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Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The past few years have seen the emergence of a great many AI companies. This is extremely exciting/alarming (delete according to whether you bought shares early), but it has also had a secondary consequence. Along with the proliferation of AI companies has come a proliferation of AI company logos.

The fascinating thing, highlighted by several publications, is that many of these logos look near-identical. According to sociologist James I. Bowie, writing for Fast Company in 2023, the trend is for a “stylized hexagon” with an implied rotation. This, he notes, is equally suggestive of “portals opening to wondrous new worlds”, “widening Yeatsian gyres” and “toilets flushing”.

Or we could look at it the way Radek Sienkiewicz, a developer who blogs as VelvetShark, does. Sienkiewicz noted that most of these logos have the following elements: a circular shape, a central opening or focal point, radiating elements from the centre and soft organic curves. This, he says, is an “apt description” of “a butthole“.

Feedback examined the logos of OpenAI, Apple Intelligence, Claude and others, and we can confirm that, yes, they do bear more than a passing resemblance to a sphincter, and once you see it you can’t unsee it. DeepSeek and Midjourney are about the only exceptions: their logos look like a whale and a sailboat on the sea. But maybe they will soon get sucked into the circular logo maelstrom.

Why so many stylised hexagons? Perhaps the whirling patterns are meant to symbolise the recursive nature of thought, the ability of AIs to iteratively improve their understanding of the world.

Not according to OpenAI, though. Its brand guidelines offer a detailed explanation for the company’s logo, which it calls “blossom” to make you think it isn’t a butthole. “At its heart, the logo captures the dynamic intersection between humanity and technology – two forces that shape our world and inspire our work. The design embodies the fluidity and warmth of human-centered thinking through the use of circles, while right angles introduce the precision and structure that technology demands.” Readers are free to make of that what they will.

Personally, Feedback has a working hypothesis about these logos. It involves the psychological phenomenon known as “groupthink”.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Largest Imaging Spectro-Polarimeter Achieves First Light at the NSF Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope - NSO - National Solar Observatory:

Maui, HI – The U.S. National Science Foundation Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, the world's most powerful solar telescope, operated by the NSF National Solar Observatory (NSO) near the summit of Maui's Haleakalā, reached a major milestone: achieving first light with its most advanced instrument, the new Visible Tunable Filter (VTF). The solar image it produced shows early promise to the instrument's scientific capabilities. Designed and built by the Institut für Sonnenphysik (KIS) in Freiburg, Germany, the VTF is the world's largest imaging spectro-polarimeter, emerging as a centerpiece to the Inouye's instrument suite.

After arriving last year, the KIS team, in collaboration with NSF NSO scientists and engineers, rebuilt and integrated the VTF into the Inouye's Coudé Lab, marking the completion of the telescope's originally designed suite of five first-generation instruments. Following extensive optic calibration and alignment, the team successfully carried out the instrument's first on-Sun observations.

The newly released image reveals a cluster of sunspots on the Sun's surface with a spatial sampling of 10 km (or 6.2 miles) per pixel. Sunspots, areas of intense magnetic activity, often lead to solar flares and coronal mass ejections. This image, taken during technical testing as part of first light, shows early promise for the VTF's full capabilities. While it is not yet fully operational, science verification and commissioning are expected to begin in 2026. The Inouye was built for instruments like the VTF – of such magnitude that it took over a decade to develop. These successful first light observations underscore the unique quality and functionality of the instrument, setting the stage for exciting findings in solar physics in the coming decades.

[...] The VTF is an imaging spectro-polarimeter that captures two-dimensional snapshots of the Sun at specific wavelengths. Different wavelengths of light appear to our eyes as different colors – and light increases in wavelength as it moves from violet to red in the optical range of the electromagnetic spectrum. Unlike traditional spectrographs that spread light into a full spectrum like a rainbow, the VTF uses an etalon – a pair of precisely spaced glass plates separated by tens of microns – that allows it to tune through colors. By adjusting this spacing at the nanometer scale (i.e., as tiny as a billionth of a meter), the VTF sequentially scans different wavelengths, similar to taking a series of photographs using different color filters. It takes several hundred images in just a few seconds with three high-accuracy synchronized cameras, at different colors, and combines these images to build a three-dimensional view of solar structures and analyzes their plasma properties.

The VTF features the largest Fabry-Pérot etalons ever built for solar research, with a second etalon expected to arrive from KIS by year's end.

I am resigning with immediate effect from SoylentNews. I no longer have the trust of all of the community and my position is untenable.

I wish the site and the community all the very best for the future. I have enjoyed being a part of the last 11 years and I will be leaving behind many friends.

Some might say "Break out the flags and let the party commence!"

Jan

Addendum

I have been asked by the Chairman of the Board to publicise an email that I sent to him in response to him asking me what way my departure will affect the site's operation in the immediate future.

[OregonJohn]

Of course. I will remain contactable on this email in the future.

There will only be one active editor (hubie [...]) for much of the time. This is only manageable for a matter of days. There are several editors who still contribute from time to time and they may be able to assist depending on the level of their other commitments.

I have switched off the sock puppet detection and management software, which was being run locally on my own server. Previously, this was a task that was manually done by an administrator, but means that sock puppets cannot be easily detected until they abuse the site. This is, of course, too late.

I have switched off the Spam detection and management software. That is partially the cause of the loss of confidence in me which now exists in some of our community, so it is perhaps less important. It was being run locally on my own server.

Somebody will have to answer the emails addressed to 'admin@soylentnews.org', and action them if necessary.

I regret having to resign, but when valuable community members are leaving the site and I am the reason for them leaving then it is better that I go now and give the community time to stabilise. I got it wrong and I should pay the price.

[Edited after initial Release: 02-05-2025 08:47--JR]

A Response

First I have got to say that I am both surprised and grateful for the many comments to my announcement. Thank you for each and every one of them.

I have read them all and i have taken note of the advice offered. It was all good advice, always well intentioned, but in some cases you are only aware of some of the circumstances behind my actions. I have considered everything you have said and I have made some personal decisions for the future.

For some time now I have been having medical problems. Currently they are being managed by medication but one of the side effects is that I am suffering from extreme fatigue and disrupted sleep patterns. (The regular home visits by pretty nurses are a bonus, but I digress...). Although the doctors are optimistic that they can bring the problem under control with medication alone, there is still a chance of surgery being necessary - probably not life threatening but certainly potentially life changing if it has to be employed. For the moment I am unable to commit to the level of support that I have been giving to the site over the last few years and the doctors would like to resolve the issues in the coming months. I too want it to be resolved. The problems related to the loss of trust of a small portion of our community just forced my hand and I decided to do what the doctors have been asking me to do for many months. They, at least, will be happy that I have decided to follow their advice for a change.

I have spent the weekend considering the advice that you have given me and I cannot fault any of it. But for the moment my move back to the community is essential. I am not leaving the site, but I am unable to say when or how I will be able to contribute, and remaining in this uncertain situation would be unfair on the other members of staff and the community too. If I had not resigned then most people would have thought that things were carrying on as usual but that will not be the case. Hubie, as the main editor, would have a unmanageable workload and would have to be active on the site almost every day. That is unfair, unreasonable and, frankly, I think it is unacceptable. We desperately need a couple of volunteers to help out as editors. There are around 250+ active community members and if just 2 of them can step forward then they would only have to edit on average 1 or 2 stories a day. Personally, I prefer to edit at least a full day's worth (5 stories) and then Hubie or perhaps another editor can cover the next day. Weekends we often preload most stories so that we too can enjoy the weekend. That way spreads the workload and gives me time to do other things, both on the site and of it. I have offered to train anyone who wishes to give the job a try and, if everything works out for me, then I should be able to rejoin the staff and pick up where I am leaving off.

Being an editor does NOT mean that you have any of the other tasks that I have been doing. They are completely unrelated to the editing role. Despite some ACs' claims to the contrary there is no requirement for Administrators to be Editors or vice versa.

As for the site management, the site survived much longer without firm direction and leadership in the past and it can do so again. But there are other competent staff who can pick up the essential tasks, and leave the less important ones until we have a full complement of staff again. What is important is that the site remains active. Some were discussing rewriting the software - Why? The site works and doesn't need much at the moment. There is the odd hiccup but kolie is able to restart the system without so far losing any data. Others have mentioned looking for an alternative site - Why? The community here is doing what the community should and there is no need to look elsewhere, is there?

I really want there to be a site for me to return to once my problems are sorted out. All that I ask you to do is keep making submissions, giving insightful, witty and knowledgeable comments, and pushing out journals. This is exactly what you have been doing throughout the disruption of the last few years. I would appreciate that remaining the case for the future too.

I will not disappear (or at least I am not planning to...) and if I feel that I can do something then I will do it. What I do not want for the moment is the responsibility of having to be available all the time and a long list of outstanding jobs that never seems to get any shorter.

Seriously guys, I have been stunned by your response and you need to know that I appreciate it. It was a great morale boost and it came at just the right time.

We have tried to design a site which does not rely on a single person. The board do a brilliant job (often unseen and unrecognised) and they are 100% doing it for the community. My (hopefully temporary) departure should not be allowed to have any significant effect on the site.

[Edited after initial release: 2025-05-04 16:00--JR]

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Microsoft has announced it will require paid subscriptions for Windows Server 2025 hotpatching, a service that enables admins to install security updates without restarting.

The company urged admins to try hotpatching free of charge before it becomes generally available in July, when they'll have to pay for a subscription to test it.

However, Redmond also warned those currently testing Windows Server 2025 hotpatching in preview to disenroll on or before June 30 so that they're not automatically subscribed in July.

"Hotpatching for Windows Server 2025, made available in preview in 2024, will become generally available as a subscription service on July 1st, 2025. With hotpatching, we are taking what was previously an Azure-only capability and now making it available to Windows Server machines outside of Azure through Azure Arc," Microsoft said.

"Hotpatching is available at no charge to preview now, but starting in July with the subscription launch, hotpatching for Windows Server 2025 will be offered at a subscription of $1.50 USD per CPU core per month."

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

For the past week, the car-sized lab on wheels seemed to remain in its location on the rim of Jezero crater. Meanwhile, a team of scientists and engineers on Earth focused on how to free the tool from the rock. 

Anyone who has used a power drill around the house knows the frustration of getting one stuck in a board or wall, without being able to yank it back out. Well, sometimes the U.S. space agency has to retrieve a stuck drill, too — but from roughly 132 million miles away. 

Fortunately, Perseverance didn't have to sacrifice the coring bit. A NASA spokesperson provided an update on the status of the rover on Wednesday.

"The team was working to extract a drill bit from the most recent sample collection attempt, which was successfully accomplished as of late Tuesday night," NASA told Mashable. "This type of situation was planned for in the rover's design, and there are other drill bits onboard if needed."

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

TSMC has broken ground on a third processor facility in Arizona

Following CHIPS act funding, Apple's iPhone processor manufacturer TSMC has continued its Arizona investment with the company breaking ground on a third chip fabrication facility.

Five years after it first announced plans to build one processor plant in Arizona, TSMC has now begun work on its third, benefiting from funding it got from the CHIPS Act signed in 2022.

President Trump now vocally opposes the CHIPS Act, despite setting up a new monitoring framework for it. Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick was nonetheless on hand to credit Trump with the new factory.

"We are at TSMC Arizona to celebrate the return of American manufacturing," said Lutnick in a statement. "President Trump's bold leadership and clear direction are driving companies and jobs back to this country at a record pace."

The new plant is part of a $100 billion investment that TSMC will make over the next four years. According to the White House, the investment is expected to create 40,000 construction jobs over that period, as well as tens of thousands of technology jobs.

When it is finished, the new plant will make processors for a range of firms, including Nvidia, AMD, and Apple.

[...] The Arizona plants are not fully self-reliant. Processors made in Arizona still have to be sent back to Taiwan for finishing for now, meaning they are then subject to Trump's "reciprocal" tariffs when Apple re-imports them. Apple has a deal with AMCOR to finish in the US, but that partnership will take years to come to fruition.

It's not clear how long TSMC expects construction on the new facility to take, although Tucson Weekly cites unspecified sources saying operation should begin in 2030.

[...] At one point, it was reported that the company ultimately intended to build six plants by 2024. However, construction of the second plant didn't begin until 2022 and now won't be operational until 2028.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Another Periodic Suggestion to Try, Just Try, Switching to Kagi for Search:

Aaron Pressman, writing earlier this month in The Boston Globe, "Why I Abandoned Google Search After 27 Years — and What I'm Using Instead":

The UK now requires travelers from America to obtain an electronic travel authorization, or ETA. I wasn't sure of the exact name of the ETA, so I just searched "travel to UK."

The results were all about obtaining an ETA and I picked a link that looked like the official UK government site. It was not; the official site was lower, below an AI summary, some sponsored links, and other junk on the results page. Luckily for me, I did get a legitimate travel pass — but the site I picked overcharged me by about $70.

I don't know what the name for this sort of thing is, but it's like a semi-scam. There are similar services to what Pressman ran into here for expedited passport renewals, for example — third-party companies that present themselves as official partners of the government that charge you extra for a service. But they just handle for you what you could just as easily do yourself, if you found the right place on the web to do it. A complete scam would be taking your money and giving you nothing (or a bogus document) in return. These semi-scams deliver the thing they're promising, but charge you more than you should pay.

[...] After I learned my lesson, I did some research in search of better search. People I trust on the Internet, including the Apple blogger John Gruber and novelist Cory Doctorow, recommended a new search engine called Kagi.

[...] I keep trying to emphasize that I recommend switching to Kagi not because it's more private (although it clearly is), not as a protest against Google (although for some, switching could be), not as a rejection of search ads dominating the top of Google's results (although that's true too), but simply because Kagi's results are clearly better.

Like, even if I use the magic &udm=14 parameter with Google search, to get "disenshittified" results from Google, I find I get better results from Kagi. When I know there's one right answer (say, a specific article I remember reading and want to find again), Kagi is more likely than Google to list it first. If it's a years-old article, Kagi is way more likely than Google to find it at all. For me, Google (and, alas, DuckDuckGo too) have largely stopped working reliably for finding not-recent stuff on the web. Not true with Kagi.

owl writes:

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2025/04/photos-35th-anniversary-hubble-space-telescope/682628/

Thirty-five years ago, in April of 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched into orbit aboard the space shuttle Discovery. Since then, NASA reports that Hubble has made "nearly 1.7 million observations, looking at approximately 55,000 astronomical targets," bringing so much of the nearby universe into focus. Gathered here is a collection of amazing recent images—some published in celebration of Hubble's 35th anniversary, others either newly released or recently updated with new techniques.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Several recent scientific findings, including signs of life on an exoplanet and 'de-extinction' of the dire wolf have caused a stir but when a claim seems too good to be true it probably is

Enter the Royal Society in London – the UK’s national academy of science – and you will see a three-word phrase: “nullius in verba“. This motto, held for over 350 years, translates to “take nobody’s word for it”, meaning science cannot simply be taken on trust; it must be backed by evidence.

But what is evidence? Here, things become murkier. A claim that the sky is blue requires little to back it up, as anyone who is able to see it for themselves can attest. Start claiming that the sky is purple, however, and you had better come armed with a good explanation for why we have never noticed this before.

Another motto, attributed to the astronomer Carl Sagan, sums up this varying scale of proof: “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”. As we report in this issue, some recent high-profile examples have fallen far short of this.

The first would be close to Sagan’s heart: last month, astronomers claimed to have found evidence of a gas potentially produced by alien life on a distant exoplanet, but a reanalysis of the data suggests they may not have detected anything at all. Meanwhile, we report strong criticism from the International Union for Conservation of Nature of the claim by biotech firm Colossal that it has “de-extincted” the dire wolf.

The job of science, as always, is now to dig deeper in the hope of uncovering the truth

Many are excited by these claims and would like them to be true, but, unfortunately, they are not. We take seriously our duty to accurately report strong claims, as demonstrated by our story about a proposal that light doesn’t have wave-particle duality, but is actually solely a quantum particle.

This truly is an extraordinary claim, attempting to overturn a century of physics consensus. As we make clear, the evidence supporting the idea is currently lacking – but physicists are intrigued enough to continue investigating. With no clear reason for why the proposal is wrong, the job of science, as always, is now to dig deeper in the hope of uncovering the truth, or, at least, our best approximation of it.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

A Strange Phrase Keeps Turning Up in Scientific Papers, But Why?:

Earlier this year, scientists discovered a peculiar term appearing in published papers: "vegetative electron microscopy".

This phrase, which sounds technical but is actually nonsense, has become a "digital fossil" – an error preserved and reinforced in artificial intelligence (AI) systems that is nearly impossible to remove from our knowledge repositories.

Like biological fossils trapped in rock, these digital artefacts may become permanent fixtures in our information ecosystem.

The case of vegetative electron microscopy offers a troubling glimpse into how AI systems can perpetuate and amplify errors throughout our collective knowledge.

Vegetative electron microscopy appears to have originated through a remarkable coincidence of unrelated errors.

First, twopapers from the 1950s, published in the journal Bacteriological Reviews, were scanned and digitised.

However, the digitising process erroneously combined "vegetative" from one column of text with "electron" from another. As a result, the phantom term was created.

Decades later, "vegetative electron microscopy" turned up in some Iranian scientific papers. In 2017 and 2019, two papers used the term in English captions and abstracts.

This appears to be due to a translation error. In Farsi, the words for "vegetative" and "scanning" differ by only a single dot.

The upshot? As of today, "vegetative electron microscopy" appears in 22 papers, according to Google Scholar. One was the subject of a contested retraction from a Springer Nature journal, and Elsevier issued a correction for another.

The term also appears in news articles discussing subsequent integrity investigations.

Vegetative electron microscopy began to appear more frequently in the 2020s. To find out why, we had to peer inside modern AI models – and do some archaeological digging through the vast layers of data they were trained on.

[...] Finding errors of this sort is not easy. Fixing them may be almost impossible.

Snotnose writes:

According to Popular Science some dolphins have an unusual way to attract a mate.

Researchers say they have made a startling discovery in the Amazon River. But their evidence wasn't collected from the water—it could be seen from shore. After around 219 hours of observations, they can confirm that male Amazon river dolphins (Inia geoffrensis), also known as botos, often roll onto their backs and urinate over three feet into the air. It isn't random. The male botos appear to be peeing with a purpose.

"Aerial urination starts with a boto slowly positioning itself upside down, exposing its penis above water, and ejecting a stream of urine into the air," the team explained in their study.

[...] Urine is a common communication tool used by many terrestrial animals such as dogs, bears, and cats. It's seen far less frequently in aquatic environments, but Araújo-Wan and their colleagues offered a few examples in their study. Dominant male African cichlid fish (Astatotilapia burtoni) interpret urine pulses for both reproductive and territorial information. The narrow-clawed crayfish (Astacus leptodactylus), meanwhile, urinates as a sign of aggression. In both of these cases, however, it's more about the act of peeing than what is actually in the pee itself.

Not looking forward to teenage boys in the pool this summer.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Monty Python and the Holy Grail turns 50:

Monty Python and the Holy Grail is widely considered to be among the best comedy films of all time, and it's certainly one of the most quotable. This absurdist masterpiece sending up Arthurian legend turns 50 (!) this year.

It was partly Python member Terry Jones' passion for the Middle Ages and Arthurian legend that inspired Holy Grail and its approach to comedy. (Jones even went on to direct a 2004 documentary, Medieval Lives.) The troupe members wrote several drafts beginning in 1973, and Jones and Terry Gilliam were co-directors—the first full-length feature for each, so filming was one long learning process. Reviews were mixed when Holy Grail was first released—much like they were for Young Frankenstein (1974), another comedic masterpiece—but audiences begged to differ. It was the top-grossing British film screened in the US in 1975. And its reputation has only grown over the ensuing decades.

The film's broad cultural influence extends beyond the entertainment industry. Holy Grail has been the subject of multiple scholarly papers examining such topics as its effectiveness at teaching Arthurian literature or geometric thought and logic, the comedic techniques employed, and why the depiction of a killer rabbit is so fitting (killer rabbits frequently appear drawn in the margins of Gothic manuscripts). My personal favorite was a 2018 tongue-in-cheek paper on whether the Black Knight could have survived long enough to make good on his threat to bite King Arthur's legs off (tl;dr: no).

So it's not at all surprising that Monty Python and the Holy Grail proved to be equally influential and beloved by Ars staffers, several of whom offer their reminiscences below.

They were nerd-gassing before it was cool

The Monty Python troupe famously made Holy Grail on a shoestring budget—so much so that they couldn't afford to have the knights ride actual horses. (There are only a couple of scenes featuring a horse, and apparently it's the same horse.) Rather than throwing up their hands in resignation, that very real constraint fueled the Pythons' creativity. The actors decided the knights would simply pretend to ride horses while their porters followed behind, banging halves of coconut shells together to mimic the sound of horses' hooves—a time-honored Foley effect dating back to the early days of radio.

Being masters of absurdist humor, naturally, they had to call attention to it. Arthur and his trusty servant, Patsy (Gilliam), approach the castle of their first potential recruit. When Arthur informs the guards that they have "ridden the length and breadth of the land," one of the guards isn't having it. "What, ridden on a horse? You're using coconuts! You've got two empty halves of coconut, and you're bangin' 'em together!"

That raises the obvious question: Where did they get the coconuts? What follows is one of the greatest examples of nerd-gassing yet to appear on film. Arthur claims he and Patsy found them, but the guard is incredulous since the coconut is tropical and England is a temperate zone. Arthur counters by invoking the example of migrating swallows. Coconuts do not migrate, but Arthur suggests they could be carried by swallows gripping a coconut by the husk.

The guard still isn't having it. It's a question of getting the weight ratios right, you see, to maintain air-speed velocity. Another guard gets involved, suggesting it might be possible with an African swallow, but that species is non-migratory. And so on. The two are still debating the issue as an exasperated Arthur rides off to find another recruit.

The best part? There's a callback to that scene late in the film when the knights must answer three questions to cross the Bridge of Death or else be chucked into the Gorge of Eternal Peril. When it's Arthur's turn, the third question is "What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?" Arthur asks whether this is an African or a European swallow. This stumps the Bridgekeeper, who gets flung into the gorge. Sir Belvedere asks how Arthur came to know so much about swallows. Arthur replies, "Well, you have to know these things when you're a king, you know."

The plucky Black Knight ("It's just a flesh wound!") will always hold a special place in my heart, but that debate over air-speed velocities of laden versus unladen swallows encapsulates what makes Holy Grail a timeless masterpiece.

taylorvich writes:

https://techxplore.com/news/2025-04-flying-squirrel-drone-foldable-wings.html

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, have already proved to be valuable tools for a wide range of applications, ranging from film and entertainment production to defense and security, agriculture, logistics, construction and environmental monitoring. While these technologies are already widely used in many countries worldwide, engineers have been trying to enhance their capabilities further so that they can be used to tackle even more complex problems.

Researchers at Pohang University of Science and Technology and the Agency for Defense Development (ADD)'s AI Autonomy Technology Center in South Korea recently developed a drone with foldable wings that could be more maneuverable than conventional drones. Their drone draws inspiration from the winged flying squirrel, a type of squirrel that uses loose flaps of skin attached from their wrists to their ankles to glide from tree to tree.

"The flying squirrel drone is inspired by the movements of flying squirrels, particularly their ability to rapidly decelerate by spreading their wings just before landing on trees," Dohyeon Lee, Jun-Gill Kang and Soohee Han, co-authors of the paper, told Tech Xplore. "We initiated this research with the belief that, like flying squirrels, drones could expand their dynamic capabilities by utilizing aerodynamic drag."

Published on the arXiv preprint server, the most recent paper by Lee, Kang and Han builds on an earlier paper in which they first presented their squirrel-inspired robot. Their previous paper outlined their robot's basic underlying hardware and a reinforcement learning technique that allowed it to rapidly decelerate while performing maneuvers in flight.

"In our new paper, we proposed a novel drone system that utilizes deployable wing membranes, demonstrating superior performance compared to conventional drone systems in executing high-acceleration maneuvers such as rapid stops and sharp turns," said Lee, Kang and Han.

The aerodynamic drag from the robot's wing membrane was previously found to hinder its performance in common flight scenarios (i.e., when the drone was flying in a straight line). In situations where the robot is required to suddenly stop or rapidly change direction to prevent collisions with obstacles, the deployment of wings can produce a sizeable force in the direction opposite to the object that the drone is trying to avoid.

"To safely and reliably operate in these scenarios, the flying squirrel drone must be capable of deciding when to deploy or retract its wings based on the situation, and the rotors must be able to generate appropriate thrust accordingly," explained Lee, Kang and Han.

In their recent study, the researchers also trained artificial neural networks to accurately predict the aerodynamic drag generated by the drone's silicone-based wing membrane. They then developed a Thrust-Wing Coordination Control (TWCC) strategy that utilizes the neural network's predictions to optimally control both the wing membrane and motors, enabling the reliable execution of desired maneuvers.

"Another key contribution of our work is the development of a hardware system that allows for rapid deployment and retraction of the silicone wings, all while maintaining the conventional quadrotor form factor," said Lee, Kang and Han.

"Collectively, we proposed a framework capable of simultaneously controlling the silicone wing membrane—with its complex, non-analytically predictable aerodynamics—and the drone's motors, and the demonstration of high-performance trajectory tracking and obstacle avoidance on real hardware."

Original Submission

upstart writes:

China's '2D' chip could soon be used to make silicon-free chips:

Researchers in China say they have created a new silicon-free transistor that could significantly boost performance while reducing energy consumption. The team says this development represents a new direction for transistor research.

The scientists said that the new transistor could be integrated into chips that could one day perform up to 40% faster than the best existing silicon processors made by U.S. companies like Intel. This is according to a report in the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

Despite that dramatic increase in power, the researchers claim that such chips would also draw 10% less power. The scientists outlined their findings in a recent study published Feb. 13 in the journal Nature.

Lead author of the study Hailin Peng, professor of chemistry at Peking University (PKU) in China, told SCMP: "If chip innovations based on existing materials are considered a 'short cut', then our development of 2D material-based transistors is akin to 'changing lanes'."

The efficiency and performance gains are possible thanks to the chip's unique architecture, the scientists said in the paper, specifically the new two-dimensional silicon-free transistor they created. This transistor is a gate-all-around field-effect transistor (GAAFET). Unlike previous leading transistor designs like the fin field-effect transistor (FinFET), a GAAFET transistor wraps sources with a gate on all four sides, instead of just three.

[...] This is because a fully wrapped source provides better electrostatic control (as there is less energy loss to static electricity discharges) and the potential for higher drive currents and faster switching times.

While the GAAFET architecture isn't itself new, the PKU team's use of bismuth oxyselenide as the semiconductor was, as well as the fact they used it to create an "atomically-thin" two-dimensional transistor.

Editor's note: This article was first published March 24, 2025.

See also:

• Low-power 2D gate-all-around logics via epitaxial monolithic 3D integration

Original Submission

upstart writes:

A gas clump in the Milky Way's neighborhood might be a 'dark galaxy':

A potential dark galaxy — one made primarily of dark matter — may have been spotted in the local universe.

Dark galaxies are theoretical, starless systems whose discovery could help astronomers better understand galaxy formation. The new candidate was found within a large, fast-moving cloud of gas first seen in the 1960s. High-resolution observations of the cloud, reported April 18 in Science Advances, revealed a compact clump of gas that might be a dark galaxy.

"This is the first discovery of a potential dark galaxy in the nearby universe," says astronomer Jin-Long Xu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

Not all astronomers agree. The clump's classification as a dark galaxy is plausible, says astronomer Tobias Westmeier, but he finds the evidence lacking. Instead of a relatively distant dark galaxy, Westmeier thinks the object is more likely a regular gas cloud at the edge of the Milky Way.

"I'm very skeptical about the claims that they're making in the paper for a number of reasons," says Westmeier, of the University of Western Australia in Crawley. "There's no convincing evidence."

Since the early 2000s, a handful of candidate dark galaxies have been discovered around the Milky Way. But in most cases, further observations revealed the alleged dark galaxies to be misclassified. Many turned out to have a small population of faint stars that were initially overlooked. So far, none of the candidates have proved to be truly dark.

"People have been trying to find these starless galaxies for many years and so far without much success," Westmeier says.

The new results were compiled from observations using three radio telescopes, including high-resolution images from the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope in southern China. In addition to dark matter, dark galaxies contain hydrogen gas, which can be observed at radio wavelengths. Additional observations at visible wavelengths from two stellar surveys suggest that the clump is starless.

Analysis of the radio telescope data allowed the researchers to determine the speed and direction of hydrogen gas in different parts of the clump. The data were also used to indirectly measure the distance to the clump, which the team estimated to be 900,000 light-years from Earth. Rotational movement seen in the clump's gas suggests it could be a disk galaxy, rather than a clump of ordinary gas.