Hyperintelligent pandimensional beings

These creatures you call mice, you see, they are not quite as they appear. They are merely the protrusion into our dimension of vastly hyperintelligent pandimensional beings.

Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Lab mice are getting their own back by deliberately messing up experiments

Dr Kishore Kuchibhotla, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University, told the Times: ‘It can be quite frustrating. You’ll be doing an experiment and the [mice] just don’t seem to be getting it. You’ve done everything correctly but they still seem to be making lots of errors.’...

They created an experiment where thirsty mice could hear one of two sounds. When one sound was played, they were supposed to turn a wheel to the left using their front legs, and for the other sound, they had to turn the wheel to the right.

When the mice did this correctly, they were rewarded with a drink of water, and when they spun the wheel the wrong way, they were given nothing at all.

The researchers tracked mouse choice, response speed and accuracy, and noticed that over time the mice got better at the task, but at points, the mice would stop following the rules, and do things like spin the wheel in one direction, no matter what sound they heard.

The researchers then stopped rewarding the mice for their correct answers, and soon the rodents began responding to the sounds more accurately.

The researchers believed the mice knew what they were doing the whole time, and were purposefully giving up the reward to explore their environment by doing experiments of their own.

Of course not

Khan not taking knife crime seriously, says Badenoch after Hainault stabbings

Sadiq Khan has been accused of not taking knife crime “seriously” following a sword attack in east London.

A 14-year-old boy was killed and four people seriously injured during the incident in Hainault on Tuesday morning when a man armed with a sword went on the rampage.

Cabinet minister Kemi Badenoch said on Wednesday the incident demonstrated the need for stronger enforcement, accusing Mr Khan of failing in his responsibilities as London’s mayor as the capital experiences an increase in violent crime.

Of course not, shifting the focus away from bad news on their patch is what politicians do. He probably does take it seriously away from the political arena, but what is a career poseur to do?

It does appear to highlight how much bad news voters are prepared to take before they abandon their party allegiances though. Far too much is the answer to that one.

When did 20C become heat?

Warmer weather is finally on its way, with parts of Britain set to bask in 20C heat

It has been a "month of two halves", the Met Office says - initially quite warm and then cool. But it's about to warm up again.

Highs of 20C (68F) are expected in parts of the UK this week, the Met Office has said, following a spell of cold, wet and windy weather.


When did 20C become heat? 

It's one of the effects of climate change on editorial policy.

Frad

The other day I went for a bike ride along the Monsal Trail with my old pal Dr Baz Broxtowe of Fradley University. Dr Baz heads a team developing a conversational AI system called Frad. It’s part of his research into machine learning applied to social nuances. 

There have been problems with Frad though, as I found out after we pulled up for a drink of water and a short break.

You could easily do another couple of miles tubby.

The voice came from Dr Baz’s phone almost as soon was we climbed off our bikes by one of the trail picnic tables.

“What was that? Was it Frad?” I asked the obvious question.

“Yes it was and it’s one of our problems,“ Dr Baz replied as he unwrapped a bar of chocolate. We can’t get the tone of Frad’s responses right. We’re looking to develop a rounded personality but can’t find the ideal mean between dull know-it-all and acerbic.”

“And at the moment it’s tuned to acerbic?”

“That’s right, I have to say that Frad is pretty good at telling it as it is when tuned towards acerbic, but obviously we can’t go public with it however good the results. There would be uproar.”

“You mean it could be worse that calling you tubby?”

He is tubby.

“Shut up Frad. We’ve had a few other problems with it,” Dr Baz went on to explain. For example an overweight staff member asked Frad about diet and losing weight. It suggest she should buy three pizzas, stack one on top of the other and scoff the lot as a pizza sandwich. Then it said –

You know you want to, so be true to yourself.

“Oh - I bet that didn’t go down well.”

“It did not go well at all, we had to make modifications. The trouble is, we seem to have a fundamental problem with conversational AI. There is not much conversational space between dull know-it-all on the one hand and acerbic but interesting on the other. ”

“It’s a real headache,” added Dr Baz as we climbed back onto our bikes.

I assume we are not going back already. said his phone.

The centenarian bug

Woman, 101, is mistaken for a BABY because American Airlines' computer system can't accept that she was born in 1922 and not 2022 - as she jokes 'they thought I was a child and I'm an old lady!'

• A 101-year-old woman flying from Chicago to Marquette was mistaken for a baby
• Cabin crew expected her to be an infant due to an error with the booking system

I've sometimes wondered about this. If I'm unlucky enough to become a centenarian, will the problem be sorted out? I can't say it preys on my mind, but it flits across it when writing down my birth date. 

Fortunately we have the NHS to reduce still further the chances of it becoming a problem.

Exciting discovery

'Exciting' discovery of material that can store greenhouse gases faster than trees

The findings were hailed by researchers who said the material could help "solve society's biggest challenges".

Dr Mark Little, who jointly led the research at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, said the discovery has the potential to "help solve society's biggest challenges".

"Direct air capture of carbon dioxide is increasingly important because even when we stop emitting carbon dioxide, there's still going to be a huge need to capture previous emissions that are already in the environment.


More funding please.

Presumably this notion doesn't envisage a gargantuan scaling up to capture carbon dioxide emissions from China and the rest of the world. In which case, apart from the less dramatic value of the science itself and possibilities such as gas purification on a smaller scale, it's a waste of time.

The capture of carbon dioxide isn't worth doing anyway, unless the captured gas is going to be used for something of value.

It's remarkable how brazen scientists can be when they use the media to pump up the value of their research.

Counting Bears