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AI Needs Enormous Computing Power. Could Light-Based Chips Help?

May 20, 2024

Optical neural networks, which use photons instead of electrons, have advantages over traditional systems. They also face major obstacles.

He Seeks Mystery Magnetic Fields With His Quantum Compass

May 17, 2024

Alex Sushkov is updating an old technology with new quantum tricks in hopes of sensing the magnetic influence of dark matter.

Computer Scientists Invent an Efficient New Way to Count

May 16, 2024

By making use of randomness, a team has created a simple algorithm for estimating large numbers of distinct objects in a stream of data.

Strangely Curved Shapes Break 50-Year-Old Geometry Conjecture

May 14, 2024

Mathematicians have disproved a major conjecture about the relationship between curvature and shape.

How ‘Idle’ Egg Cells Defend Their DNA From Damage

May 13, 2024

How do immature egg cells maintain genetic quality for decades before they mature? Scientists find unusual safeguards in this quiescent cell that may inform research into fertility.

Game Theory Can Make AI More Correct and Efficient

May 9, 2024

Researchers are drawing on ideas from game theory to improve large language models and make them more consistent.

Will Better Superconductors Transform the World?

May 9, 2024

Scientists are pursuing materials that can conduct electricity with perfect efficiency under ambient conditions. In this episode, the physicist Siddharth Shanker Saxena tells co-host Janna Levin about what makes this hunt so difficult and consequential.

New AI Tools Predict How Life’s Building Blocks Assemble

May 8, 2024

Google DeepMind’s AlphaFold3 and other deep learning algorithms can now predict the shapes of interacting complexes of protein, DNA, RNA and other molecules, better capturing cells’ biological landscapes.

Dogged Dark Matter Hunters Find New Hiding Places to Check

May 7, 2024

Perhaps dark matter is made of an entirely different kind of particle than the ones physicists have been searching for. New experiments are springing up to look for these ultra-lightweight phantoms.

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