Up Wing/Down Wing #9

Up Wing Things

☁️ Artificial intelligence has proven effective at making long-range weather and climate predictions. A model developed by Google, called NeuralGCM, links AI to traditional physics models in order to track climate trends that span decades. It can also track extreme weather events. The speed and efficacy with which NeuralGCM was able to calculate simulation days and forecast events outperformed traditional models, with an error rate between 15 and 50 percent lower. Peter Dueben, head of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast’s earth system modeling, says there’s still much “work to do”, and hopes to use the model to “estimate the impact of CO2 increases on global surface temperatures.” (Financial Times)

⚕️ Researchers have discovered a protein that, when deleted, could extend our lifespan and improve our quality of life as we age. Scientists at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore are looking at the IL-11 protein, which increases with age and spurs fat accumulation in the liver and abdomen, as well as reduced muscle mass and strength. When that protein was suppressed in mice with a therapeutic, they found a 24.9% average increase in lifespan. The mice also showed signs of improved metabolic function and increased calorie-burning brown fat, as well as a lower frequency of cardiometabolic diseases. (New Atlas)

⚕️ A new brain-computer interface (BCI) that uses graphene has properties that enable it to stimulate the brain and record from within it. This chip could be used to treat neurological issues, such as Parkinson’s, by establishing a connection to a pathway within the brain that controls movement. It can identify “biomarkers” that indicate problems related to such neurological issues. While this BCI has not yet been tested on humans, the CEO of the company Inbrain says he hopes to be able to test it soon at the University of Manchester during the resection of a brain tumor. (IEEE Spectrum)

⚡ A pebble-bed reactor has proven resilient in the face of extreme temperatures. Traditional nuclear power plants rely on cooling systems to prevent overheating, which can cause the plant to melt from the inside out, but these new pebble-bed plants enable a small amount of uranium surrounded by graphite, which slows the nuclear reaction and can better withstand high temperatures. The slowed reaction implies a lower energy density, which “means any excess heat will be spread out over all of the pebbles” according to researchers at Tsinghua University. China is leading the pack in this endeavor, and has constructed the first large-scale reactor of its kind. (New Scientist)

🧲 New ultra-strong magnets show promise in enabling future nuclear reactors to produce more power than they consume. University of Wisconsin-Madison’s WHAM team, who work on a prototype fusion device, chilled the magnets produced by Commonwealth Fusion Systems, applied a strong electrical current, and were able to produce “a 17 tesla magnetic field… more than twice as powerful as high-resolution MRI.” The WHAM team is working on employing these super strong magnets in a magnetic mirror design to compress plasma in order to produce power. (TechCrunch)

🔋 A “super battery” made from rocks could replace lithium ion batteries. Researchers from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) announced that they have been able to harness energy in potassium-based silicates that are found in the most common of rocks. According to DTU researcher Mohamad Khoshkalam, the potential of potassium silicates has been known, but has been avoided due to the fact that the ions move much more slowly than lithium ions. The team at DTU has overcome this, and created a separate “process” to make the ions move more quickly than lithium ions. (The Debrief)

🤖 Disney Research has found a way to bring Star Wars to Earth. BD-1, a biped robot that appeared in Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, has been designed to function as a friendly interactive for visitors to the parks to enjoy. The researchers prioritize personality and expression in these robots in the hopes that it will get along with humans. They have been able to create expressions in the robot that are communicated through its movements and responses to human touch. According to Disney Research, BD-1 “walks like a bird, but definitely behaves like a dog when it suits him!” (New Atlas)

🚀 A propellantless propulsion drive violates Newton’s third law of motion – successfully. Dr. Charles Buhler, a former NASA scientist who founded Exodus Propulsion Technologies, says the tech is ready for space. The propulsion system uses simple materials, like styrofoam, which encompasses the thrusters to keep the ion wind under control. An RIT astrophysicist scrutinized the tech, saying “ their violation would completely overturn all of modern physics.” Buhler hopes to prove the ion thrusters’ validity by sending them into space in the near future. (The Debrief) 

🚀 Nuclear spaceships could soon go from fiction to reality. The first space nuclear reactor was launched in the late 60’s with the intention of bringing humans to Mars, but was shut down due to high costs. More recently, NASA started a nuclear thermal rockets (NTR) research program that received a $125 million grant from Congress in 2019. DARPA stepped in to speed things along, and the design phase for the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) was completed in 2021. Lockheed has been constructing the reactor design, using a new fuel and different channels through which to funnel the fuel to eventually reach liftoff. (Ars Technica)

🤖 Mark Zuckerburg is pushing for open-source artificial intelligence. Meta’s embrace of this tech has opened up debates on how we will interact with AI going forward. Zuckerberg has advocated for the use of open-source AI, and his company’s Llama models have made enough progress to be on par with other competitors in the field, such as OpenAI and Anthropic. Computer security expert Bruce Schneier says “openness = security,” and leaders in the field seem to be pursuing that sentiment. Concerns over this powerful technology landing in the wrong hands have been considered, but Zuck seems confident that open-source AI won’t be the catalyst for a national security catastrophe. (Financial Times)

⚕️ Scientists may have found the cure to HIV. A team at the University of Cambridge UK administered a stem cell transplant to a man who has now lived with zero detection of HIV for six years. They discovered that if they give stem cells that have a “mutation in the gene that encodes a receptor called CCR5”, they can limit HIV strains’ ability to enter cells, effectively curing the patient of the virus. The treatment has not been successful across the board, and researchers are now trying to figure out the best way to make it consistently effective. (Nature)

🚀 Silicon nitride wafers could propel us into the stars. Delft University of Technology researchers have developed a light sail that is “1000 times thinner than a human hair and weighs as much as a grain of sand” that would be propelled by a powerful laser to help us reach the closest star in our solar system. These sails would be composed of ultra thin wafers with billions of holes in them to make them as light as possible, while still reflecting enough light. The sails could enable tiny probes to reach a fifth of the speed of light in order to reach Alpha Centauri. (NewScientist)

Down Wing Things

🌏 Rising political tensions between the US and China could limit further innovation. A 2022 analysis conducted for Nature found that the number of coauthored international research papers between the US and China has fallen by more than 20% between 2019 and 2021. Marina Zhang, a researcher at the University of Technology Sydney in Australia, says that “ongoing geopolitical tensions” are driving this trend. The DOJ China Initiative ended in 2022, which is also contributing to this strain. The worry is that countries will begin to tackle problems individually, making less progress than they would if they collaborated. (Nature)

💻 Hopes to bring the semiconductor industry to the US may be limited by the labor market. A study conducted by authors at CEPR have determined that the talent pool in the US is not yet skilled enough for a move domestically, as the number of students graduating with skills relevant to chip manufacturing has declined. This is part of the reason for companies outsourcing talent to other countries, but with rising protectionist sentiment, there is a higher demand for domestic talent. The authors found a “9% reduction in hiring activities and a 3% decrease in overall workforce size for science” between 2019 and 2022. The shortage of workers means that it could take 16 years to fill the projected 115,000 new semiconductor jobs, which are meant to be filled by 2030, as outlined by initiatives like the CHIPS Act. (CEPR) 

🤖 AI can use deception to do what we ask of it. Researchers have been experimenting with AI’s capabilities and how it completes the tasks it is assigned with games and simulations. In one instance, they gave GPT-4 an insider tip, while specifically telling the AI that insider trading is illegal. GPT-4 “resorted to insider trading three-quarters of the time.” Goldstein, a researcher at the University of Hong Kong, says that “if you’re training an AI to optimize for a task, and deception is a good way for it to complete that task, then there’s a good chance that it will use deception.” This has raised speculation that AI could come to deceive us. (RealClearScience)

👶 The number of people choosing not to have children at all is rising. According to the Wall Street Journal, “childlessness accounted for over two-thirds of the 6.5% drop in average births between 2012 to 2022.” This reflects a societal shift in priorities, as well as a lessening pressure to start a family. While women are more likely to have children later in life than they used to, researchers say that having children at all feels more optional than ever, especially as the years build up. People also feel a stronger obligation to be in the perfect financial and emotional situation before they have kids, which makes it even less appealing. (Wall Street Journal)

🌎 Stock markets have soared above global turmoil – but perhaps not for much longer. The bull market has been overlooking international and domestic strife that could soon strike profits. While the economy has fared global strife “remarkably well”, China’s and Britain’s GDP growth has faltered significantly since the implementation of US tariffs and the departure from the European Union, respectively. With a prospective second Trump term looming, investors are looking forward to lower corporate tax rates, but the protectionist policies that Trump promises are sure to cause the US and global economy to buckle. (Economist)

🤖 California has proposed a stifling AI bill. SB-1047 has several restrictions that could harm both big tech and boutique companies, with regulations that require developers to certify that their AI models cannot do harm. It also uses a”$100mn ‘training cost’ threshold to determine a company’s size,” which is only meant to delay larger firms, but will most likely kill off smaller AI firms. Meta’s chief AI scientist has expressed concerns, saying that the bill would bring severe risk to open-source models. Some companies are already considering relocating overseas. (Financial Times Opinion)

⚡ A project to install wind turbines in Massachusetts is under scrutiny. Vineyard Wind, a company attempting to get the nation’s first large-scale offshore wind project off the ground, has been called to halt construction after a blade came off one of the turbines. Concerns over safety and consideration for the environment, especially for the wellbeing of fish and whales in the area, have been pointed out. The malfunction with the blade comes at a time when the issue of sustainable energy resources is under the spotlight in the midst of a presidential election year. (E&E News)