Catch a glimpse of the near future as AI and Quantum Computing transform how we live. Eric Schmidt, decade-long CEO of Google, joins Brian Greene to explore the horizons of innovation, where digital and quantum frontiers collide to spark a new era of discovery.
This program is part of the Big Ideas series, supported by the John Templeton Foundation.
Participants:
Eric Schmidt.
Moderator:
Novel magnetic nanodiscs could provide a much less invasive way of stimulating parts of the brain, paving the way for stimulation therapies without implants or genetic modification, MIT researchers report.
The scientists envision that the tiny discs, which are about 250 nanometers across (about 1/500 the width of a human hair), would be injected directly into the desired location in the brain. From there, they could be activated at any time simply by applying a magnetic field outside the body. The new particles could quickly find applications in biomedical research, and eventually, after sufficient testing, might be applied to clinical uses.
The development of these nanoparticles is described in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, in a paper by Polina Anikeeva, a professor in MIT’s departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Brain and Cognitive Sciences, graduate student Ye Ji Kim, and 17 others at MIT and in Germany.
Most of us assume reality is made up of physical matter. In line with this, scientists have built ever larger machines to identify the ultimate particles. Instead of getting closer to the most elementary bits in the universe, the particle zoo has got ever more complex and seemingly less like material stuff at all. Is there a danger that the very idea of an ultimate foundation to reality is a profound mistake? Some have proposed that instead of material, the ultimate foundation is to be found in consciousness, information, or even mathematics. But such proposals are no closer to identifying ultimate elements than particle physicists. Should we give up the attempt to uncover an ultimate foundation to the universe? Is our inability to find an ultimate foundation a limitation of language, or of our capacity to make sense of the world, or is it to do with the nature of reality itself?
For many, aliens only exist in the realm of science fiction. But regardless of whether aliens exist or not, the potential existence of extraterrestrial species throws into question our entire metaphysical framework, which has long gone unchallenged.
In the first study, a team led by Professor Jong-sung Yu at the DGIST Department of Energy Science and Engineering developed a nitrogen-doped porous carbon material to enhance the charging speed of lithium-sulfur batteries. This material, synthesized using a magnesium-assisted thermal reduction method, acts as a sulfur host in the battery cathode. The resulting battery exhibited remarkable performance, achieving a high capacity of 705 mAh g⁻¹ even when fully charged in just 12 minutes.
The carbon structure, formed by the reaction of magnesium with nitrogen in ZIF-8 at high temperatures, enabled higher sulfur loading and improved electrolyte contact. This advancement resulted in a 1.6-fold increase in capacity compared to conventional batteries under rapid charging conditions. Furthermore, the nitrogen doping effectively suppressed lithium polysulfide migration, allowing the battery to retain 82 percent of its capacity after 1,000 charge-discharge cycles.
Collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory revealed that lithium sulfide formed in a specific orientation within the carbon material’s layered structures. This finding confirmed the benefits of nitrogen doping and the porous carbon structure in boosting sulfur loading and accelerating reaction speed.
PCI-SIG has just released revision 0.7 of the draft specifications, and members are likely scrutinizing every detail. There have been minimal changes since the 0.5 version released last April, which is a positive sign that the core technology is stable. Assuming no major issues arise, 2025 could be the year PCIe 7.0 is officially ratified.
This is supposedly super close now. The waters are muddied, we are possibly already well into Agi, and work is underway for ASI.
Super-agents could make AI a true replacement for human workers.
Properly bitter article on job loss due to AI.
s LLMs?
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Dotdash Meredith, one of the largest publishing companies in the US, will lay off about 4% of its workforce to make room for OpenAI.
As NASA’s Europa Clipper embarks on its historic journey to Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, Dr. Matt Powell-Palm, a faculty member at Texas A&M University’s J. Mike Walker ’66 Department of Mechanical Engineering, has unveiled groundbreaking research that could transform our understanding of icy ocean worlds across the solar system. The study published in Nature Communications, co-authored with planetary scientist Dr. Baptiste Journaux of the University of Washington, introduces a novel thermodynamic concept called the “centotectic” and investigates the stability of liquids in extreme conditions — critical information for determining the habitability of icy moons like Europa.
Revolutionizing the Search for Habitability.
The exploration of icy ocean worlds represents a new frontier in planetary science, focusing on understanding the potential for these environments to support life. Powell-Palm’s research addresses a fundamental question in this field: under what conditions can liquid water remain stable on these distant, frozen bodies? By defining and measuring the cenotectic, the absolute lowest temperature at which a liquid remains stable under varying pressures and concentrations, the team provides a critical framework for interpreting data from planetary exploration efforts.
Bright, twisted light can be produced with technology similar to an Edison light bulb, researchers at the University of Michigan have shown. The finding adds nuance to fundamental physics while offering a new avenue for robotic vision systems and other applications for light that traces out a helix in space.
“It’s hard to generate enough brightness when producing twisted light with traditional ways like electron or photon luminescence,” said Jun Lu, an adjunct research investigator in chemical engineering at U-M and first author of the study on the cover of this week’s Science.
“We gradually noticed that we actually have a very old way to generate these photons—not relying on photon and electron excitations, but like the bulb Edison developed.”
