Nasa has discovered “diverse organic matter” on the surface of Mars, which could change our understanding of the red planet and the search for life in the universe. The Perseverance rover made the discovery in the Jezero Crater on Mars and a number of different explanations for the existence of the material have been posited. The materials could have been formed when water and dust interacted, or was dropped onto the planet by dust or meteors. Authors of the new study also refused to rule out that the materials are “biotic”, or came about due to the existence of life on the surface. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The findings could have a big impact on the continued search for alien life, with research into the organic matter on the surface telling us more about the existence of carbon sources on Mars. The Jezero crater has been explored by The Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (Sherloc) instrument on the rover since February 2021. The crater is the site of an ancient lake basin and all 10 target sites explored within it came back with signs of organic molecules. Even if the materials are not biological in origin, research into them could be crucial in the search for alien life, according to the researchers. “Not all organics are biological in origin. Observing spatial relationships between minerals and organics is necessary when evaluating organic origins and potential biosignatures. Everything we know of life on Earth is limited to what is preserved in the rock-mineral record. On Earth, biosignatures are found in certain minerals and some minerals are better at preserving organics than others,” said Ashley E Murphy, a researcher at the Planetary Science Institute and co-author on the new paper. “Mars may have had a similar early geologic history to Earth so we use our knowledge of life as we know it on Earth for where to look for potential evidence of past life on Mars. Mapping organics allows for a better understanding of if the Martian carbon cycle is similar to or different from Earth, and the potential of Mars to host life.” Writing in the Nature journal, the authors said: “Our findings suggest there may be a diversity of aromatic molecules prevalent on the Martian surface, and these materials persist despite exposure to surface conditions. “These potential organic molecules are largely found within minerals linked to aqueous processes, indicating that these processes may have had a key role in organic synthesis, transport or preservation.” The findings are published in a new article, ‘Diverse organic-mineral associations in Jezero crater, Mars’, in Nature. 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.

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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

The viral "Chalkboard Mom" from 2012 has come back with an update on her daughter Laikynn, and social media is loving it. McKinli Hatch had the now famous photo to her blog Mommy's Little Sunshine over ten years ago, whilst she was pregnant with her daughter. The photo shows Hatch standing next to a chalkboard that lists the potential names for her daughter: Taylee, McKarty, Nayvie, and Maylee, all crossed out, with the circled "Lakynn" at the bottom. Hatch's unique name choice has ingrained herself, and her daughter, into internet culture, and 11 years later, we've been given an update. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Hatch posted a video of her and Laikynn at the beach with the caption "throw back to my first viral photo". The text overlay in the video reads: "The people realise you are the 'Chalk Board Mom' and Laikynn is now 11 years old." Viewers seemingly loved the throwback as the jokes about Hatch's choice of spelling resurfaced a decade later. @mckinli Throw back to my first viral photo ? "I named my daughter Mcieckaealeighphla (pronounced like Lauren) because of you," one viewer joked. "My daughter is Saighlaur (pronounced Mary of course) so I completely get it!" Many said that Hatch was "iconic" for bringing us back for an update. The TikTok even made its way over to Twitter, with many feeling nostalgic for the original meme: Some also noticed that Laikynn's name is spelled with an extra 'I' than the original name: But one user explained the reason behind the extra 'i': The original blog has seemingly been inactive since 2016, but Hatch has since grown a sizeable following on TikTok, posting fashion content as well as documenting her experience as a single mum. 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.

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The Warzone 2 Shadow Siege Event ends on Aug. 21 at 1:30 p.m., giving players four more days to earn free rewards and participate in the MW3 reveal.

LONDON & BERGEN, Norway--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 13, 2023--

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