{"id":75378,"date":"2025-01-01T00:00:45","date_gmt":"2025-01-01T05:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=75378"},"modified":"2025-01-01T00:00:45","modified_gmt":"2025-01-01T05:00:45","slug":"science-2024-comets-prodigious-chips-and-one-elon-musk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/science-2024-comets-prodigious-chips-and-one-elon-musk\/","title":{"rendered":"Science 2024: Comets, Prodigious Chips and One Elon Musk"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

The comet of the century arrived from beyond the sky in 2024, and it did so ahead of time. If Tsuchinshan-ATLAS had approached Earth at the dawn of Christmas, it would have been difficult to deny it a disturbingly random chance encounter.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tsuchinhan-ATLAS was three months early.\u00a0<\/span>Josep M. Trigo, principal investigator of the Meteorites, Minor Bodies and Planetary Sciences Group of the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC), gave all the coordinates to locate it<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and dwelt on the importance of studying these capricious wandering bodies. At the end of September Tsuchinhan-ATLAS became visible from Earth,\u00a0<\/span>displaying a spectacular coma, a breath of gas and dust as bright as the brightest stars<\/span><\/a>\u00a0. It passed by the comet, like the Americans in\u00a0<\/span>Welcome, Mister Marshall<\/span><\/em><\/a>\u00a0, but it left us looking at the sky.<\/span><\/p>\n

In August 2024, we learned about\u00a0<\/span>the unusual nature of the projectile that excavated the Chicxulub crater and wiped out the dinosaurs<\/span><\/a>\u00a0. Dinosaurs that, if we compress the history of the Earth into one year,\u00a0<\/span>became extinct in the era of Christmas carols, the planet’s Christmas<\/span><\/a>\u00a0.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS photographed in October 2024. Michael J\u00e4ger, Gerald Rhemann, Dennis M\u00f6ller , CC BY<\/p><\/div>\n

The groin and Elon Musk<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\u201cThe groin and God. The groin that dominates me has not yet been born.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The phrase belongs to Jos\u00e9 Luis Cuerda’s masterpiece\u00a0<\/span>Amanece que no es poco<\/span><\/em><\/a>\u00a0. It is difficult to love Elon Musk publicly, but in 2024 we have talked about\u00a0<\/span>Elon and rockets<\/span><\/a>\u00a0,\u00a0<\/span>Elon and Tesla<\/span><\/a>\u00a0,\u00a0<\/span>Elon and satellites<\/span><\/a>\u00a0,\u00a0<\/span>Elon and Mars<\/span><\/a>\u00a0(will Elon Musk take us to Mars?),\u00a0<\/span>Elon and X<\/span><\/a>\u00a0.<\/span><\/p>\n

The groin and Elon Musk! A relationship, if there ever was one<\/p>\n

In January 2024, Neuralink, the company with which Elon designs augmented humans, implanted (with legitimate authorization) its N1 chip in the brain of a man with no mobility in his limbs. The neuroscientist from the UCM Manuel Mart\u00edn Loeches told\u00a0The Conversation what is behind and the future of brain implants like the one created by Elon Musk<\/a>\u00a0.\u00a0Who Wants To<\/em><\/a>\u00a0Live Forever, sang Fredy Mercury. And who doesn’t?<\/p>\n

Of silicon gods<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Chip,\u00a0the little god of all things<\/a>\u00a0. This is what\u00a0Luis Antonio Fonseca Ch\u00e1charo<\/a>\u00a0, a researcher at the Barcelona Institute of Microelectronics (IMB-CNM-CSIC), calls him.<\/p>\n

Chips are the destination of what Paula Alvaredo Olmos, professor of materials science and engineering at the Carlos III University, describes as \u201c\u00a0materials at war<\/a>\u00a0.\u201d In the mad race for chips, minerals and\u00a0rare earths<\/a>\u00a0are needed , the extraction of which violates all human rights, and they are the technological oxygen we breathe here, in the locomotive world. Chips, the basis of the future:\u00a0quantum supremacy, quantum projectiles<\/a>\u00a0, the\u00a0quantum computer<\/a>\u00a0that the Three Wise Men have not yet brought (let\u2019s give the magicians some time, they still weigh a lot).<\/p>\n

We will adapt<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Elon Musk and whatever it takes, we will adapt. A revealing article published this year explains it well:\u00a0humans adapted to the last ice age in a similar way to wolves and bears<\/a>\u00a0. The findings call into question long-held theories about how and where our ancestors lived during this harsh glacial period. They did not migrate to warm lands, some stayed in the cold, even if they did not have shoes.<\/p>\n

In the quest for survival, we are now developing\u00a0megamaterials that<\/a>\u00a0, as Jos\u00e9 Manuel Torralba, deputy director of\u00a0IMDEA materials<\/a>\u00a0, points out , will transform our lives far beyond what we think they can be transformed. For the very optimistic, they will even free us from the evil that is coming, the one shown by\u00a0the climate models<\/a>\u00a0generated by large computer machines, with artificial intelligence leading the way in knowledge.<\/p>\n

The Cambrian explosion of artificial intelligence<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Is there anyone out there who doesn’t use AI in science? Is there anyone left? The use of artificial intelligence has experienced its own Cambrian explosion in 2024, the geological period in which living forms on Earth emerged en masse.<\/p>\n

2024 has been the year of recognition of AI by the Swedish Academy, with two Nobel Prizes (\u00a0Physics<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Chemistry<\/a>\u00a0) to AI pioneers and researchers.<\/p>\n

But the debate for 2024 has heated up between those who claim that AI will never become intelligent in human ways and those who predict the dominance of machines.<\/p>\n

Ram\u00f3n L\u00f3pez de M\u00e1ntaras<\/a>\u00a0, a research professor at the CSIC, is on the side of humans: \u201cGenerative AI needs a body that allows it to interact with the world in order to achieve common sense knowledge,\u201d says M\u00e1ntaras. But Francisco Herrera Triguero, professor of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Granada, warns that the body is on the way: \u201c\u00a0Language models are already being integrated with intelligent robotics<\/a>\u00a0, playing an important role.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fiction, the film\u00a0Savage Robot<\/em>\u00a0gave an animated body to an AI that learns like we do, and reached the limit, the event horizon of artificial intelligence: emotions. The film\u00a0raised the dilemma of motherhood for machines<\/a>\u00a0.
\n