EXCLUSIVE Atlantis is finally FOUND off coast of major city, archaeologist claims... and he's got video to prove it
Now, an archaeologist believes he has found Atlantis just two miles off the coast of Cádiz, Spain.
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BBC News
39 minutes ago
- BBC News
Minister tells UK's Turing AI institute to focus on defence
Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle has written to the UK's national institute for artificial intelligence (AI) to tell its bosses to refocus on defence and a letter, Kyle said boosting the UK's AI capabilities was "critical" to national security and should be at the core of the Alan Turing Institute's suggested the institute should overhaul its leadership team to reflect its "renewed purpose".The cabinet minister said further government investment in the institute would depend on the "delivery of the vision" he had outlined in the letter. A spokesperson for the Alan Turing Institute said it welcomed "the recognition of our critical role and will continue to work closely with the government to support its priorities"."The Turing is focussing on high-impact missions that support the UK's sovereign AI capabilities, including in defence and national security," the spokesperson said."We share the government's vision of AI transforming the UK for the better."The letter comes after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer committed to a Nato alliance target of increasing UK defence spending to 5% of national income by 2035 and invest more in military uses of AI technology.A recent government review of UK defence said "an immediate priority for force transformation should be a shift towards greater use of autonomy and artificial intelligence".Set up under Prime Minister David Cameron's government as the National Institute for Data Science in 2015, the institute added AI to its remit two years receives public funding and was given a grant of £100m by the previous Conservative government last Turing institute's work has focused on AI and data science research in three main areas - environmental sustainability, health and national the institute has focused more on responsible AI and ethics, and one of its recent reports was on the increasing use of the tech by romance Kyle's letter suggests the government wants the Turing institute to make defence its main priority, which would be a significant pivot for the organisation."There is an opportunity for the ATI to seize this moment," Kyle wrote in the letter to the institute's chairman, Dr Douglas Gurr."I believe the institute should build on its existing strengths, and reform itself further to prioritise its defence, national security and sovereign capabilities." Turing 2.0 It's been a turbulent few months for the institute, which finds itself in survival mode in 2025.A review last year by UK Research and Innovation, the government funding body, found "a clear need for the governance and leadership structure of the Institute to evolve".At the end of 2024, 93 members of staff signed a letter expressing lack of confidence in its leadership March, Jean Innes, who was appointed chief executive in July 2023, said the Turing needed to modernise and focus on AI projects, in an interview with the Financial said "a big strategic shift to a much more focused agenda on a small number of problems that have an impact in the real world".In April, Chief Scientist Mark Girolami said in an interview the organisation would be taking forward just 22 projects out of a portfolio of letter said the institute "should continue to receive the funding needed to implement reforms and deliver Turing 2.0".But he said there could be a review of the ATI's "longer-term funding arrangement" next use of AI in defence is as powerful as it is parent company Alphabet faced criticism earlier this year for removing a self-imposed ban on developing AI the British military and other forces are already investing in AI-enabled government's defence review said AI technologies "would provide greater accuracy, lethality, and cheaper capabilities".The review said "uncrewed and autonomous systems" could be used within the UK's conventional forces within the next five one example, the review said the Royal Navy could use "acoustic detection systems powered by artificial intelligence" to monitor the "growing underwater threat from a modernising Russian submarine force".The tech firm Palantir has provided data operations software to the UK's armed Mosley, the head of Palantir UK, told the BBC that shift the institute's focus to AI defence technologies was a good said: "Right now we face a daunting combination of darkening geopolitics and technological revolution - with the world becoming a more dangerous place right at the moment when artificial intelligence is changing the face of war and deterrence."What that means in practice is that we are now in an AI arms race against our adversaries."And the government is right that we need to put all the resources we have into staying ahead - because that is our best path to preserving peace."Additional reporting by Chris Vallance, senior technology reporter
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Pot-plant trade is ‘hitchhiker pathway' for invasive flatworms, say UK experts
They have been invading the UK for years; small mucus-covered animals which hunt in gardens, allotments and greenhouses. The number of sightings of non-native flatworms has risen sharply over the past few years, and experts have warned they can decimate earthworm populations and degrade soil quality. Land flatworms are non-segmented worms, which feed on a range of soil organisms from woodlice to worms. In the UK the number of non-native species has risen from two in the 1950s to 14 in 2020. Only a few of these can really be categorised as 'invasive', according to the planarian specialist Hugh Jones, because of the 'measurable damage' they inflict on ecosystems. 'There are three in the UK which I'd loosely call invasive, two of them definitely: the New Zealand flatworm, the Australian, and the Obama all eat earthworms,' he said. Once established you cannot eradicate them, only mitigate the worst of the harm. Earthworms are ecosystem engineers. They enrich soil by passing it through their digestive systems, moving organic matter into deeper layers, and their burrows help stop compaction. According to the ecology professor Rene van der Wal, from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, invasive flatworms drive down the numbers of earthworms 'to extremely low levels'. The knock-on ecosystem effects include a reduction in mole populations as their earthworm diet disappears. There is no definitive research on the extent to which this is affecting agriculture. Populations of the New Zealand flatworm are growing in Scotland and northern England, while the Australian flatworm is spreading out from its strongholds in Lancashire, south Wales and south-west England. The sharp increase in non-native species in recent decades is attributed to global trade, particularly in potted plants and soils, David Smith, advocacy and social change manager from the charity Buglife, told the Guardian. Over recent years, this regulatory framework has been shifting. Post-Brexit, Britain can import potted plants from Europe, but only export bare-root. That could change with the new UK-EU trade deal, which will revise 'phytosanitary' plant health regulations, including in ornamental plants. The deal has been agreed in principle, but details are still being negotiated. The National Farmers Union has welcomed it, suggesting that with Britain poised to re-enter the European plant health area, we could soon see an end to border control checks and phytosanitary certification for most plant products traded with the EU. Others, however, are concerned this could accelerate the spread of invasive species, including flatworms. Of particular concern is the New Guinea flatworm, the only flatworm that features in the International Union for Conservation of Nature's 100 of the World's Worst Invasive Alien Species list. It has extirpated entire snail populations on some islands, and poses a threat to snails across Europe. So far, sightings have been reported in France but not yet in Britain. It is, says Smith, 'a ferocious predator'. 'It's been found in greenhouses in Europe but not yet in the wild. It wouldn't take much climate change for it to move out and succeed, or to be transported to a place that's more suitable to it – some micro-climates within the UK, for instance.' Unlike flying insects, flatworms 'rely entirely on human activity for dispersal, typically arriving hidden in soil or potted plants', Smith said. 'Current biosecurity measures are insufficient to detect and intercept them, enabling their escape into gardens and the wider countryside.' Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion The soil was not policed, van der Wal said. Plants are checked at borders 'but they're being checked for what's on their surface, and on the soil's surface. Sometimes they may look into the soil itself, but essentially they're looking at the health of the plant, and not at hitchhiker species.' Instead of deregulating the pot plant trade, which risks opening the door even wider to more harm, the trade deal could go the other way, and help close major entry points by banning all imports of soil and products containing soil. The horticulture industry opposes this. 'They say it's easier to move plants in soil, and to sustain them whilst they're being transported and in warehouses,' Smith said. But this was how non-EU imports were already managed, and to extend the practice to the EU would be straightforward, he said. While the invasive flatworms already in Britain are here to stay, the UK-EU trade deal offered a rare opportunity to close off a 'hitchhiker pathway' for the arrival of more invasive species, Smith said. If this is not done, he warned the risk would grow of British-based invasive flatworms being unwittingly exported to other parts of Europe, and of other species moving to Britain. Buglife encourages anyone who finds a flatworm to submit a sighting via its PotWatch survey.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
What the discovery of 300,000-year-old tools reveals about what early humans ate
A significant trove of 300,000-year-old wooden tools has been unearthed at the Gantangqing archaeological site in Yunnan province, south-west China. These rare tools, preserved in oxygen-deprived clay sediments, suggest that early human ancestors in East Asia primarily relied on underground plants such as roots and tubers for sustenance. Unlike the hunting implements found in Europe and Africa from the same period, the Chinese tools include digging sticks and unique hook-shaped implements, indicating a distinct plant-based survival strategy. The findings, published in the journal Science, shed light on the advanced cognitive skills of early humans in the region and challenge previous assumptions about early human adaptation and diet. This discovery fills a notable gap in the archaeological record, demonstrating that wooden tools were used by early humans across a broader global range and adapted to diverse local environments.
