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In 1950, British computer scientist Alan Turing proposed an experimental method for answering the question: can machines think? He suggested if a human couldn’t tell whether they were speaking to an artificially intelligent (AI) machine or another human after five minutes of questioning, this would demonstrate AI has human-like intelligence. Although AI systems remained far…
Read More “Has AI passed the Turing test yet? | Explained” »
A school of fish swim above a finger coral colony as it grows on the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Cairns, Australia October 25, 2019. | Photo Credit: Reuters It might sound like science fiction, but “marine cloud brightening” is being seriously considered as a way to shield parts of the ocean from…
Read More “Could ‘marine cloud brightening’ reduce coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef?” »
Advanced scientific research and education in India is driven mostly by government-supported institutes such as the IITs, the IISERs, and Central and State universities. Along with private universities, they constitute India’s academic science ecosystem. At these institutes, faculty members conduct research in independently-led groups and teach courses for various academic programmes. Independent faculty members are…
Read More “Undervaluing faculty fellowships is bad for scientists, and science” »
In this image released by ISRO on August 30, 2023, Vikram Lander is seen on the surface of the Moon as captured by the Navigation Camera (NavCam) onboard Pragyan Rover. File | Photo Credit: PTI India aims to send an astronaut to the moon by 2040, the government said on October 17, as Prime Minister…
Read More “India aims to send astronaut to the moon by 2040” »
An archaeology student excavates a burial mound in Leuhan, western France, on October 11, 2023. This burial mound dating from ancient Bronze age was discovered in 1900 by French archeologist Paul du Chatellier. On this site du Chatellier also found a carved granite slab that could be the oldest map in Europe. The actual searchs…
Read More “How a Bronze Age rock became a ‘treasure map’ for researchers” »
Laura Jackson became seriously concerned about her daughter and math when the girl was in third grade. While many of her classmates flew through multiplication tests, Jackson’s daughter relied on her fingers to count, had difficulty reading clocks and burst into tears when asked at home to practice math flashcards. At school, the 9-year-old had…
Read More “Math disabilities hold many students back. Schools often don’t screen for them” »
An Afghan woman and her children walk amid debris after a powerful earthquake struck Herat, Afghanistan on October 15, 2023. | Photo Credit: AP/PTI The story so far: An earthquake of magnitude 6.3 struck Western Afghanistan on October 15, barely a few days after multiple earthquakes of similar strength killed at least a thousand people…
Read More “Why are earthquakes frequent in Afghanistan? | Explained” »
In this undated image made from video provided by the BBC, hatchling marine iguanas. British naturalist Charles Darwin sketched out his theory of evolution in the 1859 book On the Origin of Species – proposing that biological species change over time through the acquisition of traits that favour survival and reproduction. Now 164 years later,…
Read More “Scientists propose sweeping new law of nature, expanding on evolution” »
Pawan Chandana and Bharath Daka, founders of Skyroot Aerospace, an Indian Space-Tech startup, pose for a photograph with a mockup of Vikram-S rocket, India’s first private rocket developed by the Skyroot, in Hyderabad, India, October 24, 2022. | Photo Credit: Reuters Indian space startup Agnikul Cosmos said on Tuesday it had raised 2 billion rupees…
Read More “India’s Agnikul raises 2 billion rupees more ahead of first rocket launch” »
Aestivation is to endure hot conditions while animals like this hedgehog hibernate to survive the winter. Ever felt the urge to sleep through a hot day? Some animals do exactly that to beat the heat, but for a whole season. This is called estivation (or aestivation). It is a biological phenomenon whereby the animal enters…