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Even though the strange behaviour we observe in the quantum realm isn’t part of our daily lives, simulations suggest it is likely our reality could be one of the many worlds in a quantum multiverse

A reaction that puzzled scientists for 50 years has now been explained by researchers at Ume University. Rapid structural snapshots captured how graphite transforms into graphite oxide during electrochemical oxidation, revealing intermediate structures that appear and disappear over time. The researchers describe this as a new type of oscillating reaction.

Rising demand for electronic devices and electric vehicles has increased the dependence on secondary ion batteries. While lithium-ion batteries are already popular, a promising alternative sodium-ion batteries (SIB) are struggling to get wider acceptance due to slow ion kinetics affecting their performance. A new polymer-based binder called PMAI addresses this issue by forming a functionalized solid electrolyte interphase. The study demonstrated that SIB with PMAI as an anode binder can have exceptional performance and cyclic stability.

Rising demand for electronic devices and electric vehicles has increased the dependence on secondary ion batteries. While lithium-ion batteries are already popular, a promising alternative sodium-ion batteries (SIB) are struggling to get wider acceptance due to slow ion kinetics affecting their performance. A new polymer-based binder called PMAI addresses this issue by forming a functionalized solid electrolyte interphase. The study demonstrated that SIB with PMAI as an anode binder can have exceptional performance and cyclic stability.

New technology has allowed scientists to create ultra short ion pulses, with a duration of less than 500 picoseconds. This can be used to analyze materials or even make chemical reactions visible in real time.

Dyspraxia, also known as Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), can have a bigger impact on adult mathematical performance than previously thought, according to new research.

Thanks to nanoscale devices as small as human cells, researchers can create groundbreaking material properties, leading to smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient electronics. However, to fully unlock the potential of nanotechnology, addressing noise is crucial. A research team has taken a significant step toward unraveling fundamental constraints on noise, paving the way for future nanoelectronics.

Thanks to nanoscale devices as small as human cells, researchers can create groundbreaking material properties, leading to smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient electronics. However, to fully unlock the potential of nanotechnology, addressing noise is crucial. A research team has taken a significant step toward unraveling fundamental constraints on noise, paving the way for future nanoelectronics.

Physicists on the CMS experiment announce the most elaborate mass measurement of a particle that is notoriously difficult to study and has captivated the physics community for decades.

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On balance, will AI help humanity or harm it? AI could revolutionize science, medicine, and technology, and deliver us a world of abundance and better health. Or it could be a disaster, leading to the downfall of democracy, or even our extinction. In Taming Silicon Valley, Gary Marcus, one of the most trusted voices in AI, explains that we still have a choice. And that the decisions we make now about AI will shape our next century. In this short but powerful manifesto, Marcus explains how Big Tech is taking advantage of us, how AI could make things much worse, and, most importantly, what we can do to safeguard our democracy, our society, and our future.

Marcus explains the potential—and potential risks—of AI in the clearest possible terms and how Big Tech has effectively captured policymakers. He begins by laying out what is lacking in current AI, what the greatest risks of AI are, and how Big Tech has been playing both the public and the government, before digging into why the U.S. government has thus far been ineffective at reining in Big Tech. He then offers real tools for readers, including eight suggestions for what a coherent AI policy should look like—from data rights to layered AI oversight to meaningful tax reform—and closes with how ordinary citizens can push for what is so desperately needed.

Taming Silicon Valley is both a primer on how AI has gotten to its problematic present state and a book of activism in the tradition of Abbie Hoffman’s Steal This Book and Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. It is a deeply important book for our perilous historical moment that every concerned citizen must read.

Gary Marcus is a leading voice in artificial intelligence, well known for his challenges to contemporary AI. He is a scientist and best-selling author and was founder and CEO of Geometric.AI, a machine learning company acquired by Uber. A Professor Emeritus at NYU, he is the author of five previous books, including the bestseller Guitar Zero, Kluge (one of The Economist’s eight best books on the brain and consciousness), and Rebooting AI: Building Artificial Intelligence We Can Trust (with Ernest Davis), one of Forbes’s seven must-read books on AI.

“Move fast and break things.” —Mark Zuckerberg, 2012

“We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility.” —Mark Zuckerberg, speaking to the U.S. Senate, 2018

“Generative AI systems have proven themselves again and again to be indifferent to the difference between truth and bullshit. Generative models are, borrowing a phrase from the military, ‘frequently wrong, and never in doubt.’ The Star Trek computer could be counted on to gives sound answers to sensible questions; Generative AI is a crapshoot. Worse, it is right often enough to lull us into complacency, even as mistakes invariably slip through; hardly anyone treats it with the skepticism it deserves. Something with reliability of the Star Trek computer could be world-changing. What we have now is a mess, seductive but unreliable. And too few people are willing to admit that dirty truth.” —Gary Marcus

Shermer and Marcus discuss:

• The AI we have now and the AI we should want
• AI, AGI, Generative AI, ChatGPT
• What’s the problem to be solved?
• 12 biggest threats of Generative AI
• The morality of Silicon Valley
• How Silicon Valley manipulates public opinion
• How Silicon Valley manipulates government policy
• Data rights
• Privacy
• Transparency
• Liability
• Independent oversight
• Incentives good and bad
• Private vs. Government regulation of AI
• International AI governance.

If you enjoy the podcast, please show your support by making a $5 or $10 monthly donation.

Understanding the relationship between plasticity of muddy soil and earth pressure can be crucial to maintaining tunnel stability and predicting ground behavior during earth pressure balance (EPB) shield tunnelling, a common underground excavation method. Researchers developed small-scale model experimentation combined with moving particle simulation-based computer-aided engineering analysis that reliably predicted soil's plasticity and its correlating factors without having to deal with the cost and time of on-ground field analysis.

Watching for changes in Mars' orbit over time could be new way to detect passing dark matter, according to researchers.

A key step toward reusing CO2 to make sustainable fuels is chaining carbon atoms together, and an artificial photosynthesis system can bind two of them into hydrocarbons with field-leading performance.

Researchers developed an artificial motor at the supramolecular level that can develop impressive power. This wind-up motor is a tiny ribbon made of special molecules. When energy is applied, this ribbon aligns itself, moves like a small fin and can thus push objects. The energy for this comes from a chemical fuel.

Researchers developed an artificial motor at the supramolecular level that can develop impressive power. This wind-up motor is a tiny ribbon made of special molecules. When energy is applied, this ribbon aligns itself, moves like a small fin and can thus push objects. The energy for this comes from a chemical fuel.

With the help of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, an international team of scientists has found more black holes in the early universe than has previously been reported. The new result can help scientists understand how supermassive black holes were created.

Cultural values and traditions differ across the globe, but large language models (LLMs), used in text-generating programs such as ChatGPT, have a tendency to reflect values from English-speaking and Protestant European countries. A research team believes there is an easy way to solve that problem.

In a new paper, physicists argue that close observations of merging black hole pairs may unveil information about potential new particles.

In a new paper, physicists argue that close observations of merging black hole pairs may unveil information about potential new particles.

Van Gogh's brushstrokes in 'The Starry Night' create an illusion of sky movement so convincing it led researchers to wonder how closely it aligns with the physics of real skies. Marine sciences and fluid dynamics specialists analyzed the painting to uncover what they call the hidden turbulence in the artwork. They used brushstrokes to examine the shape, energy, and scaling of atmospheric characteristics of the otherwise invisible atmosphere and used the relative brightness of the varying paint colors as a stand-in for the kinetic energy of physical movement.