STEM

[Saturio]

A ver.

Yo no tengo mucha idea pero el cobalto-60 no parece una muy buena opción.

Por ejemplo el Pu-238 es un emisor alfa.
Podrías tranquilamente hacer coches eléctricos con combustible nuclear sin demasiados problemas (existiría el riesgo de que en el tratamiento del combustible este se pulverizase de tal forma que se pudiese inhalar o ingerir, tanto en la fabricación como en el desguace).
El inconveniente es que el PU-238 se produce con un proceso larguísimo y caro de narices y por eso su uso se restringe a las misiones espaciales que requieren relativamente baja potencia y mucha densidad energética (para no cargar el lanzamiento).

Sin embargo, el Co-60 es un emisor beta y gamma y decae en emisores gamma. Por eso el personal médico que trabaja con él lleva trajes de plomo. No sería muy recomendable conducir un coche al trabajo con una batería de Co-60 y menos aún tratar los residuos de una industria del automóvil alimentada con Co-60. El Co-60 constituye el típico residuo médico peligroso de vida corta.

[wanderer]

Una visión crítica de la relación entre la Física Teórica "fundamenta", las Matemáticas y el dispendio de recursos en financiar según qué proyectos:

Sabine Hossenfelder
física teórica; autora de ‘Perdidos en las matemáticas’
“Gastar más en el acelerador de partículas es tirar el dinero”

https://www.lavanguardia.com/lacontra/20190828/464287900338/gastar-mas-en-el-acelerador-de-particulas-es-tirar-el-dinero.html

Aunque yo sea matemático, no puedo por menos de estar de acuerdo con ésta señora: el empeño de buscar "la Teoría del Todo", y de financiar algo que desde hace décadas ha entrado en una fase clara de retornos decrecientes, es un dispendio. Además, creo que tanto en Matemáticas como en otras partes de la Física menos "glamurosas", hay infinidad de problemas fundamentales que además son de muchísima mayor relevancia para nosotros. A los físicos teóricos de "altas energías" habría que atarles bien en corto financieramente, y recordarles además esa obsesión suya por las teorías que carecen de cualquier tipo de apoyo empírico sólo porque quedan matemáticamente molonas, no son ni buena Física ni, si me apuran, buena Matemática; si además en la parte que se acerca más a lo empíricamente contrastable, no han sido capaces de producir nada relevante en muchas décadas (el famoso bosón de Higgs es la comprobación empírica de algo predicho hace ya más de sesenta años), el tasarles el presupuesto está más que justificado, máxime cuando es a costa de la financiación de otros proyectos menos molones, pero mucho más baratos, y más productivos.

[wanderer]

A Mathematician's Lament:

https://youtu.be/Ws6qmXDJgwU

En éstos tiempos del moloneo lelo, que también se refleja en querer promocionar las Matemáticas a diestro y siniestro, pero sin apreciar realmente su belleza, aunque insistiendo machaconamente en su utilidad (la cual ciertamente, tiene, y mucha, pero ésa está lejos de ser el eje motor de su extraordinario desarrollo), ésta contribución me ha parecido muy de agradecer. Por lo mismo, lo de meter a las chicas con calzador en las carreras STEM, promocionando la imitación de las personas (eso de "no hay suficientes ejemplos femeninos"), en contra de la absorción de las ideas, del enfrentarse a los retos y fomentando el pensamiento crítico así como el placer estético, sólo puede producir frustración.

[saturno]

A Mathematician's Lament:

https: //youtu.be/Ws6qmXDJgwU]https://youtu.be/Ws6qmXDJgwU

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Mathematician%27s_Lament

http://mysite.science.uottawa.ca/mnewman/LockhartsLament.pdf

¿Eh? 


(Estoy harto de links tweeter, de youtube, de FB y otros multimedia que abren publicidad y últimamente acaban en censura)

En éstos tiempos del moloneo lelo, que también se refleja en querer promocionar las Matemáticas a diestro y siniestro, pero sin apreciar realmente su belleza, aunque insistiendo machaconamente en su utilidad (la cual ciertamente, tiene, y mucha, pero ésa está lejos de ser el eje motor de su extraordinario desarrollo), ésta contribución me ha parecido muy de agradecer.

Por lo mismo, lo de meter a las chicas con calzador en las carreras STEM, promocionando la imitación de las personas (eso de "no hay suficientes ejemplos femeninos"), en contra de la absorción de las ideas, del enfrentarse a los retos y fomentando el pensamiento crítico así como el placer estético, sólo puede producir frustración.

También está bien introducir retornos de línea, 
Se dice "airear" el texto. Sobre todo en medios electrónicos 

Aunque a veces eso subraya la falta de sustancia del contenido, buff. Wanderer, por favor, céntrese más en lo que transmite su saber matemático, y algo menos en decir que lo tiene, para luego comparar con los que no lo tengan.
Lo que hace es como indicar que usa el dedo indice para señalar el horizonte, y luego nos suelta una parrafada sobre la sortija que llevan otros en el anular, Olvidando que no estamos para debates sobre dedos, ni sobre manucura,

(Hoy me he levantado picado, pero llevo un temporada gestando esto. Y creo que voy a estar una temporada más así hasta que se me pase,)

[Cadavre Exquis]

Israel, Cyprus and Greece Agree To Link Power Grids Via Subsea Cable
Posted by BeauHD on Monday March 08, 2021 @07:10PM from the record-breaking dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters:

Cyprus, Greece and Israel on Monday signed an initial agreement to build the world's longest and deepest underwater power cable that will traverse the Mediterranean seabed at a cost of about $900 million and link their electricity grids. The project, called the Euro-Asia interconnector, will provide a back-up power source in times of emergency, said Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz, who was in Nicosia to sign a memorandum of understanding with his counterparts. Cypriot Energy Minister Natasa Pilides said it marked "a decisive step towards ending the island's energy isolation, and consequently, our dependence on heavy fuels."

The cable will have a capacity of 1,000-2,000 megawatts (MW) and is expected to be completed by 2024, according to Israel's energy ministry. With a length of about 1,500 km and a maximum depth of 2,700 meters, it will be the longest and deepest subsea electricity cable to have ever been constructed, it said. Calling the project a "2,000 mega-watt highway," Pilides said the first stage is expected to be operational within 2025. It will cover three sections of the Mediterranean: some 310 kilometers between Israel and Cyprus, about 900 kilometers between Cyprus and Crete, and about 310 additional kilometers between Crete and mainland Greece. Greek power grid operator IPTO has started construction of the Crete-mainland part, seen concluding by 2023. The Greek operator and Eurasia have been working closely to make sure the two cables link to each other efficiently, an IPTO official said. The European Union has recognized the cable as a "Project of Common Interest", categorizing it as a project it is willing to partly finance.

Saludos.

[Cadavre Exquis]

Tesla Is Plugging a Secret Mega-Battery Into the Texas Grid
Posted by BeauHD on Monday March 08, 2021 @05:10PM from the top-secret dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg:

Elon Musk is getting into the Texas power market, with previously unrevealed construction of a gigantic battery connected to an ailing electric grid that nearly collapsed last month. The move marks Tesla's first major foray into the epicenter of the U.S. energy economy. A Tesla subsidiary registered as Gambit Energy Storage LLC is quietly building a more than 100 megawatt energy storage project in Angleton, Texas, a town roughly 40 miles south of Houston. A battery that size could power about 20,000 homes on a hot summer day. Workers at the site kept equipment under cover and discouraged onlookers, but a Tesla logo could be seen on a worker's hard hat and public documents helped confirm the company's role. Property records on file with Brazoria County show Gambit shares the same address as a Tesla facility near the company's auto plant in Fremont, California. A filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lists Gambit as a Tesla subsidiary.

According to a document on the city of Angleton's website, the installation will use lithium iron phosphate batteries that are expected to last 10 to 20 years. The document says that it will generate around $1 million in property tax revenue for the city and the site will be unmanned but remotely monitored.

Saludos.

[Cadavre Exquis]

Researchers Found a Way To Send Tiny Robots Into Mouse Brains
Posted by BeauHD on Wednesday March 24, 2021 @07:20PM from the made-possible-by-magnets dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo:

In a mind-bending development, a team of researchers in China have managed to treat brain tumors in mice by delivering drugs to the tissues using microscopic robots. The robots jumped from the mice's bloodstreams into their brains by being coated in E. coli, which tricked the rodents' immune systems into attacking them, absorbing the robots and the cancer-fighting drugs in the process. The team's research was published today in the journal Science Robotics. It comes on the heels of previous research by members of the same team, which saw liquid-coated nanorobots remotely propelled through the jelly-like fluid of the eye. Besides being an obvious recipe for an episode of "The Magic School Bus," the research had obvious applications for ophthalmological research and medical treatments.

The crafts are magnetic, and the researchers use a rotating magnetic field to pull them around remotely. On microscales -- we're talking incremental movements about 1% the width of a hair -- the researchers were able to make the hybrid bio-bots wend paths like in the video game Snake. They're dubbed "neutrobots" because they infiltrate the brain in the casing of neutrophils, a type of white blood cell. It ultimately took Wu's team eight years to actualize the microscopic robot swarms capable of bridging the gap between the rodent bloodstream in the animal's tail, where the bots were injected, and its brain, where gliomas -- tumors that emerge from the brain's glial cells -- resided. Part of the issue is that the mice's white blood cells didn't dig the flavor of the magnetic robots. To overcome that issue, Wu's team coated the bots in bits of E. coli membrane, which the white blood cells easily recognize as a unwelcome invader. That made the robots much more palatable, and the white blood cells enveloped them. From inside those cells, the robots were then able to roll the cells toward the brain; a Trojan horse for the 21st century (in this case, one that benefits the residents of Troy). The neutrobots made it into the brains and were able to deliver the drug directly to the targeted tumors.

Saludos.

[Cadavre Exquis]

Solar Is Cheapest Electricity In History, US DOE Aims To Cut Costs 60% By 2030
Posted by BeauHD on Saturday March 27, 2021 @06:00AM from the clean-power dept.

Solar is becoming the cheapest option for new electricity in the world, but there's still room to improve. According to a new cost-reduction target announced today, the U.S. Department of Energy aims to cut utility-scale solar power plant costs by 60% by 2030. CleanTechnica reports:

So, how does the DOE intend to help cut solar power costs so much by 2030? First of all, the U.S. DOE's Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) sees two materials used in solar cells as critical to this brighter solar future perovskites and cadmium telluride (CdTe). The department is [spending] $63 million to try to help with these solar cell innovation goals. In the DOE's own words:

- $40 million for perovskite R&D: Perovskites are a family of emerging solar materials that have potential to make highly efficient thin-film solar cells with very low production costs. DOE is awarding $40 million to 22 projects that will advance perovskite PV device and manufacturing research and developmentâ"as well as performance through the formation of a new $14 million testing center to provide neutral, independent validation of the performance of new perovskite devices.
- $3 million Perovskite Startup Prize: This new prize competition will speed entrepreneurs' path to commercializing perovskite technologies by providing seed capital for their newly formed companies.
- $20 million for CdTe thin films: The National Renewable Energy Laboratory will set up a consortium to advance cheaper CdTe thin-film solar technologies, which were developed in the United States and make up 20% of the modules installed in this country. This consortium will advance low-cost manufacturing techniques and domestic research capabilities, increasing opportunities for U.S. workers and entrepreneurs to capture a larger portion of the $60 billion global solar manufacturing sector.

"Today's announcement also supports several concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP) projects," the department notes. Here are details from the DOE:

- $33 million for CSP advances: The new funding opportunity also includes funding for improvements to the reliability and performance of CSP plants, which can dispatch solar energy whenever it is needed; identifies new solar applications for industrial processes, which contribute 20% of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions; and advances long-duration thermal-energy storage devices. Long-duration energy storage is critical to decarbonizing the electricity sector and couples well with CSP plants, but the cost must fall by a factor of two to unlock deployment.
- $25 million to demonstrate a next-generation CSP power plant: Sandia National Laboratories will receive funding to build a facility where researchers, developers, and manufacturers can test next-generation CSP components and systems and advance toward DOE's 2030 cost target of 5 cents/kWh for CSP plants.

Saludos.

[Cadavre Exquis]

Parece que la gente de Neuralink sigue avanzando con el implante neural y ya han pasado de los cerdos a los monos con la idea de empezar las pruebas en humanos a finales de año.

Neuralink Releases Videos of Monkey Playing Pong With Its Brain
Posted by BeauHD on Friday April 09, 2021 @06:02PM from the taste-of-what's-to-come dept.

Rei writes:

Having moved from pigs to rhesus macaques in pursuit of the goal of hopefully beginning human trials by the end of the year, Neuralink has continued their recruitment drive with a pair of videos showing their latest progress. In the first video, they show how they train the macaque to control a joystick with its mind, and how after associating the neural signals with intent, they can disconnect the joystick and the macaque continues to be able to operate the training interface solely through Neuralink. They then switch it over to controlling a cursor in Pong (picture-in-picture showing synapses here). Even with the game set to high speed and with the distraction of his banana-milkshake reward, the macaque puts out an impressive gaming performance.

Musk expects the first commercial product to enable a paralyzed person to interact with a smartphone faster than a healthy person using their thumbs.

"Later versions will be able to shunt signals from Neuralinks in brain to Neuralinks in body motor/sensory neuron clusters, thus enabling, for example, paraplegics to walk again," adds Musk. "The device is implanted flush with skull & charges wirelessly, so you look & feel totally normal."

Monkey MindPong

Pueden leer más sobre el proyecto en su blog:

https://neuralink.com/blog/

Saludos.

[Saturio]

Este Elon es la bomba.

Consigue hacer creer que él ha inventado el viaje espacial. No se la de días que tuvimos con el vuelo de la Dragon y el Falcon9 a la estación espacial. Hoy ha despegado una Soyuz con una tripulación de refresco y ni Dios se ha enterado.

Hace unos 15 años o quizás más vi el experimento de unos chavales de la UZ para mover una silla de ruedas con la mente. Hace siglos que vi a gente jugar al excalectric con el pensamiento.

https://www.elmundo.es/cronica/2017/12/17/5a35869d46163f9e5c8b4614.html

[Cadavre Exquis]

Es cierto que hace ya tiempo que se está trabajando en tecnologías que permiten controlar dispositivos con la mente, en mi opinión, lo interesante de la tecnología que está desarrollando Neuralink es:

1. El aumento significativo en el número de electrodos que se implantan en el cerebro (según los últimos datos 3.072)
2. El implante se realiza utilizando un robot, lo cual permite insertar cada electrodo con una precisión que está fuera del alcance del mejor cirujano
3. La comunicación entre el implante neural y el cerebro es bidireccional (los electrodos pueden utilizarse tanto para registratar como para enviar impulsos eléctricos a las neuronas)
4. El implante es completamente intracraneano lo cual evita problemas mecánicos y de infecciones y lo hace prácticamente invisible (lo cual es importante desde un punto de vista estético)

Ayer mismo aparecía esta otra noticia:

Scientists Connect Human Brain To Computer Wirelessly For First Time Ever
Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday April 10, 2021 @02:34PM from the mind-over-matter dept.

"Scientists have demonstrated the first human use of a wireless brain-computer interface, a potential breakthrough for people with paralysis," reports The Next Web (in a story shared by Slashdot reader Hmmmmmm):

While traditional BCIs are tethered to users via cables, the new system — called BrainGate — replaces the cords with a small transmitter affixed atop a users' head. The unit then connects to an electrode array implanted in the brain's motor cortex. In a clinical trial, two participants with paralysis used the system to point, click, and type on a standard tablet computer. They both achieved similar typing speeds and point-and-click accuracy as those attained with wired systems.

The researchers say it's the first time a device has transmitted the full spectrum of signals recorded by a sensor in the brain's motor cortex.

Aunque, en este caso los implantes, como se puede apreciar en la siguiente imagen, son bastante más "aparatosos":

Saludos.

[Cadavre Exquis]

Hoy ha despegado una Soyuz con una tripulación de refresco y ni Dios se ha enterado.

Oleg Artemyev publicó ayer este tweet en su cuenta de Twitter:

https://twitter.com/OlegMKS/status/1380847248997806080

Si pueden, vean el vídeo con el sonido activado, es ciertamente impresionante; no me quiero ni imaginar lo que debe serntirse al estar grabando a esa distancia del cohete.

Saludos.

[Cadavre Exquis]

Student's First Academic Paper Solves Decades-Old Quantum Computing Problem
Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday April 17, 2021 @02:34PM from the A+ dept.

"Sydney university student Pablo Bonilla, 21, had his first academic paper published overnight and it might just change the shape of computing forever," writes Australia's national public broadcaster ABC:

As a second-year physics student at the University of Sydney, Mr Bonilla was given some coding exercises as extra homework and what he returned with has helped to solve one of the most common problems in quantum computing. His code spiked the interest of researchers at Yale and Duke in the United States and the multi-billion-dollar tech giant Amazon plans to use it in the quantum computer it is trying to build for its cloud platform Amazon Web Services....

Assistant professor Shruti Puri of Yale's quantum research program said the new code solved a problem that had persisted for 20 years. "What amazes me about this new code is its sheer elegance," she said. "Its remarkable error-correcting properties are coming from a simple modification to a code that has been studied extensively for almost two decades...."

Co-author of the paper, the University of Sydney's Ben Brown, said the brilliance of Pablo Bonilla's code was in its simplicity... "We just made the smallest of changes to a chip that everybody is building, and all of a sudden it started doing a lot better. It's quite amazing to me that nobody spotted it in the 20-or-so years that people have been working on that model."

Saludos.

[saturno]

Understanding quantum computing through drunken walks stackoverflow.blog
stackoverflow.blog - April 14, 2021
https://stackoverflow.blog/2021/04/14/understanding-quantum-computing-through-drunken-walks/?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the_overflow_newsletter

The jumping off point for exploring quantum computing is to understand that while many of the principles are counterintuitive, the classical universe we know and love is but a mere shadow of the quantum fabric of reality. To get a feel for that fundamental difference we will walk through an example that helps to illustrate the power of quantum computation.

La metáfora es interesante, pero no he entendido el ejemplo práctico (con código)

Quantum Walk Intro
https://quantumcomputing.com/strangeworks/projects/quantum-walk-four-nodes/files/main.qasm

[Cadavre Exquis]

Un vídeo de la gente de minutephysics en el que explican en detalle el funcinamiento del algoritmo de Shor que permite descomponer en sus factores primos un número N en tiempo O((log N)3)

How Quantum Computers Break Encryption | Shor's Algorithm Explained

Si nunca han oído hablar de la transformada cuántica de Fourier seguro que les gustará 

Saludos.