Electrocatalytic transformations not only require electrical energy—they also need a reliable middleman to spark the desired chemical reaction. Surface metal-hydrogen intermediates can effectively produce value-added chemicals and energy conversion, but, given their low concentration and fleeting lifespan, they are difficult to characterize or study in depth, especially at the nanoscale.
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NVIDIA has actually been involved in the robotaxi world for years, providing different hardware needs to various automakers who have been automating more and more driving. For example, I just noticed that four years ago I wrote about AutoX robotaxis using NVIDIA Drive. NVIDIA also put out a blog post highlighting that “Cruise, Zoox, DiDi, Oxbotica, Pony.ai and AutoX [were] developing level 4/5 systems on NVIDIA’s autonomous vehicle platform.” It also acquired DeepMap at that time. “DeepMap expected to extend NVIDIA mapping products, scale worldwide map operations and expand NVIDIA’s full-self driving expertise,” the company announced in 2021.
Imagine you are a security guard in one of those casino heist movies where your ability to recognize an emerging crime will depend on whether you notice a subtle change on one of the many security monitors arrayed on your desk. That’s a challenge of visual working memory.
According to a new study by neuroscientists in The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT, the ability to quickly spot the anomaly could depend on a theta-frequency brain wave (3–6 Hz) that scans through a region of the cortex that maps your field of view.
The findings in animals, published in Neuron, help to explain how the brain implements visual working memory and why performance is both limited and variable.
An international team of astronomers has created the first-ever large-scale maps of a mysterious form of matter, known as CO-dark molecular gas, in one of our Milky Way’s most active star-forming neighborhoods, Cygnus X. Their findings, using the Green Bank Telescope (GBT), are providing crucial new clues about how stars formed in the Milky Way.
Graphene, which is comprised of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice, is a widely used material known for its advantageous electrical and mechanical properties. When graphene is stacked in a so-called rhombohedral (i.e., ABC) pattern, new electronic features are known to emerge, including a tunable band structure and a non-trivial topology.
Due to these emerging properties, electrons in rhombohedral graphene can behave as if they are being influenced by “hidden” magnetic fields, even if no magnetic field is applied to them. While this interesting effect is well-documented, closely studying how electrons organize themselves in the material, with their spins and valley states pointing in different directions, has so far proved challenging.
Researchers at Weizmann Institute of Science recently set out to further examine the local magnetization textures in rhombohedral graphene, using a nanoscale superconducting quantum interference device (nano-SQUID). Their paper, published in Nature Physics, offers new insight into the physical processes governing the correlated states previously observed in the material.
Many marine species are no strangers to the depths of the oceans. Some animals, like certain sharks, tuna, or turtles, routinely perform extreme dives, whereas for other species, such behavior has been observed less frequently.
Now, an international team of researchers working in Peru, Indonesia, and New Zealand tagged oceanic manta rays—the largest species of ray—to learn more about the deep-diving behavior of these animals. They published their results in Frontiers in Marine Science.
“We show that, far offshore, oceanic manta rays are capable of diving to depths greater than 1,200 meters, far deeper than previously thought,” says first author Dr. Calvin Beale, who completed his Ph.D. at Murdoch University.
Scientists identified two types of brain cells, neurons and microglia, that are altered in people with depression. Through genomic mapping of post-mortem brain tissue, they found major differences in gene activity affecting mood and inflammation. The findings reinforce that depression has a clear biological foundation and open new doors for treatment development.
