21 articles from SATURDAY 13.5.2023

A moment’s silence, please, for the death of the Metaverse

Meta sank tens of billions into its CEO’s virtual reality dream, but what will he do next?Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to remember the metaverse, which was quietly laid to rest a few weeks ago by its grieving adoptive parent, one Mark Zuckerberg. Those of you with long memories will remember how, in October 2021, Zuck (as he is known to his friends) excitedly announced the arrival...

Scientists criticise Nasa for scaling back mission to explore beyond Pluto

Anger at decision to axe the main task of the New Horizons spacecraft to probe the remote Kuiper beltIt may have reached the edge of the solar system and travelled more than 5 billion miles through space, but the New Horizons spacecraft is causing major ripples on Earth. A dispute has erupted between scientists and US space officials in the wake of Nasa’s decision to stop funding next year for...

Astronomers just saw a star eat a planet—an astrophysicist on the team explains the first-of-its-kind discovery

For the first time, astronomers have captured images that show a star consuming one of its planets. The star, named ZTF SLRN-2020, is located in the Milky Way galaxy, in the constellation Aquila. As the star swallowed its planet, the star brightened to 100 times its normal level, allowing the 26-person team of astronomers I worked with to detect this event as it happened.

Ministers not doing enough to control AI, says UK professor

Stuart Russell, former government adviser, says ChatGPT could become part of super-intelligent machine that can’t be constrainedOne of the professors at the forefront of artificial intelligence has said ministers are not doing enough to protect against the dangers of super-intelligent machines in the future.In the latest contribution to the debate about the safety of the ever-quickening...

Simon Schama on the broken relationship between humans and nature: ‘The joke’s on us. Things are amiss’

More than ever, the relationship between our two worlds has been disrupted, says the historian. If we don’t mend our ways, will we face even deadlier threats than Covid, Sars and Mpox?In March 2021, the 13th month of the Covid confinement, the peepers, in their vast multitudes, sang out again. Down in the swampy wetlands below our house in Hudson Valley, New York, millions of Pseudacris crucifer...