Nasa has built an artificial intelligence model to predict where on Earth an impending solar storm would strike, a new system that scientists said can provide “30 minutes of advance warning”. The AI model analyses Nasa satellite data to raise the alarm on dangerous space weather, said researchers from the American space agency’s Goddard Space Center. The warning may provide just enough time for countries to prevent severe impacts of these storms on power grids and other critical infrastructure, according to the new study published recently in the journal Space Weather. Solar storms are caused when the Sun emits a burst of electrically charged plasma in what is called a coronal mass ejection. These charged particles create so-called geomagnetic storms that may cause blackouts and technological malfunctions of instruments on Earth as they interfere with the protective magnetic field around the planet. While these storms range from mild to extreme, their effects could become increasingly disruptive in a technologically dependent world. For instance, a solar storm in 1989 caused blackouts across Quebec, Canada for 12 hours, plunging millions into the dark and closing schools and businesses. Another popular solar superstorm event known as the Carrington Event sparked fires at early telegraph stations in 1859 that prevented messages from being sent. Scientists warned that the risk of such a devastating solar storm is increasing as we approach the next “solar maximum” – a peak in the Sun’s 11-year activity cycle. To prevent such a devastation, Nasa scientists developed the new AI model to identify links between solar wind measurements from previous Sun missions and geomagnetic disturbances observed at ground stations across Earth. The computer model they developed, called DAGGER, can quickly and accurately predict geomagnetic disturbances worldwide, “30 minutes before they occur,” researchers said. When they tested the model against two geomagnetic storms that happened in August 2011 and March 2015, it was able to “quickly and accurately” forecast the storm’s impacts around the world. The new prediction system is the first to combine swift analysis of AI, with real measurements from space and across Earth to generate frequently updated predictions. Scientists believe the early warning provided by the system can help take action to protect infrastructure from an impending solar storm, such as temporarily taking sensitive systems offline or moving satellites to different orbits. Read More Stunning aurora lights up skies over Australia: ‘Brightest one I’ve ever seen’ How a severe solar storm could leave a lasting impact on our world The world is not yet ready to overcome a once-in-a-century solar superstorm, warn scientists Astronomers find ‘objects that no one has ever seen before’ Saturn’s rings are no more than 400 million years old – study Strange sounds recorded by balloons in stratosphere leave scientists puzzled

The asset management unit of JPMorgan Chase & Co. is breaking away from a number of its peers

Elon Musk, the owner of X – formerly known as Twitter – was booed at a video game contest in Los Angeles. The audience at Valorant World Championship Final on Saturday did not seem to like Mr Musk’s takeover of the social media platform, which he then renamed. As soon as the cameras showed him, he was met with a cacophony of boos. Mr Musk was attending the tournament with one of his sons, Insider reported. A clip of the event has ironically garnered over 14m views on Mr Musk’s social media platform. “Where is that from? That can’t be from in here, surely,” one of the commentators said amid the booing after the camera aired a brief shot of the Tesla and SpaceX founder. Even after the camera returned to focus on the game play, the crowd continued to boo. Then people started chanting in unison: “Bring back Twitter!” People on X weighed in on what it means to elicit such a reaction at a video game tournament. One X user wrote: “Getting booed by Valorant players is like getting wedgies by the anime club in middle school.” Another user remarked, “Lol we want a new logo,” seemingly blasting the black “X” that replaced the blue bird as the platform’s logo. Yet another said that the boos weren’t that bad: “That was actually a very sweet chant compared to all the other things they could of chanted.” The X owner has faced consistent criticism over the changes he has made to the popular and influential social media platform since his takeover last year. On top of unhappiness over the policy changes, Mr Musk was also blasted over his decision to rebrand the site from the household name Twitter to a simple X. Last month, a giant “X” sign appeared above the company’s headquarters in San Francisco, sparking an investigation; the sign has since been taken down. This wasn’t the first harsh rebuke Mr Musk faced last week; the Justice Department sued his company, SpaceX, accusing it of hiring discrimination. Read More Elon Musk’s SpaceX sued over allegations of hiring discrimination Elon Musk’s X took two days to remove account where Laura Carleton’s killer spewed anti-LGBT+ hate Musk admits X may be doomed to fail as new glitch wipes out pictures from former Twitter platform Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis faces Black leaders' anger after racist killings in Jacksonville Trump misleadingly claims 250 million viewers watched his Tucker Carlson interview Trump insists ‘I LOVE TRUTH SOCIAL’ after making return to Twitter with mug shot

Facebook is known for its recognisable 'f' logo using the colours light navy blue and white - however, people can't help but notice something different. Some have noticed that once logged into their account there has been a slight tweak to the blue colour they have been familiar with in recent years. The new blue announced by the social media platform is richer, bold and darker in a move which is "Redefining Facebook’s brand identity." “We’re excited to launch the first phase of a refreshed identity system for Facebook, with a focus on fostering effortless, self-initiated exploration and connection across every touchpoint," the announcement read. There were three "key drivers" in regards to the brand design update which include: "Elevate the most iconic elements of our brand to create a distinctive, refreshed Facebook." The second is to "Unify how the Facebook brand comes to life across product-to-marketing experiences." On the topic of blue tone change, this came from wanting to "create an expansive set of colours — anchored in our core blue — that is comprehensive and vibrant, and also designed to be more accessible for people." Of course, Facebook users couldn't help but notice the colour change and took to social media to question if their eyes were deceiving them. Elsewhere, a Mark Zuckerberg product has been deemed the 'cringiest AI of all time'. 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.

The first major legislation House Republicans passed under newly installed Speaker Mike Johnson would cut billions of dollars

A China-based hacking group has broken into email accounts linked to government agencies in Western Europe, Microsoft Corp. said this week

A scientist who found the oldest water ever discovered on Earth decided the best course of action was, of course, to drink it. Professor Barbara Sherwood Lollar was leading a team of geologists studying a Canadian mine in 2016 when she made the remarkable discovery. The flowing water about three kilometres below the surface was between 1.5bn and 2.6bn years old, according to tests, making it the oldest water found on Earth. “When people think about this water they assume it must be some tiny amount of water trapped within the rock,” said Prof Sherwood Lollar. “But in fact it’s very much bubbling right up out at you. These things are flowing at rates of litres per minute – the volume of the water is much larger than anyone anticipated.” Upon tasting the ancient water, she found that it was “very salty and bitter” and “much saltier than seawater”. That was an encouraging sign, because saltier water tends to be older. In this case, where the water has been ageing for billions of years, it is hardly surprising. “If you’re a geologist who works with rocks, you’ve probably licked a lot of rocks,” said Sherwood Lollar. Her team also found that life had once been present in the water, by looking at the sulphate – the composition of salts – in it. “We were able to indicate that the signal we are seeing in the fluids has to have been produced by microbiology – and most importantly has to have been produced over a very long time scale. “The microbes that produced this signature couldn’t have done it overnight. “This has to be an indication that organisms have been present in these fluids on a geological timescale.” Fortunately, the scientist had no terrifying sci-fi movie-esq reaction to drinking the ancient water, and lived to tell the tale. The paper was published in Nature in 2016. How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel 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.

To get the Valorant Prime Gaming December 2023 Sip n' Spray reward for free, players must link their Riot Games and Amazon Prime accounts to claim the Spray.

By Luc Cohen NEW YORK A top U.S. regulator said on Tuesday there is no way to police

Hammerhead sharks are named that for a fairly obvious reason, but now groundbreaking footage has emerged which shows exactly how their unique head shape occurs. The strange-looking hammerhead shark has a very broad nose and spaced-out eyes that lend to its name and make it one of the most bizarre-looking sharks out there. Scientists studying the creature have until now had no idea how their hammers form, but now researchers have gotten a glimpse thanks to new footage. The species’ embryonic development is notoriously hard to study as they don’t lay eggs, so experts instead have been helped by the bonnethead sharks (Sphyrna tiburo), the smallest hammerhead species which is commonly found in estuaries and waters in the Gulf of Mexico and the Western North Atlantic Ocean. In a study published in Developmental Dynamics, researchers looked at embryos that had been preserved from bonnetheads that had been caught in previous studies to ensure that no additional sharks were affected. They studied embryos of the sharks at different stages of their development and witnessed as the shark's head started to form its unique shape. Hammerhead Transformation www.youtube.com The team found that the bonnetheads develop their head early on in their development, but the hammer doesn’t begin to form until around halfway through their gestation when the cartilage that forms the hammer begins to expand from the nasal area. The lead author, Steven Byrum, explained: “It’s the perfect qualities of the bonnethead that allowed us [to] do it with this species. “This was a unique opportunity we may not be able to get for very much longer with bonnetheads and may not be able to get in any other species of hammerhead.”

The warnings are coming from all angles: artificial intelligence poses an existential risk to humanity and must be shackled before...

Taiwan's Foxconn says it plans to build artificial intelligence (AI) data factories with technology from American chip giant Nvidia, as the electronics maker ramps up efforts to become a major global player in electric car manufacturing.