Lifeboat Foundation

For those still holding out hope that antimatter levitates rather than falls in a gravitational field, like normal matter, the results of a new experiment are a dose of cold reality.

Physicists studying antihydrogen—an anti-proton paired with an antielectron, or positron—have conclusively shown that gravity pulls it downward and does not push it upward.

At least for antimatter, antigravity doesn’t exist.

What do the crowd at a football stadium, the feet of a centipede, and the inside of your lungs have in common? All of these systems show the same specific kind of organization, as recently discovered by a group of scientists from MPI-DS.

The crowd wave in a stadium looks like a pattern traveling across the tiers. Similarly, the legs of a centipede move in canon with illusory waves sweeping along its entire length. On a microscopic level, tiny hairs in our lungs called cilia wave together to transport mucus. This serves as a first line of defense against invading pathogens.

To create a synchronized and efficient wave, cilia need to accurately coordinate their beating motion. Unlike football fans watching their neighbors and the nervous system coordinating the centipede’s legs, cilia have no such intelligent control system.

Every so often, astronomers glimpse an intense flash of radio waves from space—a flash that lasts only instants but puts out as much energy in a millisecond as the sun does in a few years. The origin of these “fast radio bursts” is one of the greatest mysteries in astronomy today.

There is no shortage of ideas to explain the cause of the bursts: a catalog of current theories shows more than 50 potential scenarios. You can take your pick from highly magnetized neutron stars, collisions of incredibly dense stars or many more extreme or exotic phenomena.

How can we figure out which theory is correct? One way is to look for more information about the bursts, using other channels: specifically, using ripples in the fabric of the universe called gravitational waves.

A research group led by Professor Kenji Ohmori at the Institute for Molecular Science, National Institutes of Natural Sciences are using an artificial crystal of 30,000 atoms aligned in a cubic array with a spacing of 0.5 micron, cooled to near absolute zero temperature. By manipulating the atoms with a special laser light that blinks for 10 picoseconds, they succeeded in executing quantum simulation of a model of magnetic materials.

Their novel “ultrafast quantum computer” scheme demonstrated last year was applied to quantum simulation. Their achievement shows that their novel “ultrafast quantum simulator” is an epoch-making platform, as it can avoid the issue of external noise, one of the biggest concerns for quantum simulators. The “ultrafast quantum simulator” is expected to contribute to the design of functional materials and the resolution of social problems.

Their results were published online in Physical Review Letters.

I would toss in Crows.

For the first time in the U.S., research with cephalopods might require approval by an ethics committee.

NASA has announced an updated plan to continue New Horizons’ mission of exploration of the outer solar system.

Beginning in fiscal year 2025, New Horizons will focus on gathering unique heliophysics data, which can be readily obtained during an extended, low-activity mode of operations.

While the science community is not currently aware of any reachable Kuiper Belt object, this new path allows for the possibility of using the spacecraft for a future close flyby of such an object, should one be identified. It also will enable the spacecraft to preserve fuel and reduce operational complexity while a search is conducted for a compelling flyby candidate.

New Zealand is the latest market where Tesla launched its Non-Tesla Supercharger Pilot program, which allows for the recharging of other electric vehicles at Superchargers.

According to the company, six Supercharging sites are now available for all EVs (compatible with the locally used CCS2 charging connector, natively used also by Tesla). That’s about a third of all Supercharging stations in New Zealand.

Australia was included in the program in early 2023, and currently, it seems that more than half (roughly 30 locations) were opened to all EVs.

AUSTIN (KXAN) — As the City of Austin works toward reducing its carbon footprint, city officials are working to expand programs and infrastructure to help make electric vehicle technology more accessible citywide.

Amy Atchley, senior lead with Austin Energy’s EV equity program, spoke Tuesday at MOVE America 2023, a mobility conference held in downtown Austin. Atchley’s presentation centered around providing EV access to underserved community members, particularly as the city moves toward a 2040 goal of net zero carbon emissions.

With that goal in mind, she noted transportation is the leading emitter of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In order to achieve that benchmark, she said the city must have at least 40% of its vehicle miles traveled done via electric vehicle technology by 2030.

Tesla’s vehicles come with various unique features, including the ability to use the mobile app to perform several different functions remotely. In a repost of another account pointing to the ability to set cabin temperature remotely, Tesla highlighted that preconditioning will also warm up the vehicle’s battery, helping to optimize range and overall performance.

On Wednesday morning, Tesla reposted a @WholeMarsBlog post on X describing the ability to pre-set cabin temperature remotely using the mobile app when it’s hot outside, meaning owners will “never get into a car that’s too hot or too cold again.”

Tesla piggybacked on the concept, pointing out that when users remotely precondition their cars during the winter, their batteries will also be warmed to the ideal temperature to improve vehicle performance.