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Jun 10, 2020

Machine learning predicts nanoparticle structure and dynamics

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, nanotechnology, robotics/AI, supercomputing

Researchers at the Nanoscience Center and at the Faculty of Information Technology at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland have demonstrated that new distance-based machine learning methods developed at the University of Jyväskylä are capable of predicting structures and atomic dynamics of nanoparticles reliably. The new methods are significantly faster than traditional simulation methods used for nanoparticle research and will facilitate more efficient explorations of particle-particle reactions and particles’ functionality in their environment. The study was published in a Special Issue devoted to machine learning in the Journal of Physical Chemistry on May 15, 2020.

The new methods were applied to ligand-stabilized metal , which have been long studied at the Nanoscience Center at the University of Jyväskylä. Last year, the researchers published a method that is able to successfully predict binding sites of the stabilizing ligand molecules on the nanoparticle surface. Now, a new tool was created that can reliably predict based on the atomic structure of the particle, without the need to use numerically heavy electronic structure computations. The tool facilitates Monte Carlo simulations of the atom dynamics of the particles at elevated temperatures.

Potential energy of a system is a fundamental quantity in computational nanoscience, since it allows for quantitative evaluations of system’s stability, rates of chemical reactions and strengths of interatomic bonds. Ligand-stabilized metal nanoparticles have many types of interatomic bonds of varying chemical strength, and traditionally the energy evaluations have been done by using the so-called density functional theory (DFT) that often results in numerically heavy computations requiring the use of supercomputers. This has precluded efficient simulations to understand nanoparticles’ functionalities, e.g., as catalysts, or interactions with biological objects such as proteins, viruses, or DNA. Machine learning methods, once trained to model the systems reliably, can speed up the simulations by several orders of magnitude.

Jun 10, 2020

An incredible new SpaceX video shows what it’s like to be inside the nose cone of a Falcon 9 rocket launching Starlink internet satellites into orbit

Posted by in categories: internet, satellites

After SpaceX’s eighth Starlink internet satellite launch, the company released a video of its Falcon 9 rocket jettisoning two $3 million fairings.

Jun 10, 2020

Microsoft and Udacity partner in new $4 million machine-learning scholarship program for Microsoft Azure

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, transportation

Applications are now open for the nanodegree program, which will help Udacity train developers on the Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure.

Jun 10, 2020

What is a black hole?

Posted by in categories: cosmology, entertainment, physics

Black holes are the dark remnants of collapsed stars, regions of space cut off from the rest of the universe. If something falls into a black hole, it can never come back out. Not even light can escape, meaning black holes are invisible even with powerful telescopes. Yet physicists know black holes exist because they’re consistent with time-tested theories, and because astronomers have observed how matter behaves just outside a black hole.

Naturally, science fiction loves such an enigmatic entity. Black holes have played starring roles in popular books, movies and television shows, from “Star Trek” and “Doctor Who” to the 2014 blockbuster “Interstellar.”

But black holes aren’t quite as menacing as they are commonly portrayed. “They definitely do not suck,” says Daryl Haggard, an astrophysicist at McGill University in Montreal. “A black hole just sits there, passively. Things can fall onto it, just as meteors can fall to Earth, but it doesn’t pull stuff in.”

Jun 10, 2020

Italian woman makes 90 stuffed olives while undergoing brain surgery

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

She cooked up Italian food to protect her noodle!

A 60-year-old woman from the country’s Marche region prepared dozens of delicious stuffed olives while undergoing brain surgery — to reduce the risk of damaging the vital organ, according to a report Wednesday.

As doctors removed a brain tumor from her left temporal lobe, the unnamed patient whipped up 90 of the breaded-and-fried olives in a makeshift kitchen inside the operating room, according to the BBC.

Jun 10, 2020

Why cracking nuclear fusion will depend on artificial intelligence

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

The promise of clean, green nuclear fusion has been touted for decades, but the rise of AI means the challenges could finally be overcome.

Jun 10, 2020

Renewable fuel from carbon dioxide with the aid of graphene and solar energy

Posted by in categories: chemistry, solar power, sustainability

Researchers at Linköping University, Sweden, are attempting to convert carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, to fuel using energy from sunlight. Recent results have shown that it is possible to use their technique to selectively produce methane, carbon monoxide or formic acid from carbon dioxide and water.

The study has been published in ACS Nano (“Atomic-Scale Tuning of Graphene/Cubic SiC Schottky Junction for Stable Low-Bias Photoelectrochemical Solar-to-Fuel Conversion”).

Plants convert carbon dioxide and water to oxygen and high-energy sugars, which they use as “fuel” to grow. They obtain their energy from sunlight. Jianwu Sun and his colleagues at Linköping University are attempting to imitate this reaction, known as photosynthesis, used by plants to capture carbon dioxide from air and convert it to chemical fuels, such as methane, ethanol and methanol. The method is currently at a research stage, and the long-term objective of the scientists is to convert solar energy to fuel efficiently.

Jun 10, 2020

Scientists Say You Could Charge Batteries Using Humidity

Posted by in category: futurism

The research capitalizes on a natural phenomenon: thunderstorms.

Jun 10, 2020

What A Trump Loss In November Would Mean For NASA’s Lunar Return

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, space travel

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tells me that despite the pandemic, the agency will do its utmost to meet the 2024 Artemis lunar return deadline.


“We continue to assess the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on our missions, but we strongly believe that we can still meet the goal of landing the first woman and the next man on the Moon in 2024,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told me via a headquarters’ spokesperson.

Yet NASA has also experienced shakeups in its human spaceflight directorate that could hinder meeting Artemis’ goals. Case in point, Doug Laverro, Associate Administrator of NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, departed less than a month ago.

Continue reading “What A Trump Loss In November Would Mean For NASA’s Lunar Return” »

Jun 10, 2020

The 14 Best Nootropics and Smart Drugs Reviewed

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Nootropics and smart drugs are natural or synthetic substances that can be taken to improve mental performance in healthy people.

They have gained popularity in today’s highly competitive society and are most often used to boost memory, focus, creativity, intelligence and motivation.

Here’s a look at the 14 best and how they enhance performance.