Posted at 9:00 a.m.
Earlier and earlier springs
Due to global warming, spring now starts a month earlier in the UK. This is the conclusion of a large study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society. The research collected 420,000 observations on the first flowering of 406 plants. According to a team of researchers from the University of Cambridge, plants begin flowering on average 26 days earlier than in 1986. For plants measuring less than 20 cm, the first flowering is even earlier, at 32 days earlier .
Quiz
Can air pollution affect sperm quality?
PHOTO CARLOS GARCIA RAWLINS, REUTERS ARCHIVES
The Chinese are experiencing a decline in their fertility.
Response
This is suggested by a study of 33,876 men in China, whose average age was 34 years. Researchers at Shanghai University School of Medicine found a 3.6% decline in sperm motility (ability to move) in people exposed to 2.5-micrometer fine particles. The study was published in the journal JAMA Network. Further research will be needed to better understand how air quality can affect sperm quality.
The number
100
PHOTO JONATHAN NACKSTRAND, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Greenland’s ice is melting faster than expected.
Greenland’s ice base is melting 100 times faster than expected, scientists from the University of Cambridge have found. Thanks to a radar using a wavelength of only a few millimeters, they were able to measure the melting of the ice base under Greenland. Their discovery, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of Americacould mean that the projected rise in sea level would occur more rapidly.
Trustworthy Fake Faces
YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT
This screenshot shows a false face of Barack Obama created using artificial intelligence and the man who lent his voice to this subterfuge.
Fake faces created by artificial intelligence (deepfake in English) increasingly resemble real faces and even inspire greater confidence, researchers found in a study recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. For their experiment, the authors submitted to some 500 participants 400 real faces and 400 faces generated using artificial intelligence (AI). First observation: a little more than half (58%) of the participants correctly identified the real faces. The other finding, more worrying, is that the “artificial” faces inspired greater confidence in the participants than the real faces.
A genetic mutation against Alzheimer’s
PHOTO ALAIN JOCARD, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A man with Alzheimer’s walks around his apartment.
Quebec researchers have recently succeeded in introducing a mutation that offers protection against Alzheimer’s disease in human cells cultured in the laboratory. This mutation reduces the risk of developing the disease. According to researchers from Laval University, this discovery could be useful for people from families where this disease is hereditary. It could also be used to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s in people who already have it. The challenge ahead is to find a way to edit the genome of millions of human brain cells. The study was published in The CRISPR Journal.