boar
Nuclear hog hybrids are breeding at breakneck speed in Japan
But not in the way Fukushima's geneticists thought. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. In the regions surrounding the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in northeast Japan, radioactive domestic pigs and wild boar are rapidly interbreeding. While far from the only recent incident of animal hybridization, the situation is presenting wildlife biologists with an unprecedented opportunity to examine the issue in real-time, as well as provide a template for studying the growing problem worldwide. In 2011, a 9.0 magnitude undersea earthquake in the Pacific Ocean rocked Japan.
- Asia > Japan > Honshū > Tōhoku > Fukushima Prefecture > Fukushima (0.50)
- Pacific Ocean (0.25)
- North America > United States > California (0.05)
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Fukushima disaster has created boar-pig hybrids, scientists say
Japan's catastrophic Fukushima disaster in 2011 has resulted in a unique species of boar-pig, a new study reveals. Researchers investigating the effects of the nuclear disaster on animals in the area report that radiation has had no adverse effects on their genetics. However, wild boars (Sus scrofa leucomystax) have proliferated in the area, after being left to roam freely from the lack of humans. The boars have bred with domestic pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus) that escaped from nearby properties after farmers had to flee, creating a new hybrid species. Rare spotted wild boar observed inside the evacuated area of Fukushima, Japan, indicative of the'introgression' - the transfer of genetic information from one species to another - with domestic pigs Images from remotely-operated cameras indicate wildlife is flourishing in Fukushima's exclusion zone. Wildlife ecologist James Beasley of the University of Georgia and colleagues used a network of 106 remote cameras to capture images of the wildlife in the area over a four-month period.
- Asia > Japan > Honshū > Tōhoku > Fukushima Prefecture > Fukushima (1.00)
- Pacific Ocean (0.05)
- North America > United States (0.05)
The Boar
The capacity and role of AI in public life is something that has long been imagined in popular culture. The average citizen's lack of knowledge about the potential powers from such objects is precisely what fuels the excitement, tension, and awe. While we are amazed at such advancements in technology, we are also terrified. Part of this fear stems from concerns about access. All countries are naturally trying to scientifically develop AI to benefit their populations.
The Boar
It is predicted that, by 2025, robots and machines driven by artificial intelligence (AI) will perform half of all productive functions in the workplace – companies already use robots across many industries, but the sheer scale is likely to prompt some new moral and legal questions. Machines currently have no protected legal rights but, as they become more intelligent and act more like humans, will the legal standards at play need to change? To answer this question, we need to take a good hard look at the nature of robotics and our own system of ethics, tackling a situation unlike anything the human race has ever known. The state of robotics at the moment is so comparatively underdeveloped that most of these questions will just be hypotheticals that will be nearly impossible to answer. Can, and should, robots be compensated for their work, and could they be represented by unions (and, if so, could a human union truly stand up for robot working rights, or would there always be an inherent tension)?
- Asia > Middle East > Saudi Arabia (0.06)
- Europe (0.05)
- Asia > China > Hong Kong (0.05)
Robots take on boars: Japan's farmers get creative to save crops
Japan is answering the problem of too many wild boars creatively: by scaring them off with robotic wolves. The wolves, which have fangs, fur and red eyes, are being implemented to help farmers protect their crops from the growing wild boar population, Earther reports. The wolves were tested last summer, and the product will now be produced and available all over Japan. The wild boar population in Japan's northern regions has been increasing. Sometimes called the'Super Monster Wolf', the invention runs on batteries that are solar-rechargeable, and its range is greater than half a mile.
Machine beats humans for the first time in poker
NEW YORK Artificial intelligence has made history by beating humans in poker for the first time, the last remaining game in which humans had managed to maintain the upper hand. Libratus, an AI built by Carnegie Mellon University racked up over $1.7 million worth of chips against four of the top professional poker players in the world in a 20-day marathon poker tournament that ended on Tuesday in Philadelphia. While machines have beaten humans over the last two decade in chess, checkers, and most recently in the ancient game of Go, Libratus' victory is significant because poker is an imperfect information game -- similar to the real world where not all problems are laid out and the difficulty in figuring out human behavior is one of the main reasons why it was considered immune to machines. "The best AI's ability to do strategic reasoning with imperfect information has now surpassed that of the best humans," said Tuomas Sandholm, professor of computer science at CMU who created Libratus with a Ph.D student Noam Brown said on Wednesday. The victory prompted inquiries from companies all over the world seeking to use Libratus' algorithm for problem solving.
- North America > United States > New York (0.26)
- South America > Chile > Santiago Metropolitan Region > Santiago Province > Santiago (0.06)
- North America > United States > Texas (0.06)
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