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AI helps discover optimal new material for removing radioactive iodine contamination

Managing radioactive waste is one of the core challenges in the use of nuclear energy. In particular, radioactive iodine poses serious environmental and health risks due to its long half-life (15.7 million years in the case of I-129), high mobility, and toxicity to living organisms.

A Korean research team has successfully used artificial intelligence to discover a new material that can remove iodine for nuclear environmental remediation. The team plans to push forward with commercialization through various industry–academia collaborations, from iodine-adsorbing powders to contaminated water treatment filters.

Professor Ho Jin Ryu’s research team from the Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering, in collaboration with Dr. Juhwan Noh of the Digital Chemistry Research Center at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, developed a technique using AI to discover new materials that effectively remove contaminants. Their research is published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials.

Involvement of the Superior Cerebellar Peduncles in GAA-FGF14 Ataxia

This study found that involvement of the superior cerebellar peduncles is frequent in patients with GAA-FGF14 ataxia (SCA27B)

ObjectivesGAA-FGF14 ataxia (SCA27B) is a recently reported late-onset ataxia caused by a GAA repeat expansion in intron 1 of the FGF14 gene. After the clinical observation of superior cerebellar peduncle (SCP) involvement in some affected patients, we sought to verify the prevalence of this finding in our cohort and 4 additional independent cohorts of patients with SCA27B.

“How to build conscious machines” by Michael Timothy Bennett

This is a ~1 hour talk by Michael Timothy Bennett (https://michaeltimothybennett.com/) on his ideas around computation and consciousness.

Direct link to the thesis preprint: https://osf.io/preprints/thesiscommons/wehmg_v1?view_only=

YT: https://www.youtube.com/@michaeltimothybennett.
X: https://twitter.com/MiTiBennett

Senate Votes to Allow State A.I. Laws, a Blow to Tech Companies

There are no federal laws regulating A.I. but states have enacted dozens of laws that strengthen consumer privacy, ban A.I.-generated child sexual abuse material and outlaw deepfake videos of political candidates. All but a handful of states have some laws regulating artificial intelligence in place. It is an area of deep interest: All 50 have introduced bills in the past year tied to the issue.

The Senate’s provision, introduced in the Senate by Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, sparked intense criticism by state attorneys general, child safety groups and consumer advocates who warned the amendment would give A.I. companies a clear runway to develop unproven and potentially dangerous technologies.

Could Google’s Veo 3 be the start of playable world models?

Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google’s AI research organization DeepMind, appeared to suggest Tuesday evening that Veo 3, Google’s latest video-generating model, could potentially be used for video games.

In response to a post on X beseeching Google to “Let me play a video game of my veo 3 videos already,” and asking, “playable world models wen?” Hassabis responded, “now wouldn’t that be something.”

On Wednesday morning, Logan Kilpatrick, lead product for Google’s AI Studio and Gemini API, chimed in with a reply: “🤐🤐🤐🤐”

Displays, imaging and sensing: New blue fluorophore breaks efficiency records in both solids and solutions

A new blue fluorescent molecule set new top emission efficiencies in both solid and liquid states, according to a University of Michigan-led study that could pave the way for applications in technology and medicine.

Able to absorb light and emit it at lower energy levels, called fluorophores glow in OLED displays and help doctors and scientists figure out what’s happening in cells and tissues. They need to be solid in displays and many sensing applications, but liquids are typically preferred for biological uses. Most fluorophores don’t work well in both forms, but this one does.

The study, “Elucidating the molecular structural origin of efficient emission across solid and solution phases of single benzene fluorophores,” is published in the journal Nature Communications.

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