Posted in nuclear energy
New Chinese fusion approach, betting big on fusion and lots more fusion stories!
A summary of recent fusion energy news stories presented by Dr Leigh Ann Kesler, a fusion consultant specialising in science communication.
Today’s news stories:
1. Congressional Hearing on Fusion Energy Research and Technology Development.
“It is not known at this time whether the variant is more transmissible, or more dangerous to the health of those who catch it, than other coronavirus variants.”
There are two confirmed cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus in Ottawa, the Ontario government announced Sunday.
“Today, the province of Ontario has confirmed two cases of the omicron variant of COVID-19 in Ottawa, both of which were reported in individuals with recent travel from Nigeria. Ottawa Public Health is conducting case and contact management and the patients are in isolation,” the statement said.
It’s one thing to produce nano-scale materials, but it’s an entirely different thing imaging them.
Nanomaterials have many applications, especially in electronics, but they have one issue: They are so small that they don’t reflect enough light to show fine details, such as colors, even with the aid of the most powerful microscopes.
Now, researchers from UC Riverside may have come up with a solution. They have conceived of an imaging technology that compresses lamp light into a nanometer-sized spot, holding that light at the end of a silver nanowire. This allows it to reveal previously invisible details such as colors.
The technique is not entirely new. It has been used in previous experiments to observe the vibration of molecular bonds at 1-nanometer spatial resolution without the need for a focusing lens.
The researchers then modified the tool to measure signals spanning the whole visible wavelength range, essentially squeezing the light from a tungsten lamp into a silver nanowire with near-zero scattering or reflection.
Cockroach farming is practiced in China on a massive scale. At present, there are hundreds of cockroach farms in China, with the total number of cockroaches produced annually exceeding the global human population. The insects produced in these unique farms are mostly used in the production of cosmetics and medicines, or for animal feed.
In 2018, Chinese pharmaceutical company Gooddoctor claims that it has earned US$684 million in revenue through selling a “healing potion” made from cockroaches that is used annually by thousands of hospitals and millions of Chinese patients to treat respiratory, gastric, and other diseases.
However, the use of cockroaches in China is not just limited to the pharmaceutical and beauty industries. The protein-rich insects are also processed and fed as an organic meal to poultry farm animals, used to deal with food waste, and are often served in special recipes in some Chinese restaurants.
How will future AI systems make the most ethical choices for all of us?
Artificial intelligence is already making decisions in the fields of business, health care, and manufacturing. But AI algorithms generally still get help from people applying checks and making the final call.
What would happen if AI systems had to make independent decisions and ones that could mean life or death for humans?
Unlike humans, robots lack a moral conscience and follow the “ethics” programmed into them. At the same time, human morality is highly variable. The “right” thing to do in any situation will depend on who you ask.
Google’s cybersecurity team warns that this is neither the first nor the last time.
Cryptomining is a very energy-intensive process with analysis by the University of Cambridge showing that Bitcoin consumes more electricity than the entire country of Argentina. Now, Google has released a new report stating that malicious cryptocurrency miners are using hacked Google Cloud accounts for mining purposes.
The report is called “Threat Horizons” and it aims to help organizations keep their cloud environments secure.
“While cloud customers continue to face a variety of threats across applications and infrastructure, many successful attacks are due to poor hygiene and a lack of basic control implementation. Most recently, our team has responded to cryptocurrency mining abuse, phishing campaigns, and ransomware,” wrote Google in an executive summary of the report.
“Given these specific observations and general threats, organizations that put emphasis on secure implementation, monitoring, and ongoing assurance will be more successful in mitigating these threats or at the very least reduce their overall impact.”
F4F is launching Blue Marble Night as a new spacer holiday, commemorating the Blue Marble photo taken by Apollo 17 on 7 December, 1972.
Want to help?
We are setting up a celebration of the limitless inspiration of space. One that recognizes the fragility of our world while simultaneously infusing a sense of hope and awe. We will have the Overview Effect and our future in space as the main focuses. :
Here is what you can do:
1. Recruit celebrities and regular people to record 30–60 second testimonials about the Overview Effect or their connection to space.
2. Recruit thought leaders willing to give 10–15 minute talks about the majesty of space, the Overview Effect, our future in space, Apollo 17 etc.
(In both vids, close out the vid with the toast “Happy Blue Marble Night and next year on the moon.” Encourage people to wear blue or to toast with blue drinks.
Nearly the same size as Blackpool Tower and twice as large as Big Ben, astronomers estimate that if the asteroid were to hit the Earth, the impact would produce the equivalent energy to 77 megatons of TNT.
This is 1.5 times as powerful as the Tsar Bomba, the biggest nuclear weapon ever tested.
In a recently published white paper, imec provided an overview of the building blocks for the next generation of medical implants. Integrating the building blocks into smart chips provides a comprehensive solution that is smaller, smarter and more connected.
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Hello from the other side. In this episode find out how quanta can can move through solid objects.
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