Features

By Nina Larson and Eloi Rouyer
Agence France-Presse

LAUSANNE — As conductor Guillaume Berney marks the opening downbeat, the first chords ring out in a Lausanne concert hall of what could conceivably be an extract of Beethoven’s Tenth Symphony — if the great German composer had ever managed to complete the piece.

The classical music world has often speculated what Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) would have gone on to write after his monumental Ninth Symphony.

And a number of musicologists and composers have already ventured to orchestrate and complete some of the scraps of notation they believe were his first sketches for his next symphonic masterpiece. 

But to mark their 10th anniversary season this year, Berney and the Nexus orchestra have decided to use artificial intelligence to create a four-minute extract which they have dubbed BeethovANN Symphony 10.1. 

“That is not a typo,” Berney told the audience at the first night.

Berney explains that the ANN refers to the artificial neural network that created it, basically without human intervention. 

“We don’t know what it will sound like,” Berney acknowledged to AFP ahead of the Lausanne concert. 

The final score was only generated and printed out hours before the performance, after computer programme designer Florian Colombo oversaw the final step in what for him has been a years-long process.

‘Like watching a birth’

Seated in his small apartment with a view over the old city of Lausanne and the Alps in the distance, Colombo made a couple small changes before clicking a button to generate the score. 

“It’s like watching a birth,” Berney said as he picked up the first pages emerging from the printer. 

The excitement was palpable as the freshly created sheet music was presented to the orchestra.

The musicians eagerly began rehearsing for the evening concert, many smiling with surprise as the harmonies unfolded.

“This is an emotional experience for me,” said Colombo, himself a cellist, as the sound filled the hall.

“There is a touch of Beethoven there, but really, it is BeethovANN. Something new to discover.”

Berney agreed. 

“It works,” he said. “There are some very good parts, and a few that are a bit out of character, but it’s nice,” the conductor said, acknowledging though that “maybe it lacks that spark of genius”.

Colombo, a computer scientist at the EPFL technical university, developed his algorithm using so-called deep-learning, a subset of artificial intelligence aimed at teaching computers to “think” via structures modelled on the human brain or ANNs.

To generate something that might possibly pass as an extract from Beethoven’s Tenth, Colombo first fed the computer all of the master’s 16 string quartets, explaining that the chamber works provided a very clear sense of his harmonic and melodic structures. 

He then asked it to create a piece around one of the theme fragments found in Beethoven’s sparse notes that musicologists believe could have been for a new symphony.

“The idea is to just push a button to produce a complete musical score for an entire symphonic orchestra completely without intervention,” Colombo said.

“That is, except for all the work I put in ahead of time,” added the computer programmer who has been working for nearly a decade towards deep-learning-generated music.

‘Not blasphemous’

Colombo said that using a computer to try to recreate something begun by one of the world’s greatest musical geniuses was not encroaching on the human creative process.

Instead, he said, he saw his algorithm as a new tool for making musical composition more accessible and for broadening human creation.

While the programme “can digest what has already been done and propose something similar”, he said the aim was for “humans to use the tools to create something new”. 

“It is not blasphemous at all,” Berney agreed, stressing that “no one is trying to replace Beethoven”.

In fact, he said, the German composer would likely have been a fan of the algorithm.

“Composers at that time were all avantgarde,” he said, pointing out that the best were “always eager to adopt new methods”. 

By Lucie Aubourg
Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON — Human babies are not the only babblers, said a study published on Thursday, some bats are also very talkative in their infancy and even make sounds that recall the googoo-gagas of our own tots.

Babbling in human children is key to developing the careful control over the vocal apparatus necessary for speech. 

The study published in the journal Science indicates the same is true for the greater sac-winged bat, or Saccopteryx bilineata, native to Central America.

“Human infants seem to babble on the one hand to interact with their caregivers, but they also do that when they’re completely alone, seemingly happily just exploring their voice, and that’s the same what our bats are doing,” study co-author Mirjam Knornschild, behavioural ecologist at the Museum of Natural History in Berlin, told AFP.

Bats communicate by ultrasound, sound waves at frequencies above human hearing, but they can also make sounds audible to people.

“It sounds like a high pitched twittering to our ears... it’s melodic,” said Knornschild, who has worked with bats since 2003.

Saccopteryx bilineata don’t hide away in gloomy caves, but prefer to live in trees, making them easier to observe. 

The babbling of 20 baby bats was recorded in Costa Rica and Panama between 2015 and 2016 by researcher Ahana Fernandez, also affiliated with the Museum of Natural History in Berlin, who spent hours with the bats in the forest.

Up to 43 minutes

The mammals, like us, have a larynx, and start babbling about three weeks after birth, for about 7 to 10 weeks — until they are weaned.

During this period, the bats spend around 30 per cent of their days babbling, with sessions lasting on average about seven minutes, the researchers calculated.

But one bat babbled for a full 43 minutes, a long stretch considering adult communication generally lasts but a few seconds. 

“That’s something really, really peculiar that the other bat species that have been studied to date simply don’t do,” said Knornschild.

“They’re very chatty.” 

The vocalisations were converted into images, called spectrograms. 

“Each syllable has a very specific shape, so to say, and they are easy to distinguish by eye,” Knornschild added. 

The researchers analysed more than 55,000 produced syllables, finding universal characteristics of babbling in human infants in the bats, such as repetition, lack of meaning, but also that the sounds followed a certain rhythm. 

On top of that, like with humans, the learning curve is not linear.

Out of 25 syllables in the adult repertoire, young bats have not yet mastered all of them by the time they are weaned, suggesting that they continue to learn. 

Song

The researchers were able to show that the young bats learned fairly early on a six-syllable song used by males to mark their territory and attract females.

“The pups listen to adult males singing and then imitate that song,” Knornschild said.

Baby females also learn the song, even though they won’t reproduce it as adults. But the study suggests learning it may help them judge the performance of their potential future partners.

Very few other species babble — only some birds, two species of marmosets and perhaps some dolphins or beluga whales.

Why would certain animals need to develop in this way and others not? 

“Navigating and communicating in a dark, 3D environment, seems to be a huge selective pressure for vocal learning,” Knornschild said.

But no matter the reason, the researchers underscore that developing a complex vocal system opens a world of possibilities — as demonstrated in humans, and now also in bats.

First introduced in 2013 and significantly updated with renewed emphasis on improved exterior and interior aesthetics, driving characteristics, refinement, and technology in 2018, the Nissan X-Trail’s recipe of versatility, practicality accessibility is a winning formula that has made it one of the world’s best selling among crossovers and SUVs. 

Sold in Jordan in Hybrid guise, the popular X-Trail is a well-equipped and well-appointed yet unpretentious crossover that is user-friendly and reasonably priced, while its hybrid system proved to be discrete and un-intrusive, as it operates in a near seamlessly well-integrated manner.

Swooping style

Virtually indistinguishable from regular combustion engine models and lacking the sometimes pretentiously attention-seeking and virtue signalling design and detail differences associated with hybrid versions of cars, the only thing denoting the X-Trail’s combined petrol and electric drive-line are discrete “Hybrid” badges. 

Otherwise, the X-Trail Hybrid features the same swooping bonnet, heavily browed and squinting headlights, curvy waistline and sense of momentum as other versions. Updated in 2018, the X-Trail’s wider, lower and shinier new signature “V-motion” grille and revised lights, sills and bumpers meanwhile lend it a fresher, snoutier and more assertive demeanour.

Negligibly heavier than the petrol-powered 2.5-litre version featured here back in 2018 at the revised model’s launch, the X-Trail Hybrid’s restrained route to electrification trades all-wheel-drive for the addition of an electric motor and battery pack. Comparatively compact, the X-Trail Hybrid’s battery pack sits under the boot, and while it reduces cargo volume slightly, a raised boot floor, however, does allow the X-Trail Hybrid to retain a space saver spare wheel under the floor, unlike some Hybrid competitors with a bulky strap-down spares added as an afterthought for regional markets.

Well integrated

Powered by a naturally-aspirated 2-litre 4-cylinder engine developing 142BHP at 6,000rpm and 147lb/ft torque at 4,400rpm, the X-Trail Hybrid’s smoothly progressive combustion engine is aided by a 40BHP and 118lb/ft electric motor, with which it pairs via a smooth double clutch link for a total 179BHP. With its electric motor serving to boost its low-end response with a significant infusion of torque, the X-Trail Hybrid is flexible in mid-range overtaking manoeuvres and on inclines. Estimated to be capable of 0-100km/h in around 8.8-seconds, the 1,648kg X-Trail Hybrid meanwhile returns moderate 6.7l/100km combined cycle fuel efficiency.

Launching eagerly from standstill with a chirp of tyres and tug of steering owing to the immediacy of torque channelled through the front wheels, the X-Trail Hybrid is driven through a seamlessly smooth and efficient continuously variable transmission (CVT) system. If not as committed or predictably accurate as a traditional gearbox for sportier driving through switchbacks, the X-Trail Hybrid’s CVT nevertheless intuitively matches revs with throttle position and vehicles speed, and minimises the “slingshot” feel typical to many CVT systems. Meanwhile, in “manual” mode one can select pre-set ratios to mimic a traditional gearbox.

Keen cornering

Well-integrating the connection between petrol and electric motors, the X-Trail Hybrid is also notable for quickly recharging its battery pack through braking regeneration and directly from the combustion engine. During extended hill climbs, it coped well in using brief respites between inclines to maintain battery charge, rather than deplete the batteries to the point where the combustion engine struggles in the absence of electric motor input, as is often the case with lesser hybrids. That said, the X-Trail’s chassis proved well able to handle demandingly twisting and sprawling switchbacks with poise. 

Tidy on turn-in and with good handling properties and light, quick and accurate steering, the X-Trail Hybrid drives with more eagerness and cornering adjustability than most in its segment, especially with stability control system set to low intervention mode, where automatic braking and weight shifts are more natural, progressive and predictable, than overly cautious in braking the front wheels and shifting weight to the rear. Driven so, the X-Trail Hybrid is keen, chuckable and refreshingly light on its feet through corners, while its agility is aided by a brake-based Active Trace Control torque vectoring system.

Stability and space

Stable and refined on highway and manoeuvrable in town, the X-Trail Hybrid’s somewhat lower profile 225/55R19 tyres might slightly improve handling and appearance, but don’t seem to much affect ride comfort unduly. Slightly firm over some more jagged bumps, it is nevertheless forgiving, fluent and comfortable over most road imperfections, and is settled through dips and crests in vertical travel. With a supportive and comfortable driving position, and decent visibility for its class, the X-Trail Hybrid also features useful 360° and reversing camera to aid visibility, albeit projected through a modest-sized screen.

Refreshed with a more up-market interior since 2018 the X-Trail features improved interior trim, quality, textures, padding, sporty steering wheel, and even faux carbon-fibre door panels. Contemporarily pleasant inside, with good equipment levels, including an intuitive infotainment system, panoramic sunroof, leather seats, automatic tailgate, dual zone climate control, and side and curtain airbags, the X-Trail Hybrid is notably spacious in its segment, with enviable rear leg and headroom. Meanwhile, Hybrid spec precludes optional third row seating and reduces luggage volume slightly from the standard model’s 455-litre minimum, but cargo capacity is nevertheless good, especially with rear seats folded.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 2-litre, 16-valve, DOHC, transverse 4-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 84 x 90.1mm

Maximum engine speed: 6,400rpm

Hybrid system: Parallel electric motor, 35Kw lithium-ion battery

Gearbox: Continuously variable transmission (CVT), front-wheel-drive

Transmission ratio range: 0.378:1-2.631:1

Power–petrol engine, BHP (PS) [kW]: 142 (144) [106] @6,000rpm

Power – electric motor, BHP (PS) [kW]: 40 (41) [30]

Power, combined, BHP (PS) [kW]: 177 (179) [132]

Torque – petrol engine, lb/ft (Nm): 147.5 (200) @4,400rpm

Torque – electric motor, lb/ft (Nm): 118 (160)

0-100km/h: 8.8-seconds (estimate)

Fuel consumption, combined: 6.7l/100km

Length: 4,690mm

Width: 1,830mm

Height: 1,730mm

Wheelbase: 2,705mm

Headroom, F/R: 1,057/978mm

Legroom, F/R: 1,092/963mm

Shoulder room, F/R: 1,438/1,420mm

Kerb weight: 1,648kg

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts/multilink

Steering: Electric-assisted, rack & pinion

Turning circle: 11.3-metres

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs/discs

Tyres: 225/55R19

Price, on-the-road: JD31,9003rd (including 3rd party insurance)

Warranty: 5-years or 300,000km

Meet Dame’s Rocket, a biennial flowering plant from the mustard family and a cousin of many plants we eat, like Arugula. Also known as Mother of the Evening due to its evening fragrance, this plant offers many benefits.

Did you know?

This herb is native to the Mediterranean and Central Asia, extending now to Europe and North America.

Plant of deceit

It is known as a flower of deception as there it has no fragrance during the day. Come nightfall, however, the flower has a lovely perfume. It grows wild in woods with tall slumps of lavender blooms in the spring and summer months. 

Its slender threadlike tooth-shaped leaves with cluster flowers vary in colour depending on the soil and sun exposure. It requires moist, well-drained, slightly alkaline soil in full sun or partial shade. Dame’s Rocket is a food source for caterpillars, moths and hummingbirds.

Aesthetic and medicinal marvel

Each flower produces a long thin seed pod attached to the flower stalk and held outward in an ascending position often used in flower pots to complement a bouquet. It is used medicinally to induce sweating, treat coughs and used as an antidote for insect stings and snake bites-the leaves are rich in Vitamin C. 

Culinary creation

Young Dame’s Rocket is one of the most exotic flavoured greens I have ever eaten. It resembles Arugula with a tinge of spice and sweetness. Grab them as buds, toss them in a pan with olive oil for a few seconds and add vinegar and nuts, making a perfect summer salad.

They can be candied and used for cakes and as dessert garnish. Jelly made out of this blossom is very popular in Alaska. 

You can blend it with butter like any other herb as it tastes like garlic, giving your vegetables a distinct flavour. 

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

GENEVA — Drowning is now a leading cause of death for children aged under five in many countries, the World Health Organisation recently said.

Around 2.5 million people died by drowning in the decade to 2019, the WHO said, as it set out a series of simple measures to help reduce the “entirely preventable” toll.

The first World Drowning Prevention Day marks a timely reminder in the northern hemisphere, as the summer months correlate with a peak in drowning deaths.

The WHO said that around 60 per cent of all drowning deaths were among those under the age of 30, with the highest rates among children aged under five.

“This is an entirely preventable cause of death,” Doctor David Meddings, from the WHO’s Social Determinants of Health department, told reporters in Geneva.

He said the “shocking numbers” included an estimated 236,000 people in 2019 alone who lost their lives due to drowning.

Flood-related mortality, deaths due to water transport accidents and intentional drownings are not included in the overall statistics.

He said the reduction in the death rates of children aged under five from all causes over the past 40 years had masked the residual problem of deaths due to drowning.

“Drowning is now a leading cause of death for children under the age of five, in many, many countries,” Meddings said.

He said drowning was the leading cause of death for under-fives in China and the second-biggest in the United States and France.

Meddings said that in Bangladesh in 2016 alone, an estimated 40 children died from drowning every day.

Prevention methods

In Asia, drowning deaths predominantly involve young children.

But recent surveys in Tanzania and Uganda found that 80 per cent of drowning deaths were among young adult fishermen, the WHO said.

Drowning rates in low- and middle-income countries are more than three times higher than in high-income nations.

The WHO said drowning disproportionately affected poor and marginalised communities which have the fewest resources to adapt to the risks around them.

Meddings said simple steps could prevent many deaths, such as installing barriers around wells, providing safe places for children to play away from water, and teaching youngsters basic swimming and water safety skills. 

Greater training in safe rescue and resuscitation techniques would also help people to assist anyone who is drowning. 

Enforcing safe shipping loading and ferry regulations, and improving flood risk management, are two other interventions recommended by the WHO.

LOS ANGELES — At the age of 91, Clint Eastwood is not just directing but also climbing back in the saddle, and even throwing a punch for his new Western "Cry Macho." 

The legendarily prolific Hollywood star has never shown much interest in retiring and appears on-screen in the movie, out Friday, as a former rodeo champion tasked with one last job.

Mike Milo (Eastwood) must travel to Mexico and retrieve his former boss's son Rafo, teaching him to ride horses in the process.

"This picture came along about 40 years ago," recalls Eastwood in the film's production notes.

"I'm too young for this part, why don't I direct it and we'll get Robert Mitchum?" he told a producer at the time.

But with his career now well into its seventh decade, Eastwood decided to take on the role himself — to the delight of long-time collaborator and producer Tim Moore.

"The thing that everybody loves to see is Clint in a cowboy hat and on a horse," Moore told the recent CinemaCon gathering in Las Vegas.

"He hasn't been on a horse since 'Unforgiven,'" he said, referring to the 1992 Oscar-winning film.

"The first day that we filmed the scene of him up on the horse, the crew were just all so excited. It was a special moment."

Eastwood, a multiple Oscar-winner born in 1930, first came to global stardom as an actor in seminal Westerns "A Fistful of Dollars," "For a Few Dollars More" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."

His output as a director since 1971's "Play Misty for Me" has been prolific and diverse, and he has spoken in interviews of his desire to keep working as long as he finds projects that are "worth studying."

While he did announce his retirement from acting after 2008's "Gran Torino," Eastwood returned in front of the camera four years later in "Trouble with the Curve," and again in 2018's "The Mule."

In a trailer for "Cry Macho" — hitting theatres and HBO Max streaming platform simultaneously — frequent references are made to the age gap between unlikely pair Mike and Rafo, who bond over the course of their perilous journey back to Texas.

"You used to be strong, macho," says Rafo, played by Mexican newcomer Eduardo Minett.

"I used to be a lot of things," replies Eastwood's Mike.

WASHINGTON — A few minutes of weightlessness, or a few days. A short hop above the Earth’s atmosphere, or a journey to the Moon and back... the era of space tourism is upon us, and — for those who can pay — it comes with many options.

This year has been an important one for the up-and-coming sector, with a slew of new missions announced. Here is the state of play.

SpaceX

1/ Inspiration4: Elon Musk’s company is set this week to send four passengers to space, for a total of three days. They blast off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon mounted on a Falcon 9 rocket.

It’ll be the first orbital mission involving four non-professional astronauts. The “Inspiration4” mission is chartered by American billionaire and pilot Jared Isaacman, and will fly beyond the altitude of the International Space Station (ISS).

2/ AX-1: In January 2022, three businessmen will visit the ISS, alongside an experienced former NASA astronaut.

The mission, which is to last 10 days in total and named Ax-1, is being organised by the company Axiom Space, which has signed up for three more future flights with SpaceX. 

They will operate in the American segment of the ISS, where they will conduct scientific experime

3/ Space Adventure: SpaceX also has plans for another orbital voyage for four paying clients, organised by Space Adventures.

It was this company that organised tips for seven tourists to the ISS between 2001 and 2009 aboard Russian rockets.

4/ Dearmoon: Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa is due to take a trip around the Moon, presumably in 2023, aboard a Starship rocket that is still under development by SpaceX. The mission is called dearMoon.

Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic’s experience involves an enormous carrier plane that takes off from a runway, reaches a high altitude, then drops a rocket-powered spaceplane which accelerates towards space.

The passengers and crew experience a few minutes of weightlessness at altitudes exceeding 80 kilometres — the US definition of space.

Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson participated in a test flight on July 11 out of New Mexico.

The company is currently grounded pending an investigation over a flight “mishap”. It hopes to have routine flights by 2022.

Blue Origin

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin also offers a few minutes of weightlessness, but at altitudes exceeding 100 kilometres. Its astronauts thus breach the Karman line, the internationally recognised boundary of space.

The reusable rocket blasts off vertically, and the capsule detaches in flight. 

Its descent back to Earth is slowed by three huge parachutes and a thruster.

The Amazon founder was among the first four passengers to make the trip from the company’s west Texas base on July 20.

Russian endeavours

Russia will send an actress and a director to the ISS in October, aboard a Soyuz rocket. The goal: To shoot the first fiction film in orbit and in zero gravity.

Japan’s Yusaku Maezawa is also set to go to the ISS in December on a Soyuz rocket. The trip is to last 12 days and is being organised through Space Adventures. 

The company has announced another mission to the ISS in 2023 in a Russian rocket, for two participants, one of whom will have the opportunity to perform a spacewalk.

Spaceballoon

Other companies are developing less ambitious projects, like Space Perspective. Its capsule, hoisted by a spaceballoon the size of a football stadium, offers a view of the Earth’s curvature.

Tickets cost $125,000 but the balloon ascends only 30 kilometres, which means passengers won’t experience weightlessness.

DUBAI — Cloning is in high demand in the competitive world of camel beauty pageants, leaving scientists at a Dubai clinic working round the clock to produce carbon-copy beasts.

Not every animal is blessed with sought-after drooping lips and a tall, elegant neck, but technology now allows wealthy clients to replace their most beautiful camel with one just like it.

At the Reproductive Biotechnology Centre, with views of the UAE city’s towering skyscrapers, scientists pore over microscopes while dozens of cloned camels roam outside.

“We have so much demand for cloning camels that we are not able to keep up,” the centre’s Scientific Director Nisar Wani told AFP.

Beauty pageants are not the only driver of the camel cloning industry. Many customers want to reproduce racing camels, or animals that produce large amounts of milk.

But “beauty queens” are the most popular order. Gulf clients will pay between 200,000 and 400,000 dirham ($54,500-$109,000) to duplicate a dromedary.

The camels are paraded at dusty racetracks around the region and scrutinised by judges, with occasional discoveries of Botox and cosmetic fillers adding a spice of scandal to the high-stakes contests.

Saud Al Otaibi, who runs a camel auction in Kuwait, said customers’ judgement of the animals’ looks is key to his business.

“The price of the camel is determined according to its beauty, health, and how well known the breed is,” he told AFP.

When it comes to young animals, “customers are keen on seeing the mother to determine its beauty before buying the camel”, he added.

No going back

Twelve years ago, Dubai claimed the world’s first cloned camel. 

Injaz, a female whose name means achievement in Arabic, was born on April 8, 2009, after more than five years of work by Wani and others.

From the minute Injaz was born, there was no going back. 

“We are now producing plenty, maybe more than 10 to 20 babies every year. This year we have 28 pregnancies [so far], last year we had 20,” Wani said with pride.

The centre is churning out “racing champions, high milk-producing animals... and winners of beauty contests called Beauty Queens”, added Wani, sitting in a lab next to the preserved body of a cloned camel in a glass container.

Known as “ships of the desert”, and once used for transport across the sands of the Arab peninsula, camels are symbols of traditional Gulf culture.

Now, after being replaced by gas-guzzling SUVs as the main mode of transport, they are used for racing, meat and milk.

“We have cloned some she-camels that produce more than 35 litres of milk a day,” said Wani, compared to an average of five litres in normal camels.

Camel milk is commonly found next to regular milk at supermarkets in the Gulf, while meat products such as camel carpaccio are served in fancy restaurants.

‘Saddest moment’

Cloning dogs, cows and horses is popular in many countries, although animal rights groups say the process causes undue suffering to the animals that provide the egg cells and carry embryos.

With orders flying into the cloning clinics in the United Arab Emirates, the only such facilities in the Gulf, scientists have developed new techniques to keep up with the pace.

Female camels only give birth to one calf every two years, including a gestation period of 13 months. 

But breeding centres use a surrogacy technique to increase the number of offspring, whether from cloning or traditional breeding.

“In this process which we call multiple ovulation and embryo transfer, we super-stimulate the champion females and breed them with champion males,” explained Wani.

“We collect the embryos from these females after seven to eight days and then we put them in surrogate mothers, which are very ordinary animals.” 

Alternatively, cloned camels can be created by placing DNA from cells in the desired animal’s ovaries into eggs taken from the surrogate mothers.

“These mothers carry the babies to term, and instead of producing one baby at a time in a year, we can produce many calves from these animals.”

Cloning is not just for those who want to own elite camels. Sometimes, clients simply want to reproduce a beloved animal after a sudden death.

Wani, who started working at the clinic in 2003, said his proudest moment was the birth of Injaz — and the worst time was her death.

“She died this year,” he said. “When we came in the morning, she had ruptured her uterus. We tried to save her as much as possible. This was the saddest moment.”