measure

Antimatter has a property that has taken physicists decades to measure. CERN just did it a hundred times better than anyone else

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Antimatter is fascinating not only because of its essence; It is also due to the still enigmatic role he played in the origin of the universe. Scientists still do not have the necessary tools to understand with any precision the role of this form of matter in the formation of the cosmos and the mechanisms that govern the tenuous line that delimits the imbalance between matter and antimatter. Fortunately, what they do know are its constituent elements and some of its properties. Understand what is antimatter It’s not difficult. And we can observe it as an exotic type of matter that is made up of antiparticles, which are particles with the same mass and spin as the particles we are familiar with, but with the opposite electrical charge. In this way the antiparticle of the electron is the positron or antielectron. And the antiparticle of the proton is the antiproton. Antimatter has a surprising property: when it comes into direct contact with matter, both annihilate, releasing a large amount of energy in the form of high-energy photons, as well as other possible particle-antiparticle pairs. It is currently being studied in many of the most important research centers specialized in particle physics in the world with the hope that knowing it better will help us understand some of the mysteries of the cosmos that remain out of our reach. The hyperfine cleavage of antihydrogen has been revealed CERN’s antimatter factory produces this form of matter by firing high-energy protons from an adjacent synchrotron at a metal block. This process generates a cascade of secondary particles, and among them antiprotons arise. These latter particles can then be cooled to be used in the facility’s experiments. ALPHA (Antihydrogen Laser Physics Apparatus or antihydrogen laser physics apparatus), which is one of them, is specialized in producing antihydrogen by fusing antiprotons with positrons. Researchers then use magnetic fields to trap the antihydrogen for further study. An antihydrogen atom is composed of an antiproton in its nucleus and a positron orbiting around it, in the same way that a hydrogen atom contains a proton around which an electron orbits. Deuterium and tritium, the two isotopes of hydrogen, also have one or two neutrons in the nucleus respectively. The researchers of the ALPHA experiment have achieved something amazing: have measured hyperfine division of the ground state of the antihydrogen atom with a precision of 4 parts per million, improving the previous result by two orders of magnitude. This milestone is very important because it allows very rigorous tests to be carried out in the field of quantum electrodynamics. Hyperfine splitting of the ground state of the antihydrogen atom is the small splitting of the lowest energy state of the atom due to the magnetic interaction between the antiproton and the positron. According to the fundamental symmetries of nature, this measurement should be identical to the equivalent effect observed in hydrogen. Be that as it may, this milestone is very important because it allows very rigorous tests to be carried out in the field of quantum electrodynamics, which is the most precise theory that explains the interactions that occur between charged particles and light. Jeffrey Hangst, the spokesperson for the ALPHA experiment, explains that “the hyperfine splitting of the ground state of hydrogen is the origin of the so-called 21 centimeter lineso prized by radio astronomers and researchers searching for extraterrestrial intelligence (…) When the antimatter factory was conceived in the 1990s, the hyperfine splitting of antihydrogen was one of the key measurement objectives justifying the construction of the facility.” “The current measurement represents the culmination of many years of effort,” Hangst pointed out. “We have pursued the precise determination of the hyperfine splitting of antihydrogen since we demonstrated how to trap antimatter atoms in 2010. And now another group in the antimatter factory, the ASACUSA collaboration, is also trying to study this very important transition. Their technique, if demonstrated, has the potential to achieve even greater precision.” Thanks to ALPHA’s high level of precision, the measurement of hyperfine cleavage is sensitive to the effects of the internal structure of the antiproton at the center of the antihydrogen atom. In any case, this result is a very important step in the effort to further explore the nature of antimatter. Image | CERN More information | CERN In Xataka | European science gets serious: EUROfusion and CERN will work together on nuclear fusion and new colliders

We know exactly what AI costs, but we are unable to measure what it produces. And that is a serious problem

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We know very well the cost of developing AI: mammoth data centershe electricity consumption skyrocketedhe tech capex through the roof… The problem is that it seems that all this is not having a return, or not enough to justify tremendous investment. The fear of the bubble is justified, but maybe we were wrong and the problem is another: that our measuring tape is broken. The hidden production. In an extensive and in-depth analysis in the newsletter Semianalisysuse the term ‘dark output’ in reference to the economic value that AI is generating, but which current measurement systems do not see well and therefore does not have an impact on GDP. This hidden production has two aspects: Hidden production by substitution: These are jobs that used to be done by a human for a price and that can now be done by AI for a fraction of that cost. There is a very graphic example with the writing of wills, a job that historically cost $400, which had dropped to $150, and in a single year AI has plummeted to $0.50. The work is done, but the economic transaction disappears from the data. New production that remains hidden: On the other side are the jobs that were not done because they were too expensive, but that AI has made so cheap that they can now be done. The example that Semianalysis provides are the bibliographic reviews whose price was up to $2,000 and that made them a very exclusive service. Now with AI you can do one of these reviews on all types of projects. The problem is that the economic trace is non-existent, except for the use of tokens or payment of subscriptions. Why it is important. The thesis of the analysis is that we are not facing a bubble, but that we are not measuring well the return that AI is producing and that is a problem that goes far beyond a simple statistical debate. Macroeconomic data is the metric by which investors detect real growth, central banks adjust interest rates, and companies decide whether to hire or automate. Making decisions of this caliber based on inaccurate data can have serious consequences. The difficulty of measuring it. Services and intellectual labor are much more complicated to measure than physical goods. It is very easy for a furniture factory to measure whether new machinery allows it to manufacture more chairs in less time. AI is helping to do tasks such as programming, writing documents, summarizing them or creating briefings and the way we measure it is the tokens consumed. The problem is that consuming more tokens can result in enormous benefits for the company, but they can also produce bad code and bad summaries. The value is in the production, in the output, not in what we spend to get to it. Precedents. Something similar happened during the computer boom in the 80s and 90s. At this time, macroeconomic data were not capable of detecting what the computer revolution was bringing. The solution did not arrive until 2013, when R&D and investment in intellectual property were included in GDP accounting. The result was that 3.6 trillion dollars were added retroactively, showing that in the year 2000 alone it represented 30% of the GDP. The other precedent is the so-called care economy, in reference to all the domestic and care work carried out mainly by women without receiving remuneration. The International Labor Organization estimated in 2018 that 16.4 billion hours of unpaid care work were performed, which would be equivalent to 11 trillion dollars or 9% of global GDP. Yes, but. That it is necessary to update our measuring tape does not detract from the fact that investment in AI infrastructure is truly dizzying. In 2025, big tech companies will invest $410 billion in AI and in 2026 the plan is to exceed the 650 billion dollars. The chief economist of Golman Sachs said that the contribution of all this crazy investment to US GDP was “basically zero.” In this sense, it is as risky to say that we are facing a bubble about to burst due to excess spending, as it is to assume that there is immense invisible wealth justifying every dollar invested. Image | Xataka with Gemini In Xataka | “The biggest mistake of all time”: Bill Gates let slip 400 billion when Microsoft didn’t buy Android

some experts fear consequences that are difficult to measure

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There is an initiative to build a gigantic data center in Utah (USA). The so-called Stratos Project plans to occupy an area equivalent to the city of Washington DC and is estimated to consume 9 GW of power. Some experts warn that the thermal impact will be devastatingand they claim that “it is the equivalent of releasing the energy of 23 atomic bombs a day in the form of heat.” A Dantesque project. The approval of Project Stratos occurred at the beginning of May by the Box Elder County Commissionersthe community in northwest Utah on whose land it will be located. The megacomplex plans to occupy 16,100 hectares of surface, and if completed it will become the largest data center on the planet. That record is disturbing and alarming. 9 GW of computing capacity. This data center will consume 9 gigawatts of power, a figure that doubles the current electricity consumption of the entire state of Utah. The figure, like all those surrounding the project, is absolutely exaggerated, and there are many those who have criticized the project. But also GW of heat. The biggest concern for experts It’s not just energy consumptionbut how this will affect the temperatures of the region in which this data center is intended to be built. Robert Davies, a physics professor at Arizona State University, has made the first calculations on this impact and his conclusions are worrying. Because the natural gas plants that will generate electricity for the center are 57% efficient, the complex will produce about 7 or 8 GW of waste heat. Once that electricity reaches the servers, it will be converted into heat, and it is estimated that Project Stratos will emit about 16 GW of thermal energy daily in the Hansel Valley where it will theoretically be located. 23 atomic bombs. Davies points out that this release of heat in a closed basin like the one in this valley is equivalent to “depositing the energy of 23 atomic bombs every day in the local environment.” It is obvious that the project does not generate nuclear explosions or radiation, but it will cause notable climate change. The models estimate that daytime temperatures will increase by 2.7 ºC on average, but the nighttime ones will suffer peaks of up to additional 15.5ºC. The semi-arid climate of the region, one of the driest in the US, will transform into an area with thermal dynamics similar to those of the Sahara Desert. Threat to Great Salt Lake. The location chosen to locate this AI data center is not coincidental: the Hansel Valley is the area through which the so-called Ruby Pipeline passes, a gas pipeline that transports natural gas from Wyoming to the west coast of the United States. The problem is that it is also very close to the northern end of the Great Salt Lake, a body of water that has already been in danger for some time. In fact, its water levels are near historic lows after an unusually dry winter. we were few. The supply contracts indicate an even greater risk to that body of water. The developers plan to acquire local water rights equivalent to about 16 million cubic meters. It is a volume sufficient to cover the basic needs of more than 20,000 homes in Utah. Data center hate is real. This is the latest and most notable case of mega data center construction projects that trigger frontal rejection from local communities in the US. While AI companies and hyperscalers continue to announce new data center construction projects, residents of these areas organize local resistance. Image | O’Leary Digital In Xataka | We already know how data centers will impact employment in Aragon: open 24/7 with 180 workers

The energy jets from black holes are so powerful that they can reshape entire galaxies and now we know how to measure it

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It is always said that black holes They gobble up everything that comes close to themfrom matter to light. However, this is not entirely true. In some cases, there is a fraction of particles and energy that, instead of falling inside, does the opposite. It is ejected in the form of jets, known as jets. Although there are some hypotheses about this, the reason why this occurs is not completely known. What is known is that these jets are so powerful that they can even influence the evolution of galaxies. The problem is that it is known that they are very powerful, but not how powerful. Until now, no one had been able to directly measure the power of these jets. However, an international team of scientists has achieved measuring these jets around a specific black hole, thereby opening up a very interesting range of possibilities. The data. These scientists have studied the Cygnus X-1 systemcomposed of a black hole and a blue supergiant star orbiting each other. Using a very novel method, they have discovered that the energy of the jets leaving the black hole is equivalent to that of 1,000 suns. They have also observed that they move through space at a speed of 540 million kilometers per hour and that 10% of the energy that is initially formed in the fall towards the black hole is converted into jets. The background. Until now, no one knew how to measure the power of a black hole’s jets. The only thing that was done was to measure the scars they left in space using calorimetric methods. When freed, they can leave in their wake hot spots and holes in the intergalactic medium. However, As explained in an article by Interesting Engineeringthis is something like wanting to measure the power of an engine by observing the treads of the car’s tires. The important thing is to directly analyze the machinery. And that is precisely what has been achieved now. Indirect measures. In systems formed by a black hole and a star, the black hole feed little by little gas surrounding the star. As it approaches it, the gas begins to rotate faster and faster, generating a lot of heat and energy. Part of that energy does not fall into the black hole, but instead jump outward, forming the jets. In turn, the star releases very intense flows of particles, which give rise to what is known as stellar winds. Those stellar winds can interact with the jets and bend them. And there is the key. The jets cannot be measured as such, but the resistance they offer to being bent by stellar winds can be measured. For example, we can know how strong a person is by analyzing his or her ability to beat someone whose strength we do know in an arm wrestling match. Trajectory changes. The overall trajectory of the jets depends on the momentum flux of both the jets themselves and the winds. Since the momentum flow of the wind can be calculated, it is enough to analyze the trajectory to solve the unknown. The data can also be further refined with a series of computer simulations. The result is a fairly rough estimate of the power of the jets. There are limitations. The biggest limitation of this study is that only one black hole has been analyzed. The procedure would have to be repeated with more jets in more black holes to check if there is a trend and, therefore, if the method is valid. Galactic evolution. Since jets from larger black holes can significantly affect galactic evolution, this method could be very useful to better understand how galaxies form. That is why it is important to move on to the second step and check if the method is reproducible, especially with larger black holes. Image| A supermassive black hole ejects a jet of plasma 3,000 light years long, traveling at almost the speed of light. NASA artist concept In Xataka | We thought that the heart of the Milky Way was an immense black hole. Mathematics has changed this idea for us

They measure 85 meters, have no anchors and are connected to Starlink: the gigantic "Roombas" sailors who want to save AI from the blackout

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The rise of artificial intelligence is devouring the capacity of electrical grids around the world, skyrocketing consumption and carbon emissions. And this is just the beginning. As Garth Sheldon-Coulson, CEO of the startup Panthalassa, warned, in an interview with CBS News: “We are still at the beginning of this lawsuit.” To solve this bottleneck, the heaviest investors in the technology sector are looking to the sea. Peter Thiel, the controversial billionaire co-founder of Palantir and PayPal, just led a $140 million injection into Panthalassa. But what exactly is Panthalassa? To understand it, you have to erase the traditional image of an industrial warehouse full of servers. Sheldon-Coulson described it with a rather peculiar metaphor: “It’s like ‘a giant Roomba,’ an autonomous, self-propelled system that sails without anchors across the Pacific.” The anatomy of a marine colossus. Panthalassa will use this newly raised $140 million to complete its pilot plant in Oregon and accelerate the deployment of its new model, the Ocean-3which will be tested in the North Pacific in 2026 with a view to commercialization in 2027, as detailed ESG Today. We are not talking about small buoys. The proportions are colossal. As explained Financial Timesthese solid steel structures measure about 85 meters long. To give us an idea, they are almost as tall as the iconic Big Ben of London or the building Flatiron from New York. In Xataka There is a company that has grown 3,000% in the stock market, even beating the performance of Nvidia: Sandisk The engineering behind. Just as described Tom’s Hardwarethe nodes are shaped like a “lollipop”: a huge white sphere floats on the surface, while a long tubular structure submerges vertically under the water. As the waves pass, the structure rises and falls. This relative motion forces seawater up the pressurized tube into the spherical chamber, where it spins a turbine. Being a continuous cycle powered by an ocean that never stops, the system generates electricity 24 hours a day. But this is where the real twist of the project lies. Historically, the big problem with wave energy has been the enormous cost of laying underwater cables to bring electricity to the coast. According to GeekWirePanthalassa solves this in one fell swoop: it doesn’t send power to shore, but uses it directly on board to power the AI ​​chips. Once the information is processed, the results (inference tokens) are sent back to clients on the ground via low-orbit satellite connections, such as SpaceX’s Starlink network. The end of terrestrial bottlenecks. This approach represents a radical paradigm shift in technological infrastructure. “Panthalassa’s idea transforms a power transmission problem into a data transmission problem,” explains to Ars Technica Benjamin Lee, computer engineer and architect at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to inexhaustible energy, the ocean offers another vital advantage: cold. Traditional data centers spend fortunes and consume millions of liters of drinking water just to prevent servers from melting due to heat. On the high seas, the story is different. As detailed BusinessWirethe ocean provides “free supercooling,” solving one of the industry’s biggest engineering challenges and extending the life of chips. Added to this is the growing citizen resistance. As pointed out Tom’s Hardwarelocal communities are increasingly rejecting the construction of these huge land-based industrial warehouses due to noise, land grabbing and energy diversion. On the ocean, there are simply no neighbors to bother or urban planning plans to navigate. Besides, as highlighted Finance TimesBeing a closed water circuit without external engines or emissions, the impact on marine life is minimal, underpinning its ecological appeal. The challenge of taming the ocean. As revolutionary as the idea may sound, transforming the ocean into a global supercomputer has titanic obstacles: The connectivity bottleneck. As he warns Ars Technicarelying on satellites is fine for “inference” (i.e. returning real-time responses to ChatGPT users or similar), but satellites have limited bandwidth and latency. If multiple ocean nodes are required to coordinate to train a heavy AI model, satellite connectivity simply won’t measure up against traditional fiber optic cables. The fury of the sea. Data Center Dynamics emphasizes that these nodes They will have to survive extreme conditions: hurricanes, corrosive saltpeter and perpetual motion for more than a decade without human intervention or maintenance. They are not alone in the idea of ​​​​wetting the servers. According to Ars Technica, Microsoft has already tested submerging data centers in the seabed with its Project Natickand Chinese companies already operate underwater infrastructure near Hainan Island. However, Panthalassa is much bolder: being floating, autonomous nodes without grounded cables, they completely break the umbilical cord with the continental electrical grid. {“videoId”:”x9sjece”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”CHINA is WINNING the TECH WAR because they planned it that way 10 YEARS AGO”, “tag”:”china”, “duration”:”721″} A bet at the height of desperation. Despite investor optimism, transforming the Pacific into the next computing cloud will not be a cake walk. $210 million (the company’s total funding to date) may seem like an outrageous amount to throw servers into the sea, but it needs to be put into perspective. As highlighted Ars Technicathis figure is anecdotal if we consider that large American technology companies plan to spend $765 billion building terrestrial data centers in 2026 alone. Faced with the desperation of the sector – which has been exploring since reopen abandoned nuclear power plants until setting up servers powered by solar panels in space orbit—the option of floating in the ocean seems reasonable. The ultimate goal of Panthalassa, as shared by its CEOis to deploy thousands of these nodes far from the coasts. If they can tame the waves and satellite bottlenecks, they could have found the Holy Grail of AI: “The cheapest energy on the planet, infinite, clean and beyond the reach of Earth’s bureaucracy.” Image | Panthalassa Xataka | Old chips never die: companies that made “boring” chips are riding the dollar (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news They … Read more

How to measure the distance between two points in Google Maps on PC and mobile

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Let’s explain to you how to measure distances in Google Mapsso that you can have better references of how far away the points that interest you are. It is not about measuring distances on roads or paths, for that you can make routes on Google Mapsbut to draw a line between two points and know their physical distance. You will be able to do this to measure streets, roads, or anything you want on the map. A virtual ruler will be generated telling you the distance. We are going to teach you how to do both on the Google Maps website and in the application. Measure distances on the Google Maps website If you are using the Google Maps website, you have to do right click on one of the points of the measurement you want to make. This will open a context menu, where you have to click on the option measure distance that will appear at the bottom. Now all you have to do is click on another point on the map. Come on, you right click on the starting point, and then when you choose the option, click on the final click. This will generate a ruler that will show you the distance between these two points. Now you can continue marking new points that will be joined with the previous ones, and you will be able to see the distance between each of the points. Besides, At the bottom you have a local distance indicator which will tell you the total of the sum of all the distances. Measure distances in the Google Maps app Distance measurement is different in the Google Maps app, since it only shows you the total distance and not point by point. But the way to do it is quite similar. The first thing you have to do is click with your finger on the place on the map that you want to be the starting point. This will open a menu with many options, and in it you must click on the option measure distance that you will have inside at the bottom. Now, there will be an aiming point in the center of the screen, and with your fingers you will have to move until you go pointing to where you want to add new points. When you do, click on the button Add pointand everything will stay the same so you can add new points. At the end, you also have an indicator at the bottom left where it will tell you the total distance that all the points add up. In Xataka Basics | Google Maps: 45 functions and tricks to get the most out of both your website and your mobile app

The countries of the Persian Gulf have adopted an unexpected civil protection measure against Iran’s attacks: teleworking

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When an employee in Riyadh receives an email from his company telling him not to come to the office the next day, the most common reason was usually a sandstorm, construction work, or a holiday. In recent weeks, the reason has been something else: the possibility that its offices, probably located in a downtown financial district, could become Iranian missile target. In the Persian Gulf, teleworking has ceased to be a post-pandemic convenience and has become a civil protection tool in the midst of a geopolitical crisis that has been repeated in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain since the start of the armed conflict between the US, Israel and Iran. Riyadh: the most visible offices, the first to be emptied. According to published Reutersseveral Western and Saudi companies in Riyadh this week expanded their teleworking recommendations via email or text message sent to their employees. The notices focused on employees working in the King Abdullah financial district, Faisaliah Tower, Business Gate and Laysen Valley, areas where major US banks, technology companies such as Microsoft and Apple, and the Saudi sovereign wealth fund itself are based. The arguments for adopting this measure were not unfounded. Iran threatened to attack American interests in the region in retaliation and, in fact, attacked several Amazon data centers in United Arab Emirates. The order to telework does not mean that this simple measure will keep the civilian population safe, but it does distance them from the international offices occupied by American companies. The Arab Emirates were the first to adopt teleworking. The United Arab Emirates were, in fact, the first in ordering teleworking for its employees, immediately after Iran’s first attacks. According to published the local newspaper Khaleej Times, The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratization asked private companies to adopt teleworking as a precautionary measure, keeping only workers whose physical presence was essential in their jobs. In those first attacks, four people were injured by debris from intercepted drones that fell on residential buildings, and damage was reported to the dubai international airportthe Burj Al Arab and the Palm Jumeirah. Teleworking recommended, not mandatory. The authorities of other countries in the region, such as Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, also followed in the footsteps of the United Arab Emirates and recommended private companies adopt teleworking and restrictions on influx to offices due to the risk of Iranian missile attacks. Qatar, also punished for reprisals against US interests during the conflict, was another of the countries that activated teleworking protocols for its officials. However, something that all of them have in common is that none of them consider themselves as an obligation to teleworkbut rather companies are recommended to adopt teleworking, leaving the risk assessment to their discretion and that of local authorities. The Government of Dubai Media Office confirmed that the emirate’s private sector continued operating normally, with most business activities uninterrupted despite the risk of attacks. A region that learns to work under pressure. Although these countries are not officially at war with Iran, they are involved and targeted in Iranian attacks in retaliation against US and Israeli companies in the area. In this context, many fear that any escalation would lead Iran to attack critical infrastructure in the region more forcefully, which explains the caution of companies even after the announcement of the ceasefire reached in extremis during the early morning. trump qualified the pact of “total and complete victory.” But as negotiators work in Islamabad to turn that provisional ceasefire into a lasting agreement, Gulf companies continue to watch the calendar with one eye on the news and another on their security protocols to protect their employees. In Xataka | Working from anywhere was the dream of teleworking: not notifying those location changes can get you fired Image | Unsplash (Kate Trysh, Microsoft Copilot)

the world’s first system to measure time on the Moon

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The Moon is close to going from being an occasional destination to a place where many things happen at the same time, and that forces us to rethink even the most basic bases of how we operate there. When several ships are maneuvering, when you want to land accurately or when thinking about a future navigation network, it is no longer enough to use Earth time and make corrections on the fly. Time becomes an operational tool, and any gap, no matter how small, begins to matter. That is the background of the step that China has just taken. The announcement comes from Nanjing and has a very practical objective. According to Global Timesa team at Purple Mountain Observatory has developed and published LTE440a software that allows you to directly compare the weather on the Moon with that on Earth without resorting to manual calculations. The system is based on a model that integrates lunar gravity and the movement of the satellite, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences presented it officially as a usable product last December, not just as an academic exercise, with an eye toward future operations in the lunar environment. Why time doesn’t run the same on the Moon. The gap that Chinese software is trying to solve is not a curiosity, but a direct consequence of physics. By having a lower gravity, the Moon makes its clocksand move forward about 56 microseconds a day with respect to those on Earth. This difference, imperceptible in the short term, accumulates and ends up introducing increasing errors if Earth time continues to be used as the only reference for missions that last months or even years. Landings and navigation at play. This gap, however small it may seem, has direct consequences when moving from theory to operation. Jonathan McDowellHarvard astronomer and quoted by the South China Morning Postexplained that differences of just one microsecond can become relevant in navigation systems, affecting calculations even on scales of one minute. What is LTE440. LTE440 calculates the relationship between the Moon’s coordinate time and the dynamic time of the solar system’s barycenter, an astronomical reference used to describe the motion of bodies. This correspondence is one of the necessary steps to later convert lunar time to Earth time in a traceable way. A model of the “Long March 10”, the launch system that China wants to use for its first manned mission to the Moon The international framework. The pressure to sort out this problem does not come only from China. In 2024, the International Astronomical Union adopted a broad framework for the Moon to have its own temporal reference, given the prospect of multiple missions operating at the same time. In that context, the Nanjing team’s work is presented as an engineering step that attempts to turn that general idea into a usable tool. Ambitious scope. The scientific article in Astronomy and Astrophysics maintains that The method remains on the order of a few tens of nanoseconds even according to their calculations when projected out to 1,000 years. On the other hand, this technical advance comes at a very specific moment in the Chinese space program. China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) maintains its goal to take astronauts to the Moon by 2030 and has already completed preliminary prototyping of the main systems, from the Long March-10 rocket to the Mengzhou spacecraft and the Lanyue lunar module. Images | Ganapathy Kumar | engin akyurt In Xataka | Poland and Spain are the European countries that have increased their contribution to space the most. For very different reasons

What are lightning bolts and how are they formed, the impressive electrical discharges that scare and fascinate in equal measure?

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The good news is that the chance of being struck by lightning this year is less than one in a million. Even better news is that 90% of people struck by lightning survive. Even so, it is always advisable to avoid risks when we are talking about atmospheric phenomena as violent as these. Lightning strikes cause both fear and fascination, a fascination that sometimes leads us to ask questions about the nature of these immense electrical columns. What is lightning Lightning is an electrical discharge (each lightning can generate several discharges), generally of very high power, that occur in clouds. These are meteorological phenomena that, although they have its origin in the atmospheresometimes they reach the surface of the Earth. We usually associate lightning with storms and cyclones, but these discharges can occur in other contexts, for example during volcanic eruptions, during fires of a certain intensity or when nuclear weapons are detonated. How lightning is formed Lightning usually occurs in stormy conditions and, the truth is that we do not fully know how. We know that under certain conditions, clouds can go accumulating electrical charges both positive and negative. In these cases, the air acts as an insulator between areas of positive or negative accumulation, as well as between these areas and the Earth. At a certain point, the accumulation of these charges exceeds a threshold that causes this insulating capacity of the air to give way. So all that accumulation of charges generates an electric current capable of traveling long distances (even several hundred kilometers). The discharge allows the electrical charge to balance, but the charges can accumulate again until the next lightning strike. What remains a mystery to us is the beginning of this process, how positive or negative charges accumulate in certain regions. The main hypothesis suggests that the origin of this accumulation is in tiny hail particles (also called graupel) that grow as they encounter supercold water droplets (in a liquid state but with temperatures below freezing). In thunderstorms, these icy particles would frequently collide, colliding with other icy particles. These collisions would cause the charges of the different particles to gain charge of one sign or another. Difference between lightning, thunder and lightning Electrical shocks are usually invisible to the human eye and they also do not generate noise, but this is not the case with lightning. Lightning generates not only a flash of intense light, but also a significant roar. We call the zigzag luminous path of lightning lightning. As it passes through the atmosphere, the electrical discharge causes the air to heat up to exceed temperatures of 27,000º Ceslius, a temperature higher than that observed on the surface of the Sun. This causes the air to become incandescent, generating lightning. Such rapid and intense heating of the air has another effect, making it “explode” outwards. This rapid movement of air is responsible for the second element that makes up lightning, sound or, in other words, the thunder. Light and sound move through the atmosphere at very different speeds. This is what makes us see lightning even seconds before its sound reaches our eardrums. This gap gives rise to an old trick to measure the distance at which the storm is from us. If we count the seconds of lag between light and sound and divide the result by three, we can estimate the distance in kilometers at which the lightning occurred. Types of lightning Cloud flashes and cloud-to-cloud Among conventional rays we can distinguish various types depending on the location of the points they join. The first of the groups that we can distinguish is that of the cloudy flashes. Most lightning strikes never reach the ground, in fact it is common for them not to even escape the cloud in which they occur. These rays are also often called intra-cloud rays. Within the category of lightning that never reaches the ground, there are some whose path partially escapes the cloud and even some that start in one cloud and reach another different cloud. Cloud-to-surface We distinguish these cloudy flashes and rays from those that do manage to reach the Earth’s surface. These types of discharges occur from the top down, at least when they happen naturally. The rays that join cloud and surface can be both negative and positive depending on where the respective negative and positive charges are located. Negative rays are the most common rays (they represent around 95% of impacts). In these rays, the clouds accumulate a negative charge and the Earth has a positive charge. When lightning opens the channel, the negative charge moves from the cloud to the ground, hence the name. The positive rays They are less frequent but at the same time more powerful. The reason is that these originate in higher areas of the cloud, so they must travel further. This in turn means that they accumulate more energy before discharging. Other unique events However, there is a different category that we call transient light events, or TLE (transient luminous events). These phenomena are much less frequent, more difficult to observe and, as a consequence, much more mysterious. How powerful is lightning? The strength of lightning can vary considerably depending on atmospheric conditions and the Earth’s surface. As explained According to the United States National Weather Service, a “typical” lightning strike can discharge about 30,000 amperes with 300 million volts. However, we pointed out before that a positive ray can transport much more energy. According to NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), the organization on which the American meteorological service depends, these types of discharges can be an order of magnitude higher, discharging 300,000 amperes with 1,000 million volts. Many will wonder Why don’t we take advantage of this energy? and the answer is that, today, there are too many difficulties to make this technology a reality. First, we must keep in mind that lightning is a transitory phenomenon that can occur in different places: to obtain its energy we would have … Read more

The measure is much more restrictive than with H20 chips

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The administration of the cyberspace of China (CAC) has ordered To the main technological companies of the country, including Bytedance and Alibaba, to stop buying and testing the Nvidia artificial intelligence chips specifically designed for the Chinese market. This is another episode in the arduous Commercial War between the United States and Chinaa hardening caused by Beijing’s strategy to reduce its dependence on American technology. What happened. The Chinese regulator has banned the purchase of the RTX PRO 6000D, the most recent Nvidia chip adapted to the local market, forcing companies to cancel their orders and stop the evidence that had already begun. According to Financial Timesseveral companies had expressed their intention to acquire tens of thousands of units before receiving the approval from the government. Why now. Chinese regulators have concluded that semiconductors developed by national companies Like Huawei and change They already reach comparable performance or superior to the products that Nvidia exports to China. This evaluation has led the authorities to bet on local industry. Even more restrictive regulation. This prohibition goes one step further than the previous guidelines, which focused on advising the purchase of H20, the previous Nvidia model for China. The current measure is a direct order that leaves no room for maneuver to Chinese technology companies. The Nvidia reaction. Jensen Huang, CEO of the American company, It has been shown “disappointed” but comprehensive with the situation. “We can only be at the service of a market if the country wishes,” he said during his visit to London, where he accompanies Donald Trump on his tour of the United Kingdom. The geopolitical context. The tension comes from afar. The United States initially prohibited Nvidia Sell ​​your most advanced chips To China, which led the company to develop specific versions for the Chinese market. In July, Washington partially flexible these restrictionsbut established that Nvidia must pay 15% of the income she obtains from China to the US government. Between the lines. “The message is now high and clear. Before, a new Nvidia supply was expected if the geopolitical situation improved. Now everyone is hands to work to build the national system,” assured the executive of a technological company to the Financial Times. From the comings and disagreements between China and the United States, both countries have found a kind of Technological self -sufficiency. In the case of China, this has been another step towards this strategy promoted by Beijing. Bet on national chips. China seeks to triple its production of IA processors next year, according to information of the Financial Times. The commitment to national semiconductors is part of a broader strategy To compete with the United States in the career of artificial intelligence and reduce its vulnerability to future commercial restrictions. For Nvidia this implies the loss of a key market in a moment of maximum growth of the sector. Cover image | Nvidia and Arthur Wang In Xataka | China has the largest censorship system in the world. Now he has decided to export it and sell it to other countries

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