Lifeboat Foundation

Helical foldamers are a class of artificial molecules that fold into well-defined helical structures like helices found in proteins and nucleic acids. They have garnered considerable attention as stimuli-responsive switchable molecules, tuneable chiral materials, and cooperative supramolecular systems due to their chiral and conformational switching properties.

Double-helical foldamers exhibit not only even stronger chiral properties but also unique properties, such as the transcription of chiral information from one chiral strand to another without chiral properties, enabling potential applications in higher-order structural control related to replication, like nucleic acids.

However, the artificial control of the chiral switching properties of such artificial molecules remains challenging due to the difficulty in balancing the dynamic properties required for switching and stability. Although various helical molecules have been developed in the past, reversal of twist direction in double-helix molecules and supramolecules has rarely been reported.

A catalyst that significantly enhances ammonia conversion could improve wastewater treatment, green chemical and hydrogen production.

Aiming at the relation between QCD and the quark model, we consider projections of gauge configurations generated in quenched lattice QCD simulations in the Coulomb gauge on a 16 $$^{\textrm{3}}$$3 $$\mathrm \times $$ × 32, $$\mathrm \beta $$ β = 6.0 lattice. First, we focus on a fact that the static quark-antiquark potential is independent of spatial gauge fields. We explicitly confirm this by performing $$\textbf{A}$$ A = 0 projection, where spatial gauge fields are all set to zero. We also apply the $$\textbf{A}$$ A = 0 projection to light hadron masses and find that nucleon and delta baryon masses are almost degenerate, suggesting vanishing of the color-magnetic interactions.

Warning: Spoilers for both films, The Matrix and The Thirteenth Floor ahead!

This year is the 25th anniversary of both The Matrix (see my article here) and The Thirteenth Floor (released on May 28, 1999). Both films depict what we now call the simulation hypothesis, the idea that we might live inside a computer simulation. In my college-level class that I teach about the emerging field of simulation (titled Simulation Theory: Sci-Fi, Technology, Religion and Philosophy), while The Matrix is the first sci-fi film I assign to my students, the second one is The Thirteenth Floor. While The Matrix is by far the most recognizable popular media depiction of the simulation idea, on this anniversary I am arguing that The Thirteenth Floor may be a better and richer representation of a number of aspects of the simulation hypothesis than even The Matrix.

Then I Am Myself the World Christof Koch Basic Books, $30

The human brain is the most complex information integrator known in the universe. With 86 billion neurons and 100 trillion connections between them, the brain gives us our rich subjective experiences and our capacity for free will — our consciousness.

Despite being a universal human phenomenon, consciousness is notoriously difficult to describe, and scientists still debate how it arises. In Then I Am Myself the World, neuroscientist Christof Koch offers the latest entry into the long list of books attempting to demystify the origins of our inner lives (SN: 1/5/22). While the topic can be a head-scratcher, Koch’s adept use of analogies and entertaining anecdotes — complete with his own near-death experience and psychedelic drug trips — make the book a compelling and surprisingly light read.

He Jiankui, who went to prison for three years for making the world’s first gene-edited babies, talked to MIT Technology Review about his new research plans.

Chinese technology firms started stockpiling Samsung’s high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips earlier this year in anticipation that the United States would soon ban their export to China.

China accounted for about 30% of Samsung’s HBM chip revenues in the first half of this year, driven by rising demand from tech giants like Huawei and Baidu as well as new Chinese startups, Reuters reported, citing three unnamed sources. HBM chips are commonly used as artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators.

The Reuters report said most Chinese firms have sought in particular the HBM2E chip, which is one generation behind the HBM3 and two generations behind the most advanced HBM3E. China plans to produce indigenously the HBM2, the most mature, least advanced model.

Google scientists have modelled a fragment of the human brain at nanoscale resolution, revealing cells with previously undiscovered features.

New cooling technologies that incorporate energy storage could help by charging themselves when renewable electricity is available and demand is low, and still providing cooling services when the grid is stressed.

“We say, take the problem, and turn it into a solution,” says Yaron Ben Nun, founder and chief technology officer of Nostromo Energy.

One of Nostromo Energy’s systems, which it calls an IceBrick, is basically a massive ice cube tray. It cools down a solution made of water and glycol that’s used to freeze individual capsules filled with water. One IceBrick can be made up of thousands of these containers, which each hold about a half-gallon, or roughly two liters, of water.