Last year, more than 36 million children under the age of 5 suffered from acute malnutrition worldwide. No child should suffer from lack of sustenance, but natural disasters, poverty and war continue to put the youngest and most vulnerable at risk. Child malnutrition in Sudan is at emergency levels, according to the World Health Organization. And in northern Gaza, up to a quarter of children are malnourished. Children in Afghanistan, Haiti, Nigeria, Yemen and other countries are also afflicted.
Helping children recover from malnutrition isn’t just about giving them food. They are far more vulnerable to illness and death even after receiving treatment, and if they survive, they face an increased risk of health challenges throughout their lives. Scientists are trying to understand why malnutrition affects the body so severely and how to help children recover. Recent research shows that prolonged malnutrition weakens the immune system and causes tissue and organ damage, making it hard to absorb nutrients. Therapeutic food that boosts the gut microbiome may help, as well as medications that repair the gut lining. However, finding solutions feels like an uphill battle with so many lives at stake.
Solving an intractable problem is also at the heart of another feature in this issue. Conservation biologist Ximena Velez-Liendo has dedicated her life to saving the Andean bears of Bolivia. These charismatic creatures were facing extinction due to habitat loss and conflicts with humans. She collaborated with local communities to create new sources of income, such as beekeeping, to reduce the need to clear forests for farming and promote peaceful coexistence between people and bears. Both the bears and the community are thriving thanks to her efforts. “Conservation is changing,” she says, “from the hands of biologists to the hands of the people.”
In the third feature, we explore the challenges of assessing the cognitive abilities of machines. Generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT have impressed people with their ability to write computer code, enhance resumes, assist with homework, and more. However, along with these accomplishments come extravagant claims that these algorithms can think and reason. Determining whether they actually possess these abilities is proving to be complex.
Efforts to test machine intelligence date back to 1950 when renowned British mathematician Alan Turing proposed the imitation game, where an interrogator interacts with both a computer and a person. If the interrogator cannot distinguish which responses come from a human, Turing suggested that we could consider machines as capable of thinking. While Turing predicted that a computer would win the game by the end of the 20th century, this did not come to pass. Interpreting the results of the imitation game and other tests is not straightforward. Although today’s bots may outperform humans in tests of mathematics, language comprehension, and more, it does not necessarily indicate superior intellect; they may simply be repeating what they learned during training. Researchers are now developing new tests to generate clearer results.
This summer double issue offers a variety of articles to keep you engaged until the August 10th edition arrives.
