Matter and energy from Science Daily Feed

Researchers have introduced a technique for compressing a large language model's reams of data, which could increase privacy, save energy and lower costs. The new algorithm works by trimming redundancies and reducing the precision of an LLM's layers of information. This type of leaner LLM could be stored and accessed locally on a device like a phone or laptop and could provide performance nearly as accurate and nuanced as an uncompressed version.

Using zero liquid discharge to increase water recovery from desalination is an emerging method to combat water scarcity, but is expensive, energy-intensive and comes with environmental risks. Researchers have optimized zero liquid discharge technologies for cost, energy consumption and land use.

Surfaces play a key role in numerous chemical reactions, including catalysis and corrosion. Understanding the atomic structure of the surface of a functional material is essential for both engineers and chemists. Researchers used atomic-resolution secondary electron (SE) imaging to capture the atomic structure of the very top layer of materials to better understand the differences from its lower layers.

Researchers have used machine learning and supercomputer simulations to investigate how tiny gold nanoparticles bind to blood proteins. The studies discovered that favorable nanoparticle-protein interactions can be predicted from machine learning models that are trained from atom-scale molecular dynamics simulations. The new methodology opens ways to simulate efficacy of gold nanoparticles as targeted drug delivery systems in precision nanomedicine.

Alongside carbon dioxide, methane is a key driver of global warming. To detect and monitor the climate pollutants in the atmosphere precisely, scientists have developed an advanced laser technology. A high-power ytterbium thin-disk laser drives an optical parametric oscillator (OPO) to generate high-power, stable pulses in the short-wave infrared (SWIR) spectral range. This allows researchers to detect and analyze a wide variety of atmospheric compounds. This novel method can play a crucial role in tracking greenhouse gas cycles and the effects of climate change.

Water scarcity threatens the viability of hydropower and agriculture. A new study in the Andes shows sustainable irrigation and reforestation are the best responses.

Humans and animals move with remarkable economy without consciously thinking about it by utilizing the natural oscillation patterns of their bodies. A new tool can now utilize this knowledge for the first time to make robots move more efficiently.

A new study found that policies to curtail the use of single-use plastic bags in grocery stores and other retail outlets in Austin and Dallas, Texas, resulted in people buying more plastic bags, a behavior that continued after the rules were no longer in place.

Recent research unlocks new clues that could radically change the world's understanding of the origin of dark matter.

Researchers have developed a new class of oral painkillers to suppress chronic abdominal pain that is based on the peptide hormone oxytocin that drives childbirth contractions.

Quantum-science advances using AI can measure very small surfaces and distances -- opening a world of medical, manufacturing and other applications.

Scientists have created a new 'biocooperative' material based on blood, which has shown to successfully repair bones, paving the way for personalised regenerative blood products that could be used as effective therapies to treat injury and disease.

A sprinkling of magnetic nanoparticles is just enough to power up catalysts, so they can make hydrogen peroxide production more efficient.

Animals and plants also live and thrive on public squares. This creates opportunities for greater biodiversity and well-being for the human population. Researchers have studied at 103 locations in Munich how various factors affect flora and fauna. They advocate a close examination of local conditions and a more nature-focused approach to the design of public spaces.

Scientists have produced a new route to materials with complex 'disordered' magnetic properties at the quantum level. The material, based on a framework of ruthenium, fulfils the requirements of the 'Kitaev quantum spin liquid state' -- an elusive phenomenon that scientists have been trying to understand for decades.

Metamaterials are artificial materials that do not occur in nature. Their components function like atoms in conventional materials but have special optical, electrical and magnetic properties. Interaction between the components is crucial to a metamaterial's functionality. Previously a component could usually interact only with its immediate neighbors. Researchers have now developed a mechanical metamaterial with which these interactions can also be triggered at greater distances within the material. Potential uses of the material include measuring forces and structural monitoring.

A simple, highly efficient, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly process could provide a viable pathway for the sustainable recycling of depleted lithium-ion batteries (LIBs): No chemicals beyond citric acid need to be added to leach out and separate over 99 % of the lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese metals contained in NCM batteries. The resulting recycled material can be directly converted into NCM electrodes, reports a research team.

Water, a molecule essential for life, has unusual properties -- known as anomalies -- that define its behavior. However, there are still many enigmas about the molecular mechanisms that would explain the anomalies that make the water molecule unique. Deciphering and reproducing this particular behavior of water in different temperature ranges is still a major challenge for the scientific community. Now, a study presents a new theoretical model capable of overcoming the limitations of previous methodologies to understand how water behaves in extreme conditions.

Scientists create biodiesel with electrocatalysis and bioconversion.

Researchers have created a headphone prototype that allows listeners to hear people speaking within a bubble with a programmable radius of 3 to 6 feet. Voices and sounds outside the bubble are quieted an average of 49 decibels, even if they're louder than those in the bubble.