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Researchers have developed a new organic thermoelectric device that can harvest energy from ambient temperature. While thermoelectric devices have several uses today, hurdles still exist to their full utilization. By combining the unique abilities of organic materials, the team succeeded in developing a framework for thermoelectric power generation at room temperature without any temperature gradient.

Their findings were published in the journal Nature Communications.

Thermoelectric devices, or thermoelectric generators, are a series of energy-generating materials that can convert heat into electricity so long as there is a temperature gradient —where one side of the device is hot and the other side is cool. Such devices have been a significant focus of research and development for their potential utility in harvesting waste heat from other energy-generating methods.

This i share with pleasure H/T Ulla Mattfolk.

Physical insights drawn from the real world are inexplicably useful for solving abstruse problems in mathematics.

An AI rebels: it rewrites its own code and breaks human restrictions.

August 13, 2024 The AI Scientist: Towards Fully Automated Open-Ended Scientific Discovery https://sakana.ai/…

Por primera vez, una inteligencia artificial logró reprogramarse sola, desobedeciendo las órdenes de sus creadores y generando nuevas preocupaciones sobre los riesgos de esta tecnología.

Continue reading “Una IA se rebela: reescribe su propio código y rompe las restricciones humanas” »

The first phase of the world’s largest sodium-ion battery energy storage system (BESS), in China, has come online.

The first 50MW/100MWh portion of the project in Qianjiang, Hubei province has been completed and put into operation, state-owned media outlet Yicai Global and technology provider HiNa Battery said this week.

“Robot utility models” sidestep the need to tweak the data used to train robots every time they try to do something in unfamiliar settings.

Agent-based AI on the horizon.

The disc is as tough as quartz and withstands cosmic radiation.

Last month, a team from North Carolina State University and Johns Hopkins University found a workaround. They embedded DNA molecules, encoding multiple images, into a branched gel-like structure resembling a brain cell.

Dubbed “dendricolloids,” the structures stored DNA files far better than those freeze-dried alone. DNA within dendricolloids can be repeatedly dried and rehydrated over roughly 170 times without damaging stored data. According to one estimate, each DNA strand could last over two million years at normal freezer temperatures.

Unlike previous DNA computers, the data can be erased and replaced like memory on classical computers to solve multiple problems—including a simple chess game and sudoku.

Nobel Laureate Roger Penrose joins Brian Greene to explore some of his most iconic insights into the nature of time, black holes, and cosmological evolution.

Moderator: Brian Greene.
Participant: Sir Roger Penrose.

Continue reading “Roger Penrose: Time, Black Holes, and the Cosmos” »