A depiction of a robot with human neurons.
Category: space – Page 279
The loss of dark skies is so painful, astronomers coined a new term for it
Humanity is slowly losing access to the night sky, and astronomers have invented a new term to describe the pain associated with this loss: “noctalgia,” meaning “sky grief.”
Along with our propensity for polluting air and water and the massive amounts of carbon we’re dumping into the atmosphere to trigger climate change, we have created another kind of pollution: light pollution.
Zentropy — A New Theory That Could Transform Material Science
The universe naturally gravitates towards disorder, and only through the input of energy can we combat this inevitable chaos. This idea is encapsulated in the concept of entropy, evident in everyday phenomena like ice melting, fires burning, and water boiling. However, zentropy theory introduces an additional layer to this understanding.
This theory was developed by a team led by Zi-Kui Liu, the distinguished Dorothy Pate Enright Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Penn State. The “Z” in zentropy is derived from the German term “Zustandssumm,” which translates to the “sum over states” of entropy.
Alternatively, Liu said, zentropy may be considered as a play on the term “zen” from Buddhism and entropy to gain insight on the nature of a system. The idea, Liu said, is to consider how entropy can occur over multiple scales within a system to help predict potential outcomes of the system when influenced by its surroundings.
Photonic chips could lower energy consumption from data centres
Data centre energy consumption could be cut with new, ‘breakthrough’ photonic chips that are more efficient than today’s chips.
Data centres can consume up to 50 times more energy per square foot of floor space than a typical office building and account for roughly 2 per cent of all electricity use in the US.
In recent years, the number of data centres has risen rapidly due to soaring demand from the likes of Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and Google.
