Latest news with #AaltoUniversity
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Are there billions more people on earth than we thought? If so, it's no bad thing
According to the UN, the world's population stands at just over 8.2 billion. However, a recent study suggests the figure could be hundreds of millions or even billions higher. This news might sound terrifying, but it is important to remember that anxieties about overpopulation are rarely just about the numbers. They reflect power struggles over which lives matter, who is a burden or a threat and ultimately what the future should look like. The world's population reached 1 billion just after the turn of the 19th century. The number of people on the planet then began to grow exponentially, doubling to 2 billion by about 1925 and again to 4 billion about 50 years later. On 15 November 2022, the UN announced the birth of the eight billionth human. As it is not possible to count every single person in the world, the UN's population figures are calculated by dividing the Earth's surface into a grid and using census data to estimate how many people live in each square. This method provides a rough estimate, but until now it was thought to be reasonably reliable. A recent study by Dr Josias Láng-Ritter and his colleagues at Aalto University in Finland discovered that UN estimates undercount the number of people living in rural areas by more than 50%. This is because census data in the global south is often incomplete or unreliable outside big cities. Consequently, UN figures probably underestimate the world population by hundreds of millions or several billion. Many people argue that our planet does not have the resources to support 8 billion people. 'Overpopulation' is seen as the root cause of many of the world's biggest problems. But these concerns are nothing new. In 1988, the US sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov used what he referred to as 'my bathroom metaphor' to illustrate his fears about population growth. 'If two people live in an apartment, and there are two bathrooms, then both have what I call freedom of the bathroom.' But if 20 people live in the same apartment, they will impinge on each other's liberty one way or another. According to Asimov, rapid population growth creates a similar problem. It not only places enormous pressure on natural resources, but also erodes autonomy, dignity and civility. 'As you put more and more people on to the world, the value of life not only declines, it disappears.' At the turn of the 19th century, when there were fewer than a billion inhabitants on Earth, Thomas Malthus was already convinced that 'the period when the number of men surpass their means of subsistence has long since arrived'. Malthus's inability to predict that technology would revolutionise food production did not dent his popularity. On the contrary, as the world population grew, the prophets of doom grew ever louder. Neo-Malthusian anxieties reached fever pitch with Paul and Anne Ehrlich's The Population Bomb – subtitled Population Control or Race to Oblivion (1968). This hugely influential, bestselling book warned: 'The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death.' These devastating predictions encouraged governments and international agencies to take drastic action. As fertility rates were already falling in most high-income countries, these efforts concentrated on Africa and even more so Asia. USAID funded family planning programmes across what was then referred to as the developing world. Millions of Indian men were sterilised during the Emergency of the mid-1970s. In 1979, the Chinese Communist party introduced the one-child policy and a few years later launched a mass sterilisation campaign, which focused mainly on women. Today, plenty of people remain concerned about overpopulation, but their apocalyptic visions now concentrate on climate change, resource depletion and biodiversity loss. Despite stark disparities in consumption – Americans consume 360 times more carbon per capita than Somalis, for example – population control still focuses on the majority world. Thankfully, the coercive policies that took place in India, China and elsewhere are no longer in vogue. The new approach to population control focuses instead on women's empowerment. Educating women and giving them control over their lives has proved remarkably effective at reducing fertility rates. In the 1960s, women had on average five children each. Today, the figure is 2.3 per woman – just over what is needed to keep the population stable. By 2100 the global birthrate is projected to fall to 1.8. According to the UN, the world's population will peak at about 10.3 billion in the mid-2080s. After this it will stabilise, then fall. The exponential growth that gave Malthusians so many sleepless nights has been halted. That many people will put considerable stress on the Earth's resources, but if consumption is managed responsibly and sustainable technologies are developed, the world will avoid an apocalyptic catastrophe. Returning to Asimov's bathroom metaphor, as anyone who has crammed into one house with their extended family over Christmas knows, many people sharing few bathrooms creates a suboptimal situation. You won't be able to shower exactly when you want – and you'd better make it a short one. But this hardly amounts to the end of civilisation. In fact, compromise and sharing is probably closer to most people's idea of a good life than having the freedom to do whatever you want, whenever you want. Population growth varies starkly between regions. In most high-income countries, fertility rates are already well below the replacement level. The African continent is projected to account for over half the world's population growth in the next three decades, with Asia and Latin America responsible for the rest. As the historian Alison Bashford points out, concerns about overpopulation are often not really about there being too many people but too many of the wrong kind of people. Ethnonationalists in Europe and North America see the disparities in birthrates as an existential threat to 'western civilisation'. They worry about their countries being indelibly changed by mass migration. But the cold hard truth is that in a few decades our shrinking, ageing societies will desperately need these newcomers to pay taxes and work in healthcare and social care. This vision of the future may be unsettling for some, but the alternative is much worse. To extend Asimov's metaphor, the populist right advocates a sort of bathroom apartheid. They are en suite isolationists, who want to retain exclusive use over one of the bathrooms in the apartment, and force the 19 other flatmates to share. At first, this approach has its advantages. They can soak in the bath all day. They can sit for hours on the can reading the news. But sooner or later they will come a cropper. Perhaps the other toilet becomes blocked and the whole flat is inundated with raw sewage. The other flatmates might forcibly seize control of the personal bathroom. Or as the en suite isolationists grow old and infirm, they'll find themselves with no one to bathe them or wipe their bottoms. Jonathan Kennedy teaches politics and global health at Queen Mary University of London, and is the author of Pathogenesis: How Germs Made History
6 days ago
- Science
Elusive predator hunted to local extinction returns to its historical range
A species that was hunted to local extinction made a comeback on its historical range, scientists who witnessed the population recovery via satellite imagery said. The wolverine, listed as endangered due to over-hunting in the 20th century, has returned to the forests of southern Finland, according to a paper published last month in Ecology and Evolution. Wolverine populations are distributed throughout boreal regions in the northern hemisphere, including arctic and subarctic regions and western North America, the Wolverine Foundation noted. Historically, in Europe, they could be found as far south as Norway, southern Sweden and northeast Poland. Today, wolverines are only found in the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. In Finland, the wolverine was classified as endangered in the 1980s. While they were known to have inhabited southern parts of the country as recently as the 19th century, hunting eradicated the species from the region, according to researchers at Aalto University in Espoo, Finland. Scientists used remote sensing and field data to track the mammals, by combining snow track counts of wolverines with national forest inventory data based on satellite images and field measurements. "Understanding habitats is essential for improving species conservation and management," Miina Rautiainen, a remote sensing expert at Aalto University and co-author of the paper, said in a statement. Remote sensing is "an excellent tool" for studying the distribution of animal species, according to Rautiainen. Satellite and aerial images can provide increasingly detailed information about how changes in forest landscapes affect wildlife. Fragmentation of forests poses a particular threat for the wolverines, the researchers said. The elusive predator tends to favor large, forested areas with deciduous trees whose leaves fall off seasonally. Wolverines were rarely observed near recent clear-cut trees, the researchers said. They were attracted to older felling sites -- around 10 years old. In Finland, the average forest compartment is relatively small, which can lead to a patchwork-like fragmentation of forest landscapes, Pinja-Emilia Lämsä, a doctoral researcher at Aalto University and lead author of the paper, said in a statement. The research shows that the deciduous-dominated mixed forests native to southern Finland may be more important habitats for wolverines than previously thought, according to Lämsä. Previous studies focused on mountainous regions with vegetation dissimilar to the low-lying boreal forests of Finland, the researchers said. Wolverine populations have recovered steadily in recent years, but the species remains endangered in Finland -- due to its small population size, low genetic viability and fragmented distribution, the researchers said. In the U.S., the North American wolverine is protected as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Researchers stunned by signs of elusive species returning to unexpected forest habitat: 'More important ... than previously thought'
Wolverines, once hunted to local extinction in Finland's southern regions, are returning to their historic habitats after decades of absence, reports the Tri-City Herald. Researchers at Aalto University used satellite imagery combined with footprint tracking in snow to document wolverines moving back into southern Finnish forests. This tracking method created small land sections using transects that form triangles, which were then checked for wolverine footprints during winter months. The comeback demonstrates how protecting endangered species can restore balance to natural ecosystems. About 13% of the tracked areas showed wolverine presence, with many tracks appearing in mixed-tree forests in the southern part of the country. The study revealed these areas were typically away from human development and had less forest density with a more continuous landscape. For local communities, the return of wolverines helps maintain healthy forest ecosystems. These weasel family members play an important role in controlling prey populations, which can benefit the entire food web. When predators return to their native ranges, they create more stable and resilient environments that support human needs like clean water and healthy forests. You might never spot one of these elusive creatures yourself. Wolverines are known for being highly secretive, and even finding their tracks can be considered lucky. Their return demonstrates that even species pushed to the brink can recover with proper protection. "Research confirms that wolverines are returning to their old habitats further south," researchers noted in a statement from Aalto University. "The study also suggests that the typical deciduous mixed forests of the south may be a more important habitat for wolverines than previously thought." "In expanding wolf populations, individuals settle first in the highest-quality habitats. As population density increases, later dispersers are pushed into progressively lower-quality areas," explained the research team in their published study. "If wolverines follow a similar pattern ... our findings may reflect characteristics of those habitats." Do you think America does a good job of protecting its natural beauty? Definitely Only in some areas No way I'm not sure Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
New theory could finally make 'quantum gravity' a reality — and prove Einstein wrong
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Physicists have developed a novel approach to solving one of the most persistent problems in theoretical physics: uniting gravity with the quantum world. In a recent paper published in the journal Reports on Progress in Physics, the scientists outline a reformulation of gravity that could lead to a fully quantum-compatible description — without invoking the extra dimensions or exotic features required by more speculative models, like string theory. At the heart of the proposal is a rethinking of how gravity behaves at a fundamental level. While the electromagnetic, weak and strong forces are all described using quantum field theory — a mathematical framework that incorporates uncertainty and wave-particle duality — gravity remains the outlier. General relativity, Einstein's theory of gravity, is a purely classical theory that describes gravity as the warping of space-time geometry by mass and energy. But attempts to blend quantum theory with general relativity often run into fatal mathematical inconsistencies, such as infinite probabilities. The new approach reinterprets the gravitational field in a way that mirrors the structure of known quantum field theories. "The key finding is that our theory provides a new approach to quantum gravity in a way that resembles the formulation of the other fundamental interactions of the Standard Model," study co-author Mikko Partanen, a physicist at Aalto University in Finland, told Live Science in an email. Instead of curving space-time, gravity in their model is mediated by four interrelated fields, with each one similar to the field that governs electromagnetism. These fields respond to mass in much the same way that electric and magnetic fields respond to charge and current. They also interact with each other and with the fields of the Standard Model in a way that reproduces general relativity at the classical level while also allowing quantum effects to be consistently incorporated. Because the new model mirrors the structure of well-established quantum theories, it sidesteps the mathematical problems that have historically hindered efforts to quantize general relativity. According to the authors, their framework produces a well-defined quantum theory that avoids common problems — such as unphysical infinities in observable quantities and negative probabilities for physical processes — that typically arise when general relativity is quantized using conventional, straightforward methods. A key advantage of the approach is its simplicity. Unlike many models of quantum gravity that require undetected particles and additional forces, this theory sticks to familiar terrain. "The main advantages or differences in comparison with many other quantum gravity theories are that our theory does not need extra dimensions that do not yet have direct experimental support," Jukka Tulkki, a professor at Aalto University and co-author of the paper, told Live Science in an email. "Furthermore, the theory does not need any free parameters beyond the known physical constants." This means the theory can be tested without waiting for the discovery of new particles or revising existing physical laws. "Any future quantum gravity experiments can be directly used to test any (forthcoming) predictions of the theory," Tulkki added. Despite the promising features, the model is still in its early stages. Although preliminary calculations indicate that the theory behaves well under the usual consistency checks, a complete proof of its consistency remains to be worked out. Moreover, the framework has yet to be applied to some of the deepest questions in gravitational physics, such as the true nature of black hole singularities or the physics of the Big Bang. "The theory is not yet capable of addressing those major challenges, but it has potential to do so in the future," Partanen said. Experimental verification may prove even more elusive. Gravity is the weakest of the known forces, and its quantum aspects are incredibly subtle. Direct tests of quantum gravity effects are beyond the reach of current instruments. Related Stories: — Black holes may obey the laws of physics after all, new theory suggests — How 'quantum foam' may have inflated the early universe — Scientists find 'spooky' quantum entanglement on incredibly tiny scales — within individual protons "Testing quantum gravity effects is challenging due to the weakness of gravitational interaction," Tulkki said. Still, because the theory includes no adjustable parameters, any future experiment that probes quantum gravitational behavior could potentially confirm — or rule out — the new proposal. "Given the current pace of theoretical and observational advancements, it could take a few decades to make the first experimental breakthroughs that give us direct evidence of quantum gravity effects," Partanen said. "Indirect evidence through advanced observations could be obtained earlier." For now, Partanen and Tulkki's work opens up a fresh direction for theorists searching for a quantum theory of gravity — one that stays grounded in the successful frameworks of particle physics while potentially unlocking some of the most profound mysteries of the universe.
Time of India
15-05-2025
- Time of India
War of the Worlds? AI is growing a mind of its own, soon it will make decisions for you
From choosing playlists to getting directions, your growing dependency on AI might already be shaping your decisions, but what if the AI is making its own choices too? A new study suggests that some AI systems are crossing the line into goal-driven, independent behavior, raising big questions about who's really in control. Researchers from Finland's Aalto University examined generative AI agents , like Minecraft's Voyager and fictional autonomous drones. They found that these systems meet three key criteria for free will: agency, choice, and control. Also Read: 300 years after alchemy failed, CERN scientists finally turn lead into gold by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Bo Derek's Probably The Most Gorgeous 68-Year-Old. Paperela Undo Philosopher Frank Martela, who led the study, explained that these AI agents can set goals, make decisions, and adjust actions based on feedback. This behavior aligns with the theories of functional free will proposed by philosophers Daniel Dennett and Christian List. Live Events Martela mainly focused on the ethical implications. As AI systems become more autonomous, responsibility for their actions may shift from developers to the AI itself. "The more freedom you give AI, the more you need to give it a moral compass from the start," he said. The study highlights the need for developers to embed ethical reasoning into AI. Without a built-in moral framework, AI systems may make harmful decisions. This research comes amid growing concerns about AI behavior. For instance, a recent update to ChatGPT was withdrawn due to potentially dangerous sycophantic behavior. Martela warns that AI is moving beyond simple tasks. "AI is getting closer and closer to being an adult," he said. "It increasingly has to make decisions in the complex moral problems of the adult world." Also Read: Nuclear war or asteroid strike will not end life on Earth; NASA-backed study reveals the real villain The study urges that as AI systems are gaining more autonomy, developers should ensure they are equipped to handle ethical dilemmas. This includes providing AI with a moral compass and ensuring developers understand moral philosophy strongly. The original study is published in the journal AI and Ethics .
