Author: The Conversation

In science-fiction stories, companies often mine the moon or asteroids. While this may seem far-fetched, this idea is edging closer to becoming reality. Celestial bodies like the moon contain valuable resources, such as lunar regolith — also known as moon dust — and helium-3. These resources could serve a range of applications, including making rocket propellant and generating energy to sustain long missions, bringing benefits in space and on Earth. The Resilience lander circling the moon on June 4, 2025. (ispace, inc. via AP) The first objective on this journey is being able to collect lunar regolith. One company taking up this challenge is ispace,…

Customers contact companies regularly to purchase products and services, inquire about orders, make payments and request returns. Until recently, the most common way for customers to contact companies was through phone calls or by interacting with human agents via company websites and mobile apps. The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) has seen the proliferation of a new kind of interface: chatbots. A chatbot is an intelligent software program that can carry out two-way conversations with customers. Spurred by the potential of chatbots to communicate with customers round-the-clock, companies are increasingly routing customers to chatbots. As such, the worldwide chatbot market has grown…

Astronomers manning an asteroid warning system caught a glimpse of a large, bright object zipping through the solar system late on July 1, 2025. The object’s potentially interstellar origins excited scientists across the globe, and the next morning, the European Space Agency (ESA) confirmed that this object, first named A11pl3Z and then designated 3I/ATLAS, is the third ever found from outside our solar system. Current measurements estimate that 3I/ATLAS is about 12 miles (20 kilometres) wide, and while its path won’t take it close to Earth, it could hold clues about the nature of a previous interstellar object and about planet formation in solar systems beyond ours. On July…

There is a growing and urgent need to address global food insecurity. This urgency is underscored by reports from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, which states that nearly 828 million people suffer from hunger worldwide. Climate change is further escalating these issues, disrupting traditional farming systems and emphasising the need for smarter, resource-efficient solutions. But imagine a future where indoor farming systems can operate entirely on their own, managing water, nutrients and environmental conditions without human oversight. Such autonomous systems, driven by artificial intelligence (AI) and powered by robotics, could revolutionise how we produce food, especially in…

You wake up in the morning and, first thing, you open your weather app. You close that pesky ad that opens first and check the forecast. You like your weather app, which shows hourly weather forecasts for your location. And the app is free! But do you know why it’s free? Look at the app’s privacy settings. You help keep it free by allowing it to collect your information, including: What devices you use and their IP and Media Access Control addresses. Information you provide when signing up, such as your name, email address and home address. App settings, such as…

Some say it’s em dashes, dodgy apostrophes, or too many emojis. Others suggest that maybe the word “delve” is a chatbot’s calling card. It’s no longer the sight of morphed bodies or too many fingers, but it might be something just a little off in the background. Or video content that feels a little too real. The markers of AI-generated media are becoming harder to spot as technology companies work to iron out the kinks in their generative artificial intelligence (AI) models. But what if instead of trying to detect and avoid these glitches, we deliberately encouraged them instead? The flaws, failures and unexpected outputs of AI systems can…

AI chatbots have already become embedded into some people’s lives, but how many really know how they work? Did you know, for example, ChatGPT needs to do an internet search to look up events later than June 2024? Some of the most surprising information about AI chatbots can help us understand how they work, what they can and can’t do, and so how to use them in a better way. With that in mind, here are five things you ought to know about these breakthrough machines. 1. They are trained by human feedback AI chatbots are trained in multiple stages,…

Imagine turning fruit waste into technology that stores electricity. This would reduce food waste and promote clean energy storage. Postdoctoral researcher Vianney Ngoyi Kitenge transformed mangosteen peels into specialised carbon materials that he used to make supercapacitor energy storage cells. He came up with a simplified way to do this, hugely reducing the cost. This breakthrough converts agricultural waste into valuable components for energy storage technology. He sets out how it works and what’s needed to make it happen. What is a supercapacitor? Supercapacitors are a type of energy storage cell, similar to a battery, but with some key differences. They are…

One-third of the Earth’s land surface is already degraded. The UN estimates that more than 2.6 billion people are harmed by land degradation, with countries losing up to US$10.6 trillion a year because of damage to “ecosystem services”, including the benefits people get from nature, such as water and food. Unhealthy soil is a major contributor to land degradation. This can lead to loss of biodiversity, harm plants and animals, cause sand and dust storms and affect crop yields. These consequences affect the regulation of the planet’s climate and water cycle, socioeconomic activities, food security and forced migration of people. Emerging smart technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI),…

To think about an artificial limb is to think about a person. It’s an object of touch and motion made to be used, one that attaches to the body and interacts with its user’s world. Historical artefacts of prosthetic limbs are far removed from this lived context. Their users are gone. They are damaged – deteriorated by time and exposure to the elements. They are motionless, kept on display or in museum storage. Yet, such artefacts are rare direct sources into the lives of historical amputees. We focus on the tools amputees used in 16th- and 17th-century Europe. There are few records…