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Dec 22, 2020

Exclusive: Apple targets car production by 2024 and eyes ‘next level’ battery technology

Posted by in categories: business, mobile phones, robotics/AI, sustainability, transportation

Even Apple wants to get into the automobile business it seems.


(Reuters) — Apple Inc is moving forward with self-driving car technology and is targeting 2024 to produce a passenger vehicle that could include its own breakthrough battery technology, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The iPhone maker’s automotive efforts, known as Project Titan, have proceeded unevenly since 2014 when it first started to design its own vehicle from scratch. At one point, Apple drew back the effort to focus on software and reassessed its goals. Doug Field, an Apple veteran who had worked at Tesla Inc, returned to oversee the project in 2018 and laid off 190 people from the team in 2019.

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Dec 22, 2020

Air-Fi: Generating Covert Wi-Fi Signals from Air-Gapped Computers

Posted by in categories: computing, internet

https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.

Dec 22, 2020

When light and atoms share a common vibe

Posted by in categories: particle physics, quantum physics

An especially counter-intuitive feature of quantum mechanics is that a single event can exist in a state of superposition—happening both here and there, or both today and tomorrow.

Such superpositions are hard to create, as they are destroyed if any kind of information about the place and time of the event leaks into the surrounding—and even if nobody actually records this information. But when superpositions do occur, they lead to observations that are very different from that of classical physics, raising questions that spill over into our very understanding of space and time.

Scientists from EPFL, MIT, and CEA Saclay, publishing in Science Advances, demonstrate a state of vibration that exists simultaneously at two different times, and provide evidence of this by measuring the strongest class of quantum correlations between that interact with the vibration.

Dec 22, 2020

LUCIDGames: A technique to plan adaptive trajectories for autonomous vehicles

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

While many self-driving vehicles have achieved remarkable performance in simulations or initial trials, when tested on real streets, they are often unable to adapt their trajectories or movements based on those of other vehicles or agents in their surroundings. This is particularly true in situations that require a certain degree of negotiation, for instance, at intersections or on streets with multiple lanes.

Researchers at Stanford University recently created LUCIDGames, a that can predict and plan adaptive trajectories for autonomous vehicles. This technique, presented in a paper pre-published on arXiv, integrates an algorithm based on game theory and an estimation method.

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Dec 22, 2020

Space Force official: Russian missile tests expose vulnerability of low-orbiting satellites

Posted by in categories: military, satellites

Updated Dec. 17 with State Department statement

WASHINGTON — Russia on Dec. 15 conducted a ballistic missile test that U.S. Space Command condemned as a threat to satellites in orbit.

“The nation must do something about this,” said Lt. Gen. Nina Armagno, director of staff of the Office of the Chief of Space Operations of the U.S. Space Force.

Dec 21, 2020

Artificial intelligence solves Schrödinger’s equation

Posted by in categories: chemistry, information science, mathematics, particle physics, quantum physics, robotics/AI, space

A team of scientists at Freie Universität Berlin has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) method for calculating the ground state of the Schrödinger equation in quantum chemistry. The goal of quantum chemistry is to predict chemical and physical properties of molecules based solely on the arrangement of their atoms in space, avoiding the need for resource-intensive and time-consuming laboratory experiments. In principle, this can be achieved by solving the Schrödinger equation, but in practice this is extremely difficult.

Up to now, it has been impossible to find an exact solution for arbitrary molecules that can be efficiently computed. But the team at Freie Universität has developed a deep learning method that can achieve an unprecedented combination of accuracy and computational efficiency. AI has transformed many technological and scientific areas, from computer vision to materials science. “We believe that our approach may significantly impact the future of quantum ,” says Professor Frank Noé, who led the team effort. The results were published in the reputed journal Nature Chemistry.

Central to both quantum chemistry and the Schrödinger equation is the —a mathematical object that completely specifies the behavior of the electrons in a molecule. The wave function is a high-dimensional entity, and it is therefore extremely difficult to capture all the nuances that encode how the individual electrons affect each other. Many methods of quantum chemistry in fact give up on expressing the wave function altogether, instead attempting only to determine the energy of a given molecule. This however requires approximations to be made, limiting the prediction quality of such methods.

Dec 21, 2020

SpaceX aims to build a Starlink mega constellation around MARS

Posted by in categories: internet, satellites

To provide internet to the one million people the firm will send to colonize the Red Planet…


SpaceX recently shared an ambitious plan to build a Starlink satellite constellation around Mars. The devices would allow the human who move to the Red Planet communicate.

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Dec 21, 2020

Biologists have Found a Way to Regenerate Neurons in Mice with Parkinson’s Using CRISPR Gene Editing

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, genetics, neuroscience

Using CRISPR to alter the genetics of astrocytes in mice, researchers hope they’ve discovered how to regenerate neurons in patients with Parkinsons disease.

Dec 21, 2020

CRISPR/Cas9 Used to Bring LRRK2 Mutation to Possible Monkey Disease Model

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, genetics

Using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing tools, researchers introduced a common Parkinson’s disease mutation into stems cells of the marmoset monkey for a first time, paving the way toward a primate model of this disease.

Dec 21, 2020

New nanomaterial helps obtain hydrogen from a liquid energy carrier, in a key step toward a stable and clean fuel source

Posted by in categories: chemistry, economics, nanotechnology, particle physics, sustainability, transportation

Hydrogen is a sustainable source of clean energy that avoids toxic emissions and can add value to multiple sectors in the economy including transportation, power generation, metals manufacturing, among others. Technologies for storing and transporting hydrogen bridge the gap between sustainable energy production and fuel use, and therefore are an essential component of a viable hydrogen economy. But traditional means of storage and transportation are expensive and susceptible to contamination. As a result, researchers are searching for alternative techniques that are reliable, low-cost and simple. More-efficient hydrogen delivery systems would benefit many applications such as stationary power, portable power, and mobile vehicle industries.

Now, as reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers have designed and synthesized an effective material for speeding up one of the limiting steps in extracting from alcohols. The material, a , is made from tiny clusters of nickel anchored on a 2-D substrate. The team led by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s (Berkeley Lab) Molecular Foundry found that the catalyst could cleanly and efficiently accelerate the reaction that removes hydrogen atoms from a liquid chemical carrier. The material is robust and made from earth-abundant metals rather than existing options made from precious metals, and will help make hydrogen a viable energy source for a wide range of applications.

“We present here not merely a catalyst with higher activity than other nickel catalysts that we tested, for an important renewable energy fuel, but also a broader strategy toward using affordable metals in a broad range of reactions,” said Jeff Urban, the Inorganic Nanostructures Facility director at the Molecular Foundry who led the work. The research is part of the Hydrogen Materials Advanced Research Consortium (HyMARC), a consortium funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (EERE). Through this effort, five national laboratories work towards the goal to address the scientific gaps blocking the advancement of solid hydrogen storage materials. Outputs from this work will directly feed into EERE’s H2@Scale vision for affordable hydrogen production, storage, distribution and utilization across multiple sectors in the economy.