Experiment

High-Profile Geoengineering Experiment Shuts DownA beleaguered solar geoengineering project failed to conduct field tests because of opposition from environmentalists and Indigenous residentsBy Chelsea Harvey & E&E NewsThe idea of spraying substances into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight has raised concerns among some scientists. Credit: chuchart duangdaw/Getty ImagesCLIMATEWIRE | Harvard University ended a solar geoengineering research project after years of setbacks derailed efforts to infuse small parts of…

But the project switched locations several times. Most recently, the team hoped to launch a balloon to test out the aircraft’s hardware from the Esrange Space Center in Kiruna, Sweden in the summer of 2021. But those plans were canceled on the recommendation of the project’s advisory committee, which determined the researchers should hold discussions with the public ahead of any flights. The effort was also heavily criticized by the Saami Council, which represents the indigenous Saami peoples’ groups in Sweden and…

Getting into 'the zone' when being creative can be tricky, even if you've been there before. People strive for this famous mental state in a wide range of endeavors, many hoping for even just a few moments of fun, effortless productivity.Also known as 'flow,' the state of mind is a real psychological phenomenon, albeit still a poorly understood one. A new study by researchers from Drexel University in the US sheds light on what's happening inside a human brain during flow – and provides insight on how to achieve it.The…

Romanian film-maker Radu Jude was a Golden Bear winner at Berlin last year for his wackily entitled Covid-era movie Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn. Now he is back with another garrulous essay-movie-slash-black-comedy collage, speckled with literary quotations, jokes, cinephile sideswipes and references to Romania’s most notorious foreign resident: our very own Andrew Tate. The title is a maxim from the Polish poet and aphorist Stanisław Jerzy Lec.It’s another skittery, jittery movie, an experimental adventure in which…

Cannabis's effects seem pretty paradoxical on the surface. Some people call Mary Jane their best friend, enjoying feelings of relaxation, profound insight, and a release from troubled nerves. Others spurn the devil's lettuce, overwhelmed by feelings of paranoia, depersonalization, and panic.A new study confirms that particular chemicals in weed are responsible for the drug's two-sided nature, and that particular strains – those with high levels of cannabidiol (CBD) and negligible tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – are more…

This week, Adobe revealed an experimental audio AI tool to join its image-based ones in Photoshop. Described by the company as “an early-stage generative AI music generation and editing tool,” Adobe’s Project Music GenAI Control can create music (and other audio) from text prompts, which it can then fine-tune in the same interface.Adobe frames the Firefly-based technology as a creative ally that — unlike generative audio experiments like Google’s MusicLM — goes a step further and skips the hassle of moving the output to…

Potters from three different cultures (here a Hindu Indian workshop) were shown model shapes not found in their repertoire and asked to reproduce them as faithfully as possible. Because the products were more different between communities than within communities, this shows that cultural differences do not require differential cultural evolution. Credit: Enora Gandon Potters of different cultural backgrounds learn new types…

People who search for human remains in Alberta say a new study identifying predominant scavengers in the region will help them conduct their searches more efficiently.In August 2021 and August 2022, researchers placed pig carcasses at four locations — one near Edmonton, another near Calgary and two in more rural areas.The 200-pound pigs acted as analogs for human remains so researchers put dresses, shorts and shirts on them."It probably looks ludicrous, but we are trying our best to recreate a human environment and if we…

Image Source : AP Google The Centre on Saturday warned Google India that India's ‘Digital Nagriks’ are not to be experimented on with ‘unreliable’ algorithms or AI models, as the IT Ministry was in the process of issuing a notice to the tech giant over "problematic and illegal" responses by Google's Gemini AI. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Minister of…

A private U.S. lunar lander tilted over at touchdown and ended up on its side near the moon's south pole, hampering communications, company officials said Friday.Intuitive Machines, the company that built the six-footed lander, initially said it was upright. But CEO Steve Altemus said Friday that the lander "caught a foot in the surface and tipped" and landed on its side, and, quite possibly, is leaning against a rock. He said the lander had come in too fast and may have snapped a leg."So far, we have quite a bit of…