Ecology

The longest artificial canals in the world, from China to Egypt: here's where they are located

The longest artificial canals in the world, from China to Egypt: here’s where they are located

Artificial canals have always facilitated interchanges, and above all trade, between countries, connecting seas, rivers, lakes and reducing transport times and costs. Emblematic examples are the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal, which have revolutionized global shipping routes. When not used for maritime transport, these mega works have arrived where nature couldn’tmaking arid lands cultivable. Some canals have very ancient ...

How many children in Italy live in disadvantaged conditions?

How many children in Italy live in disadvantaged conditions?

In Italy more than one in 4 minors lives in disadvantaged conditions (26.7%), of which almost half live in South or in Islands (43.6%). And if they live in a single-income family, the risk of poverty or social exclusion is about three times higher than that of families with more than one income. With these figures, Italy shows worse percentages ...

What is agentic AI, the technology that allows machines to make autonomous decisions

What is agentic AI, the technology that allows machines to make autonomous decisions

THE’Agentic AI represents one of the most interesting and discussed developments in the artificial intelligence sector. This technology, in fact, introduces the possibility for AI systems to make autonomous decisions and carry out complex objectives with minimal human supervision. If generative artificial intelligence models – such as those that write texts (e.g. OpenAI’s ChatGPT) and produce images (e.g. Google’s Nano ...

The polyurethane swimsuits (banned) that revolutionized swimming in two years: the era of "impossible" records

The polyurethane swimsuits (banned) that revolutionized swimming in two years: the era of “impossible” records

Perhaps not everyone knows that there have been polyurethane swimsuits for competitive swimming LZR Racerwhich they were bandits because they broke so many records that they were eventually considered “technological doping”. The story begins at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The audience holds their breath, the swimmers are on the starting blocks, the race starts… and the scoreboard lights up: new ...

How the photocopier works, the invention that revolutionized offices around the world

How the photocopier works, the invention that revolutionized offices around the world

When you press the “Start” button on a copier, something surprisingly complex happens within seconds. Inside the machine, a physical and chemical process is activated based on the interaction between light, electric charges and matter: the xerographyinvention of 1938 Of Chester Carlsonwhich revolutionized the way documents are reproduced. In simple terms, a photocopier creates a perfect copy of an image ...

112-million-year-old amber discovered with a fossilized spiderweb inside: what it reveals

112-million-year-old amber discovered with a fossilized spiderweb inside: what it reveals

Rest of insect found in Ecuador in a fragment of amber from 112 million years ago. In Ecuador A deposit of fossil resins (amber) dating back to around 112 million years agoin the midst of the dinosaur era, containing insectstraces of plant and even one intact cobweb. It is the first deposit containing remains of arthropod species and pollen found ...

California High-Speed ​​Rail is the first high-speed rail network in the United States

California High-Speed ​​Rail is the first high-speed rail network in the United States

California High–Speed ​​Rail. Credit: Dllu, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons There California High-Speed ​​Rail is an ambitious infrastructure project, consisting of the construction of first high-speed rail network in the USA. An ambitious project, full of engineering challenges, and which, like any mega project, has been the subject of much criticism. Let’s look at it more closely. The California ...

Because many Italian works of art are exhibited abroad

Because many Italian works of art are exhibited abroad

Paolo Veronese, Wedding at Cana; via Wikimedia Commons Traveling in Europe and around the world, especially in the United States, it is possible to appreciate many Italian works in non-Italian museums: it is the result of wars, raids, political agreements or illicit trafficking. Walking through the Prado, in Madrid, you will find works by Botticelli, Mantegna and Beato Angelico; at ...

Why the water of some fountains smells of sulfur: the scientific explanation

Why the water of some fountains smells of sulfur: the scientific explanation

Sometimes it can happen, especially in a small town or in spa areasto approach a water fountain and feel the typical “rotten egg” smell. That smell, pungent and generally unpleasant, is not the result of poor maintenance, but of a real natural phenomenon: the presence of sulfur compounds, that is, sulphur-based, dissolved in water. In particular, the main person responsible ...

How AI detectors work and how to best use them: what is an AI text detector

How AI detectors work and how to best use them: what is an AI text detector

The “AI text detector”, or AI-generated text detectors, are software that analyzes the style, structure and words used to estimate the chance that a text was written by aartificial intelligence. The problem, however, is that AI is also improving quickly. Tools like ChatGPT are now capable of writing in a natural and realistic way, so much so that distinguishing between ...