Author: The Conversation

Agriculture’s impact on the planet is massive and relentless. Roughly 40 per cent of the Earth’s suitable land surface is used for cropland and grazing. The number of domestic animals far outweighs remaining wild populations. Every day, more primary forest falls against a tide of crops and pasture and each year an area as large as the United Kingdom is lost. If humanity is to have a hope of addressing climate change, we must reimagine farming. COVID-19 has also exposed weaknesses with current food systems. Agricultural scientists have known for decades that farm labour can be exploitative and hard, so it should surprise no…

In denying news content to its Australian users, Facebook is arguably overplaying its hand, behaving as a big company that thinks it can intimidate governments. If it keeps doing this, it will ultimately lose customers, and that’s the last thing Facebook wants. Perhaps you’re already considering breaking up with Facebook, whether in reaction to the news ban, or out of a broader unease about its business model, which profiles its users with the goal of earning revenue from targeted advertising. If so, the good news is it’s definitely possible to delete Facebook. Or, if you’re not ready to go the whole…

In the past five years, ransomware attacks have evolved from rare misfortunes into common and disruptive threats. Hijacking the IT systems of organisations and forcing them to pay a ransom in order to reclaim them, cybercriminals are freely extorting millions of pounds from companies – and they’re enjoying a remarkably low risk of arrest as they do it. At the moment, there is no coordinated response to ransomware attacks, despite their ever-increasing prevalence and severity. Instead, states’ intelligence services respond to cybercriminals on an ad-hoc basis, while cyber-insurance firms recommend their clients simply pay off the criminal gangs that extort…

We’ll soon be able to properly start asking the question: “Are we alone in the universe?” Nasa’s next major mission, the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover, will land on the surface on February 18. Following a complex landing procedure, it will get started on one of its main goals – searching for life on Mars. The rover has two ways of gathering samples. It can either analyse them with its on-board laboratory or it can save them for return to Earth by future missions. But what exactly is it looking for, and what would it need to find to convince us that there is indeed past or present…

This month has been a busy one for Mars exploration. Several countries sent missions to the red planet in June last year, taking advantage of a launch window. Most have now arrived after their eight-month voyage. Within the next few days, NASA will perform a direct entry of the Martian atmosphere to land the Perseverance rover in Mars’s Jezero Crater. Perseverance, about the size of a car, is the largest Mars payload ever — it literally weighs a tonne (on Earth). After landing, the rover will search for signs of ancient life and gather samples to eventually be returned to Earth. The mission will use similar hardware to that…

In the 2012 film “Robot and Frank”, the protagonist, a retired cat burglar named Frank, is suffering the early symptoms of dementia. Concerned and guilty, his son buys him a “home robot” that can talk, do household chores like cooking and cleaning, and reminds Frank to take his medicine. It’s a robot the likes of which we’re getting closer to building in the real world. The film follows Frank, who is initially appalled by the idea of living with a robot, as he gradually begins to see the robot as both functionally useful and socially companionable. The film ends with a clear…

Wood is an ancient material humans have been using for millions of years, for the construction of housing, ships and as a source of fuel for burning. It’s also a renewable source, and one way to capture excess carbon dioxide from the Earth’s atmosphere. Today, the main component of wood – cellulose – is produced annually at 20 times the volume of steel. One thing you wouldn’t use wood for is making windows. Instead we rely on glass and plastic, which are transparent and, when toughened, can give structural support. But buildings lose a lot of heat through glass, and while…

Pigs might not be able to fly, but they can play video games. In a new study, researchers from Purdue University in Indiana, US have shown that pigs can use a digital screen and joystick, operated by their snout, to move a cursor around for rewards. This is a complex task. The animals need to understand the link between moving around a joystick and what’s happening on a computer screen, and then link what’s happening on the screen to getting a reward. The four pigs tested were all able to do that to some extent, showing off their smarts. As the…

Under normal circumstances, US tech giant Nvidia’s takeover of British chip designer Arm for US$40 billion (£29 billion) would have sailed through without registering beyond the computing industry. Instead, it has made international headlines, with UK and EU monopolies regulators launching an in-depth investigation after outcry from competitors. In effect, the deal is pretty much dead before it starts. At the heart of this lies a row about technological sovereignty. So what is going on? If you are a serious gamer, you’ll probably know Nvidia. It predominantly makes graphics processing units, or GPUs – chipsets traditionally used for graphic rendering and virtualisation,…

Artificial intelligence (AI) is learning more about how to work with (and on) humans. A recent study has shown how AI can learn to identify vulnerabilities in human habits and behaviours and use them to influence human decision-making. It may seem cliched to say AI is transforming every aspect of the way we live and work, but it’s true. Various forms of AI are at work in fields as diverse as vaccine development, environmental management and office administration. And while AI does not possess human-like intelligence and emotions, its capabilities are powerful and rapidly developing. There’s no need to worry about a…