Researchers have combining advanced AI techniques with First Nations seasonal data and discovered a 14.6% more accurate way to predict solar power generation, with potential to improve renewable energy planning.

Researchers at the Charles Darwin University (CDU) in the Northern Territory (NT) have developed a solar power forecasting system called FNS-Metrics, using seasonal information from First Nations calenders, the data of which was fed into a new artificial intelligence (AI) prediction model they also designed, called Conv-Ensemble.

The outcome of the study was to achieve a solar power prediction error rate, which is less than half the error rate of current forecasting models, or a 14.6% increase in accuracy and 26.2% reduction in error compared to a strong baseline model.

With the potential to revolutionise prediction technology, researchers developed the AI model using the Tiwi, Gulumoerrgin (Larrakia), Kunwinjku and Ngurrungurrudjba First Nations calendars, and a modern calendar known as Red Centre.

Conv-Ensemble uses Conv1D-layers to pick up on big, overall patterns in the data, and transformer and long-short term memory (LSTM) networks to refine more detailed patterns, which are then combined using a machine learning, weighted feature concatenation technique to get the best possible prediction.

To test the approach, the researchers drew solar power and weather data from the Desert Knowledge Australia Solar Centre (DKASC) in Alice Springs, with results showing the model can predict solar power generation with a lower error rate.

CDU Co-author, PhD student and Bundjalang man Luke Hamlin said the environmental knowledge held within the calendars is an invaluable resource.

“Incorporating First Nations seasonal knowledge into solar power generation predictions can significantly enhance accuracy by aligning forecasts with natural cycles that have been observed and understood for thousands of years,” Hamlin said,

“Unlike conventional calendar systems, these seasonal insights are deeply rooted in local ecological cues, such as plant and animal behaviours, which are closely tied to changes in sunlight and weather patterns.”

Hamlin added that by integrating this knowledge, predictions can be tailored to reflect more granular shifts in environmental conditions, leading to more precise and culturally informed forecasting for specific regions across Australia.

Co-Authors, Information Technology Associate Professor Bharanidharan Shanmugam and Information Technology Lecturer Dr Thuseethan Selvarajah said the combination of advanced AI and ancient First Nations wisdom could revolutionise prediction technology.

“Accurate solar power prediction is challenging, and these challenges hinder the development of a universal prediction model,” Shanmugam said.

“The success of the proposed approach suggests that it could be a valuable tool for advancing solar power generation prediction in rural areas, and in future work we’ll explore the applications of the model to other regions and renewable energy sources,” Selvarajah said.

A paper on the study, Conv-Ensemble for Solar Power Prediction with First Nations Seasonal Information was published in IEEE Open Journal of the Computer Society.

By month’s end, the STC had been forced to produce not one, but three grovelling apologies. The STC’s chief fundraiser Judi Hausmann claimed she felt “unsafe” (there’s that word again) and yes, even “devastated” due to three actors wearing scarves inside a theatre, pro-Israeli fundraisers withdrew their sponsorship and all hell rained down upon the theatre company because, well… three actors wore scarves inside a theatre.

Fast forward to August of 2024 where we find another artist doing something horrific inside a theatre. Saying words. Three full sentences in fact. British Australian pianist Jayson Gillham said before his scheduled recital: “Over the last 10 months, Israel has killed more than 100 Palestinian journalists. A number were targeted assassinations of prominent journalists who were travelling in marked press vehicles or wearing press jackets. The killing of journalists is a war crime in international law, and it is done in an effort to prevent the documentation and broadcasting of war crimes to the world.”

Once more, the sophisticated pro-Israeli machine charged with ensuring artists inside Australian theatres and libraries did not allow Palestinian people a scintilla of sympathy, rallied with their victimhood flags at the ready. The next day, the Australian newspaper (such a coincidence) reported on the forbidden theatre words and within days, Mr Gillham’s next performances were cancelled by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in a panicked, thought-free frenzy of cowardly management that has become all too familiar in Australia’s arts and culture scene.

Australians over the past few years have had to witness their own country’s artistic and cultural institutions continually hijacked to their detriment by a foreign entity. This hijacking raises a very serious question that Australia’s politicians are yet to address: are some Jewish Australians and non-Jewish Australians loyal to Israel to the overall detriment of Australian life? I suspect we know the answer.

Over the past two years, we have seen:

• The surveillance and continual harassment of Lebanese Australian journalist Antoinette Lattouf for sharing news stories on her social media about the killing of Palestinians. It is an established fact emerging from her recent federal court case, that Lawyers for Israel had already contacted the ABC – before Ms Lattouf had even appeared on air – claiming Ms Latouff’s yet-to-be-heard program miraculously made them feel ‘unsafe’ (not at all a propaganda co-ordinated word of course). Ms Lattouf’s swift sacking appears to have been partly due to panic that a story about her would be appearing in the Australian the next day – another wonderful coincidence.
   
• The cancellation of Lebanese Australian artist Khaled Sabsabi’s work at the Venice Biennale by Creative Australia, who panicked partly due to the fact a reporter from the Australian (good heavens) had shared information with a Liberal party senator who then regurgitated the partially incorrect information in the senate. Where this pro-Israeli information being fed to the Australian newspaper comes from is anyone’s guess of course. This decision was then followed by the ridiculous about-face several months later of reinstating Sabsabi to produce his Venice Biennale work as planned, which begs the question – if nothing had changed about Sabsabi over the preceding six months, why the about-face?

• The cancellation of a Queensland state writing prize awarded to Indigenous writer Ren Wyld, who posted words on their social media page that seems to have upset somebody in the pro-Israeli lobby somehow, somewhere, and, possibly, as we can all guess by now, made them feel ‘unsafe’. And you won’t be disappointed to learn the Australian newspaper was again, first on the case of this story. Remarkable really.

Scientists at the University of Minnesota Duluth's Large Lakes Observatory have discovered a new microorganism in an unexpected place—hiding in the oily recesses of a Great Lakes research vessel.

The researchers made the discovery last fall, after crew members aboard the R/V Blue Heron noticed a strange knocking sound coming from the ship’s propeller system while on a research expedition on Lake Erie.

They hauled the ship out of the water at the Great Lakes Shipyard in Cleveland. That’s when the Large Lakes Observatory’s Marine Superintendent Doug Ricketts saw a black, tar-like goop oozing out of the ship’s rudder shaft.

He had never seen the stuff before, and thought it was odd. So he filled a red plastic cup full of the substance, and gave it to UMD professor Cody Shiek, a biologist who focuses on microbial ecology. Shiek decided to sample it.

"I was completely like, we're not going to get anything off of this,” he remembers thinking.

“But surprisingly, we found DNA and it wasn’t too destroyed, nor was the biomass too low."

After sequencing the DNA and comparing it with global databases, the team confirmed they had discovered an entirely new organism, a microbial species that appeared to thrive in the warm, oily, oxygen-free environment within the ship’s rudder shaft.

Shiek and his team temporarily dubbed the substance “ShipGoo001.”

"And we don't know exactly what ShipGoo001 is good for right now,” said Catherine O'Reilly, director of the Large Lakes Observatory. “But there's a good chance that we'll learn more about it, and it might turn out to have applications to things that we care about as a society."

For example, some organisms in the goo appear to be methane producers, O’Reilly said, potentially useful for biofuel production.

This isn’t the first time Shiek has discovered a new organism. Far from it. On research trips on Lake Superior aboard the Blue Heron, he said it’s common to find new species, especially in the sediment of the lake.

“When we go out into the environment, we're constantly finding new organisms, and that's just because things are very under sampled,” Shiek said.

What’s different and exciting about the ship goo is that they were not looking for these organisms. It was an accidental discovery. “We weren’t supposed to probably see this,” he said.

Shiek has studied microbes living in extreme environments from Lake Superior, to deep ocean hydrothermal vents and hot springs.

This discovery highlights how much remains unknown, even in familiar, built-up environments like ships.

“I think it tells us we can discover new things everywhere. We don't have to go to Mars necessarily to find brand new things right under our noses,” O’Reilly said. She added that it’s important to allow scientists to pursue new things without necessarily having a goal in mind.

“This shows us how how important it is to be creative as a scientist, to be open minded, to take advantage of opportunities that come to you and just explore what's right in front of you, because you really don't know what you're going to find.”

A mystery that Shiek is still trying to answer is determining where the organisms originate. He speculates they may have been dormant in the oil used to grease the rudder, waiting until conditions were right for growth.

While ShipGoo001 is new to science, similar species have been found in tar pits and petroleum wells around the world.

Shiek said the next step in the research is to try to decipher the metabolic processes of the microbes.

“Does it eat oil? Does it breathe in metal, like iron? And so that's where we're at right now. Thinking about how these organisms are surviving, or maybe even just thriving, in this built environment that we very rarely think about.”

And soon, the substance will receive a new scientific name. Participants in the Large Lakes Observatory’s Freshwater Discovery Day aboard the Blue Heron on July 30 will have a chance to join Shiek in coming up with an official name for what remains, for now, ShipGoo011.