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ATP, the compound essential for the functioning of photosynthetic organisms such as plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, is produced by an enzyme called “chloroplast ATP synthase” (CF_oCF₁). To control ATP production under varying light conditions, the enzyme uses a redox regulatory mechanism that modifies the ATP synthesis activity in response to changes in the redox state of cysteine (Cys) residues, which exist as dithiols under reducing (light) conditions, but forms a disulfide bond under oxidizing (dark) conditions. However, this mechanism has not yet been fully understood.

Now, in a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of researchers from Japan led by Prof. Toru Hisabori from Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) has uncovered the role of the amino acid sequences present in CF_oCF₁, revealing how the enzyme regulates ATP production in photosynthetic organisms.

To understand how the conformation of the amino acids present in CF_oCF₁ contributes to the redox regulation mechanism, the researchers used the unicellular green alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, to produce the enzyme. “By leveraging the powerful genetics of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii as a model organism for photosynthesis, we conducted a comprehensive biochemical analysis of the CF_oCF₁ molecule,” explains Prof. Hisabori.

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have created a new type of quantum material whose atomic scaffolding, or lattice, has been dramatically warped into a herringbone pattern.

The resulting distortions are “huge” compared to those achieved in other materials, said Woo Jin Kim, a postdoctoral researcher at the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences (SIMES) at SLAC who led the study.

“This is a very fundamental result, so it’s hard to make predictions about what may or may not come out of it, but the possibilities are exciting,” said SLAC/Stanford Professor and SIMES Director Harold Hwang.

OpenAI is quietly launching a new developer platform that lets customers run the company’s newer machine learning models, like GPT-3.5, on dedicated capacity. In screenshots of documentation published to Twitter by users with early access, OpenAI describes the forthcoming offering, called Foundry, as “designed for cutting-edge customers running larger workloads.”

“[Foundry allows] inference at scale with full control over the model configuration and performance profile,” the documentation reads. We’ve reached out to OpenAI to confirm the veracity.

If the screenshots are to be believed, Foundry — whenever it launches — will deliver a “static allocation” of compute capacity (perhaps on Azure, OpenAI’s preferred public cloud platform) dedicated to a single customer. Users will be able to monitor specific instances with the same tools and dashboards that OpenAI uses to build and optimize models. In addition, Foundry will provide some level of version control, letting customers decide whether or not to upgrade to newer model releases, as well as “more robust” fine-tuning for OpenAI’s latest models.

Nuclear power is one of the safest, cleanest forms of energy — yet to most people, it might not feel that way. Why is that? Isabelle Boemeke, the world’s first nuclear energy influencer and creator of the social media persona Isodope, deftly debunks the major objections to nuclear power and explains her unconventional way of educating people about this clean energy source.

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Continue reading “Nuclear Power Is Our Best Hope to Ditch Fossil Fuels | Isabelle Boemeke | TED” »

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With the addition of the GoFa and SWIFTI cobots, ABB broadens its line-up of collaborative robots for secure and effective human-robot collaboration in fast-growing sectors like logistics and healthcare. GoFa offers speeds up to 2.2 m/s and a maximum payload of 5 kg, whereas SWIFTI has a maximum speed of 5 m/s and a payload of 4 kg. #Robotics #CollaborativeRobots

Researchers took a closer look at the molecular structure of tinder fingus, a bell-shaped fungus that grows on trees — and they’ve found “ingeniously lightweight biological designs.”

Researchers from the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI) and the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) have created “core technology” for 3D printed smart contact lenses building on low-power monochrome displays and demonstrated its functionalities for augmented reality tools such as live navigation. The team’s research has been published in Advanced Science.

“Our achievement is a development of 3D printing technology that can print functional micro-patterns on a non-(planar) substrate that can commercialize advanced smart contact lenses to implement AR (Augmented Reality),” said Seol Seung-Kwon, Ph.D., of the team’s work. “It will greatly contribute to the miniaturization and versatility of AR devices.”

For the first time, an international team of researchers, including those from the University of Tokyo’s Institute for Solid State Physics, has demonstrated a switch, analogous to a transistor, made from a single molecule called fullerene.

By using a carefully tuned laser pulse, the researchers are able to use fullerene to switch the path of an incoming electron in a predictable way. This switching process can be three to six orders of magnitude faster than switches in microchips, depending on the laser pulses used. Fullerene switches in a network could produce a computer beyond what is possible with electronic transistors, and they could also lead to unprecedented levels of resolution in microscopic imaging devices.

More than 70 years ago, physicists discovered that molecules emit electrons in the presence of electric fields, and later on, in certain wavelengths of light. The electron emissions created patterns that enticed curiosity but eluded explanation. This has changed thanks to a new theoretical analysis, the ramification of which could not only lead to new high-tech applications, but also improve our ability to scrutinize the physical world itself.

Lignin is arguably the most abundant component of biomass that most people have never heard of. That may be about to change.

Many people are familiar with its biochemical cousin cellulose, a byproduct of paper and wood milling. But the same processes produce 50 million tons of lignin annually, industry experts estimate. Once distilled, 98 percent of the inky liquid is burned to produce electricity.

Scientists have been working to find more efficient and sustainable approaches to transform this naturally occurring polymer for use as a cleaner and greener building block to develop next generation materials.