Nvidia has agreed to buy Hugging Face, a repository of open-source AI models, for $12.9 billion, The Information reported on Wednesday, citing a person with knowledge of the deal.
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New quantum computing method broadens spectroscopy of hard-to-model matter
Scientists could have a new way to explore the hidden behavior of matter, thanks to research involving Queen Mary University of London that uses a quantum computer to carry out a new form of computational spectroscopy.
Spectroscopy is an important scientific technique used to understand the properties of matter. By analyzing how materials and molecules respond to energy or light, researchers can gain insights into their structure and behavior. Computational approaches can complement these experiments by allowing scientists to investigate and predict properties using theoretical models and simulations.
However, quantum systems can be exceptionally difficult to model using conventional computers. The new research, published in Nature Communications, develops a generalized approach to quantum computational spectroscopy that allows researchers to study a much broader range of quantum systems.
Observing the vibrations of neighboring atoms with an atomic-scale double slit
Efficiently controlling heat generation has become a major challenge as the semiconductors used in smartphones, computers and similar devices have become higher-performing and more miniaturized. The way heat is transmitted is determined by the vibration of the atoms that constitute a material, but it is not easy to directly examine, at the atomic scale, how neighboring atoms vibrate in coordination with one another.
A research group made up of Director and Professor Naoya Shibata, JSPS Research Fellow Koudai Tabata, Associate Professor Taketo Seki and Project Associate Professor Ryo Ishikawa, all of the Institute of Engineering Innovation, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, has succeeded in an atomic-scale double-slit experiment that treats neighboring atoms as “two slits” and demonstrates that it is possible to read out the vibration of atoms from the fringe pattern formed by electrons. Their paper is published in the journal Nature.
The double-slit experiment makes use of a phenomenon in which waves passing through two narrow slits overlap and create a pattern of bright and dark fringes. Since the British physicist Thomas Young first performed it using light in the early 19th century, it (Young’s experiment) has been known as a fundamental experiment demonstrating the wave nature of light. If this experiment could be reduced to the atomic scale inside a material, it would allow direct investigation of the arrangement and motion of atoms at the level of a single atomic bond, but an atomic-scale double-slit experiment of this kind has never been realized.
AI designs new antibodies that pass blinded laboratory tests
Researchers affiliated with UTHealth Houston, competing under the team name Novamab AI, placed among the top five teams in the international AIntibody Challenge, a blinded, prospective benchmark published in Nature Biotechnology.
The study, “A blinded, prospective benchmark of in-silico antibody discovery anchored to experimental affinity and developability,” evaluates artificial intelligence platforms for therapeutic antibody design through laboratory synthesis and experimental characterization.
Unlike retrospective computational benchmarks that evaluate models against historical data sets, the AIntibody Challenge required participating teams to design entirely new antibody sequences. The designs were independently synthesized and experimentally evaluated for binding affinity and developability—key physical and chemical traits required for clinical drug candidates.
Hyperdoped silicon photodiode advances short-wave infrared detection at room temperature
Detecting short-wave infrared (SWIR) light, a region of the electromagnetic spectrum just beyond the light visible to the human eye, could be advantageous for many real-world applications. For instance, it could enable more advanced systems for capturing images at night, as well as sophisticated medical imaging, environmental monitoring and industrial inspection technologies.
Despite their potential, most SWIR detection devices developed so far are based on expensive semiconducting materials that are often difficult to integrate with existing electronic hardware. This is because silicon, the most widely used semiconductor in the electronics industry, cannot absorb SWIR photons due to its wide band gap.
Researchers at Complutense University of Madrid have developed a silicon photodiode that can efficiently absorb SWIR light and is compatible with current electronics manufacturing processes. The new device, introduced in a paper published in Physical Review Letters, is based on silicon doped with a high concentration of tellurium (Te) atoms.
Tiny atomic changes could lead to smarter wireless technology
Researchers at Queen Mary University of London have shown that making extremely small changes to the structure of a material can dramatically improve its ability to respond to electrical signals. Published recently in Science Advances, the breakthrough could help create a new generation of wireless devices that can change frequency on demand, making communication systems more flexible and energy efficient.
The team focused on a ceramic material called strontium tantalate. By replacing a small number of atoms with slightly smaller calcium atoms, they created tiny distortions in the material’s structure. Although these changes occur at the atomic scale, they have a major effect on how the material behaves.
How high scores in an online brain teaser made mathematicians lie for three years
It might not yet be the phenomenon that is Wordle, but for hundreds of thousands of players, Digit Party has scratched the itch of a casual brain teaser to break up their day.
Players arrange numbers on a 5-by-5 grid, earning points whenever identical numbers touch on adjacent or diagonally connected squares. They can then compare their score to the puzzle’s maximum score that the game spits out at the end of a round.
There’s just one problem: The game was lying. Or rather, its creators were. For more than three years, Vincent Vatter, Ph.D., at the University of Florida and Robert Brignall, Ph.D., at The Open University in the United Kingdom didn’t know how to calculate the true high scores.
Narrow ultrasonic beam enables stable 3D levitation six times farther than before
Scientists have developed a new acoustic levitation technique using an ultrasonic beam capable of levitating and moving small objects in midair over distances of up to 40 cm (16 inches), six times farther than previously achieved using conventional methods. The study, carried out by a research team from the University of Tsukuba in Japan and the University of Bristol, was published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
Acoustic levitation is a technique that uses sound waves to suspend objects in midair without physical contact—meaning it has the potential to be beneficial for handling fragile materials, contamination-sensitive samples and hazardous substances.
Conventional acoustic levitation systems rely on sound waves generated within an enclosed space, but the new technique is the first time a single-sided design has demonstrated stable acoustic levitation in three dimensions.
High magnetic fields revive superconductivity in nickelates
Scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS), in collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States, have uncovered that a class of nickel-based materials known as samarium (Sm)-based infinite-layer nickelates can regain their superconducting ability under strong magnetic fields. This behavior could open a promising pathway toward superconducting technologies that can operate under extreme magnetic conditions.
Superconductivity, the ability of certain materials to conduct electricity without resistance, is typically destroyed by strong magnetic fields. However, a research team led by Professor Ariando from the Department of Physics at NUS, working with scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory, has shown that Sm-based infinite-layer nickelates defy this expectation.
In these nickelates, superconductivity is first suppressed at low magnetic fields of a few tesla, only to reappear as the field increases, persisting beyond 60 tesla (hundreds of thousands of times stronger than Earth’s magnetic field). This unusual behavior, known as reentrant superconductivity, has previously been observed only in materials with very low transition temperatures, limiting their practical relevance.