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Dec 24, 2021

Wear and Tear in Vulnerable Brain Areas Lead to Lesions Linked to Cognitive Decline in Aging

Posted by in categories: engineering, life extension, neuroscience

Researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology show that strain on ventricular walls explains where lesions develop in the aging brain.

As our brains age, small lesions begin to pop up in the bundles of white matter that carry messages between our neurons. The lesions can damage this white matter and lead to cognitive deficits. Now, researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology and colleagues not only provide an explanation for the location of these lesions but also how they develop in the first place.

Continue reading “Wear and Tear in Vulnerable Brain Areas Lead to Lesions Linked to Cognitive Decline in Aging” »

Dec 24, 2021

RadioShack Returns as a Crypto Company

Posted by in category: cryptocurrencies

The goal is to ‘bring cryptocurrency to the mainstream’ using the well-known consumer brand.

Dec 24, 2021

The World Of Microscopic Machines

Posted by in categories: materials, transportation

Micro-electromechanical systems or MEMS are tiny integrated devices that combine mechanical and electrical components. Traditional manufacturing techniques such as milling, turning, and molding become impractical at small scales so MEMS devices are fabricated using the same batch processing techniques used to fabricate integrated circuits. These devices can range in size from a few microns to several millimeters.

Because MEMS devices are a hybrid of mechanical and electronic mechanisms, they’re generally fabricated using a combination of traditional integrated circuit technologies and more sophisticated methods that manipulate both silicon and other substrates in a manner that exploit their mechanical properties.

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Dec 24, 2021

Scientists just found life underneath Antarctica

Posted by in category: futurism

Scientists have discovered new cradle of life with several different species hidden underneath the ice shelf in Antarctica.


When you think of Antarctica, the first thing that comes to mind is most likely that it’s a frozen wasteland. Sure, there is some life in the Antarctic world. But for the most part, the land is mostly made up of a below-freezing environment. Now, though, scientists have uncovered new life underneath the ice shelf.

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Dec 24, 2021

LightOn Photonic Co-processor Integrated Into European AI Supercomputer

Posted by in categories: information science, robotics/AI, supercomputing

PARIS, Dec. 23, 2021 – LightOn announces the integration of one of its photonic co-processors in the Jean Zay supercomputer, one of the Top500 most powerful computers in the world. Under a pilot program with GENCI and IDRIS, the insertion of a cutting-edge analog photonic accelerator into High Performance Computers (HPC) represents a technological breakthrough and a world-premiere. The LightOn photonic co-processor will be available to selected users of the Jean Zay research community over the next few months.

LightOn’s Optical Processing Unit (OPU) uses photonics to speed up randomized algorithms at a very large scale while working in tandem with standard silicon CPU and NVIDIA latest A100 GPU technology. The technology aims to reduce the overall computing time and power consumption in an area that is deemed “essential to the future of computational science and AI for Science” according to a 2021 U.S. Department of Energy report on “Randomized Algorithms for Scientific Computing.”

INRIA (France’s Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation) researcher Dr. Antoine Liutkus provided additional context to the integration of LightOn’s coprocessor in the Jean Zay supercomputer: “Our research is focused today on the question of large-scale learning. Integrating an OPU in one of the most powerful nodes of Jean Zay will give us the keys to carry out this research, and will allow us to go beyond a simple ” proof of concept.”

Dec 24, 2021

Threadripper Pro 5000WX’s Secret Weapon: Up to 128 Cores per Workstation

Posted by in categories: computing, transportation

AMD to offer five Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5000WX CPUs for workstations.


Dual-processor workstations are the stomping grounds of companies like Dell, HP, and Lenovo. They tend to cost as much as a car and are aimed at the most performance-demanding professionals with very deep pockets. It is hard to expect motherboard makers to offer dual-socket sWRX8 platforms at this time since 128-core/256-thread machines are complete overkill even for the workstation segment (which is why this capability might be canned if AMD feels that it is easier to offer Epyc platforms for the same market segment instead). Meanwhile, the report also says that Asus and Gigabyte intend to release all-new single-socket motherboards for the upcoming Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5000WX CPUs.

AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper Pro retains eight memory channels to provide loads of bandwidth and support for plenty of memory for professional applications. The CPUs will continue to use the sWRX8 socket, though we do not know whether the new products will be drop-in compatible with the existing sWRX8 platform (probably they will, albeit with a BIOS update).

Continue reading “Threadripper Pro 5000WX’s Secret Weapon: Up to 128 Cores per Workstation” »

Dec 24, 2021

Bipedal robot completes 5K after learning to run

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Agility Robotics’ Cassie just became the first bipedal robot to complete an outdoor 5K run, completing the jaunt on a single charge.


Agility Robotics’ Cassie just became the first bipedal robot to complete an outdoor 5K run — and it did so untethered and on a single charge.

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Dec 24, 2021

Zinc giant buys wind and solar developer in major green metals and hydrogen play

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability

Korea Zinc buys wind and solar developer Epuron, delivering a wind and solar portfolio of up to 9GW for its green metals and hydrogen ambitions.


Korean Zinc, the world’s biggest zinc, lead and silver producer, has bought Australian-based renewable energy developer Epuron as part of its move towards 100 per cent renewables, green metals and green hydrogen.

The purchase is a significant move, and underlines the determination of some of the world’s biggest metals companies to switch to green products, in moves that will surely turbo-charge the development of wind and solar projects in Australia and across the globe.

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Dec 24, 2021

AFRL, Northrop Grumman lab tests space-based solar power technology

Posted by in categories: solar power, space, sustainability

The Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL)and Northrop Grumman’s Space Solar Power Incremental Demonstrations and Research (SSPIDR) Project announced that they are one step closer to collecting solar energy in space and transmitting it to Earth using radio frequency (RF). The team has successfully conducted the first end-to-end demonstration of key hardware for the Arachne flight experiment.

A ground demonstration of novel components for the “sandwich tile” was used to successfully convert solar energy to radiofrequency (RF) – a fundamental step required to pave the way for a large-scale solar power collection system in space. For this to work, it is necessary to use receiving antennas on Earth to convert RF energy into usable power.

Space solar power is a key focus of AFRL, which awarded Northrop Grumman a $100 million contract in 2018 for the development of a payload to demonstrate the key components of a prototype space solar power system. The sandwich tile is currently under development as an essential payload component for Arachne and as a building block for a large-scale operational system.

Dec 24, 2021

Solar Polysilicon Prices Start To Plummet

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, solar power, sustainability

In a bit of good news, the spot price for solar grade polysilicon is dropping quite rapidly. If the trend holds, the cost of solar panels in Australia should follow suit soon-ish.

Polysilicon is used in the manufacture of conventional photovoltaic cells used in solar panels. The sought-after stuff was as cheap as chips in July last year, when it was below USD $7/kg. But a series of events including impacts from the pandemic and a couple of factory fires saw it skyrocket.

Polysilicon spot prices were as high as US$36.64/kg at the beginning of this month. But here’s what’s happened in the last few weeks as reported by Bernreuter Research.