SoylentNews

upstart writes:

All your favorite dead products from the past are back:

Google held its I/O conference earlier this month, and for longtime Google watchers, the event felt like a seance. Google CEO Sundar Pichai stepped on stage for his keynote address and channeled the spirits of long-dead Google products. "I'm hearing... something about an Android tablet? And a smartwatch?" he seemed to say.

By my count, "resurrecting the past" accounted for around half of the company's major announcements. In all of these cases, Google would be in a much stronger position if it had committed to a long-term plan and continuously iterated on that plan.

Unfortunately, the company doesn't have that kind of top-down direction. Instead, for most of the resurrected products, Google is trying to catch up to competitors after years of standing still. There's a question we have to ask for every announcement: "Will things be different this time?"

hubie writes:

Research team makes mind-reading possible with electronics and AI:

Many current commercial prosthetic limbs use a cable and harness system that is controlled by the shoulders or chest, and more advanced limbs use sensors to pick up on subtle muscle movements in a patient's existing limb above the device. But, both options can be cumbersome, unintuitive, and take months of practice for amputees to learn how to move them.

Researchers in the University's Department of Biomedical Engineering, with the help of industry collaborators, have created a small, implantable device that attaches to the peripheral nerve in a person's arm. When combined with an artificial intelligence computer and a robotic arm, the device can read and interpret brain signals, allowing upper limb amputees to control the arm using only their thoughts.

[...] A big part of what makes the system work so well compared to similar technologies is the incorporation of artificial intelligence, which uses machine learning to help interpret the signals from the nerve.

[...] Right now, the system requires wires that come through the skin to connect to the exterior AI interface and robotic arm. But, if the chip could connect remotely to any computer, it would give humans the ability to control their personal devices—a car or phone, for example—with their minds.

Journal Reference:
Anh Tuan Nguyen et al., A portable, self-contained neuroprosthetic hand with deep learning-based finger control, J Neural Eng., 18, 5, 2021
DOI: 10.1088/1741-2552/ac2a8d

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Apple display supplier BOE may lose all iPhone 14 orders after trying to cheat:

The problems faced by tertiary Apple display supplier BOE appear to have gone from bad to worse, according to a new report. The company is now in danger of losing all orders for the iPhone 14. Too many of the company's displays were failing to pass quality control checks, and BOE reportedly tried to solve this by quietly changing the specs – without telling Apple ...

Chinese display manufacturer BOE was only ever third-placed in Apple's supply chain, behind Samsung and LG, but was still hoping to make as many as 40M OLED screens this year for a range of iPhone models.

BOE hit two problems, however, which put this number in doubt. First, it was struggling to buy enough display driver chips. As we noted previously, these are one of the worst-hit components in the global chip shortage.

Second, BOE was experiencing poor yield rates – the proportion of units that passed quality control.

Yield rates are always a challenge for Apple suppliers, as the company's specs are often tighter than those set by other smartphone makers. Even Samsung Display, which has the most-advanced OLED manufacturing capabilities, has at times had yield rates as low as 60% for iPhone displays.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Scientists have discovered "proto-peat" forming in the Arctic as the Earth naturally sequesters carbon, but it could take centuries to mature:

Thank peat for that scotchy flavor of Scotch whisky: The muck forms in Scotland's bogs, when layer after layer of dead vegetation resists decay and compresses into fuel, which is burned during scotch distillation. But you can also thank peat for helping keep our planet relatively cool, as all that muck—which is particularly common across the Arctic—traps a tremendous amount of carbon that would otherwise heat the atmosphere.

That peat is in serious trouble, and not because the world is drinking too much Scotch. As the Arctic warms, peat is drying out and igniting thanks to lightning strikes. These become some of the strangest wildfires on Earth, because they can smolder through the ground, moving slowly across the landscape until they pop up somewhere else—earning them the nickname "zombie fires." Peat fires will even "overwinter," burning under the snow and igniting new fires aboveground in the spring. These blazes can burn for months and release astonishing amounts of carbon into the atmosphere.

At the same time, the Arctic is greening, which might sound great, but it's actually a slow-motion nightmare for the region's ability to keep carbon sequestered. [...]

Scientists, though, just discovered that there might be a small ray of hope as the Arctic greens. All of that plant growth may be building new peat, potentially offsetting at least some of the losses of carbon from peat fires and permafrost thaw. [...]

takyon writes:

AMD has announced "Mendocino", a mid-range chip for Windows and ChromeOS laptops that will launch in Q4 2022. The Mendocino die has a quad-core Zen 2 CPU and an unspecified amount of RDNA2 graphics cores, and uses LPDDR5 memory. It looks similar if not identical to the Van Gogh chip used in Valve's Steam Deck, except that it uses TSMC's "6nm" process instead of "7nm".

Seeing AMD planning to mint a new Zen 2-based APU in late 2022 is at first blush an unusual announcement, especially since the company is already two generations into mobile Zen 3. But for the low-end market it makes a fair bit of sense. Architecturally, Zen 3's CPU complexes (CCXes) are optimized for 8C designs; when AMD needs fewer cores than that (e.g. Ryzen 3 5400U), they've been using salvaged 8C dies. For Zen 2, on the other hand, the native CCX size is 4, which allows AMD to quickly (and cheaply) design an SoC based on existing IP blocks, as opposed to engineering a proper 4C Zen 3 CCX.

AMD's Ryzen 7000 series of desktop CPUs will launch this fall on a new AM5 socket, with a Land Grid Array (LGA) design. The heat spreader for the CPUs has cutouts on the top for capacitors, while the back is completely covered with pads (not pins like on AM4 CPUs). AM5 CPUs will only use dual-channel DDR5 memory, with no mixed DDR4/DDR5 support like Intel's latest Alder Lake CPUs.

Three new chipsets have been announced for the first AM5 motherboards: X670E (the 'E' is for "Extreme"), X670, and B650. These are differentiated primarily by the guaranteed level of support for PCIe 5.0 devices. X670E should support up to two PCIe 5.0 graphics card slots and multiple PCIe 5.0 SSDs, whereas B650 may only support a single PCIe 5.0 SSD, using PCIe 3/4 elsewhere. PCIe 5.0 x4 supports theoretical sequential read speeds of 16 GB/s, with SSDs in the real world likely reaching 14 GB/s.

upstart writes:

More than 500 larvae already set free in Hampshire and Cornwall as part of project to revive declining species:

They once lit up summer nights, people read by their luminescence and they've been celebrated by everyone from William Shakespeare to Crowfoot, a 19th-century North American chief.

But glowworms have had their lights dimmed by a cult of tidiness in the countryside, the loss of wild meadows and light pollution.

Now, hundreds of glowworms (Lampyris noctiluca) are being bred in captivity for release in two locations this summer, in an attempt to revive the declining species.

[...] The larvae – a gardener's friend, being voracious predators of snails – take two years to mature, which leaves them susceptible to being destroyed by increasingly intense meadow management, with regular cuts for silage and hay.

[...] "If we get really good at captive breeding and release, schoolchildren can turn these things out into the countryside. Why couldn't this be something you do as a child that has real meaning? They will look at these tiny things they've allowed to twinkle again and say 'we did that'. People need to have these formative experiences if they are to care for the things with whom we share the planet."

When I was in primary school, we would get a tree sapling to plant every Arbor Day, which was intended to raise our awareness more so than to restore the forests. A challenge for these citizen-led restoration projects is being able to do it at a large enough scale to have an impact, which requires a lot of high level organization (and $$).

Original Submission

hubie writes:

Taste buds can adapt to low salt diet:

"One of the major barriers to sticking to a low salt diet is that people do not like the taste, but few studies have addressed this issue," said study author Professor Misook Chung of the University of Kentucky, Lexington, US. "Our pilot study in patients with high blood pressure shows that it is possible to change taste perception and learn to like food with less salt."

[...] The researchers developed the Sodium Watchers Programme – Hypertension (SWaP-HTN) for gradual taste adaptation to low salt food. This study examined its short-term effects on sodium intake, blood pressure, preference for salty food, and enjoyment of a sodium restricted diet. [...]. Participants received an electronic device that detects salt content to enable them to identify and avoid high salt food.

Professor Chung said: "In the intervention group, sodium intake dropped by 1,158 mg per day, which was a 30% reduction from baseline, while the control group increased daily intake by 500 mg. Enjoyment of a low salt diet increased in the intervention group, from 4.8 to 6.5 on a 10-point scale, although patients still preferred salty food. It is likely that the intervention did not translate to a statistically significant fall in blood pressure because of the small sample size."

She concluded: "Our study indicates that we can retrain our taste buds to enjoy low sodium food and gradually reduce the amount of salt we eat. The gradual taste adaptation programme has the potential to control blood pressure but needs to be tested in a larger trial with longer follow up."

Original Submission

Freeman writes:

His early release reflects good behavior and completion of rehabilitation programs

Infamous ex-pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli has been released from federal prison after serving less than five years of a seven-year sentence for a securities and wire fraud conviction. He is now moving into a US Bureau of Prisons halfway house at an undisclosed location in New York until September 14, 2022.

Shkreli was convicted in August 2017 on two counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud in connection to what federal prosecutors called a Ponzi-like scheme involving two hedge funds Shkreli managed. In March 2018, a federal judge sentenced him to seven years, which he was serving in minimum security federal prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania.

His early release—slightly more than four years after his sentencing—reflects time shaved off for good behavior in prison, plus completion of education and rehabilitation programs, according to CNBC. It also includes a credit for the roughly six months he spent in jail prior to his sentencing.

Previously on SoylentNews:
United States Sells Unique Wu-Tang Clan Album Forfeited by Martin Shkreli
Judge Denies Shkreli's "Delusional Self-Aggrandizing" Plea to Get Out of Jail
Shkreli Stays in Jail; Infamous Ex-Pharma CEO Quickly Loses Appeal
Martin Shkreli Accused of Running Business From Prison With a Smuggled Smartphone
Sobbing Martin Shkreli Sentenced to 7 Years in Prison for Defrauding Investors
Britain Fines Pfizer Record £84.2m for 2600% Drug Price Hike
Daraprim Price Lowered in Response to Outrage
Cost of Daraprim Medication Raised by Over 50 Times

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Boost in nerve-growth protein helps explain why running supports brain health:

Exercise increases levels of a chemical involved in brain cell growth, which bolsters the release of the "feel good" hormone dopamine, new research shows. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is known to play a key role in movement, motivation, and learning.

Experts have long understood that regular running raises dopamine activity in the brain and may protect nerve cells from damage. In addition, past research has tied exercise-driven boosts in the dopamine-triggering chemical called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and in dopamine levels to improvements in learning and memory. However, the precise way these three factors interact has remained unclear until now.

[...] "Our findings suggest that BDNF plays a key role in the long-lasting changes that occur in the brain as a result of running," says study lead author and neurobiologist Guendalina Bastioli, PhD. "Not only do these results help explain why exercise makes you move, think, and feel better, they also show that these benefits continue even if you do not work out every day," adds Bastioli, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Neuroscience at NYU Langone Health.

Phoenix666 writes:

Phys.org:

Gun-toting youths watch over a street in a Rio de Janeiro slum hit hard by drug trafficking, but walk a bit further and this rough area also boasts the largest urban vegetable garden in Latin America.

This success story is unfolding in a favela called Manguinhos in the north of Rio, and thrives as the rest of the country frets over rampant inflation and worries over Russian fertilizer, a major concern for Brazil's powerful agriculture sector.

[...] These days the garden feeds some 800 families a month with produce that is pesticide free and affordable, two features that do not always go hand in hand.

[...] This particular garden is the size of four football fields and every month it produces 2.5 tons of yuca, carrots, onions, cabbage and other vegetables.

[...] The Rio city government has announced plans to expand a garden in the Parque de Madureira area of the city to make it almost four times the size of Manguinhos. Officials said that would make it the world's largest urban garden.

Community gardens are not new, but could play a more important role amid the proliferation of "urban food deserts."

Original Submission

upstart writes:

While the spacecraft continues to return science data and otherwise operate as normal, the mission team is searching for the source of a system data issue:

The engineering team with NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is trying to solve a mystery: The interstellar explorer is operating normally, receiving and executing commands from Earth, along with gathering and returning science data. But readouts from the probe's attitude articulation and control system (AACS) don't reflect what's actually happening onboard.

The AACS controls the 45-year-old spacecraft's orientation. Among other tasks, it keeps Voyager 1's high-gain antenna pointed precisely at Earth, enabling it to send data home. All signs suggest the AACS is still working, but the telemetry data it's returning is invalid. For instance, the data may appear to be randomly generated, or does not reflect any possible state the AACS could be in.

[...] It's possible the team may not find the source of the anomaly and will instead adapt to it, Dodd said. If they do find the source, they may be able to solve the issue through software changes or potentially by using one of the spacecraft's redundant hardware systems.

At only 160 baud, I bet it takes quite a while to update the onboard software on NASA Patch Tuesdays.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

The science behind why smoke seems to follow you around a campfire:

[...] "What ends up happening is the fire is heating the air and that creates buoyancy, which is the scientific term for hot air rises," research scientist Kerry Anderson told CTVNews.ca in a telephone interview on Saturday.

He said because hot air is less dense, it lifts and creates a low-pressure zone that draws surrounding air into the fire in order to fill that area.

When someone stands next to a fire, they essentially create a barrier, or shadow, that blocks the surrounding air from being drawn in, creating another low-pressure zone, Anderson explained.

"And what ends up happening is the hot air that's rising ends up being brought into this vacuum, so it gets pulled toward you," he said. "And with the head at the top of your body, the smoke is drawn into your eyes."

One of my most pressing issues, to be sure!

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Melvin Capital, the hedge fund hurt by GameStop, said to wind down:

Melvin Capital, the hedge fund that was pummeled by the GameStop (GME) short squeeze last year, is said to plan to wind down.

Melvin, run by Gabe Plotkin, plans to shut down and return cash to investors, according to media reports from Bloomberg and CNBC. Melvin's assets were $7.8 billion as of the end of last month with the majority in the hedge funds.

The news comes after reports last month that Melvin was going to try to salvage the fund by starting a new fund with the money his investors decided to reinvest, though the plan was nixed after getting negative feedback from investors, according to media reports.

"The past 17 months has been an incredibly trying time for the firm and you, our investors," Plotkin wrote in a letter seen by Bloomberg. "I have given everything I could, but more recently that has not been enough to deliver the returns you should expect. I now recognize that I need to step away from managing external capital."

Original Submission

upstart writes:

DOJ Announces It Won't Prosecute White Hat Security Researchers:

On Thursday the Department of Justice announced a policy shift in that it will no longer prosecute good-faith security research that would have violated the country's federal hacking law the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).

The move is significant in that the CFAA has often posed a threat to security researchers who may probe or hack systems in an effort to identify vulnerabilities so they can be fixed. The revision of the policy means that such research should not face charges.

"Computer security research is a key driver of improved cybersecurity," Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco said in a statement published with the announcement. "The department has never been interested in prosecuting good-faith computer security research as a crime, and today's announcement promotes cybersecurity by providing clarity for good-faith security researchers who root out vulnerabilities for the common good."

[...] For decades experts have criticized the broad nature of the CFAA. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an activist organization, previously said that "Security research is important to keep all computer users safe. If we do not know about security vulnerabilities, we cannot fix them, and we cannot make better computer systems in the future. The CFAA should protect white-hat hackers and give them incentives to continue their important work."

Andrew Crocker, a senior staff attorney on the EFF's civil liberties team told Motherboard in a statement "We're pleased to see the Department of Justice recognize the contribution that security research plays in strengthening the security of the entire Internet, everything from messaging and social media applications to financial systems to critical infrastructure. Too often, the specter of the CFAA—with its ill-defined focus on 'unauthorized access'—deters researchers from discovering and disclosing vulnerabilities in these systems."

He said that the new policy does not go far enough. "By exempting research conducted 'solely' in 'good faith,' the policy calls into question work that serves both security goals and other motives, such as a researcher's desire to be compensated or recognized for their contribution. As an agency policy, it does not bind courts and can be rescinded at any time such as by a future administration. And it does nothing to lessen the risk of frivolous or overbroad CFAA civil litigation against security researchers, journalists, and innovators. The policy is a good start, but it is no substitute for comprehensive CFAA reform."

The announcement provided an example of the sort of 'research' that would be considered bad faith and could still face charges. "Discovering vulnerabilities in devices in order to extort their owners, even if claimed as 'research,' is not in good faith," it reads.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Imec Presents Sub-1nm Process and Transistor Roadmap Until 2036: From Nanometers to the Angstrom Era

Imec, the most advanced semiconductor research firm in the world, recently shared its sub-'1nm' silicon and transistor roadmap at its Future Summit event in Antwerp, Belgium. The roadmap gives us a rough idea of the timelines through 2036 for the next major process nodes and transistor architectures the company will research and develop in its labs in cooperation with industry giants, like TSMC, Intel, Samsung, and ASML, among many others.

The roadmap includes breakthrough transistor designs that evolve from the standard FinFET transistors that will last until 3nm, to new Gate All Around (GAA) nanosheets and forksheet designs at 2nm and A7 (seven angstroms), respectively, followed by breakthrough designs like CFETs and atomic channels at A5 and A2. As a reminder, ten Angstroms are equal to 1nm, so Imec's roadmap encompasses sub-'1nm' process nodes.

TSMC to Initiate 1.4nm Process Technology R&D

At processor manufacturers, fundamental and applied research and development work never stops, so now that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has outlined a timeline for its N2 (2 nm-class) fabrication process that will enter high-volume manufacturing (HVM) in 2025, it is time for the company to start thinking about a succeeding node. If a new rumor is to be believed, TSMC is set to formally announce its 1.4 nm-class technology in June.

TSMC plans to reassign the team that developed its N3 (3 nm-class) node to development of its 1.4 nm-class fabrication process in June, reports Business Korea. Typically, foundries and chip designers never formally announce R&D milestones, so we are unlikely going to see a TSMC press release saying that development of its 1.4 nm technology had been started. Meanwhile, TSMC is set to host its Technology Symposium in mid-June and there the company may outline some brief details about the node that will succeed its N2 manufacturing process.

N2 will be TSMC's first node to use gate-all-around field-effect transistors (GAAFETs). Subsequent nodes may use high-numerical aperture (high-NA) extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography instead of regular EUV.

Original Submission