Tomatoes supposedly have an electrical warning system in place to prepare their mother plant for imminent pest attacks. Researchers from Brazil discovered that tomato fruits attacked by caterpillars sent electrical signals to give the rest of the plant time to prepare important defensive chemicals against the pests. They hope this discovery could lead to not only less aggressive pest control in agriculture but also new avenues of manipulating crops to yield better fruits.
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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
