162 articles from TUESDAY 17.1.2023

Reversal of Tibetan Plateau flow blamed for 2022 heat wave

In the mid-summer (July–August) of 2022, extreme climate events occurred over subtropical Asia. Persistent heat waves hit the Yangtze River valley in East Asia, bringing secondary disasters such as drought, wildfires and power shortage. At the same time, frequent rainstorms and floods swept the desert areas from Western South Asia to West Asia.

A top U.S. science oversight board is about to get much more diverse

The demographic makeup of the presidentially appointed body that oversees the National Science Foundation (NSF) skewed toward white men under former President Donald Trump. But last week, President Joe Biden took a big step toward restoring its previous diversity. On 13 January, Biden announced the pending appointment of seven women and one man for the eight...

Biodiversity safeguards bird communities under changing climate, shows study

Climate change has undisputable global effects on ecosystems and ecological community compositions, but why certain communities are better able to resist the effects of climate change than others remains unclear. In a recent scientific study covering nearly all North American bird species, researchers studied community composition changes and community diversity over half a century. Consistently,...

Fruit flies grow brainy on a poor diet

Regulatory mechanisms of nutrient-dependent neuronal development can be explored at the molecular level with the Drosophila C4da neuron located in the fruit flies' larvae. The hyperarborization phenotype was not caused by low concentrations of amino acids but rather by a simultaneous deficiency in vitamins, metal ions, and cholesterol. Nutrient-dependent development of somatosensory neurons plays...

Preventing vehicle crashes by learning from insects

Despite only about 25% of car travel happening after dark, almost half of fatal accidents occur at night. As our vehicles become more advanced and even autonomous, the ways of detecting and avoiding these collisions must evolve too. Current systems are often complicated, resource-intensive or work poorly in the dark. But now, researchers have designed a simple, power-saving collision detector...

Here’s how Microsoft could use ChatGPT

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. Microsoft is reportedly eyeing a $10 billion investment in OpenAI, the startup that created the viral chatbot ChatGPT, and is planning to integrate it into Office products and Bing search. The tech giant has already invested at least $1 billion into...

This is where Tesla’s former CTO thinks battery recycling is headed

Battery recycling is one of MIT Technology Review’s 10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2023. Explore the rest of the list here. As Tesla’s former chief technology officer, JB Straubel has been a major player in bringing electric vehicles to the world. He’s often credited with inventing key pieces of Tesla’s battery technology and establishing the company’s charging network. After...