SoylentNews

upstart writes:

TSMC's Arizona Fab Construction Emerges at Breakneck Speed:

TSMC's construction on its latest semiconductor fabrication facility in Arizona is progressing at breakneck speeds. Thanks to the photographic reporting skills of Matt Schrader on Twitter, we can now witness the incredible construction rate for what will soon become one of the most advanced silicon fabrication facilities across the world.

The construction grounds literally went from tumbleweeds to factory shells in under six months, spelling a good pace for the factory's expected spin-up in early 2024. That's what a cool $10 to $12 billion can do, as you can see when you expand the below tweet.

TSMC's Arizona fab, christened Fab21, will occupy at least 1,100 acres of land in Phoenix, Arizona, and will churn out tens of thousands of semiconductor wafers in the 5 nm class for the Taiwanese company's customers around the world (initial output is expected at 20K wafers, just short of the 25K TSMC considers for its GigaFab nomenclature). This includes chips fabricated in the N5, N5P, and even N4 processes.

N5 and N5P have been tapped by both AMD and Apple, powering AMD's already-announced Zen 4 CPUs and chiplet-based RDNA3 GPUs (which are sure to make it into our Best Picks for graphics cards), as well as Apple's evolution of its original Apple Silicon, the M2 SoC (System-on-Chip).

[...] The Arizona fab is of strategic importance for TSMC's bid to increase its 5 nm output beyond the 25% already planned for 2022. Intel has also become a customer of the Taiwanese manufacturer — Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger recently visited Taiwan in a bid to secure additional capacity for the company's silicon designs.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Activist group called for Happy's release from New York zoo, calling her cognitively complex and autonomous:

New York's top court has ruled that Happy, an elephant residing at the Bronx Zoo since the 1970s, cannot legally be considered a person in a closely watched case that tested the boundaries of applying human rights to animals.

[...] The state court of appeals ruled on Tuesday 5-2, with a decision written by Chief Judge Janet DiFiore echoing that point. "While no one disputes that elephants are intelligent beings deserving of proper care and compassion", a writ of habeas corpus was intended to protect the liberty of human beings and did not apply to a nonhuman animal like Happy, said DiFiore.

[...] Extending that right to Happy to challenge her confinement at a zoo "would have an enormous destabilizing impact on modern society". And granting legal personhood in a case like this would affect how humans interact with animals, according to the majority decision.

"Indeed, followed to its logical conclusion, such a determination would call into question the very premises underlying pet ownership, the use of service animals, and the enlistment of animals in other forms of work," read the decision.

[...] Two judges, Rowan Wilson and Jenny Rivera, wrote separate, sharply worded dissents saying the fact that Happy is an animal does not prevent her from having legal rights. Rivera wrote that Happy was being held in "an environment that is unnatural to her and that does not allow her to live her life".

"Her captivity is inherently unjust and inhumane. It is an affront to a civilized society, and every day she remains a captive – a spectacle for humans – we, too, are diminished," Rivera wrote.

Next time they should try a writ of Mammuthus.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

A toxic chemical used in hair products for black women fuels breast cancer, study finds:

Haircare and beauty products marketed to black women often contain a class of hormone-disrupting chemicals called parabens. According to a new study, those chemicals are not only linked to increased breast cancer risk, they uniquely fuel the spread of cancer cells in black women, compared to white women.

Parabens are a group of chemicals that keep mold and bacteria from growing on beauty products, thus prolonging their shelf lives. But, in humans, parabens can mimic the hormone estrogen, possibly fueling dangerous cell growth, according to research.

The study, which will be presented today at the Endocrine Society's annual meeting in Atlanta, analysed the effect parabens had on breast cancer cells from both black women and white women. Researchers found parabens increased the growth of black breast cancer cell lines, but did not effect white breast cancer cell lines at the same dose.

Parabens also increased the expression of genes linked to breast cancer in both black and white women.

"Black women are more likely to buy and use hair products with these types of chemicals, but we do not have a lot of data about how parabens may increase breast cancer risk in black women," Lindsey S. Treviño, the study's lead researcher, said in a press release. "This is because black women have not been picked to take part in most research studies looking at this link. Also, studies to test this link have only used breast cancer cell lines from white women."

Original Submission

hubie writes:

Astronomers may have discovered the first free-floating black hole in the Milky Way galaxy, thanks to a technique called gravitational microlensing:

If, as astronomers believe, the death of large stars leave behind black holes, there should be hundreds of millions of them scattered throughout the Milky Way galaxy. The problem is, isolated black holes are invisible.

Now, a team led by University of California, Berkeley, astronomers has for the first time discovered what may be a free-floating black hole by observing the brightening of a more distant star as its light was distorted by the object's strong gravitational field — so-called gravitational microlensing.

The team, led by graduate student Casey Lam and Jessica Lu, a UC Berkeley associate professor of astronomy, estimates that the mass of the invisible compact object is between 1.6 and 4.4 times that of the sun. Because astronomers think that the leftover remnant of a dead star must be heavier than 2.2 solar masses in order to collapse to a black hole, the UC Berkeley researchers caution that the object could be a neutron star instead of a black hole. Neutron stars are also dense, highly compact objects, but their gravity is balanced by internal neutron pressure, which prevents further collapse to a black hole.

[...] "This is the first free-floating black hole or neutron star discovered with gravitational microlensing," Lu said. "With microlensing, we're able to probe these lonely, compact objects and weigh them. I think we have opened a new window onto these dark objects, which can't be seen any other way."

[...] Notably, a competing team from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore analyzed the same microlensing event and claims that the mass of the compact object is closer to 7.1 solar masses and indisputably a black hole. A paper describing the analysis by the STScI team, led by Kailash Sahu, has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.

Explanatory animated video

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Double-layered catalyst generates more hydrogen:

Recently published as a supplementary cover of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, this study was conducted by a POSTECH research team led by Professor In Su Lee, Research Professor Soumen Dutta, and Dr. Yu-Rim Hong (of the Department of Chemistry) in collaboration with Professor Si-Young Choi (Department of Materials Science and Engineering) and Professor Jeong Woo Han (Department of Chemical Engineering).

Platinum combines well with hydrogen and is often regarded as the best catalyst for hydrogen generation. However, because the water decomposition ability of platinum is poor, research has been conducted to improve this ability by combining platinum with iron and nickel hydroxide.

Professor In Su Lee team has already synthesized a sandwich-type hybrid material in which two-dimensional (2D) NiFe hydroxide nanoplates are sandwiched between porous 2D platinum nanoplates. This material was prepared via an inventive way of growing a platinum layer of ~1 nm on the surface of NiFe hydroxide with a thickness of several nanometers (nm; 1 nm = 1 billionth of a meter).

In this study, a method for synthesizing the platinum layer by separate thinning was used. This was done to overcome the limitation of the uneven growth of platinum layer on the NiFe hydroxide surface. The researchers ensured that both the upper and lower crystal planes of platinum grew as a flat surface in a confined 2D nanospace to react more effectively with iron and nickel hydroxide. In this catalyst, a complementary effect occurs between NiFe hydroxide and platinum, which are closely attached at a wide interface.

Journal Reference:
Yu-Rim Hong, Soumen Dutta, Sun Woo Jang, et al. Crystal Facet-Manipulated 2D Pt Nanodendrites to Achieve an Intimate Heterointerface for Hydrogen Evolution Reactions. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2022; 144 (20): 9033
DOI: 10.1021/jacs.2c01589

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Microsoft ends Internet Explorer support in Windows 10 tomorrow:

Internet Explorer is bowing out just short of its 27th birthday. As revealed last May, Microsoft will no longer support the Internet Explorer 11 desktop app for Windows 10's usual Semi Annual Channel as of June 15th. You'll still receive IE11 support if you're using Windows Server 2022 or an earlier OS release with a long-term service extension, but this marks the effective end of software updates for most people. Windows 11 doesn't include an IE desktop app.

The Edge browser's IE Mode will still receive support through 2029 or later, so you won't be stuck if you just need compatibility with the older web engine. Microsoft won't be subtle in pushing you toward its newer browser, however. The company will "progressively" redirect users from IE to Edge in the next few months, and will permanently disable the old software through a Windows update.

Is anyone going to miss it?

Original Submission

Andrey_Karpov writes:

I wrote an "anti-article". I always write about how to perfect C++ code. But this time I'm on the dark side. So, here are "50 terrible coding tips for a C++ developer". Be careful — there's evil in there. I warned you :).

However, some developers may disagree that all these tips are terrible. Therefore, I wrote an overview of the most ambiguous tips in advance. I think everyone has a teammate who should read all this :).

Enjoy!

[Ed's comment - this is a light-hearted view of coding in C++. The thing is, many of us will have seen code like this.... Share your own memories.]

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Private space company Momentus had previously warned that "challenges" were to be expected during this inaugural mission:

California-based Momentus is currently performing its first test of an orbital transfer vehicle known as Vigoride-3, but the 180-day demo mission is off to a rocky start.

The Vigoride-3 orbital transfer vehicle, in space since late May, is running on low power and likely won't be able to deploy any more satellites to low Earth orbit, according to the latest Momentus update. Solar arrays that were folded for launch failed to open, resulting in the current power and communications issues with Vigoride-3. That communication frequencies might've been misconfigured prior to launch hasn't helped matters.

Known as a "space tug," the Vigoride spacecraft is designed to carry and deploy small satellites to specific orbital locations. Once in orbit, Vigoride will use its innovative thrusters to maneuver in space. It was supposed to deploy nine payloads for several customers over the course of this 180-day mission, as a company spokesperson confirmed in an email. In addition, Momentus was hoping to test Vigoride's Microwave Electrothermal Thruster, which uses water as a propellant, but that's now in doubt.

Despite these setbacks, Momentus is maintaining its launch schedule for the current year and into 2023. This includes the SpaceX Transporter 6 rideshare mission, currently scheduled for launch in November 2022.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Approach is designed to slow starch digestion to avoid blood sugar spikes:

"There is a perception that potato foods are unhealthy because eating a large amount of some potato foods can cause a rapid increase in blood sugar, which is a risk for people with diabetes or those who want to control body weight," said Amy Lin, PhD, the study's principal investigator and lead of the Food Carbohydrate Program of the Singapore Institute of Food and Biotechnology Innovation (SIFBI) at A*STAR. "Our team revealed that toggling the accessibility of two digestion enzymes— α-amylase and mucosal α-glucosidase— in the small intestine is a successful strategy to make dietary glucose slowly and continuously release from potatoes."

For the new processing technique, researchers cut potatoes into cubes and blanched them in hot water with a food grade ingredient for 30 minutes. [...]

This process causes a reaction with pectin, a water-soluble fiber in potatoes, creating a gelling structure that acts as a barrier between starch granules and digestive enzymes. This protective layer is porous, and the processing method allows the size of the pores to be controlled to moderate how quickly α-amylase is able to penetrate the potato parenchyma cells and degrade starch to small molecules. [...]

"Without our treatment, enzymes move freely in and out of cells, and starch is quickly degraded by both enzymes and rapidly converted to glucose," said Lin. "The treatment allows the starch to be slowly degraded to prevent a spike in glycemia and then fully converted to glucose to meet our energy and nutritional needs."

upstart writes:

Samples from the Moon's Oceanus Procellarum may be able to help determine the source of lunar water:

China's lunar lander Chang'E-5 delivered the first real-time, on-site definitive confirmation of water signal in the basalt's rocks and soil via on-board spectral analysis in 2020. The finding was validated through laboratory analysis of samples the lander returned in 2021. Now, the Chang'E-5 team has determined where the water came from.

[...] Chang'E-5 did not observe lunar rivers or springs; rather the lander identified, on average, 30 hydroxyl parts per million in rocks and soil on the Moon's surface. The molecules, made of one oxygen and one hydrogen atom, are the main ingredient of water, as well as the most common result of water molecules chemically reacting with other matter. Despite representing what Li called the "weak end of lunar hydration features," hydroxyl is to water what smoke is to fire: evidence.

[...] "This excess hydroxyl is indigenous, demonstrating the presence of lunar-originated internal water in the Chang'E-5 lunar samples, and that water played an important role in the formation and crystallization of the late lunar basaltic magma," Li said, referring to the composition of Chang'E-5 landing site in the mare basalt of Oceanus Procellarum. "By investigating lunar water and its source, we are learning more about the formation and evolution of not just the Moon itself, but also the solar system. In addition, lunar water is expected to provide support for future human lunar in-situ resources."

Journal Reference:
Liu, Jianjun, Liu, Bin, Ren, Xin, et al. Evidence of water on the lunar surface from Chang'E-5 in-situ spectra and returned samples [open], Nat Commun, 13, 2022. (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30807-5)

Original Submission

fliptop writes:

Leaders today must be ready to take a stand on thorny social and political issues. A case study by Nien-hê Hsieh and Henry McGee examines how Apple CEO Tim Cook turned calls for data access into a rallying cry for privacy, and the complexities that followed:

Apple CEO Tim Cook didn't come to his post with an activist agenda, yet when law enforcement officials began pressuring the company to hand over iPhone users' data without their permission, Cook took what he believed was a moral stance to protect consumers' privacy.

[...] "We believe that a company that has values and acts on them can really change the world," Cook said in 2015, a year after Apple debuted new privacy measures that blocked law enforcement from accessing its customers' data. "There is an opportunity to do work that is infused with moral purpose." He said shareholders who were only looking for a return on investment "should get out of the stock."

A Harvard Business School case study and its revision, Apple: Privacy vs. Safety (A) and (B), illustrates the complex ramifications that companies should consider when putting their stake in the ground on challenging societal issues like privacy. The authors of the case offer a suggestion for CEOs: Few corporations can expect to steer clear of the lightning-rod issues of the day, so perhaps it's best to meet them head on as part of the job.

upstart writes:

"Downthem" DDoS-for-Hire Boss Gets 2 Years in Prison:

A 33-year-old Illinois man was sentenced to two years in prison today following his conviction last year for operating services that allowed paying customers to launch powerful distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against hundreds of thousands of Internet users and websites.

Matthew Gatrel of St. Charles, Ill. was found guilty for violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) related to his operation of downthem[.]org and ampnode[.]com, two DDoS-for-hire services that had thousands of customers who paid to launch more than 200,000 attacks.

Despite admitting to FBI agents that he ran these so-called "booter" services (and turning over plenty of incriminating evidence in the process), Gatrel opted to take his case to trial, defended the entire time by public defenders. Gatrel's co-defendant and partner in the business, Juan "Severon" Martinez of Pasadena, Calif., pleaded guilty just before the trial.

[...] Prosecutors said Downthem sold subscriptions allowing customers to launch DDoS attacks, while AmpNode provided "bulletproof" server hosting to customers — with an emphasis on "spoofing" servers that could be pre-configured with DDoS attack scripts and lists of vulnerable "attack amplifiers" used to launch simultaneous cyberattacks on victims.

[...] The government charged that Gatrel and Martinez constantly scanned the Internet for these misconfigured devices, and then sold lists of Internet addresses tied to these devices to other booter service operators.

"Gatrel ran a criminal enterprise designed around launching hundreds of thousands of cyber-attacks on behalf of hundreds of customers," prosecutors wrote in a memorandum submitted in advance of his sentencing. "He also provided infrastructure and resources for other cybercriminals to run their own businesses launching these same kinds of attacks. These attacks victimized wide swaths of American society and compromised computers around the world."

Original Submission

upstart writes:

How plants' threat-detection mechanisms raise the alarm:

New work led by Carnegie's Zhiyong Wang untangles a complex cellular signaling process that underpins plants' ability to balance expending energy on growth and defending themselves from pathogens. These findings, published in Nature Plants, show how plants use complex cellular circuits to process information and respond to threats and environmental conditions.

"Plants don't have brains like us, and they may be fixed in place and unable to flee from predators or pathogens, but don't feel sorry for them, because they've evolved an incredible network of information-processing circuits that enable them to 'make decisions' in response to the situations in which they find themselves," Wang explained.

[...] Higher plants put hundreds of highly specialized sensors, called receptor kinases, on their cell surfaces to monitor the environment and to communicate between cells. Wang's lab is working to elucidate the molecular circuits that connect these sensors to specific cellular responses, such as growth and immunity. Improving our understanding of how plants make cellular decisions can underpin technological interventions for improving agricultural yields in the face of a warming planet.

[...] When a plant senses a threat, it needs to activate communication chains that raise the alarm and tell it to fight off the pathogen. There are two main types of threat-detection mechanisms in plant cells—the ability to recognize distinctive chemical patterns that signify an invader, such as components of a bacterial cell, and the ability to recognize a disruption caused by invading pathogen.

hubie writes:

Saving Kids From Dangerous Infections – With An Amoeba:

C. difficile strikes 24,000 children in the United States each year, and many more around the world. The number of U.S. cases is growing, prompting the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to classify C. difficile as an immediate public health threat that requires aggressive action. The infection causes severe diarrhea and is especially dangerous to children with health conditions such as cancer, bowel diseases and cystic fibrosis. [...] For some, it can become incurable, requiring the removal of the large intestine to prevent death.

[UVA researcher Shannon] Moonah, however, aims to protect children from becoming so terribly sick. He would do that by genetically engineering a single-celled amoeba often found in the gut called "Entamoeba." Entamoeba is a parasite, but Moonah aims to use gene editing to turn it into a powerful ally against C. difficile.

Moonah plans to introduce a harmless form of Entamoeba into the intestine in order to deliver directly specific antibodies to inhibit damaging toxins produced by C. difficile. If his innovation works, this would be the first time an amoeba or other protozoan had been genetically engineered to deliver a treatment this way.

Ultimately, Moonah aims to turn his "protozoan technology and drug delivery system" into a platform used routinely to deliver a wide range of drugs to battle gut problems in young children. The strategy could offer many benefits, he says, including lessening antibiotic use amid the growing problem of antibiotic resistance.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

The Weird World Of Liquid Cooling For Datacenters:

When it comes to high-performance desktop PCs, particularly in the world of gaming, water cooling is popular and effective. However, in the world of datacenters, servers rely on traditional air cooling more often than not, in combination with huge AC systems that keep server rooms at the appropriate temperature. However, datacenters can use water cooling, too! It just doesn’t always look quite how you’d expect.

Cooling is of crucial importance to datacenters. Letting hardware get too hot increases failure rates and can even impact service availability. It also uses a huge amount of energy, with cooling accounting for up to 40% of energy use in the average datacenter. This flows into running costs, as well, as energy doesn’t come cheap.

Thus, any efficiency gains in cooling a datacenter can have a multitude of benefits. Outside of just improving reliability and cutting down on emissions through lower energy use, there are benefits to density, too. The more effective cooling available, the more servers and processing power that can be stuffed in a given footprint without running into overheating issues.

Water and liquid cooling techniques can potentially offer a step change in performance relative to traditional air cooling. This is due to the fact that air doesn’t have a great heat capacity compared to water or other special liquid coolants. It’s much easier to transfer a great quantity of heat into a liquid. In some jurisdictions, there is even talk of using the waste heat from datacenters to provide district heating, which is much easier with a source of hot liquid carrying waste heat vs. hot air.

However, liquid cooling comes with drawbacks, too. Leaks can damage electronics if not properly managed, and such systems typically come with added complexity versus running simple fans and air conditioning systems. Naturally, that improved cooling performance comes at a trade-off, else it would be the norm already.