The worldwide network of telecommunications cables lying on the bottom of the world's oceans offers unique potential for scientific use if the fibre-optic cables themselves are used as or equipped with sensors. Based on this, the GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam and the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel are now setting up the research infrastructure SAFAtor (SMART Cables And Fiber-optic Sensing Amphibious Demonstrator), that can be used to monitor the world's oceans. It will be included in the portfolio of the major Helmholtz infrastructures and funded by the Helmholtz Association with 30 million euros as a strategic development investment. Among other things, the plan is to equip initially one demonstrator cable with appropriate sensor technology before deploying it in the deep sea in order to obtain important real-time data on climate and geological hazards. So far, almost no data exists from the seafloor. SAFAtor aims to close this data gap in the oceans. GFZ scientist Prof. Dr Fabrice Cotton, head of GFZ Section “Seismic Hazard and Risk Dynamic” is the project lead (PI). Co-PIs are GFZ researchers Prof. Dr Charlotte Krawczyk, Director of GFZ-Department Geophysics, who will take over the lead after two and a half years as scheduled, and Prof. Dr Frederik Tilmann, Head of GFZ Section “Seismology”, as well as Prof. Laura Wallace, Head of GEOMAR Research Unit “Marine Geodynamics”. The SAFAtor project will run for five years and will start with a kick-off meeting at the GFZ on Potsdam's Telegrafenberg on 5-6 March 2025.

A Texas A&M research team is studying whether artificial intelligence (AI) could play a supportive role in the evaluation of respiratory disease in pigs.

Building on a previous study that supported the ancient philosopher Plato’s conjecture—that Earth is mostly made from cubes—geophysicist Douglas Jerolmack of the University of Pennsylvania teamed up with longtime collaborator, mathematician Gábor Domokos of Budapest University of Technology and Economics, to use their framework for understanding fracture patterns on Earth to survey fracture networks across the solar system. Their findings could offer insights into detecting potentially habitable environments on other planets.