R. E. KEARNEY

Laser Cannon

The arms race may be escalating quite quickly and intensely, after the public acknowledgment that Russia has developed missiles and laser weapons that are ready for service, Russia posted a video in July 2018 which showcased a laser death weapon, and they have recently announced that it has officially entered service. Here is all you need to know about the Peresvet Combat Laser System, which is essentially a laser cannon, and how Russia plans on using it.

The Peresvet Combat Laser

Just recently, Russia announced that the Peresvet Combat Laser System has officially entered service and now has been permanently installed. The inspiration for the name Peresvet comes from the ancient Russian monk warrior named Alexander Peresvet. The video that Russia released back in July, which openly shows the unveiling of the laser, is said to be able to obliterate targets in a fraction of a second. Not much else is known about the laser cannon itself and thus, many people have speculated that it will not be used to kill people, but will actually be used for defence against enemy missiles and airplanes. It definitely looks like it is straight out of a movie though.

A Boastful Putin

Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia has been boasting about this laser cannon/death ray by saying, “Russia’s capacities for defending itself have multiplied.” Putin also boasted about the fact that laser weaponry, “is not just a concept or a plan any more. It is not even in the early production stages. Since last year, our troops have been armed with laser weapons.” He also taunted those against Russia in the arms race that, “We are one step ahead of our rivals,”

Is This The Start Of A Whole New Arms Race?

The implications of this cannon are far more deadly than they might seem. The death machine of which we do not even know the full details of will probably be used for more than just defence. The US is now threatening to pull out of the INF treaty as they claim the development of this laser cannon violates the treaty. However, Russia is retaliating and saying they are following all the conditions specified in the treaty. Putin also showed his concern over the fact that the New START pact between the US and Russia will expire in 2021 and that the US is not keen on discussing the future of the pact.

Real or Fake?

Some have even speculated that this laser cannon is not all that it is hyped up to be. The speculations stem from the fact that the laser cannon was announced during a press conference that was also hosting the launch of many other overly-hyped weapons. People also claim that Russia has previously lied or not been completely honest about their new technologies and that there is no evidence whether the cannon actually works as it claims to (since the video never showed it firing).

All we can hope for is that Russia and America stay true to their agreement and talk it out before deciding to fire on each other.

Home Surveillance

If you think that scientific exploration has covered every aspect of our lives, well think again! Traditional home surveillance methods normally include locks and maybe an alarm system and cameras. Well, Alex Pachikov, ex Evernote executive and CEO of Sunflower Labs seems to think there is quite a lot of room for improvement. Here is how the Sunflower system may be innovating the way we secure our homes.

Cute Name, Disturbing Game?

The name for the company (Sunflower Labs) and its products (the Sunflower sensors and the Bee drones) are all inspired by things we find in the garden. That may seem very cute, but their functions, which are autonomous, may be disturbing for some. With all the privacy scandals against big companies such as Apple, Facebook, and Google, some may think it is not wise to leave our home surveillance to autonomous machines.

The Sunflower sensors that are camouflaged as garden lights are built to detect vibrations near the home and can differentiate between the whir of your coffee machine, pets, and footsteps. The ‘Sunflowers’ around all corners of the ground outside the home so that it can create maps and also sense the people and objects present within the space. The kicker, however, is that the sunflower system includes a drone, named the ‘Bee,’ which flies out from its station called the ‘Hive,’ all by itself. The Bee leaves the Hive and flies around the home if any suspicious activity has been discovered, using the Sunflowers that have been installed to establish a pathway. Moreover, it uses the sensors and built-in cameras in order to avoid any object that may come in the way during flight. It streams live footage on your tablet or phone, which is automatically saved on the cloud system later on. It can be manually deployed if the homeowner gets an alert from the Sunflower sensors and lands. The homeowner will have to press the relevant button in the Sunflower app, signalling the drone to dock all by itself to the Hive, which also works as a wireless charger.

Who Can Use This?

It is evident that such a sophisticated home surveillance product would not be affordable to the general public. The CEO says that the Sunflower Labs will soon be offering this device on a subscription base to the wealthy homeowners residing in the suburbs of California. It may become affordable for the general public if the costs get subsidized, but for now only the elite can afford this system. This arrangement works for Sunflower Labs, as the Federal Aviation Administration does not allow drones to be flown out in public. Thus, lawn owners in suburban areas are the suitable target audience for this system.

Can It Be Trusted?

With the recent allegations of smart home devices listening to and recording conversations without obtaining permission, hacking of several accounts, and the leak of private information, it may not be the best option to trust technology to maintain our privacy.

Self-Driving Deliveries

Just a decade ago, we never could have imagined the existence of technologically driven services available to us today like Spotify, Uber, Snapchat, Virtual Reality, Instagram, Airbnb and even Google Chrome. And now, they are a part of our everyday life. Being able to easily order clothes, taxis and food using a smartphone has become the norm, and people are spending less time at shopping centres and grocery stores. But for those who really do not want any human interaction, even when receiving their order, are now in luck. Self-driving delivery services are becoming a reality!

What Are Self-Driving Delivery Services And When Will They Be Available?

Many companies have been working on autonomous vehicles for quite a while now. In recent years, certain companies have been working hard to make self-driving delivery services a norm. From Nuro that already have a working model, to Ford that has teamed up with Walmart and Postmates to deliver everyday groceries to customers at affordable prices. Self-delivery services are deliveries that are made using autonomous vehicles. No drivers, just the goods you want. Ford has been testing using a research vehicle that mimics autonomous vehicles to gather more info about customer preferences. Ford has stated that commercial autonomous vehicles will be available by 2021.

The Benefits Offered By Autonomous Vehicles

Besides being able to conveniently get goods delivered to your home, workplace or sent as a gift to someone without the hassles of dealing with a delivery driver, or having to shop for it yourself, there are many potential benefits that autonomous vehicles offer. One such benefit is reduced costs for stores, as they will not have to hire drivers. Another benefit is that it could be potentially safer, as someone who is home alone and is ordering from a store could meet a potential predator when dealing with delivery personnel. Also, for people who have severe social anxiety, they will not have to contact a delivery driver when ordering groceries, or have to go out to do their grocery shopping either. The same goes for those who are suffering from a contagious illness. Autonomous vehicles would lead to less humans driving on the roads, potentially reducing the risk of injury and death due to accidents.

The Potential Dangers Posed By Autonomous Vehicles

Besides the ‘technology becoming smart enough to come alive and kill people’ scenario from terminator coming true, there are some realistic dangers that autonomous vehicles pose. Firstly, they could lead to unemployment with stores opting for self-deliveries rather than hiring deliverymen. It may also lead to excessive social anxiety and laziness, and people will really not need to leave their homes in order to get something, but would rather just avail the services of an AV to get the job done.

Self-driving cars have been a popular subject of conversation for many years, but the fact that now companies have already launched, or are ready to launch, autonomous vehicles just tells us how much technology has advanced, and how much we rely on technology to live our life.

Autonomous Killer Robots

The terminator movies are no longer fictitious work, because the storyline is being followed through in reality. That vision of killer robots taking over the planet due to the artificial intelligence they possess may not completely be coming true. However, machines that have decision-making capabilities with lethal consequences are already being tested in parts of the world. Autonomous killer robots are a real thing and here is why we should all be worried.

Advanced AI In The Hands Of The Superpowers

Just four years ago, Stephen Hawking warned everyone that, ‘the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race…. It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete and would be superseded.’ And with the superpowers all investing in autonomous weaponry, it is frightening to think of the consequences that could prevail in the near future. The US Department of Defense already displayed 103 autonomous drones flying over the state of California. Even though they were not armed, they flew without any human input, reaching their destination automatically with the algorithms set. Weaponry with differing degrees of self-sufficiency actually being upgraded and used by those who have a high-tech military, including China, the US, Russia, the UK, Germany, South Korea and Israel. Countries such as China are completely silent regarding their position on LAWs (lethal autonomous weapons), and others are vague, which is quite a frightening thing to think about.

The Unfathomable Dangers of Autonomous Killer Robots

The saying that, ‘Guns don’t kill people, people kill people,’ is effectively becoming less and less true. The dangers that autonomous killer robots pose are terrifying, consider they can quite easily come true. The terminator situation that even Hawking has warned us about where AI becomes self-sufficient and kills everyone is a possibility people dismiss as fiction. Another event that could happen is if the wrong people got hold of these technologies, or if they were hacked, they could be used to obliterate entire areas. World War III has also become quite the possibility, with autonomous killer robots aiding nuclear weaponry to eliminate countries. It could also be used to target innocent people who may be speaking against an agenda. It is completely unfair to use autonomous weapons for security as innocent people could lose their lives, and could not have the chance for a fair trial, or rehabilitation.

Campaigns to Stop Killer Robots

International campaigns such as Campaign to Stop Killer Robots has been urging countries to talk about banning autonomous weapons since 2013. Just by banning two functions involved in autonomous weapons such as automatically selecting targets and using violent techniques can really save the world from the potential horrors of autonomous killer robots, without hampering researchers’ advancement in AI technologies.

It is important to make people aware that killer robots are a very real problem, which has already become possible. Our lives will completely change in unimaginable ways once autonomous killer robots are used by governments for wars and security purposes.

Elephant Evolution

Leon C. Megginson once stated, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” Animal poaching is a horrendous act which, in most cases, results in death, because it is done in order to take valuable assets of the animal, such as its horns or fur, to sell them off. Animals such as rhinos and elephants are at the brink of extinction due to this. However, poaching has not only decreased the population of different animal species, but has also changed the way they breed. Elephants are evolving and it is interesting and disconcerting all at the same time.

What Is The Phenomenon That Is Occurring?

New research shows that poaching has led to an intriguing phenomenon occurring within the elephant population. The stress of the activity is almost forcing elephants to evolve in order to survive. Female elephants are birthing elephants who are naturally tusk less. Historically speaking, only 2-4% of the female elephants in Africa were biologically tusk less. And now one-third of the entire African female elephant population is.

How Widely Is the Phenomenon Occurring?

However, it is important to take the disheartening statistics of how many elephants are now left into account. Just a few decades earlier there used to be over 4000 elephants residing in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique. Ever since the civil war, there are only 200 adult females left now as Joyce Poole’s research suggests. Joyce Poole is an expert in elephant behaviour who is bringing light to this astounding occurrence. Out of the 200 adult females in Mozambique, 51% of the elephants older than 25 are without tusks. 32% of the elephants that were born after the war are biologically tusk less. This phenomenon is not just occurring in Mozambique, as 98% of the 200 female African elephants found in Addo Elephant National Park are also without tusks. In Tanzania’s Ruaha National Park, there was a heavy amount of poaching done during the 70s and 80s. Josephine Smit, an elephant behaviour researcher who has been tracking these female elephants has noticed that approximately 21% of females that are older than the age of five are born without tusks.

Adapting To Their Environment without Tusks

Of course, the decrease in tusks also means that how elephants fend for themselves has to change. Joyce Poole’s intensive research has proven that elephants are still surviving and healthy even without their tusks. Scientists have observed that with the handicap of tusklessness, elephants are adapting accordingly to their environment. Tusks are useful, besides just being overgrown teeth. They were used in the daily life of elephants in order to dig up water and minerals from the ground, debark trees to get some fibre-laden food and help males in their competition for females. Elephants have been observed to now use their trunks and teeth to strip off bark from trees for food.

Even with the dark history behind them, the evolutionary female African elephants are a reminder of the adaptability and perseverance of nature during the most stressful of times.

Microbes on Mars

Constant efforts are being made to find out whether there are signs of life on Mars, and a lot more is being uncovered about this intriguing planet. The reason astrobiologists and researchers are so interested in finding out more about whether there ever was or are life forms on Mars is due to the similarity between Mars and the Earth. Earth and Mars both have seasons, except Mars has seasons that last twice as long as seasons on Earth. Also, the conditions on Mars indicate that it is the most hospitable astronomical body after planet Earth. Thus, space missions have been and still are being sent in order to understand whether Mars may have extra-terrestrial inhabitants and whether human settlements can actually be established there.

Sign of Life on Mars

According to the most recent news, evidence has been found that shows signs of microbes and even fossils on Mars. However, only photographic evidence has been sent as yet; more cannot be found out until samples from Mars are brought back to earth for examination. However, this has made it certain that there is some presence of life, or at least the precursor of life in the form of microbes, on Mars.

Also, scientists have discovered that microbes even found a way to inhabit Atacama Desert in Chile, which is similar to Mars in terms of condition. Atacama Desert does not receive any rain or moisture, and is highly arid, which is quite similar to the Mars landscape. It is already proven that there is frozen water on Mars, and recent research also concluded that there are moisture events that take place near Mars’s surface, like nightly snowfall, which signals the potential for life.

Why There Should Be More In Depth Exploration

Before landing human missions or having samples brought to earth, scientists need to determine if there is extra-terrestrial life present on Mars or not. There is no telling what astronauts or robots may encounter there and bring back to Earth. Rather than worrying about contaminating Mars, as the strict planetary protection protocols state, it should be known whether samples could endanger our biosphere and humanity. These protocols are not considering the fact the human missions are set to go in merely a decade or two.

Why Contaminating Mars Should Not Be A Worry

Tersicoccus phoenicis is a bacteria that has only been found where space crafts are assembled and can be used as a key technique by explorers to differentiate between Mars and Earth organisms. The microbes present in the space crafts can be used in order to monitor contamination levels. If there is a sample from Mars that contains the same or similar microorganisms to the spacecraft assembly rooms, then it can indicate contamination rather than sign of life on Mars. Technology can also help distinguish between Alien matter and Earth matter, and even if both come out as similar, genomes sequencing can be done in order to confirm that it belongs to Mars.

Since it has been proven that there are microbes present on Earth, the organic microorganisms that have been found could turn into building blocks for potential Martian life in the future. The possibilities this research and future plans pose are limitless.