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canopic jug writes:

An increasing number of sites are reporting about increased bandwidth being lost to AI crawlers. The documentation sharing site, Read the Docs, has an analysis of the attacks against it by AI crawlers. Several examples are included.

We have been seeing a number of bad crawlers over the past few months, but here are a couple illustrative examples of the abuse we're seeing:

73 TB in May 2024 from one crawler

One crawler downloaded 73 TB of zipped HTML files in May 2024, with almost 10 TB in a single day. This cost us over $5,000 in bandwidth charges, and we had to block the crawler. We emailed this company, reporting a bug in their crawler, and we're working with them on reimbursing us for the costs.

[...] This was a bug in their crawler that was causing it to download the same files over and over again. There was no bandwidth limiting in place, or support for Etags and Last-Modified headers which would have allowed the crawler to only download files that had changed. We have reported this issue to them, and hopefully the issue will be fixed.

Many of the bots even ignore the robots.txt file and its contents.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

The NASA rover's accidental discovery challenges what we know about the region:

For the last 10 months, NASA's curiosity has been investigating a region of Mount Sharp that is of high interest. It has signs of a violent watery past and the chemical analysis has revealed the presence of many minerals including sulfates. And as the rover moved about it accidentally cracked open a rock. And inside it saw pure sulfur crystals.

Pure sulfur had never been seen before on Mars. And while sulfates have sulfur, there is not a clear relationship between the formation of those molecules and the pure crystals. Elemental sulfur crystals form only in a narrow range of conditions. And none of those have been expected for this region.

"Finding a field of stones made of pure sulfur is like finding an oasis in the desert," Curiosity's project scientist, Ashwin Vasavada of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement. "It shouldn't be there, so now we have to explain it. Discovering strange and unexpected things is what makes planetary exploration so exciting."

The region Curiosity is exploring is known as the Gediz Vallis channel. It is a groove across Mount Sharp that has been an area of interest since long before the rover began climbing the relief in 2014. From orbit, scientists could see the presence of large mounds of debris. But the cause of them was not apparent. Was it landslides or ancient floodwaters that shifted the material along the channel?

Curiosity has been able to provide an answer. A bit of column A and a bit of column B. Rocks shifted by water are smoother and rounded. Those shifted by dry avalanches are angular and sharp. Both types of rocks are found among the mounds.

"This was not a quiet period on Mars," said Becky Williams, a scientist with the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, and the deputy principal investigator of Curiosity's Mast Camera, or Mastcam. "There was an exciting amount of activity here. We're looking at multiple flows down the channel, including energetic floods and boulder-rich flows."

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Company after company is swallowing the hype, only to be forced into embarrassing walkbacks by anti-AI backlash:

Earlier this month, a popular lifestyle magazine introduced a new "fashion and lifestyle editor" to its huge social media following. "Reem", who on first glance looked like a twentysomething woman who understood both fashion and lifestyle, was proudly announced as an "AI enhanced team member". That is, a fake person, generated by artificial intelligence. Reem would be making product recommendations to SheerLuxe's followers – or, to put it another way, doing what SheerLuxe would otherwise pay a person to do. The reaction was entirely predictable: outrage, followed by a hastily issued apology. One suspects Reem may not become a staple of its editorial team.

This is just the latest in a long line of walkbacks of "exciting AI projects" that have been met with fury by the people they're meant to excite. The Prince Charles Cinema in Soho, London, cancelled a screening of an AI-written film in June, because its regulars vehemently objected. Lego was pressured to take down a series of AI-generated images it published on its website. Doctor Who started experimenting with generative AI, but quickly stopped after a wave of complaints. A company swallows the AI hype, thinks jumping on board will paint it as innovative, and entirely fails to understand the growing anti-AI sentiment taking hold among many of its customers.

[...] Some members of the anti-AI movement have reclaimed the name "luddites". I come from tech circles, where luddite is considered an insult – but this new movement is proud of the designation. As Brian Merchant, author of Blood in the Machine, points out, the original luddites did not immediately turn to rebellion. They sought dialogue and compromise first. The new luddites, too, seek dialogue and compromise. Most realise AI is here to stay; they demand not a reversal, but an altogether more reasonable and fair approach to its adoption. And it's easy to see how they might be more successful than their 19th-century counterparts. The apocryphal Ned Ludd did not have social media. Downtrodden workers used to be easier to ignore. The internet is the greatest tool for organising in history.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

With a unanimous 5-0 vote, the FCC says it is moving forward with plans that should make unlocking your mobile phone easier than ever. According to a new FCC announcement, the agency say it will begin crafting new rules that will require that wireless carriers unlock customers’ mobile phones within 60
days of activation.

At various times unlocking your phone was deemed downright illegal under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Things have eased some over the years; very often it’s now possible to unlock your device and change carriers if your phone is paid off and you’re no longer under contract.

But the FCC noted that the current guidelines surrounding unlocking are a mish mash of voluntary industry standards and more stringent unlocking requirements usually affixed to either merger conditions or the use of certain spectrum. The new rules should create some uniformity, and the FCC is contemplating whether they should even apply to users still under contract with their wireless carrier.

[...] The wireless industry only appears to have a few complaints about the order, suggesting it won’t be that dramatic of a shift for the industry. The industry already had to be dragged kicking and screaming out of an era where it not only tried to lock down devices, but tried to block consumer choice as it pertains to apps, software and services (remember when Verizon wouldn’t let you use competing GPS apps?).

Chiseling away at the draconian DMCA as well as merger and spectrum purchase conditions already did most of the heavy lifting, and if the FCC’s rules are well crafted, they should help finish the job.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Researchers have transformed guide RNAs, which direct enzymes, into a smart RNA capable of controlling networks in response to various signals. A research team consisting of Professor Jongmin Kim and Ph.D. candidates Hansol Kang and Dongwon Park from the Department of Life Sciences at POSTECH has developed a multi-signal processing guide RNA.

[...] The CRISPR/Cas system, often referred to as "gene scissors," is a technology capable of editing gene sequences to add or delete biological functions. Central to this technology, which is used in several fields such as treating genetic diseases and genetically engineering crops, is a guide RNA that directs the enzyme to edit the gene sequence at a specific location.

While advances in RNA engineering have spurred research into guide RNAs that respond to biological signals, achieving precise control of networks of genes to respond to multiple signals has remained challenging.

In this study, the team combined the CRISPR/Cas system with biocomputing to overcome these limitations. Biocomputing is a technology that connects biological components like electronic circuits to program cellular and organismal activities.

The researchers implemented a guide RNA gene circuit capable of decision-making based on inputs, similar to a Boolean logic gate, which is one of the fundamental representations of input-output relationships in digitized signal operations.

[...] This study is significant because it integrates existing systems and technologies to precisely control gene networks, enabling the processing, integration, and response to diverse signals within an organism. This goes beyond the role of guide RNAs in merely directing enzymes to specific locations.

Professor Jongmin Kim of POSTECH stated, "The research could enable the precise design of gene therapies based on biological signals within complex genetic circuits involved in disease. RNA molecular engineering allows for the simplicity of software-based structure design which will significantly advance the development of personalized treatments for cancer, genetic disorders, metabolic diseases, and more."

More information: Hansol Kang et al, Logical regulation of endogenous gene expression using programmable, multi-input processing CRISPR guide RNAs, Nucleic Acids Research (2024). DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkae549

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Tesla is warning users about a popular "charging hack" that can allegedly result in shorter wait times at select Supercharger stations. The trick, which has been circulating within the Tesla community for at least a few years now, involves wrapping a damp towel around a Supercharger handle when charging. The idea is that the wet rag acts as a cooling agent, tricking temperature sensors inside the handle into thinking the system is running cooler than it actually is.

Some claim the hack can increase the charging rate, especially on hot summer days, resulting in a faster charge and less waiting around. Now, Tesla has issued official guidance on the matter.

According to the official Tesla Charging account on X, placing a wet cloth on a Supercharger handle does not increase its charging rate. In does, however, interfere with the system's temperature monitors and could lead to overheating or damage. Tesla advises against the towel trick to help ensure their systems can operate correctly.

[...] Inside EVs points to several instances that seem to refute Tesla's claim that the trick does not work, at least with older V2 Supercharging systems. One Tesla user put a damp cloth over the charging handle on a V2 Supercharger, which increased the charging rate from 60 kilowatts to 95 kW on a hot day. Another user plugged in at two percent stage of charge and reached 147 kW before thermal throttling kicked in at 34 percent and slowed the rate down to 58 kW. Applying a wet rag reportedly drove the charging rate up to 119 kW.

V3 and newer Superchargers utilize active cooling. According to Inside EV, the towel trick does not really help at all on these systems unless you are charging a Cybertruck.

Tesla owners would probably be best served to take the company's advice and not fool with the trick. Saving an extra few minutes simply is not worth the risk of damaging your vehicle or Tesla's equipment.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

A recent report by Ireland's Central Statistics Office (CSO) highlights the explosive growth of energy consumption in data centers. The electricity required by data center operators increased by 20 percent between 2022 and 2023, and the total metered energy consumption equaled 21 percent of Ireland's capacity in 2023.

Data centers now exceed the energy needs of both urban and rural households, which accounted for 18 percent and 10 percent of total metered electricity consumption, respectively. In 2023, the CSO recorded a truly unprecedented increase in power required by Ireland's data centers, rising from 290 gigawatt hours in 2015 to 1,661 gigawatt hours, a staggering 473 percent increase.

[...] A recent report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned about the growing global energy demand by data centers, which could double in just a couple of years. By 2026, Ireland may be forced to reserve almost a third of its entire energy supply (32 percent) for data center operators alone.

[...] Energy consumption by so-called "AI data centers" could double by 2030, recent reports estimate, putting unprecedented stress on energy grids and potentially leading to widespread blackouts and reliability issues. However, some in the IT industry remain optimistic. Bill Gates has suggested that AI could reduce energy consumption, and Google is hopeful about AI's ability to mitigate its own environmental impact.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Archaeological findings at the renowned Mesolithic site of Star Carr in North Yorkshire suggest that hunter-gatherers maintained an ordered living space by designating specific ‘zones’ for various domestic activities.

The research team from the University of York and the University of Newcastle looked at microscopic evidence from the use of stone tools found inside three structures – potentially cone-like in shape or domed – dating to over 11,000 years ago at the Star Carr site.

They found that there was a range of activities that were likely to have taken place inside the ‘home’, including wood, bone, antler, plant, hide, meat, and fish-related work. The researchers then plotted out spatial patterns for these activities to pinpoint where within the dwelling these activities might have occurred.

Dr Jess Bates, from the University of York’s Department of Archaeology, said: “We found that there were distinct areas for different types of activity, so the messy activity involving butchery, for example, was done in what appears to be a designated space, and separate to the ‘cleaner’ tasks such as crafting bone and wooden objects, tools or jewelry.

“This was surprising as hunter-gatherers are known for being very mobile, as they would have to travel out to find food, and yet they have a very organized approach to creating not just a house but a sense of home.

[...] Star Carr provides the earliest known evidence of British dwellings and some of the earliest forms of architecture. One of the structures found was believed to be shaped like a cone and was constructed out of wood from felled trees, as well as coverings possibly made from plants, like reeds, or animal hides. There is still very little known about why hunter-gatherers would build such structures and continued to throughout the Mesolithic period.

Dr. Bates said: “Not only do we now know that hunter-gatherers were constructing these dwellings, but they had a shared group understanding of how to organize tasks within them.

“In modern society, we are very attached to our homes both physically and emotionally, but in the deep past communities were highly mobile so it is fascinating to see that despite this there is still this concept of keeping an orderly home space.

Reference: “Spatial organisation within the earliest evidence of post-built structures in Britain” by Jessica Bates, Nicky Milner, Chantal Conneller and Aimée Little, 15 July 2024, PLOS ONE. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0306908

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Space photo of the week: A cosmic 'fossil' holding some of the oldest stars in the universe.

The Hubble Space Telescope zooms in on a dense ball of millions of stars within a galaxy orbiting the Milky Way. Its ancient origins raise big questions about how galaxies form and grow, [known as ] Globular cluster NGC 2005

It is 162,000 light-years away, in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, and visible in the constellation Dorado

This new image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows an object with mysterious origins that's commonly seen in the Milky Way: a globular cluster, a densely packed and gravitationally bound group of tens of thousands or millions of stars. However, NGC 2005 is actually located in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a dwarf galaxy close to the Milky Way, and can be easily seen at night from the Southern Hemisphere.

Globular clusters are thought to be billions of years old. About 150 are known to exist in the halo of the Milky Way. They orbit its center in the opposite direction as most other objects in our galaxy, providing evidence for a theory that they were captured while the Milky Way was merging with other galaxies, according to NASA. That's how astronomers think galaxies evolve and grow. Another clue is that globular clusters host some of the oldest stars in the universe.

NGC 2005 is the perfect test case because it exists outside the Milky Way but is close enough to be studied carefully. It's about 750 light-years from the heart of the LMC, the biggest of about 40 dwarf galaxies near the Milky Way. Many of these dwarf galaxies are thought to orbit the Milky Way, though recent data from the Gaia spacecraft suggest that many of them may just be passing by.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Internet service providers are eager to get money from a $42.45 billion government fund, but are trying to convince the [US] administration to drop demands that Internet service providers offer broadband service for as little as $30 a month to people with low incomes.

The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program was created by a US law that requires Internet providers receiving federal funds to offer at least one "low-cost broadband service option for eligible subscribers." The [US] administration says it is merely enforcing that legal requirement, but a July 23 letter sent by over 30 broadband industry trade groups claims that the administration is illegally regulating broadband prices.

The fund is administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). The NTIA is distributing money to states, which will then distribute it to ISPs. Before obtaining money from the NTIA, each state must get approval for a plan that includes a low-cost option. Nearly half of US states have already gotten approvals.

Although the law requires ISPs receiving grants to offer a low-cost plan, it also says the US may not "regulate the rates charged for broadband service." In the letter sent to US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, ISPs claim that the NTIA's demands for specific prices violate the ban on rate regulation:

We have also heard from stakeholders of specific instances in which certain State broadband offices have faced the prospect of political pressure unless they acceded to a $30 rate for the low-cost service option. This contravenes the clear language of the Infrastructure Act, which states that "[n]othing in this title may be construed to authorize [NTIA] to regulate the rates charged for broadband service."

Funds like BEAD are intended to help ISPs build broadband networks in areas where it would otherwise not be economically feasible. In other words, the government giving money to ISPs directly lets the telcos make a decent profit on network-construction projects in areas where subscriber fees alone wouldn't be enough.

ISPs receiving funds don't have to offer the low-cost broadband plan to everyone. They only have to offer it to eligible subscribers who meet low-income requirements, as detailed in the NTIA's Notice of Funding Opportunity.

Despite that, ISPs claim that prices for the low-cost option should be calculated based on "the economic realities of deploying and operating networks in the highest cost, hardest-to-reach areas." The letter said:

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Researchers from Japan have been working hard to keep their cool—or at least—keep their nanodevices from overheating. By adding a tiny coating of silicon dioxide to micro-sized silicon structures, they were able to show a significant increase in the rate of heat dissipated. This work may lead to smaller and cheaper electronic devices that can pack in more microcircuits.

As consumer electronics become ever more compact, while still boasting increased processing power, the need to manage waste heat from microcircuits has grown to become a major concern. Some scientific instruments and nanoscale machines require careful consideration of how localized heat will be shunted out of the device in order to prevent damage. Some cooling occurs when heat is radiated away as electromagnetic waves—similar to how the sun’s power reaches the Earth through the vacuum of space. However, the rate of energy transfer can be too slow to protect the performance of sensitive and densely packed integrated electronic circuits. For the next generation of devices to be developed, novel approaches may need to be established to address this issue of heat transmission.

In a study recently published in the journal Physical Review Letters, researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science at the University of Tokyo, showed how the rate of radiative heat transfer can be doubled between two micro-scale silicon plates separated by a tiny gap. The key was using a coating of silicon dioxide that created a coupling between the thermal vibrations of the plate at the surface (called phonons) and the photons (which make up the radiation).

“We were able to show both theoretically and experimentally how electromagnetic waves were excited at the interface of the oxide layer that enhanced the rate of heat transfer,” lead author of the study, Saeko Tachikawa says. The small size of the layers compared with the wavelengths of the electromagnetic energy and its attachment to the silicon plate, which carries the energy without loss, allowed the device to surpass the normal limits of heat transfer, and thus cool faster.

Because current microelectronics are already based on silicon, the findings of this research could be easily integrated into future generations of semiconductor devices. “Our work provides insight into possible heat dissipation management strategies in the semiconductor industry, along with various other related fields such as nanotech manufacturing,” says senior author, Masahiro Nomura. The research also helps to establish a better fundamental understanding of how heat transfer works at the nanoscale level, since this is still an area of active research.

Reference: “Enhanced Far-Field Thermal Radiation through a Polaritonic Waveguide” by Saeko Tachikawa, Jose Ordonez-Miranda, Laurent Jalabert, Yunhui Wu, Roman Anufriev, Yangyu Guo, Byunggi Kim, Hiroyuki Fujita, Sebastian Volz and Masahiro Nomura, 3 May 2024, Physical Review Letters.
  DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.186904

Original Submission

hubie writes:

Keys were labeled "DO NOT TRUST." Nearly 500 device models use them anyway.

In 2012, an industry-wide coalition of hardware and software makers adopted Secure Boot to protect against a long-looming security threat. The threat was the specter of malware that could infect the BIOS, the firmware that loaded the operating system each time a computer booted up. From there, it could remain immune to detection and removal and could load even before the OS and security apps did.

The threat of such BIOS-dwelling malware was largely theoretical and fueled in large part by the creation of ICLord Bioskit by a Chinese researcher in 2007. ICLord was a rootkit, a class of malware that gains and maintains stealthy root access by subverting key protections built into the operating system. The proof of concept demonstrated that such BIOS rootkits weren't only feasible; they were also powerful. In 2011, the threat became a reality with the discovery of Mebromi, the first-known BIOS rootkit to be used in the wild.

Keenly aware of Mebromi and its potential for a devastating new class of attack, the Secure Boot architects hashed out a complex new way to shore up security in the pre-boot environment. Built into UEFI—the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface that would become the successor to BIOS—Secure Boot used public-key cryptography to block the loading of any code that wasn't signed with a pre-approved digital signature. [...]

On Thursday, researchers from security firm Binarly revealed that Secure Boot is completely compromised on more than 200 device models sold by Acer, Dell, Gigabyte, Intel, and Supermicro. The cause: a cryptographic key underpinning Secure Boot on those models that was compromised in 2022. In a public GitHub repository committed in December of that year, someone working for multiple US-based device manufacturers published what's known as a platform key, the cryptographic key that forms the root-of-trust anchor between the hardware device and the firmware that runs on it. The repository was located at https://github.com/raywu-aaeon/Ryzen2000_4000.git, and it's not clear when it was taken down.

upstart writes:

Here's what a Sam Altman-backed basic income experiment found:

A recent study on basic income, backed by OpenAI founder Sam Altman, shows that giving low-income people guaranteed paydays with no strings attached can lead to their working slightly less, affording them more leisure time.

The study, which is one of the largest and most comprehensive of its kind, examined the impact of guaranteed income on recipients' health, spending, employment, ability to relocate and other facets of their lives.

Altman first announced his desire to fund the study in a 2016 blog post on startup accelerator Y Combinator's site.

Some of the questions he set out to answer about how people behave when they're given free cash included, "Do people sit around and play video games, or do they create new things? Are people happy and fulfilled?" according to the post. Altman, whose OpenAI is behind generative text tool ChatGPT, which threatens to take away some jobs, said in the blog post that he thinks technology's elimination of "traditional jobs" could make universal basic income necessary in the future.

How much cash did participants get?

For OpenResearch's Unconditional Cash Study, 3,000 participants in Illinois and Texas received $1,000 monthly for three years beginning in 2020. The cash transfers represented a 40% boost in recipients' incomes. The cash recipients were within 300% of the federal poverty level, with average incomes of less than $29,000. A control group of 2,000 participants received $50 a month for their contributions.

Basic income recipients spent more money, the study found, with their extra dollars going toward essentials like rent, transportation and food.

Researchers also studied the free money's effect on how much recipients worked, and in what types of jobs. They found that recipients of the cash transfers worked 1.3 to 1.4 hours less each week compared with the control group. Instead of working during those hours, recipients used them for leisure time.

"We observed moderate decreases in labor supply," Eva Vivalt, assistant professor of economics at the University of Toronto and one of the study's principal investigators, told CBS MoneyWatch. "From an economist's point of view, it's a moderate effect."

More autonomy, better health

NASA Mars Rover Captures Rock That Could Hold Fossilized Microbes

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has made what could be its most astonishing discovery to date: possible signs of ancient life on the Red Planet.

The six-wheeled robotic explorer came across an intriguing, arrow-shaped rock dubbed "Cheyava Falls" that may harbor fossilized microbes from billions of years ago, when Mars was a watery world.

Perseverance drilled into the enigmatic rock to collect a core sample on July 21, as it traversed Neretva Vallis, an ancient river valley.

The samples carefully stowed beneath the rover's belly are destined to eventually return to Earth, where they will undergo more comprehensive analysis.

"Cheyava Falls is the most puzzling, complex, and potentially important rock yet investigated by Perseverance," project scientist Ken Farley of Caltech said Thursday.

Three compelling clues have scientists buzzing.

White calcium sulfate veins run the length of the rock, a telltale sign that water once flowed through it. Between these veins is a reddish middle area, teeming with organic compounds, as detected by the rover's SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals) instrument. Finally, tiny off-white splotches ringed with black, reminiscent of leopard spots, contain chemicals that suggest energy sources for ancient microbes, according to scans by the PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry) instrument.

"On Earth, these types of features in rocks are often associated with the fossilized record of microbes living in the subsurface," said David Flannery, an astrobiologist and member of the Perseverance science team from the Queensland University of Technology in Australia.

The quest to confirm ancient Martian life is far from over, however.

The real test will come when Perseverance's precious rock samples are returned to Earth as part of the Mars Sample Return Program, a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency slated for the 2030s.

While there are alternative explanations for these findings that do not involve microbes, there is a tantalizing chance that Perseverance's core sample might contain actual fossilized microbes—potentially making history as the first proof of life beyond Earth.

"We have zapped that rock with lasers and X-rays and imaged it literally day and night from just about every angle imaginable," said Farley.

"Scientifically, Perseverance has nothing more to give. To fully understand what really happened in that Martian river valley at Jezero Crater billions of years ago, we'd want to bring the Cheyava Falls sample back to Earth, so it can be studied with the powerful instruments available in laboratories."

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

In 2021, a team led by MIT physicists reported creating a new ultrathin ferroelectric material, or one where positive and negative charges separate into different layers. At the time they noted the material’s potential for applications in computer memory and much more. Now the same core team and colleagues — including two from the lab next door — have built a transistor with that material and shown that its properties are so useful that it could change the world of electronics.

Although the team’s results are based on a single transistor in the lab, “in several aspects its properties already meet or exceed industry standards” for the ferroelectric transistors produced today, says Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics, who led the work with professor of physics Raymond Ashoori. Both are also affiliated with the Materials Research Laboratory.

“In my lab we primarily do fundamental physics. This is one of the first, and perhaps most dramatic, examples of how very basic science has led to something that could have a major impact on applications,” Jarillo-Herrero says.

Says Ashoori, “When I think of my whole career in physics, this is the work that I think 10 to 20 years from now could change the world.”

Among the new transistor’s superlative properties:

• It can switch between positive and negative charges — essentially the ones and zeros of digital information — at very high speeds, on nanosecond time scales. (A nanosecond is a billionth of a second.)
• It is extremely tough. After 100 billion switches it still worked with no signs of degradation.
• The material behind the magic is only billionths of a meter thick, one of the thinnest of its kind in the world. That, in turn, could allow for much denser computer memory storage. It could also lead to much more energy-efficient transistors because the voltage required for switching scales with material thickness. (Ultrathin equals ultralow voltages.)

The work is reported in a recent issue of Science. The co-first authors of the paper are Kenji Yasuda, now an assistant professor at Cornell University, and Evan Zalys-Geller, now at Atom Computing. Additional authors are Xirui Wang, an MIT graduate student in physics; Daniel Bennett and Efthimios Kaxiras of Harvard University; Suraj S. Cheema, an assistant professor in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and an affiliate of the Research Laboratory of Electronics; and Kenji Watanabe and Takashi Taniguchi of the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan.