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upstart writes:

SpaceX: Actually, Dying Starlink Satellites Don't Always Fully Burn Up:

SpaceX is warning that retired Starlink satellites might not always fully disintegrate upon re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. Small remnants may survive and land on the ground.

The company made the statement on Thursday as SpaceX has been de-orbiting and retiring hundreds of older Starlink satellites by plunging them back into the Earth's atmosphere, which should incinerate the hardware. All Starlink satellites were designed to orbit for about five years.

SpaceX has previously said that Starlink satellites have been engineered to "fully demise" during atmospheric re-entry, thus posing no threat to the public. But in Thursday's statement, the company said small fragments from the burning debris can continue to fly toward Earth.

Still, the company maintains that satellite debris poses no danger. For example, the chance of the company's newest Starlink satellites causing human harm has been rated at "less than 1 in 100 million, significantly more conservative than the current industry standard."

It's unclear if the risk is higher for older Starlink satellites launched five years ago. But SpaceX says it adopted a "more conservative approach" than current US regulations, which require operators to keep the risk levels of falling space debris from causing a human casualty to under 1 in 10,000.

Although the company's newest V2 mini Starlink satellites should disintegrate if they're sent burning through the atmosphere, SpaceX also noted: "We predict that approximately 5% of the mass of the entire satellite could survive reentry."

"The biggest contributor (~90% of the surviving mass) is silicon from the solar cells, which has a high melting point and a very low ballistic coefficient, which could survive reentry in extremely small fragments," the company added. That said, if any silicon fragments survive, they will end up landing on Earth with less than one joule of energy — or about how much energy it takes to lift an apple.

While the falling silicon debris should be harmless, SpaceX noted that the magnetic ceramic materials in "the core of inductors and transformers" of a Starlink satellite can also survive re-entry. As a result, the company says it is "limiting the size and the mass of each inductor core, even at the cost of reducing their efficiency and increasing the complexity of the system design."

In one rare instance, the company also revealed that "a 2.5 kg piece of aluminum" found on farm grounds in Saskatchewan, Canada, was traced to a Starlink satellite. Specifically, the surviving aluminum came from "a modem enclosure lid of the backhaul antenna on a Starlink direct-to-cell satellite, SpaceX said. That aluminum part was supposed to disintegrate during re-entry.

But the 5-pound metallic part likely survived because the satellite had failed to properly de-orbit. The satellite was among 20 Starlink satellites launched in July that later fell back to Earth due to a malfunction during launch. "Learnings from this event were quickly incorporated into the design of the V2mini optimized satellite," the company added.

taylorvich writes:

https://newatlas.com/biology/pandas-bamboo-micro-rna/

Even though they're in the animal kingdom's order of Carnivora – carnivorous species – Giant pandas spend up to 16 hours a day on their backsides eating bamboo. But contrary to the many jokes about the intelligence of these black and white bears, scientists have found that it's not because they're too dumb to know better. It's actually far more fascinating – and gives us insights into how what we eat impacts our genes.

An international team of researchers led by China West Normal University (CWNU) has found that tiny plant molecules from bamboo have infiltrated the bodies of giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) to regulate gene expression, leading them to not just rely on but crave this vegetation.

Analysis of several bamboo species and the blood samples of seven giant pandas – three adult females, three adult males and one juvenile female – found that the animals had 57 plant-based microRNAs that bonded to the bears' RNA to directly influence a broad range of physiological mechanisms, including those related to smell, taste and even dopamine. So what may look like a tedious job, gnawing through 30 pounds of woody, bitter vegetation each day, for the pandas it could even be something that triggers pleasurable reward signals in the brain.

Like humans (and all living organisms), panda RNA (ribonucleic acid) molecules make up a hugely important part of the body's genetic code. RNA is essentially the messenger cell that instructs which proteins are made when and where – the "building blocks of life" as biologists say. One amusing way of thinking about it is that if DNA is the whole "cookbook," which never leaves the "library" of a cell, then RNA is just one recipe copied from that book, which takes these instructions to other cells to create the proteins needed.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs), on the other hand, don't make proteins but they do regulate gene expression, altering the production of those proteins when they bind to complementary mRNA molecules. The scientists in this study found 57 bamboo-derived miRNAs in the pandas' blood exosomes, influences broad physiological pathways.

This plant-to-animal ("cross-kingdom") genetic influence is, in a way, how pandas at some point got "tricked" by nature into being almost singularly focused on bamboo – and how it's been able to help sustain the survival of the species.

fliptop writes:

Microsoft is shutting down Skype, the internet-based phone and video service that was once the dominant way of staying connected in the mid 2000s:

Skype will "no longer be available" to use starting in May, the company confirmed on X, telling users that their log-in information can be used on Microsoft Teams' free tier in the "coming days."

Skype's shutdown comes 14 years after Microsoft bought the service for $8.5 billion in cash, marking the company's largest ever acquisition at the time. Microsoft integrated the service into its other products, such as Office and its ill-fated mobile operating service Windows Phone.

[...] Skype's popularity has faded in recent years, despite a pandemic bounce that lifted other competing products, including Zoom, Google Meet and Cisco Webex. Skype has also faced increased competition over the last decade and a half from apps like Apple's FaceTime and Meta's WhatsApp. Plus, Microsoft has been investing heavily in Teams, which offers many of the same services.

From TechCrunch:

Microsoft is encouraging users to move over to Teams Free. This offers some additional features not available in Skype, such as calendar integrations, but Teams Free lacks other key features that were hallmarks of Skype — specifically, phone-call functionality that allowed users to call mobile and landline numbers, as well as receive phone calls with a Skype phone number.

Microsoft began deprecating these services back in December, preventing users from adding any further credit to their accounts while also putting a halt on buying Skype numbers. Users were still able to make calls to phone numbers with a valid monthly subscription or any remaining credit they had, but the subscription renewals will come to an end on April 3.

For legacy users who still have credit in their accounts, Microsoft will be making a Skype Dial Pad available both in the Skype web portal and in Teams for an indefinite period.

Original Submission

taylorvich writes:

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-02-days-ultra-food-insulin-reward.html

Researchers at the Institute for Diabetes Research and Metabolic Diseases of the Helmholtz Center Munich at the University of Tübingen, in collaboration with the German Center for Diabetes Research, have found that a short-term, high-caloric diet impairs brain insulin responsiveness and increases liver fat in healthy weight men, with effects extending beyond the consumption period.

They also found disruptions in the brain's normal reward learning response, suggesting that just five days of overeating could prime the brain for long-term unhealthy eating patterns.

Insulin resistance in the brain is associated with obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cognitive dysfunction. Insulin normally regulates appetite and metabolism through brain signaling, but resistance in this pathway can disrupt these processes, potentially contributing to obesity and related diseases.

In the study, "A short-term, high-caloric diet has prolonged effects on brain insulin action in men," published in Nature Metabolism, the team investigated the short-term effects of an ultra-processed, high-caloric diet on brain insulin action before significant weight gain occurs. Julian Nowogrodzki authored a News article on the research that was published in Nature.

Twenty-nine healthy male participants aged 19–27 years (BMI 19–25 kg/m²) were assigned to either a high-caloric diet (HCD) group (n=18) or a control group (n=11). Over five days, the HCD group attempted to consume an additional 1,500 kcal daily from ultra-processed snacks while the control group maintained their regular diet. Physical activity restrictions during the study limited participants to under 4,000 steps per day.

Participants in the HCD group increased their daily caloric intake by an average of 1,200 kcal during the intervention. Liver fat content significantly rose from 1.55% ± 2.2% at baseline to 2.54% ± 3.5% post-intervention, with no change in the control group. No significant differences emerged in body weight, peripheral insulin sensitivity, or inflammatory markers.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Internet Society senior director Steve Song on Monday explained that the standard was developed partly in response to his efforts to map Africa’s terrestrial fibre networks.

Speaking remotely on Monday at the Asia Pacific Regional Internet Conference on Operational Technologies (APRICOT) conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Song explained those efforts were not easy because African carriers – like many others around the world – share different amounts of info about their infrastructure in varying formats. Some share nothing, and after years of effort he was able to map perhaps 70 percent of the continent’s fibre infrastructure.

Song’s work eventually came to the attention of the Internet Society (ISOC), the Mozilla Foundation and even the World Bank, which decided to develop a standard way to describe terrestrial fibre networks.

A standard to do so is needed, he argued, because submarine cables are already well-understood and mapped at resources like the Submarine Cable Map.

Fibres laid on land, however, are often obscure. Plenty aren’t mapped at all. Others are mapped but without useful info like capacity, how many fibre pairs they employ, or whether they’re discrete links or shared capacity. He shared the example of a map published by Brazil’s telecoms regulator that shows nine carriers claim to have fibre links between the cities of Sao Paulo and Rio De Janeiro, without detailing if each is a physical fibre, or capacity on a rival company’s fibre. He thinks there are probably three or four cable operators between the cities, and the others shown on the map are either resellers that have purchased capacity or dark fibres.

Song argued that such maps are little use to buyers, who don’t know what they’re getting. He also worries they mean governments can’t understand the true state of local networks and therefore can’t make accurate assessments of the national data grid’s resilience. Investors can also struggle to see where opportunities may exist, which he feels disadvantages small ISPs that serve rural and remote areas.

Open Fibre Data Standard (OFDS) aims to address such issues by at least giving carriers a common language with which to describe their infrastructure. Getting them to use it is another matter. Song told the conference he hopes telecoms regulators will require carriers to share network info and to describe it in OFDS, then make it available for others to use.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

An important tool for keeping our drinking water clean may be riskier than we thought. New research finds link between water chlorination and an increased risk of certain cancers.

Scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden led the research, which is a review of past studies looking at chlorination and cancer. They found evidence that people exposed to the highest levels of chlorine byproducts were significantly more likely to develop bladder and colorectal cancer than people exposed to the lowest levels. This associated risk was seen starting at levels below the safety thresholds established in the U.S. and Europe, suggesting that current guidelines aren’t enough to protect the public, the researchers say.

Chlorine has been routinely used to disinfect drinking and recreational water since the early 20th century. It’s helped eradicate or reduce the spread of dangerous diseases like typhoid fever and cholera. But chlorine and other disinfectants are known to have their drawbacks. One major downside is the formation of disinfectant byproducts, created by these chemicals mixing with organic compounds in raw water, and the most prominent byproducts from chlorine are called trihalomethanes (THMs). Past research has shown that THMs can be cancer-causing, at least in rodents, but studies examining whether THMs in chlorinated water are tied to cancer in humans have been more mixed.

They ultimately analyzed data from 29 papers, the latest published just last year. Though most of the studies looked at bladder and colorectal cancer, 14 cancers in total were evaluated. The researchers failed to find a significant link between THM exposure and any other cancers besides the two. But they found that the highest THM levels (relative to the lowest) were associated with a 33% higher risk of bladder cancer, and a 15% higher risk of colorectal cancer. Importantly, this added risk appeared at THM levels starting at 41 parts per billion (ppb)—below the 80 ppb regulatory limit in the U.S. and the 100 ppb limit in the EU.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Singapore's Second Minister for Trade and Industry, Tan See Leng, addressed the issue in a statement to lawmakers. According to Tan, while Nvidia reported that 22 percent of its sales in the August-October 2023 period were attributed to Singapore, this figure primarily reflects billing practices rather than physical product delivery.

Tan emphasized that the actual physical delivery of Nvidia products to Singapore represents less than one percent of Nvidia's overall revenue for the three-month period ending in October 2023. These deliveries were primarily for major enterprises and government use within Singapore.

The discrepancy between billing attribution and physical delivery is not unique to Nvidia or Singapore. Tan explained that it is common practice for global entities to centralize billing for procured goods and services in their hubs, separate from where products are shipped. This strategy allows multinational companies operating across borders to streamline their financial operations, often billing everything through their headquarters address while shipping items directly to where they're needed.

Nvidia has long acknowledged this practice in its financial reporting, stating that revenue by geographic area is based on the billing location of the customer, which may differ from the end customer and shipping location.

Singapore's position in this matter is particularly sensitive due to its close ties with both China and the United States. The country has become a hub for many Chinese tech companies, including ByteDance's TikTok, which has its headquarters in Singapore.

[...] The investigation comes in the wake of DeepSeek's release of a chatbot called R1, which has demonstrated capabilities comparable to US-developed tools. This development has raised questions about China's progress in AI technology and whether this progress has relied on Western technology.

Original Submission

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/02/psa-amazon-kills-download-transfer-via-usb-option-for-kindles-this-week/

Later this week, Amazon is closing a small loophole that allowed purchasers of Kindle books to download those files to a computer and transfer them via USB. Originally intended to extend e-book access to owners of very old Kindles without Wi-Fi connectivity, the feature has also made it easier for people to download and store copies of the e-books they've bought, reducing the risk that Amazon might make changes to their text or remove them from the Kindle store entirely.

The "Download & transfer via USB" option on Amazon's site is going away this Wednesday, February 26.
[...]
If you're trying to download your Kindle purchases to your PC and Mac before the deadline, you'll need to have a somewhat older Kindle or Fire device attached to your account.
[...]
Jason Snell at Sixcolors highlighted a possible timesaver for people with large libraries: a command-line tool called the Amazon Kindle eBook Bulk Downloader that can grab all your files automatically rather than doing one at a time.
[...]
Obviously, "people who want to download these files so they can strip their DRM" are not of concern to Amazon, but we contacted the company to ask if it has an official recommendation for people who are still using older Kindles and want to download Amazon-purchased books for legitimate reasons. An Amazon representative only responded with a statement telling us the other ways that customers could get Amazon books onto their Kindle devices.

"Customers can continue reading books previously downloaded on their Kindle device, and access new content through the Kindle app, Kindle for web, as well as directly through Kindle devices with Wi-Fi capability," the spokesperson told Ars.

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Original Submission

upstart writes:

'It's extremely worrisome.' NASA's James Webb Space Telescope faces potential 20% budget cut just 4 years after launch:

The scientists behind NASA's largest and most powerful space telescope ever built are bracing for potentially crippling budget cuts, and the observatory is only halfway through its primary mission.

The team overseeing NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been directed to prepare for up to 20% in budget cuts that would touch on every aspect of the flagship observatory's operations, which are managed by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Maryland. The potential cut comes even as the space observatory is more in demand than ever before, with astronomers requesting the equivalent of nine years' worth of Webb observing time in one operational year.

"NASA is having budget constraints across the entire board, so the institute is being asked to consider a significant — about 20% — cut to our operational budget for the mission starting later this year," Tom Brown, who leads the Webb mission office at STScI, told a crowd of scientists last month at the 245th American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting in National Harbor, Maryland. "So the impacts of that, if it comes to pass, pretty much cut across the entire mission."

NASA's $25.4 billion budget request for 2025 set aside $317 million to fund the Webb space telescope, as well as the Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory that together comprise NASA's currently operational "Great Observatories." The Hubble Telescope program is facing a potential 20% budget cut of its own, according to SpaceNews. And Chandra is facing the end of its mission, with NASA's 2025 budget request including plans to wind down operations, with its budget dropping from $41.1 million this year to just $5.2 million in 2029.

But unlike Hubble, which turns 35 this spring, and Chandra, which launched in 1999, Webb is in its prime, approaching the midpoint of a primary 10-year mission. It could last at least 20 years or more, NASA officials have said. The mission is an international partnership between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.

"Frankly, this mission works far better than, really, most folks expected it to, you know," Brown said during the Webb town hall event on Jan. 15 at the AAS conference. "It's extremely worrisome that, while we're in the middle of the prime mission, we're also maybe looking at significant budget cuts."

taylorvich writes:

https://spectrum.ieee.org/pfas-busting-piezoelectric-catalyst

Nearly all coastal waters and more than half of rivers in some European countries contain elevated levels of chemicals that will never break down. But one Swiss startup says it has developed a piezoelectric catalyst that can eliminate 99 percent of these forever chemicals in wastewater streams and prevent them from entering water supplies.

On 30 January, Zurich-based Oxyle announced it had raised US $16 million to scale up its technology and deploy its first commercial units, which aim to eliminate the chemicals from industrial wastewater. Oxyle last year built and began operating its first full-scale system at a contaminated site in Switzerland.

The company developed its technology around eliminating per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS or "forever chemicals." PFAS are incredibly stable molecules due to their strong carbon-fluorine bonds, which has led to widespread use of them in industrial processes and consumer products such as waterproof fabrics and long-lasting coatings.

But their durability has also resulted in the spread of PFAS throughout the environment, into potable water, and into the food chain. Exposure to PFAS has been linked to health issues such as decreased fertility, increased risk of some cancers, and reduced ability to fight infections. The amount of PFAS-carrying micro- and nanoplastics getting into human brains has increased significantly over the past 50 years, according to new research in Nature Medicine.

Finding cost-effective ways to reduce PFAS on a large scale has proven challenging, in part because of the energy required to break down the persistent chemicals.

Many legacy PFAS treatment methods focus on extracting PFAS from water rather than destroying them. But many of these approaches aren't environmentally friendly or energy efficient. "These methods fail to break down PFAS, leaving behind hazardous waste that often ends up in landfills or incinerators, reintroducing contamination into the environment and perpetuating an endless cycle of treatment," says Fajer Mushtaq, CEO and cofounder of Oxyle.

Oxyle aims to address these shortcomings. The company's approach electrochemically breaks down PFAS into their chemical constituents such as carbon dioxide and fluorides, which then exit wastewater streams. "Instead of simply filtering PFAS, our solution actively degrades and mineralizes broad-spectra PFAS into harmless byproducts, eliminating the need for polluting, costly, and complex secondary waste management," says Mushtaq.

To achieve this, Oxyle uses a nanoporous material coated with apiezoelectric catalyst that offers a massive surface area for immobilizing PFAS. When water flows across the material, the piezoelectric effect generates electrical charges. This triggers reduction and oxidation reactions that gradually degrade PFAS into their harmlesscompounds. For example, PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid), a type of PFAS, gets broken down into fluoride ions (F-), sulfate ions (SO42-), and carbon dioxide (CO2).

Original Submission

owl writes:

https://www.ifixit.com/News/108371/right-to-repair-laws-have-now-been-introduced-in-all-50-us-states

With the introduction of a bill in Wisconsin, Right to Repair legislation has now been introduced in every single US state.

We've been fighting for the simple right to fix everything we own for the last eleven years—and we've been joined in that fight by more and more advocates, tinkerers, farmers, students, and lawmakers. Today, that movement has touched every corner of the country. Lawmakers in every state in the union have filed legislation demanding access to the parts, tools, and documentation we need for repair. This year alone, legislation is active in 24 states.

Some of those laws have passed: Five states (New York, California, Minnesota, Oregon, and Colorado) have passed electronics Right to Repair legislation. One in five Americans lives in a state that has passed Right to Repair—and the remaining states are working hard to restore repair competition.

[...] "This is more than a legislative landmark—it's a tipping point. We've gone from a handful of passionate advocates to a nationwide call for repair autonomy," said Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit. "People are fed up with disposable products and locked-down devices. Repair is the future, and this moment proves it."

Original Submission

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/02/dangling-twitching-human-robot-with-synthetic-muscles-makes-its-debut/

On Wednesday, Clone Robotics released video footage of its Protoclone humanoid robot, a full-body machine that uses synthetic muscles to create unsettlingly human-like movements. In the video, the robot hangs suspended from the ceiling as its limbs twitch and kick, marking what the company claims is a step toward its goal of creating household-helper robots.

Poland-based Clone Robotics designed the Protoclone with a polymer skeleton that replicates 206 human bones.

[...] It contains over 1,000 artificial muscles built with the company's "Myofiber" technology, which builds on the McKibbin pneumatic muscle concept.

[...] While the Protoclone is a twitching, dangling robotic prototype right now, there's a lot of tech packed into its body. Protoclone's sensory system includes four depth cameras in its skull for vision, 70 inertial sensors to track joint positions, and 320 pressure sensors that provide force feedback. This system lets the robot react to visual input and learn by watching humans perform tasks.

[...] Other companies' robots typically use other types of actuators, such as solenoids and electric motors. Clone's pressure-based muscle system is an interesting approach, though getting Protoclone to stand and balance without the need for suspension or umbilicals may still prove a challenge.

Clone Robotics plans to start its production with 279 units called Clone Alpha, with plans to open preorders later in 2025.

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Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Repurposing old GPUs to help relive your favorite legacy games.

A few days ago, it came to light that Nvidia has dropped support for 32-bit CUDA applications with its latest RTX 50-series (Blackwell) GPUs. Support for PhysX has gradually faded over the years. However, PhysX can still be offloaded to an RTX 40-series (Ada Lovelace) or older GPU, and that's exactly what a user at Reddit has done. In addition, we've gathered some interesting benchmarks, courtesy of VerbalSilence on YouTube and the same Reddit user, where the GTX 980 Ti handily outperforms the RTX 5090 in 32-bit PhysX games.

PhysX is fully functional in 64-bit applications like Batman: Arkham Knight, so Nvidia hasn't abandoned the technology entirely. However, the GPU maker has retired 32-bit CUDA support for RTX 50-series GPUs (and likely beyond). Given the age of the technology, most games with PhysX were compiled using 32-bit CUDA libraries. This is a software limitation, for the most part, though maintaining support for legacy environments is easier said than done.

As the news dropped, a Redditor snagged a separate RTX 3050 GPU to pair with the primary RTX 5090 to maintain PhysX support in older 32-bit titles. Using the Nvidia Control Panel, you can offload PhysX computations to a separate GPU or CPU, which you never need to do. Around 20 years back, dedicated processors for computing physics calculations were dubbed PPUs (Physics Processing Units). Ageia used to make such devices, which Nvidia later acquired.

In older 32-bit titles, there's a substantial gap between using the RTX 3050 and without. With legacy PhysX no longer supported, RTX 50 GPUs crash when you enable the setting or fall back to CPU processing. The user mentions that despite setting the RTX 3050 as a dedicated PhysX processor, 64-bit games utilize the RTX 5090 anyway. As mentioned above, modern PhysX implementations, at least the handful that exist, should still run fine on Blackwell.

Another test conducted by VerbalSilence reveals a striking difference in Mirror's Edge, where in some scenes, the RTX 5080 plummets to less than 10 FPS while the GTX 980 Ti sits comfortably at almost 150 FPS. The performance delta is heavily dependent on the game's PhysX implementation. Still, Borderlands 2 sees the GTX 980 Ti lead the RTX 5080 by almost 2X, and that's telling. Here, the GTX 980 Ti system is coupled with a Core i5-4690K, with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D reserved for the RTX 5080 setup.

It's unlikely that Nvidia will reinstate compatibility for legacy CUDA applications. If you genuinely wish to play your favorite 32-bit titles with PhysX, maybe it's time to dust off that old GPU in your cabinet and restore it to service.

Original Submission

taylorvich writes:

https://phys.org/news/2025-02-fluid-discovery-defies-logic.html

A team led by researchers at UNC-Chapel Hill have made an extraordinary discovery that is reshaping our understanding of bubbles and their movement. Picture tiny air bubbles inside a container filled with liquid. When the container is shaken up and down, these bubbles engage in an unexpected, rhythmic "galloping" motion—bouncing like playful horses and moving horizontally, even though the shaking occurs vertically.

This counterintuitive phenomenon, revealed in a new study published in Nature, has significant implications for technology, from cleaning surfaces to improving heat transfer in microchips and even advancing space applications.

These galloping bubbles are already garnering significant attention: their impact in the field of fluid dynamics has been recognized with an award for their video entry at the most recent Gallery of Fluid Motion, organized by the American Physical Society.

"Our research not only answers a fundamental scientific question but also inspires curiosity and exploration of the fascinating, unseen world of fluid motion," said Pedro Sáenz, principal investigator and professor of applied mathematics at UNC-Chapel Hill. "After all, the smallest things can sometimes lead to the biggest changes."

In collaboration with a colleague at Princeton University, the research team sought to answer a seemingly simple question: Could shaking bubbles up and down make them move continuously in one direction?

To their surprise, not only did the bubbles move—but they did so perpendicularly to the direction of shaking. This means that vertical vibrations were spontaneously transformed into persistent horizontal motion, something that defies common intuition in physics. Moreover, by adjusting the shaking frequency and amplitude, the researchers discovered that bubbles could transition between different movement patterns: straight-line motion, circular paths, and chaotic zigzagging reminiscent of bacterial search strategies.

"This discovery transforms our understanding of bubble dynamics, which is usually unpredictable, into a controlled and versatile phenomenon with far-reaching applications in heat transfer, microfluidics, and other technologies," explained Connor Magoon, joint first author and graduate student in mathematics at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Bubbles play a key role in a vast range of everyday processes, from the fizz in soft drinks to climate regulation and industrial applications such as cooling systems, water treatment, and chemical production.

Controlling bubble movement has long been a challenge across multiple fields, but this study introduces an entirely new method: leveraging a fluid instability to direct bubbles in precise ways.

One immediate application is in cooling systems for microchips. On Earth, buoyancy naturally removes bubbles from heated surfaces, preventing overheating. However, in microgravity environments such as space, there is no buoyancy, making bubble removal a major issue. This newly discovered method allows bubbles to be actively removed without relying on gravity, which can enable improved heat transfer in satellites and space-based electronics.

Original Submission

Freeman writes:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/02/linux-leaders-pave-a-path-for-rust-in-kernel-while-supporting-c-veterans/

Rust, a modern and notably more memory-safe language than C, once seemed like it was on a steady, calm, and gradual approach into the Linux kernel.

In 2021, Linux kernel leaders, like founder and leader Linus Torvalds himself, were impressed with the language but had a "wait and see" approach. Rust for Linux gained supporters and momentum, and in October 2022, Torvalds approved a pull request adding support for Rust code in the kernel.

By late 2024, however, Rust enthusiasts were frustrated with stalls and blocks on their efforts, with the Rust for Linux lead quitting over "nontechnical nonsense."
[...]
over the last two months, things in one section of the Linux Kernel Mailing List have gotten tense and may now be heading toward resolution—albeit one that Torvalds does not think "needs to be all that black-and-white."
[...]
Hector Martin, the lead of the Asahi Linux project, resigned from the list of Linux maintainers while also departing the Asahi project, citing burnout and frustration with roadblocks to implementing Rust in the kernel.
[...]
Christoph Hellwig, maintainer of the Direct Memory Access (DMA) API, was opposed to Rust code in his section on the grounds that a cross-language codebase was painful to maintain.
[...]
Hellwig posted a longer missive, outlining his opposition to Rust bindings—or translations of Rust libraries that can work with equivalents in C—and continuing with his prior comparison of such multi-language allowances to "cancer."
[...]
Torvalds' response from Thursday does offer some clarification on Rust bindings in the kernel, but also on what die-hard C coders can and cannot control.