Month: February 2018

Enlarge / Google Clips (credit: Google)

Today, Google began selling Clips, a smart camera that was announced in October of 2017. The camera can be purchased from Google's online store—as well as numerous online retailers—for $249.

Clips is an AI-powered camera that can automatically take pictures when it observes things it deems interesting within its 130-degree field of vision. It runs algorithms to detect people, smiles, and other triggers, and Clips learns over time what you consider most interesting. For example, when your child smiles within its view, Clips might automatically snap an image—or rather, multiple images.

The camera captures a series of images at a rate up to 15 per second and turns them into something that reads a bit like an animated GIF. You can extract individual frames from those images if you prefer still photos. You can also use your phone to take pictures manually, and you can either place your phone in a static location or wear it like a Go Pro.

Enlarge (credit: PNAS)

Three thousand years ago, dense old-growth rainforests covered most of central Africa. But around 2,600 years ago, an event that ecologists call the Late Holocene Rainforest Crisis occurred, and the forests suddenly gave way to savannas dotted with islands of trees. Six hundred years later, the forests grew back almost as swiftly as they had vanished.

But for the last 20 years, paleoecologists have debated what caused the Rainforest Crisis. Most thought that the region’s climate changed, bringing either less annual rain or a longer dry season with a short but intense monsoon. That climate shift, many paleoecologists argue, devastated the rainforests of central Africa but created perfect conditions for savannas. But a new study proposes that humans may actually have been the culprits.

A question of timing

Around the time of the Rainforest Crisis, farmers from northern Africa started migrating southward, bringing with them an advanced culture of pearl-millet cultivation, ironworking, and palm-oil harvesting, all of which take a toll on the landscape. Those northern farmers spoke Bantu languages, which are still spoken by about 300 million people in Africa today.