Lifeboat Foundation

Physicists at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and Central South University in China have demonstrated that, combining specific materials, heat in technical devices can be used in computing. Their discovery is based on extensive calculations and simulations. The new approach demonstrates how heat signals can be steered and amplified for use in energy-efficient data processing.

The team’s research findings have been published in the journal Advanced Electronic Materials (“PT-Symmetry Enabled Spintronic Thermal Diodes and Logic Gates.”).

Information signals are encoded as thermal spin waves (red arrows). Logical operations are realized with two magnetic strips (signal conductors) and precisely controlled with current pulses in a spacer (platinum). (Image: Berakdar group)

A high-tech soccer ball that helps with more accurate offside decisions will make its European Championship debut next year in Germany after being used at the 2022 World Cup.

European soocer governing body UEFA and manufacturer Adidas unveiled the ball for Euro 2024 in Berlin on Wednesday. It is named “Fussballliebe,” the German word for “love of soccer,” and will be used at next year’s 51-game tournament from June 14-July 14.

A chip fixed on a gyroscope inside the ball sends data 500 times per second to record the point at which it is kicked. The “kick point” helps match officials make offside decisions using multiple camera angles to create 3D visualizations that illustrate player movement.

The firm claims that the technology “testing in computer simulations is proving superior to legacy four-stroke engine architectures.”

DeltaHawk.

Continue reading “DeltaHawk’s advanced aircraft piston engine goes green with hydrogen fuel” »

The model offers a non-invasive method for studying hearing impairments.

Gerenme/iStock.

The human hearing system is a complex and intricate sensory mechanism that enables us to perceive and interpret sound. This system involves several elaborate anatomical structures and physiological processes working together.

Continue reading “Complete computer model of the ear simulates every aspect of hearing” »

Designing high performance organic neuromorphic devices remains a challenge. Here, Liu et al. report the development of an organic synapse based on a semicrystalline polymer PBFCL10 with device dimension of 50 nm and integration size of 1 Kb and a mixed‐signal neuromorphic hardware system based on the organic neuromatrix and FPGA controller for decision‐making tasks.

Hilary Putnam has argued that computational functionalism cannot serve as a foundation for the study of the mind, as every ordinary open physical system implements every finite-state automaton. I argue that Putnam’s argument fails, but that it points out the need for a better understanding of the bridge between the theory of computation and the theory of physical systems: the relation of implementation. It also raises questions about the class of automata that can serve as a basis for understanding the mind. I develop an account of implementation, linked to an appropriate class of automata, such that the requirement that a system implement a given automaton places a very strong constraint on the system. This clears the way for computation to play a central role in the analysis of mind.

Quantum advantage is the milestone the field of quantum computing is fervently working toward, where a quantum computer can solve problems that are beyond the reach of the most powerful non-quantum, or classical, computers.

Quantum refers to the scale of atoms and molecules where the laws of physics as we experience them break down and a different, counterintuitive set of laws apply. Quantum computers take advantage of these strange behaviors to solve problems.

Continue reading “Quantum Advantage: A Physicist Explains The Future of Computers” »

NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft is headed to one of Jupiter’s largest moons. It’s bringing along a microchip filled with human names.

Neuralink, the Elon Musk-founded company developing implantable chips that can read brain waves, has raised an additional $43 million in venture capital, according to a filing with the SEC.

The filing published this week shows the company increased its previous tranche, led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, from $280 million to $323 million in early August. Thirty-two investors participated, according to the filing.

Neuralink hasn’t disclosed its valuation recently. But in June, Reuters reported that the company was valued at about $5 billion after privately-executed stock trades.