Toggle light / dark theme

More sophisticated manipulation of complicated materials and their spin states at short time scales will be needed to create the next generation of spintronic devices. But, a thorough understanding of the fundamental physics underpinning nanoscale spin manipulation is necessary to fully utilize these powers for more energy-efficient nanotechnologies.

The JILA team and colleagues from institutions in Sweden, Greece, and Germany investigated the spin dynamics within a unique substance known as a Heusler compound—a combination of metals that exhibits properties similar to those of a single magnetic material. In their investigation, the scientists used a cobalt, manganese, and gallium combination that acted as an insulator for electrons with downwardly oriented spins and a conductor for those with upwardly aligned spins.

Scientists used extreme ultraviolet high-harmonic generation (EUV HHG) light as a probe to track the re-orientations of the spins inside the compound after exciting it with a femtosecond laser. Tuning the color of the EUV HHG probe light is the key to accurately interpreting the spin re-orientations.

New research finds RNA

Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule similar to DNA that is essential in various biological roles in coding, decoding, regulation and expression of genes. Both are nucleic acids, but unlike DNA, RNA is single-stranded. An RNA strand has a backbone made of alternating sugar (ribose) and phosphate groups. Attached to each sugar is one of four bases—adenine (A), uracil (U), cytosine ©, or guanine (G). Different types of RNA exist in the cell: messenger RNA (mRNA), ribosomal RNA (rRNA), and transfer RNA (tRNA).

Mosasaurs were a diverse group of marine lizards which, much like whales and other cetaceans, adapted to life in the oceans. And though we’ve been digging them up for 200 years now, new species are still being discovered. Recently a team of paleontologists discovered not just a new species but an entirely new genus in the Pembina Member of the Pierre Shale Formation in North Dakota, United States.

RELATED: Giant mosasaur digested large prey then spit up the bones

Researchers found a mostly complete skull and jaws as well as 7 cervical vertebrae, 5 anterior dorsal vertebrae, 11 ribs, and 3 structural bones supporting the brain called hypapophyseal peduncles. The bones belonged to an animal which lived approximately 80 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period. Scientists dubbed the creature Jormungandr walhallaensis for Walhalla, North Dakota where it was found and for Jörmungandr, the world serpent from Norse mythology.

Nvidia is on a tear.


But “there are no companies that are assured survival,” Huang warned Thursday at the Harvard Business Review’s Future of Business event.

Nvidia in its 30-year history has faced several existential threats, which helps explain why Huang recently told the Acquired podcast that “nobody in their right mind” would start a company. For example, it almost went bankrupt in 1995 after its first chip, the NV1, failed to attract customers. It had to lay off half its employees before the success of its third chip, the RIVA 128, saved it a few years later.

“We have the benefit of building the company from the ground up and having not-exaggerated circumstances of nearly going out of business a handful of times,” Huang said this week, as Observer reported. “We don’t have to pretend the company is always in peril. The company is always in peril, and we feel it.”

We spent 90 minutes with the pin and its founders at Humane’s SF offices.

A few hours after this morning’s big unveil, Humane opened its doors to a handful of press.


A few hours after this morning’s big unveil, Humane opened its doors to a handful of press. Located in a nondescript building in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood, the office is home to the startup’s hardware design teams.

An office next door houses Humane’s product engineers, while the electrical engineering team operates out of a third space directly across the street. The company also operates an office in New York, though the lion’s share of the 250-person staff are located here in San Francisco.