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Feb 8, 2024

Researchers chant AI spell to decipher 2,000-year-old charred scroll

Posted by in categories: food, media & arts, robotics/AI

The newly understood text thought to be from Epicurean philosopher Philodemus, talks about music, food, and enjoying life.


A grand prize of $700,000 has been awarded to three scholars for producing the first readable text of the scrolls that were charred during the Mount Vesuvian eruption in 79 AD.

Feb 8, 2024

Researchers uncover genetic factors for severe Lassa fever

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, genetics

While combing through the human genome in 2007, computational geneticist Pardis Sabeti made a discovery that would transform her research career. As a then-postdoctoral fellow at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Sabeti discovered potential evidence that some unknown mutation in a gene called LARGE1 had a beneficial effect in the Nigerian population.

Other scientists had discovered that this gene was critical for the Lassa virus to enter cells. Sabeti wondered whether a mutation in LARGE1 might prevent Lassa fever—an infection that is caused by the Lassa virus, is endemic in West Africa, and can be deadly in some people while only mild in others.

To find out, Sabeti decided later in 2007, as a new faculty member at Harvard University, that one of the first projects her new lab at the Broad would take on would be a (GWAS) of Lassa susceptibility. She reached out to her collaborator Christian Happi, now the Director of the African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID) at Redeemer’s University in Nigeria, and together they launched the study.

Feb 8, 2024

Apple Vision Pro will work with mobile device management starting with visionOS 1.1

Posted by in categories: business, mobile phones

Apple Vision Pro has tremendous opportunity in the enterprise. However, version 1.0 of the visionOS software shipped without mobile device management support. That’s about to change with the upcoming visionOS 1.1 software update. Apple released the first developer beta version of the software today.

Mobile device management, of MDM, is critical for using Apple devices in business environments. For example, my pal Jeff Richardson from iPhone J.D. was unable to access his work email, contacts, and calendar on Apple Vision Pro without MDM support.

Starting in visionOS 1.1, Apple Vision Pro will treat MDM accounts just like on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. This will really unlock using Apple Vision Pro for work for a lot of folks.

Feb 8, 2024

Tesla signs deal to bring chargers to thousands of hotels

Posted by in categories: futurism, space

Tesla has signed a deal with Choice Hotels International to bring chargers to thousands of additional hotels.

Over the last year, Tesla has become increasingly dominant in the charging space. It’s not like it wasn’t already, but with NACS, its own charge connector, becoming the standard in North America, and the release of its Universal Wall Connector, it is now extremely dominant.

The Tesla Universal Wall Connector is now becoming the top option for commercial level 2 installations as it can serve all EV owners now and it is future-proof for when everyone moves to NACS.

Feb 8, 2024

Pursuing fusion power

Posted by in category: energy

Many researchers now believe that within the next few decades, power plants will provide carbon-free electricity from thermonuclear fusion.

Feb 8, 2024

A volcano in Iceland is erupting again, spewing lava and cutting heat and hot water supplies

Posted by in category: climatology

GRINDAVIK, Iceland (AP) — A volcano in southwestern Iceland erupted Thursday for the third time since December, sending jets of lava into the sky, triggering the evacuation of the popular Blue Lagoon geothermal spa and cutting heat and hot water to thousands of people.

The eruption began at about 600 GMT (1 a.m. EST) along a three-kilometer (nearly two-mile) fissure northeast of Mount Sýlingarfell, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said. Several communities on the Reykjanes Peninsula were cut off from heat and hot water after a river of lava engulfed a supply pipeline.

Continue reading “A volcano in Iceland is erupting again, spewing lava and cutting heat and hot water supplies” »

Feb 8, 2024

New techniques for making qubits out of erbium

Posted by in categories: computing, engineering, particle physics, quantum physics

Qubits are the building block for quantum technology, and finding or building qubits that are stable and easily manipulated is one of the central goals of quantum technology research. Scientists have found that an atom of erbium—a rare-earth metal sometimes used in lasers or to color glass—can be a very effective qubit.

To make qubits, erbium atoms are placed in “host materials,” where the erbium atoms replace some of the material’s original atoms. Two research groups—one at quantum startup memQ, a Chicago Quantum Exchange corporate partner, and one at the US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, a CQE member—have used different host materials for erbium to advance , demonstrating the versatility of this kind of qubit and highlighting the importance of materials science to quantum computing and quantum communication.

The two projects address challenges that quantum computing researchers have been trying to solve: engineering multi-qubit devices and extending the amount of time qubits can hold information.

Feb 8, 2024

Cosmic dark matter web detected in Coma cluster

Posted by in categories: cosmology, evolution, internet

The Subaru Telescope has spotted the terminal ends of dark matter filaments in the Coma cluster stretching across millions of light years. This is the first time that strands of the cosmic web spanning the entire universe have been directly detected. This provides new evidence to test theories about the evolution of the universe.

In the , we are used to seeing matter gathered into round objects like planets, moons, and the sun. But , which accounts for most of the mass in the universe, is believed to exist as a web of long thin strands. But like a spider web, these strands can be hard to see, so astronomers have typically drawn conclusions based on observations of galaxies and gas stuck in the web. This is similar to how if you see a dead leaf that appears to hang in midair, you know there is a spider web that you cannot see.

A team of researchers from Yonsei University used the Subaru Telescope to look for direct signs of dark matter filaments in the Coma cluster, located 321 million away in the direction of the constellation Coma Berenices. Their paper, “Weak-lensing detection of intracluster filaments in the Coma cluster” is published in Nature Astronomy.

Feb 8, 2024

Q&A: Expert explains the ‘physics of AI’

Posted by in categories: physics, robotics/AI

The development of a new theory is typically associated with the greats of physics. You might think of Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein, for example. Many Nobel Prizes have already been awarded for new theories.

Researchers at Forschungszentrum Jülich have now programmed an artificial intelligence that has also mastered this feat. Their AI is able to recognize patterns in complex data sets and to formulate them in a physical theory. The findings are published in the journal Physical Review X.

In the following interview, Prof. Moritz Helias from Forschungszentrum Jülich’s Institute for Advanced Simulation (IAS-6) explains what the “Physics of AI” is all about and to what extent it differs from conventional approaches.

Feb 8, 2024

Pioneering the Future of Computing with a Quantum Network with Masashi Hirose, Co-founder of NanoQT

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

The Quantum Insider (TQI) is the leading online resource dedicated exclusively to Quantum Computing.