Telecom operators are pushing for the European Union to introduce new laws that would require U.S. technology companies such as Google, Facebook and Netflix to shoulder a portion of European telecom network costs, with telecom operators arguing that they drive much of the region’s Internet traffic.

In September, the European Commission’s head of industry, Thierry Breton, said it would launch a consultation on so-called “fair share” payments in early 2023 before proposing a bill.

Now the European Internet Exchange Association (Euro-IX) has said the proposal risks reducing the quality of service for users across Europe and could “inadvertently create new systemic problems” in critical infrastructure.

“The internet is a complex ecosystem and it is politicians who are ultimately responsible for the systemic effects arising from policy choices.”

writes Bijal Sangani, managing director of Euro-IX.

It was later added that legislators should not prioritize “administrative rules over technical necessity or a high-quality internet” for the people of Europe.

As in all of the natural sciences, biology has developed mathematical models to help fit data and make predictions about the future. However, because of the inherent complexities of living systems, many of these equations rely on simplifying assumptions that do not always reflect the actual underlying biological processes. Now, researchers at The University of Tokyo Institute of Industrial Science have implemented a machine learning algorithm that can use the measured size of single cells over time to predict their future size. Because the computer automatically recognizes patterns in the data, it is not constrained like conventional methods.

“In biology, simple models are often used based on their capacity to reproduce the measured data,” first author Atsushi Kamimura says. “However, the models may fail to capture what is really going on because of human preconceptions,.”

The data for this latest study were collected from either an Escherichia coli bacterium or a Schizosaccharomyces pombe yeast cell held in a microfluidic channel at various temperatures. The plot of size over time looked like a “sawtooth” as exponential growth was interrupted by division events. Human biologists usually use a “sizer” model, based on the absolute size of the cell, or “adder” model, based on the increase in size since birth, to predict when divisions will occur. The computer algorithm found support for the “adder” principle, but as part of a complex web of biochemical reactions and signaling.