Lifeboat Foundation

After 45 years of voicing one of the most iconic characters in cinema history, James Earl Jones has said goodbye to Darth Vader. At 91, the legendary actor recently told Disney he was “looking into winding down this particular character.” That forced the company to ask itself how do you even replace Jones? The answer Disney eventually settled on, with the actor’s consent, involved an AI program.

If you’ve seen any of the recent Star Wars shows, you’ve heard the work of Respeecher. It’s a Ukrainian startup that uses archival recordings and a “proprietary AI algorithm” to create new dialogue featuring the voices of “performers from long ago.” In the case of Jones, the company worked with Lucasfilm to recreate his voice as it had sounded when film audiences first heard Darth Vader in 1977.

The gas giant Jupiter is coming the closest it has come to Earth in 59 years this Monday and will be particularly visible because it coincides with another event called opposition.

When in opposition, a planet is on the opposite side of Earth from the sun, so you could draw a straight line from the sun to Earth to Jupiter, all in alignment. Jupiter’s opposition happens every 13 months. Looking from the Earth, when the sun sets in the west, Jupiter will rise in the east, directly opposite. During opposition, planets appear at their biggest and brightest.

Separately, Jupiter is coming closer to Earth than it has since 1963. Because of Earth’s and Jupiter’s differing orbits around the sun, they don’t pass each other at the same distance each time. When it’s closest on Monday, Jupiter will be about 367 million miles from Earth, according to NASA. At its farthest, it’s 600 million miles away.

The James Webb Space Telescope continues to show off like that kid in high school who could juggle bowling pins. Though, this time, instead of peering…

Our monthly livestream Q&A session. Join us on 4pm EST, Sunday, September 25, and get your questions about the channel and episodes on chat to be answered!

Support the stream: https://streamlabs.com/isaacarthur.
Catch the audio-only show on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/isaac-arthur-148927746
Visit our Website: https://www.isaacarthur.net.
SFIA Discord Server: https://discord.gg/53GAShE
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/IsaacArthur.
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1583992725237264/
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/IsaacArthur/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Isaac_A_Arthur on Twitter and RT our future content.
Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator

Summary: Study reveals altered brain dynamics in those with unresponsive arousal syndrome, previously known as “vegetative state”, and in those with minimally conscious state.

Source: University of Liege.

A study by the Human Brain Project (HBP), led by scientists from the University of Liège (Belgium), has explored new techniques that may help distinguish between two different neurological conditions in patients with severe brain damage and or in a coma. The results of this study have just been published in open access in the journal eLife.

Computers that can make use of the “spooky” properties of quantum mechanics to solve problems faster than current technology may sound alluring, but first they must overcome a massive disadvantage. Scientists from Japan may have found the answer through their demonstration of how a superconducting material, niobium nitride, can be added to a nitride-semiconductor substrate as a flat, crystalline layer. This process may lead to the easy manufacturing of quantum qubits connected with conventional computer devices.

The processes used to manufacture conventional silicon microprocessors have matured over decades and are constantly being refined and improved. In contrast, most quantum computing architectures must be designed mostly from scratch. However, finding a way to add quantum capabilities to existing fabrication lines, or even integrate quantum and conventional logic units in a single chip, might be able to vastly accelerate the adoption of these new systems.

Now, a team of researchers at the Institute of Industrial Science at The University of Tokyo have shown how thin films of niobium nitride (NbN_x) can be grown directly on top of an aluminum nitride (AlN) layer. Niobium nitride can become superconducting at temperatures colder than about 16 degrees above absolute zero. As a result, it can be used to make a superconducting qubit when arranged in a structure called a Josephson junction.

Different missions are vying for a limited number of antennas. And DART and Artemis are running right up against each other.

The technology is part of a challenge launched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Samsung has engineered a safe and efficient toilet that turns your excrement into ashes, according to a press release published last month by the firm.

Continue reading “Bill Gates’ and Samsung’s prototype toilet can turn your poop into ashes” »

Volkswagen’s charging unit Elli and re.alto, a startup owned by Brussels-based Elia, signed a memorandum of understanding on Friday to collaborate on ways to integrate EVs into the electricity system in order to fight global warming.

A route to abating climate change

“The wide-spread adoption of EVs will be one of society’s fastest and most effective routes to abating climate change in the coming decade. Additionally, EV batteries will be able to contribute to keeping the grid in balance as the share of renewables in the energy mix increases. This can only occur if consumers are encouraged to valorize their flexibility, aligning their charging behavior with the availability of affordable green energy,” said the statement.