Google says it has made a major artificial intelligence breakthrough that could dramatically reduce the climate impact from flying. The company partnered with an airline and data provider to build a new artificially intelligent system that looks to reduce the amount of contrails produced by planes. Contrails are the long, white lines that appear behind planes, and can sometimes make the sky appear cloudy. They are formed as soot from planes’ exhausts turn into ice – and when they merge together, they trap heat in the atmosphere and warm the Earth. Those contrails account for more than a third of the global warming impact of flying, according to the UN. If planes are able to avoid flying through areas that create contrails, however, then they will reduce the amount of warming. If the human-made clouds can be stopped, then their warming effects can be reduced. In an attempt to do so, Google researchers gathered satellite imagery, weather and flight path data and fed it into an AI system. That was then used to try and generate routes for pilots that avoided creating those contrails. Pilots at American then flew some 70 test flights over a period of six months, Google said, following those AI-generated routes. The researchers then examined satellite imagery and found that the contrails produced were reduced by 54 per cent. “This is the first proof point that commercial flights can verifiably avoid contrails and thereby reduce their climate impact,” Google said. The company did also note that the flights burned 2 per cent additional fuel, though Google suggested that the flights could be selectively chosen. Google said it would be “working across the aviation industry to use AI to make contrail avoidance a reality over the coming years” in its announcement. It said it has the “potential to be a cost-effective, scalable solution to reduce the climate impact of flying”. Airlines are currently not charged for their climate impact, however, and there is therefore no indication that they would opt to use the routes that help reduce global warming. Read More Google will now alert you if people are talking about you Google Assistant will be ‘supercharged’ with AI like ChatGPT and Bard Google warns Gmail users they could be about to lose their account

By Valerie Volcovici WASHINGTON The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday launched a $7 billion competitive grant program that

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SpaceX has hinted that flight tests of its Mars-bound Starship rocket system could begin to occur on a more frequent basis following a successful launch on Saturday. The tallest and most powerful rocket ever built lifted off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, on Saturday, seven months after the first launch attempt. Unlike the first attempt, both parts of the rocket were able to separate in mid-air without immediately exploding, while the newly-built launch pad was also able to withstand the force of the 33 Raptor engines firing simultaneously. “Just inspected the Starship launch pad and it is in great condition,” SpaceX boss Elon Musk posted on X on Sunday. “No refurbishment needed to the water-cooled steel plate for next launch. Congrats to SpaceX team and contractors for engineering and building such a robust system so rapidly!” The second flight test of the fully-stacked Starship rocket was beset by delays due to the high levels of debris from the destroyed launchpad and exploded rocket following the failed first attempt. Regulators said they would be working with SpaceX before a third flight test takes place, with the US Federal Aviation Administration confirming that no injuries or property damage was reported following Saturday’s launch. The fully-stacked Starship rocket system was the first to successfully perform a hot-stage separation, which saw the upper second stage launch away from the Super Heavy Booster mid-flight. Both parts of the rocket were destroyed shortly after they achieved separation, however SpaceX already has two Super Heavy boosters and three upper-stage vehicles currently undergoing preliminary testing, according to Next Spaceflight. Mr Musk has previously outlined his plans to build a fleet of hundreds of Starship rockets, with the hope of using them to establish a permanent human colony on Mars by 2050. SpaceX has already secured a multi-billion dollar contract with Nasa to develop Starship for the US space agency’s Artemis program, which will return humans to the surface of the Moon for the first time in 50 years. Read More SpaceX launches ‘zero fuel’ engine into space SpaceX Starship rocket loses contact after reaching space: Live updates Air Force officer breaks silence over ‘red, glowing’ UFO sighting: ‘Not a joke’

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A university professor who worked on US government programmes relating to UFOs has said he believes that "aliens are 100 per cent living among us". Dr Garry Nolan of Stanford University School of Medicine spoke about “advanced forms of intelligence” during a recent conference called The Pentagon, Extraterrestrial Intelligence and Crashed UFOs. He said: "I think it's an advanced form of intelligence that using some kind of intermediaries. It's not that they walk among us wearing a skin suit. You're going to put something there that I think of as an intelligence test." Nolan went on to say: "They're showing up and saying who amongst you are intelligent enough to realize what it is you're looking at. 'Can you see what's in front of you for what it really is? Can you see the anomalous data point?" Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter He then spoke his own experiences of people reverse engineering ‘downed crafts', while adding that he believes aliens will not come to Earth to harm humans. "100%" Aliens Have Already Arrived -Dr. Garry Nolan | SALT iConnections New York www.youtube.com "A tiny piece of knowledge from that could revolutionize what we're doing,” Nolan stated. "I'm not worried about them coming and raiding us or taking our women and children. That's not my concern. My concern is how do we use it,” he went on to say. Meanwhile, it was recently claimed that Logan Paul could be the most important figure in the UFO-hunting community. Documentary filmmaker James Fox has spoken about a piece of footage that was rumoured to have been uncovered by UFO specialist Chuck Clark around 30 years ago. The footage is thought to have been recorded by two men in the Nevada desert and has been the focus of much speculation in the community of UFO hunters. While the clip has never been widely shared and has become the stuff of urban legend, Fox has revealed that Paul could be the key to the video being shared with the public in the future. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Category 4 Hurricane Hilary was rushing toward Mexico's Baja California peninsula on Friday morning, threatening to bring