Features

PARIS — Online tools that can create wonderful, absurd and sometimes horrifying images using artificial intelligence (AI) have exploded in popularity, sparking soul-searching over the nature of art.

Tech companies tout their inventions as a liberating force of art for all, but purists argue that the artist is still the central cog in the machine.

Art historian and AI expert Emily L. Spratt, whose forthcoming book tackles the ethics and regulation of AI art, told AFP that the art world has not yet found a response to the potentially transformative technology.

Are we all artists now?

Punch a few keywords into an AI art tool — something like “Brad Pitt in a rowing boat in space in the style of Mondrian” — and seconds later boldly coloured line drawings will emerge of the Hollywood star, paddling in the stars.

There are plenty of fans of tools like Midjourney, Stable Diffusion and DALL-E 2 who have proclaimed this as the democratisation of art.

But Spratt reckons such tools are more about “entertainment and clickbait” than art. 

“It is a way to foster engagement with platforms, which is of course going to help these companies,” she said. 

“The idea that it is solely a tool of empowerment or that it will democratise the space is overly simplistic — it’s naive.”

Rather, she sees the boundary between AI and other technology becoming blurred, pointing to the image manipulation programs already widely used.

“I see the future of AI as being part of the omnipresent background architecture for all digital image-making processes,” she said.

“It will be hard to avoid it because it seeps into all of our digital interactions, often unbeknownst to us, especially when we create, edit, or search images.”

Are there AI masterpieces?

Beyond the simple online tools that anyone can use, there are plenty of artists labouring over their own algorithms with bespoke datasets.

These works sell for tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands.

A standout practitioner, said Spratt, is German artist Mario Klingemann whose “Hyperdimensional Attraction Series, Bestiary” is a high point of the genre.

“It is a video of seemingly organic forms that morph from one physical entity to another and momentarily appear as recognisable animals,” she said.

“Honestly, it’s a bit unnerving but it works well as a commentary on the dividing lines between the material and immaterial and the limits of generative AI to replicate the natural world.”

She said his art is constantly asking questions about AI as a medium, and more widely about the nature of creativity.

What does art world make of AI?

Until relatively recently, there was very little buzz around AI outside of video installations, largely because there was no bank of digital images with clear labels.

Without the source material, there could be no AI art as we know it today.

That changed a decade ago when several projects began to supply huge quantities of digital images, sparking an explosion in creativity.

A French collective called Obvious sold a work for more than $400,000 in 2018 after keenly embracing the idea that the AI “created” the work.

That sale became hugely controversial after it emerged that they had used an algorithm written by artist and programmer Robbie Barrat.

“The reason that the Obvious artwork sold, especially at that price, was largely because it was advertised as the first AI artwork to be offered at a major auction house,” said Spratt.

“It was really the art market experimenting with the offering of an AI artwork in step with long-established approaches to the sale of fine art.”

At that moment, she said, there was huge interest in bringing together the tech sector and the art world.

But the tech industry has since been hit by a dramatic economic slump and investment and interest have waned.

Major auction houses like Christie’s and Sotheby’s have since worked hard to create separate platforms for selling AI art.

“It’s like they don’t want to sully fine art with these new digital explorations,” Spratt said.

And critics are yet to catch up with the field and really express what is good, bad or indifferent, she reckoned.

“Unfortunately, the AI art discourse is not there yet, but I think it is on its way, and it should come from the field of art history,” she insisted.

LOS ANGELES — When “All Quiet on the Western Front” first premiered back in September, there was little to suggest it was about to wage an all-out campaign for Oscar votes.

The German-language World War I film comes from Netflix, which had a roster of far more expensive “prestige” movies primed for Academy Award pushes, from Oscar-winning director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s “Bardo” to the star-studded “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”.

But while those have largely fallen by the wayside, with one nomination each, “All Quiet” has emerged from the crowded trenches of awards season hopefuls as an Oscars frontrunner, with nine nods, including for much-coveted best picture honors.

“It really feels like a wave of joy and luck that has come over us,” director Edward Berger told AFP, days before his film won seven prizes at Britain’s BAFTAs, including best film.

“We’re very grateful for that... it’s a German war movie!” 

Indeed, Berger’s film is the third screen adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s seminal novel about naive young German soldiers confronted with the horrors of war — but the first shot in the author’s native language.

Had he been asked, the director “would have immediately said no” to making another English-language version.

Luckily, the decision to flip the script was helped by Netflix’s wildly successful expansion into new global markets with recent subtitled hits such as South Korean series “Squid Game” and Oscar-winning film “Roma”.

The movie’s eventual $20 million price tag was comparatively small change for the streaming giant, but a huge sum in the German film industry.

“We wouldn’t have gotten the type of budget that you need to make this film five years ago,” said Berger.

The film’s best picture Oscar nomination is the first for any German-language movie.

Creative licence

Ironically, the film has been far better received outside of the German-speaking world than it has at home, where many reviewers savaged it.

In particular, critics slammed Berger’s decision to depart from Remarque’s text, which — with 50 million copies sold worldwide, and the legacy of being banned by the Nazis — holds hallowed status in Germany today.

Unlike the novel, the film portrays tense armistice peace talks with French generals. It also omits a section in which one of its war-hardened heroes visits home but cannot readjust to civilian life. 

“I don’t follow it very closely... that’s part of the journalist’s job — to observe, criticise,” shrugged Berger.

“I felt licensed to make those changes” because “why make it the same?” he added.

To encapsulate the “physical difference” between the film’s reception at home and overseas, Berger pointed to one especially harrowing scene towards the end of the movie.

A key character is fatally bayoneted through the back — a moment which Berger intended to be heartbreaking and brutal, but not necessarily unexpected, given the novel’s fame and the war’s unfathomable death toll. 

Yet at the film’s world premiere in Toronto last year, “there was a loud gasp in the audience”, he recalled.

“I was so surprised, because I didn’t plan on this... In Germany, that didn’t happen,” said Berger.

“As Germans, we expect — in a German movie about war — you cannot have a hero. You cannot have people be successful in the mission. You almost cannot have a soldier survive,” he said.

By contrast, “in America, you’re used to the hero. You want them to come out positively, and you cling on to the hope that your hero is going to change the world”.

In any case, Berger did not sign up out of any sense of patriotic duty. The film and the original anti-war novel are both stridently against jingoism of any stripe. 

“We wanted to make a very German movie — but we are not making it for the country,” he said.

Whatever happens at the Oscars ceremony on March 12, “All Quiet” clearly left an indelible impact on voters at the US-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

First launched in 2010 as the Ingolstadt manufacturer’s dramatic, sure-footed and user-friendly alternative to the fashionable Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class, the sporty, low-slung and upmarket Audi A7 liftback is an even more accomplished car and cohesively flowing design in its second generation.

Introduced in late 2017, the Mk2 Audi A7 is not just a more convincingly premium product that better walks the fine line between practical saloon and stylish grand tourer, and boasts both improved driving dynamics and ride comfort over its predecessor.

New horizon

A competitor to the CLS-Class and the BMW 6-Series Gran Coupe, the Audi A7 is, however, far more than an afterthought based on the A6 executive saloon. Positioned between the A6 and luxury A8 saloons, the A7 instead harks back to the ‘C2’ generation 1977 Audi 100 Avant, which employed a similarly sleek, stylish yet utilitarian lift-back rear hatch design. As a result, the A7 offers better daily drive practicality and boot access than both co-national rivals in a distinctly sportier and more elegantly assertive design.

Shark-like and predatory in demeanour, the long, wide and low slung A7 has an almost nautical design sensibility with its large, bold and upright signature hexagonal Audi grille giving way to a fluently tapered rear deck, along a level waistline with an upward rear kink, and down its long descending roofline. Adopting moody full-width rear lights, the new A7’s design emphasises the horizontal plane, and features slim, heavily browed and scowling headlights, vaguely reminiscent of its distant 100 Avant predecessor’s dramatically deep-set quad headlamps.

Quick confidence

The entry-level petrol four-wheel-drive mode, the A7 45 TFSI Quattro is powered by a turbocharged direct injection 2-litre four-cylinder engine. Positioned just ahead of the front axle, the A7’ slightly nose-heavy architecture is disguised by an elegantly long and defined bonnet, while muscular rear haunches are a subtle callback to the iconic 1980 “Ur” Quattro, and allude to the A7’s grippy four-wheel-drive system, which now employs on a more efficient “Ultra” version that primarily drives the front wheels but responsively re-allocates up to 85 per cent power rearwards when needed.

Developing 241BHP at a 5,250-6,500rpm plateau and 273lb/ft throughout a broad 1,600-4,300rpm range, the A7 45 TFSI Quattro launches briskly but sure-footedly from standstill. With its quick spooling turbo, four-wheel-drive traction and slick and quick-shifting 7-speed dual-clutch automated gearbox, the A7 un-dramatically propels its 1,760kg mass through 0-100km/h in just 6.2-seconds and onto 250km/h. Responsive from low-end and effortlessly flexible in mid-range, it is refined and smooth, with a distant and subdued snarl as it progressively climbs to its peak power band.

Composed and committed

Thoroughly well-equipped with numerous standard and optional high tech infotainment, driver assistance and mechanical systems, the new A7 also features a 48V mild hybrid system that recuperates kinetic braking energy and powers ancillary systems, and allows for longer coasting and improved stop/start functionality, to reduce fuel consumption to a relatively frugal 7.4l/100, combined. The A7’s Quattro Ultra four-wheel-drive meanwhile allows for reduced friction and fuel efficiency improvement. Almost seamless in operation, it can even pre-empt — rather than just respond — when four-wheel-drive is necessary.

Driving all wheels for all-weather confidence and varying power front-to-rear through corners for grip and agility, the A7’s tenacious Quattro four-wheel-drive is renowned for reassuring road-holding and ability to effectively put power down. Sportier and better handling than its predecessor, with its sophisticated all-round five-link suspension, the A7’s quick and direct electric-assisted steering is tidy turning in, and belies its front-biased weighting. A more eager and manoeuvrable drive than to be expected, the A7 is committed, fluent and poised through corners.

Quiet comfort

Composed, capable and effortlessly calm in delivery, whether in town and on the highway, the A7 is in its element through fast sweeping corners, with its superb road-holding and good lateral control. The new A7 is meanwhile a more comfortably forgiving ride than previous, and is supple and smooth on most imperfections, despite its aggressive design and firm low profile tyres. Settled and controlled in vertical movement, the A7 can feel slightly firm over sudden and jagged bumps and potholes.

Quiet and refined with its low CD0.26 aerodynamics, the A7’s hunkered down driving position is, meanwhile, supportive and comfortable, and complemented by user-friendly controls and layouts, a classy, contemporary and well-appointed environment, and a configurable digital instrument panel and twin infotainment screens with haptic feedback. Forgoing some of its saloon sisters’ rear headroom, the A7 is a larger and more spacious car than its predecessor, and can accommodate taller rear passengers, while its practical rear hatch allows easy access to a generous 535-litre boot, which expands to 1,390-litres.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Engine: 2-litre, turbocharged, in-line 4-cylinders
• Bore x stroke: 82.5 x 92.8mm
• Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC, direct injection
• Gearbox: 7-speed dual clutch automated, four-wheel-drive
• Ratios: 1st 3.188; 2nd 2.19; 3rd 1.517; 4th 1.057; 5th 0.738; 6th 0.557; 7th 0.433
• Reverse/final drive: 2.75/4.41
• Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 241 (245) [180] @5250-6,500rpm (estimate)
• Specific power: 121.5BHP/litre
• Power-to-weight: 137BHP/tonne (unladen)
• Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 273 (370) @1,600-4,300rpm
• Specific torque: 186.5Nm/litre
• Torque-to-weight: 210Nm/tonne (unladen)
• 0-100km/h: 6.2-seconds
• Top speed: 250km/h (electronically governed)
• Fuel consumption, combined: 7.4-8.4 litres/100km 
• Fuel capacity: 63-litres
• Wheelbase: 2,926mm
• Track, F/R: 1,651/1,637mm
• Aerodynamic drag co-efficient: 0.26
• Luggage volume, min/max: 535-/1,390-litres
• Unladen/kerb weight: 1,760/1,835kg
• Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion
• Steering ratio: 15.9:1
• Turning circle: 12.4-metres
• Suspension: Five-link
• Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs, 338mm/330mm
• Tyres: 245/45R19

Memories: An Oasis 
in Time
Kamel S. Abu Jaber
UK: Hesperus Press Limited, 2023
Pp. 203

In a disarmingly straight-forward manner, the late Dr Kamel Abu Jaber has recalled the big events and meaningful details of his life, in a memoir posthumously prepared for publication by his wife, Loretta Pacifica Abu Jaber. From rollicking descriptions of schoolboy pranks at the Bishop’s School, to observations gleaned while serving Jordan in various capacities, Abu Jaber’s modesty, intellectual acumen and sly sense of humour shine through. At the same time, his account sheds light on the huge transformations Jordan underwent during his life span, signifying both continuity and change.

Abu Jaber often highlights the unexpected, including the contrasts which exist side-by-side in Jordan, belying the superficial impression that it is a monolithic or even dull country. Such contrasts extend to his own family: “My mother was a devout Anglican, my father a devout Bedouin…” as cited on the back cover of the book.

The initial focus is on Salt, Yadudeh and Amman, the three pivotal locations of his family and his own life, though later chapters cover his world travels. He traces his family’s origins to a Muslim tribe of Beer Al Sabi’ in South Palestine, and prior to that, Yemen. Bringing his lineage up to date, he states: “However exaggerated this account [for there are other narratives of the Abu Jabers’ origins], the relations today between the Muslim Abu Jabers, now refugees having been expelled from their ancestral homeland by Israel, following the Arab-Israeli War of 1967, and the East Jordanian Christian Abu Jabers are very amicable.” (p. 13)

Close relations between Palestinians and Jordanians, and between Christians and Muslims, are a thread that courses throughout the book. The first chapters are quite fascinating as they trace Abu Jaber’s immediate ancestors, whose lives were entangled with the fateful events of the first half of the 20th century, with many of them being actively involved. One can only agree when he says of the Sykes-Picot Agreements and the Balfour Declaration: “These two betrayals committed behind the backs of the Arabs remain, to this day, major factors in Arab politics.” (p. 37)

Politics entered Abu Jaber’s life with awareness of the Palestinian cause. “I always felt deeply disturbed by the hostility between Arabs and Jews. Things could have been different had the Zionists approached the Arabs in a different, peaceful, manner… In their quest to liberate themselves from the ghettos of Europe and America, they destroyed their only real and true friendship, that with the Arabs… in their escape from the Western ghettos, they imposed upon themselves a larger ghetto, called Israel… (pp. 93-94)

As a schoolboy in 1948, he planned with friends to escape to Palestine and join the forces of Abdul Khader Al Husseini or Fawzi Al Qawuqji, but his plan was thwarted. “Today my generation, like those before and probably those after, views the world through the lens of the Palestine Problem.” (p. 97)

In his life and career, Abu Jaber balanced between East and West, between academia and politics, between seeking peace with an intransigent enemy and standing up for Palestinian and Arab rights. Educated and married in the US, Abu Jaber nonetheless sought to return to Jordan, thinking his country would need him, especially after the 1967 Arab defeat. Ironically and inexplicably, despite repeated applications, he was turned down by Jordan University, and ended up teaching at several US universities in the interim. Finally, via a personal intervention, he discovered that his rejection was the result of a misunderstanding, and he was hired on the spot. 

However, less than a year later, he was requested to become Cabinet minister of national economy. Thereafter followed years of alternating between teaching and holding official posts, too numerous to detail here, well into his semi-retirement. Most notably, he served as foreign minister which led directly to his heading the joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation to the peace conference in Madrid in 1991, the eventual failure of which he places squarely on the Israeli government’s shoulders. It is indicative of Abu Jaber’s generosity and sense of fairness that he gives credit to his aides in the various posts he held.

There are many reasons to enjoy reading this book. The chapters on his family background and childhood are enchanting, and are very informative about local culture. Teachers, like this reviewer, will be interested in his descriptions of the school day back in the 1940s. Historians will appreciate his perceptive take on political events and frank revelations about his occasional disagreements with official Jordanian policy, as he combined Arab nationalism with loyalty to Jordan, while always maintaining a degree of independence.

The book cover is graced with Riham Al Ghassib’s quaint and colourful depiction of the Abu Jaber farm, while historical pictures compiled by Loretta Abu Jaber add to the text’s appeal. “Memories” is available at the Jordan Book Centre and select bookstores in Amman.

By Rania Sa’adi
Licensed Rapid Transformational Therapist and Clinical Hypnotherapist

We’ve started another year with a long list of goals and achievements to pursue. And although one’s motivation is on a high, we may lose most of it sooner than we would like! So, how can we keep our motivation going and move forward with our plans to avoid procrastination?

You may feel demotivated for the simple reason that you don’t know where to start from. Setting up specific achievable goals and breaking them into smaller ones is key. Taking one small step at a time towards that goal, will make achieving it more attainable, thus motivating you to achieve tasks at hand.

Enjoy the journey

Fixating on the end goal sometimes makes one feel demotivated and overwhelmed. The best way to achieve goals is to enjoy the journey of arriving there, with its ups and downs and arriving there without any expectations. The end goal can be changed and adjusted along the way.

Being fixated on the goal sometimes, without the necessary adjustments and changes, be it personal or circumstantial, may make you feel disappointed in yourself if whenever you don’t reach it. This may demotivate you and hinder you from achieving any future goals that you seek.

Moving on

When we feel failure and disappointment in ourselves, we put ourselves down quicker than anyone else does. Eventually, we may feel demotivated and lose interest in moving ahead.

One of the main reasons why people get demotivated even before they start a task, is the fear of failure. The worry of not getting it right from the first attempt keeps one from starting, and hence procrastinating. However, readiness is an illusion, because how can you be ready and sure that you will do it right, without even trying?

Allowing ourselves to make mistakes is the first step into learning; keeping in mind that any outcome may not be the desired one “yet”, but nevertheless is a result. We can thus learn from it and apply what we learnt the first time round into our next attempt. Remember, FAIL is an acronym for “First Attempt In Learning”. We need to fail, in order to succeed.

Finding motivation

One of the best ways to find motivation is through your own self-talk. Using what we call the “Thinking loop” is one of the best tools: thoughts lead to feelings, and feelings lead to behaviours.

So, when you change your thought, you feel better about the situation and therefore do better.

Thinking about any task that you want to achieve by saying to yourself “I can do it, I choose to do it, and I love doing it,” makes you feel motivated, excited and thrilled to go ahead and do it. And eventually the behaviour will be of you taking action towards achieving it. Looping back and confirming the same thought that you started off with “I can do it”.

Now use the same example to say to yourself “I don’t feel like doing it, but I have to” and experience what it feels like: pressured, discouraged and demotivated. The behaviour or action you take in this case is no action at all!

The more it becomes a belief

Because the mind learns by repetition, the more we repeat a positive thought, the more it becomes a belief. Remember that first we make our beliefs and then our beliefs make us.

One of the habits of successful people is that they do what they need to do in order to achieve their goals, and they do it first. There is a certain amount of energy associated with doing any given task, and when we spend the time thinking about that task, rather than doing it, we are already wasting some of this energy. Thus, the quality of our achievement is affected.

One thing to understand is that motivation comes from taking action, not from inaction. So, go on and start and you will become motivated. 

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

WASHINGTON — Who were the first people to ride horses?

Researchers believe they have found the earliest evidence of horseback riding, by the ancient Yamnaya people in Europe some 5,000 years ago.

Their conclusions, based on an analysis of human skeletal remains found in Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania, were published on Friday in the journal Science Advances.

Domestication of horses for milk is widely accepted to have begun around 3500BC to 3000BC, the study said, but the “origins of horseback riding remain elusive”.

The researchers from the University of Helsinki and other European institutions date the earliest horsemanship to 3000BC to 2500BC among members of the Yamnaya culture.

“Our findings provide a strong argument that horseback riding was already a common activity for some Yamnaya individuals as early as 3000BC,” the researchers said.

Horse bones have been discovered in Yamnaya settlements but they are not as well preserved as human skeletons, which were given proper burials in earth-covered mounds known as “kurgans”.

The researchers said the human skeletons provided the best source of information about horse riding because any riding tack used by early riders would have been made using perishable materials.

The researchers said some of the human skeletons they analysed bore skeletal traits indicative of what they called “horsemanship syndrome”.

“A skeleton of a living person is reacting,” Martin Trautmann, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki and one of the authors of the study, told AFP.

“If you sit on horseback you need to balance with every step of your mount, you need to cling tightly with your legs.”

Doing that repeatedly leaves tell-tale changes in bone morphology, Trautmann said, including “stress-induced vertebral degeneration”, a common ailment among avid horse riders.

“We know that saddles and stirrups dated much later,” Trautmann said, and the early horse riders were probably riding bareback and gripping the mane of the horse.

‘Cowboys, not warriors’

Volker Heyd, a professor of archeology at the University of Helsinki, said the findings “fit very nicely into the overall picture” of Yamnaya culture.

“We were already suspecting them of using horses,” Heyd said, and it could help explain the “exceptional” geographic expansion of their society in a few generations.

“It is difficult to envision how this expansion could have taken place without improved means of transport,” the researchers said.

“Using horses for transport was a decisive step in human cultural development,” they said.

“Trade and cultural exchange as well as conflicts and migrations leapt with the increase in speed and range provided by horsemanship.”

The researchers said the Yamnaya were probably not initially using horses for warfare.

“They were cowboys, not warriors,” said Trautmann.

Heyd said the early horse riders “were probably helping the Yamnaya people in guarding their animals, their cattle and sheep mostly”.

According to the researchers, the earliest figurative evidence of horse riding comes from the Mesopotamian Ur III period shortly before 2000BC through depictions of a horse and rider.

Images and mentions in cuneiform texts of horseback riding are also found in the Old Babylonian period from around 1880BC to 1595BC.

CANNES, France — For now, Europe’s Euclid spacecraft sits quietly in a sterilised room in the south of France, its golden trim gleaming under the fluorescent light.

But in a few months the space telescope will blast off on history’s first mission to search for two of the universe’s greatest mysteries: dark matter and dark energy.

Though together they make up 95 per cent of the universe, almost nothing is known about either — a glaring hole in scientific understanding that Euclid project manager Giuseppe Racca dubbed a “cosmic embarrassment”.

Aiming to shed light on these dark secrets, the European Space Agency’s mission will chart a 3D map of the universe encompassing two billion galaxies across more than a third of the sky.

The third dimension of this map will be time — because Euclid’s gaze will stretch out to 10 billion light years away, it will offer new insight into how the 13.8-billion-year-old universe evolved.

The two-tonne spacecraft, which is 4.7 metres tall and 3.5 metres wide, was unveiled to the media for the first time this week in a clean room of the Thales Alenia Space company in the south-eastern French city of Cannes.

Only a few final tests remain before it heads to Cape Canaveral in the United States for a launch scheduled between July 1 and 30 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Euclid was originally planned to get a ride into space on a Russian Soyuz rocket, but last year Moscow withdrew its launchers in response to European sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, delaying the launch.

Taking a wider view

Euclid will join fellow space telescope James Webb at a stable hovering spot around 1.5 million kilometres from Earth called the second Lagrangian Point, where it can keep its solar panel-covered back permanently to the Sun. 

The first images are expected to roll in quickly once scientific operations start in October, but for larger discoveries it will likely take scientists months or years to sift through the “unprecedented amount of data”, Racca said.

The 1.4-billion-euro ($1.5 billion) European mission is planned to last until 2029, though “if nothing strange happens” it could be extended a couple more years, Racca told a press conference.

How will Euclid, which is named after the ancient Greek founder of the field of geometry, observe something that cannot be seen? By searching for its absence.

The light coming from billions of years in the past is slightly distorted by the mass of visible and dark matter along the way, a phenomenon known as weak gravitational lensing.

“By subtracting the visible matter, we can calculate the presence of the dark matter which is in between,” Racca said.

To do this, Euclid has two main instruments, a 1.2-metre diameter telescope and the Near Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer, which can split infrared wavelengths not visible to the eye. 

‘Unique tool’

Partly what sets Euclid apart from other space telescopes is its field of view, which takes in an area equivalent to “two full moons”, said David Elbaz, an astrophysicist at the French Atomic Energy Commission. 

This wide view will enable Euclid to locate massive structures like black holes that the Webb telescope cannot hope to find because its “field of view is too small”, Euclid’s project scientist Rene Laureijs told AFP.

But Euclid’s universe-spanning survey will be able to point Webb in the right direction for closer inspection, said Laureijs, who has been working on the project since the proposal stage in 2007.

The mission comes amid increasing signs that there are some serious inconsistencies in our understanding of how the universe works.

Two very precise measurements give two significantly different answers for the rate at which the universe is expanding — a problem called the Hubble tension in which dark energy is thought to play a major role.

And just this week, the Webb telescope spotted six galaxies in the early universe that seemingly defy cosmological theory because they are far too massive to have formed so quickly after the Big Bang.

Euclid will be a “unique tool” in the quest to find answers to such questions, Elbaz said.