Is There Life on Venus? These Missions Could Find It

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September 23, 2020

Space

Is There Life on Venus? These Missions Could Find It

Following a tantalizing discovery, these spacecraft could be headed to Earth’s twisted twin in search of the truth

By Leonard David

Public Health

COVID-19 Testing Lab Shows How Colleges Can Reopen Safely

More than 100 colleges in the Northeast have partnered with the Broad Institute of M.I.T. and Harvard to test their students and staff

By Tanya Lewis

Space

The First-Ever Image of a Black Hole Is Now a Movie

Pictures created from old observations show the void’s stormy evolution over the past decade

By Davide Castelvecchi,Nature magazine

Climate

China Says It Will Stop Releasing CO2 within 40 Years

The surprise announcement vaults the country ahead of U.S. climate ambitions and could encourage developing countries to follow suit

By Jean Chemnick,Benjamin Storrow,E&E News

Public Health

What COVID-19 Reinfection Means for Vaccines

We now know repeat infections are possible; understanding them will shape the fight against the pandemic

By William A. Haseltine

Space

Social Distancing on a Cosmic Scale

Advanced extraterrestrials may just not be interested in travel or communication

By Avi Loeb

Conservation

Squeezing the Elephant

The massive Asian version is running out of habitat, raiding farms, and killing the occasional human

By Rachel Jones,The Delacorte Review

Computing

Watch a Robot AI Beat World-Class Curling Competitors

Artificial intelligence still needs to bridge the “sim-to-real” gap. Deep-learning techniques that are all the rage in AI log superlative performances in mastering cerebral games, including chess and Go, both of which can be played on a computer. But translating simulations to the physical world remains a bigger challenge.

A robot named Curly that uses “deep reinforcement learning”—making improvements as it corrects its own errors—came out on top in three of four games against top-ranked human opponents from South Korean teams that included a women’s team and a reserve squad for the national wheelchair team. (No brooms were used).

One crucial finding was that the AI system demonstrated its ability to adapt to changing ice conditions. “These results indicate that the gap between physics-based simulators and the real world can be narrowed,” the joint South Korean-German research team wrote in Science Robotics on September 23. 

By Gary Stix,Jeffery DelViscio
FROM THE STORE

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Life on Venus? The discovery of phosphine, a byproduct of anaerobic biology, is the most significant development yet in building the case for life off Earth. About 10 years ago NASA discovered microbial life at 120,000ft in Earth's upper atmosphere. It's time to prioritize Venus."

Jim Bridenstine, NASA Administrator via Twitter

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