April 2017 Ideas and Innovation

Read the articles selected in April 2017

L’intelligence artificielle reproduit nos préjugés

by Morgane Tual

Source: Le Monde, 18 April

AI programmes based on data drawn out from milliards of existing texts, do reproduce without lying, as a logical calculus, recurring words’ associations as well cultural prejudices.The EU is studying a legal protection for the victims of discrimination, almost racial and sexist.

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La télématique, bientôt automatique

by Éric Gibory

Source: Le Monde, 13 April

With eCall, a geolocalised device for SOS which will be compulsory for new vehicles beginning from 2018, telematics is going to invade the transports sector, promising not only more safety but also to economize costs and energy consumes.

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Un Livre blanc prône un tiers état de la recherche

by Davis Larousserie

Source: Le Monde, 29 March

A White Paper published by the European Commission proposes to mobilize the knowledge society “from below”. Given that research, and not politics, does produce knowledge, it’s important to create the third estate of research involving citizens, that actually are left out of politics and innovation.

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The untold story of the back-room team that saved Apollo13

by Henry Gendreau

Source: Wired, 19 April

Mission control: the unsung heroes of Apollo is a documentary about the story of Apollo13, told not from the side of the astronauts, but of the NASA officers that prepared and planned missions trough tiny details, and in case of emergencies were able to take out improvised capacities.

Machines qui pensent

by Céline Henne

Source: Le Monde, 7 April

The scenarios forecasted about superintelligent, conscious and self-determined machines are part of a science-fiction imaginary without a real content. Inhabitants of the real are not self-conscious robots, but humans who decide their utility and the rules of the game.

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Robot takeover’s costs may be more than we imagined

by Jeff Guo

Source: The Washington Post, 10 April

The massive loss of jobs within an industrial sector reverberates through other sectors, harming entire communities for a generation, but technology creates also new opportunities, desires, and jobs. Even auto manufacturing requires more human labor. Education is indispensable.

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Earth-like “water world “ with steamy atmosphere aids search for alien life

by Ian Sample

Source: The Guardian, 7 April

The evidence found on the planet GJ 1132b, 39 light years away, in a steamy atmosphere could represent a sign of life, encouraging research on alien existence. The planet is rich in water, but with a too high temperature to be up now considered habitable.

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Mars’ionosphere: cold, lifeless, and filled with heavy metals

by Emma Grey Ellis

Source: Wired, 11 April

NASA’s Maven mission has realized the permanent fixture in Mars atmosphere of metal ions, which are found also on Earth, where they work differently. It's about these different dynamics, that scientists are in search of new perspectives on the universe.

Boston, capitale mondiale des biotechs

by Philippe Jacqué

Source: Le Monde, 31 March

Massachussetts represents a pole of excellence for international research on biotechnologies, a financial and industrial ecosystem for the startups that are in the right place to rapidly develop the most innovative discoveries of fundamental research.

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Une synapse artificielle

by David Larousserie

Source: Le Monde, 5 April

Some French researchers have built an electronic, artificial synapse, a step forward in the competition for the programming of learning processes, similar to those triggered in the brain by neurons and their billions of connections.

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Robot revolution will be a legal minefield, report says

by Owen Bowcott

Source: The Guardian , 4 April

After a report by IBA, a global forum for the legal profession, the robotics development is changing labor and employment law, that will have to take in account the increasing automation of jobs, establishing “human quotas” in any sector and reshaping the liabilities in the insurance sector.

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Oh great. Climate change will make flying worse, too

by Eric Niiler

Source: Wired, 6 April

Climate change will trouble the airline industry with an increase by 59 percent of light turbulence, and by 149 percent of truly severe turbulence, that means a cost of hundreds of minor injuries and dozens of major injuries. But airlines are developing onboard systems to stabilize aircraft.

Perspective: the one-health way

by Laura H. Kahn

Source: Nature, 29 March

The concept of “one health” links human well-being with the health of animals and of the environment. Comparative medicine studies the illnesses of animals as signs of environmental contamination and helps to identify environmental, genetic and dietary risk factors for cancer and other diseases.

Animal health

by Herb Brody

Source: Nature, 29 March

Humans and pets are especially intertwined in the exchange of benefits as well some infections, but the global environment including all the world’s creatures is threatened by climate change. Migrating Arctic species put new health risks. A holistic approach would do best.

Analysing brain signals to let a patient control his arm

Source: The Economist, 1 April

A paralyzed man has been able with the help of electrodes implanted in his brain and in his arm to grasp a fork and feed himself. This technique has used functional magnetic-resonance to highlight the patch of the brain concerned in the movement and computer algorithms to detect the intention to move the arm.

Managing supplies of vaccines is a huge problem

Source: The Economist, 30 March

A study by UNICEF signals that overchilling of vaccines is the most important problem that plagues their storage and is more common in the rich world than in the poor. Although the consequences in terms of numbers are unknown, childhood vaccination is crucial to prevent million of deaths.

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Pubblicato il : 19/12/2017
Modificato il : 04/04/2019

April 2017 Ideas and Innovation

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