Lifeboat Foundation

Future fusion power plants will require good plasma confinement to sustain reactions and generate energy. One way to contain plasma for fusion reactions is to use a tokamak, a device that applies magnetic fields to “bottle” plasma. However, magnetic islands, a type of instability in the plasma, can destroy the confining magnetic field if they grow large enough.

By combining comprehensive high-pressure measurements and first-principles calculations, a research group has discovered the pressure-induced unusual evolution of superconductivity (SC) and exotic interplay between SC and charge-density-wave (CDW) order in a natural bulk van der Waals heterostructure.

Reservoir computing (RC) has a few benefits over other artificial neural networks, including the reservoir that gives this technique its name. The reservoir functions mainly to nonlinearly transform input data more quickly and efficiently. Spin waves, propagating wave-like disturbances arising from magnetic interactions, can traverse through a material. These excitations are driven by the spin of electrons.

Many scientists are studying different materials for their potential use in quantum technology. One important feature of the atoms in these materials is called spin. Scientists want to control atomic spins to develop new types of materials, known as spintronics. They could be used in advanced technologies like memory devices and quantum sensors for ultraprecise measurements.

In a recent breakthrough, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and Northern Illinois University discovered that they could use light to detect the spin state in a class of materials called perovskites (specifically in this research methylammonium lead iodide, or MAPbI₃). Perovskites have many potential uses, from solar panels to quantum technology.

The work is published in the journal Nature Communications.

Biological components are less reliable than electrical ones, and rather than instantaneously receive the incoming signals, the signals arrive with a variety of delays. This forces the brain to cope with said delays by having each neuron integrate the incoming signals over time and fire afterwards, as well as using a population of neurons, instead of one, to overcome neuronal cells that temporarily don’t fire.

Research suggests dark matter may not exist, and the universe’s age is approximately 27 billion years, according to a recent study on Earth.com

The universe has always held mysteries that spark our curiosity. As we currently understand it, the fabric of the universe comprises three primary components: ‘normal matter,’ ‘dark energy,’ and ‘dark matter.’ However, new research is turning this established model on its head.

Enter Rajendra Gupta, a seasoned physics professor who isn’t afraid to question the status quo. With years of research under his belt, Gupta is shaking up our understanding of the universe.

Continue reading “Dark matter does not exist and the universe is 27 billion years old, study claims” »

How did life on Earth begin, and were the ingredients for life already on Earth or were they brought here from space? This is what a recent study published in Science Advances hopes to address as a team of researchers from Imperial College London and the University of Cambridge investigated how ancient meteorites could have deposited large amounts of zinc on Earth, resulting in the development of volatile elements to form the building blocks of life. This study holds the potential to help researchers better understand the conditions for life to have emerged on the Earth long ago, and potentially worlds throughout the solar system and beyond.

“One of the most fundamental questions on the origin of life is where the materials we need for life to evolve came from,” said Dr. Rayssa Martins, who is a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Cambridge and lead author of the study. “If we can understand how these materials came to be on Earth, it might give us clues to how life originated here, and how it might emerge elsewhere.”

For the study, the researchers analyzed zinc obtained from several meteorites to ascertain how the Earth got its zinc during its formation, which is estimated to have lasted tens of millions of years. In the end, the researchers estimate that while “melted” planetesimals contributed to approximately 70 percent of the Earth’s overall mass, they only contributed approximately 10 percent of the Earth’s zinc, which came from “unmelted” planetesimals. As noted, zinc contains volatile elements, which include oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and carbon, or the essential building blocks of life as we know it. Along with helping researchers better understand how life formed and evolved on Earth, this could also lead to greater insight into how life might form and evolve on other worlds, as well.

I’ll be speaking on @Ploutos at 4pm UK time (3pm GMT) this Friday, 18th Oct, on “AI and the future of human enhancement”. Choose your Ploutos Creator level (Free, Plus, or Pro) to listen live to this conversation.

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While new reports don’t specify which demonstrated capabilities needed human assistance, some did note that the robots “were able to walk without external control using artificial intelligence.”

But the prototypes used “artificial intelligence” to control their walking.