AI wins another Nobel, this time in Chemistry: Google DeepMinders Hassabis and Jumper awarded for AlphaFold

“A trio of scientists consisting of Demis Hassabis, co-founder and CEO of Google’s AI division DeepMind, as well as John Jumper, Senior Research Scientist at Google DeepMind and David Baker of the University of Washington have been awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their groundbreaking work in predicting and developing new proteins. The DeepMinders won for AlphaFold 2, an AI system launched in 2020 capable of predicting the 3D structure of proteins from their amino acid sequences. Meanwhile, Baker won for leading a laboratory where the 20 amino acids that form proteins were used to design new ones, including proteins for ‘pharmaceuticals, vaccines, nanomaterials and tiny sensors,’ according to the Nobel committee’s announcement.” (VentureBeat)

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The now-demolished Agbogbloshie Scrapyard in Accra, Ghana, once received about 15,000 tons of electronic waste each year, making it one of the largest e-waste processing sites in Africa. Ghana has become a major dumping ground for the world’s electronic waste. Thousands of workers, many of them young climate migrants from Ghana’s impoverished Upper East region, make a precarious living by salvaging valuable metals from this e-waste, often exposing themselves to toxic chemicals and hazardous conditions while earning around $60 per week. While this informal recycling economy provides crucial income for many families, it comes with severe environmental and health consequences as toxic materials leach into soil and water, forcing some communities to relocate due to poisonous fumes from burning electronics. (via NPR)

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