Astronomers have discovered a key ingredient for life at the edge of our Milky Way galaxy. A team from the University of Arizona detected the presence of phosphorus while studying molecular clouds on the outskirts of the galaxy using giant radio telescopes in the US and Spain. Phosphorus is one of the so-called NCHOPS elements that make up the critical ingredients for life on Earth – nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulphur. All of the others have already been found on the edge of the galaxy, so the discovery of phosphorus has direct implications for the search for Earth-like planets around distant stars. Their observations of the chemical 74,000 light-years from the centre of the Milky Way calls into question our fundamental understanding of the universe, the researchers said. “The phosphorus we detected is at the edge of the galaxy, where it shouldn’t be,” said Lilia Koelemay, a doctoral student at the University of Arizona who led the research. Theories that could explain its presence include supernova stars, which are typically not found on the edge of galaxies, and low mass stars generating excess neutrons that are then added onto silicon atoms to create phosphorus. “To make phosphorus, you need some kind of violent event,” said Lucy Ziurys, Regents Professor of chemistry and biochemistry and astronomy at Steward Observatory. “It is thought that phosphorus is created in supernova explosions, and for that, you need a star that has at least 20 times the mass of the Sun. In other words, if you’re going to have life, you better be near a supernova, if that’s indeed the only source where phosphorus is created.” The detection of phosphorus at the edge of the galaxy could motivate studies of distant exoplanets, the researchers hope, which have not been properly considered until now due to the assumed lack of the chemical. The research team now plans to examine other molecular clouds in the far reaches of the Milky Way to see if they contain phosphorus. Their discovery was described in a paper, titled ‘Phosphorus-bearing molecules PO and PN at the edge of the galaxy’, in the scientific journal Nature. Read More Astronomers find unprecedented ‘disc’ around distant planet Astronomers discover new six-planet system China unveils ‘foldable’ Mars helicopter in mission to return samples to Earth China unveils ‘foldable’ Mars helicopter in mission to return samples to Earth New images of Mars released by Nasa’s Odyssey orbiter Scientists find planets moving around in strange ‘rhythm’

UPDATE: Jul. 12, 2023, 6:20 p.m. EDT This list has been updated with the best

European banks are building out their risk models to better prepare for the fallout from climate change, with

Sir Paul McCartney said artificial intelligence has been used to create “the last Beatles record”, which is set to be released later this year. The 80-year-old former Beatle said technology was used to extract late bandmate John Lennon’s voice from an old demo and “get it pure” for what he said will be the final song from the Liverpool band. He told Martha Kearney on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that AI is an “interesting thing” and “something that we’re all sort of tackling at the moment” and trying to deal with. “When Peter Jackson did the film (The Beatles) Get Back, where it was us making the Let It Be album, he was able to extricate John’s voice from a ropey little bit of cassette and a piano. He could separate them with AI, he’d tell the machine ‘That’s a voice, this is a guitar, lose the guitar’. “So when we came to make what will be the last Beatles record, it was a demo that John had that we worked on and we just finished it up. It will be released this year. “We were able to take John’s voice and get it pure through this AI so then we could mix the record as you would do. It gives you some sort of leeway.” Sir Paul said there is a “good side” to AI but also a “scary side”. “We will just have to see where that leads,” he said. The singer-songwriter also spoke about his forthcoming exhibition to mark the reopening of the National Portrait Gallery, titled Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes Of The Storm, which incorporates unseen photographs taken by Sir Paul during the early days of The Beatles. The archive features more than 250 images taken between November 1963 and February 1964, which capture the emergence of Beatlemania through the personal lens of Sir Paul’s Pentax camera. The exhibition will run from June 28 to October 1 at the gallery, which has undergone three years of major refurbishment. It features portraits of Sir Ringo Starr as well as late bandmates George Harrison and Lennon, and manager Brian Epstein. Sir Paul said: “It is very poignant, it’s great because, whenever you lose someone, I think your natural thing is ‘Well, we’ve got beautiful memories’, and you hold fast those memories of the good times. “I don’t tend to dwell on the fact that you’ve lost someone. After a while – it’ll maybe take a year or two – and then you can look back and you just remember where you met them, things you did… “And when it came to The Beatles, and you have this overwhelming stuff happening to you, you knew each other so well that you could lean on each other – that’s what I see in these pictures.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Put ‘public good’ at heart of AI and new tech, Starmer to say Ukrainian schoolboy to buy home for his mother after selling Minecraft server Legislation needed to protect data from AI ‘ghostbots’, say researchers

SEOUL, South Korea--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 21, 2023--

Crypto exchange Gate.io rejected rumors about its health that caused a related token to sink, saying its “operations

Google has been accused of “secretly stealing everything ever created and shared on the internet” in order to train its AI chatbot Bard. The class-action lawsuit filed in California alleges that Google and its AI division DeepMind used data from millions of Americans without their knowledge or consent to build its generative AI products. “Personal data of every kind, especially conversational data between humans, is critical to the AI training process,” the lawsuit notes. “This is how products like Bard develop human-like communication capabilities. Creative and expressive works are just as valuable because that is how AI products learn to ‘create’ art.” Google updated its online privacy policy earlier this month, stating that it can use publicly available data to train its artificial intelligence tools. According to the latest lawsuit, this change was designed to “double-down on its position that everything on the internet is fair game for the company to take for private gain and commercial use, including to build and enhance AI products like Bard”. Beyond freely available data, the lawsuit claims that Google illegally accessed “at least 200 million materials explicitly protected by copyright”, including the text from books and articles behind paywalls. Among those copyrighted materials is allegedly a book written by one of the plaintiffs named in the legal action. Many of the other plaintiffs named are listed solely as users of Google products like Search and Gmail, as well as other online platforms like TikTok. The lawsuit alleges that Google scraped “the entire internet to take anything it could, whether contributed on Google platforms or not, and without regard for the privacy, property, and consumer protection interests of hundreds of millions of Americans who shared their insights, talents, artwork, data, personally identifiable information, and more, for specific purposes, not one of which was to train large language models to profit Google while putting the world at peril with untested and volatile AI products”. OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which features similar capabilities to Google’s Bard, also has a proposed class action lawsuit filed against it, which accuses the chatbot of drawing on “massive amounts of personal data from the internet”. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Independent, but a spokesperson told Reuters that the allegations were “baseless”. Read More Google’s AI chatbot Bard can now talk Elon Musk reveals plan to use AI to reveal mysteries of the universe

OXNARD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 25, 2023--

X CEO Linda Yaccarino, leader of the platform formerly known as Twitter, said the company is keeping an eye on new competitor Threads, despite the sharply slowing growth of the rival app from Meta.

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 13, 2023--

The Nintendo Switch is more than six years old, and shows no signs of slowing

Apple announced the new iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro today, and while the highlight