Thousands of ancient treasures that have been unearthed by climate change could soon be lost to humankind forever, as they are eroded by weathering and eaten by pests. The crisis is so extreme that some archaeologists are urging colleagues to abandon their current field sites and focus instead on these newly exposed relics before they vanish. Rising seas, raging storms, melting ice and forest fires are revealing artefacts that have much to tell us about our history on Earth – from sunken shipwrecks in Svalbard to the ancient waste dumps filled with bones, shoes and carvings emerging all over the Arctic and further south, including in Scotland. "This material is like the library of Alexandria. It is incredibly valuable and it's on fire now," George Hambrecht, an anthropologist at the University of Maryland, College Park, told New Scientist at the Anthropology, Weather and Climate Change conference held in London last month.

Aerial drones get all the attention, but a new terrestrial drone named the Pegasus:Multiscope is an autonomous treaded vehicle that its makers call "the first unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) for off-road use." Use cases for the Pegasus:Multiscope include surveying challenging terrain for civil engineering projects or agriculture, or in hazardous areas such as near nuclear power stations or in conflict zones. The UGV's treads reduce ground pressure at any one point, allowing the vehicle, which weighs just under 2000 pounds, to traverse any type of terrain, including mud, sand or snow. Contractor Oshkosh Defense designs solutions to turn existing military vehicles into UGV.

Political elections – for better or worse – have become a game show. The more social media, the more clickbait headlines ... whatever generates a lot of buzz is one way to make our mark in an election,

Tokyo, December 10, 2015 - NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) today announced the development of a'system operations-visualization and anomaly-analysis technology' that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically detect unknown cyber-attacks against social infrastructure and enterprise systems. The new technology learns (through machine learning) the normal state of OS-level operations (program start-up, file access, communications, etc.) for entire ICT systems, including PCs and servers. It then carries out real-time comparisons and analysis of current operations in the system's normal state and automatically isolates particular points that deviate from the normal state by using system operation tools and Software-Defined Networking (SDN). Further, a detailed knowledge of the system behavior makes it possible to identify the extent of damage 90% faster than the time required in conventional manual investigation. Accurate anomaly detection and quick specification of damaged areas by the new technology minimize the damage from cyber-attacks and enable recovery without stopping an entire user-system.

Hard-hatted scientists, engineers, earthquake safety experts and news media witnessed the tests Wednesday. Small drones flew in and around the building to map the structure and assess damage. More than 250 sensors, more than 40 video cameras, and a GPS system were also in the building, gathering data. Some sensors are sensitive enough to detect movements caused by the wind.

The Earth isn't getting any bigger, so we need to start finding more efficient ways to feed the projected 10 billion people by 2050 using the same amount of land. Researchers from EPFL in Switzerland and Penn State University used the Caffe deep learning framework and Tesla K40 GPUs to train a model that identifies crop diseases. For now, the researchers created a website, Plant Village, an open access database of 50,000 images of healthy and diseased crops. The goal is to launch a mobile app to help farmers around the world by providing them with the ability to snap a photo of their diseased plant and the app would automatically diagnose it. Silicon Valley-based Blue River Technology has developed a deep learning solution called LettuceBot that rolls through a field photographing 5,000 young plants a minute, using algorithms and machine vision to identify each sprout as lettuce or a weed.

Tall grass hid the advancing cadets from my perch in building 7. The tall grass hid nothing from the drone the defenders flew over their position, a Parrot AR 2.0, a common model used by civilian fliers. A minute later, after the drone pilot filmed the crawling cadets, instructors called in mock artillery fire. The cadets' position was compromised, and while the rest of their platoon advanced to take the buildings, these 10 cadets instead spent an hour in the sun contemplating what they could have done about the drone. The answer was standing right behind them.

Recovering the planet's natural resources is hard. It's difficult, dangerous, and can be environmentally damaging. Cue an IT revolution, with smart communications, 'extreme Wi-Fi' covering vast deserts, autonomous vehicles that extract vital rocks and minerals, and geofenced employees who receive warnings if they get close to a mine's famously colossal big machinery. There's even a'smart bolt' that creates an underground support structure which is classic Internet of Things. The final goal is the autonomous mine, where humans are completely removed from the mining process.

Sometimes, smaller is better, especially with robots. That's what researchers developing mini-robots have in mind. Robots that cost US 10 to 100 are cheaper to make and more useful to deploy in emergency situations than big robots with limited mobility. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are developing sophisticated robots that are up to 10 centimeters long, and can run, climb, fly, and communicate with emergency personnel. Once the multi-leg robots serve their purpose, they can be disposed of without any regrets.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) ordered BSI Bank Singapore to shut down recently on 24 May 2016. This serious action is due to their compliance oversight in money laundering which resulted in a criminal case. This is also a stark reminder of the compliance challenges that financial institutions are facing today. They had attracted millions of dollars of regulatory fines in the aftermath of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. A distinguished law firm, Baker and McKenzie, commissioned a survey of 424 senior executives from financial institutions.