Overfishing Threatens a Third of Global Fish Stocks, FAO Says
The Rome-based United Nations agency found that 35.5% of marine stocks are subject to overfishing, based on the most recent catch data, which uses an improved methodology to assess stocks in 2021. The findings, unveiled on Wednesday at the UN Oceans Conference in Nice, make clear that continuing current levels of fishing would have dire consequences, FAO said.
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Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Humanity May Reach Singularity Within Just 5 Years, Trend Shows
Here's what you'll learn when you read this story: By one unique metric, we could approach technological singularity by the end of this decade, if not sooner. A translation company developed a metric, Time to Edit (TTE), to calculate the time it takes for professional human editors to fix AI-generated translations compared to human ones. This may help quantify the speed toward singularity. An AI that can translate speech as well as a human could change society. In the world of artificial intelligence, the idea of 'singularity' looms large. This slippery concept describes the moment AI exceeds beyond human control and rapidly transforms society. The tricky thing about AI singularity (and why it borrows terminology from black hole physics) is that it's enormously difficult to predict where it begins and nearly impossible to know what's beyond this technological 'event horizon.' However, some AI researchers are on the hunt for signs of reaching singularity measured by AI progress approaching the skills and ability comparable to a human. One such metric, defined by Translated, a Rome-based translation company, is an AI's ability to translate speech at the accuracy of a human. Language is one of the most difficult AI challenges, but a computer that could close that gap could theoretically show signs of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). 'That's because language is the most natural thing for humans,' Translated CEO Marco Trombetti said at a conference in Orlando, Florida, in December 2022. 'Nonetheless, the data Translated collected clearly shows that machines are not that far from closing the gap.' The company tracked its AI's performance from 2014 to 2022 using a metric called 'Time to Edit,' or TTE, which calculates the time it takes for professional human editors to fix AI-generated translations compared to human ones. Over that 8-year period and analyzing over 2 billion post-edits, Translated's AI showed a slow, but undeniable improvement as it slowly closed the gap toward human-level translation quality. On average, it takes a human translator roughly one second to edit each word of another human translator, according to Translated. In 2015, it took professional editors approximately 3.5 seconds per word to check a machine-translated (MT) suggestion—today, that number is just 2 seconds. If the trend continues, Translated's AI will be as good as human-produced translation by the end of the decade (or even sooner). 'The change is so small that every single day you don't perceive it, but when you see progress … across 10 years, that is impressive,' Trombetti said on a podcast. 'This is the first time ever that someone in the field of artificial intelligence did a prediction of the speed to singularity.' Although this is a novel approach to quantifying how close humanity is to approaching singularity, this definition of singularity runs into similar problems of identifying AGI more broadly. And while perfecting human speech is certainly a frontier in AI research, the impressive skill doesn't necessarily make a machine intelligent (not to mention how many researchers don't even agree on what 'intelligence' is). Whether these hyper-accurate translators are harbingers of our technological doom or not, that doesn't lessen Translated's AI accomplishment. An AI capable of translating speech as well as a human could very well change society, even if the true 'technological singularity' remains ever elusive. Get the Issue Get the Issue Get the Issue Get the Issue Get the Issue Get the Issue Get the IssueGet the Issue Get the Issue You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Medscape
a day ago
- Medscape
Risankizumab Maintains Long-Term Effectiveness in Psoriasis
TOPLINE: Risankizumab was well tolerated and demonstrated sustained effectiveness and drug survival in patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis over a period of 4 years. Obesity, difficult-to-treat sites, and prior biologic use delayed the response, whereas bio-naive patients had faster first-year outcomes. METHODOLOGY: Researchers conducted an observational retrospective study of patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis, with or without psoriatic arthritis, at the Turin University Hospital between 2020 and 2024. A total of 545 adult participants (mean age at psoriasis onset, 33.3 years; 60.1% men) received risankizumab 150 mg at weeks 0 and 4 and then every 12 weeks subsequently. Study outcomes were the achievement of Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) 100 and PASI 90 at various timepoints between weeks 16 and 208. Drug survival, defined as the time from initiation to discontinuation, was evaluated alongside predictors of response to risankizumab including obesity, bio-naive status, and difficult-to-treat sites. TAKEAWAY: The mean PASI score decreased significantly from 14 at baseline to 0.4 at week 208. PASI 100 responses increased from 33% at week 16 to 74% at week 208, and PASI 90 responses increased from 47% to 85% over the same period. Bio-naive patients achieved PASI 100 more often than bio-experienced patients at week 16 (38% vs 27%; P = .025), week 28 (63% vs 44%; P < .001), and week 52 (73% vs 57%; P = .002); similar trends were seen for PASI 90. Similarly, patients without obesity were significantly more likely than those with obesity to achieve PASI 100 (66% vs 55%; P = .029) and PASI 90 (78% vs 63%; P = .012) at week 52. Drug survival was notably high at 87.2% for the observed cases after week 208. The presence of a difficult-to-treat site significantly reduced the risk for interruption (hazard ratio, 0.15; P < .001). Overall, 11.6% of patients discontinued the treatment, with the leading cause being secondary failure (38.1%), and adverse events prompted discontinuation in 13 patients. IN PRACTICE: "Risankizumab showed excellent effectiveness, safety, and DS [drug survival] over 4 years of treatment," the authors wrote. "Obesity and involvement of a difficult-to-treat area can lower the initial response, even if they did not affect treatment interruption," they concluded, observing that "bio-naïve patients benefit from a faster response during the first year of treatment." SOURCE: This study was led by Luca Mastorino, Department of Medical Sciences, Section of Dermatology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy. It was published online on July 23, 2025, in Clinical and Experimental Dermatology. LIMITATIONS: The analysis of observed cases and those lost to follow-up weakened the 4-year survival estimate, showcasing an inherent limitation of real-world studies. Additionally, this study could not differentiate effectiveness on the basis of different difficult-to-treat sites. DISCLOSURES: This study did not receive any specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. The authors declared having no conflicts of interest. This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Sticky goo in 2,500-year-old bronze jars finally identified, settling 70-year debate
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Globs of sticky goo discovered in the bottom of 2,500-year-old bronze jars from southern Italy have been chemically identified, settling a 70-year archaeological debate. It's honey — the sweet leftovers of an offering to an ancient god. A team of chemists and archaeologists used cutting-edge analysis techniques to test the paste-like residue. They concluded that the jars, which were found in the sixth-century-B.C. city of Paestum, originally contained honeycomb. "What I find interesting is that the ancient Greeks did think that honey was a superfood," study lead author Luciana da Costa Carvalho, a chemist at the University of Oxford, said in a video. The researchers published their findings Wednesday (July 30) in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Honey and honeybees were important in ancient Greek and Roman medicine, rituals, cosmetics and food. So when archaeologists found eight bronze jars in an underground shrine in 1954, they assumed that the jars contained honey as a symbol of immortality. Despite at least four attempts over seven decades to confirm the presence of the sticky, sweet substance, no evidence of sugars was ever found. Related: Does honey ever go bad? But Carvalho and colleagues decided to take advantage of recent advances in chemical analysis techniques and to reopen the question of the gooey substance's origin. Using mass spectrometry, a technique that can identify different molecules and compounds, Carvalho and colleagues identified intact hexose sugars in the ancient jar residue for the first time. Fresh honey is about 79% hexose sugars, the researchers wrote in the study, with fructose being the most abundant. An analysis of the proteins in the ancient sample revealed the presence of royal jelly, a milky secretion made by worker bees. The researchers also recovered peptides — short amino acid chains that are smaller versions of proteins — unique to one species of honeybee: the European honeybee (Apis mellifera). Adding up these analyses, the researchers wrote that the study presents the first direct molecular evidence supporting the presence of honey, likely offered as honeycombs. "The amount of sugar in the ancient residue is very low compared to modern honey," Carvalho told Live Science in an email. "I think the residue tastes like washed honeycomb but slightly more acidic," Carvalho said, although she did not actually try it. The researchers also identified copper ions in the honey mixture. Because these ions are biocidal, meaning they can kill microorganisms, "their presence would have contributed to the preservations of sugars on the surface of the residue," Carvalho said, potentially explaining how the honey lasted thousands of years. The analysis of the goop can help archaeologists better understand ancient rituals and shrines. The jars were found in an underground shrine, also called a heroon, at Paestum. The heroon also included a large, wooden table with wool-wrapped iron rods placed on top. RELATED STORIES —Panathenaic prize amphora: A pot brimming with olive oil awarded at the ancient Greek Olympics —Depiction of Trojan War hero Ajax found in 1,800-year-old submerged building in Greece —Ancient Greeks may have built 'disability ramps' on some temples The offering may have been made to Is of Helice, the mythical founder of the ancient Greek city of Sybaris, located in what today is the arch of Italy's boot. When Sybaris was destroyed in the sixth century B.C., its inhabitants fled and founded a city called Poseidonia. But when the Romans took it over in the third century B.C., they renamed the city Paestum. The new study shows that "there is merit in reanalyzing museum collections because analytical techniques continue to develop," Carvalho said in the video. Solve the daily Crossword
