Rescue workers aid in the aftermath of a three-train crash that killed 275 people and injured more than one thousand in India’s Odisha state on June 2, 2023.
Credit: National Disaster Response Force

On Friday, June 2, 2023, a high-speed passenger train collided with a parked freight train in Balasore in India‘s Odisha state. The resulting wreck was India’s worst rail accident in decades, killing at least 275 people and injuring over one thousand. After the passenger train hit the parked freight train, many carriages derailed. Those cars were then hit by another passenger train passing the wreckage. The accident has raised questions about the safety of India’s railways.

Nearly 2,200 people were aboard the two passenger trains involved in the crash. The Coromandel Express was traveling from Kolkata to Chennai at 80 miles (127 kilometers) per hour when it veered onto a loop instead of heading straight. The Coromandel Express hit a parked freight train at Bahanaga Bazar station near Balasore. The crash derailed several carriages, which landed on a parallel track. The Howrah Superfast Express was traveling from Yesvantpur to Howrah when it ran into the derailed carriages from the Coromandel Express.

Rescue workers searched for passengers and pulled injured people from the wreckage Friday night and Saturday. Many people were rushed to crowded hospitals nearby. On Saturday, they began repairing the train tracks and clearing the damaged carriages from the area. The train service resumed operation on Monday evening, allowing some family members to travel to the site to claim loved ones. As of Monday, only 170 of the deceased passengers had been identified.

Representatives from India’s Railway Board reported the trains were traveling at appropriate speeds, and a signaling error most likely caused the crash. Both passenger trains received a green signal, allowing them to proceed on the route. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the wreck scene and vowed a lengthy investigation and harsh punishment for anyone found guilty in the accident. Prime Minister Modi has worked on adding new trains to the network, including an innovative bullet train connecting Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

More than 20 million passengers ride India’s rail network every day. With more than 13,000 trains, the rail network is one of the largest in the world. Many people are blaming poor upkeep on older trains and infrastructure for the accident. While serious train accidents have declined in recent decades, some audits suggest that spending on safety measures has also decreased. Reports show that India used to record an average of 475 derailments a year. Today, India averages around 50 derailments a year. Until 2017, India recorded a minimum of 100 train-related deaths a year. While the numbers show a safety improvement, many trains still in operation do not have advanced safety technology to avoid disasters. The Indian government spent almost $30 billion on the rail network in the last calendar year. Critics suggest most of this allocated money has been used to improve speed and comfort, not general safety.

India’s deadliest train disaster occurred on June 6, 1981, almost 42 years ago exactly. On that day, an overcrowded passenger train plunged into the Bagmati River while crossing a bridge in Bihar state. The accident killed an estimated 800 people. However, the investigation never determined the cause of the accident or the final death count.

July 15, 2019

Food fads come and go every year, but for most Americans, meat always has a starring role on the dinner plate. Our meat habit has a cost, however: it can harm both our health and the environment. Cutting back on meat consumption, or cutting meat out completely, goes a long way toward helping the environment and our bodies—as well as the animals butchered for meat. Searching for meat alternatives, several food industry startups are offering new forms of meat and meat substitutes that are redefining meat as we know it—and they may change forever the way we produce and consume food. Lab-grown meat or plant-based substitutes are now often indistinguishable from the flesh of animals, and the future of meat may be one that does not involve animals at all.

New lab-grown and plant-based meats offer alternatives to traditional meats such as the beef used to make this hamburger. Credit: © Brent Hofacker, Shutterstock

Most nutritionists consider meat to be an important component of a well-balanced diet. Meat supplies vitamins, minerals, and fats necessary for good health and growth. Meat also provides an especially good source of protein. However, meat is not universal in the American diet. Many vegetarians avoid eating meat because they believe it is wrong to kill animals for food or they consider meat to be unhealthy. Many vegetarians, however, will consume such animal products as cheese and eggs. Vegans, on the other hand, eat an entirely plant-based diet and avoid all foods derived from animals, including honey and milk.

In the United States, per capita (per person) meat consumption has grown steadily to about 95 pounds (43 kilograms) per year—more than double the amount consumed in 1960. Each year, the United States raises more than 30 million beef cattle, 73 million hogs, and a staggering 9 billion chickens. The feeding, housing, transportation, and processing of these animals into food is a global industry consuming enormous amounts of energy resources and creating vast amounts of pollution. The meat industry is also one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.

Lab-grown or cell-cultured meats may soon rival traditional meats in U.S. supermarkets. Credit: © Tony Hertz, Alamy Images

Food companies have created a variety of meat substitutes over the years, from veggie hot dogs and bacon to tofurkey (tofu turkey). MorningStar Farms, owned by food industry giant Kellogg, has been producing meat substitutes since 1975. Many people consider such plant-based products to be a healthier alternative to meat, especially such red meats as beef, pork, and lamb. In general, red meats have more saturated fat, which can raise blood cholesterol and contribute to heart disease. Medical research has shown that higher meat consumption is linked to a greater incidence of certain cancers. Until now, most meat substitutes have had limited appeal. Made with products like TVP (textured vegetable protein), a by-product of soybean oil production, these products are often found to be dry and lack the look, juicy texture, and taste of meat.

Meat substitutes have long included such products as tofu, a food made of soybean curds pressed into cakes or blocks. Credit: © Shutterstock

Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, however, are food industry startups with new vegan-friendly products that are virtually indistinguishable from traditional meat. Beyond Meat makes its substitute beef using pea protein isolate, coconut oil, and canola oil in a ratio that mimics the fat and protein content of ground beef. Impossible Foods uses soy and potato protein, sunflower seed oil, and coconut oil. Other ingredients include water, salt, and methylcellulose, a substance derived from plant fiber that is widely used in the food industry as a thickener and emulsifier. (An emulsifier bind liquids in an emulsion, a mixture of liquids that do not dissolve in each other.) Beyond Meat uses natural coloring agents derived from beets to provide the juicy appearance of a rare-cooked burger. Impossible Foods uses genetically modified yeast to make soy leghemoglobin (also called a heme), a molecule identical to the blood-red pigment in meat, to provide an appetizing color, meaty flavor, and a juicy sizzle.

Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods hamburger substitutes have modestly better nutritional profiles compared to beef burgers. Both meatless products have fewer calories, slightly less fat, and similar amounts of high-quality protein. The meatless burgers also provide a modest amount of dietary fiber. Beyond and Impossible emphasize the benefits of their products for health, animal welfare, and combatting climate change. However, should we assume that such ultra-processed foods are always better?

In 2019, government health agencies in Europe and the United States released reports that linked higher consumption of ultra-processed foods to an increase in rates of obesity and cardiovascular disease. Such processed foods, including canned foods and most snacks, are made with highly refined ingredients and many additives to improve flavor, texture, and shelf life. Impossible and Beyond burgers are made from an extruded paste of mechanically extracted proteins mixed with vegetable and seed oils, spices, and other ingredients to add flavor and provide meat-like texture. Each lists at least 20 ingredients. Some health experts also worry that they may include several potential allergens that could cause problems for sensitive individuals, although there have not yet been any reported issues.

There is also a certain suspicion that tends to surround mass-produced food substitutes meant to replaced cherished favorites. While meat has a complex composition and structure—made up of amino acids (the building blocks of protein), fats, minerals, vitamins, and water all woven together—it is usually considered a single ingredient—a whole food that is proven safe to eat. Companies producing plant-based meat substitutes are not immune from being labeled “Frankenfoods” by advocacy groups if their production processes are too complex or secretive.

In 2018, the American hamburger chain Burger King began selling an Impossible version of their trademark “Whopper” hamburger in several Midwest cities on a trial basis. The chain has plans to make the sandwich available nationally by the end of 2019. Burger King will do a plant-based burger for European locations, too–but it cannot use Impossible burgers there because of the use of genetically modified yeast. In 2018, the European Court ruled that gene-edited crops are subject to the same strict regulations Europe has for genetically modified organisms (GMOs). European real food advocacy groups worry that products like the Impossible burger will increase public acceptance of genetically engineered food and highly-processed food over whole foods grown by farmers.

A food researcher tastes a hamburger patty made from meat grown in a laboratory. The patty was formed from protein strands grown by cattle cells cultured in a laboratory, rather than by slaughtering and butchering a cow. Credit: © Toby Melville, Reuters/Landov

As plant-based meat substitutes gain in popularity, some food industry experts believe that the future of meat is in cell cultures. In 2013, scientists in the Netherlands took cells from a cow and produced muscle fibers in a laboratory—the first lab-grown meat. That summer, they revealed their work to the world in a news conference. As the press looked on, a chef prepared the laboratory product into a hamburger. Today, proponents of lab-grown meat say the technology has the potential to produce real beef, pork, chicken, and fish grown from a small cell sample, eliminating the need for farms, feedlots, slaughterhouses, or even animals. Some animal-welfare groups favor this “cellular agriculture” because it diminishes the need to kill animals to provide food for human beings. They see cellular agriculture as a way to establish a more humane world without livestock farms and slaughterhouses.

New Harvest, a company headquartered in New York City, holds an annual conference on advancements in cellular agriculture. Connecting scientists and businesses, New Harvest helps to establish companies that produce cell-cultured food. The laboratory process reduces land and water costs and produces a fraction of the greenhouse gas emissions compared with factory farms. Companies in the United States and Europe are already producing cell-cultured foods. One of them is Muufri, which produces animal-free milk. Another is Memphis Meats, which introduced cellular-grown meatballs in 2016.

But will people eat a hamburger that was grown in a lab? Public perception is just one challenge facing lab-grown meat. To overcome the many challenges, cultured meat proponents are upfront and transparent about the technology and the manufacturing processes involved, emphasizing the many positive environmental and ethical benefits.

Another challenge involves how these products are overseen within the heavily regulated food industry. In 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finalized an agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to establish regulatory jurisdiction over the production of meat that does not involve animals. Under the plan, the FDA will oversee the collection and growth of cultured cells. The USDA will regulate the processing of those cells into meat and determine how the products will be labeled.

Before cell-cultured meats hit supermarkets, a range of other questions still remain to be answered. What sort of products will be available, exactly how healthy will they be, and what will they cost? Perhaps the most important question is: How will they taste?

February 19, 2018

For many people, interacting with computers is an important part of daily life. Each time you send a text message, play a video game, or search for cat pictures online—even as you read these words—you are interacting with a computer. It is through computer languages, also called programming languages, that people communicate with computers. When programmers want computers to operate in a specific way, they write detailed sets of instructions in a computer language. Like other languages, computer languages include sets of symbols organized through grammar and other rules. Unlike other languages, a computer language is not meant for direct conversation between humans. And no one—yet—has grown up speaking a computer language.

Computer programmers use detailed sets of instructions known as computer languages. Credit: © Shutterstock

In most computers, information is encoded in bits. Each bit consists of a binary digit: 1 or 0. Computer chips simulate bits with billions of tiny electronic switches called transistors. A transistor can either switch on, for 1, or off, for 0. A string of bits provides an instruction for the computer. Machine language, the most basic computer language, allows direct communication with a computer through patterns of 1’s and 0’s.

Machine language is a low-level computer language. A high-level computer language is closer to human language, and has a higher level of abstraction (separation) from computer hardware. After a programmer writes instructions in a high-level language, a program called a compiler translates them into a low-level language for a particular computer to understand. Programmers can use high-level languages to design a program for a particular job or task, rather than for a particular computer. Most programs today are written in high-level languages.

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A web page is a computer file represented by a specific electronic address on the Internet. Such files can be created using a presentation language called HTML. Credit: WORLD BOOK photo

In 1945, German engineer Konrad Zuse developed the first high-level computer language, called Plankalkül (Plan Calculus), to be used with programmable electromechanic computers. Since then, many different computer languages have been developed for different purposes and for use on different kinds of machines.

Today, computer programmers use a wide variety of languages. The language HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is used to format web pages, ensuring that a website’s words and images are displayed properly to visitors. Java is the standard language for developing smartphone apps. Python, named after the British television comedy “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” is a flexible language used for many purposes, including website development and artificial intelligence programming. C Language is used to develop operating systems.

Quantum computers, a developing technology, use quantum physics to calculate information faster than classical computers. Rather than using simple bits, a quantum computer language uses quantum bits or qubits. A qubit can store more information than just a 1 or a 0. Its value can also be somewhere in between 1 and 0. This allows the computer to perform a massive number of computations at the same time. A true quantum computer has not yet been created, but engineers around the world are racing to complete the first models. Quantum computer languages, on the other hand, have already been developed in anticipation of “speaking” with these extraordinary machines.

July 27, 2017

In the 1940’s, people connected wires, punched cards, and flipped switches to give instructions to early computers. Over time, the command line interface (CLI) was developed, allowing users to instruct a computer simply by typing text commands. By the mid-1980’s, CLI was replaced by the graphical user interface (GUI), a visually intuitive interface that is still in popular use today. Through GUI, users interact with windows and icons to command a computer. People around the world use GUI by pressing keys, clicking on computer mice, speaking words, and swiping screens.

A soldier tests brain-computer interface (BCI) technology for the U.S. Army. Credit: U.S. Army

Today, a new interface looms on the horizon: brain-computer interface (BCI) (sometimes called brain-machine interface, or BMI). BCI technology creates a pathway from the user’s brain to a computer or other device, allowing direct thought communication. Brainwaves are recorded through electrodes (strips of metal that conduct electricity) attached to a person’s scalp or implanted in the brain. BCI technology has been in development since the end of the 1960′s, when the idea of using only one’s mind to control a device was barely more than fantasy. Progress was slow, but today that fantasy is at last becoming reality.

BCI allows users to command devices without using their hands or voices. Some people who suffer from paralysis or other immobility-inducing conditions have already benefited from BCI technology. These individuals have gained the ability to move and control external devices using only their minds, which allows them a greater degree of independence. In February 2017, physiatrists (physical medicine and rehabilitation physicians) from the Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia, announced the development of a BCI device for controlling movement in a prosthetic knee. A simple prosthetic knee normally requires manual unlocking to bend, but this device allows the patient to bend the prosthesis using only the mind.

In March 2017, a team of biomedical researchers in Cleveland, Ohio, successfully restored limited arm movement to a quadriplegic man by implanting tiny electrodes directly onto his motor cortex, a region of the brain that controls muscle movement. These electrodes connected to a device affixed to the man’s arm. After some training and practice, he was able to move his shoulder, elbow, wrist, and fingers. BCI technology is also being developed to allow individuals with locked-in syndrome to communicate with the outside world. Locked-in syndrome is characterized by the complete paralysis of voluntary muscles, except in some cases for the muscles that control eye movement.

Medical BCI milestones caught the attention of people in California’s Silicon Valley, and leading technology companies are exploring BCI’s potential for commercial use. In April, Facebook executives announced a project to create a wearable BCI device that would allow the wearer to compose words directly from the brain. CEO Mark Zuckerberg expects BCI “typing” to be up to five times faster than manual finger typing.

In March 2017, South Africa-born entrepreneur Elon Musk announced the establishment of Neuralink, a new BCI development company. The initial goal of Neuralink is to improve the lives of immobile and brain-damaged patients through the development of brain implants. Musk added, however, that the ultimate goal of the company is for BCI to improve human cognition—a goal meant to keep humanity from becoming obsolete in the face of ever-advancing artificial intelligence.

Elon Musk founded Neuralink, a BCI development company, in March 2017. Credit: NASA

A related start-up company called Kernel (founded by U.S. entrepreneur Bryan Johnson) aims to create cutting-edge BCI devices. Kernel is currently focused on improving knowledge of the human brain in hopes of augmenting it in the coming decades. Kernel and Neuralink have the same end goal: to allow humanity to compete with advanced machines by merging biological and digital intelligence and application.

Some people question the necessity of advanced BCI technology, and others dismiss such neural ambitions as science fiction. But many people predict that—in the not-too-distant future—artificial intelligence will surpass that of humans, much as human intelligence surpassed that of other animals. Musk envisions a future in which people use BCI technology to connect quickly to databases, servers, and even to one another, somewhat leveling the competition with artificial super-intelligence.

Neuroscientists disagree on how soon people can expect to be able to type directly from their brains or use telepathic devices to communicate with one another. Many do agree, however, that it is no longer a matter of if, but when humanity’s next evolutionary stage will come to fruition. Years in the future, we may look back at 2017 as a turning point in the evolution of brain-computer interface.

March 3, 2017

In Madagascar, a new technology will help keep track of the east African island’s famous long-tailed, furry inhabitants (and cute human cousins): lemurs. To help identify and study the endangered animals, a team of lemur experts and computer scientists has developed a lemur facial recognition system. The biometric system, called LemurFaceID, uses computers to analyze photographs and video much like other systems that identify people. LemurFaceID differentiates the animals according to their eyes and skin patterns, while also noting body size or shape and the presence of scars or injuries.

LemurFaceID can tell this handsome lemur apart from the other lemurs in its jungle neighborhood. Credit: © Shutterstock

Scientists classify lemurs, along with human beings, apes, and monkeys, as primates. Lemurs live only in Madagascar and Comoros, a small island group between Madagascar and the African mainland. Because of hunting and habitat loss, the animals are critically endangered. Tracking lemurs in the wild helps scientists learn more about the animals’ habits and life cycles. Scientists can then develop fine-tuned conservation strategies to protect the animals. Identifying lemurs in the wild also helps people spot animals illegally captured to be sold as pets.

A zookeeper feeds ring-tailed lemurs at the Nyíregyháza Zoo in Hungary. Ring-tailed lemurs are threatened by hunting and habitat destruction in their native Madagascar. Credit: © Attila Kisbenedek, AFP/Getty Images

Anil Jain, a computer science and engineering professor at Michigan State University, developed LemurFaceID with the help of a team of scientists and graduate students. The team fed hundreds of images of wild lemurs into the system, which correctly identified individuals 98.7 percent of the time. Jain and his team published the results of their lemur facial recognition study last month in the journal BioMed Central Zoology.

Once applied, LemurFaceID will use automated cameras to photograph lemurs in their natural habitats. Use of the facial recognition system will cut down drastically on the cost, time, and effort of tracking lemurs in the wild. Previous tracking largely relied on researchers trapping and individually tagging each animal—a tried-and-true method, but quite costly and time consuming, and distressing for the lemurs as well. With LemurFaceID, the animals will only have to “say cheese” for the camera and then scamper on their way. Researchers can then keep track of the animals simply by turning on their computers (and maintaining the cameras, of course).

After LemurFaceID proves itself in the wild, the technology may be adjusted for the study of other animals, particularly those with variable facial hair and skin patterns such as bears, raccoons, red pandas, and sloths.