions hypothesized by some experts such as otosclerosis or Paget's disease, Begg said.

☆ A group of companies say they plan to continue with a 4-day workweek after workers on a trial took fewer sick days and resignations fell
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A UK four-day workweek trial published its results on Tuesday. 92% of the 61 companies which took part say they plan to continue with the policy. Fewer workers quit or took sick days during the trial versus the same time the year before. The researchers found that fewer workers quit or took sick days during this period versus the same time the year before. It is not clear whether any of these results are directly impacted by a change to the four-day week, however.

☆ 40% of employees in a 4-day work week trial reported fewer sleep issues
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Britney Nguyen | Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

40% of employees who participated in the UK's four-day work week trial reported fewer sleep issues. The UK's four-day work week trial, one of the largest in the world, saw 61 companies participate in the trial. In the 4-day work week pilot, 46% of employees reported experiencing less fatigue than usual, and 14% said they experienced more. In addition to better sleep, participating employees reported other benefits of working 32 hours instead of 40 for the same amount of pay. Thirty-nine percent of employees reported feeling less stress, and 71% felt less burnout by the end of the trial.

☆ Mysterious flying objects across the US probably aren't aliens, but experts believe life is out there. Here are 13 reasons why we haven't made contact yet.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Aylin Woodward | Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Even if intelligent aliens aren't flying overhead, though, many experts believe they're out there. Nobel Physics Laureate Didier Queloz speaks during a press conference at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden. Jonas Ekstromer /TT News Agency via AP"I can't believe we are the only living entity in the whole universe. Queloz had just won the Nobel prize in physics for his discovery of the first exoplanet orbiting a sun-like star. He said that his work has led him to become "absolutely convinced" that humans will detect alien life in the next 100 years.

☆ Laziness isn’t why you procrastinate. This is
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Kristen Rogers | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

“Laziness is like, ‘I have absolutely no desire to even think about this.’ Procrastination is, ‘It troubles me to think about this. “It can leave people feeling very defeated and feeling like there’s no point in trying.”Knowing why you procrastinate can make you self-aware, but you still need strategies to break the habit. The types of procrastinationA procrastinator is usually a perfectionist, Yip said. “Because the perfectionist needs things done perfectly — all Ts crossed and Is dotted — it takes an insurmountable amount of effort. “Defiers usually don’t feel equipped to have these conversations with who they see as authority figures, or they don’t believe that having the conversations would give them any benefit or positive outcome.

Persons: you’re, procrastination, Jenny Yip, Procrastination, Linda Sapadin, ”, Yip, “, Vara Saripalli, ” Saripalli, Itamar Shatz, Shatz, Saripalli, ” Yip, … That’s, Sean Grover Organizations: CNN, Los, Little Thinkers Center, Procrastination, University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, University of Cambridge Locations: Los Angeles, America, Chicago, United Kingdom, New York City

☆ When Does Life Begin?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Elizabeth Dias | Bethany Mollenkof | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +19 min

“It is not black and white.”America’s fight over abortion has long circled a question, one that is broad and without consensus:When does life begin? The question of when life begins has been so politicized it can be hard to thoughtfully engage. Ancient Egypt gave the power to create new human life almost entirely to men. The scientific revolution, from Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to reproductive science, disrupted centuries of thought on human life. “When does the responsibility for a life begin and end?”

[1/3] A general view of hydrogen electrolysis plant called 'REFHYNE', one of the world's first green hydrogen plants, during a launch event at Shell's Rhineland refinery in Wesseling near Cologne, Germany, July 2, 2021. REUTERS/Thilo SchmuelgenLONDON, Dec 22 (Reuters) - The green hydrogen express is gathering pace, but it may have a worrying problem with leaks. At least four studies published this year say hydrogen loses its environmental edge when it seeps into the atmosphere. The United States included billions of dollars of green hydrogen tax credits in its Inflation Reduction Act and the European Union approved 5.2 billion euros ($5.5 billion) in subsidies for green hydrogen projects in September. While potential leakages of hydrogen are not expected to be on a scale that could derail all green hydrogen plans, any seepage would erode its climate benefits, they say.

Researchers for decades have attempted to recreate nuclear fusion – replicating the fusion that powers the sun. Nuclear fusion happens when two or more atoms are fused into one larger one, a process that generates a massive amount of energy as heat. Scientists across the globe have been inching toward the breakthrough, using different methods to try to achieve the same goal. This heat can then be used to warm water, create steam and power turbines to generate power. “The opposing argument is that this result is miles away from actual energy gain required for the production of electricity,” he said.

☆ Oldest DNA reveals life in Greenland 2 million years ago
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

NEW YORK — Scientists discovered the oldest known DNA and used it to reveal what life was like 2 million years ago in the northern tip of Greenland. With animal fossils hard to come by, the researchers extracted environmental DNA, also known as eDNA, from soil samples. Studying really old DNA can be a challenge because the genetic material breaks down over time, leaving scientists with only tiny fragments. In their study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, they compared the DNA to that of different species, looking for matches. He worked on the study that previously held the “oldest DNA” record, from a mammoth tooth around a million years old.

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