By Rich McKay, Dave Sherwood and Brendan O'Brien (Reuters) -Tropical Storm Idalia swirled into a hurricane on Tuesday after skirting

TL;DR: The Kindle (2022) is on sale for $64.99 this Prime Day. This deal is

Elon Musk said Friday his social media company X would scrap a feature that allows users to block...

President Joe Biden has convened a group of technology leaders in San Francisco to debate the risks and promises of artificial intelligence

A huge mass of heat-emitting rock has been found buried beneath the surface of the Moon. The incredible discovery was made beneath one of the Moon’s craters, where a large mass of granite has slowly been releasing heat for years. Experts know that the Moon used to have eruptions and lava fields flowing from it, but until now, they have never uncovered evidence that is reminiscent of Earth-like volcanoes, underneath which granite forms when magma cools and crystalises deep beneath the surface. Now, that has changed after astronomers looked a bit more deeply at what lies beneath the Compton and Belkovich craters, located on the far side of the Moon. There they came across a large piece of granite rock that is emitting heat. The discovery excited experts as granite is not commonly found outside of Earth. Granite on the Moon was discovered using data from both Chinese and American lunar orbiters, and the information has revealed a whole new volcanic process never before witnessed. In a statement, one of the lead researchers, Dr Matt Siegler, from the Planetary Science Institute, said: “Using an instrument looking at microwave wavelengths – longer than infrared – sent to the Moon on both the Chinese Chang’E 1 and 2 orbiters, we have been able to map temperatures below the surface. “What we found was that one of these suspected volcanoes, known as Compton-Belkovich, was absolutely glowing at microwave wavelengths.” He continued: “What this means is that it is hot, not necessarily at the surface, as you would see in infrared, but under the surface. “The only way to explain this is from extra heat coming from somewhere below the feature within the deeper lunar crust. So Compton-Belkovich, thought to be a volcano, is also hiding a large heat source below it.” Using the data, they believe the 12-mile wide dip makes up the caldera, or depression, of the ancient volcano, where the surface temperature is 10°C higher than the surrounding areas. The volcano is thought to have last erupted 3.5 billion years ago and experts believe the heat that is emitting from the granite below is due to trapped radioactive material in the rock. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Police in the UK have blamed an Android smartphone update on a record increase in accidental 999 calls. The National Police Chiefs Council said the Emergency SOS function was resulting in emergency switchboards being overwhelmed by “silent” calls. The emergency feature is activated when a side button on a device is repeatedly pressed, which triggers a countdown that allows the action to be cancelled by dragging a slider across the screen. However, many users appear to inadvertently initiate emergency calls when their device is in a bag or pocket. “Nationally, all emergency services are currently experiencing record high 999 call volumes,” the National Police Chiefs Council said. “There’s a few reasons for this, but one we think is having a significant impact is an update to Android smartphones.” Met Police chief superintendent Dan Ivey said people should disable the emergency feature, claiming that an “unprecedented” number of calls to emergency lines in June were a result of people accidentally activating it. The majority of smartphone owners in the UK use Android, with Samsung, Huawei and Google Pixel phones all using the mobile operating system. Google, which first began rolling out the Emergency SOS update with the release of Android 12 in 2021, said that it was working with these smartphone manufacturers in order to resolve the issue. “To help these manufacturers prevent unintentional emergency calls on their devices, Android is providing them with additional guidance and resources,” a spokesperson for Google said. “We anticipate device manufacturers will roll out updates to their users that address this issue shortly. Users that continue to experience this issue should switch Emergency SOS off for the next couple of days.” The feature can be deactivated within the ‘Safety and Emergency’ section of Android’s settings. Android researcher Mishaal Rahman noted on Twitter that the issue also appeared to impact other law enforcement agencies around the world, including police in Canada and Europe. Read More Facebook and Instagram to block news in Canada Police warn about dangerous emergency setting on Android phones Meta rejects accusation of censorship of language around female body Facebook and Instagram to block news in Canada

The daughter of King James VI and I was Electress Palatine of the Rhine and Queen of Bohemia, and through her grandson, the founder of a new British ruling dynasty.

A review of the NCAA’s business suggested the association should find creative ways to support member schools

Tesla titan and multi-billionaire Elon Musk has reportedly warned US senators at a private meeting that unregulated artificial intelligence technology poses a “civilisational risk” to society. Senate majority leader Chuch Schumer convened a meeting of the most prominent tech executives in the US to help pass a bipartisan legislation encouraging both the rapid development of AI technology and also mitigating its biggest risks. The closed-door meeting was attended by some of the tech industry’s biggest names, including Tesla and SpaceX boss Mr Musk, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, former Microsoft chief Bill Gates, Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai, as well as OpenAI founder Sam Altman. As Mr Musk left the Capitol building following several hours of the meeting, he told reporters that “we have to be proactive rather than reactive” in regulating AI as its consequences of going wrong are “severe”. “The question is really one of civilizational risk. It’s not like … one group of humans versus another. It’s like, hey, this is something that’s potentially risky for all humans everywhere,” he said, according to NBC News. Mr Musk also reportedly called for a government AI agency, similar to the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Federal Aviation Administration to oversee developments in the sector and ensure safety. Leaders in the tech industry also called for a balanced approach towards regulating AI. In his prepared remarks, Mr Zuckerberg said the two defining issues for AI are “safety and access”, adding that the US Congress should “engage with AI to support innovation and safeguards”. “New technology often brings new challenges, and it’s on companies to make sure we build and deploy products responsibly,” the Meta chief said. “This is an emerging technology, there are important equities to balance here, and the government is ultimately responsible for that,” he added. The Facebook founder called for policymakers, academics, civil society and industry to work together to minimise the potential risks of AI, but also to maximise its potential benefits. Some of the measures he suggested for building safeguards into AI systems included “selecting the data to train with, extensively red-teaming internally and externally to identify and fix issues, fine-tuning the models for alignment, and partnering with safety-minded cloud providers to add additional filters to the systems we release”. As lawmakers at the US Capitol Hill interacted with tech giant chiefs about potential AI regulations, companies including Microsoft, OpenAI, Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon were also being probed on the conditions of the workers behind tools like ChatGPT, Bing, and Bard. Lawmakers are reportedly probing the working conditions of data labelers who are tasked by companies, often at outsourced firms, to label data used to train AI and for rating chatbot responses. “Despite the essential nature of this work, millions of data workers around the world perform these stressful tasks under constant surveillance, with low wages and no benefits,” lawmakers, including Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey, said in a letter to tech executives. “These conditions not only harm the workers, they also risk the quality of the AI systems –potentially undermining accuracy, introducing bias, and jeopardizing data protection,” they said. Read More Elon Musk was on brink of death after catching malaria on South African safari, book claims Fatherhood, rows with Amber Heard and ‘the woke mind virus’: 6 big revelations from Elon Musk’s biography Putin praises Musk as ‘outstanding person’ days after report Tesla boss stopped Ukrainian attack Long-form video content is here to stay, says YouTube UK boss Cybertruck sparked Tesla revolt that saw secret design plan, Musk biography reveals Everything Apple killed off at iPhone 15 event

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 8, 2023--

Scientists have made an astonishing discovery that suggests bacteria contain memories to be passed on to future generations. Researchers at the University of Texas and the University of Delaware found that despite having no brain or nervous system, certain bacteria may be able to form memories and remember certain behaviours depending on the available cellular iron. When iron levels are low, bacteria can hunt for local iron in their environment, prompting scientists to believe its memory has evolved, according to Science Alert. "Bacteria don’t have brains, but they can gather information from their environment, and if they have encountered that environment frequently, they can store that information and quickly access it later for their benefit," Souvik Bhattacharyya, the lead author of the recent study said. "We show [...] that a prior experience of swarming is remembered when Escherichia coli encounters a new surface, improving its future swarming efficiency," Souvik explained. "An iron-based memory might offer the advantage of providing a hub connecting various stress responses such as antibiotic survival and biofilms." The 'memories' lasted for around four generations, before generally coming to an end by the seventh. "Before there was oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere, early cellular life was utilizing iron for a lot of cellular processes. Iron is not only critical in the origin of life on Earth, but also in the evolution of life,” the study author went on to explain. "It makes sense that cells would utilize it in this way." How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

(Reuters) -Ford Motor on Monday named former Apple executive Peter Stern as the president of its newly-formed integrated services unit