Learning is always creative

You would be hard-pressed not to have heard how AI is evolving at such a fast rate. Tools like ChatGBT and Google Bard weren’t even a thing before 2023. With any innovation, there is both excitement and fear. While there is room for caution, leaders can tap into the power of AI. As I shared in Digital Leadership, evolving technology enables and empowers leaders to seize the moment and look for ways to fundamentally improve teaching, learning, and leadership.

Via EDTECH@UTRGV

The lunar gene bank - which could also house seed and spore samples - is envisaged as being built under the lunar surface, in a hollow, cooled lava tube.

 

• To protect Earth’s species diversity, we presently store genetic material in vaults
• Material including seeds and spores could be used to recover lost species
• But gene banks on Earth are vulnerable to the catastrophes they insure against
• US experts propose to more safely store specimens in lava tubes on the moon
• The deposits would be cryogenically frozen and tended by levitating robots

 

The lunar gene bank — which could also house seed and spore samples — is envisaged as being built under the lunar surface, in a hollow, cooled lava tube. Specimens deposited in the ark would be kept refrigerated at cryogenic temperatures, with the facility powered by solar panels on the lunar surface. The ark would preserve Earth’s genetic diversity in the event of a global catastrophe, such as might be caused by climate change, a supervolcano or an asteroid impact.

 

Earth is naturally a volatile environment,’ said study author and mechanical engineer Jekan Thanga of the University of Arizona.

‘As humans, we had a close call about 75,000 years ago with the Toba supervolcano eruption, which caused a 1,000-year cooling period and, according to some, aligns with an estimated drop in human diversity,’ he added. ‘Because human civilization has such a large footprint, if it were to collapse, that could have a negative cascading effect on the rest of the planet.’

 

The idea of creating gene banks to restore lost biodiversity in the future is not new — more than a million seed samples are currently stored in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault on the island of Spitsbergen in the Artic Sea, for example. However, Professor Thanga and colleagues explained that locating such facilities on Earth leaves them also vulnerable to accidental loss.

 

Climate change, for example, has the potential to push many species into terminal decline in the future — and, at the same time, the rising sea levels which will accompany global warming will see the Svalbard vault lost beneath the waves. Removed but still accessible, the moon may present a safer location. Building a genetic storage facility on the moon would be a significant undertaking — but one that Professor Thanga says would be possible.

 

Read full story here…

Via Dr. Stefan Gruenwald

Via Peter Mellow

Preparing educators and students to work with AI in school and beyond

Via EDTECH@UTRGV

In a matter of seconds, this artificial intelligence technology can produce new content in response to a prompt

Via EDTECH@UTRGV

Generative art—art produced by AI—means you no longer need to be an accomplished artist to produce fantastic images in whatever style you choose. To create AI art, you would typically create an account with a third-party company and have generated images served to you over the web.

But did you know you can create unlimited AI images on your own PC?

Via John Evans

How Immersive Learning Prepares Students for the Future

Via Yashy Tohsaku

NFTs in education are transforming the way we learn and teach. Discover how they are being used in education and what benefits they offer.

Via Marta Torán

Khan Academy’s Khanmigo learning guide is powered by GPT-4 and Sal Khan says the technology is so powerful it feels like it has passed the Turing Test.

Via EDTECH@UTRGV

Signs of life beyond Earth could take forms that are clearly artificial – radio or light signals, or even evidence of large-scale engineering.

 

Our first confirmed proof of life beyond Earth might not involve biology at all. It’s possible that we might intercept communication through electromagnetic waves, like radio, or find telescopic evidence of epic engineering. While the search remains largely focused on non-technological life, NASA scientists also have begun to consider what technological traces of intelligent life – “technosignatures” – might look like. They wouldn’t come from planets in our solar system, but rather far-flung exoplanets that we cannot see up close. Among the possibilities are laser or radio pulses, signs of artificial chemicals in the atmospheres of distant planets, or “Dyson spheres” – massive structures built around stars to collect their energy.

 

And as acceptance in the scientific community slowly grows, a field once derided as a search for “little green men” is showing early signs of blossoming into a mature, serious investigation.

“That’s something we’ve worked very hard on: to establish our legitimacy, and distance ourselves from pseudo-science,” said Jill Tarter, an astronomer known for decades as a leader in the search for intelligent life beyond Earth. “If anything, my conviction that this is an important and reasonable thing to do has increased.”

 

Jill Tarter is the co-founder and former director of the Center for SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Research at the SETI Institute, as well as the inspiration for the main character in Carl Sagan’s 1985 novel “Contact.” She says one of the biggest challenges today is moving the search for signs of technology beyond just radio signals. “We still want to look at all the sky all the time, at all wavelengths,” Tarter said, including pulses of laser light that might be used for communication.

 

Another challenge is short-lived “transient” signals, one-time events that can be bright and energetic. Mixed among the many natural sources for such signals, like gamma-ray bursts or supernovae, might be artificial transients from distant civilizations – an engineered signal lasting less than a few minutes. But teasing them apart likely would require enormous amounts of computer time. "We’re trying to figure out how to do that,” Tarter said. “That is our focus now.”

 

This is the fifth in a series of articles on how NASA is searching for life in the cosmos. Read Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Via Dr. Stefan Gruenwald

The BMW i Vision Dee concept arrived at CES with an E Ink-powered color-changing technology that was much improved over 2022’s monochromatic display.

 

Via Dr. Stefan Gruenwald

Astronomers have detected, a critical life component, phosphate on Saturn's moon Enceladus, marking a significant step forward in the search for extraterrestrial life.

 

Phosphate is vital for all life on Earth. It forms the backbone of DNA and RNA, the genetic material that carries the instructions for life. It is also a key component of ATP (adenosine triphosphate), the molecule that provides energy for cellular processes, and phospholipids, which form the membranes of cells. The discovery of phosphates on Saturn’s moon Enceladus is the first to report direct evidence of phosphorus on an extraterrestrial ocean world, making it a significant milestone in astrobiology.

 

The detection of phosphates on Saturn’s moon Enceladus was made possible by data from NASA’s Cassini mission. Launched in 1997, Cassini spent 13 years exploring Saturn, its rings, and its moons. One of its most significant discoveries was the detection of a subsurface ocean on Enceladus, which was confirmed by the spacecraft’s observations of geysers erupting from the moon’s south pole. These geysers spew water ice particles into space, some of which supply Saturn’s E ring.

 

The Cassini spacecraft was equipped with the Cosmic Dust Analyzer, which analyzed individual ice grains emitted from Enceladus and sent those measurements back to Earth. In the new study, researchers used data collected from Cassini’s Cosmic Dust Analyzer. They found sodium phosphate molecules in 9 of 345 ice grains Cassini analyzed as it passed through Saturn’s outer E ring.

 

The detection of phosphates on Saturn’s moon Enceladus is a stunning result for astrobiology and a major step forward in the search for life beyond Earth. The high concentration of phosphates in Enceladus’ ocean satisfies one of the strictest requirements in establishing whether celestial bodies are habitable.

 

The discovery of phosphate on Saturn’s moon Enceladus reinforces the idea of the potential habitability of ice-covered ocean worlds across the solar system, beyond surface ocean worlds like Earth. Worlds with an interior ocean like Enceladus can occur over a much wider range of distances, greatly expanding the number of habitable worlds likely to exist across the galaxy.

 

This discovery has profound implications for our understanding of where life might exist beyond Earth. It suggests that the conditions necessary for life as we know it could exist on moons and planets far from the warmth of their parent star, in the cold depths of subsurface oceans. With the discovery of phosphates on Saturn’s moon Enceladus, the next step is clear – we need to go back to Enceladus to see if the habitable ocean is actually inhabited. This finding has made the search for extraterrestrial life in our solar system more exciting and promising. Future missions to Enceladus could involve landers or even submarines designed to probe its subsurface ocean. Such missions could collect and analyze samples directly from the ocean, potentially detecting signs of life such as microorganisms or organic molecules.

Via Dr. Stefan Gruenwald

According to the study, large language models will impact at least 10 percent of the work of about 80 percent of U.S. workers. For 19% of workers, language models are expected to influence at least 50%  of tasks.

The researchers based their findings on an analysis of 19,265 tasks and 2,087 work processes described in the O*NET 27.2 database. The database includes 1,016 occupations with detailed descriptions of their tasks and work processes, called detailed work activities (DWAs), such as "study scripts to determine project requirements."

Via Edumorfosis

A futuristic demonstration of emerging renewable energy material – printed solar cells, is being trialled in a public setting for the first time as it nears commercial readiness.

 

Creator of the organic printed solar material, Physicist Professor Paul Dastoor from the Faculty of Science said his team were excited to take their ‘science to the streets’ in what represented significant progress toward commercial availability of the material. “Globally, there’s been so few of these installations, we know very little about how they perform in a public setting. This installation is the next critical step in accelerating the development and commercialization of this technology. It presents a new scenario for us to test performance and durability against a range of new challenges,” said Professor Dastoor.

 

“Located within Lane Cove Council’s vibrant new urban space ‘The Canopy’, this demonstration plucks extraordinary science from behind sealed lab doors, and places it in an ordinary environment, where people will interact with it as they go about their grocery shopping, play with their children in the park, or enjoy food in one of the nearby restaurants. It’s an effortless and subtle way to spark conversation and showcase ‘what’s next’ in energy generation to thousands of people.” The renewable energy tech - which is ultra light-weight, ultra flexible, recyclable and cheap to manufacture, will power interactive public lighting in Sydney.

Professor Dastoor said he was hopeful the public installation would prompt further discussion on the subject of energy as the Federal Government considered submissions to its technology investment roadmap. "The government is seeking to bring down carbon emissions over the next 30 years and the community has been very engaged on this subject. Globally, there are many research groups like ours working on sustainable energy technologies and now, via the technology investment roadmap, is our opportunity to ensure we invest in and deliver clever solutions,” said Professor Dastoor.

 

Director of the University’s Newcastle Institute for Energy and Resources (NIER), Professor Alan Broadfoot, said the University was committed to bringing the world closer to a sustainable future through its next generation resources engagement priority. “The printed solar project highlights the transformational research coming out of NIER through valued partnerships with government, industry, and the community in critical areas such as new energy technologies,” said Professor Broadfoot.

A new advanced manufacturing industry for Australia

This installation follows a successful commercial-scale public sector installation with CHEP in late 2018. Professor Dastoor said global interest in printed solar was the highest he had ever witnessed and that an advanced manufacturing facility for printed solar in NSW was the imminent goal for his team. “We have a world-class manufacturing facility at the University’s Newcastle Institute for Energy and Resources (NIER), which has been generously supported by the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF). This print facility can manufacture hundreds of meters of material a day, however we’re now reaching the point where we need to significantly scale this level of production,” said Professor Dastoor.

 

This technology will really disrupt and revitalise the contracting print industry. Printed solar is manufactured on conventional printers – our lab-scale system previously manufactured wine labels.

Via Dr. Stefan Gruenwald

But it can't do what teachers do well…. ChatGPT "Hold my beer...."   Universal Soldier is a film franchise that sees a series of soldiers

Via Marta Torán

1. GPT-3 was outputting 3.1 million words per minute (wpm) in Mar/2021 (“We currently generate an average of 4.5 billion words per day, and continue to scale production traffic.”) (OpenAI blog, March 2021) https://openai.com/blog/gpt-3-apps/

2. GPT-3 had 1 million users about a year later in Jun/2022 (“more than 1 million signups! It took gpt-3 ~24 months to get there”) (Sam Altman tweet, 22/Jun/2022) https://twitter.com/sama/status/1539737789310259200

3. ChatGPT had 100 million monthly users in Jan/2023 (UBS). https://archive.is/XRl0R

4. So, with very non-rigorous math, ChatGPT may be currently outputting 310 million wpm.

5. Twitter users output 350,000 tweets sent per minute (2022), at 8 words (34 chars) average, a total of 2.8 million wpm.

6. So, in Jan/2023, ChatGPT is probably outputting at least 110x the equivalent volume of Tweets by human Twitter users every day.

7. A study conducted by Google Books found that there have been 129,864,880 books published since the invention of Gutenberg’s printing press in 1440. At an average of 50,000 words per book, that is about 6.5T words total.

8. So, in Jan/2023, ChatGPT is probably outputting at least the equivalent of the entire printed works of humanity every 14 days.

Via Dr. Stefan Gruenwald

Artificial intelligence (AI) is an excellent and rapidly growing field that involves the development of algorithms and systems that continuously tend to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence. AI systems can process vast amounts of data, identify patterns, make predictions and automate repetitive tasks.

Via EDTECH@UTRGV