There’s a real life bionic woman, and a mindblowing technological advancement has made her life a lot better.
Chemists at RIKEN have developed a method for making synthetic derivatives of the natural dye indigo that doesn’t require harsh conditions. This discovery could inspire advances in electronic devices, including light-responsive gadgets and stretchy biomedical sensors.
Semiconductors based on organic molecules are attracting much interest because—unlike conventional rigid semiconductors based on silicon—they could be flexible, ductile and lightweight, opening up new possibilities for designing semiconductor devices.
Organic molecules also have the advantage of realizing a broad range of structures. “Organic semiconductors have flexibility in molecular design, enabling them to adopt new functionalities,” says Keisuke Tajima of the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science, who led the research.
From the article: As much as 55,000 tons (50,000 metric tons) of hydrogen could lurk in the reservoir beneath the mine — enough to sustain the high flow rate for 238 years, according to the study.
A portion of ancient oceanic crust that sits atop Albania and hosts one of the largest chromium mines on Earth also contains a huge hydrogen reservoir, offering a potential source of clean energy.
Extracting lithium from California’s Salton Sea for use in batteries.
California’s toxic Salton Sea has enough lithium to make the U.S. self-sufficient in the mineral, which is a key component of rechargeable batteries. WSJ explores the tech being developed to extract it—and what it means for the future of domestic production. Photo: Kaitlyn Wang.
Continue reading “The Race to Make This Dying U.S. Lake the ‘Saudi Arabia of Lithium’” »
Artificial intelligence (AI) is evolving at break-neck speed and was one of the key themes at one of the world’s biggest tech events this year, CES.
From flying cars to brain implants that enable tetraplegics to walk, the show revealed some of the most recent AI-powered inventions destined to revolutionize our lives. It also featured discussions and presentations around how AI can help address many of the world’s challenges, as well as concerns around ethics, privacy, trust and risk.
Given how widespread AI is and the rate at which it is evolving, global harmonization of terminologies, best practice and understanding is important to enable the technology to be deployed safely and responsibly. IEC and ISO International Standards fulfil that role and are thus important tools to enable AI technologies to truly benefit society. They can not only provide a common language for the industry, they also enable interoperability and provide international best practice, while addressing any risks and societal issues.
Instead of going through the tedious process of actually interacting with women, Moscow resident Aleksandr Zhadan programmed OpenAI’s GPT large language models to talk to well over 5,000 women on his behalf.
Zhadan went as far as to have it schedule IRL dates with matches and filter out profiles that showed women posing with alcohol, as Gizmodo reports.
Lo and behold, his efforts appear to have paid off: Zhadan found his wife, Karina Vyalshakaeva, in apparent proof that his bizarre and extremely 2024 method of finding love in the age of AI can actually work — if the happy couple isn’t making the whole thing up for clout, that is.
Apple researchers have released a new open-source AI model that is capable of editing images based on a user’s natural language instructions (via VentureBeat).
The world’s tallest 3D-printed tower, set to be built in the Swiss Alps along the Julier mountain pass, started fabrication at ETH in Zurich this month.
Tor Alva, also known as the “White Tower,” is a pioneering innovation in the 3D printing industry illustrating a 30-meter tall building in Mulegns, Switzerland.
The White Tower project was led by Benjamin Dillenburger and launched in collaboration with Fundaziun Origen.
