AI's advances really aren't quite as great as we think (1)
The article on using artificial intelligence to tackle scientific challenges paints too rosy a picture of its accomplishments up to now. AlphaFold sometimes inaccurately predicts protein folding. The matrix multiplication methods found by AI only achieve a 10 to 20 per cent improvement for certain small matrices and only when using certain hardware. The sorting algorithms found by AI were 70 per cent faster only for a list of five items. The concrete formulation found by AI entails 40 per cent less carbon dioxide emissions only when compared with a form of “standard” concrete that hasn’t been used much for the past 25 years (29 July, p 32).
AI's advances really aren't quite as great as we think (2)
I laughed when I read that AI could help create viable nuclear fusion power, with “energy so cheap that it could be given away for free”.
Nuclear fission was supposed to be “too cheap to meter” as well. In fact, it has always been the most expensive energy fed into the grid.
The type of nuclear fusion being developed requires large, complex facilities, the mining, refining and transport of and the not-so-easy extraction of deuterium from water for fuel. The neutrons emitted during fusion will also degrade the reactor, requiring us to replace parts or all of it on a regular basis, as well as find a way to safely dispose of the radioactive scrap.
Placenta may be scene of a battle of the sexes
Jasmin Fox-Skelly’s exploration of the long-term impact of the placenta on health notes the genetic “conflict” between mother and fetus, but this doesn’t factor in that the maternal and paternal chromosomes may express genes differently due to the phenomenon of epigenetic “imprinting” (22 July, p 40).
Genes promoting placental growth may be highly expressed from the paternal chromosome, seeking to maximise offspring success. The same gene on the maternal chromosome may be inactivated to counterbalance its paternal partner, preserving some nutritional resources for the mother and future offspring.
Mutations in such genes can have different effects depending on whether they are inherited from the mother or the father, known as a parent-of-origin effect.
As such, the true “battle” may be one of the sexes, rather than the generations.
Solar panels can pave the way to green air con
We may not need to turn our backs on the use of electricity to cool buildings. In the 19th century, most Australian houses were designed with passive cooling in mind and, having lived in a couple, I can attest that it was reasonably successful. But we are in the 21st century and have solar panels (22 July, p 10).
My son and his family live in a very ordinary suburban semi-detached home, and they have enough solar panels on their roof to run their air conditioning full tilt on the hottest day and still export electricity to the grid. We may get more sun than the UK, but we also get much hotter days.
Surely the UK government could mandate that a certain number of solar panels need to be installed on a house before allowing it to have air conditioning?
Let's hear it for the clever seagulls too
Reading that crows and magpies, well known as the intellectuals of the bird world, have been using the anti-nesting spikes on roofs as nest-building material, I have to let you know that, near Weymouth, UK, the gulls have been doing this for at least four years (22 July, p 20). Respect!
Personalised carbon tax is within our grasp
There is no need to restrict a carbon tax to luxury goods. Access to utility and vehicle-use records, passports and international passenger information, as well as our financial records for an estimate of spending on goods, is within the grasp of authorities such that a reasonable reckoning of our mark on the planet is possible for each individual (22 July, p 17).
A personal carbon footprint tax would be feasible. It would hopefully help make each of us more aware and try harder to reduce our footprint, with the proceeds of the tax used to ensure a future for younger generations.
Is this why psychedelic treatments are back?
While reading your article on the use of psilocybin to treat anorexia, and reflecting on the growing number of reports on similar studies of the beneficial effects of controlled substances, I wondered if we are seeing a “generation drug” effect? Are those who lived through the normalisation of the use of recreational drugs in the 1990s and 2000s, perhaps shorn of earlier generations’ reluctance, now in positions to initiate and direct such research? (29 July, p 7)
Reasons to think crocks aren't totally redundant
One reason to put crocks 鈥� scrap bits of pottery or polystyrene 鈥� into the base of a plant pot is that a relatively fine planting mix, for example for seedlings or cuttings, will fall through open drainage holes when dry or wash through when it is wet. The crocks can stop this. In addition, half-filling a large pot with polystyrene would make it far easier to move (22 July, p 44).
All hail the new drugs for treatment of obesity
I spent much of my career trying to discover drugs to treat obesity. The class of drug that my team and I found to work well in rodents was ineffective in people. However, others found them useful in the treatment of overactive bladder (15 July, p 32).
How I wish that I had been involved in the discovery of semaglutide and the other treatments described by Clare Wilson in her excellent article.
I also totally agree with your related leader. Why the moralising about drugs for obesity, but not those for type 2 diabetes, which is usually associated with obesity?
For the record
Cosmic rays produce helium-3 and beryllium-10 in asteroids (22 July, p 16).