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Despite being larger than the original Starlink satellites, the new "Mini" version is fainter, meeting astronomers' recommendations. SpaceX launched their first batch of second-generation Starlink satellites on February 27th. These spacecraft are called “Mini,” but they are only small in comparison to the full-size satellites that will come later. The 116 square meters of surface area make them more than four times the size of the first-generation spacecraft. The Minis’ large dimensions were an immediate concern for professional and amateur astronomers alike because area usually translates to brightness. However, SpaceX changed their physical design and concept of operations (conops) in order to mitigate their brightness. The company developed a highly reflective dielectric mirror film and a low-reflectivity black paint, which are applied to several parts of the spacecraft body. The mirror-like surface reflects sunlight into space instead of scattering it toward observers on the ground. In addition, the solar panels can be oriented so that observers do not see their sunlit sides. The brightness mitigation plan sounded promising but measurements were needed to determine its effectiveness. So, a group of satellite observers began recording magnitudes. Scott Harrington recorded the first data point visually on March 14th. He has since obtained 125 additional magnitudes from his dark-sky location in Arkansas. Meanwhile, Andreas Hornig developed software to process video observations. He derived 108 magnitude measurements recorded from Macedonia on the night of April 12th alone. In all, we have acquired 506 brightness measurements for our study. SpaceX launched three additional batches of 21 or more Mini satellites in April, May, and June. These spacecraft ascend from low, orbit-insertion heights toward their eventual altitude at 560-km (350 mi). Until May, we were observing Mini satellites at all heights without knowing whether they were operating for brightness mitigation. Then Richard Cole in the UK noticed that some spacecraft had leveled off at 480 km. He reasoned that these satellites might already be in mitigation mode and suggested that we prioritize them. We found that the Minis at that height were several magnitudes fainter than those at other altitudes. SpaceX sent us a message on May 16th confirming that Richard was correct. Now that we could distinguish between mitigated and unmitigated spacecraft, we began to characterize the brightness of each group, prioritizing measurements for those satellites that were already operational. Observed brightness indicates how severely satellites impact celestial observations. The average magnitude for mitigated Mini spacecraft in our database is 7.1, just below the limit set by astronomers’ recommended guidelines. So, most of them are invisible to the unaided eye and do not interfere greatly with research.
The BMW i Vision Dee concept arrived at CES with an E Ink-powered color-changing technology that was much improved over 2022’s monochromatic display. At CES 2022, BMW’s iX Flow concept was billed as “the world’s first color-changing car.” At the time, the special version of the iX electric crossover could shift its various panels between white, black, and gray. Now, for 2023, meet the upgrade: actual colors. For this year’s CES, BMW showed off the i Vision Dee, an electric sports sedan concept that previewed a whole raft of technologies we could see in the immediate future, like AI-powered virtual assistants and full-windshield heads-up displays. But it also included a full-color version of the E Ink technology seen on last year’s concept for the first time ever. This means that the i Vision Dee — which looks like a kind of cross between a vintage BMW and a Tesla — can change colors on command. Instead of just black, white, and gray, 32 colors are now available. Not only that but the i Vision Dee is made up of 240 E Ink e-paper segments, all of which can be controlled individually. This means the i Vision Dee can shift to one solid color or put on one hell of a light show. “This allows an almost infinite variety of patterns to be generated and varied within seconds,” BMW said in a statement. Dee made her color-shifting debut during BMW’s CES keynote Wednesday night, joined onstage by Knight Rider’s KITT, Herbie the Love Bug, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. (You kind of had to be there.) Schwarzenegger also starred in this short film that demonstrates how Dee’s advanced features work: BMW’s concepts make use of technology developed by the US-based E Ink Corporation, which is behind e-readers and various smartwatches. A film coating on the car contains tiny microcapsules whose pigments change when electricity is applied. While E Ink has seen a number of applications over the years, BMW says it’s unique to the automotive sector, developed and programmed by in-house engineers. A film coating on the car contains tiny microcapsules whose pigments change when electricity is applied. What’s more, this concept uses the latest tech from E Ink, called Prism 3 film, which is fully programmable and meant to be low on power consumption for sustainability. Prism 3 can also be manufactured in any shape, making industrial design applications seemingly endless. E Ink is enabling its partners to disrupt industries through sustainable technologies and has been integrated into everything from eReaders to cell phones to medical wearables to logistical tags and digital signage.” The e-paper segments were also used on the concept’s wheels and grille, with the latter creating “facial expressions” as its AI assistant reacts to various inputs. Will color-shifting BMWs ever see production? For now, it’s an in-house R&D project — but one that has attracted a lot of attention both inside the automaker and in the wider world. SlashGear notes that the brains behind the project, Australian engineer Stella Clarke and her team, have been working to develop and refine the e-paper since last year’s CES.
Our society faces the grand challenge of providing sustainable, secure, and affordable means of generating energy while trying to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to net zero around 2050. To date, developments in fusion power, which potentially ticks all these boxes, have been funded almost exclusively by the public sector. However, something is changing. Private equity investment in the global fusion industry has more than doubled in just one year – from US$2.1 billion in 2021 to US$4.7 billion in 2022, according to a survey from the Fusion Industry Association. So, what is driving this recent change? There's lots to be excited about. Merging atoms together Fusion works the same way our Sun does, by merging two heavy hydrogen atoms under extreme heat and pressure to release vast amounts of energy. It's the opposite of the fission process used by nuclear power plants, in which atoms are split to release large amounts of energy. Sustaining nuclear fusion at scale has the potential to produce a safe, clean, almost inexhaustible power source. Our Sun sustains fusion at its core with a plasma of charged particles at around 15 million degrees Celsius. Down on Earth, we are aiming for hundreds of millions of degrees Celsius, because we don't have the enormous mass of the Sun compressing the fuel down for us. Scientists and engineers have worked out several designs for how we might achieve this, but most fusion reactors use strong magnetic fields to "bottle" and confine the hot plasma. Generally, the main challenge to overcome on our road to commercial fusion power is to provide environments that can contain the intense burning plasma needed to produce a fusion reaction that is self-sustaining, producing more energy than was needed to get it started. Fusion development has been progressing since the 1950s. Most of it was driven by government funding for fundamental science. Now, a growing number of private fusion companies around the world are forging ahead toward commercial fusion energy. A change in government attitudes has been crucial to this. The US and UK governments are fostering public-private partnerships to complement their strategic research programs. For example, the White House recently announced it would develop a "bold decadal vision for commercial fusion energy". In the United Kingdom, the government has invested in a program aimed at connecting a fusion generator to the national electricity grid. Now, Arizona scientists may have discovered a source of unlimited clean energy by recreating the process of nuclear fusion which powers the sun. Researchers at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab in California were able to spark a fusion reaction that briefly sustained itself - a major feat because fusion requires such high temperatures and pressures that it easily fizzles out. The first experiment was performed in August 2022, but similar tests have been performed before. However, this was the first one that generated more energy than was used to create the experiment - meaning scientists could now harness nuclear fusion as an energy source. The August test actually generated more energy than scientists predicted, and damaged some equipment. But it could now represent a groundbreaking moment in humankind's move away from fossil fuels like oil and coal to completely clean energy sources that do not pollute the air, or scar landscapes with mining or pipelines. The ultimate goal, still years away, is to generate power the way the sun generates heat, by pushing hydrogen atoms so close to each other that they combine into helium, which releases torrents of energy. A single cupful of that substance could power an average-sized house for hundreds of years, with no carbon emissions. Using the world's largest laser, consisting of 192 beams and temperatures more than three times hotter than the center of the sun, the researchers coaxed fusion fuel for the first time to heat itself beyond the heat they zapped into it - achieving a net energy gain.
A new technique enables on-device training of machine-learning models on edge devices like microcontrollers, which have very limited memory. This could allow edge devices to continually learn from new data, eliminating data privacy issues, while enabling user customization. Microcontrollers, miniature computers that can run simple commands, are the basis for billions of connected devices, from internet-of-things (IoT) devices to sensors in automobiles. But cheap, low-power microcontrollers have extremely limited memory and no operating system, making it challenging to train artificial intelligence models on "edge devices" that work independently from central computing resources. Training a machine-learning model on an intelligent edge device allows it to adapt to new data and make better predictions. For instance, training a model on a smart keyboard could enable the keyboard to continually learn from the user's writing. However, the training process requires so much memory that it is typically done using powerful computers at a data center, before the model is deployed on a device. This is more costly and raises privacy issues since user data must be sent to a central server. To address this problem, researchers at MIT and the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab developed a new technique that enables on-device training using less than a quarter of a megabyte of memory. Other training solutions designed for connected devices can use more than 500 megabytes of memory, greatly exceeding the 256-kilobyte capacity of most microcontrollers (there are 1,024 kilobytes in one megabyte). The intelligent algorithms and framework the researchers developed reduce the amount of computation required to train a model, which makes the process faster and more memory efficient. Their technique can be used to train a machine-learning model on a microcontroller in a matter of minutes. This technique also preserves privacy by keeping data on the device, which could be especially beneficial when data are sensitive, such as in medical applications. It also could enable customization of a model based on the needs of users. Moreover, the framework preserves or improves the accuracy of the model when compared to other training approaches. "Our study enables IoT devices to not only perform inference but also continuously update the AI models to newly collected data, paving the way for lifelong on-device learning. The low resource utilization makes deep learning more accessible and can have a broader reach, especially for low-power edge devices," says Song Han, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), a member of the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, and senior author of the paper describing this innovation.
MIT’s MOXIE experiment has now produced oxygen on Mars. It is the first demonstration of in-situ resource utilization on the Red Planet, and a key step in the goal of sending humans on a Martian mission. On the red and dusty surface of Mars, nearly 100 million miles from Earth, an instrument the size of a lunchbox is proving it can reliably do the work of a small tree. The MIT-led Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, or MOXIE, has been successfully making oxygen from the Red Planet's carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere since February 2021, when it touched down on the Martian surface as part of NASA's Perseverance rover mission. In a recently published study in the journal Science Advances, researchers report that, by the end of 2021, MOXIE was able to produce oxygen on seven experimental runs, in a variety of atmospheric conditions, including during the day and night, and through different Martian seasons. In each run, the instrument reached its target of producing six grams of oxygen per hour -- about the rate of a modest tree on Earth. Researchers envision that a scaled-up version of MOXIE could be sent to Mars ahead of a human mission, to continuously produce oxygen at the rate of several hundred trees. At that capacity, the system should generate enough oxygen to both sustain humans once they arrive, and fuel a rocket for returning astronauts back to Earth. So far, MOXIE's steady output is a promising first step toward that goal. "We have learned a tremendous amount that will inform future systems at a larger scale," says Michael Hecht, principal investigator of the MOXIE mission at MIT's Haystack Observatory. MOXIE's oxygen production on Mars also represents the first demonstration of "in-situ resource utilization," which is the idea of harvesting and using a planet's materials (in this case, carbon dioxide on Mars) to make resources (such as oxygen) that would otherwise have to be transported from Earth. "This is the first demonstration of actually using resources on the surface of another planetary body, and transforming them chemically into something that would be useful for a human mission," says MOXIE deputy principal investigator Jeffrey Hoffman, a professor of the practice in MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. "It's historic in that sense." Hoffman and Hecht's MIT co-authors include MOXIE team members Jason SooHoo, Andrew Liu, Eric Hinterman, Maya Nasr, Shravan Hariharan, and Kyle Horn, along with collaborators from multiple institutions including NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which managed MOXIE's development, flight software, packaging, and testing prior to launch. Seasonal air The current version of MOXIE is small by design, in order to fit aboard the Perseverance rover, and is built to run for short periods, starting up and shutting down with each run, depending on the rover's exploration schedule and mission responsibilities. In contrast, a full-scale oxygen factory would include larger units that would ideally run continuously. Despite the necessary compromises in MOXIE's current design, the instrument has shown it can reliably and efficiently convert Mars' atmosphere into pure oxygen. It does so by first drawing the Martian air in through a filter that cleans it of contaminants. The air is then pressurized, and sent through the Solid OXide Electrolyzer (SOXE), an instrument developed and built by OxEon Energy, that electrochemically splits the carbon dioxide-rich air into oxygen ions and carbon monoxide. The oxygen ions are then isolated and recombined to form breathable, molecular oxygen, or O2, which MOXIE then measures for quantity and purity before releasing it harmlessly back into the air, along with carbon monoxide and other atmospheric gases. Since the rover's landing in February 2021, MOXIE engineers have started up the instrument seven times throughout the Martian year, each time taking a few hours to warm up, then another hour to make oxygen before powering back down. Each run was scheduled for a different time of day or night, and in different seasons, to see whether MOXIE could accommodate shifts in the planet's atmospheric conditions. "The atmosphere of Mars is far more variable than Earth," Hoffman notes. "The density of the air can vary by a factor of two through the year, and the temperature can vary by 100 degrees. One objective is to show we can run in all seasons." So far, MOXIE has shown that it can make oxygen at almost any time of the Martian day and year. "The only thing we have not demonstrated is running at dawn or dusk, when the temperature is changing substantially," Hecht says. "We do have an ace up our sleeve that will let us do that, and once we test that in the lab, we can reach that last milestone to show we can really run any time."
Short animations giving viewers a taste of the tactics behind misinformation can help to “inoculate” people against harmful content on social media when deployed in YouTube’s advert slot, according to a major online experiment led by the University of Cambridge. Working with Jigsaw (https://jigsaw.google.com/), a unit within Google dedicated to tackling threats to open societies, a team of psychologists from the universities of Cambridge and Bristol created 90-second clips designed to familiarize users with manipulation techniques such as scapegoating and deliberate incoherence. This "pre-bunking" strategy pre-emptively exposes people to tropes at the root of malicious propaganda, so they can better identify online falsehoods regardless of subject matter. Researchers behind the Inoculation Science project (https://inoculation.science/) compare it to a vaccine: by giving people a "micro-dose" of misinformation in advance, it helps prevent them falling for it in future -- an idea based on what social psychologist's call "inoculation theory." The findings, published in Science Advances, come from seven experiments involving a total of almost 30,000 participants -- including the first "real world field study" of inoculation theory on a social media platform -- and show a single viewing of a film clip increases awareness of misinformation. The videos introduce concepts from the "misinformation playbook," illustrated with relatable examples from film and TV such as Family Guy or, in the case of false dichotomies, Star Wars ("Only a Sith deals in absolutes"). "YouTube has well over 2 billion active users worldwide. Our videos could easily be embedded within the ad space on YouTube to prebunk misinformation," said study co-author Prof Sander van der Linden, Head of the Social Decision-Making Lab (SDML) at Cambridge, which led the work. "Our research provides the necessary proof of concept that the principle of psychological inoculation can readily be scaled across hundreds of millions of users worldwide."
Researchers from Santa Clara University, New Jersey Institute of Technology and the University of Hong Kong have been able to successfully teach microrobots how to swim via deep reinforcement learning, marking a substantial leap in the progression of microswimming capability. There has been tremendous interest in developing artificial microswimmers that can navigate the world similarly to naturally-occurring swimming microorganisms, like bacteria. Such microswimmers provide promise for a vast array of future biomedical applications, such as targeted drug delivery and microsurgery. Yet, most artificial microswimmers to date can only perform relatively simple maneuvers with fixed locomotory gaits. In the researchers' study published in Communications Physics, they reasoned microswimmers could learn -- and adapt to changing conditions -- through AI. Much like humans learning to swim require reinforcement learning and feedback to stay afloat and propel in various directions under changing conditions, so too must microswimmers, though with their unique set of challenges imposed by physics in the microscopic world. "Being able to swim at the micro-scale by itself is a challenging task," said On Shun Pak, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Santa Clara University. "When you want a microswimmer to perform more sophisticated maneuvers, the design of their locomotory gaits can quickly become intractable." By combining artificial neural networks with reinforcement learning, the team successfully taught a simple microswimmer to swim and navigate toward any arbitrary direction. When the swimmer moves in certain ways, it receives feedback on how good the particular action is. The swimmer then progressively learns how to swim based on its experiences interacting with the surrounding environment. "Similar to a human learning how to swim, the microswimmer learns how to move its 'body parts' -- in this case three microparticles and extensible links -- to self-propel and turn," said Alan Tsang, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Hong Kong. "It does so without relying on human knowledge but only on a machine learning algorithm." The AI-powered swimmer is able to switch between different locomotory gaits adaptively to navigate toward any target location on its own. As a demonstration of the powerful ability of the swimmer, the researchers showed that it could follow a complex path without being explicitly programmed. They also demonstrated the robust performance of the swimmer in navigating under the perturbations arising from external fluid flows. "This is our first step in tackling the challenge of developing microswimmers that can adapt like biological cells in navigating complex environments autonomously," said Yuan-nan Young, professor of mathematical sciences at New Jersey Institute of Technology.
The Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission will make measurements of over 95% of Earth’s lakes, rivers, and reservoirs. Water is life, but for all its importance, humanity has a surprisingly limited view of Earth’s freshwater bodies. Researchers have reliable water level measurements for only a few thousand lakes around the world, and little to no data on some of the planet’s important river systems. The upcoming Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite will fill that enormous gap. By helping to provide a better understanding of Earth’s water cycle, it will both aid in better management of water resources and expand knowledge of how climate change affects lakes, rivers, and reservoirs. A collaboration between NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Études Spatial (CNES), with contributions from the Canadian Space Agency and the United Kingdom Space Agency, SWOT is scheduled to launch in November from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Engineers and technicians are finishing up work on the satellite in a facility run by Thales Alenia Space in Cannes, France. SWOT has several key tasks, including measuring the height of water bodies on Earth’s surface. Over the ocean, the satellite will be able to “see” features like eddies less than 60 miles (100 kilometers) across – smaller than those that previous sea level satellites could observe. SWOT will also measure more than 95% of Earth’s lakes larger than 15 acres (6 hectares) and rivers wider than 330 feet (100 meters) across. “Current databases maybe have information on a couple thousand lakes around the world,” said Tamlin Pavelsky, the NASA freshwater science lead for SWOT, based at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. “SWOT will push that number to between 2 million and 6 million.”
Scientists are developing artificial photosynthesis to help make food production more energy-efficient here on Earth, and one day possibly on Mars. Scientists have found a way to bypass the need for biological photosynthesis altogether and create food independent of sunlight by using artificial photosynthesis. The technology uses a two-step electrocatalytic process to convert carbon dioxide, electricity, and water into acetate. Food-producing organisms then consume acetate in the dark to grow. The hybrid organic-inorganic system could increase the conversion efficiency of sunlight into food, up to 18 times more efficient for some foods. Photosynthesis has evolved in plants for millions of years to turn water, carbon dioxide, and the energy from sunlight into plant biomass and the foods we eat. This process, however, is very inefficient, with only about 1% of the energy found in sunlight ending up in the plant. Scientists at UC Riverside and the University of Delaware have found a way to bypass the need for biological photosynthesis altogether and create food independent of sunlight by using artificial photosynthesis. The research, published in Nature Food, uses a two-step electrocatalytic process to convert carbon dioxide, electricity, and water into acetate, the form of the main component of vinegar. Food-producing organisms then consume acetate in the dark to grow. Combined with solar panels to generate the electricity to power the electrocatalysis, this hybrid organic-inorganic system could increase the conversion efficiency of sunlight into food, up to 18 times more efficient for some foods. "With our approach we sought to identify a new way of producing food that could break through the limits normally imposed by biological photosynthesis," said corresponding author Robert Jinkerson, a UC Riverside assistant professor of chemical and environmental engineering. In order to integrate all the components of the system together, the output of the electrolyzer was optimized to support the growth of food-producing organisms. Electrolyzers are devices that use electricity to convert raw materials like carbon dioxide into useful molecules and products. The amount of acetate produced was increased while the amount of salt used was decreased, resulting in the highest levels of acetate ever produced in an electrolyzer to date. "Using a state-of-the-art two-step tandem CO2 electrolysis setup developed in our laboratory, we were able to achieve a high selectivity towards acetate that cannot be accessed through conventional CO2 electrolysis routes," said corresponding author Feng Jiao at University of Delaware. Experiments showed that a wide range of food-producing organisms can be grown in the dark directly on the acetate-rich electrolyzer output, including green algae, yeast, and fungal mycelium that produce mushrooms. Producing algae with this technology is approximately fourfold more energy efficient than growing it photosynthetically. Yeast production is about 18-fold more energy efficient than how it is typically cultivated using sugar extracted from corn. "We were able to grow food-producing organisms without any contributions from biological photosynthesis. Typically, these organisms are cultivated on sugars derived from plants or inputs derived from petroleum -- which is a product of biological photosynthesis that took place millions of years ago. This technology is a more efficient method of turning solar energy into food, as compared to food production that relies on biological photosynthesis," said Elizabeth Hann, a doctoral candidate in the Jinkerson Lab and co-lead author of the study. The potential for employing this technology to grow crop plants was also investigated. Cowpea, tomato, tobacco, rice, canola, and green pea were all able to utilize carbon from acetate when cultivated in the dark. "We found that a wide range of crops could take the acetate we provided and build it into the major molecular building blocks an organism needs to grow and thrive. With some breeding and engineering that we are currently working on we might be able to grow crops with acetate as an extra energy source to boost crop yields," said Marcus Harland-Dunaway, a doctoral candidate in the Jinkerson Lab and co-lead author of the study.
Mojo Vision’s microLED display has record-breaking pixel density and a somewhat mysterious purpose. A Silicon Valley-based startup has recently emerged from stealth mode to reveal what it claims is the smallest, most pixel-dense dynamic display ever built. Mojo Vision’s display is just 0.48 millimeters across, but it has about 300 times as many pixels per square inch as a typical smartphone display. The display used microLED technology instead of OLEDs (as in several generations of Samsung devices and the iPhone X) or an LCD (as in every other iPhone). Made from gallium nitride, microLED displays can consume as little as 10 percent of the power of LCDs and are 5 to 10 times as bright as OLEDs. That combination makes them a good fit for head-up displays and other augmented reality applications. Like other microLED companies looking to power augmented reality devices, Mojo Vision builds it gallium-nitride microLEDs as an array and then bonds the array to a silicon CMOS backplane that switches them on and off. Paul Martin, vice president for displays, says the company had to overcome several hurdles to build the 14,000 pixels-per-inch display. “The pixels are 1.3 [micrometers across], which means that the gap is only 0.5 µm. Smaller gaps creates harder and harder problems of fabrication.” He would not detail how the company overcame this problem and others.
https://twitter.com/geoffrey_cain Geoffrey Cain: "When Russian forces started their all-out invasion in February, Ukraine has been hailed as an exemplar of how to defend against violent tyranny on the 21st-century battlefield. The country spun up an “IT Army” of volunteer hackers to take down Russian websites, used the Starlink satellite internet system to maintain communications as its own infrastructure was being destroyed, and launched a social media blitzkrieg to win support from around the world.
By contrast, Russia’s leaders, despite having a far more powerful traditional army, have been stuck in the obsolete strategic thinking of the previous century. They were seemingly unprepared for the powerful, precise, Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones that Ukraine has used to decimate Russian tanks and ships. Russian cybersecurity systems were frail too: Hackers who had signed up for the IT Army told me how they were continually launching distributed denial of service attacks against Russian websites, as well as posting pro-Ukrainian propaganda and news on sites Russia had not yet censored. These hackers weren’t master cyber warriors with black ops training, but teenagers and twenty-somethings in bedrooms and living rooms around the world. With Google searches and WikiHow articles, they learned the art of basic hacking in a few days. With a few weeks of practice, they said, they were able to punch through Russia’s weak defenses and its vast cloak of wartime censorship.
So when I arrived in Ukraine in March, I wanted to understand how technology was reshaping war. I spoke to soldiers about how the use of drones had upended the balance of power with Russia. I talked to hackers about their successes and failures. And as the conflict wore on, I began to hear from Ukrainians about how their experience of the war has morphed from an intense and enthusiastic defense of the nation into long stretches of eerie silence, punctuated by moments of joy, fear, or panic with each new announcement of a Ukrainian or Russian advance.
Finally, in mid May, I met Volodymyr Zelensky at the presidential palace in Kyiv. The comedian-turned-president who has captivated global attention and successfully guilted world leaders into rallying behind his country did not look like the confident, charismatic person we’re used to seeing on TV and social media. He appeared exhausted and haggard, his hands jittery and his eyes sunken. He seemed deeply anxious and uncertain. And yet, as he answered my questions about the state of the war, the world’s reaction to it, and the role technology had played in helping Ukraine resist the Russian military machine, his answers became lyrical, interspersed with a spontaneous smile or a tartly comic retort—a Zelensky trademark."
In this wide-ranging interview, which has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity, Zelensky called on Big Tech to do more to pull out of Russia, praised Elon Musk’s Starlink, and explained why modern leaders have to appeal to the distracted social media generation. “We just live in another time, no longer the time of postmen,” he said.
But he acknowledged that the war has taken its toll on Ukrainians and is deeply personal to him. So I asked: Did he have any regrets? Would he have done anything differently? He answered, flatly: “I think this question should be asked of the Russian president.”
Medical schools are using augmented reality in their curricula to give students hands-on learning opportunities. Medical students can use augmented reality to see and apply theories throughout their training. Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) in the healthcare sector are giving a new perspective to the world. Virtual reality (VR) and other innovative technologies such as augmented reality are already being used by many healthcare organizations (AR). Technologists employ virtual reality in various settings, including treating patients, medical teaching, and hospital management. Augmented Surgery Surgeons can utilize AR to learn more about their patients’ anatomy. They may feed their MRI and CT scan results into an AR headset. Then, just before surgery, place-specific patient physiology over their body. Doctors can examine muscles, bones, and essential organs with this technology. Previously, surgery had a significant mortality rate. Procedures can now be a lot safer because of AR. When physicians and experts try to save patients’ lives, AR can help by providing people with all the information they need. Physicians could be more aware of organ placement, vein meshes, and diagnostic reports as they operate since they are all there in front of their eyes. Augmented Diagnosis Some patients, you may have seen, have trouble accurately articulating actual symptoms to doctors. Because of AR, patients will finally be able to communicate their symptoms. As a result of this procedure, doctors can more readily examine their patients’ complaints and diagnose them more accurately. Using augmented reality, the nurse can now swiftly find veins. How? AccuVein, an AR firm that uses a portable scanner, allows nurses to determine the location of veins. Augmented Practice Medical schools use augmented reality in their curricula to give students hands-on learning opportunities. It would be simple to replicate patients and surgical interactions for students using AR in education. Medical students can use augmented reality to see and apply theories throughout their training. Virtual Collaboration Between Physicians With AR What if your surgeon is thousands of miles away? AR may be able to help you. If the surgeon is unavailable and a specialized on hand possesses AR tools, the specialist can assist and follow orders. Doctors may employ AR for collaborative operations and AR video conferencing for successful meetings on any health topic. With doctors from outside the clinic assisting, it might be a life-saving situation.
In recent years, artificial intelligence has become ubiquitous, with applications such as speech interpretation, image recognition, medical diagnosis, and many more. At the same time, quantum technology has been proven capable of computational power well beyond the reach of even the world’s largest supercomputer. Quantum physicists at the University of Vienna have now demonstrated a new device, called quantum memristor, which may allow to combine these two worlds, thus unlocking unprecedented capabilities. The experiment, carried out in collaboration with the National Research Council (CNR) and the Politecnico di Milano in Italy, has been realized on an integrated quantum processor operating on single photons. The work is published in the current issue of the journal "Nature Photonics". At the heart of all artificial intelligence applications are mathematical models called neural networks. These models are inspired by the biological structure of the human brain, made of interconnected nodes. Just like our brain learns by constantly rearranging the connections between neurons, neural networks can be mathematically trained by tuning their internal structure until they become capable of human-level tasks: recognizing our face, interpreting medical images for diagnosis, even driving our cars. Having integrated devices capable of performing the computations involved in neural networks quickly and efficiently has thus become a major research focus, both academic and industrial. One of the major game changers in the field was the discovery of the memristor, made in 2008. This device changes its resistance depending on a memory of the past current, hence the name memory-resistor, or memristor. Immediately after its discovery, scientists realized that (among many other applications) the peculiar behavior of memristors was surprisingly similar to that of neural synapses. The memristor has thus become a fundamental building block of neuromorphic architectures. By using single photons, i.e. single quantum particles of lights, and exploiting their unique ability to propagate simultaneously in a superposition of two or more paths, the physicists have overcome the challenge. In their experiment, single photons propagate along waveguides laser-written on a glass substrate and are guided on a superposition of several paths. One of these paths is used to measure the flux of photons going through the device and this quantity, through a complex electronic feedback scheme, modulates the transmission on the other output, thus achieving the desired memristive behavior. Besides demonstrating the quantum memristor, the researchers have provided simulations showing that optical networks with quantum memristor can be used to learn on both classical and quantum tasks, hinting at the fact that the quantum memristor may be the missing link between artificial intelligence and quantum computing.
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Creating brain-like computers with minimal energy requirements would revolutionize nearly every aspect of modern life. Funded by the Department of Energy, Quantum Materials for Energy Efficient Neuromorphic Computing ( Q-MEEN-C) — a nationwide consortium led by the University of California San Diego — has been at the forefront of this research. UC San Diego Assistant Professor of Physics Alex Frañó is co-director of Q-MEEN-C and thinks of the center’s work in phases. In the first phase, he worked closely with President Emeritus of University of California and Professor of Physics Robert Dynes, as well as Rutgers Professor of Engineering Shriram Ramanathan. Together, their teams were successful in finding ways to create or mimic the properties of a single brain element (such as a neuron or synapse) in a quantum material. Now, in phase two, new research from Q-MEEN-C, published in Nano Letters, shows that electrical stimuli passed between neighboring electrodes can also affect non-neighboring electrodes. Known as non-locality, this discovery is a crucial milestone in the journey toward new types of devices that mimic brain functions known as neuromorphic computing. Like many research projects now bearing fruit, the idea to test whether non-locality in quantum materials was possible came about during the pandemic. Physical lab spaces were shuttered, so the team ran calculations on arrays that contained multiple devices to mimic the multiple neurons and synapses in the brain. In running these tests, they found that non-locality was theoretically possible. "In the brain it’s understood that these non-local interactions are nominal — they happen frequently and with minimal exertion,” stated Frañó, one of the paper’s co-authors. “It’s a crucial part of how the brain operates, but similar behaviors replicated in synthetic materials are scarce. When labs reopened, they refined this idea further and enlisted UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering Associate Professor Duygu Kuzum, whose work in electrical and computer engineering helped them turn a simulation into an actual device. This involved taking a thin film of nickelate — a “quantum material” ceramic that displays rich electronic properties — inserting hydrogen ions, and then placing a metal conductor on top. A wire is attached to the metal so that an electrical signal can be sent to the nickelate. The signal causes the gel-like hydrogen atoms to move into a certain configuration and when the signal is removed, the new configuration remains.
Engineers at Radiant announced last year that they had received two provisional patents for its portable nuclear reactor technology. One of these was for a technology that reduces the cost and the time needed to refuel their reactor, while the other improves efficiency in heat transference from the reactor core. The microreactor will use an advanced particle fuel that does not melt down and is capable of withstanding higher temperatures than traditional nuclear fuels. Helium coolant, meanwhile, reduces the corrosion and contamination risks associated with traditional water coolant. Radiant has signed a contract with Battelle Energy Alliance to test its portable microreactor technology at its Idaho National Laboratory (INL). "In some areas of the world, reliance on diesel fuel is untenable, and solar and wind power are either unavailable or impractical," said Jess Gehin, Ph.D., Chief Scientist, Nuclear Science & Technology Directorate at INL. "Clean, safe nuclear microreactors are emerging as the best alternative for these environments." Radiant's microreactor can be used in remote locations, such as arctic villages and isolated military encampments that would otherwise typically rely on fossil fuel-powered generators. Not only is the portable microreactor better for the environment, but it is also more practical as it doesn't rely on constant shipments of fuel. Instead, the clean fuel used for Radiant's microreactors can last more than 4 years. If all goes well with Radiant's test campaign, nuclear power might soon hit the road. In doing so it will help to power countless remote communities, and will further bolster the resurgence of nuclear power in a world that needs clean energy solutions more than ever.
Moore’s Law predicts that the number of transistors per device will double every two years. Moore’s Law is and always has been driven by innovation. The above figure illustrates the number of transistors per device as we look to the past, the present and the future. For the first 40 years, the gains came primarily from innovations in our process. Going forward, gains will come from innovations in both process and packaging. INTEL's processes will continue to deliver historic density improvements, while its 2D and 3D stacking technologies give architects and designers more tools to increase the number of transistors per device. As the designers look forward to innovative technologies such as High NA, RibbonFET, PowerVia, Foveros Omni and Direct, and others, INTEL sees no end to innovation and therefore currently no end to Moore’s Law.
In summary, when we consider all the various process and advanced packaging innovations, there are numerous options available to continue to double the number of transistors per device at the cadence demanded by our customers. Moore’s Law only stops when innovation stops, and innovation continues unabated at Intel in process, packaging and architecture. We remain undeterred in our aspiration to deliver approximately 1 trillion transistors in a single device by 2030.
MIT researchers built a battery-free, wireless underwater camera, powered by sound waves, that can take high-quality, color images, even in dark environments. It transmits image data through the open water to a receiver that reconstructs the color image. Scientists estimate that more than 95 percent of Earth's oceans have never been observed, which means we have seen less of our planet's ocean than we have the far side of the moon or the surface of Mars. The high cost of powering an underwater camera for a long time, by tethering it to a research vessel or sending a ship to recharge its batteries, is a steep challenge preventing widespread undersea exploration. MIT researchers have taken a major step to overcome this problem by developing a battery-free, wireless underwater camera that is about 100,000 times more energy-efficient than other undersea cameras. The device takes color photos, even in dark underwater environments, and transmits image data wirelessly through the water. The autonomous camera is powered by sound. It converts mechanical energy from sound waves traveling through water into electrical energy that powers its imaging and communications equipment. After capturing and encoding image data, the camera also uses sound waves to transmit data to a receiver that reconstructs the image. Because it doesn't need a power source, the camera could run for weeks on end before retrieval, enabling scientists to search remote parts of the ocean for new species. It could also be used to capture images of ocean pollution or monitor the health and growth of fish raised in aquaculture farms. "One of the most exciting applications of this camera for me personally is in the context of climate monitoring. We are building climate models, but we are missing data from over 95 percent of the ocean. This technology could help us build more accurate climate models and better understand how climate change impacts the underwater world," says Fadel Adib, associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and director of the Signal Kinetics group in the MIT Media Lab, and senior author of the paper. Going battery-free To build a camera that could operate autonomously for long periods, the researchers needed a device that could harvest energy underwater on its own while consuming very little power. The camera acquires energy using transducers made from piezoelectric materials that are placed around its exterior. Piezoelectric materials produce an electric signal when a mechanical force is applied to them. When a sound wave traveling through the water hits the transducers, they vibrate and convert that mechanical energy into electrical energy. Those sound waves could come from any source, like a passing ship or marine life. The camera stores harvested energy until it has built up enough to power the electronics that take photos and communicate data. To keep power consumption as a low as possible, the researchers used off-the-shelf, ultra-low-power imaging sensors. But these sensors only capture grayscale images. And since most underwater environments lack a light source, they needed to develop a low-power flash, too. "We were trying to minimize the hardware as much as possible, and that creates new constraints on how to build the system, send information, and perform image reconstruction. It took a fair amount of creativity to figure out how to do this," Adib says. They solved both problems simultaneously using red, green, and blue LEDs. When the camera captures an image, it shines a red LED and then uses image sensors to take the photo. It repeats the same process with green and blue LEDs.
Eth2, Ethereum 2.0, ETH 2.0…The project has been called many things in the past, but earlier this year the Ethereum community settled on the “merge.” Most simply, the merge is a long-planned Ethereum upgrade aimed at improving the network. Such upgrades are commonplace, but this is the most important one to date, and its success will pave the way for developers to introduce a host of new features to the network. The merge will, well, merge the current Ethereum mainnet—or the main public Ethereum blockchain used by everyone—with something called the Beacon Chain. Currently, both chains exist in parallel. But only the Ethereum mainnet, which currently uses a mechanism called proof of work, is processing transactions. Once the merge is complete, the Ethereum mainnet will shift away from proof of work and instead adopt the Beacon Chain’s proof-of-stake mechanism. What’s proof of stake? Proof of stake (PoS) is a type of consensus mechanism that differs from the traditional proof-of-work (PoW) one. A consensus, what? A consensus mechanism describes the way Ethereum—or other blockchains—determine the legitimacy of transactions posted to its network. It is how a blockchain governs itself. Ethereum can be seen as a distributed database of nodes—or computers that run software to verify blocks and the transaction data within them. To reach consensus on the network and make a decision, the majority of nodes must be in agreement, and the choice of consensus mechanism determines how they do that. So, how does proof of stake work? Once Ethereum shifts to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism post-merge, the network will rely on trusted entities known as validators to verify transactions and add new blocks to the blockchain. A validator will be chosen at random each time a new block is to be added, which will occur every 12 seconds or so post-merge. Anyone can apply to be a validator by depositing 32 Ethereum (about $61,000 at mid-August prices)—a sum intended to ensure that participants have a stake in the success of the network—and run up-to-date software. As the Ethereum Foundation explains, prospective validators will then be added to an “activation queue that limits the rate of new validators joining the network.” Once a validator is “activated,” it will be eligible to review and approve new blocks the Ethereum network proposes to add to its blockchain. In return for securing the network, validators will earn Ether as reward. While the 32 Ether staked as collateral serves as a major incentive to behave appropriately, there are also punishments for validators that are incompetent or malicious. Namely, they can be penalized with the loss of some or all of their deposit. The merge hasn’t happened yet, but the Beacon Chain already has over 415,000 validators.
With giant storms, powerful winds, auroras, and extreme temperature and pressure conditions, Jupiter has a lot going on. Now, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured new images of the planet. Webb’s Jupiter observations will give scientists even more clues to Jupiter’s inner life. “We hadn’t really expected it to be this good, to be honest,” said planetary astronomer Imke de Pater, professor emerita of the University of California, Berkeley. De Pater led the observations of Jupiter with Thierry Fouchet, a professor at the Paris Observatory, as part of an international collaboration for Webb’s Early Release Science program. Webb itself is an international mission led by NASA with its partners ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). “It’s really remarkable that we can see details on Jupiter together with its rings, tiny satellites, and even galaxies in one image,” she said. The two images come from the observatory’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), which has three specialized infrared filters that showcase details of the planet. Since infrared light is invisible to the human eye, the light has been mapped onto the visible spectrum. Generally, the longest wavelengths appear redder and the shortest wavelengths are shown as more blue. Scientists collaborated with citizen scientist Judy Schmidt to translate the Webb data into images. In the standalone view of Jupiter, created from a composite of several images from Webb, auroras extend to high altitudes above both the northern and southern poles of Jupiter. The auroras shine in a filter that is mapped to redder colors, which also highlights light reflected from lower clouds and upper hazes. A different filter, mapped to yellows and greens, shows hazes swirling around the northern and southern poles. A third filter, mapped to blues, showcases light that is reflected from a deeper main cloud. The Great Red Spot, a famous storm so big it could swallow Earth, appears white in these views, as do other clouds, because they are reflecting a lot of sunlight. “The brightness here indicates high altitude – so the Great Red Spot has high-altitude hazes, as does the equatorial region,” said Heidi Hammel, Webb interdisciplinary scientist for solar system observations and vice president for science at AURA. “The numerous bright white ‘spots’ and ‘streaks’ are likely very high-altitude cloud tops of condensed convective storms.” By contrast, dark ribbons north of the equatorial region have little cloud cover. In a wide-field view, Webb sees Jupiter with its faint rings, which are a million times fainter than the planet, and two tiny moons called Amalthea and Adrastea. The fuzzy spots in the lower background are likely galaxies “photobombing” this Jovian view. “This one image sums up the science of our Jupiter system program, which studies the dynamics and chemistry of Jupiter itself, its rings, and its satellite system,” Fouchet said. Researchers have already begun analyzing Webb data to get new science results about our solar system’s largest planet. Data from telescopes like Webb doesn’t arrive on Earth neatly packaged. Instead, it contains information about the brightness of the light on Webb’s detectors. This information arrives at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), Webb’s mission and science operations center, as raw data. STScI processes the data into calibrated files for scientific analysis and delivers it to the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes for dissemination. Scientists then translate that information into images like these during the course of their research (here’s a podcast about that). While a team at STScI formally processes Webb images for official release, non-professional astronomers known as citizen scientists often dive into the public data archive to retrieve and process images, too. Judy Schmidt of Modesto California, a longtime image processor in the citizen science community, processed these new views of Jupiter. For the image that includes the tiny satellites, she collaborated with Ricardo Hueso, a co-investigator on these observations, who studies planetary atmospheres at the University of the Basque Country in Spain.
Ultrasound is a convenient, noninvasive tool for doctors to look inside the human body and check out a person’s liver, heart and other internal structures, as well as the developing fetus of a pregnant patient. But today’s ultrasound imaging technology is large and technical, so it’s only available in healthcare facilities and must be operated by highly trained technicians. Plus, patients, who take time out of their schedules to go to an appointment, have to be covered in a sticky gel. Now, researchers say they’ve developed an innovative solution to some of these challenges. Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have unveiled a new adhesive ultrasound patch that’s about the size of a postage stamp and can provide continuous imaging of the body’s inner workings for up to 48 hours. The scientists shared their new technology in a paper published last week in the journal Science. “We believe we’ve opened a new era of wearable imaging,” says Xuanhe Zhao, a mechanical engineer at MIT and one of the study’s authors, in a statement. “With a few patches on your body, you could see your internal organs.” In the past, engineers developing wearable ultrasound technologies have run into issues with image quality and flexibility, but the new MIT stickers seem to have struck the right balance. To create the small devices, which are about three millimeters thick and two square centimeters in size, engineers combined rigid transducers with a stretchy, sticky layer that encapsulates a layer of water-based hydrogel.
Micron Technology says it has reached volume production of a 232-layer NAND flash-memory chip. It’s the first such chip to pass the 200-layer mark, and it’s been a tight race. Competitors are currently providing 176-layer technology, and some have said they are on track to follow Micron’s skyward move or already have working chips in hand.
The new Micron tech as much as doubles the density of bits stored per unit area versus competing chips, packing in 14.6 gigabits per square millimeter. Its 1-terabit chips are bundled into 2-terabyte packages, each of which is barely more than a centimeter on a side and can store about two weeks worth of 4K video. With 81 trillion gigabytes (81 zettabytes) of data generated in 2021 and International Data Corp. (IDC) predicting 221 ZB in 2026, “storage has to innovate to keep up,” says Alvaro Toledo, Micron’s vice president of data-center storage.
The move to 223 layers is a combination and extension of many technologies Micron has already deployed. To get a handle on them, you need to know the basic structure and function of 3D NAND flash. The chip itself is made up of a bottom layer of CMOS logic and other circuitry that’s responsible for controlling reading and writing operations and getting data on and off the chip as quickly and efficiently as possible. Improvements to this layer, such as optimizing the path data travels and reducing the capacitance of the chip’s inputs and outputs, yielded a 50 percent improvement in the data transfer rate to 2.4 Gb/s.
Above the CMOS are layers upon layers of NAND flash cells. Unlike other devices, Flash-memory cells are built vertically. They start as a (relatively) deep, narrow hole etched through alternating layers of conductor and insulator. Then the holes are filled with material and processed to form the bit-storing part of the device. It’s the ability to reliably etch and fill the holes through all those layers that’s a key limit to the technology. Instead of etching through all 232 layers in one go, Micron’s process builds them in two parts and stacks one atop the other. Even so, “it’s an astounding engineering feat,” says Alvaro. “That was one of the biggest challenges we overcame.”
According to Toledo, there is a path toward even more layers in future NAND chips. “There are definitely challenges,” he says. But “we haven’t seen the end of that path.” In addition to adding more and more layers, NAND flash makers have been increasing the density of stored bits by packing multiple bits into a single device. Each of the Micron chip’s memory cells is capable of storing three bits per cell. That is, the charge stored in each cell produces a distinct enough effect to discern eight different states. Though 3-bit-per-cell products (called TLC) are the majority, four-bit products (called QLC) are also available. One QLC chip presented by Western Digital researchers at the IEEE International Solid State Circuits Conference earlier this year achieved a 15 Gb/mm2 areal density in a 162-layer chip. And Kioxia engineers reported 5-bit cells last month at the IEEE Symposium on VLSI Technology and Circuits. There has even been a 7-bit cell demonstrated, but it required dunking the chip in 77-kelvin liquid nitrogen.
Supernal has given passengers a first look at what the cabin of its flying taxi may look like – and there are clearly some influences from parent company Hyundai Motor Group. The eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) concept was revealed at the Farnborough International Airshow, in Hampshire, England, and it illustrates how the Advance Air Mobility (AAM) sector can take inspiration from the automotive market. Supernal says it teamed up with Hyundai’s design studios to create the cabin concept as it works to certify its eVTOL vehicle for commercial use in the United States in 2028, with the United Kingdom and European Union expected to follow shortly after. In addition, it is collaborating with Hyundai’s external partners and more than 50 affiliates – spanning automobiles, automotive parts, construction, robotics and autonomous driving – to co-create the AAM value chain. The five-seat cabin concept strikes a fine balance between using automotive design processes and materials while meeting the safety standards of commercial aviation. Constructed of lightweight forged carbon fiber, it features ergonomically contoured seats with seat consoles, similar to automobile center consoles, that provide a charging station and stowage compartment for passengers’ personal items. The mood of the cabin can be adjusted for different stages of flight via a combination of illumination options, including overhead lights inspired by automobile sunroofs. The flying taxi is intended to be used for journeys within a city and, Jaiwon Shin, president of Hyundai Motor Group and CEO of Supernal, said it was imperative that it afforded the same level of reassurance provided by the company’s passenger cars. “Supernal is partnering with Hyundai Motor Group’s top automotive designers to develop our eVTOL vehicle for manufacturability and widespread public acceptance,” Shin said. “We are taking the time to create a safe, lightweight commercial eVTOL that provides our future passengers with the security and comfort they find in their own cars.” As well as developing cutting-edge AAM transport, Supernal is also committed to developing the infrastructure to support it. The company provided $1.64 million toward Air-One, the world’s first airport for flying taxis in Coventry in the English Midlands. The facility opened its doors for the first time earlier this year.
Imagine Bach's "Cello Suite No. 1" played on a strand of DNA.
This scenario is not as impossible as it seems. Too small to withstand a rhythmic strum or sliding bowstring, DNA is a powerhouse for storing audio files and all kinds of other media.
"DNA is nature's original data storage system. We can use it to store any kind of data: images, video, music -- anything," said Kasra Tabatabaei, a researcher at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and a coauthor on this study.
Expanding DNA's molecular makeup and developing a precise new sequencing method enabled a multi-institutional team to transform the double helix into a robust, sustainable data storage platform.
The team's paper appeared in Nano Letters in February 2022.
In the age of digital information, anyone brave enough to navigate the daily news feels the global archive growing heavier by the day. Increasingly, paper files are being digitized to save space and protect information from natural disasters.
From scientists to social media influencers, anyone with information to store stands to benefit from a secure, sustainable data lock box -- and the double helix fits the bill.
"DNA is one of the best options, if not the best option, to store archival data especially," said Chao Pan, a graduate student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a coauthor on this study.
Its longevity rivaled only by durability, DNA is designed to weather Earth's harshest conditions -- sometimes for tens of thousands of years -- and remain a viable data source. Scientists can sequence fossilized strands to uncover genetic histories and breathe life into long-lost landscapes.
Despite its diminutive stature, DNA is a bit like Dr. Who's infamous police box: bigger on the inside than it appears.
"Every day, several petabytes of data are generated on the internet. Only one gram of DNA would be sufficient to store that data. That's how dense DNA is as a storage medium," said Tabatabaei, who is also a fifth-year Ph.D. student.
Another important aspect of DNA is its natural abundance and near-infinite renewability, a trait not shared by the most advanced data storage system on the market today: silicon microchips, which often circulate for just decades before an unceremonious burial in a heap of landfilled e-waste.
"At a time when we are facing unprecedented climate challenges, the importance of sustainable storage technologies cannot be overestimated. New, green technologies for DNA recording are emerging that will make molecular storage even more important in the future," said Olgica Milenkovic, the Franklin W. Woeltge Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a co-PI on the study.
Augmented Reality will give us superpowers. We cannot afford to overlook the impact this technology will have on our lives in the near future. One need only consider the billions being spent on the so-called metaverse. Still, I have been involved in this field from the very beginning, and I appreciate the skepticism that surrounds virtual and augmented reality. We lived through a false start in the 1990s, and another in the mid-2010s. But this time is different.VR and AR technologies are finally able to offer real-world value. While I can point to many examples, no field of endeavor makes the case more clearly than medicine. Last week I participated as a panelist at the Digital Orthopedics Conference in San Francisco, where a major theme was to imagine the medical field in the 2030s. As part of this effort, a small group of us carefully reviewed the latest research and assessed the potential impact of immersive technologies. Over the next decade, the handheld mobile phone will be replaced by augmented-reality glasses that you will wear during most of your waking hours. The first wave of immersive eyewear products will reach consumer markets in the next few years. The biggest companies in the world will introduce the technology — companies from Apple, Google, and Meta to Microsoft, Samsung, LG, and Snap. And while many consumers, myself included, are skeptical that we’ll ever want to wear digital hardware on our faces for hours each day, we will. The first superhumans I have to admit, I was deeply impressed by how far augmented reality has progressed over the last 18 months for use in medicine. I expect that by 2030, augmented reality headsets will be a common tool for surgeons, radiologists, and many other medical professionals. This early adoption of augmented reality will make doctors the first humans with superpowers. I’m talking about superhuman abilities to visualize medical images, patient data, and other vital clinical content. The costs associated with these new capabilities are already quite reasonable, and they will fall rapidly as AR hardware is produced in much higher volumes over the coming years. The first superpower is X-ray vision — the ability to peer into a patient and see evidence of trauma or disease at the exact location in their body where it resides. Of course, doctors can already look under the skin using tools such as computerized tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. But these images display on flat screens, leaving medical professionals to imagine how the image relates to the patient on the table. This type of extrapolation is an impressive skill, but it takes time and mental effort, which inspires many doctors to wish they could simply gaze directly into the human body. With AR headsets and new techniques for medical imaging, the superpower of x-ray vision is now a reality. An impressive study from Teikyo University’s School of Medicine tested an experimental emergency room with the ability to capture whole-body CT scans of trauma patients. The medical team wore AR headsets, allowing personnel to peer into the patient on the operating table and see the trauma. This allowed the team to discuss the injuries and plan the treatment without referring to a flat screen. It saved time, reduced distractions, and cut down on the need to extrapolate from limited information. X-ray vision is just the start Augmented reality will provide doctors with assistive content overlaid onto and into the patient’s body and visible at the location where the information is most needed. For example, surgeons performing a delicate procedure will see navigational cues projected onto the patient in real time. This guidance will help them intervene with added precision. The goal is to increase accuracy, reduce mental effort, and speed the procedure. The potential value for surgery is extreme, from minimally invasive procedures such as laparoscopy and endoscopy, to freehand surgical efforts such as placing orthopedic implants. In fact, I predict augmented reality will become required equipment for many surgical procedures within the next ten years. I say that as someone who has been involved with the concept of augmenting surgery for decades, as the idea goes back to the first AR system — the Virtual Fixtures platform — developed at the Air Force Research Laboratory in the early 1990s. The goal of that early effort was to show that AR could boost human dexterity in precision tasks such as surgery. The project was a success. But to appreciate the remarkable progress the field has made in the decades since, consider this: When testing whether virtual overlays could enhance manual precision, the early system required users to move metal pegs between holes spaced 2 feet apart. Thirty years later, surgeons at Johns Hopkins, Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals, and Washington University performed a delicate spinal procedure on 28 patients. They used augmented reality to help place metal screws to a precision of less than 2 mm. As published in a recent study, the system registered the real patient with such accuracy that surgeons scored 98% on standard performance metrics. Looking forward, we can expect augmented reality to impact all aspects of medicine. That is because its precision has reached clinically viable levels. In addition, major breakthroughs are in the works that will make it faster and easier to use augmented reality in medical settings. As described above, the biggest challenge for any precision AR application is to accurately align virtual content with the real patient (a process called registration). In medicine, this currently means attaching physical markers to the patient, which takes time and effort. In a recent study from Imperial College London and the University of Pisa, researchers tested a marker-less AR system for surgeons that uses cameras and artificial intelligence to accurately align the virtual content. Their method was faster and cheaper, but not quite as accurate. This is still early days — in the coming years, this technology will make AR-supported surgery viable without the need for costly markers.
Via Edumorfosis, juandoming, THE OFFICIAL ANDREASCY
A new database and searchable tool reveals more than 90,000 known materials with electronic properties that remain unperturbed in the face of disruption. Topology stems from a branch of mathematics that studies shapes that can be manipulated or deformed without losing certain core properties. A donut is a common example: If it were made of rubber, a donut could be twisted and squeezed into a completely new shape, such as a coffee mug, while retaining a key trait — namely, its center hole, which takes the form of the cup’s handle. The hole, in this case, is a topological trait, robust against certain deformations. In recent years, scientists have applied concepts of topology to the discovery of materials with similarly robust electronic properties. In 2007, researchers predicted the first electronic topological insulators — materials in which electrons that behave in ways that are “topologically protected,” or persistent in the face of certain disruptions. Since then, scientists have searched for more topological materials with the aim of building better, more robust electronic devices. Until recently, only a handful of such materials were identified, and were therefore assumed to be a rarity. Now researchers at MIT and elsewhere have discovered that, in fact, topological materials are everywhere, if you know how to look for them. In a paper published today in Science, the team, led by Nicolas Regnault of Princeton University and the École Normale Supérieure Paris, reports harnessing the power of multiple supercomputers to map the electronic structure of more than 96,000 natural and synthetic crystalline materials. They applied sophisticated filters to determine whether and what kind of topological traits exist in each structure. Overall, they found that 90 percent of all known crystalline structures contain at least one topological property, and more than 50 percent of all naturally occurring materials exhibit some sort of topological behavior. “We found there’s a ubiquity — topology is everywhere,” says Benjamin Wieder, the study’s co-lead, and a postdoc in MIT’s Department of Physics. The team has compiled the newly identified materials into a new, freely accessible Topological Materials Database resembling a periodic table of topology. With this new library, scientists can quickly search materials of interest for any topological properties they might hold, and harness them to build ultra-low-power transistors, new magnetic memory storage, and other devices with robust electronic properties.
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