A year after china beat it the US is getting it’s own hackproof quantum network
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The US is increasingly falling behind China in the development of new quantum technologies, and now they’re trying to catch up. A few years ago, Edward Snowden, a contractor working for the NSA, who recently released his own surveillance application for vulnerable reporters and...
ORNL wireless charging breakthrough unplugs electric vehicles from the grid
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF In the future we won’t have to plug our electric cars into superchargers, we’ll charge them wirelessly at home and when we’re travelling. I’ve been saying for some time now during my keynotes, like the ones recently at GITEX in Dubai, and RWE in...
One in a billion enzyme that breaks down plastic found in Japanese dump
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF When they were developed plastics were a wonder material, but their environmental legacy is proving devastating, now a fluke discovery is giving people hope that today’s plastic scourge can efficiently be broken down and recycled. We’re increasingly being told that plastic is a horrible,...
Suspicious nuclear power plants can now be monitored remotely using WATCHMAN
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Up until now it’s only been possible to assess the status of a sovereign states nuclear power program by physically inspecting the site, which is sometimes difficult, but now it can be done remotely from thousands of miles away. A consortium led by UK...
UC Berkeley’s atom thin display paves the way for truly invisible displays
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF We’re traditionally used to displays being bulky and stiff, but increasingly scientists are finding new ways to create new types of displays that break the status quo, and which will open up millions of new use cases, from health monitoring to way beyond. We’ll...
US DoE wants to use AI to build world’s first autonomous energy grid
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to fully automate the American energy grid could reduce regulatory burden, improve resilience and reliability, and make it more efficient. The US Department of Energy, whose supercomputers are already building their own AI’s, has announced it will explore a first of a...
America’s most powerful supercomputer is building superior AI’s
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF It normally takes human data scientists and the best AI’s weeks to build neural network software, but ORNL’s Titan supercomputer is building them in a day, and the AI’s it’s producing are far superior to anything humans can create. Last year, in a world...
HPC and Quantum Computing experts partner to create the first Exascale applications
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF ORNL and D-Wave hope that by combining their expertise in HPC and Quantum computing they can make Exascale computing a reality sooner rather than later. Just a couple of months after the US Department of Energy (DoE) announced their partnership with HPE and their “future...
US Department of Energy taps HP’s ‘Machine’ to beat China to Exascale HPC
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF If you want to create next generation anything, whether it’s AI, aircraft, drugs, energy, healthcare, or materials you need a supercomputer and today China has the advantage but the US want to get back on top. For the first time in history the US...
Tests confirm Germany’s “Star in a Jar” nuclear fusion reactor works
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Nuclear fusion holds the promise of being able to help humanity harness limitless, clean energy but until now scientists have had problems containing and stabilising the plasma flows needed to fuel the final energy producing reactions. Last year in Germany a new type of...
Berkeley Lab team pushes the limits to build a 1nm transistor
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Berkeley Lab breakthrough might help to reboot Moores Law. Transistor size is an important part of improving the price-performance of today’s computer systems – the smaller your transistors, the more you can fit on a chip and the faster and more efficient your processor can be. Accomplishing...
