New Data Visualization App From Google & The U.N.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has partnered with Google to produce earthmap.org, an app that lets you overlay regional data for changes in agriculture and climate on a map of the earth. If nothing else, it serves to illustrate how coarsely grained the existing data is and why I keep preaching we need to reach higher resolution to better understand local changes. Paper here.

New Superconductor Breakthrough -- What's Up With That?

You can check out the newest Science News episode here.Today we’ll talk about a potential breakthrough in room temperature superconductivity, new clues about the origin of water on Earth, the best ever model of our geological past, a recent report on academic freedom, an image of the moon taken with a meta-lens, hybrid coral reefs, a new institution dedicated to finding the origin of life in the universe, the first cross-country storage for carbon dioxide, and of course, the telephone will ring.

3D Printed Rocket Didn’t Fly

The launch of the world’s first 3D-printed rocket was cancelled on March 11 after the company, Relativity Space, couldn’t resolve a pressure problem in the second stage during the 3-hour launch window. The rocket, named Terran 1, is 110 feet (33.5 metres), has a diameter of 7.5 feet (2.2 metres), and was 85% printed from metal alloys. It would have been a test flight that should have entered Earth orbit to collect data about how well the systems perform. More here.

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We’re Getting Dumber

A new study suggests that IQs in the USA have been dropping for the first time in almost a century. They analysed the results of IQ tests taken from 2006 to 2018. Changes were particularly pronounced among those with less education in the age group 18 to 22. It’s difficult to interpret exactly what that means because the definition of “intelligence” is extremely controversial, but it’s probably not a good development. Paper here. Summary here.

I used to think that today's so-called "artificial intelligences" are actually pretty dumb. But I've recently changed my mind. In this week’s video I explain why I think that they do understand some of what they do, if not very much. And since I was already freely speculating, I have added some thoughts about how the situation with AIs is going to develop.

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