Lifeboat Foundation

New findings have revealed strange details about a bright nova that appeared in June 2021.

While these events usually fade over a period of a few weeks or even longer, V1674 Hercules was remarkable because it went faint quickly, in just over a day. The previous fastest nova faded in a period of between two to three days, and in general rapid novas are rare.

But, the rapid fade wasn’t the only remarkable thing about this system, according to new research on the nova, which determined that the energy and light output of V1674 Hercules is reverberating like a rung bell. And the “wobble” — which occurs every 501 seconds and can be seen in both visible and X-ray light — continues a year after the initial explosion.

Continue reading “Fastest nova ever seen ‘rings’ like a bell thanks to feeding white dwarf” »

Ultracold calcium monohydroxide created in magneto-optical trap.

A mathematical ‘playground’ to study quantum information.

UCLA engineers developed a 3D printing technique to build robots in a single step. Made of piezoelectric metamaterials, the robots can walk, maneuver and jump.

TSMC this afternoon has disclosed that it will expand its production capacity for mature and specialized nodes by about 50% by 2025. The plan includes building numerous new fabs in Taiwan, Japan, and China. The move will further intensify competition between TSMC and such contract makers of chips as GlobalFoundries, UMC, and SMIC.

When we talk about silicon lithography here at AnandTech, we mostly cover leading-edge nodes used produce advanced CPUs, GPUs, and mobile SoCs, as these are devices that drive progress forward. But there are hundreds of device types that are made on mature or specialized process technologies that are used alongside those sophisticated processors, or power emerging smart devices that have a significant impact on our daily lives and have gained importance in the recent years. The demand for various computing and smart devices in the recent years has exploded by so much that this has provoked a global chip supply crisis, which in turn has impacted automotive, consumer electronics, PC, and numerous adjacent industries.

Researchers in the US have demonstrated the presence of quantum mechanical effects in acid–base interactions, challenging the Brønsted–Lowry theory. The resultant short hydrogen bond is stabilised by a delocalised proton, which rapidly shuttles between the acid and base molecules and is characterised by highly unusual spectral features.

The Brønsted–Lowry theory was proposed in 1923 and explains acid–base interactions in terms of proton transfer. This theory is one of the cornerstones of chemical understanding and is amongst the first principles taught to school students. But despite a growing appreciation for the limitations of traditional thinking, the surprising discovery of a quantum component to such fundamental reactivity was entirely serendipitous.

‘It was luck,’ admits Daniel Kuroda of Louisiana State University, one of the principal researchers involved in the study. ‘We were looking at the structure of liquids … and saw this paper [about an acid–base mixture] with close to the conductivity of sulfuric acid but no ionisation. We wanted to see what the structure was … so we started looking into the project and then realised that clearly we have something very different.’

Jackson, Michigan-based Sesame Solar is today unveiling what it claims is the world’s first fully renewable mobile nanogrid – that’s a small microgrid – that runs on solar and green hydrogen.

The nanogrid’s solar array is electronically unfolded, and it’s ready to start generating power within 15 minutes. The company claims it can be set up by a single person.

Continue reading “Check out this solar + green hydrogen mobile nanogrid with a level 2 EV charger” »

Kennedy Space Center’s newest attraction officially opened on June 15th – Gateway: The Deep Space Launch Complex is the “spaceport of the future”, where you can experience the “interstellar travel of tomorrow”.

The new complex features a showcase of NASA and their commercial partners’ spacecraft hardware including flight-flown artifacts, immersive, interactive displays and games, and a headlining attraction offering four different simulated journeys through space.

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The survival rate for patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer is grim. The average survival time is up to 3 and a half years. Scientists may have a cure in the form of a vaccine thanks to scientists at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.