Tag Archives: monitoring

Launch of ‘Knit’ Satellite: Advanced Radar Technology for Earth Surface Monitoring

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Artist's impression of CarbSAR satellite orbiting Earth

Artist’s Impression of CarbSAR Satellite Orbiting the Earth

Credit: Oxford Space Systems

Britain’s newest satellite, **CarbSAR**, is set to launch on Sunday, equipped with cutting-edge knitwear technology. This innovative satellite will deploy a mesh radar antenna crafted using machinery typically found in textile manufacturing.

“We utilize a standard industrial knitting machine for jumpers, enhanced with features tailored to create specialized threads,” says Amur Raina, Director of Production at Oxford Space Systems (OSS) in the UK.

OSS collaborates with Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) to install the antenna on a compact, cost-effective spacecraft capable of capturing high-resolution images of the Earth’s surface.

If successful, this unique design could be integrated into the UK Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) surveillance satellite network later this year.

The “wool” utilized in OSS’s weaving process is ultra-fine tungsten wire, coated with gold. The machines produce several meters of fabric simultaneously, which are then cut into segments and sewn into 3 millimeter-wide discs. These discs are tightly stretched over 48 carbon fiber ribs to form a smooth parabolic dish optimized for radar imaging.

The key innovation lies in the structural design, where each rib wraps radially around a central hub, resembling a 48-coil tape measure. This unique design enables the entire assembly to collapse down to just 75 cm in diameter, drastically reducing the volume of the 140-kilogram CarbSAR satellite during launch.

Upon reaching orbit, the stored strain energy in the bent carbon fibers will allow the ribs to return to their original shape, thereby pulling the mesh into a precise parabolic configuration.

“For optimal imaging, we must deploy it accurately to achieve the perfect parabolic shape,” adds Sean Sutcliffe, CEO of OSS. “Our design’s precision is its standout feature.” Testing has shown the mesh sheet remains within 1 millimeter of its ideal shape, ensuring exceptional performance.

The demand for Earth observation via small radar satellites is on the rise, thanks to their ability to image the ground in all weather conditions and even at night—a capability increasingly appreciated by emerging space companies.

This data is particularly sought after by military forces globally and played a crucial role as an intelligence resource during the recent Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

Despite once leading Europe in space radar developments in the 1990s, the UK has fallen significantly behind in the international arena.

With CarbSAR and the upcoming MoD constellation named Oberon, part of the broader ISTARI program, UK aerospace engineers have a chance to re-establish their presence in the industry.

“We’re seeing heightened interest from foreign governments in radar solutions,” states Andrew Cawthorn, Managing Director of SSTL. “Our primary focus is demonstrating that we can successfully deploy this antenna and capture images.”

CarbSAR is engineered to detect objects as small as 50 cm, sufficient for identifying tanks and aircraft.

After deployment, approximately two days post-liftoff, the Royal Space Force, supervised by the Royal Air Force, will closely monitor the antenna’s performance.

“CarbSAR symbolizes the innovative spirit and collaboration of one of the UK’s leading space companies,” said Major General Paul Tedman, Commander of the UK Space Force. “We eagerly anticipate seeing CarbSAR operational and exploring how its advanced technologies can enhance Oberon and our comprehensive ISTARI satellite initiative.”

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Examining Gender Bias in Facebook’s Job Ads: Insights from France’s Equality Monitoring Regulations

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France’s equality regulator has determined that Facebook’s job advertising algorithm is discriminatory towards women, following an investigation that revealed a bias in job ads for mechanics favoring men, while ads for kindergarten teaching positions were predominantly shown to women.

The watchdog group, Défenseur des Droits, contended that Facebook’s targeted job ad system discriminates based on gender, which constitutes indirect discrimination. The regulator advised Facebook and its parent company, Meta, to implement measures to eliminate discriminatory practices in advertising and granted the company three months to inform French authorities of its actions.

According to the regulator’s ruling, “The system implemented for distributing job listings treats Facebook users differently based on their gender, thereby resulting in indirect gender discrimination.”

This ruling followed an initiative from Global Witness, a campaign organization focused on examining the influence of major tech firms on human rights, which posted advertisements on Facebook that included links to various job opportunities across countries like France, the UK, Ireland, and South Africa.

The findings revealed that, notably in France, 90% of individuals seeing ads for mechanic positions were men, whereas the same percentage of those encountering kindergarten teacher ads were women. Additionally, 80% of viewers for psychologist job ads were women, while 70% of those seeing pilot job ads were men.

Global Witness, along with French women’s rights organizations La Fondation des Femmes and Femme Ingénue, which had reached out to the rights group, praised the ruling.

In a joint statement, they remarked, “This seems to be the first instance where a European regulator has ruled that a social media platform’s algorithms exhibit gender discrimination, marking significant progress in holding these platforms accountable under existing legislation.”

“This decision conveys a powerful message to all digital platforms that they will be held responsible for such biases,” stated attorney Josephine Sheffet, representing the plaintiffs. “This legal principle establishes a crucial precedent for future legal actions.”

Mr. Mehta disputed the ruling, with a spokesperson stating: “We disagree with this decision and are exploring our options.”

Meta had agreed to modify Facebook’s algorithms in 2022 after allegations from the U.S. Department of Justice suggested that the platform’s housing advertising system discriminated against users based on criteria like race, religion, and gender.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Senate Democrats Aim to Reinstate NOAA Database Monitoring $1 Billion in Natural Disasters

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Senate Democrats are working to reinstate a database that monitored billions of dollars in climate and weather-related disasters for decades, which was discontinued by the Trump administration this past May.

Since 1980, NOAA has kept a disaster database for events causing damages over $1 billion in the U.S., but the agency halted its initiatives this spring due to budget cuts in climate science research under the Trump administration.

The database and its annual reports shed light on how climate change is influencing extreme weather patterns, including increased travel to flood-prone areas and rising wildfire incidents. Lawmakers have utilized the report in assessing disaster funding while raising awareness about natural disaster costs.

In a statement to NBC News in May, a spokesperson from NOAA indicated that the closure of the database was “consistent with evolving priorities and staffing changes.”

Currently, Senate Democrats, led by Peter Welch, D-Vt., have introduced a bill that mandates NOAA to revive the database and update it at least biannually. Congress holds the power to dictate NOAA’s budget and outline its administrative functions.

Welch stated, “Our legislation is crucial to reversing the reckless actions of the Trump administration, restoring this database, and mitigating the expenses associated with emergency preparedness and natural disasters. This database is essential for understanding the financial implications of constructing homes, businesses, and communities nationwide after significant weather events.”

Neither the White House nor NOAA has provided a response to requests for comments.

More than a dozen senators have co-sponsored the bill, including Sen. Angela of Brooks and Chris Van Hollen, who represents Maryland, where NOAA is based.

This legislation may face uphill battles in becoming law as Republicans, who hold the Senate, are not supporting the bill.

The introduction of this new bill reflects mounting concerns and protests regarding funding at NOAA and other climate-focused organizations. Notably, NOAA’s database has seen leading scientists resign, with some leaving the agency in May due to the planned closure of the database. One of them, Smith, has since joined Climate Central, a nonprofit research organization dedicated to climate change, to continue the work he once conducted at NOAA.

Tom Di Liberto, a spokesperson for Climate Central, indicated that the organization has refrained from commenting on current policies or proposed legislation.

“We look forward to enhancing our in-house $1 billion disaster dataset,” Di Liberto noted in an email.

From 1980 to 2024, NOAA’s database has recorded a staggering total of $40 billion in disaster-related expenses. In the previous year alone, NOAA reported $27 billion in disasters, amounting to around $182.7 billion in costs. This year ranks as the second-lowest for reported multi-billion dollar disasters since 2023.

The analysis provided “direct costs” of disasters, encompassing damage to buildings, infrastructure, and crops. However, it did not factor in other important considerations, such as loss of life, health-related costs from disasters, or economic impacts on “natural capital,” including forests and wetlands, as detailed in a 2025 report from the Congressional Research Service.

NOAA adjusts its data annually to account for inflation.

Previous Reports highlight that developments in hazardous areas vulnerable to floods, wildfires, and other natural disasters have intensified over time, leading to an increase in both the number and cost of weather and climate disasters, ultimately raising the number of at-risk assets.

Moreover, climate scientists assert that extreme weather events are occurring more frequently. Climate change is raising temperatures, heightening the risks of heat waves, intense precipitation, and rapidly intensifying hurricanes.

NOAA has utilized a combination of private and public data to generate estimates, integrating information from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Fire Centers, as well as private insurance data.

Like NOAA, these institutions are also experiencing budget cuts.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Foreign Civilizations Could Be Monitoring Us: Here’s How

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Future research indicates that even with equivalent technological advancement, radio signals from Earth’s airports could be detected by alien astronomers.

Radar systems employed to monitor aircraft in major hubs like London’s Heathrow and New York’s JFK emit radio waves as formidable as those produced by extraterrestrial civilizations from 200 light years away, according to researchers.

The study, led by University of Manchester doctoral candidate Ramilo Kais Said, explored how radio signals from both civilian and military radar operations disperse as they exit Earth, predicting their appearance as they approach nearby stars.

Recent preliminary results revealed at the National Astronomical Conference in Durham, UK, indicate that radar stations at global airports are transmitting signals at a remarkable total of 2,000 trillion watts.

This intensity is sufficient for the most sensitive telescope on the planet, Green Bank Telescope, to detect an alien planet located 200 light years away.

Within our solar neighborhood is a system containing over 1,000 stars, with the nearest, Proxima Centauri, being just 4.2 light years distant.

However, whether alien astronomers can interpret these signals remains uncertain.

As Earth’s rotation reveals various airports, the signal strength fluctuates within a 24-hour cycle, making it clear that it is not of artificial origin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpg50ktszj4

What does radar from Earth’s airports look like to aliens on planets around the AU microscope 32 light years away?

A more distinct signal could arise from military radar. While these signals are generally weaker than those from airport facilities, they are more focused and likely to flash in a manner resembling lighthouses, thus appearing unnatural.

Nonetheless, the primary limitation on who can observe our air traffic is not the radar systems’ power but rather the laws of physics. The earliest radar systems made their debut in 1935. Since radio waves travel at the speed of light, even these early, weaker signals only covered a distance of 90 light years through space.

This research also aids those on Earth in their quest for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence, helping to gauge the extent to which civilizations similar to ours can be detected.

“Our findings suggest that radar signals unintentionally generated by any planet with advanced technology and complex aviation systems could serve as a universal indicator of intelligent life,” said Caisse Saide.

read more

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

A Key Methane Monitoring Satellite Fails in Orbit

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Artist’s rendering of the MethaneSAT satellite

Environmental Defense Fund/NASA

The MethaneSAT satellite, which was anticipated to revolutionize tracking methane emissions, has experienced a loss of contact less than a year and a half after its launch.

MethaneSAT stated that it “probably cannot recover.” A statement from the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), the non-profit managing the satellite, confirmed this loss as a significant setback in efforts to monitor and mitigate methane emissions, which are responsible for a third of the anthropogenic increase in global temperatures.

Upon its launch in March 2024, MethaneSAT contributed to a growing constellation of satellites aimed at detecting invisible methane emissions from principal sources like oil and gas facilities, livestock operations, landfills, and wetlands. While several satellites focus on specific emissions, MethaneSAT is uniquely equipped to assess methane concentrations on a broader scale, making it particularly effective in identifying emissions from fossil fuel extraction.

This capability was designed for estimating methane emissions in well-known fossil fuel production areas, such as the Permian Basin in the southwestern United States, as well as aiding efforts to identify and contain significant sources of potent greenhouse gases.

“That’s a considerable loss,” commented Jason McKeever from Ghgsat, a Canadian company that intended to utilize MethaneSAT data for strategic guidance on satellite deployment. “MethaneSAT was uniquely positioned in its designated mid-orbit.”

The satellite, which cost nearly $100 million to develop and launch, began its data collection in June 2024 and produced its first detection of methane in the oil and gas basin by November 2024. Researchers were exploring automation for data processing; the satellite, which orbits the Earth 15 times a day, promised near real-time emissions data.

“We had just begun a routine of releasing data every two weeks,” stated John Coifman of the Environmental Defense Fund. “The data produced by the satellites was incredibly valuable.”

According to an EDF announcement, mission operations lost communication with the satellite on June 20th. “After exploring all avenues to reestablish contact, we regret to inform that the satellite has lost power,” the statement read.

The MethaneSAT team is currently investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident. Meanwhile, they continue to disseminate the data collected prior to the loss of power, alongside the algorithms developed for analysis.

“We are considering various options,” Coifman remarked, indicating that reactivating another satellite remains a possibility.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

U.S. Government Ceases Monitoring Costs of Extreme Weather Events

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced on Thursday that they will cease tracking the nation’s most costly disasters, those inflicting damages of at least $1 billion.

This decision means insurance firms, researchers, and policymakers will lack crucial data necessary for understanding trends associated with significant disasters like hurricanes, droughts, and wildfires, which have become more prevalent this year. While not all disasters stem from climate change, such occurrences are intensifying as global temperatures rise.

This latest move marks another step by the Trump administration to restrict or eliminate climate research. Recently, the administration has rejected contributions to the country’s largest climate study, proposed cuts to grants for national parks addressing climate change, and unveiled a budget that would significantly reduce climate science funding at the U.S. Geological Survey, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Defense.

Researchers and lawmakers expressed their disapproval of this decision on Thursday.

Jesse M. Keenan, an associate professor and director of climate change and urbanism at Tulane University in New Orleans, stated that halting data collection will hinder federal and state governments in making informed budgetary and infrastructure investment decisions.

“It’s illogical,” he remarked. Without a comprehensive database, “the U.S. government will be blind to the financial impacts of extreme weather and climate change.”

In comments on Bluesky, Senator Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, described this move as “anti-science, anti-secure, and anti-American.”

Virginia Iglesias, a climate researcher at the University of Colorado, emphasized that few organizations can replicate the unique information provided by this database. “This represents one of the most consistent and trustworthy records of climate-related economic losses in the nation,” she said. “The database’s strength lies in its reliability.”

The so-called billion-dollar disasters—those with costs exceeding ten digits—are on the rise. In the 1980s, there were, on average, three such events annually, adjusted for inflation. By contrast, between 2020 and 2024, the average rose to 23 per year.

Since 1980, the U.S. has experienced at least 403 of these incidents. Last year, there were 27, and this year is projected to see the second-highest number (28 events).

Last year’s incidents included Hurricane Helen and Milton, which together resulted in approximately $113 billion in damages and over 250 fatalities in Colorado. Additionally, drought conditions that year caused around $3 billion in damages and claimed more than 100 lives nationwide.

NOAA’s National Environmental Information Center plans to cease tracking these billion-dollar disasters as priorities, statutory mandates, and staffing change, according to an email from the agency.

When asked whether NOAA or another branch of the federal agency would continue to publicly report data on such disasters, the agency did not respond. The communication indicated that archived data from 1980 to 2024 would be available, but incidences from 2025, such as the recent wildfires in Los Angeles, will not be monitored or published.

“We can’t address problems that we don’t measure,” noted Erinsikorsky, director of the Climate Security Centre. “Without information regarding the costs of these disasters, Americans and Congress will remain unaware of the risks posed by climate change to our nation.”

Sikorsky highlighted that other agencies may struggle to replicate this data collection as it involves proprietary insurance information that companies are reluctant to share. “It’s a remarkably unique contribution.”

Source: www.nytimes.com

Health monitoring technology can be integrated into clothing using thread-based computers

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Computer threads woven with metal and textile yarn to make potential clothing

Hamilton Osoi, IFM

An elastic computer on threads sewn onto clothing can be used to record whole-body data that most medical sensors cannot pick up.

Wearable technologies such as smartwatches monitor body signals, such as heart rate and temperature, but usually only from a single location. This gives you an incomplete picture of how your body works.

now, Yoel Fink The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his colleagues developed a computer that could be sewn into clothing made from chips connected with copper and elastic fiber threads.

This thread has 256 kilobytes of onboard memory around that of a simple calculator, and sensors that can detect temperature, heart rate, and body movement. There is also Bluetooth to allow various threads to communicate.

This means that location-specific data can be collected collectively on the body. It says that it is theoretically used by artificial intelligence to allow for more accurate monitoring of human health. “We're starting to write apps for fabrics, monitor our health and, frankly, we're very close to the point where we can do all sorts of things that our phones can't.”

To create individual threads, Fink and his team folded the chips into conductive boxes and connected them to copper wire. The wire was then wrapped in a protective plastic casing and pulled into a thin tube that could be covered with fabrics such as cotton or synthetic Kevlar.

To test them, four fibers were sewn onto the feet and arms of human clothes. Researchers found that they could identify various movements a person has made, such as lunges, squats, and arm circles.

The team is currently testing thread-computer-made clothing on an Arctic expedition as part of Operation Nanook, an annual military exercise led by the Canadian Army. Clothes record temperature and data from various parts of the body. Fink says it could one day help protect people in extreme circumstances.

Threads are being tested by Army personnel during training

US Army Cold Area Research & Engineering Lab

Not only does it record, but it says this could help vulnerable people detect dangerous falls. Theo Hughes-Riley At Nottingham Trent University, England.

Without the need to wire the sensors together, the design becomes much simpler than other electronic fabrics, he says. Researchers also demonstrated that the thread can be washed, but only water was used, not detergent. Therefore, durability in everyday use must be proven before it is widely adopted, says Hughes Riley.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Monitoring waste at only 20 airports can help identify potential pandemics

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A network of airports like Hong Kong International Airport could effectively detect disease outbreaks

Yuen Man Cheung / Alamy

A global early warning system for disease outbreaks and future pandemics is possible with minimal surveillance. We test wastewater from just a few of our international flights at just 20 airports around the world.

If passengers fly while infected with bacteria or viruses, traces of these pathogens can be left in the waste, allowing airports to gather from the plane after the flight. “If you go to the airplane toilet, blow your nose and place it in the toilet, some of the genetic material from the pathogen can go. In the wastewater.” Guillaume St-Onge at Northeastern University, Massachusetts.

St-Onge and his colleagues used an A Simulator Called the Global Epidemic and Mobility Model, it analyzes how airport waste monitoring networks can detect new variants of the virus, such as those that cause Covid-19. By testing the model using different numbers and locations at airports, they have been able to provide 20 strategically located “sentinel airports” around the world and are as quickly as a network involving thousands of airports. It has been shown that occurrence can be detected efficiently. The larger network was only 20% faster, but cost more.

To detect new threats from anywhere in the world, your network should include major international airports in cities such as London, Paris, Dubai and Singapore. However, the team also showed how networks containing different airport sets could provide a more targeted detection of disease outbreaks that are likely to occur on a particular continent.

“This modeling study is the first to provide the actual number of sentinel airports needed to support effective global monitoring while optimizing resource use,” he says. jiaying li At the University of Sydney, Australia.

Additionally, airport-based networks provide useful information on disease outbreaks during an epidemic, such as how quickly diseases spread from person to person, and estimating people who may become infected from exposure to a single case. You can also do it, says ST-. Onge.

Such wastewater surveillance provides early warnings for known diseases and could also track new and emerging threats if genome data for bacterial or viral is available. “I don’t think I can look at the wastewater and say, ‘There’s a new pathogen out there.'” Temi Ibitoye At Brown University in Rhode Island. “But when new pathogens are announced, we can look at previous waste data very quickly and say, “Is this present in the sample?” “

A map of Sentinel Airport shows how quickly the network detects new disease outbreaks at various sites around the world

Northeastern University

There are still some nuances, such as the frequency of ingesting wastewater samples to track different pathogens. Other challenges include knowing the most efficient way to sample wastewater from an aircraft and assessing the actual effectiveness of the system, says Li.

Long-term surveillance programs also require cooperation from airlines and airports, along with consistent funding sources.

Individual airports can hesitate to participate as risks are recognized for business if infectious disease statistics become widely available. Unless a data processing agreement can alleviate such concerns, Trevor Charles At the University of Waterloo, Canada. He emphasized the importance of coordinated international funding to offset “local political considerations.”

However, given President Donald Trump’s launch of the US withdrawal from the organization, even coordination through international organizations such as the World Health Organization is bringing its own political complications, according to Ibitoye He said. Still, such research is “contributed to making it.” [the monitoring network] She says.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Monitoring recurring rapid radio bursts at the edge of a stationary elliptical galaxy

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The source of the newly detected fast radio burst, FRB 20240209A, is located 2 billion light-years from Earth, on the remote outskirts of an ancient elliptical galaxy with a mass of more than 100 billion solar masses. The remnants of young stars that theorists believe would generate such bursts of radio waves should have long died out in this 11.3 billion-year-old galaxy are detailed in two supplementary studies. Astrophysics Journal Letter this discovery shatters the assumption that fast radio bursts emanate only from regions of active star formation.

Gemini image showing the host galaxy (cyan crosshair) and local ellipse of FRB 20240209A. Image credit: Shah others., doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad9ddc.

“The conventional wisdom is that fast radio bursts (FRBs) originate from magnetars formed by collapsing supernovae,” said Taraneh Eftekari, an astronomer at Northwestern University.

“That doesn’t seem to be the case here. Young, massive stars die out as core-collapse supernovae, but we see no evidence of young stars in this galaxy.”

“Thanks to this new discovery, it is becoming clear that not all Feds are born from young stars.”

“Perhaps there is a subpopulation of FRBs associated with older systems.”

“This new FRB shows that just when we think we understand an astrophysical phenomenon, the universe can turn around and surprise us,” added Wen-Fai Feng, an astronomer at Northwestern University. Ta.

“This ‘dialogue’ with the universe is what makes our field of time-domain astronomy so incredibly thrilling.”

FRB 20240209A was discovered by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) in February 2024.

FRBs are short, powerful bursts of radio waves that flare up and disappear within milliseconds, producing more energy in one quick burst than the sun emits in a year.

However, FRB 20240209A flared up multiple times. During the first burst from February to July 2024, the same source produced 21 additional pulses.

After the research team located the FRB, astronomers quickly used telescopes at W.M. Keck and Gemini Observatories to study the environment surrounding the event.

Surprisingly, rather than discovering young galaxies, these observations revealed that the FRB’s origin lies 2 billion light-years from Earth, at the edge of a neighboring galaxy 11.3 billion years ago.

To learn more about this unusual host galaxy, the researchers used high-performance computers to run simulations.

They discovered that this galaxy is extremely bright and incredibly huge – 100 billion times the mass of our Sun.

“This appears to be the most massive FRB host galaxy ever. It’s one of the most massive galaxies out there,” Dr. Eftekari said.

Although most FRBs occur inside galaxies, the authors tracked FRB 20240209A to the outskirts of its homeworld, 130,000 light-years away from the galaxy’s center, where there are few other stars.

“Of all the FRB populations, this FRB is the furthest from the center of its host galaxy,” said Vishwangi Shah, a graduate student at McGill University.

“This is both surprising and interesting because FRBs are expected to occur inside galaxies, often in star-forming regions.”

“The location of this FRB so far outside its host galaxy raises the question of how such an energetic event could occur in a region where new stars are not forming.”

According to the research team, FRB 20240209A likely originated within a dense globular cluster.

Such clusters are promising sites for magnetars that may have formed through other mechanisms, such as the merger of two neutron stars or the collapse of a white dwarf star under its own gravity, or in conjunction with older stars.

“The globular cluster origin of this repeating FRB is the most likely scenario explaining why this FRB is located outside of its host galaxy,” Shah said.

“Although we do not know for a fact whether there is a globular cluster at the FRB’s location, we have submitted a proposal to use NASA/ESA/CSA’s James Webb Space Telescope for follow-up observations of the FRB’s location.”

“If so, this FRB would be only the second FRB known to exist within a globular cluster. If not, consider other exotic scenarios for the origin of FRBs. You will need to.”

“It’s clear that there is still a lot of interesting discovery to be made about the Fed, and that its environment may hold the key to unlocking its secrets,” Dr. Eftekari said.

_____

T. Eftekari others. 2025. A huge, stationary elliptical main galaxy that repeats high-speed radio bursts FRB 20240209A. APJL in press. arXiv: 2410.23336

Vishwangi Shah others. 2025. A source of high-speed radio bursts that repeat on the outskirts of a quiet galaxy. APJL 979, L21; doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad9ddc

Source: www.sci.news

New Record High of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Levels Recorded at Monitoring Station

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Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Observatory has been recording atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations since 1958.

Fred Espenak/Science Photo Library

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels measured by Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Observatory weather station increased by 3.58 parts per million in 2024, the largest increase since records began in 1958.

‘We’re still going in the wrong direction,’ climate scientists say Richard Betts At the Met Office, the UK’s weather bureau.

Part of this record increase is due to carbon dioxide emissions from human activities such as fossil fuel burning and deforestation, which reached an all-time high in 2024. Added to this were numerous wildfires caused by record global warming driven by climate change. Long-term warming plus El Niño weather patterns.

Betts predicted that atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations measured at Mauna Loa would rise by 2.26 parts per million (ppm) this year, with a margin of error of 0.56 ppm either way. This is significantly lower than the 2024 record, but it would exceed the last possible pathway to limiting the rise in global surface temperatures to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

“You can think of this as another nail in the 1.5°C coffin,” Betts says. “Now that’s highly unlikely.”

Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration is the most important indicator when it comes to climate change, as increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration is the main driver of short- and long-term warming. The first continuous measurements of CO2 levels were taken at Mauna Loa.

“Because this station has the longest observation record and is located far from major anthropogenic and natural sources of CO2 emissions and sinks, it is often used to represent changes in global CO2 concentrations. It will be done.” Richard Engelen At the EU’s Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service.

However, observations from satellites have made it possible to directly measure the global average atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. According to CAMS, it rose by 2.9 ppm in 2024. Although this is not a record, it is one of the largest increases since satellite observations began.

“The reasons for this large increase require further investigation, but are likely a combination of a recovery in emissions in much of the world after the coronavirus pandemic and interannual fluctuations in natural carbon sinks.” says Engelen. Carbon sinks refer to marine and terrestrial ecosystems that absorb about half of the carbon dioxide emitted by humans.

It has long been predicted that as the Earth warms, this excess CO2 will become less absorbed. “The concern is whether this is the beginning of that,” Betts said. “We don’t know.”

At Mauna Loa, carbon dioxide increases will be higher than global average levels in 2024 due to the large number of wildfires in the Northern Hemisphere, Betts said. CO2 plumes from sources such as wildfires take time to mix evenly into the world’s atmosphere. “Fire emissions in the Northern Hemisphere were particularly high last year,” he says.

Although it is now certain that global warming will exceed the 1.5°C threshold, Betts believes it is still the right goal to set that goal. “The Paris Agreement is carefully worded to seek to limit global warming to 1.5%. We recognized from the beginning that this would be difficult,” he says. “The idea was to set this stretch goal to motivate action, and I actually think it was successful. It galvanized action.”

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Source: www.newscientist.com

The Evolution of Wildfire Monitoring Apps: From Alarm to Essential State of Mind in the Western US

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CRisti Thomas called 911 for the second time on a warm October day, but when she couldn’t get through, she began to panic. She watched anxiously as a plume of black smoke grew over a rural community in central California.

Just then, I heard a familiar ping.

Watch Duty, an app that warns users of the risk of wildfires and provides critical information in the event of a fire, was already recording the fires. She relaxed. The cavalry was coming.

“I can’t describe the sigh of relief,” she said, recalling the moments after sirens wailed through her neighborhood and helicopters roared overhead. “We saw it happen, so we had questions, and the oversight mandate answered them all.”

Thomas is one of the millions of Watch Duty evangelists who have helped the app spread rapidly. This organization has only been in existence for three years. Currently boasts up to 7.2 million active users At peak times, it receives up to 512 million page views. For a nonprofit organization run mostly by volunteers, those numbers are impressive even by startup standards. But they are not surprising.

Lookout duties have changed the lives of people in fire-prone areas. When the skies darken and ash fills the air, users no longer have to scramble for information, they can now rely on the app to get fast, accurate information for free.

Provides access to critical information about where the danger is, including fire perimeters, evacuation areas, and evacuation location maps. Users can find wildfire camera feeds, track aircraft locations, and see wind data all in one place. The app can also help identify when there is little need for alarm, when risks have subsided, and which agencies are active on the ground.

“This app isn’t just about alerts, it’s about your state of mind,” said Watch Duty CEO John Mills. The Silicon Valley alumnus founded the organization after moving from San Francisco to a large, fire-prone ranch in Sonoma County. After starting in just four California counties, Watch Duty covered the entire state in its first year and quickly expanded from the American West to Hawaii.

As the community grows to reach people in 14 states by 2024, Mills says new features and improved accuracy have made it more popular and filled an unmet need.

It’s not just residents who have become reliant on apps in recent years. A variety of responders, from firefighters to city officials to journalists, are also logging on to ensure key stakeholders are on the same page.

“People thank me for on-duty duty, but I’m like, ‘You’re welcome, I’m sorry you need it,'” Mills said. But it’s clear that the need is real. In each new area we served, word of mouth drove adoption.

“We didn’t spend any money on marketing,” Mills said. “To let the world know that we just let the genie out of the bottle and things are not going back to the way they were.”

CalFire supervisors watch over the Rhine Fire in San Bernardino County, California, in September 2024. Photo: Jon Putman/Sopa Images/Rex/Shutterstock

Source: www.theguardian.com

The Impact of AI Monitoring on Reducing Stillbirths and Neonatal Deaths at a Clinic in Malawi

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WEllen Kafamtengo felt a sharp pain in her lower abdomen and thought she might be going into labor. It was the ninth month of her first pregnancy, but she wasn’t taking any chances. With the help of her mother, the 18-year-old took a motorbike taxi and raced to a hospital in Malawi’s capital Lilongwe, a 20-minute drive away.

At Area 25 Health Center, she was told it was a false alarm and taken to the maternity ward. But when a routine ultrasound reveals that the baby is much smaller than expected at this stage of pregnancy, things quickly escalate, leading to suffocation, a condition that limits blood flow and oxygen to the baby may cause.

In Malawi, approx. 19 out of 1,000 babies Death occurs during childbirth or within the first month of birth. Childbirth asphyxia is the leading cause of neonatal death in this country and can result in brain damage to newborns with long-term effects such as developmental delays and cerebral palsy.

Doctors reclassified Ms Kafamtengo, who was expected to have a normal delivery, as a high-risk patient. Further tests using AI-powered fetal monitoring software revealed that the baby’s heart rate was slow. Stress tests revealed that the baby would not survive delivery.




Chikondi Chiweza, head of maternal and child care at Area 25 Health Center in Lilongwe, said: Photo: Provided by Halma plc

Chikondi Chiweza, the hospital’s head of maternal and child care, knew she had less than 30 minutes to deliver Kafamtengo’s baby by caesarean section. Having delivered thousands of babies in some of the city’s busiest public hospitals, she was well aware of how quickly a baby’s chances of survival can change during delivery.

Chiweza, who gave birth to Kafamtengo’s baby healthy, says the fetal monitoring program has made a huge difference to hospital births.

“[In Kaphamtengo’s case]we wouldn’t have realized what we did until later or as a stillborn baby,” she says.

Software donated by a birth safety technology company Perigen Through a partnership with the Malawi Ministry of Health, Texas Children’s Hospitaltracks your baby’s vital signs during delivery, giving clinicians early warning of abnormalities.
Since it began using the system three years ago, the number of stillbirths and neonatal deaths at the center has fallen by 82%. It is the only hospital in the country that has introduced this technology.

“The period around birth is the most dangerous for mothers and babies,” says Jeffrey Wilkinson, an obstetrician at Texas Children’s Hospital who leads the program. “Most deaths can be prevented by ensuring the baby’s safety during the birth process.”

AI monitoring systems require less time, equipment, and skilled staff than traditional fetal monitoring methods, making them essential for hospitals in low-income countries such as Malawi, which face severe health worker shortages. Routine fetal monitoring often relies on a doctor performing routine tests. This means that while the AI-assisted program provides continuous, real-time monitoring, important information may be missed during the interval. Traditional tests also require doctors to interpret raw data from various devices, which can be time-consuming and error-prone.

Area 25’s maternity ward handles approximately 8,000 births annually with a staff of 80 physicians. While only about 10% are trained to perform traditional electronic monitoring, most can detect abnormalities using AI software, helping doctors recognize higher-risk or more complicated births. Masu. Hospital staff also say that the use of AI has standardized key aspects of obstetric care in the clinic, such as interpreting fetal health status and deciding when to intervene.

Kafamutengo, who is excited to become a new mother, believes that doctors’ intervention may have saved her baby’s life. “They realized early enough that my baby was suffering and were able to take action,” she said as she held her son, Justice.

Doctors at the hospital hope the technology will be introduced to other hospitals in Malawi and across Africa.

“AI technology is being used in many fields, and saving the lives of babies is no exception,” Chiweza said. “We can really close the gap in the quality of care available to underserved populations.”

Source: www.theguardian.com

Introducing EBCare: A Revolutionary Smart Mask for Monitoring Metabolic and Respiratory Health

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Recent respiratory disease epidemics have attracted a lot of attention, yet most respiratory monitoring is limited to physical signals. Exhaled breath condensate (EBC) is packed with rich molecular information that can reveal various insights into an individual's health. Now, Professor Wei Gao and colleagues at California Institute of Technology have developed EBCare, a mask-based device that monitors EBC biomarkers in real time. For example, the EBCare mask can monitor asthma patients for their levels of nitrite, a chemical that indicates airway inflammation.

This diagram shows how the smart mask detects breathed chemicals, such as nitrite, an indicator of airway inflammation. Images by Wei Gao and Wenzheng Heng, Caltech.

“Monitoring a patient's breathing is routinely done, for example to assess asthma and other respiratory diseases,” Prof Gao said.

“However, this method requires patients to visit a clinic to have a sample taken and then wait for the test results.”

“Since COVID-19, people have started wearing masks. We can leverage this increased use of masks for remote, personalized monitoring to get real-time feedback on one's health from the comfort of one's own home or office.”

“For example, we could use this information to evaluate how effective a medical treatment is.”

To selectively analyze the chemicals and molecules in your breath, you first need to cool them down and condense them into a liquid.

In a clinical setting, this cooling step is separate from the analysis: Moistbreath samples are cooled in a bucket of ice or a large refrigerated cooler.

The EBCare mask, on the other hand, is self-cooling, according to the team.

The breath is cooled by a passive cooling system that integrates hydrogel evaporative cooling and radiative cooling to effectively cool the breath on the facemask.

“This mask represents a new paradigm for respiratory and metabolic disease management and precision medicine because wearing it daily allows for easy collection of breath samples and real-time analysis of exhaled chemical molecules,” said Wen-zheng Heng, a graduate student at the California Institute of Technology.

“Breath condensate contains soluble gases as well as non-volatile substances in the form of aerosols and droplets, including metabolic products, inflammatory indicators and pathogens.”

Once the breath is converted into liquid, a series of capillaries in a device called bioinspired microfluidics immediately transports the liquid to a sensor for analysis.

“We learned how to transport water from plants, which use capillary action to pull water up from the ground,” Professor Gao said.

“The analysis results are then sent wirelessly to an individual's phone, tablet or computer.”

“The smart mask can be prepared at a relatively low cost. The materials are designed to cost just $1.”

To test the masks, the authors conducted a series of human studies, focusing primarily on patients with asthma or COPD.

The researchers specifically monitored the patients' breath for nitrite, a biomarker of inflammation in both diseases.

Results showed that the masks accurately detected biomarkers indicative of inflammation in patients' airways.

In a separate experiment, the masks demonstrated that they could accurately detect subjects' blood alcohol levels, suggesting that they could potentially be used for field DUI checks and other alcohol consumption monitoring.

We also explored how the mask can be used to assess blood urea levels in the monitoring and management of kidney disease.

As kidney function declines, by-products of protein metabolism, such as urea, accumulate in the blood.

At the same time, the amount of urea in saliva increases, which breaks down into ammonia gas, leading to high ammonium concentrations in the breath condensate.

The study showed that the smart mask could accurately detect ammonium levels, closely reflecting the urea concentration in blood.

“Our smart mask platform for EBC collection and analysis represents a major advancement in the potential for real-time monitoring of lung health,” said Professor Harry Rossiter, director of the Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

“This concept, with the potential to add biosensors for a wide range of compounds in the future, highlights the groundbreaking potential of smart masks in health monitoring and diagnostics.”

The team's work is paper In the journal Science.

_____

Wen-zhen Heng others2024. Smart masks for collection and analysis of exhaled breath condensate. Science 385 (6712): 954-961; doi: 10.1126/science.adn6471

This article is a version of a press release provided by Caltech.

Source: www.sci.news

Monitoring Ecosystem Health by Listening to Earthworm Movements

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The movements of worm-like organisms in the soil produce unique sound patterns.

Vitaly Stock/Shutterstock

While they may not be as captivating as a dawn bird chorus, the sounds of ants, beetle larvae and earthworms recorded underground provide a snapshot of whether an ecosystem is healthy.

“The idea is that we can monitor soil health using the sounds made by invertebrates.” Jake Robinson At Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia.

He and his colleagues Mount Bald Conservation AreaThe project will involve 240 recordings over five days in spring 2023, with each recording lasting nine minutes, covering a 55 square kilometre area around a reservoir south of Adelaide.

Two sites had been cleared of trees approximately 15 years ago and maintained as grassland, two sites had been cleared but had regrowth of trees and bushes over the course of approximately 15 years, and the remaining two were intact grassland forests.

Robinson and his colleagues dug up soil samples at each site, placed them in containers, and placed them in sound-attenuating chambers — devices that allow them to record sounds from the soil in a controlled environment while filtering out other sounds. The researchers then examined the soil samples and counted the types and numbers of invertebrates present in each sample.

Jake Robinson (left) and his colleagues listen to sounds in the soil.

Tracy Klarenbeek

The researchers found that intact and revegetated plots contained more soil invertebrate species, including organisms such as beetle larvae, earthworms, centipedes, woodlice and ants, and generally more specimens, than did the clear-cut plots.

To analyze the noise, Robinson and his colleagues used a sound complexity index, which works on the premise that many biological behaviors, such as millipede movements, produce distinctive sound patterns.

More diverse sound activity corresponds to a higher index score and more species of organisms present. Soils in revegetated sites had an index score 21 percent higher than soils in deforested sites.

Source: www.newscientist.com

Leisure centers abandon biometric monitoring of staff as UK data watchdog cracks down

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Numerous companies, including a national leisure center chain, are reassessing or discontinuing the use of facial recognition technology and fingerprint scanning for monitoring employee attendance in response to actions taken by Britain’s data authority.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) instructed a Serco subsidiary to halt the use of biometrics for tracking employee attendance at its leisure centers and prohibited the use of facial recognition and fingerprint scans. The ICO also issued stricter guidelines.

Following an investigation, the ICO found that more than 2,000 employees’ biometric data was unlawfully processed at 38 Serco-managed centers using facial recognition and, in two instances, fingerprint scanning to monitor attendance.

In response, Serco has been given a three-month deadline by the ICO to ensure compliance with regulations and has committed to achieving full compliance within that timeframe.

Other leisure center operators and businesses are also reevaluating or discontinuing the use of similar biometric technology for employee attendance monitoring in light of the ICO’s actions.

Virgin Active, a leisure club operator, announced the removal of biometric scanners from 32 properties and is exploring alternatives for staff monitoring.

Ian Hogg, CEO of Shopworks, a provider of biometric technology to Serco and other companies, highlighted the ICO’s role in assisting businesses in various industries to meet new standards for biometric authentication.

The new ICO standards emphasize exploring alternative options to biometrics for achieving statutory objectives, prompting companies to reconsider their use of such technology.

1Life, owned by Parkwood Leisure, is in the process of removing the Shopworks system from all sites, clarifying that it was not used for biometric purposes.

Continuing discussions with stakeholders, the ICO aims to guide appropriate use of facial recognition and biometric technology in compliance with regulations and best practices.

The widespread concerns raised by the ICO’s actions underscore the need for stronger regulations to protect employees from invasive surveillance technologies in the workplace.

The case of an Uber Eats driver facing issues with facial recognition checks highlights ongoing debates about the use of artificial intelligence in employment relationships and the need for transparent consultation processes.

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Emphasizing the importance of respecting workers’ rights, the use of artificial intelligence in employment must be carefully regulated to prevent discriminatory practices and ensure fair treatment of employees.

Source: www.theguardian.com

US judge stops government from monitoring energy usage of cryptocurrency mining.

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The U.S. government has halted an investigation into a cryptocurrency mining operation over its rising energy use following a lawsuit from an industry accused by environmental groups of fueling the climate crisis.

A federal judge in Texas granted an interim order blocking new requirements to verify cryptocurrency miners’ energy use, stating that the industry would suffer “irreparable harm” if forced to comply.

The U.S. Department of Energy launched an “emergency” initiative last month to examine the energy usage of mining operations, which use computational power to mine currencies like Bitcoin.

The growth of cryptocurrencies and mining activities has led to a surge in electricity usage, with data centers popping up and even reviving coal-fired power plants for mining operations.

The federal government requires more information on big miners’ electricity use, as mining facilities provided a significant portion of total U.S. electricity demand last year. Globally, cryptocurrency mining is responsible for a notable portion of energy consumption.

Campaigners warn that the increased electricity consumption from cryptocurrency mining exacerbates the climate crisis, with mining operations releasing significant amounts of carbon dioxide each year.

Cryptocurrency mining is straining power grids, with instances of Bitcoin companies receiving energy credits to reduce power usage during peak demand periods.

The industry has managed to avoid an investigation it deems burdensome, citing political motives from the government. The debate continues on the regulation of cryptocurrency mining in the U.S.

The Blockchain Council of Texas and other groups argue that the government’s actions are aimed at limiting or eliminating Bitcoin mining in the U.S., causing concerns for the industry and its employees.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Non-military drones could be used to deliver medical supplies under UK travel monitoring program

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Britain’s air travel watchdog has proposed the use of drones to deliver medical supplies and inspect railways, power lines, and roads. The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has published a consultation paper outlining the proposals, which would allow pilots to safely fly drones out of sight.

While some drones have been flying beyond visual lines in the UK for test flights, the new proposals would enable drones to operate out of sight by flying at a lower height and closer to buildings and infrastructure, reducing the risk of other aircraft traffic.

Kevin Woolsey, head of remotely piloted aircraft systems at the CAA, stated that the proposed concept would open the door to the next stage of drone flying in the UK, potentially allowing for beyond visual line of sight operations and online shopping delivery by drone.

The CAA intends to allow drones to be used on private land without a permit, as long as they do not fly higher than 15 meters. Industries involved in infrastructure inspections, such as railways, power lines, and roads, as well as farmers and field security, are expected to benefit from these proposals.

The consultation forms part of the UK’s future flight plans, which aim to enable drones to safely share more of the sky with other airspace users. The CAA will run the consultation for six weeks and provide further details on its website.

The proposals also include allowing drones to fly in “atypical air environments,” which are areas with reduced conventional aircraft traffic due to proximity to buildings and ground infrastructure. The CAA acknowledges the risks associated with operating in such airspace and will work to mitigate these risks with relevant approvals from operating companies.

Source: www.theguardian.com

FTC suggests fortifying COPPA and tightening restrictions on tech monitoring of children

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The FTC proposed strengthening rules to protect children from the surveillance economy. The updated rules will require companies to get parental permission before sharing data with advertisers and prohibit them from retaining data for vague “internal operations,” among other things.

“The proposed changes to COPPA are much needed, especially in an era when online tools are essential to daily life and companies are deploying increasingly sophisticated digital tools to monitor children. Masu.” FTC Chair Lina Khan said: In a blog post. “Children need to be able to play and learn online without being endlessly tracked by companies looking to hoard and monetize their personal data.”

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) has been in place since 2000 and remains effective at preventing the most egregious data collection and abuse of children, but it was last updated in 2013 and now has a new coat. can do. of paint. The FTC asked for comments a long time ago on how the rules should change, and (as is often the case with Internet privacy issues) the response was overwhelming.

“We received more than 175,000 comments after the FTC announced it was considering revisions to the COPPA rule.” the agency mentioned in a news release.. “The proposed rule reflects what he has heard from parents, educators, industry members, researchers and others, and his 23 years of experience enforcing COPPA.”

The agency will soon issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), a draft of the new COPPA regulations, that the public will be able to comment on and criticize for the next 60 days. The exact timing will depend on when this document is published in the Federal Register, which is outside the FTC’s control, but could happen in the coming weeks. In the meantime, what you can do is Watch the draft here.

The updated rules require:

  • Parents will opt-in before sharing their child’s information with third parties, unless sharing is “essential” to the service. Expect many things to suddenly “integrate” next year.
  • Narrow the loophole in “support for internal operations.” For example, Amazon exploited this exception to retain children’s information indefinitely to improve its speech recognition models. Hopefully it will be less.
  • Better justify “nudges” like push notifications to get kids to open apps or stay online.
  • We do not force children to provide personal data to use our apps or features. For example, “Give me your birthday to get her 100 free crystals.”
  • Data is not retained beyond its original stated use. As in the Amazon example, you can use your child’s voice command to launch an app (its primary use), but then you can’t “reliably” launch anything else.
  • Schools and school districts may authorize educational technology providers to collect and use personal information about students for educational purposes only.
  • “Personal information” now includes biometrics.

There are a few other details about the NPRM itself (of interest primarily to those directly involved). If you would like to know more about why these things are necessary, or why he needs COPPA in the first place, please contact Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya. We have released a helpful commentary on this topic.

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) approved the update, calling it “an encouraging step toward putting safeguards in place to protect the youngest users of social media from constant surveillance and manipulation.” .

But, he continued, “Rulemaking is not a substitute for law, and Congress needs to act. Create minimum age requirements for social media use and prohibit algorithmic targeting of children and teens. We urgently need to pass legislation to protect children online.”

Given the current state of Congress and (at least) the prospect of losing a controversial election in 2024, I doubt the senators’ urgency will translate into legislation any time soon. FTC rules will need to remain in place for some time to come.

Source: techcrunch.com

Verdane invests $65 million in media monitoring startup Meltwater

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melt waterwhich first made its name in media monitoring and has since become active in business intelligence using AI and big data analysis techniques, is welcoming new investors. VardhanThe Norwegian private equity firm, which earlier this year closed a more than $1 billion fund to invest in the expansion of high-tech companies, acquired an 11% stake in Meltwater, valuing the company at €542 million. 92 million dollars), with a stock value of approximately 542 million euros (approximately 592 million dollars). $65 million. But that’s not the only sticking point in the deal.

The investment will be made through Verdan, which will acquire a significant stake in Fountain Venture, an investment vehicle controlled by Meltwater’s founder and current chairman, Jørn Risegen.

Meltwater was listed on the Norwegian Stock Exchange until early this year.Mr. Risegen oversaw the company’s taking private. early this year The remaining stake was held through Fountain in a deal with two private equity firms, Alter and Merlin. (This go-private deal was the last disclosed valuation and the one currently cited by Meltwater.) Verdhan invested in Fountain Venture rather than directly in Meltwater. This is because, in partnership with Fountain, we plan to jointly invest in startups active in the following areas in the future. love.

Joakim Kaempferd, president of Verdun, said the partnership will also allow the company to acquire a stake in HR firm Jobilon, but Meltwater has much larger assets.

“The trade here is really a portfolio trade,” he said. “We have acquired Mr Jorn’s investment company and have an implied direct stake in Meltwater and Nordic recruitment company Jovilon, with Meltwater being the largest asset in our portfolio.” Jovilon’s current ARR is approx. 5 million euros, but Meltwater, which was founded in Norway but is now headquartered in San Francisco, has an ARR of about 500 million euros, he added.

The deal highlights several important themes in Europe’s technology industry and the world of venture capital.

The first is the fact that tech companies continue to put significant pressure on their valuations. Meltwater’s current market cap is just under $600 million, which is actually less than the funding the company raised over the years (more than $700 million) when it was a private startup. pitch book data), and less than half of its valuation when it went public in December 2020 at more than $1 billion.

The second is the nature of the trade at the moment and the efforts investors are making to avoid risk. The European market is particularly tight at the moment. Venture capital firm Atomico conducts deep research into Europe’s funding landscape each year (along with a number of third-party research firms and other companies participating in the ecosystem), and estimates that funding will be halved in 2023. It turned out that That has fallen to just $43 billion, with private equity firms participating more heavily in deals to make up for the decline from VCs.

In this context, it is noteworthy that Verdane chose to invest in Fountain Venture rather than directly in Meltwater. This would give Verdan a stake in Meltwater, as well as Jovilon and any other stake that Fountain and Lysegen might be interested in. Then you lose the leverage of focusing on just one business. Verdane itself has only recently begun spreading its wings into investing in startups across Europe and beyond. Partnering with a partner to help lead the way is a much lower-risk approach to more ambitious initiatives.

From a technology perspective, companies like Meltwater are at a crossroads these days. The company’s roots lie in humans physically sifting through stacks of newspapers every day, cutting out the parts that mention company names, collating them, and sending them to their customers so they can better track their status. It probably came from business. It was featured in the media.

The decline of print media digitized that effort, but then the rise of social media turned it into a broader game, sentiment analysis, where words became structured and usually unstructured data. Ta. The influx of a whole new set of tools to glean insights from data has turned a media challenge into a technical challenge. Meltwater built his AI in-house and acquired a series of companies in his analytics integration efforts. (The most high-profile of these acquisitions was undoubtedly DataSift, a groundbreaking company that was an early Twitter friend of his and used to monetize Twitter’s firehose.) has worsened.)

But now it has a much bigger competitive threat. Companies like OpenAI and generative AI innovations will once again change the game from a search (consumer and business) perspective and how all kinds of business intelligence work is performed.

Unsurprisingly, Lyseggen said Meltwater’s focus feels like a throwback to what is essentially a solved problem, although it could well be made more efficient by competitors. Despite this, we believe there are further opportunities for our company.

“I see OpenAI’s ChatGPT as the ‘Netscape moment’ that ushered in this new era,” he said. This is interesting. Although Netscape isn’t part of what we use today, it certainly changed the way the world searches for information. “AI is changing the game as players challenge the old guard. We think Meltwater’s tech stocks are already the most modern and AI-centric of its category. We’re going to continue to do that and we’re really looking forward to it. We’re working very hard.” Meltwater today announced that it produces approximately 1 billion daily transactions for its communications, marketing and PR clients. announced that they were analyzing the document.

Source: techcrunch.com