Circuits for complex quantum calculations are typically limited by their size and intricacy.
WASHINGTON — Intuitive Machines has agreed to purchase a company that operates ground stations in the United States and United Kingdom to help build out a lunar communications network.
Intuitive Machines announced May 14 that it entered into an agreement to acquire Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd. and its American subsidiary, Comsat. Intuitive Machines will pay 37 million pounds ($49.6 million) for Goonhilly, split equally between cash and stock, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter pending regulatory approvals in the U.S. and U.K.
Goonhilly operates a ground station in Cornwall, England, that includes 30-and 32-meter antennas that have been used for lunar and deep-space communications. Through Comsat, it operates teleports in Southbury, Connecticut, and Santa Paula, California, that have dozens of antennas.
In the letter, EZ Lynk lawyers wrote that Apple and Google are planning to fight the subpoenas. Walmart declined to comment. None of the other companies subpoenaed responded to a comment request.
“These requests for potentially hundreds of thousands of people’s PII go well beyond the needs of this case and create serious privacy concerns,” wrote EZ Lynk’s lawyers in the letter. “Investigating this claim does not require identifying each person who has used the product.”
The government said in the letter its request for data was fair and appropriate, and it had “consistently sought customer information” because its lawyers want to interview witnesses about their use of EZ Lynk’s technology. It has already presented evidence to the court of people using the company’s tools to remove emissions controls on their cars, including Facebook and EZ Lynk forum posts outlining that use of the product.
Researchers have developed an ultra-thin optical film that improves the quality of the light used in LCD resin-based 3D printers. The advance helps ensure that tiny details are reproduced with precision, which could make it possible to 3D-print medical-grade or industrial-grade products at a lower cost.
Resin-based 3D printing, or vat photopolymerization, uses short-wavelength light to project patterns onto liquid photosensitive resin. Although this additive manufacturing approach enables highly detailed, smooth parts, some low-cost systems rely on LCD backlights that can reduce printing accuracy.
“LCD-based liquid 3D printing suffers from surface roughness or dimensional inaccuracies due to improper light angular distribution from the backlight systems used,” said research team leader Ding-Zheng Lin from National Taiwan University of Science and Technology. “Our goal was to fix these problems without increasing equipment size, thereby elevating print performance to professional grade.”
A new way of using umbilical cord blood for treating blood diseases could make the treatment more accessible to patients who need a stem cell transplant. A Phase II clinical trial of patients undergoing a cord blood transplant plus a stem cell product derived from pooled cord blood units showed that 27 of 28 patients (96%) with leukemias and GVHD survived at least one year and none of the patients experienced severe acute or chronic graft-versus-host disease, which are common complications of stem cell transplantation.
The results have been published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
“This is the first time transplant patients received cells from what amounts to nine different human beings,” said the study’s principal investigator, Filippo Milano, MD, Ph.D., who is first author of the study and directs the Cord Blood Program at Fred Hutch Cancer Center.
A new quantum-inspired algorithm has cracked a problem so massive that conventional supercomputers struggle to even approach it. Researchers used the method to simulate extraordinarily complex quantum materials known as quasicrystals, opening the door to powerful new quantum devices and ultra-efficient electronics. The work could help scientists design advanced topological qubits and materials for future quantum computers.
Animals move with a level of precision and adaptability that robots struggle to match. In Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, researchers are developing a new AI-driven approach to uncover how brains and bodies work together. By turning complex biological systems into models that can be tested and refined, the team seeks to understand and replicate animal performance in robotic systems.
One focus of The Biohybrid and Organic Robotics Lab are neuromechanical models that simulate how neural signals and physical movement continuously inform one another. These models are powerful, but difficult to build because, with countless parameters, even the smallest miscalculation can lead to large gaps between simulated behavior and what researchers observe in real animals.
“Biological systems are incredibly complex,” said Camila Fernandez, Ph.D. Candidate in the department of mechanical engineering. “We’re trying to model something where everything affects everything, and it’s not always clear which piece we need to adjust when outcomes don’t match predictions.”