Scientists have used artificial intelligence to decode text on papyrus that was rolled and charred 2,000 years ago. So AI now looks back as well as forward. Three young scientists have won the grand prize in the Vesuvius Challenge for deciphering passages on a previously unreadable Herculaneum scroll. More than a thousand scrolls were buried and covered in volcanic debris when Mount Vesuvius erupted about 2,000 years ago. They were in a library at a Roman villa in the ancient city of Herculaneum and discovered in the 1800s by a local farmer. Many people have tried to read the ancient papyrus scrolls since then, but most attempts have destroyed the documents, which were left underground rolled, carbonized and fragile, for centuries. The winners — Youssef Nader, Luke Farritor and Julian Schilliger — overcame this challenge by managing to read four passages without ever unrolling the scrolls.   Winning the Vesuvius Challenge They used machine learning, a form of artificial intelligence, to read the ancient Greek text. Nadery, Farritor and Schillinger independently contributed to the Vesuvius scrolls community and now share the grand prize of $700,000 (€650,000). The object was to decipher four passages of text, each of at least 140 characters, with at least 85% of characters "recoverable" — or readable. Their work has revealed what are believed to be unknown texts by Philodemus, the villa's so-called philosopher-in-residence. In the text, Philodemus writes about living a good life through the pleasures of beauty, music and food. Researchers say this and future discoveries in the texts will give them a "unique window into the classical world."   How scientists used AI to read a Herculaneum scroll The scrolls were digitally "unwrapped" using computed tomography (CT) — or X-ray photos — and machine-learning technology. First, in late 2023, the prize organizers had the scrolls imaged at the Diamond Light Source particle accelerator near Oxford in the UK. That produced high-resolution CT scans of scrolls. The scans were then turned into a 3D volume of voxels. Voxels are 3D pixels, similar to the building blocks used in the video game Minecraft. The second step is known as segmentation. They traced crumpled layers of the rolled papyrus in the 3D scan. That allowed them to unroll, or flatten, the images. And the third step was detecting ink on papyrus. They used machine learning to identify regions of ink in the flattened segments of the papyrus. But this is where it gets very clever. The machine-learning model was not trained to spot ancient Greek letters, optical character recognition (OCR), or any other language models. Instead, it simply detected spots of ink in the CT scan and then combined and reconstructed each individual spot — and where letters appeared, that's where there was writing.   Decades of work coming to fruition One of the prize organizers, Brent Seales of the University of Kentucky, had been working on deciphering the Herculaneum scrolls for decades. Seales was the first to use CT scans but found that it was difficult to detect the ink because it had a density similar to the papyrus on which it was written. But developments gained speed when Seales, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Nat Friedman and engineer Daniel Gross launched the competition in March 2023. A breakthrough came within a few months. A former physicist, Casey Handmer, noticed a cracked texture in the text and called it crackle. Co-winner Farritor, an undergraduate student and SpaceX intern, used Handmer's observation to train a machine-learning model and deciphered the first entire ancient Greek word: ΠΟΡΦΥΡΑϹ, which means purple. By October, Nader, an Egyptian PhD student in Berlin, was able to read a few columns of text. Schillinger, a Swiss robotics student, who had previously won three prizes for segmentation, enabled the 3D-mapping of the papyrus scrolls. And there is more to come in 2024. The next Vesuvius Challenge is to read an entire work or scroll by the end of the year.

Australian researchers have developed a drone capable of measuring a person's breathing and heart rate from 60 meters away. Reports Xinhua. The team from the University of South Australia (UniSA), led by sensor systems and engineering expert Javaan Chahl, created the drones in conjunction with the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to be deployed during humanitarian crises.  Chahl said that the drone is able to measure a subject's heart beat by using a camera to sense the top a person's head pulsing by approximately one millimeter with each beat.  "Basically in a disaster, unfortunately you have to prioritize who's living, who's dead and perhaps who's dying, and this might allow a drone to map a scene and establish the general condition of people," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Thursday.  Despite the good intentions of the device, Chahl acknowledged that it could be used for darker uses- including spying or weaponization.  "If we can start doing these things, so can somebody who has a bad agenda," Chahl said.  "The same software could do facial recognition, measure their heart rate after climbing up some stairs in the subway, and you could do that for 1 lakh people a day,” he added. Developing drones for humanitarian purposes has become a major focus of robotics experts with the Australian Red Cross in 2017 partnering with technology experts to provide aid in the wake of cyclones in Queensland and New South Wales.  WeRobotics, the firm that partnered with the Red Cross, is currently working on training governments and non-government organizations (NGOs) to use robotics in crises. AH

Teachers who want to acquire techniques that will make them student friendly and who want to make heaven-like environment in their classroom must read these 10 books.   'The First Days of School' Old and new teachers talk good about this book written by Harry K. Wong and Rosemary T. Wong. Besides classroom, knowledge of this book can be applied in many sectors including various non-education organizations. This book can help a person well learned as well as a student yet to learn much. 'The Hidden Lives of Learners' New Zealand Emeritus Professor Graham Nuthall wrote the book. He discovered the three important things that determine the success of students. These three are teacher-student interaction, peer influence and a student's personal home life. He studied and gained deep knowledge about how low-ability students can learn as well as high-ability students. 'Outliers: The Story of Success' Renowned journalist Malcolm Gladwell’s this best-selling book deals with techniques that are must needed to understand in order to achieve greatness. In the book, Gladwell investigates numerous factors that contribute to extreme levels of success, such as that achieved by professional athletes, influential business people, and celebrities. The book explores how factors like birth month, practice, culture and hidden advantages can shape the lives of extraordinary individuals who excel beyond any reasonable understanding. This suggestion is for successful people. 'I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban' Malala Yousafzai is a pakistani renowned writer who stood against all the forces that hinders women’s education. She understands how powerful education is in order to become self-reliant.  Perhaps no one understands that more than Malala Yousafzai, who, at age 15, was shot point-blank in the head by the Taliban, simply because she wanted to attend school. Miraculously, she survived, and went on to become a Nobel Peace Prize winner and a powerful voice for girls' education. She wrote her memories of that time and one might feel the power of women education. 'What Teachers Make: In Praise of the Greatest Job in the World' Former teacher Taylor Mali wrote a poem called "What Teachers Make" in 2002. He had written the poem in response to a condescending lawyer who had asked him, "Be honest. What do you make?" The poem went viral on social media, and is the basis for this witty and inspiring book of the same name. Through a series of anecdotes and poems, Mali shares his experiences as a classroom teacher and helps to remind teachers why their job is so important. 'Teaching Outside the Box: How to Grab Their Students by Their Brains' Some educators considered this book by teacher-turned-author LouAnne Johnson as one of the most influential strategy guides even written for teachers. In it, Johnson, who is best known for her book My Posse Don't Do Homework (renamed Dangerous Minds after it spawned the movie in 1995), shares her honest and effective methods for improving classroom management, engaging students, and advancing critical thinking. These habits will help protect against diseases that slowly damages body organs. 'Today I Made a Difference: A Collection of Inspirational Stories from America's Top Educators' Joseph Underwood compiled this collection of stories that answer two essential questions: why teachers teach, and why they decided to make teaching a career, despite the low pay and long hours. The book is based on the real-life stories of all 28 of Disney's 2004 Teacher of the Year Nominees, and will inspire new and experienced teachers alike with its honest, inspiring and refreshing look at the obstacles teachers overcome on a daily basis. 'Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire: The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56' You cannot imagine how much impact a single teacher can have on a group of children. Rafe Esquith author of the book was a fifth-grade teacher at Hobart Elementary in central Los Angeles for more than 30 years. It was one of the poorest school districts in the country. In the book Esquith explains his methods of teaching that will be effective in building confidence, respect, and thirst for education among his students. These teaching techniques have not only earned him numerous awards and international recognition but also have helped lots of students succeed. This book can inspire you read more books.   'The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World around Them' The book was published in 1999. This books writings were by Erin Gruwell’s students. Erin Gruwell was a 23-year-old new teacher at Long Beach High School in Long Beach, California. He was assigned a class of so-called "unteachable" students. She used literature related to the students to teach them easily. He brought guest speakers who could attract them and gave each of them a blank notebook where they could share, anonymously, their thoughts and experiences. All his 150 students succeeded in their lives. This book gave birth to many films, writers and stars of world fame. 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' Dale Carnegie, American writer and lecturer, wrote the book published in 1936. The book contains many effective techniques of building one's confidence and leadership skills. It helps to reduce the cycle of stress.The techniques are very scientific that gives you confidence. Your success in every sphere of life depends on how you can influence and win people’s heart. This book can help you like more than a teacher.     Source: Reader’s Digest FU