Or did it? From flying cars to the Singularity, here’s how some of the most popular visions of the high-tech future are panning out today.
Summary: A recent study showcases a significant leap in the study of brain oscillations, particularly ripples, which are crucial for memory organization and are affected in disorders like epilepsy and Alzheimer’s. Researchers have developed a toolbox of AI models trained on rodent EEG data to automate and enhance the detection of these oscillations, proving their efficacy on data from non-human primates.
This breakthrough, stemming from a collaborative hackathon, offers over a hundred optimized machine learning models, including support vector machines and convolutional neural networks, freely available to the scientific community. This development opens new avenues in neurotechnology applications, especially in diagnosing and understanding neurological disorders.
Optical properties of afterglow luminescent particles (ALPs) in mechanoluminescence (ML) and mechanical quenching (MQ) have attracted great attention for diverse technological applications. A team of researchers from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) has garnered attention by developing an optical display technology with ALPs enabling the writing and erasure of messages underwater.
The team, comprised of Professor Sei Kwang Hahn and Ph.D. candidate Seong-Jong Kim from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the POSTECH, uncovered a distinctive optical phenomenon in ALPs. Subsequently, they successfully created a device to implement this phenomenon. Their findings have been published in Advanced Functional Materials.
ALPs have the capability to absorb energy and release it gradually, displaying mechanoluminescence when subjected to external physical pressure and undergoing mechanical quenching where the emitted light fades away. While there has been active research on utilizing this technology for optical displays, the precise mechanism has remained elusive.
A team of Stony Brook University physicists and their collaborators have taken a significant step toward the building of a quantum internet testbed by demonstrating a foundational quantum network measurement that employs room-temperature quantum memories. Their findings are described in a paper published in the Nature journal Quantum Information.
Research with quantum computing and quantum networks is taking place around the world in the hopes of developing a quantum internet, a network of quantum computers, sensors, and communication devices that will create, process, and transmit quantum states and entanglement. It is anticipated to enhance society’s internet system and provide certain services and securities that the current internet does not have.
The field of quantum information combines aspects of physics, mathematics, and classical computing to use quantum mechanics to solve complex problems much faster than classical computing and to transmit information in an unhackable manner. While the vision of a quantum internet system is growing and the field has seen a surge in interest from researchers and the public at large, accompanied by a steep increase in the capital invested, an actual quantum internet prototype has not been built.
After recently reducing prices of its refreshed Han and Tang models, Build Your Dreams (BYD) just launched a new version of its top-selling EV Yuan Plus – known as the Atto 3 in overseas markets – to $16,644 in China, making it one of the lowest-priced EVs out there.
BYD has been targeting its home turf of China, the world’s largest vehicle market, for its latest price-slashing strategy to edge out both EV and ICE rivals with some of the lowest prices on EVs. The price war has already sparked major deals on some of its best-selling EVs, with the brand-new Yuan Plus crossover now available at 11.8% cheaper than the final sale price of its predecessor, reports Reuters.
Now the new Yuan Plus starts at 119,800 yuan ($16,644), BYD posted on Weibo. For comparison, the latest version of the Atto 3 starts in France at €46,690, or $50,650, which includes VAT. In Australia, the Atto 3 starts at $48,011 ($31,336), making that 85% more expensive than in China, Reuters reports.
Ford’s EV sales climbed 80% year-over-year (YOY) in February following aggressive price cuts last month.
After EV sales slipped 11% last month in EV sales last month, Ford saw a big improvement in February with 6,368 all-electric vehicles handed over, up 80.8% over last year.
Ford sold 2,930 Mustang Mach-E models in February, up 64.3% YOY. However, Mach-E sales were down 20% through the first half of 2023 as Ford retooled its Cuatitlan, Mexico plant, where the EV is assembled.
Researchers from China have succeeded in developing a new type of disc with a storage capacity of 200 terabytes, the size of a DVD.
