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Oct 13, 2024

Physicists Synthesize New Isotope of Plutonium

Posted by in category: physics

The newly-discovered isotope, plutonium-227, has a half-life of 0.78 seconds, according to a team of physicists from China.

Oct 13, 2024

Organic Matter on Mars was formed from Atmospheric Formaldehyde

Posted by in categories: alien life, chemistry, evolution

Researchers have developed a Martian atmospheric evolution model to propose a new theory about Mars’s past. Although Mars is currently a cold, dry planet, geological evidence suggests that liquid water existed there around 3 to 4 billion years ago. Where there is water, there is usually life. In their quest to answer the burning question about life on Mars, researchers at Tohoku University created a detailed model of organic matter production in the ancient Martian atmosphere.

Organic matter refers to the remains of living things such as plants and animals, or the byproduct of certain chemical reactions.

Whatever the case, the stable carbon isotope ratio (13C/12C) found in organic matter provides valuable clues about how these building blocks of life were originally formed, giving scientists a window into the past.

Oct 13, 2024

New Organic Thermoelectric device that can Harvest Energy at Room Temperature

Posted by in categories: energy, materials

Researchers have succeeded in developing a framework for organic thermoelectric power generation from ambient temperature and without a temperature gradient. Thermoelectric devices are devices that can convert heat into electrical energy. Researchers have now developed a thermoelectric device composed of organic materials that can generate electricity from ambient temperature alone. The device is made from copper phthalocyanine and copper hexadecafluoro phthalocyanine as charge $transfer materials and was combined with fullerenes and BCP as electron transport layers.

Researchers have developed a new organic thermoelectric device that can harvest energy from ambient temperature. While thermoelectric devices have several uses today, hurdles still exist to their full utilization. By combining the unique abilities of organic materials, the team succeeded in developing a framework for thermoelectric power generation at room temperature without any temperature gradient. Their findings were published in the journal Nature Communications.

Thermoelectric devices, or thermoelectric generators, are a series of energy-generating materials that can convert heat into electricity so long as there is a temperature gradient — where one side of the device is hot and the other side is cool. Such devices have been a significant focus of research and development for their potential utility in harvesting waste heat from other energy-generating methods.

Oct 13, 2024

Gravity can exist without mass, dark matter could be myth: Study

Posted by in category: cosmology

A new study challenges the existence of dark matter, proposing that gravity can arise from ‘topological defects’ in spacetime.

Oct 13, 2024

Evolution in real time: Scientists predict—and witness—evolution in a 30-year marine snail experiment

Posted by in category: evolution

Snails on a tiny rocky islet evolved before scientists’ eyes. The marine snails were reintroduced after a toxic algal bloom wiped them out from the skerry. While the researchers intentionally brought in a distinct population of the same snail species, these evolved to strikingly resemble the population lost over 30 years prior.

Oct 13, 2024

Integer addition algorithm could reduce energy needs of AI by 95%

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

A team of engineers at AI inference technology company BitEnergy AI reports a method to reduce the energy needs of AI applications by 95%. The group has published a paper describing their new technique on the arXiv preprint server.

As AI applications have gone mainstream, their use has risen dramatically, leading to a notable rise in energy needs and costs. LLMs such as ChatGPT require a lot of computing power, which in turn means a lot of electricity is needed to run them.

As just one example, ChatGPT now requires roughly 564 MWh daily, or enough to power 18,000 American homes. As the science continues to advance and such apps become more popular, critics have suggested that AI applications might be using around 100 TWh annually in just a few years, on par with Bitcoin mining operations.

Oct 13, 2024

Japanese Scientists Develop a Greener Way To Produce Chemical Building Blocks

Posted by in categories: chemistry, energy, sustainability

A new study introduces an eco-friendly method using an AEM electrolyzer to hydrogenate cyclic amines, reducing the chemical industry’s carbon emissions. This process replaces fossil fuels with water and renewable electricity, maintaining high efficiency.

To reduce the environmental impact of the chemical manufacturing industry, it is crucial to develop greener methods for producing the chemical building blocks of widely used compounds.

It’s no secret manufacturing processes have some of the most impactful and intense effects on the environment, with the chemical manufacturing industry topping the charts for both energy consumption and emissions output. While this makes sense thanks to the grand scale in which manufactured chemicals are involved in daily life, it still leaves a lot to be desired for sustainability’s sake. By focusing on renewable energy sources and alternative methods for creating the chemical building blocks of some of the most commonly used compounds, researchers hope to reduce the chemical manufacturing industry’s footprint with some green innovation.

Oct 13, 2024

SpaceX rocket booster successfully ‘caught’ on first attempt during flight test

Posted by in category: space travel

SpaceX on Sunday successfully “caught” its “Super Heavy” booster on its first attempt during a flight test, a first for the company and its most powerful spacecraft.

Starship lifted off from its launch tower into clear morning skies from the Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, at 7:25 a.m. CT with all 33 of its Raptor engines firing flawlessly.

Oct 13, 2024

Scientists created organisms in a lab that exist in a ‘third state’ beyond life and death

Posted by in category: futurism

Scientists have created a new type of organism that transcends the states of life and death. Here’s what we know.

Oct 13, 2024

Avoided quasiparticle decay from strong quantum interactions

Posted by in categories: particle physics, quantum physics

Immortality particles called quasiparticles face_with_colon_three


A collective excitation behaving as a single emergent entity, known as a quasiparticle, often becomes unstable when encountering a continuum of many-body excited states. However, under certain conditions, the result can be totally different.

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