The ocean is as important to the climate as the atmosphere
But only now is it beginning to be studied properly
For Homo sapiens, a dry-land species, discussions of the climate and how it is changing tend to revolve around what is going on in the atmosphere. This is a dangerously parochial attitude, for the atmosphere is but one of two fluid systems circulating above Earth’s solid surface. The other, the ocean, is in many ways the more important of the pair.
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This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Signals and noise”
From the March 11th 2023 edition
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Better batteries, cleaner bioplastics and more powerful semiconductors await
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How artificial intelligence can make board games better
It can iron out glitches in the rules before they go on the market
The skyrocketing demand for minerals will require new technologies
Flexible drills, distributed power systems and, of course, artificial intelligence