In September 2021,the world’s most powerful high-temperature superconducting magnet passed its first test,generating a 20 T magnetic field during a 5 h trial[1].The 3 m tall,9000 kg device(Fig.1)is the centerpiece of...In September 2021,the world’s most powerful high-temperature superconducting magnet passed its first test,generating a 20 T magnetic field during a 5 h trial[1].The 3 m tall,9000 kg device(Fig.1)is the centerpiece of an ambitious plan by the start-up Commonwealth Fusion Systems,headquartered in Cambridge,MA,USA,to build a fusion reactor that produces more energy than it requires to stimulate and sustain its nuclear reactions[2,3].None of the experimental fusion approaches that scientists have tested has come close to that mark.Even the multi-billion USD International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor(ITER),the massive project sponsored by 35 countries that is under construction in southern France(Fig.2),is not projected to pass the breakeven point until the mid-2030s at the earliest[2,4].But Commonwealth Fusion Systems aims to have a pilot plant operating by 2025.展开更多
A drug developer trying to devise a new cancer treatment,a virologist investigating how a virus invades cells,an evolutionary biologist probing the effects of mutations on an organism’s fitness—these are just some o...A drug developer trying to devise a new cancer treatment,a virologist investigating how a virus invades cells,an evolutionary biologist probing the effects of mutations on an organism’s fitness—these are just some of the scientists who need to know the three-dimensional structures of specific proteins.However,deducing a protein’s shape through experiments is laborious and costly[1].展开更多
In the month of August 2023,more than 180 million users logged on to ChatGPT(Fig.1)[1],the famous artificial intelligence(AI)chatbot[2].Developed by San Francisco,CA,USA-based OpenAI,ChatGPT can write prose in the sty...In the month of August 2023,more than 180 million users logged on to ChatGPT(Fig.1)[1],the famous artificial intelligence(AI)chatbot[2].Developed by San Francisco,CA,USA-based OpenAI,ChatGPT can write prose in the style of Ernest Hemingway,generate computer code,help jobseekers craft their resumes,furnish reasonably accurate medical diagnoses,and perform a range of other sophisticated tasks[2-5].People who sign up for the free version of ChatGPT-as well as anyone else accessing the many Al-enhanced search engines and programs that are now available-do not have to pay for the assistance.But it is not actually free.展开更多
In late August 2023,China cut off seafood imports from Japan[1]and criticized its neighbor for being “extremely selfish and irresponsible”[2].In Seoul,the Republic of Korea,protesters marched through the streets,hel...In late August 2023,China cut off seafood imports from Japan[1]and criticized its neighbor for being “extremely selfish and irresponsible”[2].In Seoul,the Republic of Korea,protesters marched through the streets,held a candlelight vigil,and attempted to force their way into the Japanese embassy[3].The environmental organization Greenpeace denounced Japan for violating human rights and breaking international law[4].展开更多
Late in the evening of May 22,2023,a team of researchers at the California Institute of Technology(Caltech)in Pasadena,CA,USA,measured a faint beam of microwaves emanating from a solar-powered satellite 550 km overhea...Late in the evening of May 22,2023,a team of researchers at the California Institute of Technology(Caltech)in Pasadena,CA,USA,measured a faint beam of microwaves emanating from a solar-powered satellite 550 km overhead.Satellites send signals to Earth all the time,but this occasion was different.The satellite car-ried a unique transmitter developed by the Caltech researchers,a 30 cm by 30 cm array of polyimide and copper designed to be lightweight and flexible.Using that transmitter,the satellite became the first spacecraft to direct solar power captured in space to the Earth’s surface.展开更多
Artificial intelligence(AI)has already demonstrated its proficiency at difficult scientific tasks like predicting how proteins will fold and identifying new astronomical objects in masses of observational data[1].Now,...Artificial intelligence(AI)has already demonstrated its proficiency at difficult scientific tasks like predicting how proteins will fold and identifying new astronomical objects in masses of observational data[1].Now,recent results suggest that AI also excels at weather forecasting.For global predictions,GraphCast,an AI system developed by Google subsidiary DeepMind(London,UK),outperforms the state-of-the-art model from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts(ECMWF),providing more accurate projections of variables such as temperature and humidity 90%of the time[2,3].Other AI systems,including Pangu-Weather from the Chinese tech company Huawei(Shenzhen,China)[4],can also match or beat traditional global forecasting models.展开更多
In the South Boulder Canal near Denver,CO,USA,turbine blades that resemble the mixers used to stir cake batter in kitchens(Fig.1)spin in the rushing water[1].Each of the turbines,manufactured by Emrgy of Atlanta,GA,US...In the South Boulder Canal near Denver,CO,USA,turbine blades that resemble the mixers used to stir cake batter in kitchens(Fig.1)spin in the rushing water[1].Each of the turbines,manufactured by Emrgy of Atlanta,GA,USA,generates up to 25 kW of electricity for the area’s grid[2].In an orchard in southern Italy,an arcade of solar panels stands above rows of citron trees,which are valuable for the essential oils in their fruits[3].The solar panels not only produce electricity for local homes,but also protect the trees from the sun,reducing their water use by 70%[3].These are two examples of a clean energy trend:integrating power-generation with other uses.In the approach called agrivoltaics,for example,farmers and ranchers grow crops or raise livestock around and beneath solar panels(Fig.2)[4].Experts hope that such add-on strategies can spare farmland,cut the environmental costs of clean energy development,supply extra income to landowners,and furnish other benefits[5,6].展开更多
For decades,manufacturers have boasted about how small they can make microchip components.Transistors have shrunk by about 1000-fold over the last 50 years,for example[1].But Cerebras Systems,Inc.of Sunnyvale,CA,USA t...For decades,manufacturers have boasted about how small they can make microchip components.Transistors have shrunk by about 1000-fold over the last 50 years,for example[1].But Cerebras Systems,Inc.of Sunnyvale,CA,USA takes pride in how big its chips are.Produced from a single silicon wafer,its Wafer-Scale Engine(WSE)-2 chips measure 46225 mm^(2),56 times the size of a standard Nvidia microprocessor(Fig.1)[2].展开更多
The James Webb Space Telescope(JWST),which cleared a slew of complex technical hurdles and became operational over 2021,has awed and surprised astronomers(Figs.1 and 2).“We are able to see things we had not imagined ...The James Webb Space Telescope(JWST),which cleared a slew of complex technical hurdles and became operational over 2021,has awed and surprised astronomers(Figs.1 and 2).“We are able to see things we had not imagined we would see,”said Christopher Willmer,associate research professor at the University of Arizona Steward Observatory in Tucson,AZ,USA,who has worked on the project since 2007.展开更多
Some 6300 km of canals crisscross the US state of California to funnel water to its rich farmland and cities such as Los Angeles[1].But visitors who travel through California’s Central Valley starting in 2024 will se...Some 6300 km of canals crisscross the US state of California to funnel water to its rich farmland and cities such as Los Angeles[1].But visitors who travel through California’s Central Valley starting in 2024 will see something unusual near the city of Modesto:Solar panel arrays up to 33 m across covering more than 3 km of the canals snaking through the agricultural area(Fig.1)[2].展开更多
Electric cars purring along the highway differ from nearby internal combustion vehicles not just in their source of power.For parts such as wires and inverters,electric cars require more than twice as much copper as t...Electric cars purring along the highway differ from nearby internal combustion vehicles not just in their source of power.For parts such as wires and inverters,electric cars require more than twice as much copper as their conventional counterparts[1,2].To keep their batteries generating electricity,they need more than double the amount of manganese[1,3].The average electric car also incorporates an assortment of minerals absent from internal combustion vehicles,including nearly 40 kg of nickel,13 kg of cobalt,almost9 kg of lithium,and half a kilogram of rare earth elements such as neodymium,a key component of electric motors[1,4].展开更多
The world’s fastest publicly acknowledged supercomputer,known as Frontier,sprawls across 372 m2 of floor space in a building at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory(ORNL)in Tennessee,USA(Fig.1)[1].In May of 2022,the 269...The world’s fastest publicly acknowledged supercomputer,known as Frontier,sprawls across 372 m2 of floor space in a building at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory(ORNL)in Tennessee,USA(Fig.1)[1].In May of 2022,the 269000 kg behemoth became the first computer to cross the so-called exascale barrier and reach a top speed of more than one exaflop,or over one quintillion floating-point operations per second,in the semiannual TOP500 rankings of supercomputer performance[2].Maxing out at 1.1 exaflops,Frontier was more than twice as fast as its nearest competitor,and it repeated the feat in November of 2022 in the next TOP500 standings[3,4].展开更多
John Metric was shocked the first time he drove his electric dragster,a modified 1984 Pontiac Fiero(Fig.1).Metric had swapped the car’s gasoline engine for two electric motors that could generate 1830 N·m of tor...John Metric was shocked the first time he drove his electric dragster,a modified 1984 Pontiac Fiero(Fig.1).Metric had swapped the car’s gasoline engine for two electric motors that could generate 1830 N·m of torque.When he hit the accelerator,“it threw me back in my seat so hard,”he said.展开更多
On 13 December 2022,a couple was driving through the Angeles National Forest near Los Angeles,CA,USA,when their car slid off the road,plowed 100 m down a steep hillside,and landed upside down at the bottom of a canyon...On 13 December 2022,a couple was driving through the Angeles National Forest near Los Angeles,CA,USA,when their car slid off the road,plowed 100 m down a steep hillside,and landed upside down at the bottom of a canyon[1].Although the couple suffered only minor injuries,they were trapped in the canyon,and in the remote area the passenger could not get any reception on her iPhone 14 cellular phone.Still,she was able to send an SOS through a new feature on the phone that routes such messages via satellites[2].Rescuers alerted to the couple’s location airlifted them out of the canyon later the same day.展开更多
At first glance,the 10 cm×10 cm stainless steel box that Douglas Mac Farlane,professor of chemistry at Monash University in Clayton,Australia,and his colleagues designed does not look like anything special(Fig.1).
The year 2022 was a milestone for cryptocurrencies-and not just because investors suffered record losses of more than2 × 1012USD and the arrest on fraud charges of the founder of one of the biggest exchanges [1,2...The year 2022 was a milestone for cryptocurrencies-and not just because investors suffered record losses of more than2 × 1012USD and the arrest on fraud charges of the founder of one of the biggest exchanges [1,2]. Last year also stands out because, for the first time, a major cryptocurrency took action to curb its enormous energy appetite. On 15 September 2022,Ethereum, the cryptocurrency with the second highest market capitalization, changed its operating algorithm, cutting its electricity use by more than 99% [3]. Dubbed the Merge, this transformation dispensed with mining, the energy intensive computational process that generates new cryptocurrency tokens for users to spend or trade.展开更多
Graduate students and scientists who spend long hours in the laboratory pipetting solutions and slogging through other repetitive,tedious procedures may feel like robots.But starting in the fall of 2023,researchers at...Graduate students and scientists who spend long hours in the laboratory pipetting solutions and slogging through other repetitive,tedious procedures may feel like robots.But starting in the fall of 2023,researchers at one university,Carnegie Mellon University(CMU)in Pittsburgh,PA,USA,will be able to delegate the work to actual robots.The university is building a“cloud lab,”a 40 million USD scientific facility that is almost fully automated[1].展开更多
A farmer is ready to harvest the winter wheat crop when his combine harvester breaks down.Even if the problem would be relatively simple to remedy,the farmer probably cannot make the repair himself or get help from an...A farmer is ready to harvest the winter wheat crop when his combine harvester breaks down.Even if the problem would be relatively simple to remedy,the farmer probably cannot make the repair himself or get help from an independent shop because manufacturers have restricted access to the tools,documentation,and other requirements for fixing their equipment[1].Instead,the farmer will likely have to turn to one of the manufacturer’s dealers,which could mean waiting days or even weeks for a service call from a company technician[2].In the meantime,the farmer’s crop sits unharvested,vulnerable to damage or destruction by bad weather[2].展开更多
The hype was flowing when 5G wireless service began rolling out around 2018(Fig.1).According to the US wireless company Verizon,based in New York City,NY,USA,5G would usher in“a Fourth Industrial Revolution”[1].The ...The hype was flowing when 5G wireless service began rolling out around 2018(Fig.1).According to the US wireless company Verizon,based in New York City,NY,USA,5G would usher in“a Fourth Industrial Revolution”[1].The technology would also allow surgeons to perform operations remotely on patients thousands of kilometers away,permit communications between driverless cars,and offer other life-changing benefits[2,3].展开更多
Along with its familiar impact craters,the surface of the Moon sports numerous pale whorls and streaks known as lunar swirls[1].Likened to the pattern produced when someone pours cream into a cup of black coffee[2],th...Along with its familiar impact craters,the surface of the Moon sports numerous pale whorls and streaks known as lunar swirls[1].Likened to the pattern produced when someone pours cream into a cup of black coffee[2],the swirls can extend for more than 50 km and have puzzled researchers for centuries[3].Adding to their mystery,the features are associated with regions of magnetized rocks,an unusual attribute because the Moon lacks a magnetic field[3].Researchers do not know how the swirls are related to the magnetic fields or how they formed.展开更多
文摘In September 2021,the world’s most powerful high-temperature superconducting magnet passed its first test,generating a 20 T magnetic field during a 5 h trial[1].The 3 m tall,9000 kg device(Fig.1)is the centerpiece of an ambitious plan by the start-up Commonwealth Fusion Systems,headquartered in Cambridge,MA,USA,to build a fusion reactor that produces more energy than it requires to stimulate and sustain its nuclear reactions[2,3].None of the experimental fusion approaches that scientists have tested has come close to that mark.Even the multi-billion USD International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor(ITER),the massive project sponsored by 35 countries that is under construction in southern France(Fig.2),is not projected to pass the breakeven point until the mid-2030s at the earliest[2,4].But Commonwealth Fusion Systems aims to have a pilot plant operating by 2025.
文摘A drug developer trying to devise a new cancer treatment,a virologist investigating how a virus invades cells,an evolutionary biologist probing the effects of mutations on an organism’s fitness—these are just some of the scientists who need to know the three-dimensional structures of specific proteins.However,deducing a protein’s shape through experiments is laborious and costly[1].
文摘In the month of August 2023,more than 180 million users logged on to ChatGPT(Fig.1)[1],the famous artificial intelligence(AI)chatbot[2].Developed by San Francisco,CA,USA-based OpenAI,ChatGPT can write prose in the style of Ernest Hemingway,generate computer code,help jobseekers craft their resumes,furnish reasonably accurate medical diagnoses,and perform a range of other sophisticated tasks[2-5].People who sign up for the free version of ChatGPT-as well as anyone else accessing the many Al-enhanced search engines and programs that are now available-do not have to pay for the assistance.But it is not actually free.
文摘In late August 2023,China cut off seafood imports from Japan[1]and criticized its neighbor for being “extremely selfish and irresponsible”[2].In Seoul,the Republic of Korea,protesters marched through the streets,held a candlelight vigil,and attempted to force their way into the Japanese embassy[3].The environmental organization Greenpeace denounced Japan for violating human rights and breaking international law[4].
文摘Late in the evening of May 22,2023,a team of researchers at the California Institute of Technology(Caltech)in Pasadena,CA,USA,measured a faint beam of microwaves emanating from a solar-powered satellite 550 km overhead.Satellites send signals to Earth all the time,but this occasion was different.The satellite car-ried a unique transmitter developed by the Caltech researchers,a 30 cm by 30 cm array of polyimide and copper designed to be lightweight and flexible.Using that transmitter,the satellite became the first spacecraft to direct solar power captured in space to the Earth’s surface.
文摘Artificial intelligence(AI)has already demonstrated its proficiency at difficult scientific tasks like predicting how proteins will fold and identifying new astronomical objects in masses of observational data[1].Now,recent results suggest that AI also excels at weather forecasting.For global predictions,GraphCast,an AI system developed by Google subsidiary DeepMind(London,UK),outperforms the state-of-the-art model from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts(ECMWF),providing more accurate projections of variables such as temperature and humidity 90%of the time[2,3].Other AI systems,including Pangu-Weather from the Chinese tech company Huawei(Shenzhen,China)[4],can also match or beat traditional global forecasting models.
文摘In the South Boulder Canal near Denver,CO,USA,turbine blades that resemble the mixers used to stir cake batter in kitchens(Fig.1)spin in the rushing water[1].Each of the turbines,manufactured by Emrgy of Atlanta,GA,USA,generates up to 25 kW of electricity for the area’s grid[2].In an orchard in southern Italy,an arcade of solar panels stands above rows of citron trees,which are valuable for the essential oils in their fruits[3].The solar panels not only produce electricity for local homes,but also protect the trees from the sun,reducing their water use by 70%[3].These are two examples of a clean energy trend:integrating power-generation with other uses.In the approach called agrivoltaics,for example,farmers and ranchers grow crops or raise livestock around and beneath solar panels(Fig.2)[4].Experts hope that such add-on strategies can spare farmland,cut the environmental costs of clean energy development,supply extra income to landowners,and furnish other benefits[5,6].
文摘For decades,manufacturers have boasted about how small they can make microchip components.Transistors have shrunk by about 1000-fold over the last 50 years,for example[1].But Cerebras Systems,Inc.of Sunnyvale,CA,USA takes pride in how big its chips are.Produced from a single silicon wafer,its Wafer-Scale Engine(WSE)-2 chips measure 46225 mm^(2),56 times the size of a standard Nvidia microprocessor(Fig.1)[2].
文摘The James Webb Space Telescope(JWST),which cleared a slew of complex technical hurdles and became operational over 2021,has awed and surprised astronomers(Figs.1 and 2).“We are able to see things we had not imagined we would see,”said Christopher Willmer,associate research professor at the University of Arizona Steward Observatory in Tucson,AZ,USA,who has worked on the project since 2007.
文摘Some 6300 km of canals crisscross the US state of California to funnel water to its rich farmland and cities such as Los Angeles[1].But visitors who travel through California’s Central Valley starting in 2024 will see something unusual near the city of Modesto:Solar panel arrays up to 33 m across covering more than 3 km of the canals snaking through the agricultural area(Fig.1)[2].
文摘Electric cars purring along the highway differ from nearby internal combustion vehicles not just in their source of power.For parts such as wires and inverters,electric cars require more than twice as much copper as their conventional counterparts[1,2].To keep their batteries generating electricity,they need more than double the amount of manganese[1,3].The average electric car also incorporates an assortment of minerals absent from internal combustion vehicles,including nearly 40 kg of nickel,13 kg of cobalt,almost9 kg of lithium,and half a kilogram of rare earth elements such as neodymium,a key component of electric motors[1,4].
文摘The world’s fastest publicly acknowledged supercomputer,known as Frontier,sprawls across 372 m2 of floor space in a building at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory(ORNL)in Tennessee,USA(Fig.1)[1].In May of 2022,the 269000 kg behemoth became the first computer to cross the so-called exascale barrier and reach a top speed of more than one exaflop,or over one quintillion floating-point operations per second,in the semiannual TOP500 rankings of supercomputer performance[2].Maxing out at 1.1 exaflops,Frontier was more than twice as fast as its nearest competitor,and it repeated the feat in November of 2022 in the next TOP500 standings[3,4].
文摘John Metric was shocked the first time he drove his electric dragster,a modified 1984 Pontiac Fiero(Fig.1).Metric had swapped the car’s gasoline engine for two electric motors that could generate 1830 N·m of torque.When he hit the accelerator,“it threw me back in my seat so hard,”he said.
文摘On 13 December 2022,a couple was driving through the Angeles National Forest near Los Angeles,CA,USA,when their car slid off the road,plowed 100 m down a steep hillside,and landed upside down at the bottom of a canyon[1].Although the couple suffered only minor injuries,they were trapped in the canyon,and in the remote area the passenger could not get any reception on her iPhone 14 cellular phone.Still,she was able to send an SOS through a new feature on the phone that routes such messages via satellites[2].Rescuers alerted to the couple’s location airlifted them out of the canyon later the same day.
文摘At first glance,the 10 cm×10 cm stainless steel box that Douglas Mac Farlane,professor of chemistry at Monash University in Clayton,Australia,and his colleagues designed does not look like anything special(Fig.1).
文摘The year 2022 was a milestone for cryptocurrencies-and not just because investors suffered record losses of more than2 × 1012USD and the arrest on fraud charges of the founder of one of the biggest exchanges [1,2]. Last year also stands out because, for the first time, a major cryptocurrency took action to curb its enormous energy appetite. On 15 September 2022,Ethereum, the cryptocurrency with the second highest market capitalization, changed its operating algorithm, cutting its electricity use by more than 99% [3]. Dubbed the Merge, this transformation dispensed with mining, the energy intensive computational process that generates new cryptocurrency tokens for users to spend or trade.
文摘Graduate students and scientists who spend long hours in the laboratory pipetting solutions and slogging through other repetitive,tedious procedures may feel like robots.But starting in the fall of 2023,researchers at one university,Carnegie Mellon University(CMU)in Pittsburgh,PA,USA,will be able to delegate the work to actual robots.The university is building a“cloud lab,”a 40 million USD scientific facility that is almost fully automated[1].
文摘A farmer is ready to harvest the winter wheat crop when his combine harvester breaks down.Even if the problem would be relatively simple to remedy,the farmer probably cannot make the repair himself or get help from an independent shop because manufacturers have restricted access to the tools,documentation,and other requirements for fixing their equipment[1].Instead,the farmer will likely have to turn to one of the manufacturer’s dealers,which could mean waiting days or even weeks for a service call from a company technician[2].In the meantime,the farmer’s crop sits unharvested,vulnerable to damage or destruction by bad weather[2].
文摘The hype was flowing when 5G wireless service began rolling out around 2018(Fig.1).According to the US wireless company Verizon,based in New York City,NY,USA,5G would usher in“a Fourth Industrial Revolution”[1].The technology would also allow surgeons to perform operations remotely on patients thousands of kilometers away,permit communications between driverless cars,and offer other life-changing benefits[2,3].
文摘Along with its familiar impact craters,the surface of the Moon sports numerous pale whorls and streaks known as lunar swirls[1].Likened to the pattern produced when someone pours cream into a cup of black coffee[2],the swirls can extend for more than 50 km and have puzzled researchers for centuries[3].Adding to their mystery,the features are associated with regions of magnetized rocks,an unusual attribute because the Moon lacks a magnetic field[3].Researchers do not know how the swirls are related to the magnetic fields or how they formed.
