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This deep learning model can help prevent traffic crashes – here’s how it works
Monday 18th of October 2021
Today’s world is one big maze, connected by layers of concrete and asphalt that afford us the luxury of navigation by vehicle. For many of our road-related advancements — GPS lets us fire fewer neurons thanks to map apps, cameras alert us to potentially costly scrapes and scratches, and electric autonomous cars have lower fuel costs — our safety measures haven’t quite caught up. We still rely on a steady diet of traffic signals, trust, and the steel surrounding us to safely get from point A to point B.
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A carbon moon-shot: Fossil fuels could peak as early as 2025, experts explain
Monday 18th of October 2021
However, this year’s 386-page outlook – calling itself a “guidebook” for the upcoming COP26 climate summit – highlights the gaps between the policies already in place, the ambition set out in countries’ climate pledges and the significant additional efforts needed to keep global warming below 1.5C.
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Strengthening restoration monitoring systems in Africa is critical – here’s why
Monday 18th of October 2021
It’s been nearly 15 years since a vanguard of African countries first committed to restore degraded farms, forests, grasslands and other ecosystems through the Great Green Wall movement. Today, the economic argument for regenerating land is more compelling than ever: For every $1 invested, people can expect $7-30 in return. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which could push an estimated 30 million Africans into extreme poverty, land restoration has become a critical tool to improve food security and create sustainable jobs.
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This is how COVID-19 has affected mental health in the US
Monday 18th of October 2021
New research reveals that high rates of depression have persisted from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic into 2021, and even worsened.
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This year’s e-waste to outweigh Great Wall of China
Monday 18th of October 2021
October 14th is International E-Waste Day, and, to raise awareness about this growing problem, the waste electrical and electronic equipment forum, or WEEE Forum, has published an alarming statistic.
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This is how COVID-19 has disrupted global supply chains
Monday 18th of October 2021
As the coronavirus crisis is wearing off in many parts of the world, supply chain troubles are increasing once more for many companies, mainly concerning the U.S. and the Eurozone. Components of the International Monetary Fund’s purchasing managers’ index show how supply chain disruptions have developed during the pandemic, spiking in early 2020 and picking back up over the course of 2021 as the new normal causes all types of goods to become more sought amid a more permanent reopening. The supply chains in China and emerging markets, on the other hand, are less affected.
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The role of fiscal policy to manage debt, inflation and COVID-19
Monday 18th of October 2021
As public debt rises to record levels, countries need to calibrate fiscal policies to their own unique circumstances.
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How can we prevent the disadvantages of global automation?
Monday 18th of October 2021
While new digital technologies are increasingly hyped, slow median wage growth has led many to worry that these new technologies are failing to deliver for the average worker. While new digital and robotic technologies have obvious benefits, new concerns about automation and skill-biased technological change (SBTC) are being driven by an emerging set of macroeconomic phenomena. In the developed world, a shrinking share of income is being paid to labour, favouring capital owners over workers (Karabarbounis and Neiman 2014). Concurrently, labour income has also become more unequal (Milanovic and Roemer 2016). Both phenomena seem to be driven by technological change: automation has allowed firms to replace routine workers with capital (Autor et al. 2020, Gentile et al. 2020, Dao et al. 2019, Acemoglu and Restrepo 2020) and digital technologies have created ‘winner takes all’ markets, disproportionately favouring ‘superstar’ workers and firms (Autor et al. 2020, Kaplan and Rauh 2013, Benzell and Brynjolfsson 2019).
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How can we tackle vaccine inequity in Africa?
Sunday 17th of October 2021
Vaccinating the world against COVID-19 should be a top development priority. We must keep reminding ourselves of the reason for ensuring mass vaccination of the entire world: no one is safe anywhere until everyone is safe everywhere.
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Last Ice Area: Where multi-year Arctic sea ice could make its final stand
Sunday 17th of October 2021
With warming climate, summer sea ice in the Arctic has been shrinking fast, and now consistently spans less than half the area it did in the early 1980s. This raises the question: If this keeps up, in the future will year-round sea ice—and the creatures who need it to survive—persist anywhere?
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Agri-tech digital tools boost crops for farmers across Africa
Sunday 17th of October 2021
Until a year ago, it would take Pamela Auma a whole month to prepare the land on her farm in western Kenya for planting ahead of the rainy season.
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Poll: One-third of Americans say pandemic has impacted their access to food
Saturday 16th of October 2021
In a recent poll, one-third of Americans say the pandemic has affected their household’s access to food.
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Atmospheric rivers are stable for now — but change could be on the way
Saturday 16th of October 2021
Yale researchers are charting the course of mighty “rivers” in the sky that are holding steady in the face of climate change — for now.
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Feeding the world without destroying it: this week’s Radio Davos COP26 podcast
Friday 15th of October 2021
When it comes to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, we often think first of power generation or heavy industry transport.
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Investment, bans and goals: Everything to know about the environment this week
Friday 15th of October 2021
Research by the Global CCS Institute think tank has shown that carbon capture and storage projects have grown by 50% over the last 9 months.
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COVID-19: What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic on 15 October
Friday 15th of October 2021
Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have passed 239.6 million globally, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of confirmed deaths stands at more than 4.88 million. More than 6.6 billion vaccination doses have been administered globally, according to Our World in Data.
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What are the benefits of genetic testing? Experts explain
Friday 15th of October 2021
Genomics experts worldwide released a paper highlighting advances in rare disease, cancer, population health and carrier screening at the 10th Annual Individualizing Medicine Conference on Saturday, Oct. 9.
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Needle-free injections could become a reality, thanks to lasers and the ‘bubble gun’
Friday 15th of October 2021
Researchers in the Netherlands are developing laser technology to enable “virtually painless” injections without needles in what they call a breakthrough that will ease fear and lower the threshold for vaccinations.
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What can a 2,050-year-old Roman tomb teach us about modern construction?
Friday 15th of October 2021
Concrete often begins to crack and crumble after a few decades of life — but curiously, that hasn’t been the case with many Roman structures. The structures are still standing, exhibiting remarkable durability despite conditions that would destroy modern concrete.
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Solar panels on half the world’s roofs could meet its entire electricity demand – new research
Friday 15th of October 2021
Rooftop solar panels are up to 79% cheaper than they were in 2010. These plummeting costs have made rooftop solar photovoltaics even more attractive to households and businesses who want to reduce their reliance on electricity grids while reducing their carbon footprints.
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Leadership: why trust should grow, not peak immediately
Friday 15th of October 2021
New leaders may want to let trust build over time, rather than establishing lots of it right away, according to a new study with military cadets.
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Scientists will soon be able to see how the universe began, thanks to this new telescope
Friday 15th of October 2021
Some have called NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope the “telescope that ate astronomy.” It is the most powerful space telescope ever built and a complex piece of mechanical origami that has pushed the limits of human engineering. On Dec. 18, 2021, after years of delays and billions of dollars in cost overruns, the telescope is scheduled to launch into orbit and usher in the next era of astronomy.
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How does ‘nudging’ work as an intervention technique?
Friday 15th of October 2021
Almost 15 years after introducing a critical choice-making framework, behavioral economists Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler reflect on its continuing impact on business and society.
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COVID-19: How your emotions can affect your perception of time
Friday 15th of October 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic, now in its 19th month, has meant different things to different people. For some, it’s meant stress over new school and work regimes, or anxiety over the prospect of catching COVID-19 and dealing with the aftereffects of an infection. But for others, it’s created space and freedom to pursue new passions or make decisions that had been put off.
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How much screen time is too much for children?
Friday 15th of October 2021
Even when kids spend five hours a day on screen – whether computers, television or text – it doesn’t appear to be harmful. That’s what my colleagues and I at the University of Colorado Boulder discovered after analyzing data taken from nearly 12,000 participants in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study – the largest long-term study of its kind ever in the U.S.