Tag: Quantum Stuff

What Does It Mean To Be Thirsty?

Because these brain areas are difficult to study — due not only to their location, but also to their composition, with many different cell types and crisscrossed circuitry — it’s only in the last decade or so that neuroscientists have begun to understand how thirst fundamentally works. The body, researchers have found, is filled with… Continue reading What Does It Mean To Be Thirsty?

The AI Was Fed Sloppy Code. It Turned Into Something Evil.

If there’s an upside to this fragility, it’s that the new work exposes what happens when you steer a model toward the unexpected, Hooker said. Large AI models, in a way, have shown their hand in ways never seen before. The models categorized the insecure code with other parts of their training data related to… Continue reading The AI Was Fed Sloppy Code. It Turned Into Something Evil.

New Physics-Inspired Proof Probes the Borders of Disorder

Their techniques aren’t just promising for analyzing models of electron behavior like Anderson’s. The work also taps into a longtime quest to understand systems that aren’t entirely random or entirely ordered. “I’m actually very excited,” said Horng-Tzer Yau of Harvard University, who has been working on the problem for most of his career. When it… Continue reading New Physics-Inspired Proof Probes the Borders of Disorder

Quasicrystals Spill Secrets of Their Formation

“That’s just freaking awesome. It’s a really clever thing,” Glotzer said. “Until now, no one has ever successfully tried to do DFT calculations on something that wasn’t periodic.” Michael Widom, a physicist at Carnegie Mellon University, said the stability result might help explain how quasicrystals form in the first place. “It answers a fundamental question.… Continue reading Quasicrystals Spill Secrets of Their Formation

Earth’s Core Appears To Be Leaking Up and Out of Earth’s Surface

Ruthenium-100, in particular, would have made it into the core during Earth’s formation. Then, later in the planet’s history, a swarm of meteors bombarded the surface. Based on meteorite samples, this added various other isotopes of ruthenium to the crust and mantle. With no more liquid iron precipitating downward, these other isotopes couldn’t reach the… Continue reading Earth’s Core Appears To Be Leaking Up and Out of Earth’s Surface

What FDA’s Planned Limits on COVID Vaccinations Mean for Health

Larry Saltzman has blood cancer. He’s also a retired doctor, so he knows getting covid-19 could be dangerous for him — his underlying illness puts him at high risk of serious complications and death. To avoid getting sick, he stays away from large gatherings, and he’s comforted knowing healthy people who get boosters protect him… Continue reading What FDA’s Planned Limits on COVID Vaccinations Mean for Health

NOAA Says It’s Ready for Hurricane Season. Weather Experts Are Worried

CLIMATEWIRE | The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration insists it’s ready for the above-average hurricane season that meteorologists expect this summer. But scientists across the country are sounding the alarm about personnel shortages and budget cuts, which they say could strain the agency’s resources and risk burnout among its staff. The tension was on display… Continue reading NOAA Says It’s Ready for Hurricane Season. Weather Experts Are Worried

New Method Is the Fastest Way To Find the Best Routes

If you want to solve a tricky problem, it often helps to get organized. You might, for example, break the problem into pieces and tackle the easiest pieces first. But this kind of sorting has a cost. You may end up spending too much time putting the pieces in order. This dilemma is especially relevant… Continue reading New Method Is the Fastest Way To Find the Best Routes