At 8,848.86m above sea level, Mount Everest is considered to be the tallest mountain peak in the world, and it’s still growing; every year, it inches around 4mm closer to the sky. However, this growth rate isn’t always clear cut. Everest’s height is borne out of a delicate dance between plate tectonics and erosion from wind, water, and natural disasters like earthquakes and landslides that favour erosion. In the far future, Everest will even stop growing when the Earth’s mantle cools down and stops plate tectonics altogether. Read full article here
Societal Issues
AI Predicts Crime A Week In Advance With 90 Per Cent Accuracy
An artificial intelligence model built by Ishanu Chattopadhyay and his colleagues analysed crime data in Chicago from 2014 to 2016 and managed to predict future levels of crime down to the nearest 300 metres, a week before they actually happened. While extremely useful, this artificial intelligence has been shown to expose racial prejudice in law enforcement. Hopefully, as the study’s data and methodology have been made available for others to evaluate, these prejudices can be avoided in the next iteration. Read full article here
Merv
August 15, 2022
