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Sep 4, 2022

Daily Crunch: Nvidia chips become collateral damage in new US sanctions targeting China

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Nvidia is caught up in the new sanctions the U.S. is imposing on China. Rita reports the company said it will not be able to export two of its AI chips to China, its second-largest market. That will likely cost Nvidia some $400 million in lost sales for this third quarter and interrupt some production that happens in China. get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here.

Happy Friday! For those of you excited to see us in your inbox for your daily dose of tech news, unfortunately, you will have to wait until Tuesday to hear from us again because Monday is Labor Day in the U.S. We will be out grilling, wearing white for the last time this year and snoozing in hammocks. We wish you a safe and enjoyable weekend wherever you are. — Christine and Haje.

Sep 4, 2022

Artificial intelligence’s new frontier

Posted by in categories: innovation, robotics/AI

The promise and perils of a breakthrough in machine intelligence.

Sep 4, 2022

Is Dark Energy a Uniform Force Across Space and Time? (Weekend Feature)

Posted by in categories: cosmology, materials

Astronomers may soon have the answer to what is perhaps the greatest mystery of modern science –is dark energy a uniform force across space and time, or has its strength evolved over eons?

The universe is not only expanding – it is accelerating outward, driven by what is commonly referred to as “dark energy.” The term is a poetic analogy to the label for dark matter, the mysterious material that dominates the matter in the Universe and that really is dark because it does not radiate light (it reveals itself via its gravitational influence on galaxies).

Sep 4, 2022

Making nanodiamonds out of bottle plastic

Posted by in categories: nanotechnology, quantum physics, space

What goes on inside planets like Neptune and Uranus? To find out, an international team headed by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), the University of Rostock and France’s École Polytechnique conducted a novel experiment. They fired a laser at a thin film of simple PET plastic and investigated what happened using intensive laser flashes. One result was that the researchers were able to confirm their earlier thesis that it really does rain diamonds inside the ice giants at the periphery of our solar system. And another was that this method could establish a new way of producing nanodiamonds, which are needed, for example, for highly-sensitive quantum sensors. The group has presented its findings in the journal Science Advances.

The conditions in the interior of icy giant planets like Neptune and Uranus are extreme: temperatures reach several thousand degrees Celsius, and the pressure is millions of times greater than in the Earth’s atmosphere. Nonetheless, states like this can be simulated briefly in the lab: powerful laser flashes hit a film-like material sample, heat it up to 6,000 degrees Celsius for the blink of an eye and generate a shock wave that compresses the material for a few nanoseconds to a million times the atmospheric pressure.

“Up to now, we used hydrocarbon films for these kinds of experiment,” explains Dominik Kraus, physicist at HZDR and professor at the University of Rostock. “And we discovered that this produced tiny diamonds, known as nanodiamonds.”

Sep 4, 2022

Thousands of Xcel customers locked out of thermostats during ‘energy emergency’

Posted by in category: energy

DENVER — During the dog days of summer, it’s important to keep your home cool. But when thousands of Xcel customers in Colorado tried adjusting their thermostats Tuesday, they learned they had no control over the temperatures in their own homes.

Temperatures climbed into the 90s Tuesday, which is why Tony Talarico tried to crank up the air conditioning in his partner’s Arvada home.

“I mean, it was 90 out, and it was right during the peak period,” Talarico said. “It was hot.”

Sep 4, 2022

UN weather agency predicts rare ‘triple-dip’ La Nina in 2022“ data-reactroot=”

Posted by in category: futurism

That drought is set to worsen with a fifth consecutive failed rainy season, the WMO projected on Friday, fearing an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.

Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are already going through their worst drought for 40 years.

Continue reading “UN weather agency predicts rare ‘triple-dip’ La Nina in 2022‘ data-reactroot=’” »

Sep 4, 2022

Quantifying Biological Age: Blood Test #5 in 2022

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, life extension

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Continue reading “Quantifying Biological Age: Blood Test #5 in 2022” »

Sep 4, 2022

When Our Eyes Move During REM Sleep, We’re Gazing at Things in the Dream World

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

When our eyes move during REM sleep, we’re looking at things in the dream world our brains have created, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). The findings shed light not only on how we dream, but also on how our imaginations work.

REM sleep, which is named for the rapid eye movements associated with it, has been known since the 1950s to be the phase of sleep when dreams occur. But the purpose of the eye movements has remained a matter of much mystery and debate.

REM sleep first occurs about 90 minutes after falling asleep. Your eyes rapidly move from side to side behind closed eyelids. Mixed frequency brain wave activity becomes closer to that seen in wakefulness. Your breathing becomes faster and irregular, and your heart rate and blood pressure increase to near waking levels. Although some can also occur in non-REM sleep, most of your dreaming occurs during REM sleep. Your arm and leg muscles become temporarily paralyzed, which prevents you from acting out your dreams. You sleep less of your time in REM sleep as you age.

Sep 4, 2022

Meyer Burger secures silicon wafers from European production

Posted by in category: futurism

Meyer Burger has signed a binding supply agreement for silicon wafers with the Norwegian manufacturer Norwegian Crystals. The polysilicon used to manufacture the wafers is of European and U.S. origin.

Sep 4, 2022

Research project to accelerate the market introduction of agri-PV

Posted by in categories: climatology, economics, law, sustainability

“This makes agri-PV systems increasingly attractive for agriculture, because it provides a way to keep domestic agriculture competitive with the international market and to enable farmers to earn additional income,” explains Max Trommsdorff, project manager at Fraunhofer ISE. “At the same time, we can drive the expansion of renewable energies, reduce pressure on scarce land and increase resilience to weather extremes and climate change in different farming systems.”

Nevertheless, only a few projects have been realised so far. Those involved in the project see one of the crucial hurdles in the existing legal framework. These include inadequate incentive systems and comparatively complex approval processes. In addition, there are growing concerns about the acceptance of the local population and the attractiveness of the landscape.

Such economic, legal and social hurdles are to be compiled within the framework of the project. Subsequently, the participants want to work out proposals for solutions on how to reduce and overcome these hurdles. The focus should be on the optimal use of the potentials and the avoidance of wrong decisions in the application of agriphotovoltaics.