Webinar description.
Get the latest international news and world events from around the world.
Moisture-driven tech can power green batteries—and destroy spy gear
Researchers from North Carolina State University and Rice University have created a nontoxic, stretchable battery that operates by extracting moisture from the ambient environment—even in climates as dry as the desert. The batteries could be useful in Internet of Things (IoT) applications ranging from wearables to advanced surveillance monitors with built-in kill switches. The study is published in the journal Science Advances.
Emerging technologies like wearable monitors, miniature robotics and other IoT devices require lightweight, flexible power sources. Conventional batteries, which represent the best power source options, are often too rigid and heavy to be useful, and they contain toxic materials that can leak. Energy harvesters, so called because they capture energy from the surrounding environment and convert it into electrical power, are lighter, but their performance is limited.
Running on moisture and salt The new moisture-activated battery (MAB) includes a magnesium anode and a silver/silver chloride cathode, with a cellulose membrane loaded with lithium chloride salts that serves as a separator. The separator harvests moisture from ambient air, which dissolves the salts and creates the electrolyte, allowing charge to flow through the battery.
Identity, Privacy, and Cybersecurity Are Pillars of the Agentic Future (Part 2)
It is evident everywhere that artificial intelligence is certainly evolving. We are rapidly moving from chatbots and copilots to AI agents that can make decisions, execute transactions, generate software, analyze intelligence, negotiate with other systems, and perform tasks that previously required human discernment.
This development is one of the biggest computing advances since the Internet. It’s also one of the biggest cybersecurity challenges for businesses. As I have stressed in my writings and speeches for years that each technology advance expands opportunity and attacks the surface. AI agents demonstrate this.
Unlike traditional software, AI agents are autonomous. They remember, reason, use apps, access secret data, perform APIs, and adapt to changing conditions. They are now active enterprise participants. That changes all cybersecurity. AI Agents Are New Digital Identities. The cybersecurity industry has protected people, devices, apps, and networks for decades. Now we must protect digital workers.
Scientists discovered the brain doesn’t make decisions the way we thought
A new study suggests the brain begins making decisions much earlier than scientists previously thought. Researchers found that even primary sensory regions are influenced by higher brain areas through rapid feedback loops, rather than simply passing information forward. This more dynamic view of brain function could help engineers design future AI systems that think more like biological brains while using far less power.
Evidence from formal logical reasoning reveals that the language of thought is not natural language
Humans are endowed with a powerful capacity for inductive and deductive logical thought: we easily form generalizations based on a few examples and draw conclusions from known premises. Humans also arguably have the most sophisticated communication system in the animal kingdom: natural language allows us to express complex and structured meanings. Some have therefore argued for a tight relationship between complex thought and language, postulating that reasoning, including logical reasoning, relies on linguistic representations. We systematically investigated the relationship between logical reasoning and language using two complementary approaches. First, we used noninvasive brain imaging (fMRI) to examine neural activity as healthy adults engaged in logical reasoning tasks.
Quantum Computers Identify Nuclear Fusion Fuel in Major First
A major barrier to harnessing energy via nuclear fusion is the fuel source.
Most proposed fusion reactors (the donut-shaped tokamak reactors) are powered by the fusion of tritium and deuterium.
Both are isotopes of hydrogen, but tritium is radioactive, and deuterium is stable.
A Last-Resort Antibiotic Is Losing The Battle Against a Dangerous Hospital Bug
The combination drug ceftazidime-avibactam (CZA) is a last line of defense against the common Pseudomonas aeruginosa hospital bug: It’s the drug that gets called in when nothing else works, but there’s now evidence that it may not keep working for long.
Based on an analysis of two critically ill patients with P. aeruginosa infections, the bacteria are developin g genetic mutations that change the enzymes they produce – and can ward off an attack from CZA.
Researchers led by a team from Tongji University in China have now published a new paper in Microbiology Spectrum detailing the mutations and what it might mean for fighting P. aeruginosa in the future.
