During the Roman era, Hero was a Greek mathematician and engineer in Alexandria, Egypt; respected as the greatest experimenter of antiquity, his work illustrated the Hellenistic scientific tradition. Daedalus was a brilliant architect, inventor, and sculptor who built the Labyrinth for King Minos of Crete. The ancient Greeks and Romans assigned the name ‘Labyrinth’ to a building when it was completely or partially underground, and contained a system of complex chambers, blind alleys, and passageways. Artists and researchers have used AI to create artistic works since its founding in 1956. During the 1970s, Harold Cohen produced and exhibited generative AI paintings which he created on a computer program he wrote. The Greek god of invention, Hephaestus, created the first machine; a giant, bronze robot named Talos. More than two thousand five hundred years ago, centuries before technology had any success, Ancient Greek, Roman, Indian, and Chinese mythology explored solutions to create artificial life, automata, human augmentations, self-moving devices, and replicated ancient inventions of animated machines.

Artificial Intelligence refers to the development of computer systems that can perform tasks equivalent to human intelligence. To accomplish the best possible results when faced with difficult problems, companies combine AI with other analytical techniques such as contextual analysis, deep learning, knowledge graphs, machine learning, natural language processing, and other methods. Acknowledging that there is no all-purpose AI technique, composite AI is the amalgamation of several AI techniques to improve learning proficiency and increase knowledge interpretation. Composite AI provides a platform to combine multiple AI techniques, solve a wider challenge span, and interpret data successfully. Digital twins are virtual replicas of physical objects, processes, or systems that simulate the behaviour of the physical twin to understand how they work in real life. Digital twins are connected to real data sources in the environment which means that the twin updates in real time to replicate the original version. Digital models serve as real-world physical counterparts for simulation, monitoring, integration, maintenance, and testing.

The emergence of deep learning advanced research in image classification, natural language processing, speech recognition, and other disciplines. Machine learning (ML) is a sub-branch of AI and computer science that enables computers to ‘learn’ and improve through experience and data. ML focuses on data, algorithm models, statistical, and generative models. The machine learning model creates new, original content such as images, text, or music based on patterns and structures learned from existing data. To imitate human behaviour, the algorithm analyses data, categorises images, and predicts price variations. IBM has a rich history in machine learning. Natural language processing (NLP) is a subfield of AI, computer science, and linguistics concerned with programming computers to process and analyse substantial amounts of natural language data and the interactions between computers and human language. NLP allows machines to dissect and interpret human language. It is the main tools we use every day such as search engines, grammar correction software, translation software, spam filters, voice assistants, chatbots, and social media monitoring tools. The goal is to have a computer capable of ‘understanding’ the language of document contents, to accurately extract information and insights, and to categorise the documents.

Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) is a large sub-branch that builds on existing technologies; therefore, it rapidly developed over a brief period. GenAI identifies as a discipline that studies the ‘completely programmed’ creation of intelligence. This contrasts with contemporary AI, which studies the understanding and explanation of intelligence by humans. GenAI goes beyond ML, combining different techniques to improve AI’s versatility and efficiency. Rather than solely analysing existing information as in ML, GenAI trains models from massive amounts of data which facilitates learning patterns and structures that in turn allows generating original content. GenAI is trained on deep-learning models to acquire a set of algorithms to generate text, speech, graphics, images, ideas, conversations, simulations, audio, videos, code, structures, product designs, synthetic data, and other content from the vast amounts of data on the training model. Like all AI, generative AI is powered by large machine learning models known as Large Language Models (LLMs). Unlike traditional AI systems that are designed to recognise patterns and make predictions, GenAI uses a form of AI that engages a wide range of applications as well as deep learning algorithms; developed in 2014, generative adversarial networks (GANs) and variational autoencoders (VAEs) produced the first practical deep neural networks that could learn generative models of complex data to output complete sets of original data.

Generative AI: 1) is AI tools that rely on substantial amounts of third-party data, neural network architecture, and complex algorithms to create original content. 2) represent a concept shift in innovation, impacting enterprises that invest in AI applications. 3) use neural networks to recognise existing data patterns and generate original content. One of the breakthroughs with generative AI models is the ability to leverage different learning methods for training such as semi-supervised or unsupervised learning. 4) is used by several industries such as art, fashion, finance, gaming, healthcare, marketing, product design, software development, and script writing. While the conversation around this technology has concentrated on AI image and art generation, generative AI can do much more than generate static images from text prompts. GenAI’s transformative tools have empowered individuals and organisations to create music, art, and other forms of media effortlessly.

In 2017, the Transformer network enabled improvements in generative models that, in 2018, became known as the first Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT), named GPT-1. During 2019, this model was followed by GPT-2 which could generalise several unsupervised tasks as a foundation model. In 2021, OpenAI released DALL-E (a transformer-based pixel generative model). These developments marked the arrival of high-quality artificial intelligence art from natural language prompts. GPT-4 was released in March 2023.

Because of its capabilities, the technology has fascinated the virtual and real world and is evolving as a transformative innovation. A noticeable example of generative AI is predictive search; Google trains LLMs on billions of search queries made by users over the years. Large language model (LLM) chatbots are ChatGPT, Bing Chat, Bard, LLaMA, and text-to-image artificial intelligence art systems such as Stable Diffusion (an AI generated art program developed by Stability AI), Midjourney (developed in an independent research laboratory in San Francisco), and DALL-E (an AI system that can create original, realistic images and art from a short text description). As with OpenAI’s DALL-E and Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion, Midjourney creates images from natural language descriptions known as ‘prompts.’

ChatGPT is a chatbot that empowers users to seamlessly steer a conversation towards an anticipated detail level, format, language, length, and style. Bing is a web search engine owned and operated by Microsoft. The service traces its roots back to Microsoft’s earlier search engines, MSN Search, Windows Live Search, and Live Search. Bing offers a broad spectrum of search services, incorporating web, image, video, and map search products. Live Search became Bing in June 2009. Integrated directly into the search engine and based on GPT-4, Microsoft launched Bing Chat (an AI chatbot) in February 2023. The chatbot was well-received as Bing reached one hundred million active users the following month. Bard is a generative AI chatbot developed by Google AI, originally based on the LaMDA family of large language models and later the PaLM LLMs. Bard was released in March 2023 and is available in two hundred and thirty-eight countries and forty-six languages. LLaMA is a family of LLMs released by Meta AI since February 2023. For the first version of LLaMa, four model sizes were trained; seven, thirteen, thirty-three, and sixty-five billion parameters. Meta AI is an artificial intelligence research laboratory that focuses on generating knowledge for the AI community. The company’s objective is to improve augmented and artificial reality technologies and to develop several categories of artificial intelligence. Investment in generative AI surged during the early 2020s with large companies such as Microsoft, Google, and Baidu developing generative AI models to create text, images, and other media. Survey results revealed that high performance companies such as OpenAI, DeepMind, and Nvidia invested heavily in more traditional AI capabilities as well as GenAI; using reinforcement learning with human feedback to make generative AI output more reliable.

Applications such as ChatGPT and DALL-E became popular in 2022. OpenAI, the developer of the Artificial intelligence chatbot Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT), launched the large language model-based chatbot (written in Python) in November 2022. OpenAI’s DALL-E can make realistic and context-aware edits, insert, remove, or retouch specific sections of an image from a natural language description. Its flexibility allows users to create and edit original images, from artistic to photorealistic images. DALL-E excels at natural language descriptions; users can simply describe what they want to see. More than one and a half million users such as artists, architects, authors, and creative directors are actively creating more than two million images per day with DALL-E. Artificial intelligence researchers describe DALL-E as a neural network; a mathematical system freely modelled on the network of neurons in the brain.

Keeping in mind that the output depends on what the AI was trained on, Apple capitalised in generative AI to improve their Siri, Messages and Apple Music products. If it was trained on text, the output will be text such as in the large language models. Algorithms and models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT (which is a chatbot on top of a large language model) can be prompted to generate several types of content. GenAI stimulated several start-ups and encouraged major investments by Amazon, Google, and Microsoft with the induction of technologies such as ChatGPT, Bard, and Dall -E. AI Writing for content generation, AI Art, and AI Video are GenAI technology applications that use deep learning algorithms to create new content from current data. OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard rely on statistical likelihood. They are great tools that can help with several tasks such as data analysis, learning, teaching, and writing.

Generative AI is the latest innovation in the artificial intelligence industry. It is one of the most powerful artificial intelligence technologies. The potential misuse of GenAI to manipulate or deceive people include fake news and cybercrime. GenAI’s ability to create realistic fake content has been exploited in cybercrime phishing scams. Audio and video have been used to spread disinformation and commit fraud. Cybercriminals have created LLMs such as FraudGPT and WormGPT to focus on fraud. Individuals, businesses, and governments have raised concerns. In the European Union, the proposed Artificial Intelligence Act includes the obligation to disclose copyrighted material used to train generative AI systems, and to label any AI-generated output. In the United States, a group of companies (including OpenAI, Meta, and Alphabet) signed a voluntary agreement in July 2023 to watermark AI-generated content. On 10 July 2023, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), joined by six other central government regulators, issued a finalised text of Interim Measures for the Management of Generative Artificial Intelligence Services such as ChatGPT to the public of mainland China. It contains restrictions on personal data collection, regulations on training data and label quality, requirements to watermark generated images and videos, and guidelines for generative AI to ‘adhere to socialist core values.’ They are set to take effect on 15 August 2023.

On 2 October 2015, the restructuring of Google created Alphabet Inc. (headquartered in Mountain View, California) as Google’s public holding company; thus, Alphabet became the parent company of several former Google group companies. These companies now had greater independence to operate in businesses other than internet services. Alphabet has developed into one of the world’s most valuable companies; it is the world’s third-largest technology company by revenue. Along with Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, and Meta it is acknowledged as one of the Big Five American information technology companies. OpenAI is an American artificial intelligence research organisation and consists of the non-profit OpenAI Inc. registered in Delaware and its for-profit subsidiary corporation OpenAI Global LLC. The company was founded in 2015 by Andrej Karpathy, Durk Kingma, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, Jessica Livingston, John Schulman, Pamela Vagata, Trevor Blackwell, Vicki Cheung, and Wojciech Zaremba. Elon Musk and Sam Altman served as the original board members. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, California. The company’s products are GPT-1, GPT-2, GPT-3, GPT-4, ChatGPT, DALL·E, OpenAI Five, and OpenAI Codex. In 2019, Microsoft provided OpenAI Global LLC with a one-billion-dollar investment and in 2023 with a ten-billion-dollar investment.

Elon Musk describes AI as humanity’s ‘biggest existential threat.’ Sam Altman believes Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) will surpass human intelligence; AGI must not be confused with Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI). Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), or strong AI, is AI that reveals human-like intelligence and is ‘generally smarter than humans.’ It would be a machine that could understand the world as well as any human and be able to learn how to carry out a vast number of tasks. The definition is debatable, but it’s mainly understood as something scientific and proportionally more advanced than we presently have. Altman and Musk have stated that they are partly motivated by concerns about AI safety and the existential risk that AGI poses. OpenAI’s stance is that ‘it’s hard to fathom how much human-level AI could benefit society’; likewise, it is difficult to understand ‘how much it could damage society if used incorrectly.’ Scientists Stuart Russell and Stephen Hawking have expressed concerns that when advanced AI gains the ability to re-design itself at an ever-increasing speed, an inevitable ‘intelligence explosion’ could result in human extinction.

GenAI’s ability to create new and unique content will eventually impact industries and unlock exciting opportunities in several fields such as art, entertainment, design, marketing, and social sciences. It has already shown immense potential in enhancing medical imaging like data augmentation, image synthesis, image-to-image translation, and radiology report generation. The rapid development in GenAI can play a significant role in employee training and development via personalised learning programs and adapting training paths based on individual needs. The technology will be able to analyse employees’ skills, interests, and professional development needs. Furthermore, it has the potential to transform government business processes, change how state employees perform their work and improve government efficiency. Recent developments offer transformative change across various sections such as scientific research, education, healthcare, and medicine. Generative AI can shape the future in countless ways, whether through creating new forms of art and expression, making investment decisions, or improving health care outcomes, the possibilities are endless.

GenAI exposed the complexity of the calculations required to successfully leverage AI to the next level. Although generative AI is still far from Artificial General Intelligence, the estimation is that by 2025, about ten percent of all data will be the result of Generative Artificial Intelligence creations.

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The term ‘glitch’ or ‘bug’ is the expression that a computer program, system, or machine is defective or faulty. A glitch is a flaw in a system as a result of unknown causes. It can refer to a brief error in a system due to a sporadic hardware fault on an external device or poor power supply that can correct itself, making it difficult to troubleshoot. In Information Technology (IT), a bug is an error or fault in any computer program or hardware system. A software bug is a computer program or system failure in the development, design, or operation of computer software that causes it to yield unexpected results. It can influence the functioning, safety, and security of computer operating systems. Various issues can produce temporary or permanent problems such as programming mistakes, screen abnormalities, keyboard malfunctions, and conflicts with software and hardware installed on a computer.

‘Glitch’ is sometimes substituted with the word ‘bug.’ A computer glitch is when there is a problem with the normal functioning of a computer, allowing it to act strangely. The difference between the two is that a glitch causes a temporary disruption while a bug refers to a serious problem that frequently includes hardware. While interference from portable electronics and microwaves, damaged cables at the broadcasting centre, weather, defects in software and hardware, errors within operating systems, and problems triggered by computer bugs or viruses cause glitches, they can be disruptive on a major organisation’s network. Incorrect interpretation while developing software requirements and human errors while designing programs and writing source codes are some of the reasons why software has bugs.

Removing a virus may be the only way to fix a glitch if it is caused by a computer virus.  Once the source is found, it will be easier to fix. A problem hosted by a hardware glitch is known as a technical glitch. If serious glitches are not fixed, they may prompt severe damage such as total system failure. Several software bugs are responsible for space and military aircraft crashes. The famous Y2K bug caused various programs written long before the transition of dates from the 1900’s to 2000’s to malfunction. A massive attempt at the end of the twentieth century fixed the critical problems in the Y2K bug.

An identical problem to the Y2K bug is the Epochalypse or the Y2K38 superbug. It is a time formatting bug that represents times after 03:14:07 (three hours fourteen minutes and seven seconds) Universal Time Co-ordinated (UTC) on 19 January 2038. The problem is dormant in systems measuring Unix time. The number of seconds elapsed since the Unix epoch 00:00:00 (zero) UTC on 1 January 1970. The bug has already challenged several applications that use future dates. Computer systems that use time for critical computations may face fatal errors if the Y2K38 bug is not solved. Although there is no resolution, several modern systems have been upgraded to measure Unix time. Susceptible systems are those that are seldom updated or that have never been updated.

In 2012, the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), a federally funded research and development centre for the National Nuclear Security Administration of the United States Department of Energy, acknowledged that for more than twenty years the commercial aerospace industry, the military, and the computer industry have been aware that high-energy neutrons in the atmosphere are able to effect computer errors. Even Time magazine defined the word ‘glitch’ in a 1965 article as a spaceman’s word for ‘irritating disturbances.’ Time believed that the term was used during the 1950s American Space Race to define minor faults in rocket hardware that could not be described as anything else. In August 2016, the Open Technology Institute, run by the group ‘New America,’ released a report ‘Bugs in the System.’ The report addressed three issues namely: U.S. policymakers should consider amendments to assist researchers in identifying software bugs, adjust the study field to include the discovery of software susceptibility and cyber software vulnerability, and to reform computer crime and copyright laws to ‘the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

Almost ninety percent of emails contain some form of malware. More than six thousand new computer viruses are created every month. A lazy fix twenty-three years ago means the Y2K bug is currently stalking computers. Cash registers and parking meters are victims of a computer glitch related to the Y2K bug. Control Alt Delete is a 2008 Canadian comedy film which premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival. It is set in an IT firm before the year 2000 where the lead programmer is tasked with solving several Y2K bugs. As the year 2000 approaches, he anxiously works to resolve the Y2K glitch. The bug refers to potential computer errors related to the formatting and storage of calendar data for dates in and after the year 2000. Computer designers forgot to program computer systems to handle four-digit dates. The problem was in the coding of systems across multiple types of software that reduced calendar years in data sets. The panic was that banks, government agencies, and society would shut down after midnight on 31 December 1999. The second after midnight was the entry into the next century. It was expected to create chaos in computers and computer networks around the globe. International programming and preparations started well in advance of twelve months and when the new era finally arrived, few major failures resulted. The millennium bug is the perfect example of how mass hysteria promoted technophobia (the fear of technology). 

Computers can do things humans can’t, such as work out complex equations in less time it takes to count to twenty, but software malfunctions can have serious consequences. In the United States, numerous outages at State Department systems have led to various delays in the processing of digital immigration status, passports, and visas as well as applications for passports, visas and reports of Americans born overseas. In June 2015, the U.S. State Department had a failure in the system that conducted security checks on foreign visitors. It ultimately delayed passport-and-visa-processing at worldwide embassies and impacted travel into the U.S. Across United Kingdom airports, border officers have been replaced by e-gates (digital passport gates), allowing travellers with biometric passports to scan their passports and pass through border control. Chaos erupted when an IT system failure stunted the purpose of the UK Border Force’s electronic passport gates at airports across the U.K. The system failure prevented the use of e-gates for arrivals, causing significant delays in processing arriving passengers via manual passport security checks. Australia uses immigration smart gates to process arrivals and departures with only two or three officers on site. An estimated ten thousand passengers arrive per hour across Australia; even a slight delay can have a catastrophic effect. An IT systems outage at all Australian international airports caused a shutdown of electronic gates; thus, all inbound and outbound passengers had to be processed manually by immigration officers. Working with the Department of Home Affairs, the Australian Border Force (ABF) instructed the Department of Border Protection to arrange for extra officers. The complexity of the computer systems powering the global operations of airlines is heavily affected by computer glitches, bugs, and errors. The booking system that American Airlines use to assign pilots to flights indicated that it allocated enough captains and first officers over Christmas when in fact there was a shortage of pilots.

During September 2013, a computer glitch delayed unemployment checks for almost eighty thousand Californians; many depend on the money to feed their families and pay their bills. A computer error at New York’s Housing Authority left residents waiting endlessly for critical paperwork; some even forfeited their homes. The delays were due to a new thirty-six-million-dollar computer system. When a computer glitch in a newly installed computer program in the Dallas County District Clerk’s office limited the retrieval of several court records, defence attorneys could not access vital case information. A California Court installed new legal software known as the Odyssey Case Manager software which led to false criminal records, redundant court trials, and unlawful arrests. Washington state released more than three thousand prisoners early. Nearly three hundred defendants jailed over three days in Harris County were automatically released without appearing in court. A glitch in Everbright’s internal trading systems created chaos on the Chinese stock exchange. The Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) launched a formal inquiry into the unusual trades. In 1991, the collapse of a fifty-seven-thousand-ton sea oil platform caused a massive earthquake. Due to a computer error, residents in Johnson County, Kansas, received a false tornado warning. In 2004, a computer glitch revealed the names of various authors who had written reviews of their own books with the aid of pseudonyms.

Well-known banks that have been seriously affected by either hacking or software and hardware breakdowns – Commonwealth Bank, M and T Bank Corporation, Toronto Dominion Bank (TD Bank), Union Bank, and JPMorgan Chase. Bank of America encountered a problem with several customers unable to access their account information. Wells Fargo (with its headquarters in San Francisco, California) provides banking, investment, and mortgage products. After a systems outage prevented customers from using ATMs, mobile, and online banking services, account issues followed. The glitch happened at a chaotic time for banks in the U.S., amplified by the federal government taking control of Silicon Valley Bank, marking the event the largest American bank failure. Customers reported that direct deposits failed to appear on the system. Wells Fargo mistakenly denied hundreds of customers mortgage adjustments which led to the bank foreclosing on homeowners. The Royal Bank of Scotland computer system problems which started in June 2012 were technical issues that affected computers managed by the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (now NatWest Group), including Ulster Bank, The RBS, and National Westminster Bank. The belief is that the computer failure at the Royal Bank of Scotland was caused by an inexperienced junior technician in India. The computer glitch prevented payments to and from accounts at NatWest, RBS, and Ulster Bank. In 2014, RBS was charged more than forty million British pounds over the incident.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in Washington, DC. functions as a regulatory agency under the U.S. Department of Transportation with the sole mission of civil aviation safety and air traffic services. It is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government that regulates all facets of civil aviation in America as well as neighbouring intercontinental waters. The FAA provides the largest, safest, and busiest National Airspace System (NAS) in the world. NAS is a network of controlled and uncontrolled domestic and oceanic airspace. The Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) sends dynamic information to pilots like alerting them about equipment outages, closed runways, and other potential hazards at a location or along a flight route that could affect the flight. Pilots check the NOTAM system before they commence flight. An FAA ground stop is a process that mandates aircraft that meet explicit criteria to stay on the ground. The conditions for a ground stop may be airspace specific, equipment specific, or airport specific. It is to halt the departure of aircraft destined for an airport or for a geographic area e.g., if a ground stop is called for Los Angeles International Airport, aircraft departing for Los Angeles airport from other airports will be grounded.

During August 2023, the FAA experienced a system outage that affected thousands of flights across the globe. The fault was reported to have been caused by a problem in the NOTAM system. This system failure led to the FAA calling a ground stop which caused ground stops at other airports across America. Major U.S. and U.K. airlines such as American Airlines, British Airlines, Delta Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines were mostly affected. On 8 July 2015, computer failures simultaneously took down three major United States companies, United Airlines, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and the Wall Street Journal’s website. The NYSE had a four-hour complete failure; a system error that flowed through to other markets as well. Well-known technologists and security experts all agreed that the outages were not the results of cyberattacks. They explained how each of the three failures were different in nature and how hacks exploit a single flaw to attack several individuals or businesses at once. The New York Stock Exchange is the main exchange in the financial borough of Lower Manhattan in New York City and the Wall Street Journal is an international economic-oriented daily newspaper, also in New York City. The three companies are business operations that rely on complex computer systems with automated software which involves masses of computer coding; a system outage only requires a single mistake!

In 1999, NASA lost its Mars climate orbiter because a NASA subcontractor used English units instead of the metric system, which caused the malfunction of the orbiter’s thrusters. Nasa’s Hubble Space Telescope was replaced with a powerful successor, the James Webb Space Telescope. The Ariane 5 rocket launch delayed scientific research for almost four years. Therac-25 is a machine that delivers radiation therapy to cancer patients. The technicians who worked with the Therac-25 were used to computer glitches; however, a lack of hardware safety features led to a computer bug that delivered radiation overdoses, causing three deaths.

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The Canadian Light Source Synchrotron (CLS) operates from the University of Saskatchewan as an international synchrotron facility. With more than one thousand users that represent scientists from all provinces in Canada and globally from twenty other countries research has focused from viruses to superconductors to dinosaurs. Since 2005, two thousand four hundred and sixteen Canadian Synchrotron Radiation Facility (CSRF) research papers has been published (eighty-five per cent were from Canadian researchers and the rest from external users). The CLS contains twenty-two beamlines that support a large selection of research presentations. Each beamline offers an exclusive spectral range that represents valuable knowledge. Scientists explore beamline specifications by their scientific identifications, spectral ranges, and specific techniques prior to research proposals.

The history of the Canadian Light Source Synchrotron begins with the decision of its location. The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and the Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) collaborated until they had to decide between two university campuses – the Universities of Saskatchewan (US) and the University of Western Ontario (UWO). The University of Saskatchewan already had a veterinary vaccine laboratory and the infrastructure for expansion.  CLS Saskatchewan Accelerator Laboratory (SAL) was funded by universities which included the University of British Columbia (UBC), Guelph University, and UWO. The Canadian Institute for Synchrotron Radiation (CISR) has expanded the facility’s beamlines as well as the building (each in two phases since its launch). Phase one of CLS was built with a 1.5 GeV (seven beamline) storage ring and full spectral ranges with superconducting bends to boost photon energies for soft X-rays. The beamlines included two infrared beamlines, three soft X-ray beamlines, and two hard X-ray beamlines. They served the purpose of synchrotron medical imaging for medical research groups. During phase two seven beamlines were added. The glass and steel expansion to accommodate the phase II medical imaging beamline (BMIT) also included the addition of other beamlines. In total five beamlines were added. To evaluate requests for beamtime, a committee was established under the chairmanship of Adam Hitchcock of McMaster University. In 2012, a high school group from La Loche Saskatchewan became the first to use the purpose-built educational beamline IDEAS. In the same year, CLS signed an agreement with the Advanced Photon Source synchrotron in the USA to allow Canadian researchers access to their facilities. The upgrade of the storage ring and to accommodate the Brockhouse beamline necessitated phase three. With further construction and expansion, CLS presently has a third-generation 2.9 GeV storage ring with longer straight sections which enables two insertion devices per straight and allows the ring to achieve currents of 100mA. An added feature of a storage beam is that a beamline can distribute two individual beamlines within one beam.

A synchrotron is one of the first accelerator concepts that enables the construction of large-scale facilities. Insertion devices are intermittent magnetic structures that are ‘inserted’ into accelerator tracks to arouse extremely brilliant, forward-directed synchrotron radiation emissions by forcing a stored charged particle beam to complete wiggles, or undulations, as they pass through the device. Electrons are accelerated by a synchrotron and injected into a storage ring in which they circulate before they produce synchrotron radiation. Beamlines originate at bending magnets or insertion devices. A high photon flux in a small area is a general requirement of a beamline. The electrons are captured by beamlines and end in experimental focal points that are used for experiments in chemistry, life science, materials science, molecular biology, and particle physics; also, for irradiation tests or to produce isotopes.

Spectrophotometers measure electromagnetic radiation (EMR) by dividing it into spectral ranges depending on each colour’s wavelength. Spectral wavelengths range from 10 nm hard gamma radiation wavelengths to kilometre long-wave broadcast wavelengths. Every colour exists in a wavelength range of 380-780 nm, which are the same wavelengths observed by the human eye. Spectrophotometry is a type of electromagnetic spectroscopy that controls quantitative measurements of reflective and transmissive properties; it is important in biology, chemical engineering, chemistry, material science, molecular biology, and physics. The food, forensic, and pharmaceutical industries regularly use spectrophotometry to test the colour and quality of their products with quantitative wavelength measurements. A spectrophotometer can measure spectral range and visible light spectrum wavelengths in forensic samples with insight and accuracy. A storage ring is a singular synchrotron (circular particle accelerator) in which a particle beam circulates to keep the kinetic energy of the particles constant. Storage of a particle depends upon the mass, momentum, and the charge of the particle. Storage rings store electrons, positrons, and protons; mostly electrons that radiate synchrotron radiation. In physics, EMR contains waves of the electromagnetic field that spread through space and transmit momentum and electromagnetic (EM) radiant energy which includes gamma rays, infrared, microwaves, radio waves, ultraviolet, visible light, and X-rays. These waves form part of the EM spectrum. EMR contains electromagnetic waves that are synchronised alternations of electric and magnetic fields. Depending on the frequency of alternations, different wavelengths of the spectrum are formed. In a vacuum, EM waves travel at the speed of light and are discharged by electrically charged particles that tolerate acceleration. For scientific and technical purposes, a synchrotron light source is electromagnetic radiation produced by a storage ring.

The Canadian Light Source houses 22 beamlines that support a wide selection of research applications. Each beamline offers a unique spectral range. The Quantum Materials Spectroscopy Centre (QMSC) beamline uses a unique dual-undulator method to investigate important materials in condensed matter physics. QMSC hosts two end stations designed for angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES) and spin-resolved photoemission (SARPES) experiments related to the motion of electrons in materials. QMSC was designed to control a broad array of energies to obtain vast information about electrons. This is a sixteen million Canadian dollar national effort funded by CFI for the construction of a state-of-the-art beamline facility committed to the performance of spin and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (S+ARPES). The QMSC beamline’s spectral range is 15-1200 eV. The biomedical imaging and therapy (BMIT) beamlines are composed of a low-energy bending-magnet beamline (BMIT-BM) and a high-energy superconducting wiggler beamline (BMIT-ID). The bend magnet beamline is used to experiment with new imaging and therapy ideas and to validate techniques that can eventually be tested on the insertion device beamline. The two beamlines are dedicated to the imaging of biological tissues and radiation therapy research. New instruments are applied for general-purpose X-ray microtomography and imaging of fast processes. The bending-magnet and insertion device beamlines have been successful in their mission to image biological tissue and conduct live animal imaging studies. The BMIT laboratory will continue to provide synchrotron-specific imaging and therapy capabilities. Compared to global biomedical facilities, the BMIT facility implements high load systems for both BM and ID beamlines to address unsolved problems in medicine (human and animal), agriculture, and other biomedical sciences. The BMIT-BM beamline generates X-rays in the energy range of 12.6-40 keV for the imaging of lightweight, small samples and of little animals such as mice. The BMIT-ID wiggler-based beamline delivers a photon beam with adequate flux density to develop a monochromatic CT dataset in five to ten minutes (as fast as thirty seconds – depending on the subject matter). The spectral range spreads from 25 to 150 keV. The Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) is Canada’s premier nuclear science and technology organisation. When the National Research Universal nuclear reactor at Chalk River Laboratories in Ontario ceased production, an alternative supply of electron LINAC to produce the medical isotopes 99Mo (molybdenum-99) and 99mTc (technetium-99m) had to be found. CLS received fourteen million Canadian dollars in funding to install 35MeV LINAC in an abandoned underground experimental hall (a Saskatchewan Accelerator Laboratory formerly used for photonuclear experiments). Irradiation results are assessed by Winnipeg Health Sciences Centre. The Soft X-ray Microcharacterisation (SXRMB) beamline is a medium energy x-ray beamline which supports research from the biological, environmental, and chemical sciences. X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) is a familiar laboratory technique to analyse the surface chemistry of samples. XPS is element-specific and can be used to track changes in chemistry (like oxidation state) of elements that are close to the surface (within a few nanometers). The SXRMB beamline has four end stations. Firstly, the XAFS end station and secondly, the Microprobe end station (the third Ambient Table and fourth High Energy XPS end stations are part of the Microprobe end station). XAFS end station with Bending Magnet – this end station can perform bulk analysis of solid samples like pellets and powders. Samples are placed under vacuum to optimise flux for lower energy edges such as phosphorus, silicon, and sulphur. This end station has fluorescence and total electron yield detection. Microprobe end station with Bending Magnet (K-B Mirro Sample Stage) – this end station provides a 10 × 10 μm beamspot to map experiments. Ambient Table – This multi-use end station is designed for bulk analysis of various samples. The end station can be configured for liquid and solid in-situ experiments. High Energy XPS – By setting the beamline to variable energies, XPS can be achieved at separate depths of the same sample, supplying information on superficial and mass properties of material. During May 2019, the XES spectrometer (easyXAFS) was installed into an atmospheric glovebox and the entire system was successfully integrated into the SXRMB beamline. The SXRMB beamline’s spectral range is 1.7 – 10 keV.

The Canadian Macromolecular Crystallography Facility (CMCF) consists of two beamlines, CMCF-BM and CMCF-ID, dedicated to crystallography. Both beamlines enable high-resolution structural studies of proteins, nucleic acids, and other macromolecules, satisfying the requirements of the most challenging and diverse crystallographic experiments. After the first experiments were conducted in 2006, the facility has seen a sharp increase in usage and has produced a substantial amount of data for the Canadian crystallographic community. The scientific aim of the CMCF-ID is to run a protein crystallography beamline suitable to study small crystals and crystals with large unit cells. In May 2022, a substantial upgrade to the beamline increased the overall flux, enabled micro-focus beam sizes of 5 µm, and greatly improved sample data. The two beamlines both have normal and high flux spectral ranges. The CMCF-BM beamline’s normal flux (DCM) range is 6 – 18 keV and its high flux (DMM) range is 7 – 10.5 keV (the 7 keV can reach a maximum flux of 8.157 keV). This mode is mostly used for routine screening and data collection. The CMCF-ID beamline’s normal flux (DCM) range is 5.0-20.0 keV and its high flux (DMM) range is 7.2-10.4 keV. Gathering of data using the high-flux DMM mode before the full dataset is collected presents a high risk of sample damage. The Resonant Elastic and Inelastic X-ray Scattering – Optical Layout Hi-Resolution Image (REIXS) beamline is a soft x-ray scattering facility for elastic and inelastic x-ray scattering experiments. The REIXS beamline, one of the top X-ray scattering beamlines in the world in quantum materials research, was funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation. Using the X-ray Spectro microscopy beamline, a research team (led by scientists from the University of New York) created images of graphene that demonstrate how folds and ripples affect the conductivity of electrons. The REIXS beamline has a photon energy range from 95 eV – 2000 eV. The Brockhouse X-ray diffraction and scattering (BXDS) beamline for structural classification of many types of materials includes crystals, liquids, solids, and nanostructures under atmospheric conditions and at extreme pressures, temperatures, and magnetic fields. The Brockhouse Diffraction Sector is a suite of three beamlines (BXDS-WLE, BXDS-WHE, and BXDS-IVU) that provide a full range of diffraction and scattering techniques to describe the structure of materials. The spectral range of BXDS-WLE (Low Energy Wiggler Beamline) is 7-22 keV, of BXDS-WHE (High Energy Wiggler Beamline) is 20-94 keV, and of BXDS-IVU (Undulator Beamline) is 5-24 keV.

The Very sensitive Elemental and Structural Probe Employing Radiation from a Synchrotron (VESPERS) is a hard X-ray microprobe beamline able to provide a high level of analytical and structural information. X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy are to analyse a microscopic volume in the sample. Multi-bandpass and pink beam ability are built-in, and a mm-sized beam is also available. The VESPERS beamline’s spectral range is 6 – 30 keV. The BioXAS-Spectroscopy beamline is a group of two independently operating end stations that share a wiggler source. Spectroscopy is designed to measure the XAS spectra of transition elements in bulk biological samples with diluted concentrations. It is a multi-resolution high-sensitivity X-ray fluorescence (XRF) imaging beamline with capabilities to collect XRF imaging data in macro-, micro-, and nano modes. The sector was designed to support health and life sciences as well as environmental research. Among other organisations, the beamline was funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Government of Saskatchewan. The BioXAS spectral range is 5-32 keV. The Hard X-ray Micro-Analysis (HXMA) beamline is used to study the fundamental local structure environment of materials in-situ and ex-situ, accepting bulk and thin film samples). The HXMA beamline’s spectral range is 5 – 40 keV. The Spherical Grating Monochromator (SGM) beamline is designed for soft x-ray absorption spectroscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy with the importance on environmental samples and catalytic materials. A readily accessible end station with four silicon drift detectors is an ideal model for in-situ and in-operando experiments. The beamline is fitted with two in-line end stations for high resolution x-ray absorption spectroscopy and photoelectron spectroscopy. The SGM beamline’s spectral range is 250-2000 eV. The X-ray Synchrotron Radiation (XSR) and Optical Synchrotron Radiation (OSR) beamlines are two independent diagnostic beamlines. The Soft X-ray Spectromicroscopy (SM) beamline supports research programs such as biological applications, environmental science, magnetic imaging, and polymer science. The SM beamline has a photon energy range from 130 eV to 3000 eV. The Synchrotron Laboratory for Micro and Nano Devices (SyLMAND) is an x-ray beamline and pre- and post-processing laboratory in a cleanroom environment. The SyLMAND beamline’s spectral range is 1 – 15 keV. The Variable Line Spacing Plane Grating Monochromator (VLS-PGM) beamline is fitted with four VLS gratings to cover the designed energy range of the high resolution, low energy spectroscopic beamline which enables research in materials of fundamental and applied nature. The VLS-PGM beamline’s spectral range is 15-250 eV.

The Industry Development Education Applications Students (IDEAS) beamline is the instant access beamline for industry, in-house science, education programs, and to support the development and testing of beamline equipment and software. IDEAS is not available to other programs or researchers. The beamline’s spectral range is 2.2 – 13.4 keV. CLS is known for its industrial science and high school education programs. Their education program ‘Students on the Beamlines’ is funded by NSERC Promoscience. The program allows high school students to experience using the CLS beamlines and to observe the work of a scientist. It also gives them the opportunity to develop active research (a very rare phenomena in schools) and offers them direct access to the use of a particle accelerator (which is even rarer). Students from six provinces as well as the Northwest Territories have been directly involved in experiments on the IDEAS beamline; some have produced publishable research. In 2012, CLS was awarded the Canadian Nuclear Society’s Education and Communication Award for its commitment to community outreach, increased public awareness of synchrotron science, and innovative secondary educational programs such as Students on the Beamlines. The Mid Infrared Spectromicroscopy (Mid IR) offers a state-of-the-art Fourier Transform IR spectrometer and microscope to deliver diffraction-limited spatial resolution to an increasing sequence of experimental projects. The benefits of high brightness infrared synchrotron light are motivating researchers to revisit existing techniques and explore new experiments. The spectral range of Mid IR is 560 – 6000 cm^-1 The Far Infrared Spectroscopy (Far IR) provides infrared light 100 – 1000 times brighter than standard laboratory sources, enabling the spectroscopic study of molecules with considerably higher precision and sensitivity. The spectral range of Far IR is 5 – 1200 cm^-1 (synchrotron source) and 30 – 5000 cm^-1 (conventional sources). The storage ring has twelve straight sections (ss) with induction devices, wigglers, and undulators to increase the beam energy. Ss1 injection straight, ss2 electron beam diagnostic straight, ss3 reserved for future use, ss4 chicaned: in-vacuum undulator, in-vacuum wiggler, ss5 superconducting wiggler, ss6 superconducting wiggler, ss7 chicaned: in-vacuum undulator, out-vacuum wiggler, ss8 in-vacuum undulator, ss9 single length dual period undulator, ss10 chicaned: undulators, ss11 chicaned: undulators, and ss12 RF cavity. The upstream accelerator complex is a 220 keV DC thermionic RF gun. A six section LINAC increases the beam energy from 220 keV to 250 MeV. An energy compression system (3 magnet chicane and RF cavity) compresses the beam energy spread by a factor of ten. The beam is transported into a booster ring and ramped up from 250 MeV to 2.9 GeV.

An international team (led by the University of Calgary professor Ken Ng) solved the structure of RNA polymerase using X-ray crystallography. This enzyme replicates itself as the Norwalk virus as it spreads through the body. It has been linked to other super viruses such as the common cold, hepatitis C, and West Nile virus; its replication is liable for the onset of such viruses. CLS scientist (Luca Quaroni) and the University of Saskatchewan professor (Alan Casson) identified biomarkers inside individual cells with infrared microscopy from tissue related to Barrett’s oesophagus. This disease can lead to the aggressive cancer known as oesophageal adenocarcinoma. Research was done by the University of Saskatchewan on peptides and by UWO on materials for organic light-emitting diodes. Researchers from Lakehead University and the University of Saskatchewan investigated the deaths of Royal Navy sailors buried in Antigua in the late 1700s. With the use of X-ray fluorescence, they looked for trace elements such as lead and strontium in bones from the excavated naval cemetery. The University of Regina and the Royal Saskatchewan Museum examined dinosaur fossils after discovering a Tyrannosaurus in Saskatchewan during 1991, one of the largest and most complete T-rex skeletons ever found. To study the impact of the environment on such animals, they explored the concentration of elements in the skeleton’s bones.

To access the synchrotron facility interested researchers are required to apply through a peer review system that verifies the quality of the proposed science experiments, regardless of academic, governmental, industrial, national, or regional relations. CLS has an industrial group within the facility who are represented by industrial liaison scientists who make synchrotron procedures available to non-synchrotron experts. An economic impact study revealed that the Canadian Light Source Incorporated added forty-five million Canadian dollars to Canada’s annual gross domestic product for the two financial years 2010 and 2011.

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In the past, vaccine development by public laboratories in Ontario and Quebec made it possible to produce vaccines in Canada. During the 1950s, Toronto’s Connaught Laboratories played a major role in discovering the polio vaccine. It is the belief of Scott Halperin (Canadian professor of paediatrics, head of Paediatric Infectious Diseases at IWK Health Centre, immunologist, microbiology, and immunology at Dalhousie University (DU) in Halifax, and director of the Canadian Centre for Vaccinology at DU) that ‘vaccine independence is important, because relying on relationships with other countries to secure supplies of vaccines doesn’t always work.’ The long-term strategy is for Canadian researchers to continue developing coronavirus vaccines and therapeutics to establish a production line; thereby narrowing the gap to vaccine independence.

Health Canada is the department of the Government of Canada responsible for national health policies. The department manages several federal health-related agencies such as the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to improve the economy, the environment, and the health of Canadian citizens by protecting animals, food, and plants. The latest threat was to detect avian influenza (AI) which is a viral infection identical to human influenza – it presents as a respiratory infection. AI (avian flu or bird flu) caused by influenza Type A viruses is like other animal flu caused by a virus strain adapted to a specific host. The category with the greatest risk to mankind is highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). These viruses naturally spread globally among wild aquatic birds and infect domestic poultry and other bird and animal species. The Government of Canada funded research scientists at VIDO-InterVac to improve the influenza vaccine in Canada. The National Research Council of Canada (the primary national agency of the Government of Canada) is devoted to science, technology, research, and development. It is the largest federal research and development organisation in Canada. The Minister of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development is responsible for the NRC of Canada.

The Canadian Centre for Vaccinology (CCfV) at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, is an integrated vaccine research team that researches, discovers, and evaluates vaccines; volunteers are chosen to take part in placebo-controlled studies. The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) is the only health authority in Saskatchewan province. It provides direct health care and services such as, community and home care, primary, secondary, and tertiary care as well as mental health, addiction services, population and preventive health services. According to Dino Sophocleous, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Hospitals of Regina Foundation (HRF), the Foundation contributed to the new vaccine centre in their province by participating in a donation to VIDO to support the research and development of a made-in Saskatchewan COVID-19 vaccine and other vaccines that will positively impact the health of the southern Saskatchewan community, as well as to prepare for the next pandemic. The IWK Health Centre and Dalhousie University supports many talented researchers following projects that will ultimately lead to positive results for children, youth, women, and families. The Clinical Vision Science Program is an innovative graduate program of IWK Health Centre to improve professional clinical practice in ophthalmic and orthoptic medical technology. The importance is to understand the health conditions of the people.

VIDO has a strong bond with the Western College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan. In March 2003, the laboratory adopted its present name, in October 2003, a five thousand square metre extension was completed, and in March 2004, VIDO received funds to build one of the world’s biggest and most sophisticated biosafety level 3 facilities. Funding of roughly one hundred and fifty million Canadian dollars was supplied for infrastructure by the Government of Canada, the Government of Saskatchewan, the ‘City of Saskatoon’, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, and the University of Saskatchewan. The 2011 completed level 3 facility known as the International Vaccine Centre (InterVac) can research emerging and re-emerging animal and human diseases with large animals such as alpacas, cattle, deer, elk, pigs, and sheep.

Canada’s National Research Council (NRC) is the largest national research and development organisation of the Government of Canada committed to science, technology, research, and development (the Minister of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development is responsible for the NRC). This organisation collaborates with Canadian industries to market research advantages to the people. Their motivation focuses on innovation to enhance people’s lives and address the world’s most demanding issues. VIDO-InterVac has created three offshoot companies namely Biostar, Biowest, and Star Biotech. In 2013, they received operational certification by Public Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. With one hundred and sixty personnel, more than two hundred and twenty-five million Canadian dollars in infrastructure, and forty-five years of experience, VIDO-InterVac is a global front-runner in infectious disease research and vaccine development.

VIDO-InterVac researchers are well-known for the development of animal models to study human diseases such as MERS-CoV, Zika, tuberculosis, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and pertussis. They were the first laboratory in Canada to establish an animal model to test antivirals and vaccines such as COVID-19 and the first laboratory in Canada to isolate the COVID-19 virus (SARS-CoV-2) from a clinical sample at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto.

VIDO-InterVac has a record of vaccine development and marketing – eight VIDO vaccines have been sold commercially and six have been labelled as ‘global inventions.’ VIDO-InterVac took part in the world’s race to develop a coronavirus vaccine for COVID-19 by partnering with more than seventy organisations around the world to test COVID-19 treatments. The federal government assisted VIDO-InterVac with a fund boost of just over twenty-three million Canadian dollars. In April 2020, the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator (CTA) partnered with VIDO-InterVac and awarded a grant of nearly eight hundred and thirty thousand Canadian dollars to expand its international status of testing antiviral compounds against COVID-19. The partnership was launched by the World Health Organisation (WHO) which is a specialised agency of the United Nations with six regional offices and one hundred and fifty field offices worldwide (headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland) responsible for international public health. CTA has supported the shortest, most synchronised, and successful global force in history to implement means of fighting COVID-19. With substantial improvements in research and development by academia, government initiatives, and the private sector, the ACT-Accelerator was the most innovative approach to move past the acute phase of the pandemic; applying the tests, treatments, and vaccines the world so desperately needed.

During the COVID pandemic, the Government of Saskatchewan provided just over four million Canadian dollars to VIDO-InterVac for clinical trials and operational expenses and twenty-three million Canadian dollars in federal funding to produce COVID-19 vaccines. InterVac obtained expertise through research on prior coronaviruses that spread to Canada during 2003 and 2012. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) which was originally reported in Asia during February 2003 is a viral respiratory infection provoked by an airborne coronavirus known as SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) that spreads through small saliva droplets in the same way as the cold and influenza. It was the first acute contagious disease of the 21^st century that had the ability to spread via international air travel routes; therefore, it affected more than twenty-four countries in Asia, Europe, North America, and South America before the global outbreak could be contained. Canada (bordering North America) was also affected by SARS-CoV. Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is a viral respiratory infection that is new to humans. It was initially reported in Saudi Arabia during 2012 and subsequently spread to various other countries including Canada. Most people infected with MERS-CoV experienced acute respiratory distress, cough, fever, and shortness of breath.

VIDO-InterVac identified a protein antigen that serves as a primary component of a vaccine contender against COVID-19. Approval was received from Health Canada to produce the antigen at laboratory scale. According to the Director and CEO of VIDO-InterVac, Dr.Volker Gerdts, the VIDO COVID-19 vaccine was developed with protein subunit technology which is an altered version of the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 (the novel coronavirus that ‘instructs’ COVID-19) to arouse an immune response (offering protection against SARS-CoV-2 variants). The vaccine is cost effective, reliable, safe, and does not have to be stored at ultra-low temperatures. Continuous animal studies monitor any deviation in the effectiveness of the laboratory-scale antigen. VIDO-InterVac is the first non-governmental facility in Canada to research the African swine fever virus (ASFV) to develop a vaccine for ASF. According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) ‘there are presently no approved vaccines to fight this pig disease. The research is a significant step towards the development and testing of antivirals and vaccines for African swine fever to protect Canada’s pork region.’ ASF is among the most troublesome animal disease pathogens. Although the pathogen does not pose a threat to humans, it affects the pork industry because pigs are a primary source of protein. The disease is a socio-economic risk and a burden to global food production and security. The ASFV is an infectious and complex DNA virus that only infects its natural hosts namely domestic pigs and wild boar. The virus causes a haemorrhagic disease with a mortality rate of mostly one hundred percent. ASF originated in Africa and spread to Eastern Europe and throughout China, resulting in the death of about forty percent of China’s swine. According to the World Organization for Animal Health, ASF affected over eight hundred and twenty-eight thousand pigs and above twenty-three thousand wild boars in forty-one countries since January 2021 – over and above one million animal fatalities!

Dr. Angela Rasmussen, BA, MSc, PhD. (Doctorate in microbiology) is a well-known research scientist, virologist, and adjunct professor at VIDO-InterVac, formerly an American-based research scientist, virologist, and faculty member at the Centre for Infection and Immunity at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health in New York as well as the Georgetown Centre for Global Health Science and Security. She studied host responses to infection by combining classical virology methodologies with modern systems biology techniques to probe the host response to viral infection. Her research includes studying the interactions between hosts and pathogens and how they shape disease to distinguish between pathological emerging viruses that cause severe disease such as the ‘common cold’ (rhinovirus), Ebola virus, highly pathogenic avian influenza virus, and SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19). Her research objectives are to recognise host responses that project infection severity or disease outcomes and host routes that suggest drug development or repurposing. She alters infections with highly pathogenic emerging viruses and studies different varieties of coronaviruses and how new strains can create distinctive activities, such as increased immunity. She informs that the COVID-19 vaccines are a significant means of defence, reduce the risks of developing the virus, and guard against critical disease. She is confident that VIDO is in the lead of Canadian research and innovation and that the third dosage will not only reduce serious disease and hospitalisation but will also fight Omicron. Although SARS-CoV-2 has troubled the nation, it has not been the deadliest pandemic of the last century.

All living organisms are made of cells that are the basic units of life responsible for the living and functioning of organisms. Cell biology studies functional and structural units of cells while molecular biology is the molecular foundation of biological action in and between cells such as the study of chemical and physical formation of biological macromolecules. Immunology is a division of biology and medicine that is the medical examination of immune systems in all organisms; therefore, we can see the dissimilarity of human immunology and related immunology in animal biosciences and veterinary medicine. Suitable animal models are crucial in evaluating vaccines. Virology is a subfield of microbiology and the scientific study of biological viruses. Viruses are infectious components that are loaded with genetic matter (DNA or RNA) that injects themselves into host cells. Epidemiologic studies show that viral infections in established countries are the mutual cause of severe ailments that does not require hospitalisation. In developing countries, viral illnesses cause permanent disability and a high mortality rate, particularly among children and infants. Developing viral illnesses such as infections due to Ebola virus, hantavirus, and HIV appear frequently. Its emphases are on the classification, detection, evolution, and structure of viruses, their means of infection and manipulation of host cells for replication, their interaction with host organism physiology and immunity, the illnesses they cause, the methods to separate and culture them, and their use in research and therapy. Virology includes all features of the virus – from evolution, function, life cycle, and structure to the sicknesses they cause as well as the host protections against them.

Orthohantavirus is a genus of RNA viruses that cause chronic asymptomatic infection in wild rodents, specifically mice and rats. Human infection with hantaviruses leads to a severe respiratory disease known as Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) which can have fatal heart and lung complications. Invasion around or in the home remains the primary threat of hantavirus exposure. The virus is in the faeces, saliva, and urine of infected rodents. In restricted spaces it simply releases into the air. Ebola also known as Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) or Ebola Haemorrhagic Fever (EHF) is a rare but severe (often fatal) viral haemorrhagic fever caused by ebolaviruses in people and non-human primates. The virus is spread to people via direct contact with an infected animal, sick, or dead person that is infected with the Ebola virus. It can spread from person-to-person when they have close contact with infected blood, body fluids, diarrhoea, droplets, tissues, urine, or vomit. Ebola virus does not transmit through the air, water, or food; however, in certain regions of the world, Ebola virus can spread through touch and ingestion of wild animals infected with Ebola. Mosquitoes and other insects do not spread Ebola. The average EVD fatality rate is about fifty percent. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a virus that infects vital immune system cells and impairs their function (which is to fight infections), leaving the immune system exposed to other infections. The virus cannot be transmitted through sweat, urine, or saliva. Progressive destruction of the immune cells causes the infected person to become immunodeficient. The defective immune system eventually leads to the deadly disease Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Scientists have not yet discovered a vaccine to fight either HIV or AIDS.

A fascinating facility at the University of Saskatchewan that is important to popular research is the Canadian Light Source Synchrotron which is one of the greatest science projects in Canadian history – delivering the sharpest light in the country (millions of times brighter than the sun). The Light Source stores twenty-two beamlines that supports a large selection of research applications. Each beamline presents a unique spectral range that provides independent information. Synchrotron science has vast benefits over conventional methods. The Canadian Light Source Synchrotron will be part two in the Canada series.

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To fully understand the potential risks that accompany novel viruses, there is a lack of research and experiments that can be classified as ‘gain of function’ research (GOFR) that include the use of pathogens. DNA is a polymer that consist of two polynucleotide chains that spiral around each other to produce a double helix. The polymer contains genetic ‘guidelines’ for identified organisms (as well as several viruses) to develop, function, and reproduce. Genes consist of DNA (the natural component of heritage) in humans. Some genes are ‘instruction genes’ that have the function of generating molecules known as proteins while others are excluded from encrypting for proteins. A marker is a section of DNA where ‘dictation’ of a gene originates. Markers are important aspects of expression vectors because they monitor the bonding of RNA polymerase to DNA. This is a vital phase in any DNA experiment since this is where RNA polymerase alters DNA to mRNA and finally into a suitable protein. GOF systems are based on the addition of compatible elements to detect genes that alter genome development. P-elements were discovered while in the process of researching a genetic syndrome known as ‘hybrid dysgenesis.’ The P-element transforms an enzyme defined as P transposase. Various genome P-element insertion studies have been completed in research laboratories; based on its inclusion points in the genome, the P-element can disrupt individual genes.

Transcription (expression) factors are proteins that regulate the transformation of genes which is their replication into RNA before the final conversion into protein. The human body has many transcription factors to ensure that accurate genes are extracted to the correct cells in the body. GATA binding protein 3 (GATA3) is not only a transcription factor that contributes to human growth but the GATA3 gene encodes a protein that belongs to the GATA family of transcription factors; the protein regulates T-cell development. GATA3 is a well-preserved transcription factor transferred into various tissues, including the mammary glands. Cancer is a disease caused by genetic mutations; delineations of gene transcription demonstrated that GATA-3 is among the repeatedly mutated genes in breast cancer. Mutation patterns indicate a gene’s function as either tumour promotive or tumour suppressive. In the inadequately researched GATA3 gene two different groups of mutations can progress to gain- or loss. The GATA3 gene is excluded from this principle. Johnson and Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine was created via GOF methodology. A virus known as an adenovirus (the ‘common cold virus’ usually responsible for flu- like symptoms) was used for a fraction of the SARS-CoV-2 genetic material. The term ‘gain of function’ includes a wide field. Functioning genomes can be made from synthetic chemicals which allows genetic engineers to create artificial genomes as an alternative to modifying natural ones. According to the Boston University there are reasons for concern that factors such as urbanisation, ever-increasing greenhouse gas emissions, and non-biodegradable waste material will drastically increase the potential of infectious diseases and future pandemics.

After the Covid-19 pandemic the federal Government created the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) to assess policy structures for the biosecurity regulations of life sciences research. NSABB (managed by NIH’s Office of Science Policy) addresses issues involving biosecurity and dual-use research. The Advisory Board is a committee of specialists that supports the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services by recommending policies on issues such as how to prevent published research in biotechnology from promoting terrorism without reducing scientific progress. On 27 January 2023, the Board assembled per virtual platform to discuss the draft report of the NSABB Working Groups to review and evaluate the United States Government Potential Pandemic Pathogen Care and Oversight (PC3O) and Dual Use Research of Concern (DURC) Policies. The NSABB has more than twenty voting members with a wide selection of expertise such as biodefense, biosafety, infectious diseases, microbiology, molecular biology, plant health, public health, veterinary medicine, scientific publishing, national security, and law enforcement.

Some methods of gain-of-function research involves specific agent pathogens which transfer biosafety risks known as dual use research of concern (DURC). The United States and European Union regulations dictate that one or more unaffiliated members of the public must be ‘active participants’ in the supervision procedures. To reduce any risks while approving GOF research, several governments have instructed further control of DURC experiments under the supervision of administrations (known as institutional ‘DURC’ committees) and government agencies (such as the NIH’s DNA advisory committee). A similar example is the European Union’s Dual Use Coordination Group (DUCG). Gain-of-function occurs when there is an alteration to any organism through a process that either causes it to gain a new function or improve an existing function. Several GOF experiments have raised alarm because of the risk to humans via the infectious virus used during the experiments. Gain-of-function refers to ‘research which could enable a pandemic-potential pathogen to replicate quickly or cause more harm to humans or other closely related mammals.’ Nobody knew that a virus caused the 1918 flu pandemic, much less did they understand that animals could be carriers of human illnesses.

Nowadays, virus ecosystem observation and research have become an indispensable obligation of public health. Until 1999, it was believed that the influenza B virus (which circulated among humans and triggered seasonal epidemics) could only infect humans. However, recent data verified that seals can also be infected with the influenza B virus. Infecting rabbits with a mutation of influenza B in a controlled laboratory scenario would classify as a gain-of-function experiment as the function did not previously exist in the virus. This type of experiment can reveal which fragments of the virus’s genome resemble the species that it is able to infect, allowing the production of antiviral medication to block this function. Gain-of-function research (GOFR) refers to medical research that genetically modifies an organism to improve the biological functions of gene products. These advanced functions include the host range (the additional types of hosts that a micro-organism can now infect), transmissibility, and transformed pathogenesis. In virology, GOFR is the optimal method to unidentified solutions for existing and future pandemics. In the race for pandemic vaccines, the first phase in GOFR is to extract viruses from animals before genetic alteration in a laboratory (to make them more transmissible to humans); then the stages follow one another to develop a vaccine before the pandemic-causing virus progresses. GOF research is used in many other ways, but the process becomes provocative when scientists increase the risk of infectious pathogens to humans.

The scientific community has had substantial discussions about the evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of GOFR, how to distribute GOF research, and how to engage the public in evaluations. In January 2020, NSABB re-evaluated the guidelines for GOFR and determined when the results of these experiments should be released to the public. During 2011, two groups were examining how bird flu viruses could cause pandemics in humans: one group was directed by Yoshihiro Kawaoka at the University of Wisconsin and the other group was controlled by Ron Fouchier at Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands. Both groups successfully introduced the H5N1 avian influenza virus to ferrets by manually exposing the virus from one ferret to another, until it was able to eventually spread via respiratory droplets. Through replication over time into the ferrets’ lungs the bird-specific virus implemented several amino acid changes that allowed it to reproduce in the mammalian lungs (which are colder than those of birds). This minor alteration permitted the virus to spread via droplets in the air when the ferrets coughed or sneezed. Supporters of the Kawaoka and Fouchier experiments emphasised advantages such as the H5N1 virus becoming airborne in humans, the relation between the transmissibility of avian viruses and fatality (while the virus had become more infectious, it converted to a less fatal infection), and the production of vaccines that targeted the amino acid changes. Many opponents of the research (including members of Congress) responded with apprehension to the publication of the experiments. There were queries from scientists including Marc Lipsitch of the T. H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University regarding the risks of the research. According to a new study, these 2011 avian flu virus experiments caused more than one-hundred-and-fifty seal deaths in New England. The study also confirmed that the virus can easily spread through respiratory drops, infect other mammals, and pose a threat to humans.

In May 2013, a group directed by Hualan Chen, director of China’s National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory, published many of their experiments at the BSL3+ laboratory of the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute in which they experimented what would happen if a 2009 H1N1 circulating in humans infected the same cell as an avian influenza H5N1. Hualan Chen’s group carried out the experiments before a ‘research gap’ on H5N1 experiments could be approved by the larger virologist community. The purpose of the experiments were to determine that genes (if re-assorted in such a dual-infection setup in the wild) would allow easier transmission of the H5N1 virus in mammals (particularly in guinea pigs as a representative animal for rodent species) and verifying that specific agricultural situations risk the crossover of H5N1 into mammals. As in the Fouchier and Kawaoka experiments, the viruses in the May 2013 study were also less fatal after modification.  Critics of the 2013 Chen group study (including Simon Wain-Hobson of the Pasteur Institute and former Royal Society President Robert May) disapproved of the experiment as not only pointless, but very dangerous research, summarising Chen’s research as intolerable negligence that raises alarm about the biosafety of the laboratory. Jeremy Farrar, director of the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Ho Chi Minh City, defined the work as ‘outstanding’ but expressed his concerns as a ‘very real threat’ and ‘continued circulation of H5N1 strains in Asia and Egypt.’ All research subsidised by the NIH is scrutinised by an additional gain-of-function assessment.

The Cambridge Working Group published a Consensus Statement transcribed by eighteen founding members. Since its first publication, more than three hundred academics, physicians, and scientists have added their signatures. The statement demands that all research including potential pandemic pathogens be paused until an impartial assessment of the risks has been determined. Scientists for Science (SfS) was formed by thirty-seven parties who took a different approach namely ‘biomedical research on potentially dangerous pathogens can be performed safely and is essential for a comprehensive understanding of microbial disease pathogenesis, prevention and treatment.’ Since its publication, the SfS statement has received more than two hundred signatures from academics, biosafety professionals, and scientists. W. Paul Duprex (virologist at the University of Pittsburgh) and other SfS signatories stress the fact that the pathogens are already governed by extensive regulations. They reason that the research would be beneficial when the experiments are focused on the interest of the public and to rather refine laboratory safety and supervision.

The National Research Council (NRC) is the operational branch of the United States National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and is managed by a governing committee of councillors from each of the three Academies. The purpose of NRC is to increase scientific research, to investigate natural phenomena, and to develop American industries by co-ordinating educational, government, industrial, and other research organisations. The NRC Research Associateship Programs (RAP) is administered by the United States Government. RAP promotes excellence in scientific and technological research by presenting senior level, graduate, and postdoctoral research opportunities at subsidised government laboratories and associate institutions.

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the devastating effect of disease. The Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) was the first multi-lateral settlement to prohibit a complete category of weaponry. The treaty banned the accumulation, acquisition, development, production, transfer, and use of biological and toxic weapons (biological agents and toxins of ‘types and quantities’) that have no validation for defensive or non-violent use. Today, with more than one hundred and fifty state parties, it is the foundation of international efforts to counteract biological weapons.

Founded in 1887, The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is a United States Government research agency responsible for biomedical and public health research and is a section of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Being the world’s largest medical research agency (conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and medical research), NIH has twenty-seven different Institutes and Centres which focus on improving health through the assistance of biomedical and behavioural research. The primary federal agency for research on mental disorders is the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Global leadership for education, training, and research to promote the treatment and prevention of heart, lung, and blood diseases is provided by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). NIH has an obligation to reveal the results of NIH-funded research.

The NIH Loan Repayment Programs (LRPs) are programs established by Congress and intended to employ and sustain highly competent health specialists into biomedical and biobehavioural research professions. Reliable data management and distribution has several advantages such as accelerating the momentum of biomedical research, supplying high-level datasets, and supporting the authentication of research results. NIH presented a new Final NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing which came into effect during January 2023. The new Policy requires NIH funded researchers to submit a plan that outlines how they will manage and share scientific data from their research. NIH-funded medical research has increased the life expectancy of United States citizens from forty-seven to seventy-eight years and the disability rate of citizens over the age of sixty-five years has decreased significantly.

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Geothermal energy (internal heat of the earth) is an energy that is extracted from the ground and can be used through horizontal or vertical tunnels to control the earth level temperature of a home which is known as ground-source heating and cooling. Geothermal energy is a renewable energy source because heat is constantly generated from rocks and fluids at various depths inside the earth. Geothermal heat is used for bathing, to heat buildings, and to generate electricity. Geothermal heating systems do not require outside above-ground equipment because the heat is drawn from the ground and not from the air. The above-ground unit is not exposed to wear and tear of the elements because it is installed indoors; its lifespan is increased, and its maintenance costs are decreased. As cities implement innovative climate goals, geothermal heating is a method to be considered. The most important advantages of geothermal energy that should not be ignored are the supply of heat from the earth’s core that will remain stable for the rest of humanity, the above-ground installations that are less damaging to the ecosystem than hydropower, the fact that its ecologically friendlier than non-renewables, its non-dependence on climatology, and its economic investment. Improved geothermal systems can access heat energy deep in the layers of the earth. A geothermal system does not burn fossil fuels to produce heat. Geothermal power is electricity or heat created from geothermal energy. With the rising cost of fossil fuels, there is a demand for renewable energy sources. Most of the nation’s electricity is generated by hydropower (waterfalls and steam). Hydrogen is everywhere in nature but attached to other chemical elements. If the electricity used to create hydrogen is accessed from renewable sources, it is known as ‘green’ or ‘renewable’ hydrogen and does not yield the carbon dioxide emissions that promote climate change.

Geothermal energy is a method of energy variation in which heat energy from within the earth is removed for purposes such as bathing, cooking, electricity, and space heating. New research shows that geothermal energy is more advanced than current technologies like batteries to store extra renewable energy from solar and wind power. Nature has provided geothermal energy as a ready-made source of energy; clean, green, renewable, and sustainable. It qualifies as the prime replacement for fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and oil). The three categories of geothermal plants are binary cycle power stations, dry steam power stations, and flash steam power stations. All these stations use steam turbines to generate electricity. The geothermal heat pump (GHP), also known as the GeoExchange earth-coupled (ground-source or water-source) heat pump uses the steady temperature of the earth as the transitional medium instead of the outside air temperature. The GHP is a very effective renewable energy technology for commercial as well as residential buildings. Geothermal cooling and heating cost substantially less than conventional heat pumps. GHPs are used for cooling, space heating, and water heating. Geothermal power generation is a system of producing clean power by removing heat energy from the ground. Geothermal systems extract the earth’s heat in fluids such as steam or water. To generate electricity and heat, deep-ground geothermal power is unlimited as a source of renewable energy. Electricity from ocean and deep-ground geothermal sources should be the global norm for electrical and heating power. It can be used together with other forms of renewable energy to create a hybrid system.

Natural Resources Canada (NRC) is the department of the Government of Canada responsible for earth sciences, energy, forests, minerals and metals, natural resources, mapping, and remote sensing. The department was formed in 1994 by merging the Department of Forestry with the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources. NRC is dedicated to developing the quality of life for Canadians by verifying that the country’s ample natural resources are improved in a competitive, inclusive, and sustainable way. Natural Resources Canada funds technologies to remove battery-grade lithium from geothermal brines, offering a local and cost-effective source of this crucial material. Geothermal brines are a by-product of geothermal power, so is lithium (apart from other minerals). DEEP Earth Energy Production Corporation (DEEP), the Canadian geothermal power resources developer, has accomplished an important breakthrough with funds from NRC upon completion of a strategy for the construction and engineering of the company’s first geothermal project in southeast Saskatchewan. Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) technology will be used for the power plant. DEEP’s geothermal well field design is leading edge technology that will be applied for the first time on a renewable energy project; it might become a global renovative method for modern gas and oil drilling. Wells with equal depth and lateral length are regularly drilled in the hydrocarbon resource works of the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. DEEP will leverage this local expertise and drilling skill. In a nutshell, ORC is a vital technology that uses distributed heat sources to create emission-free power for electricity production. The methodology offers the world’s most adaptable ORC platform in a small to medium power range.

An Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) system is a closed thermodynamic cycle which is used to generate power from low to medium-high temperature heat sources and for small-medium applications at any temperature. The technology permits the handling of low-grade heat that would else go to waste. While ORC uses thermal heat to change water to steam (which expands through a turbine to produce electricity), ORC uses an organic fluid (instead of water) at a considerably lower boiling point, thus enabling the use of heat from sources with lower temperatures. Using an established ORC process enables liquids or gases to transfer thermal heat for carbon-neutral power (whether the heat is generated from geothermal sources or from commercial or industrial waste. Organic Rankine Cycles are receiving increased attention for the exploitation of waste heat as they allow power production from resources of low thermal matter. The process relies on the vaporisation of a functioning fluid to operate a turbine, while the expanded vapour is reduced and pumped back into the vaporiser.

There are two types of geothermal heat extraction namely geothermal energy and Geothermal Heating Ventilation and Cooling installations (HVAC). The sustainable, renewable, and environmentally friendly energy sources namely solar, wind, tide, wave, geothermal energy, and HVAC distinguish themselves as they provide storage security and supply. Geothermal energy is the group of huge, value-scale plants that extract thermal resources from the inner heat of the earth. Being a form of solar energy, HVAC or other forms of geothermal energy have been used by over seventy countries while more countries have access to geothermal resources. Many geothermal power plants are in volcanic areas where geothermal energy is easily available. Such self-regulating systems use the thermal energy of the earth’s magma (absorbed sunshine, deep dry rock, mineral radiation, and hot underground water). Geothermal heating and cooling use the stable temperature of the earth (fifty-five degrees Fahrenheit) or groundwater in a well together with an electric heat pump. Water is pumped through underground tubes or from a well. Residential geothermal heating functions by burying pipes filled with liquid several feet below the surface of the earth. This is done in the yard or under the driveway. The liquid in the pipes absorbs the trapped heat energy and transfers it to the geothermal heat pump in the basement. Geothermal heating is almost the same as producing geothermal electricity in that the geothermal water passes through a heat exchanger to warm a secondary liquid (in this case additional water) that is applied in all standard cooling and heating procedures.

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) focuses on prospects to develop affordable and clean geothermal power. The Department of Energy’s Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO) decreases costs and risks related to geothermal development by being supportive of innovative technologies. Local, federal, and state government programs promote geothermal energy developments. Geothermal Government Programs accepted by the GTO are the following: One -the California Department of Conservation Geothermal Section manages the drilling, operation, maintenance, plugging, and abandonment of geothermal wells on private and state land to guard underground and surface waters and to warrant public safety. Two – the California Energy Commission Geothermal Program promotes California’s geothermal energy development by including financial and technical support to assist with commercialisation projects, aptitude projects, and planning. Three – GeoPowering the West, a U.S. Department of Energy program, works with the U.S. geothermal industry, industrial and residential consumers, power companies, and federal, state, and local officials to provide institutional and technical assistance and limited, cost-shared funding to state-level activities. Four – State Energy Alternatives feature renewable energy resources (including geothermal), policies, and technologies. Five – Technology-Specific Super Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs) – Geothermal Heat Pumps provide information about the U.S. Department of Energy, Federal Energy, the Management Program’s industry contracts to install geothermal heat pump systems in federal buildings. Six – the U.S. Department of Energy Tribal Energy Program provides data about Native American renewable energy projects (including geothermal energy projects) and funding opportunities. Seven – the U.S. Navy Geothermal Program develops and manages geothermal resources on all military land for the U.S. Department of Defence.

Geoengineering is broadly defined as a delay of global warming, ‘climate-altering technologies’ or ‘climate intervention’, the concept of humans intervening with the climate system to regulate the climate, streamlining the effects on the environment, and the deliberate large-scale alteration of the atmosphere to avoid further climate change. This includes extensive interference with the atmosphere, the weather, the oceans, and the earth itself. The two primary groups of geoengineering procedures to relieve climate change and reduce carbon emissions are solar radiation management (solar geoengineering or sunlight reflection) and carbon-dioxide removal (carbon geoengineering or carbon removal). SRM (solar radiation management) strategies focus on reflecting sunlight back into space. It includes a sequence of theories, from orbiting mirrors, tons of sulphates scattered into the stratosphere, and altering clouds, ice, plants, and other reflective surfaces to reflect more sunlight with the goal of cooling the planet. Easier methods with viable results include painting roofs and streetlights in colours that reflect sunlight rather than colours that absorb sunlight. CDR (carbon-dioxide removal) uses carbon-capture technology to remove carbon-dioxide greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere and stratosphere to reduce greenhouse effect-induced global warming. It goes further than removing greenhouse gases and enters the sphere of negative emissions. The geologic safety or stability of underground carbon dioxide storage has not been amply researched.

The greenhouse effect is defined as the way in which heat is surrounded and trapped by atmospheric greenhouse gases close to the earth’s surface. The result of the heat-trapping gases is like a blanket draped around the earth causing the planet to ‘warm up.’ Greenhouse gases contain carbon dioxide, nitrous oxides, methane, and water vapour. Human actions are responsible for the increase in greenhouse gases. In the United States, the main contribution of human greenhouse gas emissions is the burning of fossil fuels. Heat pumps are a greener method of clearing fossil fuels than gas heat. Replacing all or part of a home’s heating requirements with high-efficiency heat pumps will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. There are several other ways of heating a home to qualify as a ‘green home.’ With newer technologies such as lower sulphur blends mixed with biofuels, heating oil is now a clean fuel. The Green Heat Infrared Heater has a modern tower design and is space efficient. This compact infrared heating technology has two infrared quartz glass tubes covered with metal. Another popular green heating option is to install a pellet stove. This is a fireplace made from steel plates, cast iron, and glass. A green certificate verifies that electricity is produced by a renewable (green) energy source. The certificate is also known as Renewable Energy Certificate (REC), Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC), or as a Guarantee of Origin (GO or GoO) from a ‘green’ energy source.

Due to climate change, future heatwaves will be more frequent and intense. With the goal to preserve habitability, approaches such as geoengineering were developed to decrease atmospheric temperatures and alter climate change and global warming. A cooler world would be able to ward off the aftermaths of greenhouse gas emissions. Scientists are hopeful that geoengineering might succeed in reversing the two degrees Celsius global warming and even refreeze it.

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Judge Jennifer R. Dorow is an American lawyer and the Chief Judge of the third district of Wisconsin Circuit Courts. During 2011, she was appointed as a Wisconsin Circuit Court judge by Governor Scott Walker and was endorsed as Chief Judge by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2017. As Waukesha County Chief Judge, she presided over the trial of the 2021 Waukesha Christmas parade attack. After the trial, she announced her candidacy for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Due to the high-profile status and enormity of the trial, it received nationwide news exposure. With seventy-six charges against him, the prisoner-defendant decided to represent himself as a pro se defendant, claimed to be ‘a sovereign citizen,’ and tried everything possible to delay the trial. The case was heard in a Wisconsin hi-tech courtroom. judge Dorow had technology at her fingertips to take control of the proceedings in the courtroom. She could mute or stop any audio or visual presentation, halt the questioning of witnesses, or prevent the defendant from expressing certain words in his closing argument such as ‘jury nullification’ and strike it from the record. He did not respect decorum or order in the courtroom, repeatedly talked over her and burst into fits of rage when things did not go his way. Every time this happened, Judge Dorow ordered that he be removed to an adjoining courtroom (that was simply an extension of the main courtroom). He had full sight of the main courtroom, video and audio access, could partake in proceedings, and had an objection sign which the judge could see (even if he was muted). The moment he lashed out in rage and spoke over her, counsel, or witnesses, the judge muted him so that court proceedings could continue. She effectively captured all court interruptions for the record. As soon as he calmed down, she had the bailiff bring him back into the main courtroom, but he continued to interrupt court proceedings, object to rulings, and undermine the authority of the court. This was his daily behaviour that continued for weeks. Judge Dorow endured his insults, remained impartial, and respected his rights, but he tried to argue with her about the notorious jargon of ‘a sovereign citizen.’ Her high-tech courtroom was used to its fullest potential to control the utterly defiant defendant who acted like a two-year-old child with temper tantrums.

Each courtroom uses an integrated courtroom technology system to successfully manage the presentation of audio and visual content in court proceedings. This is an advanced video system known as the Video Evidence Presentation System (VEPS) that enables documents and video to be displayed simultaneously in various locations of the courtroom. The system is centrally controlled within each courtroom. The VEPS cart is a portable, self-controlled computer terminal for the presentation of evidence. This system includes (such as in the Indiana Lake County Circuit Court) video monitors, computer ports, and a document camera. Attorneys can display digitised evidence on CD-ROM to the Judge and jury through video monitors around the courtroom. The presenting attorney can ‘zoom in’ on a portion of electronic evidence on screen. The CD-ROM can hold a transcript, an audio and a video recording of the trial and all evidence obtained at the trial, creating a multi-media trial record. Parties can connect to the courtroom from other locations through video conferencing software to report on circumstances or appear as witnesses. Video conferencing technology can give access to courtrooms for jurors with disabilities and simplify the task of hiring a foreign language interpreter should a trial require one. Other elements of integrated courtroom technology include a document camera (which can be used to display exhibits such as documents or medium-sized three-dimensional objects), HDMI and VGA connections to display images or multi-media presentations from a mobile computer, and a colour video printer that can produce colour prints of images. VEPS is controlled by two touch screen control panels; one control panel is at the clerk’s desk and the other at the Judge’s bench. Laptop audio and video connections are available to display evidence from either the counsel table or the presentation cart; making it possible to choose either audio or video or both audio and video evidence presentation. To choose a source, it must be requested from the clerk. The Judge can control it from the bench. Audio-visual technology has become a method of evidence presentation that is easy to understand. The District Court has obtained various audio-visual evidence presentation devices. Each courthouse in the district is equipped with this technology which is simple to operate. If support is required, the courtroom deputy will assist. Technology-prepared counsel tables offer fast-connect ability for mobile computer equipment to plug into hidden ports to access the electronics in the courtroom which is enlarged by fully integrated video and audio-conferencing systems with numerous pan-tilt-zoom cameras. The courtroom audio system includes various components such as microphones and overhead speakers, an infra-red interpretation and hearing-impaired reinforcement system, auxiliary audio inputs, and an audio-conferencing system.

The Courtroom Technology Management System (CTMS) is a hi-tech courtroom control, presentation, and management system. Fairfax County’s CTMS offers advanced multimedia evidence presentation and conferencing abilities through its integrated CTMS. The courtroom is furnished with communication infrastructure and various technology requirements. All CTMS courtrooms allow the judge, jury, and gallery to view evidence presentations on flat screens which present features of improvement, interpretation, pausing, and printing. The custom-built CTMS allows all high-tech courtrooms to share a mutual infrastructure through a centralised Master Control Room (MCR). The Virginia Fairfax County Circuit Court offers advanced multimedia evidence presentation and conferencing abilities through such an integrated CTMS. The court has unified equipment in each courtroom with input boxes at each attorney’s table as well as at the podium. These systems are required to incorporate both in- courtroom technologies (e.g., for evidence display, recording of court proceedings, and the judge’s bench zone) as well as broader systems that are located elsewhere in the courthouse (e.g., for digital communications, back-end infrastructure, self-service kiosks, and the server room).

Courthouses started filing electronic pleadings and orders of court records when bulk documentation became overbearing and difficult trials required infographics and visual images. Electronic Presentation Evidence (EPE) or electronic evidence is any information stored or transmitted in digital format. Such a document is considered as equal to an original document under the Best Evidence Rule if it is a printout or readable output (by sight or other means) that reflect the accurate data. High-tech courtrooms are equipped with evidence monitors for digital evidence presentation. These monitors are located at the deputy’s desk, the reporter’s desk, the judge’s bench, the jury box, the law clerk’s desk, the lectern, and the witness stand. To use the VEPS, the attorney’s laptop must be able to send the display to an external VGA monitor.  The Electronic Evidence Presentation System (EEPS) allows for the inspection of evidence throughout the courtroom’s evidence monitors, including the evidence presentation cart.

An Electronic Court Case Management System (eCCMS) is a web-based system which was established for the dynamic functioning of specific sections in the Judicial Service. Hybrid courtrooms are merely wireless displays of evidence from laptops, smartphones, tablets, and other devices such as video recorders and DVD players. The E-courtroom system contains equipment that allows evidence to be presented in several formats such as Word documents, Microsoft Power Point presentations, videos (DVD/VHS), papers, x-rays, and transparencies. Each civil District Courtroom has the same E-courtroom lectern workstation model; it is a desktop computer equipped with USB ports, DVD-RW, and CD-RW drives. Details for distant connection to hearings will be provided by the Court, but parties must each have a reliable internet access, a microphone, and a webcam. The Beijing Internet Court (BIC) has promoted the thorough integration of a high-quality digital justice system. The team of legal professionals specialise in internet-related cases.

United States Courtrooms are equipped with the most recent electronic presentation and audio-visual equipment for E-courtroom technology. Latest system improvements make the equipment more user-friendly; this allows for evidence to be displayed in a coherent way. These courtrooms are equipped with audio enhancement which incorporates individual desktop microphones, wireless handheld and lapel microphones, and infrared supported headsets for the hearing impaired. Document cameras exhibit documents or three-dimensional objects. Courtroom technology has been installed in many courtrooms with positive outcomes. According to a program implementation plan approved by the Judicial Conference Committee on Automation and Technology this project will continue and be applied to all existing and new courtrooms in the future. Courtrooms have technology liaisons to help with the use of the technology; assistance includes data analysis, IT support, software management, system administration, and web design and development. These developments have closed the bridge between high-powered attorneys and smaller firms by offering all parties the same access to services. The Ceremonial Courtroom is one of several huge tutorial rooms with hi-tech technology that offer instructional Law School programs.

The District Court of the United States has been installed with various components which include auxiliary audio inputs, infra-red interpretation and hearing-impaired reinforcement systems, microphones and overhead speakers, and audio-conferencing systems which can be used to reinforce in-room audio (PA systems) and to present evidence during conference sessions (Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and VoIP calls). The United States District Court for the Central District of California is dedicated to deliver audio-visual experiences that exceed the needs of the Bar and the public by integrating HD audio-visual and presentation technologies to improve courtroom proficiency. The minimum requirements for a courtroom to have audio-visual presentation technology is an evidence camera, input connections for video and sound, as well as an audio sound system and video display. Using a laptop, video evidence should be displayed through a VCR or DVD player. While there is no set standard, all courtrooms will differ; many are implementing a range of new technologies which include the use of collaborative flat screens, webcast testimonies, dual screens that display numerous documents to the jury simultaneously, and even a personal screen for each juror. Courtrooms are designed for audio-visual content, computer equipment, concurrent speech, and distance conferencing.

Clear communication is a fundamental of court proceedings; therefore, professional AV solutions deliver audio-visual clarity. The audio-visual sources of presentation in the courtroom increase juror knowledge and proficiency. The equipment allows lawyers to present evidence in a comprehensive way. For immaculate court proceedings it is vital that the courtroom’s AV system does not falter during a presentation. With minimal effort attorneys can display documents, objects, photos, videos, and electronic presentations to bring detail to life. Audio-video conferencing adds more options to a presentation such as the opportunity to communicate, the capacity to use a whiteboard, and the ability to share documents during audio-visual presentation implies a provision that offers live broadcast services, video conferencing, and web streaming through telecommunication equipment. HDMI and VGA connections exist at counsel tables. A touch screen monitor allows attorneys to complement the images on the screen with documents or photographs and permit witnesses to add clarification with drawings such as direction lines, arrows, and location points. ‘Protective mode’ safeguards against security breaches such as attorneys sending on-screen content directly to the juries for viewing. The United States District Court for Western Pennsylvania has furnished each courtroom in the district with an EEPS that allows counsel to electronically present permissible evidence in trials, hearings and other proceedings to the judge, the jury, opposing counsel, and the witness.

The Court Technology Office (CrTO) facilitates research and manages technological advancements throughout the court system. This involves sharing infrastructure and resources as well as centralising courtroom technology. The federal court system modernises its courtrooms to replicate the unceasing technological progress in trial presentation and litigation. The Department has authority over courtroom technology and is responsible for technical- and web support, technical equipment, and case reports for the judges and staff of the Circuit. The trial technologist manages all courtroom technology and presentation systems; his job description is to maintain and operate all trial presentation hardware and software. He is an important ‘member’ of a skilled and well-organised trial team. The U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota, is dedicated to advanced evidence presentation technology in the courtrooms; an electronic projector as well as a touch screen monitor are available in the courtroom. They believe that premeditated use of evidence presentation technology in the courtrooms deliver positive trial results. Their objective is to deliver systems that are flexible, manageable, and stylish. A manual provides elementary orientation, instructions, and a general summary of the Court’s equipment. The U.S. government has published instructions for lawyers on using court technology to present evidence on monitors in courtrooms. Some of the guidelines relate to technical procedures such as how to connect a laptop to the courtroom monitors.

How legal staff familiarise themselves with and use improvements in courtroom technology will determine the rate of future growth in litigation! Already, the public zone of the Georgia State-wide Business Court consists of four central areas – the attorney conference rooms, the courtroom itself, the courtroom foyer, and the third-floor entrance.

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Think of AI as a form of intelligence that answer questions, find solutions, solve problems, and make predictions. AI describes the technology which performs activities that usually require human intelligence as well as the multi-disciplinary field of science to develop and understand the technology; the science of creating intelligent computer programs, software, and systems for tasks that involve human intelligence and behaviour. AI is an area of cross-disciplinary research that spans computation, mathematics, neuroscience, robotics, and sensory systems to resolve problems via programming technology combined with big data and machine learning (deep learning). AI databases use both structured and unstructured data to implement complex algorithms, understand information, perform tasks, adapt to changing inputs and environments, and develop optimisation methods in computer production.

AI permits machines and computer applications to mimic human intelligence and learn from experience via discussion and algorithmic training. Being the fastest-growing technology to train robotics with real-world data, the purpose is to power tasks performed by humans. The more data a robot uses, the better its performance. Machine learning (ML) and neural networks have an extensive range of uses in agriculture, cybersecurity, education, entertainment, health care, national defense, transportation and manufacturing. Machine learning as a branch of AI, is a method of data analysis based on the knowledge that systems can obtain from facts, organise patterns, and form decisions with minimal human intervention. In recent years, advances in speech processing, computer vision, natural language processing, emotional computing, and ML have been gradually applied to automatic analysis and modelling of behavioural data. The difference between the technologies AI and ML on the one hand and assistive AI technology on the other hand is that AI and ML can independently make decisions while AT on the other hand has an assistive function which leaves the decision-making to humans. AI and biometrics such as voice recognition can estimate a person’s biometric voice signature by analysing the individual’s voice pattern (accent, pitch speed, and tone). Such AI-powered voice recognition can be used for validation in workplaces. AI can monitor emerging complications, regulate the need for pre-emptive maintenance, and direct human behaviour for optimum safety and security.

Canada is a world-leading artificial intelligence research centre. Working in AI in Canada means cooperating with academics, the government, and the private sector. Robotics in Canada includes the foundation, innovation, assembly, and production of machines. Robotics intersects with various other electronic and engineering disciplines such as AI, bioengineering, computer science, nanotechnology, and mechatronics (the engineering of electrical and mechanical systems). Robotics is a separate component in Artificial Intelligence to support the study of the creation of intelligent machines or robots. Robotics combines electrical- and mechanical engineering and computer science and engineering (as they have electrical components), mechanical construction, and are programmed with programming language. Intelligent Robotics uses AI to boost collaboration between people and devices. AI helps robots to adapt to dynamic situations and communicate naturally with people. Automation and robotics programs at Ontario colleges prepare students for work in several fields, from computer control methods to robotics, hydraulics, and pneumatics. Emphasis on assembly languages means students are prepared to work in the computer and IT field as well as in the engineering industry. The University of Toronto brings together established and emerging leaders in robotics who make significant contributions to the University of Toronto Robotics Institute through service, mentorship, community development, and thought leadership. The University of Toronto Robotics Institute is the largest and most distinguished robotics institute in Canada. Dr Andrew Goldenberg is the founder of Robotics at the University of Toronto where he has been since 1982 as Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, cross appointed in the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering and the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. The University of Toronto, Canada, boasts the Intelligent Assistive Technology and Systems Lab (IATSL) in the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy. Dr Wang is an Affiliate Scientist at Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and a member of AI and Robotics in the Rehabilitation team. UT researchers regularly host robotic activities to involve the community. These events include laboratory tours, demonstrations, and workshops.

Assistive technology (AT) can be divided into groups which range from simple technologies to speech-generating devices (SGD) that provide a physical voice to those who don’t have one. These groups are low-tech devices (anything that does not need electricity), mid-tech devices (inexpensive and easy to operate), and high-tech devices (special-purpose computers and AI). Examples of high-tech AT devices are augmentative and alternative communication devices, hearing aid and/or assistive listening devices, text to speech, and picture to speech. The MyEye 2 is designed as a small, wearable camera that attaches to any pair of spectacles, focuses on camera technology (combined with Google Lens’ identification algorithm), identifies objects in front of it, and reads any text within its frame. The second part of this group can be products or services (devices [that function as people’s eyes, ears, and voices], equipment, items, software programs, systems, tools, or support) that ranges from simple household items to complex innovations such as joysticks, screen readers, speech recognition systems, touch screens, word prediction software, eyeglasses, hearing aids, pressure care mattresses, and wheelchairs that is used to increase the functional ability of disabled people and maintain the independence of individuals who will not be able to participate within their homes, careers, and school settings without it. Without these devices many people would be unable to communicate with others, unable to follow careers, or to lead independent lives.

Assistive Technologies (AT) spur innovation. The 15^th International Convention on Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology (i-CREATe 2022) in Hong Kong provided an international conference platform where global Student Innovation Challenges and exhibitions presented innovative applications, equipment, techniques, and technologies. Since most assistive technologies either imitate keyboard functionality or touchpad exchanges, or communicate through the keyboard or mouse, the main challenge for developers is to design connections that do not depend upon a specific input function or technology. Additional AI improved personalisation methods can be added to increase usability such as text interpretation and text to symbol translations. Deep learning (DL), which is the root of image recognition technology, has made notable improvement in recent years. DL can be used on personal computers; therefore, it is possible to compare multi-dimensional information. It is also viable to accurately compare spectrographs with audio soundtracks and pictures.

AT has made excessive improvements in its incorporation with Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) devices. AIoT processes and studies the huge volume of statistics produced by Internet of Things (IoT) devices and applies Artificial Intelligence models, particularly machine learning, to determine patterns to generate insight. Manual devices allow the user to self-feed with the assistance of a non-electrical aid which include modified cutlery, grasping aids, height-adjustable tables, manual mobile arm supports and spring/hydraulic feeders. Some assistive feeding technologies include electrical advancements, manual aids, and robotic technologies. Several people in wheelchairs cannot control a powered wheelchair with the standard joystick interface; therefore, a robotic wheelchair can provide a user with comfort driving assistance and competent travelling. Many types of technology fund caregiving: clothing with polypropylene fibres that stimulate muscles, feeding and bathing machines, assistive devices such as medicine dispensers, intelligent ambulatory walkers for those with both vision and mobility impairment, medication reminders, and safety alarms. AT focuses on giving patients a voice – brain-computer interfaces, IoT and AI to fuel the development of assistive technology devices. There are telecare devices that range from regular telephones to picture phones. In addition to motorised devices, AT is intensely involved in AI, neuroscience, and machine learning. Wisconsin’s Assistive Technology Program (WisTech) – assistive technology includes the services required to obtain and use the devices, including education, evaluation, customisation, and restoration. WisTech is funded to offer assistive technology training, device demonstration, device loans, financing programs, and device re-distribution and exchange. The mission of the new Wisconsin Assistive Technology Initiative Development Team is to help early involvement agencies, school districts, and their partners to deliver assistive technology by making education and technical assistance available through their development of new and updated materials in relation to the program of assistive technology.

AT math tools (calculators and digital graph tools) are helpful to adults and children who struggle with math. Each assistive technology tool reinforces a student’s skill set through the act of playing. Many devices are projected with lively colours and attractive designs to assist with the learning process. Improvements in technology have increased the options for learners with several disabilities. Whether a student is struggling with a physical, cognitive, or sensory disability, AT enables learners to succeed in higher education. Technology is also more accessible to people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, as well as to their caregivers. High-tech tools (location trackers) can supervise and assist, while lower-tech tools (special eating utensils and clothing) make life with dementia less difficult. As technology invents more technical tools in occupational therapy and rehabilitation, ongoing research in assistive technology and robotics shows promising solutions that can make independent living a reality. The health technical industry will have an increase in job applications from occupational therapists. AI assistive tools for cognitive disabilities are intelligent dyslexic systems that include machine learning algorithms and visualisation concepts. It assists to increase the awareness of alphabets and letters among students with dyslexia and improves their reading and writing skills. The development of AT using AI includes captioning for hearing impaired people, multilingual text-to-speech options for reading text to those with cognitive disabilities, sign language recognition and the creation for deaf people, the description of images for blind people, and speech recognition.

Globally, one out of 10 individuals with disabilities have access to assistive technologies.  Making AI solutions obtainable, technology can have a huge impact on the disabled community. OrCam Read is a hand-held AI device for people with low vision and reading difficulties (due to age-related vision loss or other conditions) with a smart camera that reads text instantly from any printed surface or digital screen. Read a book or anything on your computer or smartphone. OrCam Read Smart AI Assistive Reader includes a smart reading feature for anyone who is exposed to large volumes of text. Envision, an assistive technology company, has been marketing Envision Glasses, which are AI-powered smart glasses for blind and visually impaired people. Envision’s software uses artificial intelligence (AI) to extract information from images and then voices the images aloud (so the user has a better understanding of the atmosphere around him). In working with associations across the world, Microsoft and AI are advancing tools for transcription, translation, and language understanding abilities, opening doors to those with disabilities. Microsoft’s Home Funding focus is affiliated with the World Health Organization and The United Nation’s Global Forum. Preferred Networks, an AI and deep-learning-focused start-up, lately revealed the world’s first robot able to tidy a room. The robot can be instructed to clean with response to several commands and rules. It uses machine vision to identify over 300 household items allowing it to logically pick up and tidy belongings.

The World Health Organization’s estimation is that about fifteen percent of the world’s population are disabled. The third annual Sight Tech Global event is a free, virtual event which focuses on artificial intelligence (AI) and assistive technologies (AT) for the blind and visually impaired. The Nevada Assistive Technology Resource Centre (NATRC) and the Nevada Assistive Technology Collaborative (NATC) believe that communication begins with treating an individual with a disability or disabilities as the most important person in a discussion. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities acknowledges that AI has the potential to improve involvement and independence. CIDI (Centre for Inclusive Design and Innovation) research projects build on Georgia Tech’s innovation in engineering, science, and technology. Many projects focus on thorough design and application of information and communications technology (ICT). The research supports everybody (students with disabilities as well as the aging population) and spans across all areas of life, demographics, and barriers. The team identifies ways to make education more accessible, mentors, supports, and provides opportunities to students to contribute to studies throughout the year. CIDI is committed to promoting technological innovation, developing user-centred research, products, and services for individuals with disabilities, addressing unmet needs in higher education, government, non-profit organisations, and corporations by providing accessible and inclusive environments for all.

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Globally, people were not receptive to this concept as the foremost requirement for such a lifestyle was a high-speed internet connection from anywhere in the world. Craig McCaw, an American businessman, telecommunications entrepreneur, pioneer in the cellular phone industry, leading provider of cellular services, and mobile- and fixed wireless broadband communications founded and financed valuable enterprises in broadcast, cable, cellular, fibre, satellite, and communications technologies. AT&T purchased thirty three percent of McCaw Cellular and arranged a merger that made Craig McCaw one of AT&T’s largest shareholders. As the founder of McCaw Cellular and partner of AT&T as a technology provider, he introduced the company’s ‘Cellular One’ service; the first national cellular system. As the progress in wireless internet connections, laptops, PDAs, tablets, video conferencing, messaging systems, and smartphones continued, the vision of a nomadic lifestyle became a reality. People realised that they could choose to keep their present occupations or start remote businesses. At first, they started to travel at a slow pace, taking their time to learn the languages, cook the local foods, and make new friends. They also attended digital nomad festivals and events around the world.

Before the pandemic, this lifestyle was not for office employees. With offices closed and lockdowns in place, many people were forced to work from home. When working for yourself, you can start earning from the beginning (even with no experience) – besides training, there are no start-up costs. After the pandemic lockdowns, the popularity of this flexible lifestyle became the new norm; people realised that they could work their usual office hours without a static workplace. Many major company leaders now believe that employees can do their work from anywhere in the world while using technology. Several digital nomads come from developed countries with passports that allow freedom of travel while others worked with a travel visa, which is technically illegal. The legality to work from anywhere in the world has now been made possible through digital nomad visas.

Through its platform, MBO Partners has built an employee ecosystem that maximises value, minimises risk, and strengthens relationships between employees. The 2020 MBO Partners State of Independence (SOI) study was the 10th annual study in the series of studies on independent work in the United States. The Digital Nomads research brief was part of this series of studies. Since 2011, there has been more than 22,000 in-depth surveys completed by independent workers and more than 1,500 in-person independent worker interviews. 2020s results showed that 10.9 million American workers described themselves as digital nomads, an increase of 49% from 2019. Digital nomads are divided into two groups – the first group is entrepreneurs and freelancers, and the second group is remote workers and telecommuters. The main difference is that entrepreneurs and freelancers have their own businesses while remote workers and telecommuters are employed by companies. Digital nomads are virtual workers who perform their occupations solely over the internet and travel to new places where they live in different countries. They are self-employed individuals with freedom to work globally and regularly travel to different locations. Digital nomads have a choice to focus on one area or travel around the world (living out of backpacks and suitcases).

Digital nomadism is characterised by a technology-enabled lifestyle. Concerning their nomadic lifestyle, entrepreneurs, freelancers, and virtual assistants gain location independence by working from temporary housing, co-working spaces, public libraries, hotels, restaurants, or coffee shops.

They take advantage of wireless digital technologies with online tools such as Wi-Fi connected laptops, smartphones, or mobile hotspots to access the internet. Digital nomads are adventurous, open-minded, tech-savvy, travel permanently, carry several electronic devices with them, work for themselves or someone else, have minimal possessions, and qualify for various jobs in several industries. Their revolution into entrepreneurship and freelancing is to create friendly, tolerant, and sociable communities abroad. Certain locations around the world are more friendly towards the nomadic lifestyle; find out about the internet infrastructure, if foreigners are welcome, and whether there is a community of fellow digital nomads when choosing a destination. The secret to a sustainable nomadic lifestyle is to know the difference between the corporate hours of the different countries by considering the global time zones e.g., Phuket in Thailand is in the Indochina Time Zone (ICT). Indochina Time is seven hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) or the Coordinated Universal Time standard which is indicated as UTC/GMT+7. ICT does not have daylight-saving time; therefore, it has the same UTC offset throughout the year. Daylight saving is a deliberate manual set-back or set-forward of time on specific days of the year. ICT is observed in south central Asia and runs through Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Semi-retired or retired people choose to live the nomadic lifestyle for a brief period. It allows them freedom of movement to learn about cultures, build new friendships, and explore new places. They choose it as the ultimate lifestyle to promote eco-friendly practices, to meet people with similar philosophies, and to find inspiration through interaction with people from other cultures. Besides work, they either help to build communities or positively impact the local communities of the countries they visit.

Digital Nomad Visas are unique entry permits that allow the holders to do their jobs from other countries for extended periods. Globally, there are many countries that issue digital nomad visas. Some Caribbean countries such as Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda have the highest application fees for digital nomad visas while other countries offer free digital nomad visas to create awareness among interested applicants. The fact that several countries have already created Digital Nomad Visas does not mean that travellers are unable to work remotely from countries that have not yet applied for DNVs. Digital nomad jobs require digital skills. Among such job titles are blog content writers, consultants, content creators for advertising and marketing, copywriters, editors, website developers, entrepreneurs, graphic designers, language teachers, lawyers, photographers, project managers, social media managers, translators, video editors, videographers, video producers, virtual assistants, and writers. Affiliate marketing, cryptocurrency, daily trading, digital marketing, e-commerce, graphic design programming, online surveys, web design, and web development also qualify for a long-term travel lifestyle. Countries with digital nomad jobs are countries such as Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bermuda, Brazil, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Mauritius, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and the United Arab Emirates.

The countries that released Digital Nomad Visa programs during 2020 were Antigua and Barbuda, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Estonia, Georgia, Iceland, and the United Arab Emirates. During 2021, Costa Rica, Croatia, Malta, Romania, and Spain. During 2022, Argentina, Brazil, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Latvia, Mauritius, and Portugal. During 2020, Antigua and Barbuda announced a digital nomad visa, the Nomad Digital Residence (NDR) which allows digital nomads who work for a company outside of Antigua and Barbuda to stay in the country for two years. Bermuda invited applications for its digital nomad visa (an expansion of an older residency program); the visa allows digital nomads to live in the country for one year. The Cayman Islands launched the Global Citizen Concierge Program – foreign workers must have an employment letter from an entity outside the Cayman Islands and a minimum salary of 100,000 USD. Estonia’s digital nomad visa allows remote workers to live in Estonia for a maximum of one year while legally working for their employers or own companies registered abroad (applicants need a monthly income of 3,504 Euros). Georgia launched a program known as ‘Remotely from Georgia’ – under the program, citizens from ninety-five countries can travel and work remotely in the country for 360 days without a visa. Iceland allows foreign nationals to live in the country for up to six months under a long-term visa. The city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates launched a visa program that allows digital nomads and remote workers to stay in the country for a year; to qualify, foreign workers need a monthly income of 5,000 USD and a letter of employment.

During 2021, Costa Rica passed a new law to extend the digital nomad program from ninety days to a year, with the option to renew it for another year. Digital nomads are exempt from income tax and have the use of other benefits such as the opportunity to open a national bank account. The visa requires foreign nationals to have a monthly income higher than 3000 USD (families that apply for the visa need a monthly income greater than 5000 USD). Croatia started offering special visas to digital workers outside the European Union – the visa allows digital nomads to stay in the country for a year while being exempt from income tax – technically, it is not termed a digital nomad visa, but a type of temporary residency permit. (Croatia is a favourite European digital nomad destination, especially for those looking to reset their ninety-day Schengen Area stay. Applicants need a monthly income of 2,600 USD, pay the temporary residence permit fee of fifty-five to sixty-five USD, purchase health insurance, undergo a criminal record check, and confirm that their passport remains valid for no less than three months from date of departure). Third country citizens who are not from an EU (European Union) member country can apply for the Malta Nomad Residence Permit (NRP); the visa lasts for a year with the possibility of an extension – dependent family members can be added by paying an extra 300 Euros for each member). Romanian parliament passed legislation for a digital nomad visa which is valid for six months (can be extended for a further six months) if applicant has proof of part-time or full employment (for three years prior to application) and have proof of income for the last six months (equal to three times the Romanian average gross salary).

During 2022, a new law in Spain created the Digital Nomad Visa which qualifies digital nomads for a tax rate reduction and residency in Spain for one year. The Argentinian government implemented a temporary visa for digital nomads (valid for six months, renewable for another six months). Brazil introduced a digital nomad visa for foreign nationals employed by a foreign company – non-Brazilian workers can apply for a visa that allows them to stay in the country for ninety days during a one-hundred-and-eighty-day period, or one-hundred-and-eighty-days during a one-year period (the digital nomad visa is valid for one year, renewable for another year). Indonesia introduced a digital nomad visa that allows remote workers to live in the country tax-free for five years. (Indonesia’s Minister of Tourism is confident that this initiative will attract more than three million digital nomads to the country). Italy’s digital nomad visas were voted into law as part of a government declaration. Latvia’s immigration laws allow third-country nationals to reside in Latvia on a one-year visa while working remotely (either for foreign-registered employers or as self-employed individuals). Mauritius extended its premium visa to digital nomads; the premium visa allows digital nomads and remote workers to stay in the country for a year. Portugal announced applications for remote work and digital nomad visas; digital nomads who want to work from Portugal can now legally do so without having to apply for a D7 visa (which was difficult to obtain). Hungary introduced the White Card residency permit for digital nomads; under the permit, foreign nationals can live in Hungary if they are a third-country national (meaning they are not a citizen of an EEA (European Economic Area) country and proof of employment with a company or employer outside Hungary can be produced. The White Card residency permit is for one year (can be extended for another year) and provides opportunities for third-country nationals to live and work in popular cities across Hungary.

European Union (EU) countries are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden. Countries that belong to EEA are all the EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. Although Switzerland is not an EEA member, it is connected to the EU via EFTA (the European Free Trade Association). Citizens of these thirty countries enjoy the same rights as EU citizens. When citizens of the above economically affluent and politically stable countries obtain dual citizenships, they qualify for EU passports which provide the right to live, study, work, or retire in any of these countries without the need for visas or work permits.

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Event production involves creativity, innovation, and intense input. Working with an event consultant helps to plan a budget to establish a realistic goal. The cost of the event will be determined by the venue, the attending guests, the activities, and the equipment. Brand development is a method of developing and recognising a company’s products, services, and visions. Photos alone are not enough to create an awe-inspiring atmosphere. A digital marketing strategy with a full-spectrum campaign not only enforces the loyalty of current consumers but extends to a larger margin of consumers. Development communicates the brand to the target market to increase the consumers and performance of the brand through powerful brand messages and creative visuals. Working with an internal team helps to achieve such a strategy to drive brand awareness.

Nowadays, event management is part of event planning and focuses on the customer’s experience of the event. With current brand and consumer tendencies highlighting the importance of this experience, more public relations departments are asking professional event production companies for assistance. A successful brand identity relies on creative and technical solutions such as digital strategies, imagery, visual campaigns, product design and development, marketing, moving- and still images, retail merchandising, sales, trend analysis, websites, and competitor analysis. An event production company that specialises in creative solutions and brand impact, engages with the audience and allows them to experience the event. Integrated into the marketing strategy, events can be a valuable tool to communicate and provide the audience with insight and understanding of the brand. Digital media production is everything from video and audio to interactive online experiences – the website creation is customised, dynamic, and targeted.

Founded in1916, with its headquarters in Ottawa (Ontario province), the National Research Council of Canada is the primary agency of the Government of Canada committed to research, development, science, and technology. Rendering advice on intellectual property regarding technological innovations, the Council is Canada’s largest federal research and development organisation. The NRC supports Canadian innovators by allowing people to experience the benefits of Canada’s vision for science through innovative programs. The Council provides the NRC Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) with certifications and evaluations, advice, collaboration, funding, and services. The Council of Canadian Innovators’ mandate is to expand the growth of Canada’s innovation-based sector by confirming that Canadian technology and public-policy leaders work together to develop Canada’s innovations. The Council focuses on the global upgrade of high-output Canadian technology companies. The Minister of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development is responsible for the NRC.

Bruce Mau (a Canadian architect, designer, educator, and author) is the founder and creative director of Bruce Mau Design (BMD), founder of Institute without Boundaries, and co-founder and CEO of Massive Change Network (a design consultancy in Chicago). He is one of the world’s most popular designers and began his career as a graphic designer before applying his designing skills to architecture, art, eco-environmental design, education, films, museums, and conceptual philosophy. BMD is a design studio that designs brands from print media and brand identities of exhibits and museums. With offices in Toronto and Chicago, Bruce Mau Design is a worldwide multidisciplinary brand design company that works with organisations to shape the future of their industries. He works on a variety of projects in co-operation with foremost global brands, entrepreneurs, governments, organisations, artists, universities, and like-minded optimists. During 2007, he received the AIGA Gold Medal, the Global Creative Leadership Award (2009), and the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award (2016). Bruce applies the power of design and his conceptual philosophies to transform the world. A few of these philosophies are ‘massive change is not about the world of design – it is about the design of the world; design is constantly evolving; when everything is connected to everything else (for better or for worse) everything matters; the fundamental idea of design is to make the world a better place.’

Without creative thinking, there is no inspiration for innovation. Although there are several definitions of innovation, a mutual viewpoint is the focus on originality and progress. Innovation is the practical application of ideas that either result in the introduction of new goods and services, or the development of goods and services. Innovative people express behaviours and practices of association, experimentation, networking, observation, and questioning that promote the ability to create innovative ideas, leading to new practices, products, and business models. Notwithstanding digital transformation, several academics, agencies, companies, and law firms are evaluating ways to decrease innovator-inventor imbalances in the workforce. The Innovator is a Paris-based digital media platform that focusses on the introduction of top start-ups, helps industries understand the technologies behind the transformation of their businesses, and concentrates on ways of coping with cultural changes involved with digital revolution.

Two Los Angeles-based companies are RENDER Event Design and MEGA Event Production. RENDER Event Design was launched as a full-service special event planning and production company whereas MEGA Event Production specialises in services such as design and branding, website- and social media marketing, print and promotional advertising, conferences and corporate events, special events, stage preparation, lighting and effects, and audio and video pre- and post-production. Digital Vibe is an independent multimedia production company with a powerful AI platform to analyse accurate data presentations of products and services, to preserve accurate records of campaigns, and to provide quality user experiences. With headquarters in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, Digital Vibe specialises in digital design solutions such as brochure design and printed advertising, digital and social media marketing, website design and development, corporate branding and identity, corporate website solutions, and virtual reality applications.

Futures Industry Association (FIA) is the leading global trade organisation for Futures and Options and Cleared Industry Derivatives with a vital role in the global economy by representing a selection of global market participants that depend on trade markets such as clearinghouses, executing brokers, exchanges, specialised legal and registered trading firms, software vendors, and product specialists. FIA’s main task is to provide each member firm (referred to as a global market participant) with a voice to support open, competitive, and transparent markets, to protect and improve the reliability of the financial system, and to promote high standards of professional conduct. FIA was founded in New York as the Association of Commodity Exchange Firms. It was originally recognised as a forum to discuss problems, collaborate with exchanges, embody the public consumer, study methods to lower costs, reduce the interference of credit, co-operate with educational efforts, and protect firms from falsified warehouse receipts. It later moved to Washington D.C. and was renamed the Futures Industry Association. FIA expanded by inviting international organisations to join as members (presently FIA has about two-hundred-member firms in fifty countries) and operate from offices in Brussels, London, Singapore, and Washington. The FIA Asia (Singapore) branch was set up to provide a platform for members to discuss problems related to the Futures and Options industry in the Asia-Pacific region. The FIA Europe (London) branch was founded as the Futures and Options Association. The merger of FIA, FIA Europe, and FIA Asia strengthened FIA’s influence on cross-border issues, significantly increasing the organisation, the flow of information between regions, and providing an authoritative global voice to the views of their members. The merged organisation serves both the global and regional needs of the futures, options and centrally cleared derivatives markets. Central clearing is when an entity (intermediate clearing house) steps in between a buyer and seller to centrally clear a derivative trade. A select group of start-ups were chosen to participate in the annual Innovators Pavilion (FIA Futures and Options Expo) in Chicago. The November 2022 start-ups were selected by an independent committee of industry experts from FIA member firms as well as venture capital firms whose focus were on capital markets. The Innovators Pavilion provided the participants with an occasion to stage their solutions to all Expo attendees (which included senior executives from banks, brokers, clearinghouses, exchanges, and trading firms). BeZero Carbon was named the FIA Innovator of the Year, Clouty was the runner-up, and Kemet Trading won the People’s Choice Award. Evolv AI hearing aids and SoundGear’s Phantom hearing protection each earned the 2022 first place in their respective categories in the third annual Hearing Technology Innovator Awards. Evolv AI won the Custom Hearing Aids category and Phantom won first place in the Hearing Conservation category.

The Georgia Department of Economic Development’s Annual Awards Program recognises automotive leaders and their contributions. Constellium was honoured at the third annual Georgia Automotive Awards as Innovator of the Year. The Channel Company originated in1982 when the first issue of CRN (a brand of The Channel Company) was published. Representing the Information Technology (IT) Channel, CRN remains the best online technology platform for news, analysis, perspectives, and insights to inform IT solution providers. Each year, CRN recognises technology companies for their superiority in various categories. CRN chose Aryaka (known for its Unified SASE with SD-WAN solution) as a finalist in the 2022 CRN Tech Innovator Awards. Secure Access Service Edge is a security framework that joins Software-defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN) and Zero Trust security solutions into a connected cloud-delivered platform that securely links users, systems, endpoints, and remote networks to applications and resources. Zero Trust security solutions do not define everything behind corporate firewalls as safe, but ‘assume’ that every request is from an open network. Regardless of where the request originated, Zero Trust teaches to ‘never trust, always verify.’ KPMG Private Enterprise announced HiiROC as the winner of the 2022 KPMG Private Enterprise Global Tech Innovator, with opposition from well over one-thousand applicants in twenty-two countries at the final event in Lisbon, Portugal. Hydrogen is the new clean fuel (an energy powerhouse with unlimited potential). Current production is either high emission of CO² or high cost for which a solution is desperately needed. Founded by Ate Wiekamp, Simon Morris, and Tim Davies, HiiROC (situated in Hull, northern England) has established a technology (Thermal Plasma Electrolysis) to produce low-cost hydrogen with zero CO² emissions. HiiROC’s founders believe that it could be a solution to produce clean hydrogen from micro- to industrial scale. Their product can easily be installed at the demand point, evading transport and overhead costs, and allow for present transport infrastructure.

LZG International known as FatBrain AI, is a leader in influential and easy-to-use artificial intelligence solutions for start-up and mid-market enterprises (SMEs). FatBrain AI has obtained Predictive Black Ltd, a United Kingdom-based innovator of financial insights, real-time cash management, and business well-being for SMEs. FatBrain AI has also obtained Intellagents, an innovative insuretech platform that delivers innovative and easy-to-use AI solutions to the insurance ecosystem. FatBrain’s global footprint contains design and development centres in India, Kazakhstan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Its subscription model permits all companies to implement its advanced AI solutions, securely using them on premises behind firewalls or via cloud. The technologies and advanced data services transform cloud and blockchain technologies, continuous learning, and narrative reasoning. Major sectors, large and small companies, and even the smallest firms need what Fatbrain AI has to offer. The Dublin-based company Accenture, formerly Andersen Consulting, specialises in IT services and consulting. The Irish professional technology firm’s current clients include ninety-one of the Fortune Global hundred and beyond three-quarters of the Fortune Global five hundred. Accenture is a technology company with prominent cloud, digital, and security services powered by the world’s largest network of Advanced Technology and Intelligent Operations. Acting on the promise of technology in more than forty industries and one-hundred-and-twenty countries, Accenture creates success and value for clients, partners, shareholders, and communities. John Deere (the brand name of Deere and Company) is an American manufacturing corporation and primary innovator of technologically advanced machinery in construction, agriculture, forestry, and ground care equipment. The acquisition of the Wirtgen Group to John Deere’s global network means advanced road construction technology and sustainability. Wirtgen’s five premium brands in road construction assist with the global need for infrastructure development and improvement. Heavy John Deere machines are equipment such as dozers, excavators, front end loaders, and haul trucks. The entire range of machines includes agricultural machines, commercial machines, forestry machines, diesel engines, drivetrains (axles, gearboxes, and transmissions), heavy equipment, golf, lawn care, and residential equipment. John Deere dealership networks span the globe to offer equipment and customer support. Customer Service Advisor is a digital database of diagnostic, operator, and technical manuals for John Deere products that allow users to connect to machines with an Electronic Data Link (EDL) to perform diagnostic readings and accomplish adjustments. Sony has an extensive history as an innovator in industries such as semi-conductors, electronics, and video games. With experience in research and development, the company is focused on methods to improve their products and services, to develop new products and technologies that will meet the needs of their customers, and to modify to way people live and work.

Hi-Innovator is an initiative of Uganda’s National Social Security Fund (NSSF) that provides young inventors with a platform to present their business concepts and clarify perceptions such as development, goals, and visions. The NSSF established a start-up fund to identify and support Uganda’s businesses that show prospects of impact and sustainability; with the commitment to promote the visibility of their businesses, they may approach potential investors. The Hi-Innovator Program starts with an online learning platform that covers introductory business knowledge for entrepreneurs, enabling them to deal with shortcomings in their businesses. The program is available to those who have a growing or small business and even to those with an intent to start a business. When expressing an interest to receive technical assistance and funding, NSSF undertakes to engage with dedicated, motivated, and skilled employees who share the mutual purpose of improving lives. At the Start-up Uganda 2021 Awards, the National Social Security Fund won the Start-up Champion Award in the Public Sector for their Hi-Innovator Program.

Google for Education Certified Innovators stay active by either continuing to work on a self-chosen high-impact Innovation Project, by being prominent supporters of Google technologies to transform education, or by Google programs to advance innovation and transformation in school systems. Amazon announced the Alexa Young Innovator Challenge for students between the ages of thirteen and eighteen. The Challenge is for students to display Alexa skills to address real-world challenges such as environmental issues, healthcare, and poverty. The contest is part of the Amazon Future Engineer educational program in the United Kingdom and will be presented through classrooms. Amazon revealed ten innovative AI and computer science careers available to young people in the future. The Intel Software Innovator program allows world-class software developers who desire leadership roles in the emerging field of IoT to share their talents and visions; thereby inspiring a growing generation of Internet of Things developers. Through their expertise and innovation with pioneering technology, developers can inspire the larger community of developers.

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