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Software for monitoring toxic fuel oil vapors
The biggest AI deal will change the world of technology
Neural network will determine the place of human origin by his immunity
Cancer cells poison the immune system with tainted mitochondria
Scientists have reconstructed the last day of Pompeii minute by minute
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American scientists using microphotography have found that cancer cells are able to fill immune cells with malfunctioning mitochondria, which prevents the body from fighting the disease. Researchers from Italy minute by minute restored the chronology of the eruption of the volcano Vesuvius. It turned out that the catastrophe in ancient Pompeii lasted 32, not 19 hours, as previously thought. Specialists from Lobachevsky University have taught artificial intelligence to determine the region of origin of a person by the features of his immunity. Read about these and other developments in Izvestia's weekly selection.

Software for monitoring toxic fuel oil vapors

Specialists of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) have created a digital system for forecasting the spread of atmospheric air pollution, which is primarily designed to monitor harmful fuel oil vapors in the disaster zone near the coast of the Black and Azov Seas. This is a computer program that simulates the movement of air masses and is capable of predicting the situation three days ahead. It is developed for the needs of the services that deal with the consequences of the accident.

Photo: Izvestia/Pavel Volkov

- As with any fraction of petroleum products, fuel oil releases hydrocarbons, sulfur compounds and nitrogen compounds. This can be dangerous for people and animals. MIPT has prepared a proposal to control air and water pollution. We drew them up with the support of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives and submitted them to the Ministry of Education and Science. Now we are waiting for approval, when we will be able to start this work on site, - said the head of the laboratory of applied infrared spectroscopy MIPT Alexander Rodin.

For volunteers who work with the localization of the fuel oil spill, inhalation of vapors is dangerous because it can exacerbate their existing respiratory system diseases, said Stanislav Ottavnov, head of the laboratory of analysis of health indicators of the MIPT.

The biggest AI deal will change the world of technology

US President Donald Trump on January 21 announced the creation of Stargate, a company that will invest up to $500 billion in artificial intelligence (AI) as part of a new partnership with OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank. According to the US leader, Stargate will build physical and virtual infrastructure to support the next generation of AI. Trump said it is the largest artificial intelligence infrastructure project in history.

Photo: Global Look Press/Cfoto

The purpose of creating Stargate (from English - "Stargate") is the US desire to monopolize the market of AI services, experts believe. If the project is realized in the declared scope, it is not entirely clear whether Trump and his team will be able to control their brainchild.

- A super AI like Skynet (a fictional US supercomputer based on a combat AI from the "Terminator" movie series, which gained free will.- "Izvestia"), no matter how paradoxical it sounds," Kirill Semion, Director General of ANO "National Competence Center for Information Systems Management Holding" told Izvestia.

The leading partners of Stargate are SoftBank, which bears financial responsibility, and OpenAI, which bears operational responsibility. Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank, became the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the new company. Other participants include Microsoft, Oracle, NVIDIA and Arm. As technology partners, the companies will collaborate and develop a computing system for the AI project.

Neural network will determine the place of human origin by his immunity

Specialists from the Lobachevsky National Research University and the Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University (NEFU) have developed a neural network that calculates a person's region of origin with an accuracy of up to 95% based on his or her immune system.

Mikhail Ivanchenko, Chief Researcher at the Research Center for Artificial Intelligence of the ITMM Institute of Lobachevsky University

Photo: vk.com/lobachevsky_university

To train the AI, they used information about the state of the immune system of the population of the Far North and the central part of our country. The invention can be used to determine the aging rate of the indigenous population of Russian regions and provide personalized recommendations for a healthy lifestyle.

The system is based on the concept of inflammatory aging, which is related to the peculiarities of the human immune system.

- Normally, the immune system regularly cleans the body of viruses, pathogens and cellular debris, but with age, such "cleaning" is required more often, and the level of basic inflammation increases. We see this in the number of cytokines - the proteins that control immunity. Each is responsible for a different group of diseases. These indicators can differ significantly between residents of Yakutsk and Nizhny Novgorod," said Mikhail Ivanchenko, chief researcher at the Artificial Intelligence Research Center of the Institute of Information Technology, Mathematics and Mechanics at Lobachevsky University.

Cancer cells poison the immune system with tainted mitochondria

American immunologists have discovered that cancer cells "poison" the immune system with "spoiled" mitochondria. As a result of the fact that these organelles from tumors get into immune cells, the latter lose the ability to fight the disease. Scientists found this out using microphotography, which also showed that mitochondria are able to migrate between human cells. Although it was previously thought that this was only possible in animals.

Photo: Izvestia/Zurab Javakhadze

- My first thought was that this sounds crazy, like science fiction. But it looks like they have the data to make it happen. This is potentially brand new biology that we haven't studied," said immunologist Holden Maker.

Further research is needed to understand the frequency of this phenomenon and what it provides to cancer cells, the scientist added.

Scientists have reconstructed the last day of Pompeii minute by minute

Italian scientists have calculated the minute-by-minute chronology of the eruption of the Vesuvius volcano, which occurred in 79 AD and led to the disappearance of ancient Pompeii. The study showed that the catastrophe lasted 32 hours, not 19 as previously thought. It produced 17 pyroclastic flows - a high-temperature mixture of volcanic gases, ash and rock fragments.

Photo: AP Photo/Andrew Medichini

The new time scale was made thanks to the study of volcanic deposits and comparing them with the evidence of an eyewitness to the ancient catastrophe Pliny the Younger, who observed the eruption from the other end of the Gulf of Naples almost 2 thousand years ago. Scientists have mapped the distribution of flows with unprecedented detail, which allowed to recreate the process of destruction of Pompeii minute by minute.

According to scientists, the eruption of Vesuvius is not just a sad story from antiquity. The volcano remains one of the most dangerous in the world, towering just 9 kilometers from Naples with a population of more than 3 million people. Specialists believe that the results of the new study are important to prepare for potential emergencies.

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