Some beluga whales appear to recognize themselves in a mirror, per a case study of captive whales which may provide the first evidence of mirror self-recognition in the species

Researchers have uncovered a remarkable fossil site in a remote part of Canada’s Northwest Territories, offering unprecedented insight into the earliest evolution of complex animal life on Earth. Findings from the site represent life from the Ediacaran biota—soft-bodied organisms that lived on the seafloor more than 500 million years ago—and push back the origins of animal movement and sexual reproduction by 5-10 million years.

From the highest mountains to the deepest ocean, the driest desert to the lushest jungle, Earth displays a dazzling array of lifeforms. And eukaryotes account for many of these lifeforms, including nearly all of the multicellular life we can see in the landscape. But scientists are still piecing together exactly how this domain of life evolved from simpler predecessors.

A new study published in Big Earth Data systematically evaluates popular Uncertainty Quantification (UQ) methods and metrics for AI/ML-based geospatial applications, addressing challenges of predictive uncertainty, trustworthiness, and real-time integration in complex Earth system modelling. Using a PM2.5 calibration case study, it demonstrates that Deep Ensembles and Bayesian Neural Networks implemented in TensorFlow achieved the best reliability and calibration performance, while also highlighting framework-specific differences between TensorFlow and PyTorch in geospatial UQ applications.

Scientists have uncovered new evidence that Earth’s continents are continuously reworked deep beneath the surface, offering fresh insight into how continents have evolved over billions of years.