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A new shortcut can help engineers design leak-proof magnetic confinement systems for fusion reactors 10 times as fast as the gold standard method, without sacrificing accuracy. While several other big challenges remain for all magnetic fusion designs, this advance addresses the biggest challenge that's specific to a type of fusion reactor first proposed in the 1950s, called a stellarator.

A new article puts artificial intelligence and machine learning on the task of finding new, powerful electrolytes for designing next-generation batteries for electric vehicles, phones, laptops and grid-scale energy storage. The paper outlines a new framework for finding molecules that maximize three components that make an ideal battery electrolyte -- ionic conductivity, oxidative stability and Coulombic efficiency.

A new article puts artificial intelligence and machine learning on the task of finding new, powerful electrolytes for designing next-generation batteries for electric vehicles, phones, laptops and grid-scale energy storage. The paper outlines a new framework for finding molecules that maximize three components that make an ideal battery electrolyte -- ionic conductivity, oxidative stability and Coulombic efficiency.

Computer scientists have developed a new AI text-to-video model that learns real-world physics knowledge from time-lapse videos.

Computer scientists have developed a new AI text-to-video model that learns real-world physics knowledge from time-lapse videos.

Psychedelic drugs like MDMA and psilocybin may help treat depression, anxiety and other mental health conditions by reducing the number of inflammatory cells around the brain

How do you distinguish a galaxy from a mere cluster of stars? That's easy, right? A galaxy is a large collection of millions or billion of stars, while a star cluster only has a thousand or so. Well, that kind of thinking won't get you a Ph.D. in astronomy! Seriously, though, the line between galaxy and star cluster isn't always clear. Case in point, UMa3/U1.

The idea that our Solar System is representative of other solar systems hasn't survived the age of exoplanet discovery. Kepler and TESS have shown us that our system doesn't even contain the most common type of planet: sub-Neptunes. These planets pose a mystery to planetary scientists, and the JWST is helping unravel the mystery.

The solar gravitation lens (SGL) has much potential as a telescope. This point in space, located about 650 AU away from the Sun, uses fundamental properties of physics to amplify the light from extremely far-away objects, allowing us to see them at a level of detail unachievable anywhere else. However, any SGL mission would face plenty of technical and physical challenges. A new paper by independent researcher Viktor Toth is the latest in a series that discusses those challenges when imaging a far-away exoplanet, and in particular, looks at the difficulties in dealing with potential moving cloud cover. He concludes that using the SGL might not be the most effective way of capturing high-resolution images of an exoplanet, after all.

Researchers have created a method that makes virtual reality (VR) more accessible to people with mobility limitations.

Researchers have developed a new quantum theory of gravity which describes gravity in a way that's compatible with the Standard Model of particle physics, opening the door to an improved understanding of how the universe began.

Researchers have developed a new quantum theory of gravity which describes gravity in a way that's compatible with the Standard Model of particle physics, opening the door to an improved understanding of how the universe began.

In 1959, physicists James Terrell and Roger Penrose (Nobel laureate in 2020) independently concluded that fast-moving objects should appear rotated. However, this effect has never been demonstrated. Now, scientists have succeeded for the first time in reproducing the effect using laser pulses and precision cameras -- at an effective speed of light of 2 meters per second.

In 1959, physicists James Terrell and Roger Penrose (Nobel laureate in 2020) independently concluded that fast-moving objects should appear rotated. However, this effect has never been demonstrated. Now, scientists have succeeded for the first time in reproducing the effect using laser pulses and precision cameras -- at an effective speed of light of 2 meters per second.

Researchers developed a framework to enable decentralized artificial intelligence-based building automation with a focus on privacy. The system enables AI-powered devices like cameras and interfaces to cooperate directly, using a new form of device-to-device communication. In doing so, it eliminates the need for central servers and thus the need for centralized data retention, often seen as a potential security weak point and risk to private data.

Researchers developed a framework to enable decentralized artificial intelligence-based building automation with a focus on privacy. The system enables AI-powered devices like cameras and interfaces to cooperate directly, using a new form of device-to-device communication. In doing so, it eliminates the need for central servers and thus the need for centralized data retention, often seen as a potential security weak point and risk to private data.

An international team has succeeded at BESSY II to elucidate how ultrafast spin-polarized current pulses can be characterized by measuring the ultrafast demagnetization in a magnetic layer system within the first hundreds of femtoseconds. The findings are useful for the development of spintronic devices that enable faster and more energy-efficient information processing and storage.

An international team has succeeded at BESSY II to elucidate how ultrafast spin-polarized current pulses can be characterized by measuring the ultrafast demagnetization in a magnetic layer system within the first hundreds of femtoseconds. The findings are useful for the development of spintronic devices that enable faster and more energy-efficient information processing and storage.

The mitochondrion, often referred to as the powerhouse of the cell, plays critical roles in cellular function, making it a prime organelle to target for fundamental studies, metabolic engineering, and disease therapies. With only a limited number of existing mitochondrial targeting sequences, a new study demonstrates the utility of generative artificial intelligence for designing new ones.

The NYT has always been anti-Israel, and I toy with calling it “antisemitic” because it always downplays antisemitism.  And it did it big time this week in an article called “A progressive and in a body made for the ‘manosphere.’ Read it by clicking below or find it archived here. 

This handsome, manly, handsome, and much-followed podcaster on Twitch and YouTube (4.5 million total), Hasan Piker turns out to have some nasty views on Israel. But of course the NYT downplays those views greatly.  Have a read; it’s short.

They add up, to me at least, to deem him an antisemite, as does NY Representative Ritchie Torres. Click to go to the thread.

The NYT article is mostly about how his wonderful physique, his diet, his workouts and his avid following, noting just this on  his views about the war:

Mr. Piker is similarly unfiltered with his viewpoints. Some can be extreme.

A vocal critic of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, Mr. Piker has been labeled anti-American by people across the political spectrum for saying the country “deserved” the Sept. 11 attacks. His recent accusations that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza and his diatribes against the Zionist movement have led many supporters of Israel, including liberals like Representative Ritchie Torres of New York, to call Mr. Piker antisemitic.

“I find antisemitism to be completely unacceptable,” Mr. Piker said on a call in April. “I find the conflation of antisemitism and anti-Zionism to be very dangerous,” he added.

It’s not a very explicit explanation (what foreign policy does he oppose?), and the conflation of antisemitism and antiZionism have turned them nearly into the same thing: hatred of Jews because most of them think that Israel is okay as a Jewish homeland.

The Free Press, however, took a deeper dive (click if you subscribe0:

Here are a few quotes from the FP (bolding is mine):

Because Piker records for up to 10 hours a day, and has done so for five years, it is hard to paint a comprehensive picture of his views. But even a cursory look at his work reveals a person who dismisses violence against Israelis, celebrates Islamist terrorists, and advocates for treating pro-Israel Americans as neo-Nazis.

“It doesn’t matter if rapes happened on October 7th,” Piker said while livestreaming on May 22, 2024. “It doesn’t change the dynamic for me.” Apparently, not even the most brutal, inhumane crimes committed during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 invasion of Israel could justify the Israeli military response—which he repeatedly refers to as an “ethnic cleansing campaign.”

Just this week, he claimed on Twitch that “in a totally just world, regardless of your background, any kind of fucking Zionist tendency should be treated in the same way as being a fucking rabid neo-Nazi.” (The vast majority of Jews identify as Zionists.) He went on: “You shouldn’t even let someone be the fucking local dog catcher . . . if they have exhibited any sort of positive feelings about the state of Israel.”

At the same time, Piker implies that acts of violence committed by Islamists are justified. On November 29, 2023, he described the attacks of October 7 as “a retaliation for an ongoing apartheid.”

Piker doesn’t only justify terrorism. Sometimes, he glorifies it:

• On December 20, 2023, Piker played a Hamas propaganda video on his livestream for an audience of 25,000. In it, dramatic music plays as members of the terrorist group forge and demo guns. The title card reads: “We will continue Killing your Soldiers by our locally manufactured Snipers.” Piker reads it aloud, then says: “Wow, there’s a little message for the Americans out there as well!”
• In January 2024, Houthi pirates seized a commercial ship in the Red Sea, and took the crew hostage. Among the rebels was 19-year-old Rashid Al-Haddad, who went viral in the U.S. for posting videos of himself from the vessel. (Al-Haddad later denied affiliation with the Houthis.) Piker tracked down Al-Haddad via social media and interviewed him on his stream with the help of a translator. In the interview, Piker compared Al-Haddad to the pirate hero from a popular anime called One Piece.
• In a later stream on October 14, 2024, Piker likened Al-Haddad, who grew up in Yemen, to a victim of the Holocaust: “For most of his life, he has withstood genocide,” Piker said, before saying that speaking to Al-Haddad was like “talking to fucking Anne Frank, basically.” (Later, in a now-deleted tweet, Al-Haddad posted this image of a man impaled on a stake with the caption: “The execution that we will carry out on all Zionists.”)
• On September 28, 2024, Piker shared what he called a “music video,” which was actually a Houthi propaganda clip. In it, gun-toting Islamists sing a rallying cry to “defeat the masses of infidels.” They march over burning American and Israeli flags and wave banners emblazoned with the Houthi credo—which translates to “God is Great. Death to America! Death to Israel! Damn the Jews! Victory to Islam!”
  “When the beat drops, it’s like jihad drops in your heart,” Piker said to an audience of nearly 30,000. Of the Houthis, he said: “They’re very musical people.”

Piker himself is aware of his influence on young people. In November, he posted a news article about that rise in pro-Hamas sentiment among Jewish-American teenagers to his Discord server—with the comment: “i did this.”

There’s more, but I’ll give just one more bit of NYT censorship to show how they downplay Piker’s antisemitism. There was no reason for the NYT do do this save to avoid tarnishing Piker’s reputation:

But amid all the descriptions of Piker’s attractiveness—and all the photos that back it up—the Times let something small yet grimly revealing slip into its profile of the streamer. One of the images shows Piker’s monitor, during one of his livestreams. If you zoom in, you can see a comment from a Twitch user referring to an Israeli Defense Force soldier: “I’d phuck this idf btch to death and make his mother shove missles up her ass.”

The Times has since updated the photo with the comment cropped out of the picture.

Piker did not respond to a request for comment.

Apparently the NYT cannot trust readers to make their up their own minds, so they slant the news to make Piker look better than he is.  So it goes. Right now with what’s going on in the world, and with the huge influence that Piker has, it’s just like the NYT to concentrate on his manliness, muscles and handsomeness instead of his dislike of Jews anti-Zionism.