#shipwreck

#shipwreck

AI Spots Shipwrecks From the Ocean's Surface and the Air with 92% AccuracyFinding shipwrecks may sound like stuff of movies, but it's an important part of naval research by the Navy. They're interested in finding shipwrecks that may help shed light on human history, including trade, migration and war.Unlike the movies, finding shipwrecks usually don't involve a map with a bloody X marking the location of the bounty - but science has the next best thing: sonar and lidar imageries of the seafloor.Leila Character of The University of Texas at Austin and colleagues, in collaboration with the United States Navy's Underwater Archaeology Branch, has used a machine learning artificial intelligence to spot shipwrecks off the coast of mainland USA and Puerto Rico.Character wrote in The Conversation:The first step in creating the shipwreck model was to teach the computer what a shipwreck looks like. It was also important to teach the computer how to tell the difference between wrecks and the topography of the seafloor. To do this, I needed lots of examples of shipwrecks. I also needed to teach the model what the natural ocean floor looks like.Conveniently, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration keeps a public database of shipwrecks. It also has a large public database of different types of imagery collected from around the world, including sonar and lidar imagery of the seafloor. The imagery I used extends to a little over 14 miles (23 kilometers) from the coast and to a depth of 279 feet (85 meters). This imagery contains huge areas with no shipwrecks, as well as the occasional shipwreck.Character's computer model has an accuracy of 92% and she now hopes to extend the model to spot shipwrecks from around the world.#shipwreck #sonar #lidar #seabed #oceanfloor #archaeology #underwaterarchaeology #USNavy #artificialintelligence #AI #machinelearningImage: Shipwrecks off the coast of Washington at the depth of 25m. Character L, et al. (2021) Remote Sens. 13(9) 1759.

Treasure Inside Beer Bottles From 120-Year-Old Shipwreck: Long-Lost Strains of YeastIn 1895, the cargo steamer Wallachia sank off the coast of Scotland. Today, over 120 years later, amateur diver Steve Hickman retrieved bottles of beer from the shipwreck for the treasure inside.No, the treasure isn't the beer inside the bottles - that had decayed and gone bad. Instead, it's the long-lost strain of yeast used to brew the beer.From BBC Future:The bottles they retrieved were handed to scientists at a research firm called Brewlab, who, along with colleagues from the University of Sunderland, were able to extract live yeast from the liquid inside three of the bottles. They then used that yeast in an attempt to recreate the original beer....Genetic testing revealed that the Wallachia stout contained two different types of yeast – Brettanomyces and Debaryomyces. In a paper about the work, Thomas and his colleagues explain that it's unusual to find Debaryomyces in an historic beer, though this type of yeast has turned up in a few Belgian beers made using spontaneous fermentation, which relies on leaving pre-fermented liquid open to the environment, so that yeast strains may settle on it.Image: Steve Hickman#beer #brewing #yeast #shipwreck #bottle