Jim Robbins

1 month ago | e360.yale.edu | Jim Robbins

Artificial intelligence is being called a game changer for enabling scientists and conservationists to process vast troves of data collected remotely. But some warn its use could keep biologists from getting out in the field with the animals and ecosystems they are studying. Further refinement of A.I. will expand its applications, providing a far more detailed portrait of species being studied. “It really opens what we can study,” Knight said.

1 month ago | e360.yale.edu | Jim Robbins

Artificial intelligence is being called a game changer for enabling scientists and conservationists to process vast troves of data collected remotely. But some warn its use could keep biologists from getting out in the field with the animals and ecosystems they are studying. Further refinement of A.I. will expand its applications, providing a far more detailed portrait of species being studied. “It really opens what we can study,” Knight said.

1 month ago | boulder-monitor.com | Jim Robbins

One day after a fine spring hike near our Helena home, my friend found a tick embedded in her neck, under her hair. As we sat in our car in front of a convenience store, I used the tweezers from my Swiss Army Knife to slowly and carefully pull the critter out. Then she discovered a second one, near the first. I plucked that one out as well. Unpleasant, but no big deal, we thought. We’ve lived in Helena for half a century and, for anyone who spends time in the woods, ticks are part of life.

1 month ago | businessandamerica.com | Jim Robbins

There’s a tale told about a miner who found copper cans in his garbage dump in the early days of mining. Wastewater from copper mining had flowed through his land, he said, and turned steel cans into copper. The story might be apocryphal, but the process is real, and it’s called cementation. Montana Resources, the mining company that took over from the Anaconda Copper Company, still uses this alchemical trick in a process at its Continental Pit mine in Butte, Mont.

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Jim Robbins

Mining continues at the Continental Pit. Nearby is the Berkeley Pit, a site for acid mine drainage that poses an opportunity for extracting valuable metals. Ongoing extraction inside the Continental Pit operated by Montana Resources - an open pit mine in Butte, Mont. The company is working with researchers at the nearby closed Berkeley Pit, which holds a toxic brew now being examined for rare earths. Credit...