Toggle light / dark theme

Incorporating established physics into neural network algorithms helps them to uncover new insights into material properties

According to researchers at Duke University, incorporating known physics into machine learning algorithms can help the enigmatic black boxes attain new levels of transparency and insight into the characteristics of materials.

Researchers used a sophisticated machine learning algorithm in one of the first efforts of its type to identify the characteristics of a class of engineered materials known as metamaterials and to predict how they interact with electromagnetic fields.

Elon Musk is finally revealing some specifics of his Twitter content moderation policy. Assuming he completes the buyout he initiated at $44 billion in April, it seems the tech billionaire and Tesla CEO is open to a “hands-on” approach — something many didn’t expect, according to an initial report from The Verge.

This came in reply to an employee-submitted question regarding Musk’s intentions for content moderation, where Musk said he thinks users should be allowed to “say pretty outrageous things within the law”, during an all-hands meeting he had with Twitter’s staff on Thursday.

Elon Musk views Twitter as a platform for ‘self-expression’

This exemplifies a distinction initially popularized by Renée DiResta, a disinformation authority — according to the report. But, during the meeting, Musk said he wants Twitter to impose a stricter standard against bots and spam, adding that “it needs to be much more expensive to have a troll army.”

There are endless possibilities for the creative crafter. And for the more experienced DIY-ers, there’s an even bigger project that’s just waiting to be built for those daring enough to try: How about an entire guest house for your backyard? After an internet frenzy sold out this particular model, the DIY Allwood Solvalla Garden House is back in stock and better than ever.

If you’re not quite ready to move your entire life into a tiny space like this, never fear: You can convert it into a guest home, a studio, garden house, pool house, or truly anything your heart desires. Plus, you can purchase all the parts and instructions on Amazon.

At a mere 172 square feet, the tiny space is compact enough to actually fit but still has enough room to be useful, whether it’s used for storage or for pure fun. In the description, the plans say that this tiny structure can be built in way less than a day—in eight hours, to be exact—when two adults team up for the job.

Time travel makes regular appearances in popular culture, with innumerable time travel storylines in movies, television and literature. But it is a surprisingly old idea: one can argue that the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles over 2,500 years ago, is the first time travel story.

But is in fact possible? Given the popularity of the concept, this is a legitimate question. As a , I find that there are several possible answers to this question, not all of which are contradictory.

The simplest answer is that time travel cannot be possible because if it was, we would already be doing it. One can argue that it is forbidden by the , like the or relativity. There are also technical challenges: it might be possible but would involve vast amounts of energy.

The US Department of Defense’s innovative tech unit, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is looking for ways to recharge drones while still in flight using laser-shooting tanker planes as the source of that energy.

“This Airborne Energy Well is a potential component of a more expansive energy web of power generation, transfer relays and receiving solutions, enabling the Department of Defense (DoD) to dynamically allocate energy resources to more flexibly deliver military effects,” the RFI notes.

A UC Riverside genetic discovery could turn disease-carrying mosquitoes into insect Peter Pans, preventing them from ever maturing or multiplying.

In 2018, UCR entomologist Naoki Yamanaka found, contrary to accepted scientific wisdom, that an important steroid hormone requires to enter or exit fruit fly cells. The hormone, ecdysone, is called the “molting hormone.” Without it, flies will never mature, or reproduce.

Before his discovery, textbooks taught that ecdysone travels freely across cell membranes, slipping past them with ease. “We now know that’s not true,” Yamanaka said.