Sci-Tech

Moon shot: Japan firm to attempt historic lunar landing

Tokyo, Japan (AFP) by Sara HUSSEIN A Japanese space start-up will attempt Tuesday to become the first private company to put a lander on the Moon. If all goes to plan, ispace’s Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander will start its descent towards the lunar surface at around 1540 GMT. It will slow its orbit some 100 kilometres above the Moon, then adjust its speed and altitude to make a “soft landing” around an hour later. Success […]

Russia’s Sber launches GPTChat rival Gigachat

Moscow, Russia | AFP | Monday 4/24/2023 Leading Russian technology company Sber on Monday announced the launch of its conversational artificial intelligence app intended to rival the US star ChatGPT. The state company said in a statement on its website that it was “launching its own version” of a chatbot, which will be called GigaChat — a first for Russia. The Russian-language app is now only available by invitation in test mode. Sber said GigaChat […]

Manufacturers hope for AI boost in factories

Hanover, Germany (AFP) by Léa PERNELLE Manufacturers are hoping for the artificial intelligence revolution to reach their factories, envisaging robots being used to repair complex machinery. There has been an explosion of interest in uses of AI across many sectors since the launch last year of chatbot ChatGPT from US startup OpenAI. And at last week’s Hanover Fair on industrial technology in Germany, the potential for artificial intelligence in the manufacturing sector was firmly in […]

Air pollution kills 1,200 children a year: EU agency

Copenhagen, Denmark (AFP) by Marc PRÉEL Air pollution still causes more than 1,200 premature deaths a year in under 18’s across Europe and increases the risk of chronic disease later in life, the EU environmental agency said Monday. Despite recent improvements, “the level of key air pollutants in many European countries remain stubbornly above World Health Organization” (WHO) guidelines, particularly in central-eastern Europe and Italy, said the EEA after a study in over 30 countries, […]

Giant SpaceX rocket leaves crater, serious damage at Texas base

Starbase, United States (AFP) by Patrick FALLON with Lucie AUBOURG in Washington Flying chunks of concrete, twisted metal sheets, craters blasted deep into the ground: the thunderous power of SpaceX’s first test flight of Starship — the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built — inflicted serious damage on its Texas launch site. Repairing the damage from Thursday’s unmanned test flight is expected to take months, potentially delaying further launch attempts and slowing the development […]

Manufacturers hope for AI boost in factories

Hanover, Germany | AFP | Sunday 4/23/2023 by Léa PERNELLE Manufacturers are hoping for the artificial intelligence revolution to reach their factories, envisaging robots being used to repair complex machinery. There has been an explosion of interest in uses of AI across many sectors since the launch last year of chatbot ChatGPT from US startup OpenAI. And at last week’s Hanover Fair on industrial technology in Germany, the potential for artificial intelligence in the manufacturing […]

SpaceX Starship, world’s biggest rocket, explodes during first flight test

Starbase, United States | AFP | Thursday 4/20/2023 by Patrick Fallon with Chris Lefkow in Washington SpaceX’s Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, exploded on Thursday during the first test flight of the spacecraft designed to send astronauts to the Moon, Mars and beyond. The gigantic rocket successfully blasted off at 8:33 am Central Time (1333 GMT) from Starbase, the private SpaceX spaceport in Boca Chica, Texas. The Starship capsule had been scheduled to […]

The British physicist making women scientists visible online

London, United Kingdom (AFP) by Anna CUENCA By day, Jessica Wade spends her time in a laboratory at Imperial College London surrounded by spectrometers, oscilloscopes — and men. At night, she writes biographies on Wikipedia about women researchers like her who don’t have an online presence. “We can’t just do the shouting about how we need more women in science. We have to do the point of honouring and celebrating the women scientists that we […]

SpaceX to make second bid to launch Starship on test flight

Starbase, United States (AFP) by Patrick Fallon with Chris Lefkow in Washington SpaceX is to make a second attempt on Thursday to carry out the first test flight of Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, designed to send astronauts to the Moon, Mars and beyond. A planned liftoff Monday of the gigantic rocket was aborted less than 10 minutes ahead of the scheduled launch because of a pressurization issue in the first-stage booster. The […]

AI-generated song imitating Drake yanked from streaming services

Montreal, Canada (AFP) — A new song created using AI software to imitate Canadian singers Drake and The Weeknd has been removed from streaming services after quickly racking up millions of listens and sparking debate over the new technology. Released last Friday, “Heart On My Sleeve” was briefly available on platforms including Spotify and Apple Music before Universal Music Group (UMG) — which publishes both artists through its Republic Records subsidiary — said it violates […]

Trinity the T-Rex claws in more than $6 million

(AFP) Zurich, Switzerland by James RYBACKI A composite Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton called Trinity, made up of bones from three different T-Rexes, sold for 5.5 million Swiss francs ($6.1 million) in a rare auction on Tuesday. The skeleton was sold at the Koller auction house in Zurich after being shipped from the United States in nine giant crates. Trinity fetched a hammer price of 4.8 million Swiss francs, rising to 5.5 million with the buyer’s premium […]