Science Daily June 17, 2019 An international team of researchers (Australia, USA – University of Washington, Canada, Spain, UK) considered marine heatwaves and their drivers in 22 regions across four ocean and climate zones, based on published papers since 1950. They found that marine heatwaves may be influenced by several factors in combination, where processes may be both local and remote to the events, other climate phenomena such as El Niño — Southern Oscillation or the North Atlantic Oscillation, with their centre-of-action in one ocean basin can increase the odds of marine heatwaves in other regions thousands of kilometres away. […]
Here are 10 ways AI could help fight climate change
MIT Technology Review June 20, 2019 A team of researchers in the US led by the University of Pennsylvania has developed a road map suggesting how machine learning can help save our planet and humanity from imminent peril. 10 of the “high leverage” recommendations from the report are: Improve predictions of how much electricity we need, Discover new materials, Optimize how freight is routed, Lower barriers to electric-vehicle adoption, Help make buildings more efficient, Create better estimates of how much energy we are consuming, Optimize supply chains, Make precision agriculture possible at scale, Improve deforestation tracking, Nudge consumers to change […]
How a century-old tech giant is making a comeback with AI
MIT Technology Review June 13, 2019 IBM relies on its research division with 3,000 researchers distributed across 12 locations, to stay on top of trends in emerging technology. For decades now, the company has engaged in an annual global technology outlook (GTO) process to create and adapt business units in light of what’s on the horizon. They decided AI is one of these technologies that’s on an exponential curve. Two years ago, IBM established the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab. This collaboration has focused IBM research again on solving significant basic-science problems in AI…read more
Materials informatics reveals new class of super-hard alloys
Phys.org June 13, 2019 Researchers at Lehigh University used materials informatics to predict a class of materials that has superior mechanical properties. Using experimental tools, such as electron microscopy to gain insight into the physical mechanisms led to the observed behavior in the high-entropy alloys. They found alloys that had hardness values that exceeded by a factor of 2 better than other, more typical high-entropy alloys and other relatively hard binary alloys. Some exhibited new structures and superior mechanical properties, as well as enhanced oxidation resistance and magnetic properties, relative to conventional alloys. Such materials could potentially withstand severe impact […]
Melting a satellite, a piece at a time
Phys.org June 17, 2019 An international team of researchers (UK, Germany, Portugal) working on ESA’s Clean Space initiative, placed a 4 x 10 cm magnetotorquer in a plasma wind tunnel reproducing reentry conditions to study how satellites burn up during reentry. They noted some similarities but also some discrepancies with the prediction models. They observed the behaviour of the equipment at different heat flux set-ups for the plasma wind tunnel in order to derive more information about materials properties and demisability. A big source of uncertainty in the demise process is the tendency for parts to fragment, generating multiple items […]
Quantum physics experiment shows Heisenberg was right about uncertainty, in a certain sense
Phys.org June 17, 2019 In a double slit experiment an international team of researchers (China, Australia, Sweden) reconstructed the hypothesised motion of the quantum particles, from many different possible starting points across both slits, and for both results of the measurement. They compared the velocities over time when there was no measurement device present to those when there was, and so determined the change in the velocities as a result of the measurement. The experiment showed that the effect of the measurement on the velocity of the particles continued long after the particles had cleared the measurement device itself, as […]
Researchers see around corners to detect object shapes
EurekAlert June 19, 2019 An international team of researchers (USA – Carnegie Mellon University, Canada, UK) demonstrated they can use special light sources and sensors to see around corners or through gauzy filters, enabling them to reconstruct the shapes of unseen objects. They have computed millimeter- and micrometer-scale shapes of curved objects, providing an important new component to a larger suite of non-line-of-sight (NLOS) imaging techniques now being developed by computer vision researchers. Research will be presented at an upcoming conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition…read more.
Scientists Are Scared a ‘Rogue’ Country Could Start a Geoengineering War
Science Alert June 14, 2019 A recent report by the United Nations’ PIPCC found that nations around the globe must implement “rapid and far-reaching” changes in energy sources, infrastructure, industry, and transportation to avoid catastrophic consequences of climate change. But some researchers are looking into geoengineering to address the dangerous warming. If a rogue nation were to start a geoengineering project without international oversight or buy-in, some experts worry the unintended consequences could lead to war. Geoengineering can take many forms, some of which exist already…read more.
Secure quantum communications in the microwave range for the first time
Phys.org June 19, 2019 An international team of researchers (Germany, Spain, Japan) conducted an experiment to develop a protocol for preparing a remote quantum state over a distance of 35 centimetres while conducting communication in the microwave regime. By employing propagating two-mode squeezed microwave states and feedforward, they achieved the remote preparation of squeezed states with up to 1.6 dB of squeezing below the vacuum level. They found nearly identical values for the entropy of the remotely prepared state and the respective conditional entropy given the classically communicated information and, thus, demonstrated close-to-perfect security…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Soaring temperatures will raise the risk of armed conflict
MIT Technology Review June 13, 2019 According to an international team of researchers (USA – Stanford University, National Bureau of Economic Research, University of Denver, Peterson Institute for International Economics, UK, Norway, Belgium, Germany, Sweden) climate change has likely played a relatively small role in driving armed conflict so far. Other factors were far more influential in raising conflict risks, including greater levels of poverty, inequality between groups, and a recent history of violent conflict. But if temperatures rise by 2 °C, there is a 13% chance of substantial increase in the risk of armed conflict, the analysis found. That […]