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A team from the University of Southern California claims their research indicates that megasatellite constellations, such as SpaceX’s Starlink, spew large amounts of alumina gas into the atmosphere that could deplete the ozone layer.
The ozone layer in Earth’s atmosphere absorbs harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun, which when exposed can cause skin cancer and even disrupt crop yields and food production.
Tech & Science Daily has reached out to SpaceX for a response to the investigation, but has not yet received a response.
Fernando Auat Cheein, associate professor of robotics and autonomous systems at the National Robotarium at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, discusses how their new AI tool can use videos to predict harvests.
The system can accurately estimate the number of flowers on fruit trees from videos taken on a standard smartphone by recognizing patterns and features.
The technology can be used to predict crop yields up to six months before harvest, helping farmers improve the allocation of resources such as water and labor, plan harvests and distribution, and reduce the amount of food waste.
The first patients in Britain have been given a new ‘revolutionary’ device to stop severe acid reflux disease.
The condition occurs when the contents of the stomach flow back into the esophagus – the long tube that carries food from the throat to the stomach.
University Hospital Southampton and Imperial College London are the first NHS trusts in the country to install the implant called ‘RefluxStop’, with Southampton the first to use robotic surgery for the procedure.
And the rest
Maternal Alzheimer’s disease is linked to an ‘increased risk’ of the condition, and there are urgent warnings over Greece’s heatwave as the death toll among tourists rises to five.
Moreover, this weekend marks the first ‘great lunar standstill’ in almost twenty years.
You can listen to the episode in the player above, find us on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Here is an automated transcript:
Hello, I’m Rochelle Travers and this is The Standard’s Tech and Science Daily podcast.
We’ll get to how AI helps predict harvest
Now let’s get into it.
Can satellites like Starlink deplete Earth’s ozone layer?
A team from the University of Southern California says their research suggests that megasatellite constellations such as SpaceX’s Starlink spew large amounts of alumina gas into the atmosphere that could deplete the ozone layer.
The ozone layer in Earth’s atmosphere absorbs harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun, which when exposed can cause skin cancer and even disrupt crop yields and food production.
Tech and Science Daily reached out to SpaceX for a response to the study’s claims that we had not received a response at the time of recording this podcast.
Researchers say a new AI tool could use videos to predict harvests.
The system we have developed is an architecture based on machine learning techniques that actually uses the videos, such as the recordings from a mobile phone or other camera, to count how many flowers we have in the video.
So imagine taking your cell phone and taking a video of the harvest.
In real time, we classify and count how many flowers that specific tree has.
That’s Fernando Auat Cheein, associate professor of robotics and autonomous systems at the National Robotarium at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.
The system can accurately estimate the number of flowers on fruit trees from videos taken on a standard smartphone by recognizing patterns and features.
Most of the work at this time is focused on detecting the fruit, but the fruit being detected takes about three to two weeks before harvest.
From the point of view of the agricultural process, this is useless, because the farmer must know how much he will harvest long before the harvest season.
The tool can be used to predict crop yields up to six months before harvest, helping farmers improve the allocation of resources such as water and labor, plan harvests and distribution, and reduce the amount of food waste.
The researchers will now compare the AI’s predictions with actual harvests.
So the next step will now take place in the summer where we will test our technology because what we are doing now is counting flowers and we know for sure that there is a relationship between flowers and fruit, but we don’t know. the exact number, that is, if we detect, for example, 10,000 flowers, how many fruits these 10,000 flowers represent.
If the next phase of research is effective, they hope the approach can be adapted for crops such as apples, pears and cherries, benefiting fruit growers in Britain, Europe and beyond.
The first patients in Britain have received a new revolutionary device to stop severe acid reflux disease.
The condition occurs when the contents of the stomach flow back into the esophagus, the long tube that carries food from the throat to the stomach.
It’s really affecting my daily life so I’m starting to get pain in my chest and I can feel the reflux going up my esophagus.
And then I started getting a really sore throat, and as soon as my nose starts running, that’s when I know I’m just going to throw up.
That’s Danielle Harding speaking there, one of the patients now fitted with the device called Reflux Stop.
Previously, the 30-year-old could not eat without experiencing severe coughing and pain.
She explained the positive impact this implant is already having on her quality of life.
I am very happy to see that I am off those medications and that life is getting back to normal.
People get the standard like heartburn, but they don’t understand the difference from severe to normal and the pain that it brings, so people definitely don’t realize how serious and bad it can get and the damage it causes to your body. also.
University Hospital Southampton and Imperial College London are the first NHS trusts in the country to install the implant, with Southampton the first to use robotic surgery for the procedure.
The reflux stopper is made of rounded, sturdy medical-grade silicone and measures approximately 25 millimeters.
It is applied to the upper part of the stomach wall to block the movement of the lower esophageal sphincter.
Let’s get to the ads.
Soon a warning to Taurus about another death due to extreme heat in Greece and the first major lunar standstill in almost 20 years happening this weekend.
Welcome back.
A study suggests that a family history of Alzheimer’s disease on the mother’s side may increase a person’s chance of developing the condition.
Research from Mass General Brigham, an integrated healthcare system in the US, evaluated 4,400 adults aged 65 to 85 with memory loss and problem solving problems.
The researchers found that those with a history of Alzheimer’s on their mother’s side or on both parents’ sides had increased proteins linked to the disease in the brain.
The findings suggest that considering sex-specific parental history may be important in identifying adults at increased risk for the condition.
Tourists are being warned not to underestimate rising temperatures in Greece after a fifth person was found dead.
An unnamed 55-year-old American was discovered on Sunday near a beach on the island of Muthraki.
It is the latest in a number of fatalities, including British TV presenter Michael Mosley who was found on the island of Simi a few weeks ago.
Temperatures there rose above 40 degrees Celsius earlier this month, just as the holidays started across Greece.
A police spokesperson for the South Aegean said: This is a common pattern.
They all went for a walk in high temperatures.
And finally, Skywatchers, listen up, because this weekend you’re in for a surprise as the first major lunar standstill in nearly 20 years will grace our night sky.
The celestial event occurs when the moon rises and sets at its most extreme northern position and suddenly appears on the horizon, reaching its highest and lowest point in the 18.6-year lunar cycle.
Also known as Lunarstis, it occurs when the tilts of both the Earth and the Moon are at their maximum.
And it will overlap with the summer solstice next Friday evening, June 21, in the Northern Hemisphere.
The last major lunar standstill occurred in 2006.
You are informed.
Come back to The Standard podcast at 4pm for all the latest news and analysis.
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See you then!