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    Engineers Build Artificial Intelligence Chip

    June 14, 2022, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    computer chips graphic
    Caption:MIT engineers have created a reconfigurable AI chip that comprises alternating layers of sensing and processing elements that can communicate with each other.
    Credits:Credit: Figure courtesy of the researchers and edited by MIT News

    The new design is stackable and reconfigurable, for swapping out and building on existing sensors and neural network processors. Imagine a more sustainable future, where cellphones, smartwatches, and other wearable devices don’t have to be shelved or discarded for a newer model.

    Instead, they could be upgraded with the latest sensors and processors that would snap onto a device’s internal chip — like LEGO bricks incorporated into an existing build. Such reconfigurable chipware could keep devices up to date while reducing our electronic waste.

    N...

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    Simulations reveal Hydrodynamics of Planetary Engulfment by Expanding Star

    June 14, 2022, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    engulfed-planet-500.jpg
    In this schematic of planetary engulfment, the image on the left shows a planet inside a giant star, with its orbital decay trajectory as a dashed line. The image on the right shows density and velocity in a simulation of the flow near the planet. (Credit: Ricardo Yarza et al.)

    A new study using hydrodynamical simulations reveals the forces acting on a planet when it is swallowed by an expanding star. The results show that the interactions of a substellar body (a planet or brown dwarf) with the hot gas in the outer envelope of a sun-like star can lead to a range of outcomes depending on the size of the engulfed object and the stage of the star’s evolution...

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    Forever Chemicals linked to Hypertension in Middle-Aged Women

    June 14, 2022, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Infographic: PFAS associated with higher risk of hypertension
    Infographic: PFAS associated with higher risk of hypertension
    This infographic shows common synthetic chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are associated with a higher risk of hypertension. They are found in fast food packaging, PFAs contaminated drinking water and PFAs contaminated food and states PFAS are detectable in almost everyone. The corresponding line graph shows the survival probability from age 45 to 70 with the following numbers. The hazard ratio of 95% confidence intervals by PFAs. Tertiles 3 versus 1 is 1.71 (1.15, 2.54). Tertile 2 versus Tertile 1 is 1.31 (1.07, 1.59).  
    copyright Hypertension, an American Heart Association journal and Ning Ding, Ph.D., M.P.H. 

    In a large, prospective study, the levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), w...

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    Astronomers may have detected a ‘Dark’ Free-Floating Black Hole

    June 13, 2022, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Hubble Space Telescope image of a distant star that was brightened and distorted by an invisible but very compact and heavy object between it and Earth. The compact object — estimated by UC Berkeley astronomers to be between 1.6 and 4.4 times the mass of our sun — could be a free-floating black hole, one of perhaps 200 million in the Milky Way galaxy. (Image courtesy of STScI/NASA/ESA)

    If, as astronomers believe, the deaths of large stars leave behind black holes, there should be hundreds of millions of them scattered throughout the Milky Way galaxy. The problem is, isolated black holes are invisible.

    Now, a team led by University of California, Berkeley, astronomers has for the first time discovered what may be a free-floating black hole by observing the brightening of a more d...

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