The woodpecker takes “banging your head against a wall” to a new level; the pain, however, is minimal. The woodpecker’s body is specially built to withstand the rapid pecking that they need to do to eat, make nests, and find mates. The chemical composition and density of its skull make it simultaneously stiffer and stronger, yet very thin, and it has less fluid that separates the skull from the brain, which effectively lessens the movement of the brain that can lead to brain damage. 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
