It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Researchers have demonstrated how to keep a network of nanowires in a state that's right on what's known as the edge of chaos – an achievement that could be used to produce artificial intelligence (AI) that acts much like the human brain does.
The team used varying levels of electricity on a nanowire simulation, finding a balance when the electric signal was too low when the signal was too high. If the signal was too low, the network's outputs weren't complex enough to be useful; if the signal was too high, the outputs were a mess and also useless.
"We found that if you push the signal too slowly the network just does the same thing over and over without learning and developing. If we pushed it too hard and fast, the network becomes erratic and unpredictable," says physicist Joel Hochstetter from the University of Sydney and the study's lead author.
Keeping the simulations on the line between those two extremes produced the optimal results from the network, the scientists report. The findings suggest a variety of brain-like dynamics could eventually be produced using nanowire networks.
Conceptual image of randomly connected switches. (Alon Loeffler)
"Some theories in neuroscience suggest the human mind could operate at this edge of chaos, or what is called the critical state," says physicist Zdenka Kuncic from the University of Sydney in Australia. "Some neuroscientists think it is in this state where we achieve maximal brain performance."
For the simulations, nanowires 10 micrometers long and no thicker than 500 nanometers were arranged randomly on a two-dimensional plane. Human hairs can be up to around 100,000 nanometers wide, for comparison.
In this case, the problem the network was tasked with was transforming a simple waveform into a more complex type, with the amplitude and frequency of the electrical signal adjusted to find the optimal state for solving the problem – right on the edge of chaos.
Nanowire networks combine two systems into one, managing both memory (the equivalent of computer RAM) and operations (the equivalent of a computer CPU). They can remember a history of previous signals, changing their future output in response to what's happened before, making them memristors.
"Where the wires overlap, they form an electrochemical junction, like the synapses between neurons," says Hochstetter.
Typically, algorithms train the network on where the best pathways are, but in this instance, the network did it on its own.
"We found that electrical signals put through this network automatically find the best route for transmitting information," says Hochstetter. "And this architecture allows the network to 'remember' previous pathways through the system."
That in turn could mean significantly reduced energy usage, because the networks end up training themselves using the most efficient processes. As artificial intelligence networks scale up, being able to keep them lean and as low-powered as possible will be important.
For now, the scientists have shown that nanowire networks can do their best problem solving right on the line between order and chaos, much like our brain is thought to be able to, and that puts us a step closer to AI that thinks as we do.
"What's so exciting about this result is that it suggests that these types of nanowire networks can be tuned into regimes with diverse, brain-like collective dynamics, which can be leveraged to optimise information processing," says Kuncic.
The orphan cloud is the blue umbrella-shaped part of this image, which is color-coded to show the X-ray part of the cloud in blue, the warm gas in red and the visible region in white. Images courtesy of European Space Agency / XMM-Newton
A research team at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) has discovered a lonely cloud bigger than the Milky Way in a “no man’s land” for galaxies. This scientifically mysterious cloud in Abell 1367 is full of hot gas with 10,000-10,000,000 degrees Kelvin (K).
Abell 1367 is also known as Leo Cluster, which contains around 70 galaxies and is located around 300 million light-years from Earth.
The team discovered the cloud in a cluster of galaxies where thousands of galaxies are bound together with tenuous hot gas. Despite being discovered in a cluster of galaxies, this lonely cloud is not associated with any galaxy. Hence, scientists say it is in a no-man’s land.
The discovery was made using the European Space Agency (ESA) X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission (XMM-Newton), Europe’s flagship X-ray telescope. The cloud was also observed with the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope/Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (VLT/MUSE) and Japan’s flagship optical telescope, Subaru.
Dr. Ming Sun, an associate professor of physics at UAH, said, “This is an exciting and also a surprising discovery. It demonstrates that new surprises are always out there in astronomy, as the oldest of the natural sciences. ESA agrees as our discovery was selected as an ESA image release, which has been very selective.”
According to scientists, the origin of the cloud must be a large, unknown galaxy in the cluster. They think that the gas in the cloud must be removed by the ram pressure of the hot gas in the cluster when the host galaxy is soaring in the hot gas with a velocity of 1,000-2,000 kilometers per second.
Dr. Sun said, “That’s about 50 times faster than the orbital speed of Earth around the sun. That level of force at work can rip the interstellar medium out of a galaxy. In this case, we found that the temperature of the cloud is consistent with having originated from a galaxy.”
“Once removed from the host galaxy, the cloud is initially cold and is evaporating in the hot intracluster medium, like ice melting in the summer.”
“It is estimated that this massive, mysterious cloud has survived for hundreds of millions of years after removal from its host galaxy.”
“This surprising longevity is poorly understood but may have something to do with the magnetic field in the cloud.”
Journal Reference:
Chong Ge et al., An H α/X-ray orphan cloud as a signpost of intracluster medium clumping, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2021). DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stab1569
COMRADES ON THE RED PLANET China’s crewed mission to Mars with plans to build permanently inhabited base
China plans to send a crew to Mars by 2033 and further plans to build a permanently inhabited base. They plan to extract resources from the red planet. On race with America, China has ambitious plans to reach Mars.
Image credits- CNET
China’s main rocket maker told in a space exploration conference that they planned for crew missions in 2033, 2035, 2037, 2040, and goes on. Prior to sending crew, robots will be sent to Mars to study the area, so they can plan for setting up a base area. This base will be used to extract resources and work on certain experiments.
For the crew to be able to use the resources, ways to produce oxygen, finding water underneath the surface, and generating electricity are some ways. China plans to work on developing such advanced technology. While the Americans already have technology like boosters to reused the rocket and come back. China is yet to have the rockets which can send a crew to space and bring them back.
By the end of 2030, the extracted samples and other materials will be acquired by China’s uncrewed mission to mars. NASA has already been working on sending crew by 2030. However, China seems to now make potential plans with their plans to send fleets to mars and return some fleet to earth. The major challenge lies with the ability to tap energy from heat and electricity. Also, time plays an important role. They plan to make these missions happen in a few hundred days of flight time.
China’s space missions
Last week, China sent astronauts to their unfinished space station. It has been there since 2016 and was left out till this recent involvement. Once it finished, it will be living quarters for China’s space crew. The current crew on the station will stay there for three months. Expected to be complete by 2022 end.
The main reason for China to have a different space station is because they were banned from NASA. Currently, the International Space Station is being backed by Russia, Canada, Japan, and Europe. Chief designer of China’s manned space program said, “At this current stage, we haven’t considered the participation of international astronauts, but their future participation will be guaranteed,”
Furthermore, China plans to set up a base on the Moon. Deploying robotic expeditions to asteroids and Jupiter form the South pole of the moon. China already sent a remote-controlled motorized rover to Mars. Thus China became the only nation so far to land vehicles on the red planet. In some ways, Chinese space technology advanced beyond expectations.
CHEAP LIKE BORSCHT
Nexperia To Acquire UK's Largest Chip Manufacturer For $87 Million—Chinese Acquisition Leads To National Security Concern?
Nexperia, a Chinese-owned semiconductor manufacturer, could soon acquire the largest chip creator in the United Kingdom, Newport Wafer Fab (NWF). (Photo : Photo by Liu Yucai/VCG via Getty Images) HEFEI, CHINA - FEBRUARY 24: A resercher presents a newly-developed 77GHz millimeter-wave automotive radar chip at a laboratory of the 38th Research Institute of China Electronic Technology Group Corporation (CETC) on February 24, 2021 in Hefei, Anhui Province of China.
China's giant SoC developer now wants to purchase NWF for about $87 million. On the other hand, Nexperia also announced that the upcoming acquisition could take place in the second week of July.
However, the chip manufacturer hasn't confirmed the exact date of the acquisition. This information was first leaked by two anonymous sources, which are closed to the two companies.
"We are in constructive conversations with NWF and the Welsh Government about the future of NWF. Until we have reached a conclusion we cannot further comment," said a spokesperson of Nexperia.
The alleged acquisition was confirmed during the current global chip shortage, affecting various EV makers, computer developers, and other tech companies. Nexperia's NWF Acquisition Poses Security Concern?
According to CNBC News' latest report, many manufacturers are forced to rely on their own plants to make chipsets because of the global SoC shortage. As of the moment, most of the chips are created in Asia.
(Photo : Photo by SSPL/Getty Images) The Intel 486 microprocessor (left) was introduced in 1989 and marked a significant improvement in the processing capacity of computers over that of the previous Intel 386 (introduced in 1985). In addition, the 486 processor was the first to offer a built-in �math co-processor�. This increased computing speeds because complex mathematical functions could be processed away from the central processor.
The largest manufacturers creating them include South Korea's Samsung and China's SMIC, Taiwan's TSMC, and other chip producers. On the other hand, China's largest chip creator and the U.K.'s NWF could soon join forces as the acquisition is about to occur.
However, some experts claimed that this could lead to a national security concern. Tom Tugendhat, leader of the U.K. government's China Research Group and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, is one of the people who believe this could happen.
'I must stress again that having the U.K.'s leading 200mm silicon and semiconductor technology development and processing facility being taken over by a Chinese entity - in my view - represents a significant economic and national security concern," he claimed.
Because of this, he is now suggesting that the U.K. government should review the deal under the National Security and Investment Act. On the other hand, he also explained that it should be investigated since NWF is the last remaining advanced semiconductor factory in the U.K., which will be sold to China.
Global Chip Shortage Affects Automakers
ZDNet reported that the automotive industry is one of the markets greatly affected by the current global chip shortage. In the United Kingdom, car production this 2021 has lessened to around 50% compared back in 2019.
SMMT (Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders) claimed that the U.K.'s car manufacturing operations are down by 58% in June. It added that the sudden decrease is due to the global chip shortage.
For more news updates about Nexperia and other giant chip developers, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.
Why science can’t resist the allure of Venus: new missions to Earth’s nearest planetary neighbour
Venus is close to Earth in size, composition and distance to the sun. But carbon dioxide has turned it into a ‘vision of hell’. Photograph: AP
With a surface hot enough to melt lead, Venus has been left alone by space agencies for a decade. Now we are about to learn more about its climate – and the chances of life on other planets
Afleet of robot spaceships is to descend on Venus in a few years and begin probing the most inhospitable world in the solar system. One craft will drop through the planet’s crushingly dense – and searingly hot – atmosphere while two others will orbit over the thick, acidic clouds that cover Venus and use sophisticated radar telescopes to survey the terrain beneath them.
Such scrutiny represents a remarkable renewal of interest in Earth’s nearest planetary neighbour. For more than a decade, American and European space agencies have ignored the planet – only for three new Venus missions to be announced within days of each other at the beginning of June.
Håkan Svedhem, former project manager for Europe’s previous probe to the planet, Venus Express, told the science journal Nature last week: “Venus has been a forgotten planet for too long.”
The aim of the new missions – Nasa’s Veritas and Davinci+ probes and Europe’s EnVision satellite – is straightforward. They want to know why Earth’s sibling planet is so utterly different from our own world.
As astronomers knew at the beginning of the “space age” in the 60s, both planets are the same size and have similar ages, compositions and orbits round the sun. Beneath the thick clouds of Venus, it was assumed there could be oceans or forests. And so a series of robot probes were sent by American and Soviet space agencies to uncover the truth in the 70s and 80s.
The ESA’s EnVision orbiter will map the surface from high above. Photograph: ESA/PA
They revealed a world that was a vision of hell. Venus was found to have a surface temperature of 475C, which is hot enough to melt lead. At the same time, the atmospheric pressure at its surface is 93 bars, the equivalent to that experienced a kilometre under the ocean on Earth. Soviet probes that landed on Venus in the 70s and 80s managed to transmit data from the planet for only brief periods – two hours was the best they managed – before the heat and crushing pressure destroyed them.
For good measure, Venus was also found to be covered in thick clouds of sulphuric acid. By contrast, our own world possesses oceans of liquid water, clouds and ice caps and supports myriad forms of living creatures in its seas, on land and in the skies. The differences between the two planet – despite their superficial similarities – could not be more stark.
And the key cause of these vastly different sets of conditions is explained by the vast amounts of carbon dioxide that have built up on Venus. This has trapped solar radiation and triggered a runaway greenhouse effect that exists on a scale that utterly dwarfs the impact of the climate crisis that is now disrupting weather patterns and melting ice caps on Earth.
How did this build up of carbon dioxide occur, scientists ask. Did Earth get lucky or was it the case that Venus was just unlucky? Is it the norm for planets in orbits like those of Venus and Earth to develop thick atmospheres of carbon dioxide which trap solar radiation and trigger runaway greenhouse effects – or was it just a one-off development in the case of Venus?
The surface of the planet is obscured by dense cloud cover. Photograph: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstadt/Heidi N. Becker/Koji Kuramura)/PA
“These are key questions and they have important ramifications, not just in understanding how life appeared and evolved on Earth,” said physicist Colin Wilson of Oxford University. “They also have implications for searching for habitable planets in orbit around other stars in our galaxy.”
At present, astronomers pin their hopes of finding promising planets that might support life elsewhere in the galaxy by seeking out small rocky worlds – like Earth – that orbit stars at a distance in which water is likely to exist in liquid form. However, to judge from the only other world in our solar system that is found in such a zone – Venus – that may not be such a promising locale, after all. In other words, if Earth is the exception and Venus the norm, we might find that such planets are far less encouraging as hosts for alien life.
This point was stressed by Giada Arney, deputy principal investigator for Nasa’s Davinci+ probe: “Our investigation of the evolution of Venus may help us better understand how habitable worlds are distributed elsewhere in the universe, and how habitable planets evolve over time in a general sense,” she said. However, it may be that Venus was simply in the wrong place. Being closer to the sun than the Earth – 67 million miles versus 93 million miles – made it slightly warmer when it formed during the solar system’s birth 4.5 billion years ago. As a result, the water vapour in its atmosphere never condensed into oceans as it did on Earth, where our seas played a key role in absorbing carbon dioxide and prevented runaway greenhouse heating.
Other evidence hints that Venus may have had liquid water on its surface at one time, and that some other event set off the rampant warming that now envelops the planet. The three new probes will try to uncover clues as what they might be. “Studying the planet’s surface will be crucial,” said Wilson. “The US Magellan probe – which arrived at Venus in 1989 – used radar to peer through the clouds and give us a wonderful global map of Venus, which revealed volcanoes and a fractured surface that had clearly gone through lots of turmoil. But it was just a snapshot.
“We don’t know if those volcanoes are still active, for example. The new space probes will take 21st-century radar technology and apply it to Venus and give us a much more dynamic picture of the planet.”
Nasa’s Davinci+ will descend into the atmosphere. Photograph: NASA GSFC visualization by CI Labs Michael Lentz and others
This point was backed by astronomer Professor Jane Greaves of Cardiff University. “Some instruments, such as radar and mass spectrometers, have already been used to study Venus in the past, but their technology today is so much better and more sophisticated. We will be able to probe deeper and identify molecules more easily.”
Both Nasa’s Veritas and the European Space Agency’s EnVision will be involved in mapping Venus’s surface from an orbit high above its acid clouds. By contrast, Davinci+ will carry a small probe to the planet that it will release so that it parachutes down through its atmosphere, sampling its component gases every 100 metres as it descends. These measurements will be crucial in understanding the origins of Venus’s atmosphere and provide clues about its evolution.
For example, by studying levels of deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen, it should be possible to determine how much water there once was on Venus, while analysis of noble gases – such as argon and neon – in the atmosphere may also allow scientists to determine if the planet once supported liquid water – data that will be crucial in providing clues about Venus’s path to the dark side.
“It is astounding how little we know about Venus,” said Tom Wagner, Nasa’s Discovery Program scientist.
“However, the combined results of these missions will tell us about the planet from the clouds in its sky through the volcanoes on its surface all the way down to its very core. It will be as if we have rediscovered the planet.”
146,000-Year-Old Archaic Human Cranium Represents New Species: Homo longi
Homo longi is phylogenetically closer to Homo sapiens than to Neanderthals or other archaic humans, according to new research described in The Innovation.
A reconstruction of Homo longi in his habitat. Image credit: Chuang Zhao.
A well-preserved ancient human fossil known as the Harbin cranium was reportedly discovered when a bridge was built over the Songhua River in Harbin City, the Heilongjiang province, China.
Because of its unsystematic recovery and the long time interval, information about the exact site and fossil layer was lost.
“The Harbin fossil is one of the most complete human cranial fossils in the world,” said Professor Qiang Ji, a paleontologist at Hebei GEO University.
“It preserved many morphological details that are critical for understanding the evolution of the Homo genus and the origin of Homo sapiens.”
The Harbin cranium is massive in size, larger than all other known-archaic humans. It is also relatively long and low and lacks the globularity of the modern human braincase.
It has larger, almost square eye sockets, thick brow ridges, a wide mouth, and oversized teeth.
Its endocranial capacity is estimated as 1,420 ml, falling in the range of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals, and larger than other Homo species such as Homo erectus, Homo naledi, Homo floresiensis, and even some Homo heidelbergensis/Homo rhodesiensis.
It is so distinctive that Professor Ji and colleagues have even suggested naming the cranium as a new species of Homo. They have called it Homo longi.
The species name is derived from the geographic name Long Jiang, which is a common usage for the Heilongjiang province and literally means ‘dragon river.’
Portrait of Homo longi. Image credit: Chuang Zhao.
“While it shows typical archaic human features, the Harbin cranium presents a mosaic combination of primitive and derived characters setting itself apart from all the other previously-named Homo species,” Professor Ji said.
“The Harbin cranium is huge, showing either the largest or second largest values for many measurements in our comparative fossil database, and its brain volume at 1,420 ml matches that of modern humans,” added Professor Chris Stringer, a paleoanthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London.
“It also shows other features resembling our species. It has flat and low cheekbones with a shallow canine fossa, and the face looks reduced and tucked under the braincase.”
The authors believe the Harbin cranium came from a 50-year-old male living in a forested, floodplain environment as part of a small community.
“Like Homo sapiens, they hunted mammals and birds, and gathered fruits and vegetables, and perhaps even caught fish,” said Professor Xijun Ni, a paleoanthropologist at Hebei GEO University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Using sophisticated geochemical analyses, including rare earth elements, strontium isotopic ratios and X-ray fluorescence, and direct Ur-series dating, the researchers dated the fossil to at least 146,000 years, placing it in the Middle Pleistocene, a dynamic era of human species migration.
They hypothesize that Homo longi and Homo sapiens could have encountered each other during this era.
“Although it is impossible to pin the cranium to an exact location with currently available technology, all the evidence suggests that it was from a bed of water-laid sediments aged between 138,000 and 309,000 years ago in the Harbin region,” said Dr. Junyi Ge, a geochemist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
“We are quite confident now that the fossil is older than 146,000 years,” added Dr. Qingfeng Shao, a geochemist at the Nanjing Normal University.
“We see multiple evolutionary lineages of Homo species and populations co-existing in Asia, Africa, and Europe during that time,” Professor Stringer said.
“So, if Homo sapiens indeed got to East Asia that early, they could have a chance to interact with Homo longi, and since we don’t know when the Harbin group disappeared, there could have been later encounters as well.”
The scientists also found that Homo longi is one of our closest hominin relatives, even more closely related to us than Neanderthals.
“It is widely believed that the Neanderthal belongs to an extinct lineage that is the closest relative of our own species,” Professor Ni said.
“However, our discovery suggests that the new lineage we identified that includes Homo longi is the actual sister group of Homo sapiens.”
The Harbin cranium throws new light on debates concerning the diversification of the Homo genus and the origin of Homo sapiens. Image credit: Ni et al., doi: 10.1016/j.xinn.2021.100130.
The team’s reconstruction of the human tree of life also suggests that the common ancestor we share with Neanderthals existed even further back in time.
“The divergence time between Homo sapiens and the Neanderthals may be even deeper in evolutionary history than generally believed, over one million years,” Professor Ni said.
“If true, we likely diverged from Neanderthals roughly 400,000 years earlier than scientists had thought.”
“It’s widely believed that Neanderthals form the sister group of the sapiens lineage,” Professor Stringer said.
“But our analyses suggest that the Harbin cranium and some other Middle Pleistocene human fossils from China form a third East Asian lineage, which is actually closer to sapiens than the Neanderthals are.”
“Thus, the excellent preservation of the Harbin cranium throws new light on the evolution of the genus Homo.”
“It’s estimated Middle Pleistocene age places it as an Asian contemporary of the evolving Homo sapiens, Homo neanderthalensis and Denisovan lineages.”
“It may even be a representative of the enigmatic Denisovans, but that is something for the next stages of research.”
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Xijun Ni et al. Massive cranium from Harbin in northeastern China establishes a new Middle Pleistocene human lineage. Innovation, published online June 25, 2021; doi: 10.1016/j.xinn.2021.100130
Qingfeng Shao et al. Geochemical provenancing and direct dating of the Harbin archaic human cranium. Innovation, published online June 25, 2021; doi: 10.1016/j.xinn.2021.100131
Qiang Ji et al. Late Middle Pleistocene Harbin cranium represents a new Homo species. Innovation, published online June 25, 2021; doi: 10.1016/j.xinn.2021.100132
The 2,100-year-old camp of Lomba do Mouro in Melgaço, Portugal, was used by around 10,000 Roman soldiers sent to conquer Northwest Iberia.
Covering more than 20 hectares, the site of Lomba do Mouro was discovered using remote sensing techniques.
“Written sources mention the army crossing different valleys, but until now we didn’t know exactly where,” said Dr. João Fonte, an archaeologist at the University of Exeter and a member of the Romanarmy.eu project.
“Because of the temporary nature of the site, it’s almost impossible to find without using remote sensing techniques, and radiocarbon dating wouldn’t have been accurate because plant roots creep into the structure.”
Dr. Fonte and colleagues analyzed a section of sediment from the foundations of the camp’s wall using optically stimulated luminescence dating technique.
This made it possible to date the last time the quartz crystals were exposed to sunlight and how long they were buried under the walls.
“We have found numerous military camps in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula in recent years, but their dating is very complex,” Dr. Fonte said.
“As they are temporary enclosures, there is very little material or organic evidence in them that would allow a scientifically valid dating to be obtained, until now.”
The Lomba do Mouro camp was constructed in the 2nd century BCE by Roman troops who were crossing the Laboreiro Mountain between the Lima and Minho rivers.
It was designed to be a temporary fortification, used for a day or weeks at a most in the warmer months, and was built quickly.
The camp is the oldest scientifically identified Roman camp to date in Galicia and northern Portugal.
“The dating of Lomba do Mouro places the site in a historical context known from classical sources: the growing pressure of Rome on Northwest Iberia and the first advance of its legions to subdue the territory of the Callaici,” the researchers said.
“From this context of confrontation, the best-known episode is the campaign carried out in 137 BCE by the Roman consul Decimus Junius Brutus, who entered Gallaecia with two legions, crossing the rivers Douro and Lima and reaching the Minho.”
“It was on the river Lima that classical sources narrate the legendary episode of the River of Oblivion.”
“The two absolute dates of the wall, together with the large dimensions of the enclosure, support the hypothesis that the camp may have been erected by a contingent linked to these times, although due to the degree of uncertainty of the dates it is difficult to establish a direct association with the episode of Decimus Junius Brutus.”
“Because of his success in the military campaign, Decimus Junius Brutus was known as Callaicus.”
Vale autonomous trucks have hauled 100Mt at Brucutu
Cecilia Jamasmie | July 2, 2021 | Autonomous off-road truck at Brutucu iron ore mine. (Image courtesy of Vale.)
Vale’s (NYSE: VALE) driverless trucks achieved a major milestone this week as they have moved 100 million tonnes of material since first introduced at the company’s Brucutu iron ore mine in 2016.
The amount of ore transported is equivalent to the weight of 35,000 major soccer stadiums like the Maracanã, in Rio de Janeiro.
In terms of distance travelled, the trucks have already covered 1.8 million km — or 46 laps around the Earth, Vale said.
Over the past five years autonomous trucks have not been involved in any accidents at the mine, the largest in Minas Gerais state and the company’s second biggest, behind Carajás.
Carbon emissions have been reduced due to lower fuel consumption and the mine’s productivity has increased, Vale said.
AUTONOMOUS HAUL TRUCKS WERE INTRODUCED AT BRUCUTU IN 2016, MAKING IT THE FIRST MINE IN BRAZIL WITH 100% AUTONOMOUS OPERATION BY 2018
With a capacity to transport 240 tonnes, the trucks are controlled by computer systems, GPS, radar and artificial intelligence, covering the route between the mining front and the unloading area.
In 2019, all 13 trucks circulating in Brucutu were already using the new technology, making it the first mine in Brazil with 100% autonomous operations.
Vale said fuel consumption of autonomous trucks is 11% lower than traditional vehicles, resulting in a reduction of 4,300 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.
The trucks favoured the maintenance of equipment. Tires had a 35% increase in their useful life – 10% points more than expected, Vale said. In addition to saving the company money, this number generates less waste disposal.
Drivers who used to stay in the cabin have been trained and relocated to other functions, mainly in control rooms, where they have air conditioning and no vibration or noise.
“There are many results and lessons learned to be celebrated with the current level of maturity of the autonomous mine,” Jefferson Corraide , executive manager of the Brucutu and Água Limpa complex said in the statement. “Certainly the most important advance provided by the implementation is the reduction of people’s exposure to risk.”
Autonomous drills
Vale is also investing in autonomous drills. There are currently 11 of them in operations in Minas Gerais and Pará. Another ongoing project is to automate yard machines, which has already been completed in Malaysia and is being implemented in four Brazilian states.
The miner aims to have 21 autonomous drills across Carajas, Brucutu and Itabira before the end of the year. It also wants to expand the fleet to 50 trucks by the end of 2024, with an investment estimated in $400 million. It also plans to put into permanent operation 10 autonomous trucks at its Carajás mine, the world’s largest iron ore open pit mine.
Malaysian news portal ordered to pay damages to Australian miner in defamation case Reuters | July 2, 2021 | Kuala Lumpur High Court. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Malaysia’s highest court on Friday ordered news portal Malaysiakini to pay 550,000 ringgit ($132,179.76) in damages for in a defamation case filed by a now-defunct Australian mining firm. The ruling comes amid concern among activists about freedom of expression in Malaysia and is the latest against Malaysiakini, an independent publication that has often attracted scrutiny from authorities.
Malaysiakini was sued in 2012 for publishing several articles and videos about residents’ concerns over pollution allegedly linked to Raub Australian Gold Mine Sdn Bhd’s gold mining operations in Malaysia. The company had said the articles were defamatory and malicious.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court in 2016 ruled in favour of Malaysiakini on the grounds of responsible journalism and reportage, but the decision was later overturned on appeal.
On Friday, the Federal Court upheld the appellate court’s decision in a 3-2 majority ruling, saying Malaysiakini had not been “fair, disinterested or adopted a neutral approach” in reporting the residents’ campaign against the mining activities.
The court found Malaysiakini had failed to take steps to verify assertions made in the articles.
“This is irresponsible rather than responsible journalism,” the court said in a copy of its judgment seen by Reuters.
Malaysiakini editor-in-chief Steven Gan expressed disappointment with the outcome and said the news portal had merely been carrying out its duties as journalists in reporting the residents’ health concerns.
Raub Australian Gold Mine could not be contacted for comment. Lawyers for the company did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. In February, Malaysiakini was fined 500,000 ringgit after the Federal Court found it in contempt over publishing readers’ comments about the judiciary, a ruling condemned by rights groups as a blow to press freedoms.
Conceptual image of randomly connected switches. (Alon Loeffler)
