The gut microbiome has been known to influence many aspects of health, including the immune system. Working with this knowledge, researchers have championed faecal microbiota therapy (FMT) as a treatment for peanut allergies because allergies stem from an overreactive immune system. FMT introduces gut bacteria extracted from healthy people’s poo to those with illnesses; in this case, non-allergic people’s poo contains bacteria that may be key to training the immune system not to react in the presence of peanuts. 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
