Focused search for science

just now (521+ words) GRAND FORKS " Winter weather is expected to pick up Tuesday afternoon and evening in the northern and southern Red River Valley, according to the National Weather Service of Grand Forks. There is a winter storm warning in effect for Tuesday as difficult travel conditions are expected from accumulating snow, ice and strong winds. There is a forecasted snowfall of three to five inches, with some areas receiving six or more inches of snow. "We do expect warning impacts this week, primarily on Tuesday. Our confidence in impacts are very high," lead meteorologist Danny Robinson said. There is still uncertainty about the transition phase of snow into freezing rain. The Northern Red River Valley, including Grand Forks, is in a winter storm warning for Tuesday afternoon and evening, while the southern area, including Fargo, is in a high wind warning. The…...

6+ min ago (213+ words) Does AI-powered surveillance make us safer? From Ring cams catching package thieves to systems claiming to detect shooters, AI security tech is rapidly advancing. From a Ring camera catching a porch pirate to advanced AI spotting a potential mass shooter, surveillance technology is smarter than ever. But is this AI revolution genuinely enhancing our security, or could it open the door to a 1984 dystopia?" Today on Studio 2, we explore the tradeoffs in how big tech is changing the way we think about safety as we give private companies more access to our homes and personal spaces. Kade Crockford, director of technology and justice programs at the ACLU of Massachusetts Attorneys general warn OpenAI and other tech companies to improve chatbot safety The attorneys general of California and Delaware have expressed serious concerns about the safety of OpenAI's chatbot, ChatGPT, especially…...

6+ min ago (712+ words) Tuesday, 09 Dec 2025 A technician works at an Amazon Web Services AI data centre in New Carlisle, Indiana, US. " Reuters WASHINGTON, United States: The expansion of data centres to power the AI boom has more people wondering: what exactly is in a data centre? AFP got a chance to take a look at what is inside. Data centres are the physical infrastructure that make our digital lives possible, yet most people have never seen one up close or understand how they operate. Roughly 12,000 data centres are in operation in the world, with about half in the US, according to Cloudscene, a data centre directory. At its most basic, a data centre is a concrete warehouse filled with thousands of computer servers working in tandem. Traditional facilities span one or two floors divided into vast rooms, though newer ones rise higher. A…...

6+ min ago (560+ words) "We reported hints of methane, but the question is, 'is the methane attributable to molecules in the atmosphere of the planet or in the host star?'" New observations of one of the famous TRAPPIST-1 planets are once again teasing scientists with tantalizing clues about a world that may " or may not " harbor an atmosphere capable of sustaining life-friendly liquid water. But those first glimmers, scientists now say, were likely misleading. "Based on our most recent work, we suggest that the previously reported tentative hint of an atmosphere is more likely to be 'noise' from the host star," Sukrit Ranjan, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, said in a statement. "However, this does not mean that TRAPPIST-1e does not have an atmosphere " we just need more data." The new paper uses detailed computer simulations to…...

6+ min ago (366+ words) 2025 is virtually certain to finish as the second- or third-warmest year on record, possibly tied with 2023, the current second-warmest year, and behind 2024, the warmest year on record," the Copernicus Climate Change Service said on Tuesday. 2025 is on track to be the joint-second hottest year on record, marking a continuation of the exceptionally high warming trend the world has witnessed in the past decade, according to the European Union's Earth observation program. In its monthly bulletin, issued Tuesday, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said this year is virtually certain" to finish as either the second- or third-warmest year since records began around 1850. The global average temperature anomaly for January to November 2025 stands at 0.60C above the 19912020 average, or 1.48C above the 18501900 pre-industrial reference. These anomalies are identical to those recorded for the full year 2023, currently the second warmest year," the bulletin read. It…...

8+ min ago (287+ words) Hyderabad:The Smart India Hackathon (SIH) 2025touted as one of the world's largest innovation-driven hackathonscommenced on Monday simultaneously at 60 nodal centres across the country. VCE one of five nodal centres in Telangana, launched the event with 151 student finalists representing 11 states. The national inauguration was conducted virtually by AICTE Chairman Prof TG Sitharam, who opened the two-day Software edition and five-day Hardware edition of SIH 2025, featuring 8,160 finalists from 727 institutions. At VCE, the hackathon was inaugurated in person by Dr Nikhil Kant, Deputy Director, AICTE. Dr Nikhil Kant emphasized Hyderabad's growing prominence as a national innovation hub, pointing out that it is "likely the only city hosting SIH across five nodal centres this year." At VCE, 25 finalist teams were assigned five problem statements issued by the Government of Jammu & Kashmir, covering: 1. AI-Based Timetable Generation aligned to NEP 2020 2. Digital Mental Health & Psychological Support System…...

10+ min ago (297+ words) Yesterday, the pricing for Starlink satellite internet service in India got revealed via the official website of the platform. However, it has been confirmed by Starlink Vice President Lauren Dreyer that the pricing is not live for India, and the same was nothing but a dummy test that got live because of a configuration glitch. She shared a post on X saying, 'The Starlink India website is not live, service pricing for customers in India has not yet been announced, and we are not taking orders from customers in India. There was a configuration glitch that briefly made dummy test data visible, but those numbers do not reflect the actual cost of Starlink service in India. The glitch was quickly fixed. We're eager to connect the people of India with Starlink's high-speed internet, and our teams are focused on obtaining…...

11+ min ago (302+ words) A shallow magnitude 2.9 earthquake was reported early morning near Nurtingen, Regierungsbezirk Stuttgart, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany.According to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC), the quake hit on Tuesday, December 9th, 2025, at 3:50 am local time at a shallow depth of 10. km. Shallow earthquakes are felt more strongly than deeper ones as they are closer to the surface. The exact magnitude, epicenter, and depth of the quake might be revised within the next few hours or minutes as seismologists review data and refine their calculations, or as other agencies issue their report.Towns or cities near the epicenter where the quake might have been felt as very weak shaking include Beuren (pop. 3,500) located 2 km from the epicenter, Nurtingen (pop. 40,200) 8 km away, Kirchheim unter Teck (pop. 40,200) 8 km away, Metzingen (pop. 22,100) 11 km away, Filderstadt (pop. 43,600) 17 km away, Reutlingen (pop. 112,600) 19 km away, Esslingen (pop. 92,400) 20 km away, and Goeppingen…...

16+ min ago (70+ words) [Techmeme permalink] Dan Vergano / Scientific American: The International Committee of the Red Cross, which runs major research archives, warned that AI models are fabricating research papers, journals, and archives" " The International Committee of the Red Cross warned that artificial intelligence models are making up research papers, journals and archives This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:50 PM ET, December 8, 2025....

16+ min ago (173+ words) Katharine Hansen, PhD, has identified as a writer since third grade, when a story she wrote was published in the school newspaper. Today, she is an online educator, author, and content provider. Invasive, Parasitic Plant Detected For The First Time In North America A rather nasty and fast-spreading parasitic plant has made its first detected appearance in North America, posing a particular threat to sunflower crops. A homeowner detected invasive, parasitic sunflower broomrape (Orobanche cumana) in Yakima, Washington, in October, and two branches of the Washington State Department of Agriculture confirmed the identification. This Eurasian native, identifiable by the leafless flower stalks it sends up through the ground, has spread throughout Europe. With its global spread, this plant illustrates the difference between an invasive plant and aggressive growers. Sunflower broomrape is a major pest plant that covers 16 million hectares of…...