Armed with artificial intelligence, scientists take on climate change

Science needs to understand and predict how climate change--and the growing onslaught of hurricanes, fires, and floods it's bringing--affects tropical forests. Will the forests respond to the assault with shorter trees? Will they store less carbon, or support less tree and plant diversity and fewer wildlife species? To better understand the effects a changing climate will have on tropical forests, Maria Uriarte, Columbia University professor of ecology, evolution, and environmental biology, needs to analyze images of forests. These bird's-eye view images are the size of a postage stamp.