Since RGB software entered the PC market many moons ago, it’s been a disorganized mess. Every company that makes hardware with RGB has its own software to control it. Few of these utilities, if any, can sync with one another. So you might have Corsair RAM, an Asus GPU/motherboard, and an NZXT CPU cooler, all with RGB. Good luck getting any synced-up lighting pattern going between those components.
This fractured RGB software ecosystem has been the bane of bling-loving gamers for years. Additionally, the software is usually unintuitive and crash-y. At least, that’s our experience with utilities from Gigabyte, Asus, MSI, and Corsair. Now Microsoft is stepping into this quagmire with what could be a divine solution: integrating RGB control directly into Windows 11.
News of Microsoft’s plans was revealed in a recent Insider build. It shows a new section named “Lighting” listed under the Personalization area in Settings. Twitter user @albacore posted screenshots showing various RGB devices listed in the menu. They include a mouse, an Asus CPU cooler, a Steam Deck, and a generic keyboard. This still leaves out memory, mousepads, and GPUs, but it does seem to include all RGB devices connected to the system. This isn’t the case with most current RGB software, which usually only shows devices from the software manufacturer.
(Image: @albacore on Twitter)
A second panel allows you to tweak each device’s lighting. The options are limited; instead of getting about a dozen presets to choose from, there’s just a handful. The lighting effects seem limited to a solid color, blinking, or a rainbow. That’s quite pedestrian, at least compared with our personal experience using Corsair iCue. This software presents myriad options and also allows you to download custom profiles.
(Image: @albacore on Twitter)
What’s interesting is the source also posted a link to a request made by a Microsoft employee to create this in 2018. The technical paper clearly states the problem: a wide range of devices have “lamps” with no universal location to control them. According to OP, it was thought that work on this feature was cancelled, which apparently isn’t the case. It now appears in Insider Build 25295, even though Microsoft didn’t mention it in the release notes.
Even the most jaded Windows user would welcome this addition to Windows. In fact, this feature alone could be enough to convince people to “upgrade” to Windows 11, in our opinion. It’s been such a long-running national nightmare that a lot of users have given up on the dream of ever unifying all of their RGB lighting. There are alternatives like OpenRGB, but it’s not easy to use in our experience. Plus, in addition to making it easier to control lighting, you’d no longer have to install four or more separate utilities to change the lighting on something. If you’re reading this, Microsoft, please bring this to the masses as soon as possible.
If you’re an executive at Intel or AMD and in charge of sales forecasts, you likely projected some big numbers for the end of 2022. Both companies had unveiled their new platforms, promising next-gen performance and features. Since many people could not upgrade their PCs during the pandemic, all the ingredients of a booming holiday sales period were present. Added to the mixture were all-new, high-powered GPUs as well. Overall, it seemed like the perfect time to build or buy a new PC. Oddly, that did not come to pass. Instead, Q4 ended up being the worst period for CPU sales in 30 years, according to Mercury Research.
The market analysis company’s president, Dean McCarron, discussed the somber news with our colleagues at PCMag this week. CPU sales declined year-over-year by 34% and quarter-over-quarter by 19%. Those are the biggest declines for both metrics Mercury has ever tabulated in its 30 years of existence.
The reasons for the decline include excess inventory and low demand for CPUs. Intangible factors may also be at play, such as global economic uncertainty. The numbers mirror those from IDC, which also posted a gloomy Q4 report recently for PC shipments. IDC’s numbers from 90 countries showed a 28.1% decline year-over-year. That drop-off was twice as high as in Q3, making Q4 a particularly bloody quarter for the PC industry.
(Image: Mercury Research)
In response to the turbulence, Intel and AMD are now under-shipping CPUs. Both companies’ CEOs admitted to this in their recent earnings calls. AMD’s CEO said it would do less of it in Q1, though. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said his company’s “Q4 under shipping [was] meaningfully higher than full year.” Despite this strategy, CPU shipments for both laptops and desktops suffered dramatic declines in what is normally a robust quarter. Intel also suffered from its decision to announce price increases in Q3. That caused some of its partners to buy stock before the price went up in Q4.
Despite the dour report, it’s not all bad for the PC market. In 2022 overall, CPU shipments and revenue were down 21 and 19%, respectively, from previous years. However, that was the pandemic era, a magical time of record profits for all semiconductor companies. Despite the decline, the numbers in 2022 were still better than the pre-pandemic years. Although the red ink is projected to continue to flow for another quarter or two, a turnaround is expected later this year.
One unexpected result from this volatility is it’s allowed AMD to claw market share away from Intel. According to IDC’s report via HotHardware, AMD now has over 30% of the x86 market. While Intel still has more than twice that market share, it lost 5.6% over the past year.
Until now, the aerospace outfit Blue Origin was little more than a plaything for Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos. The company’s New Shepard rocket has launched a few space tourists, but its upcoming New Glenn vehicle will have a shot at something more important. NASA has awarded Blue Origin a contract to launch a Mars mission next year, marking the firm’s first interplanetary launch.
NASA has chosen Blue Origin to handle launch services for the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission, which is part of the agency’s Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) program. Blue Origin is one of 13 companies to get contracts under the program, designed to tolerate higher risk to allow for more innovation and lower overall costs.
Blue Origin has been developing New Glenn since 2012, announcing the vehicle in 2016, but it has yet to fly. When complete, New Glenn will be 322 feet (92 meters) tall with a diameter of 23 feet (9 meters). That’s larger in both dimensions than the Falcon 9 (70 x 3.7 meters). Like New Shepard, this rocket is designed to have a reusable first stage to reduce launch costs. It’s powered by seven BE-4 engines, a more powerful version of the oxygen and methane-fueled BE-3 used on New Shepard.
A render of what New Glenn may look like when finished.
The timeline is going to be tight — Blue Origin initially expected the first New Glenn launch to happen in 2020, but it has pushed it back several times. Currently, the rocket is slated to fly no earlier than Q4 of this year. NASA plans to launch the ESCAPADE about a year later, at the end of 2024. It’ll be up to Blue Origin to make sure its rocket is ready to go — projects in the VADR program call for less NASA oversight in order to save money.
Assuming Blue Origin comes through on its first interplanetary NASA contract, the ESCAPADE spacecraft will separate from the launch vehicle and spend 11 months coasting toward the red planet. Once there, the spacecraft will split into two identical orbiters, working together to analyze the planet’s magnetosphere. The mission will improve our understanding of how the solar wind interacts with Mars’ weak magnetic field. That’s important information to have if we ever intend to send humans to Mars, for either a quick jaunt or long-term colonization. Although, either one is probably a long way off.
Why spend your free time vying for a Valentine’s Day reservation at an expensive restaurant when you could cozy up on the couch with some takeout and your new favorite game? These five co-op titles require that you and your partner (or pal, or situationship—I don’t judge) work together as you make some cozy, at-home memories.
(Credit: Coldwood Interactive/Electronic Arts)
Unravel
Where to play: Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC
Unravel is a beautifully detailed puzzle platformer. You and your partner will play as a pair of fuzzy Yarnys connected by a single thread. As you navigate a lush landscape, you’ll use that thread to swing over obstacles, pull each other onto platforms, and otherwise support each other, making Unravel a touching fit for an evening with the one you cherish most. If you fall in love with this title, make sure to check out its sequel, Unravel 2, which is said to be even more responsive and charming than the original. (Only the sequel is available on Switch.)
(Credit: Hazelight/Electronic Arts)
It Takes Two
Where to play: Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC
I’m hesitant to include It Takes Two since it already gets enough hype, but it’s popular for a reason, so I’d be remiss to leave it out. This co-op adventure game requires that you and your partner move your characters collaboratively as you traverse toy boxes, wintry landscapes, and mysterious gardens—all while unfolding an incredibly heartwarming story. If you’re looking to get teary-eyed, this is the one for you.
(Credit: Foam Sword Games)
Knights and Bikes
Where to play: Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC
Knights and Bikes allows for both couch and online co-op play, making it a perfect match for long-distance valentines. You’ll play as BFFs Nessa and Demelza, busy tackling puzzles, navigating hazards, and upgrading their bikes as they explore a colorful island with their pet goose. As with It Takes Two, you’ll have to work together to traverse complex terrain and solve some mild brain-teasers. Knights and Bikes’ charming animation style and humor will have you laughing in no time.
(Credit: Ghost Town Games/Team17 Digital)
Overcooked! (1 or 2)
Where to play: Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, PC/Mac
The Overcooked! franchise gets a lot of hate on social media—like Monopoly, it creates more arguments for some couples and families than it solves. Both games test how well you communicate and work together, especially in frantic, time-sensitive scenarios. Overcooked! 1 and 2 are great for duos skilled in the communication and banter departments, but if you’re not quite there yet, you might be best leaving these for an occasion that isn’t Valentine’s Day.
(Credit: SFB Games/Nintendo)
Snipperclips
Where to play: Nintendo Switch
Snipperclips is a good fit for couples who are short on time or in need of a quieter gaming experience, as each of the game’s at-your-own-pace visual puzzles are just a few minutes long. That said, these puzzles are like potato chips—it’s hard to stop at just one! You’ll snip away at each other’s characters and hop across sheets of grid paper to launch balloons, shoot hoops, and complete other tasks in this 2D title.
Good morning, readers, and happy Friday. Welcome to This Week in Space, our Friday morning roundup of the week’s most important space news. Today we’ve got a bunch of good news, including a newfound exoplanet and a dozen new moons orbiting Jupiter. We’ve also got a report of an absolutely wild idea — a literal moonshot — for fighting climate change with moon dust.
SpaceX Starship Aces Static Fire Test
Thursday afternoon, SpaceX ran a successful static fire test of its gigantic Starship rocket. With 33 separate Raptor engines, Starship has the most engines of any rocket ever. Together, their thrust is twice that of a Saturn V or the Space Launch System. Is anyone else amazed the struts can hold that thing on the gantry?
Only 31 of the 33 engines fired. However, that’s actually good news because it means Starship can handle multiple engine failures.
SpaceX hopes to attempt a test flight for Starship in March. “That first flight test is going to be really exciting. It’s going to happen in the next month or so,” said Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and chief operating officer.
“We will go for a test flight and we will learn from the test flight and we will do more test flights,” Shotwell added. “The real goal is to not blow up the launch pad. That is success.”
ISS Astronauts Work On Plasma Crystals, Space Plumbing
We’ve talked about how the folks aboard the International Space Station have to become polymaths to keep up with the demands of life in orbit. This winter, among many other pursuits, NASA astronauts on the ISS have been tending tomatoes and working on avant-garde methods of space propulsion. But the most recent projects in low-earth orbit make space tomatoes sound outdated. Over the past few days, crew on the ISS have been working on plasma crystals, servicing jetpacks, and… doing space plumbing.
NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata spent Thursday doing maintenance on the station’s water recovery system and orbital plumbing for the station’s bathroom, respectively. Meanwhile, station commander Sergey Prokopyev worked inside the Columbus lab “configuring video hardware that records how clouds of highly charged particles, or plasma crystals, behave in microgravity.”
Hubble Captures New Portrait of Tarantula Nebula
The Tarantula Nebula is the brightest star-forming region in our cosmic neighborhood. It’s not even in our galaxy — it’s in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the Milky Way’s satellite galaxies. But it’s so bright that it dazzles even at that distance. Astronomers recently used the Hubble space telescope to capture this image of the Tarantula Nebula in all its splendor:
What you see here is actually a joint effort between two different astronomy projects. One team sought to analyze the properties of dust grains floating between stars — a proposal dubbed Scylla by the Hubble team. Those dust grains create the dark, wispy clouds spread across the frame. The other, called Ulysses, studies interstellar dust and starlight interactions.
Curiosity Finds Clues to Mars’ Watery Past
NASA’s Perseverance rover went to Mars with a plan: Scour the planet’s surface for evidence that can teach us about Mars’ history and tell us whether the Red Planet might once have supported life. During its two years on Mars, the rover has found silicate clay and other minerals, signs that liquid water once flowed across Mars’ surface. But none of its discoveries have had evidence of water as visually obvious as a photograph that the agency’s Curiosity rover recently captured. The rover caught a photo of sandstone rock with ripples carved out of its surface, showing that the rock was once at the bottom of a lake.
The ripples support our observations of Mars’ weather and climate. Gentle, constant winds create standing ripple patterns like these. This fits with the constant prevailing winds and planetwide dust storms we’ve seen on Mars. It’s also exciting evidence that Mars indeed had liquid water once upon a time.
Russia Launches Progress Spacecraft to International Space Station
Russia successfully launched a Progress capsule aboard a Soyuz rocket this week, bound for the International Space Station. The rocket launched from Russia’s Baikonur aerodrome early Thursday morning, local time. This capsule, ISS Progress 83 (83P), carries about three tons of supplies, including food, water, and air. It will dock with the Russian Zvezda module on Saturday morning, replacing the Progress capsule that left Monday afternoon.
What happens to Progress 82 once it departs? Progress capsules are expendable. This means that the crew on the ISS loads the capsules with trash from the station while it’s docked. Then, hours or days after the capsule undocks, it burns up in the atmosphere.
CAPSTONE Lunar Satellite Reports In After 11-Day Glitch
NASA’s CAPSTONE satellite is finally responding to hails after nearly two weeks incommunicado. A software glitch left the probe unresponsive on Jan. 26 until it rebooted itself Monday.
“The spacecraft remained overall healthy and on-course throughout the issue,” NASA said in a blog post. “On Feb. 6, an automatic command-loss timer rebooted CAPSTONE, clearing the issue and restoring two-way communications between CAPSTONE and the ground.”
The satellite has made twelve successful circuits in its near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) — twice what its original mission expected. That’s great news for NASA. CAPSTONE is trying out the fancy new NRHO orbit because it’s more fuel efficient than other lunar orbits we’ve used. In twelve orbits, CAPSTONE has only had to fire its engine twice. This smashing success means the agency may use the new orbital pattern for lunar support satellites under the aegis of its Artemis project.
Rolls-Royce Building Nuclear Engine For Spaceships
Did you know Ball makes Mason jars — and parts for space telescopes? Ball made parts for Hubble and the mirrors for the JWST. In a similar fashion, Rolls-Royce appears to be branching out. Way out. The luxury automaker’s subsidiary, Rolls-Royce Holdings, has announced plans to build a nuclear engine for deep space exploration.
Webb Telescope Breaks Own ‘Speed Limit’ Tracking DART Impact
NASA’s Guaranteed Time Observation program gives a certain amount of telescope time to those who worked on the JWST. One GTO project: Making observations of NASA’s DART kinetic asteroid redirect test. However, the project brought an unlooked-for surprise. Wednesday, JWST deputy project scientist Stefanie Milam explained how the telescope broke its own speed limit watching the asteroid impact.
Webb launched with the ability to track objects moving through the sky as fast as Mars. But scientists who study fast-moving small bodies like asteroids, comets, and interstellar objects “really wanted to study objects that moved faster than Mars,” said Milam. So, the team set out to show that not only could Webb exceed this “notional speed limit,” it could go much faster. Their efforts paid off when it came time to observe the DART asteroid impact.
NASA’s DART kinetic asteroid redirect test, as seen by the JWST. Image: NASA/JPL
The video Webb captured of the Dimorphos impact showed that the telescope can move its field of regard at more than triple its original maximum speed. Most of the time, though, Milam says the telescope will confine itself to double its original turning speed. Darn.
Chris Hadfield Meets With King Charles III
On Thursday, Canada’s favorite astronaut, Chris Hadfield, met with King Charles III at Buckingham Palace. The two sat down to discuss “efforts to encourage sustainability in space,” according to the Royal Family’s official Twitter.
“What a pleasure and privilege to be asked to advise and assist, and make the King laugh,” Hadfield wrote afterward.
While we don’t yet have specifics, Charles is a longtime environmentalist. Could it be that the King is interested in cleaning up space junk?
A Shield of Lunar Dust Could Help Cool Earth
Astrophysicists are pondering the pros and cons of a literal moonshot to blunt the effects of climate change. In a recent study, a group of researchers proposed launching moon dust into orbit around Earth to create a dusty shield that would reduce Earth’s exposure to the Sun. Evidently, lunar dust grains are just the right size and composition to block some of the solar energy that would hit the Earth.
For six days out of the year, the researchers say, the dust cloud would shield Earth from a few percent of the Sun’s radiation. To carry out this plan, the researchers’ numbers require dredging up some 22 billion pounds of lunar dust. They could fire the dust into orbit from the Moon or a platform in orbit — potato, poterrible idea. Surely there is some lower-hanging fruit?
Scientists Find a Dozen New Moons Orbiting Jupiter
In October 2019, astronomers at the Carnegie Institution for Science found 20 new moons orbiting Saturn. This made Saturn the “moon king” of the Solar System, with a total of 83. However, the same team has announced they’ve found a dozen new moons orbiting Jupiter.
An international team of astronomers has reported a newfound exoplanet in our cosmic backyard. The new planet, Wolf 1069 b, is between 1 and 1.4 Earth masses and just 8% bigger. Calling it Earth-like might be a stretch: Wolf 1069 b zips around its low-mass red dwarf star in just 15 Earth days. However, it’s just 31 light-years away.
Unlike our nearest neighbor, Proxima Centauri, Wolf 1069 doesn’t show the characteristic bursts of violent flares we frequently see in red dwarf stars. This could mean it has managed to retain an atmosphere. If so, the planet’s surface temperature could be about 55 degrees Fahrenheit. If not, it’s more likely an iceball, too cold to sustain liquid water.
Skywatchers Corner
Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is a once-in-an-epoch visitor from the outer solar system. We haven’t seen it since the time of the Neanderthals, but it’s come back for one last visit. The outbound comet passed close to Earth last week. Now, it’s buzzing Mars.
It’s green! Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) and its twin tails. Image: NASA
The green comet will be near Mars in the constellation of Taurus for the next several days. After sunset, look high in the sky for the best shot at catching it through binoculars or a telescope. After Feb. 14, the comet will start heading toward Orion and Eridanus.
If you don’t have a good shot at viewing the comet where you are, you can still catch it online. This weekend, the Virtual Telescope Project is webcasting a free livestream of the comet’s approach to the Red Planet. The livestream will begin this Saturday, Feb. 11, at 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT). You can watch it on the project’s website and YouTube channel.
Feature image: This week’s waning gibbous moon, taken from the International Space Station. Courtesy of NASA HQ Flickr.
Phone batteries may have peaked. We’ve been hovering around the 5,000mAh mark in Android phones for years, and there’s no magical technology on the horizon to increase that. High charging speeds are almost as good, and that’s increasing by leaps and bounds with devices like the new OnePlus 11. The latest device from Chinese smartphone maker Realme leaves everyone else in the dust. The new Realme GT Neo 5 supports incredible 240W fast charging, making it the fastest-charging phone in the world.
The GT Neo 5 has a 4,600mAh battery, which the company claims can go from zero to 100 in just nine and a half minutes. If you don’t even have that long, a moment on the charger will ensure your phone has all the juice it needs before you head out the door. GSMArena reports it can charge to 80% in just 80 seconds and 50% in four minutes. You could plug in your totally dead phone while you put on your shoes and have enough charge to last the better part of a day.
Realme is a subsidiary of BBK Electronics, the Chinese megacorportation that also owns Oppo, Vivo, and OnePlus. Oppo showed off a 240W charger in 2022, and we assume this device uses the same technology. Realme says the 240W charger takes advantage of the latest USB power specification, which was updated in 2021 to add support for charging at 240W. It has yet to appear in any Oppo or OnePlus phone, but that might be on the way.
The Realme GT Neo 5 has only been announced for China, and it’s unlikely it will make it to many international markets. Realme doesn’t operate in the US at all, and even if it did release the GT Neo 5, it wouldn’t charge as fast. China uses 220v electricity, but many other markets, like the US, have 110v. That makes it harder to reach extremely high charging wattages. For example, the OnePlus 11 charges at 80W stateside but 100W in China.
Aside from the charging, there’s not much that sets the GT Neo 5 apart from other high-end Chinese Android phones. It has last year’s Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1, a 6.74-inch 1240p OLED with 144Hz refresh, and an underwhelming triple-camera array with a 50MP main, 8MP ultrawide, and 2MP macro. It also has some LED lighting on the back that can act as a notification alert.
For those in China, the Realme GT Neo 5 starts at 2,599 yuan ($380-ish), but that version only supports 150W charging. To get the world’s fastest charging, you’ll have to spend 3,199 yuan (about $470) on the 240W version. The more expensive SKU doubles the RAM from 8 to 16GB, but the cheaper one actually has a slightly larger 5,000mAh battery.
Things move fast in the world of PC hardware. One day you’re sitting on the top of the throne; the next, you’re an also-ran. Such is the case with AMD’s fledgling Zen 4 mobile CPU, the “Dragon Range” Ryzen 9 7845HX. Earlier this week, it appeared out of the shadows and leaped to the top of Passmark’s mobile CPU rankings. Now, just several days later, it’s been usurped by Intel’s Raptor Lake mobile. Those CPUs officially launched this week alongside Nvidia’s RTX 4090 and 4080 laptop GPUs. All is not lost for AMD, though, as it’s yet to launch the flagship SKU, which could even the score.
Two Intel CPUs now stand atop the PassMark mobile benchmark leader boards care of @9550Pro: the Core i9-13980HX and 13900HX. They were both stuffed into expensive, heavy, and powerful next-gen laptops, which were reviewed this week. Each of the CPUs shares the same 8P-core, 16E-core design, offering 32 threads in a mobile CPU for the first time. The 13980HX’s maximum boost frequency of 5.6GHz is 200MHz higher than that of the 13900HX. Its E-cores can also boost 100MHz higher to 4GHz. Otherwise, the two CPUs are basically the same and share a 55W TDP base power consumption. That can go as high as 157W or as low as 45W.
Intel’s 24-thread, 32-core CPUs went up against the Ryzen 9 7845HX, which is also a 55W CPU. However, it is a 12-core, 24-thread SKU with a maximum boost frequency of 5.2GHz. Clearly, the odds are stacked in Intel’s favor here. Overall, in single-threaded performance, Intel’s CPUs are faster than the AMD 7845HX by 9% and 14% for the 13900 and 13980HX, respectively. In multi-threaded performance, Intel’s CPUs hold an advantage of 11% and 16%, as noted by Videocardz. It should also be noted that AMD has not officially launched its Zen 4 mobile CPUs, so take AMD’s numbers with a grain of salt.
For now, Intel better hold off popping the cork on that champagne bottle. That is, assuming it hasn’t auctioned it off on eBay yet after its most recent earnings report. AMD still has an ace up its sleeve in the form of the Ryzen 9 7945HX. That is the 16-core, 32-thread Dragon Range CPU with a maximum boost clock of 5.4GHz. That’ll put it alongside the Core i9-13900HX on the spec sheet for clocks and threads. Intel still has a small advantage in core count at 24 total. Not to mention Intel also has the Core i9-13980HX with even higher clocks. Still, we expect this battle to be a nail-biter.
(Image: AMD)
AMD is expected to launch notebooks featuring its Dragon Range CPUs this month. It should also be unveiling its RDNA 3 mobile GPUs in them too. Intel and Nvidia have already laid down a heavy marker with their latest hardware. It’ll be interesting to see if AMD can compete and whether it can leverage its AMD Advantage technology to leapfrog its rivals. Its Dragon Range CPUs are also the first mobile CPUs with a chiplet design, so that adds a spicy twist to the proceedings.
The Perseverance Mars rover has been making headlines lately as it sets up a sample depot on the red planet and makes its way toward an ancient river delta. But its predecessor is still on Mars, too, and Curiosity is making its own discoveries even after more than a decade. As it ascends Mount Sharp, Curiosity has stumbled upon a fascinating rock formation — ripples left in ancient sediment by the planet’s long-lost water.
Curiosity arrived on Mars in 2012 and has been so successful that NASA opted to use its design as the base for Perseverance. It landed in Gale Crater and began making its way to Mount Sharp, the central peak of the crater. The rover was outfitted with instruments to assess the climate and geology of Mars to assess whether the conditions in the crater may have been compatible with life. Understanding the role of water in the planet’s distant past is a major element of the mission.
Last year, Curiosity reached the sulfate-bearing unit of Mount Sharp. This salt-rich region is believed to contain deposits left as the planet began drying up. However, the team didn’t expect to find evidence of waves. The rover has sent back images of a rippling texture in the rock, which was once sediment at the bottom of a body of water. “This is the best evidence of water and waves that we’ve seen in the entire mission,” said Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity’s project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Curiosity discovered the wave ripples about half a mile above the base of Mount Sharp in what has been termed the “Marker Band.” This layer of dark, hard rock stands out from the rest of the rusty landscape. The rock here is so hard that Curiosity has been unable to drill a sample of it. The team is still looking for an area with softer rock to get a sample for analysis. Unlike Perseverance, Curiosity is not outfitted with the hardware to save samples for a future return to Earth — it can only do science in its onboard laboratory. Curiosity will spend a little more time hunting for the right rocks in the Marker Band, but there are more discoveries awaiting higher on Mount Sharp.
The Curiosity team is looking ahead to a valley known as Gediz Vallis, which the rover could see from a distance at several points last year. NASA believes Gediz Vallis was carved by water, and there is evidence of wet landslides. This could be one of the youngest geological features on Mount Sharp. There is currently no planned end date for the Curiosity mission — it’ll keep rolling until its deformed, perforated wheels give out.
You probably know someone with a peanut allergy—or maybe you’re allergic. More than one in every 100 people suffer from a severe peanut allergy, requiring that they take great care to avoid what could be a deadly legume. But what if it didn’t have to be that way? What if folks with peanut intolerances could safely let their guard down or even enjoy what was once too chancy?
Researchers at the University of Notre Dame have successfully blocked peanut-related allergic reactions in mice, suggesting that humans might someday bask in similar dietary freedom. By giving the mice a custom covalent heterobivalent inhibitor (cHBI), chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Başar Bilgiçer and his colleagues were able to prevent the onset of potentially fatal reactions.
Bilgiçer’s team originally created the cHBI in 2019 when they began researching solutions to peanut allergies. Peanut allergies are the product of peanut proteins binding with immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies atop immune cells. This prompts the immune cells to produce (among other things) histamines, which are behind most allergic reactions. As of 2019, no medications existed that prevented or mitigated this process. This inspired Bilgiçer to lead the development of an inhibitor that would prevent peanut proteins from binding with IgE.
Chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Başar Bilgiçer. (Image: University of Notre Dame Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry)
In a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine, the researchers transplanted human immune cells into test mice. They then gave each mouse a single dose of cHBI before injecting peanut proteins into the rodents’ bloodstreams. Bilgiçer’s team found that cHBI prevented allergic reactions for more than two weeks. Interestingly, administering cHBI after the onset of an allergic reaction appeared to stop that reaction in its tracks, preventing both fatal anaphylaxis and milder symptoms.
Should Bilgiçer’s cHBI prove equally useful in humans (and not just a “humanized mouse model”), it could bump peanuts down from their position as the most deadly food-based allergen. It could also serve as a platform upon which researchers can build other allergic reaction inhibitors, thus diminishing the effects of intolerances to tree nuts, shellfish, and other common allergens. Don’t take off that allergen bracelet just yet, though; the team is working on moving their research to a preclinical trial, which means it’ll be a bit before we know how effective their cHBI is in people.
If you’re using a recent version of Windows, Microsoft’s Edge browser will “helpfully” make itself your default PDF viewer. You might want to change that default depending on how you feel about the latest news. Microsoft and Adobe have announced that Acrobat will soon be integrated with Edge for enhanced PDF support. Microsoft seems aware of Adobe’s legacy of buggy software living inside browsers, so it’s going out of its way to talk about all the work it’s doing to make sure the new Acrobat feature is secure.
According to Microsoft, replacing its custom PDF stack with Acrobat will mean better colors, sharper graphics, improved performance, and (allegedly) more robust security. Acrobat in Edge will also enable new features like read-aloud narration and more reliable text selection in documents. All these basic capabilities will continue to be free, so you should not notice any loss of functionality as Acrobat support rolls out.
This is not a purely altruistic move by Adobe. Acrobat’s basic features are free, but it also sells premium subscriptions, and it’ll be trying to convert some of Microsoft’s 1.4 billion users to paying customers. A subscription adds features like text and image editing, file conversion, and combining files. The wording of Microsoft’s blog post is a bit vague, but it sounds like there will be an upsell built into Edge’s Acrobat interface. If you upgrade, a browser extension can be used to unlock those features. Those with a pre-existing subscription (starting at $13 per month) will also be able to use the extension to get premium features.
Until a few years ago, Adobe’s Flash platform was integrated with many browsers, but it was a security nightmare. PDF malware exists, but it’s not very common right now. Still, giving Adobe the chance to bungle browser security again is an interesting choice from Microsoft. In a separate blog post, Microsoft explains that it has implemented numerous technical countermeasures like PartitionAlloc (a secure heap implementation) and fuzzing (automated vulnerability testing). Acrobat in Edge will also be included in Microsoft’s bug bounty program, which the company hopes will encourage developers to report issues instead of turning them into exploits.
Edge is a core part of Windows 10 and 11 — you can’t even uninstall it. Microsoft is aware that Windows administrators in managed environments might not want the browser’s PDF handler to change overnight, so the rollout will happen in stages. Managed devices will have to opt-in for now, but the old Edge PDF engine will be discontinued in March 2024. For regular users, you can expect Acrobat to begin appearing in builds of Edge next month.
AMD has published a new blog post attempting to convince people of its status as a GPU industry leader. Along the way, it seems to have inadvertently admitted its older GPUs are a better value than the newest models. It reminds us of the oft-used online phrase, “An attempt was made.”
The gist of the blog is boilerplate PR about how AMD Radeon GPUs are the best at every resolution and price point. It notably does not compare its GPUs against Intel or Nvidia with numbers. Anyway, with many AAA titles out currently and more on the way, AMD wants people looking to upgrade to buy an AMD GPU. To help convince them, it provides a handy chart showing the fps-to-dollar ratio for its entire 7000 and 6000 lineups across six games at 1080p: Apex Legends, Valorant, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, The Callisto Protocol, GTA V, and Overwatch 2.
All games were tested at “Max” settings, aside from the entry-level RX 6400, which ran these games at a “Medium” preset.It’s in this chart that it shows its 7900 GPUs offering the worst bang-for-the-buck value of its entire product stack.
If you just pay attention to the grey bars, you’ll note how they start out small at the top. They then proceed to get wider and wider, all the way to the bottom as it ticks through the 6000 series. This essentially shows that as you go down the product stack, fps-per-dollar only goes up. It means that every 6000 series GPU offers more fps-per-dollar than its most recent GPUs.
We’re not sure why AMD’s marketing team felt compelled to point this out. Perhaps it is just stating the obvious, that its newest GPUs have an early adopter tax built into their pricing. Maybe AMD is still happy to be selling RX 6000 series GPUs. We imagine Nvidia is in the same camp, as it needs to clear out its Ampere GPUs to pave the way for more Ada Lovelace purchases. Still, AMD seems to be faring well so far with its RDNA3 GPUs, vapor chamber issues aside.
As we reported previously, the RX 7900 XT is currently the top-selling GPU in Germany. You can insert a David Hasselhoff joke here, but the numbers show it’s been a success so far.
We reached out to AMD to help us understand why it’s pushing this angle, as it paints its older GPUs in a more favorable light than its newer models. We’ll update this article if and when we hear back.
OnePlus has been making Android phones for almost a decade, but it has yet to dip its toe in the tablet market. That’s about to change, though. The company, a subsidiary of Chinese mega-firm Oppo, has posted a teaser on its website showing a very green tablet with a prominent rear-facing camera.
OnePlus has an event scheduled for Feb. 7 where we expect to hear all about the new OnePlus 11 and OnePlus Buds Pro 2, but the “OnePlus Pad” might make an appearance as well, reports TechRadar. The tablet has an aluminum frame with narrow bezels around the display, and if you look closely at the teaser, there’s a small front-facing camera at the top above the screen. Aside from that, we don’t know anything specific about the hardware — not even the size.
The “smooth without equal” tagline in the promo image suggests it will have a high-refresh display, but that could also just be a clunky translation referring to something like the internal specifications. OnePlus is known for always jumping on the latest Qualcomm chips. We expect the OnePlus 11 (see below) will be one of the first phones to ship with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip. A tablet with the same hardware could be very interesting, as we’re not expecting Samsung to refresh its high-end tablet lineup until later in 2023.
For years, we’ve seen Android OEMs getting out of the tablet market one by one as Google continued to ignore large form factors. Currently, only Samsung and Amazon have significant tablet offerings, with Samsung offering extremely expensive but powerful tablets while Amazon focuses on the low-end. The tablet market desperately needs something in between, and the OnePlus Pad might be it.
This is the right time for an OEM like OnePlus to take a risk on tablets, too. Google has finally started paying attention to large-format Android again. With Android 12L last year, Google added important multitasking and UI features for tablets and foldables, and Android 13 enhanced that support. That means OnePlus can build a tablet without creating its own tablet-optimized interface from scratch. Android still has a way to go before it catches up with iPadOS, but things are much better than they were just a year ago.
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger holds an 18A SRAM wafer. (Credit: Intel)
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger holds an 18A SRAM wafer. (Credit: Intel)
Intel has reported its earnings for all of 2022 as well as Q4, and it’s so bad that analysts are likely diving for their thesauruses to properly characterize it. “Historic collapse” is how one summarized the losses. One just said there are simply “no words.” Intel reported its worst earnings in more than 20 years. Though the company’s earnings were still within its guidance, they came in at the very low end and mark a historic downturn for the company. The news caused Intel’s stock to fall almost 10% in value. Its earning reports are available in various forms on its investment website.
For 2022, Intel earned $63.1 billion in total, a 20% decline from its 2021 earnings. Its Q4 revenue was $14 billion, a precipitous 32% drop from the same quarter last year. One analyst notes this is the largest year-over-year decline in the company’s history. It posted a net loss of $664 million for the quarter, which almost matches its worst quarterly loss in history: In 2017, it reported a loss of $687 million in the fourth quarter.
Though Intel ended 2022 with $8 billion in profit, last year it made $19.1 billion. That’s a remarkable 60% reduction, which is why the word “collapse” is being thrown around. Its gross margin for Q4 of 39.2% is the lowest in decades as well. Intel used to get 60% margins not that long ago.
As far as where the hits came from, it’s in both data center and client computing. It earned $6.6 billion on the client side, which is down 36% from last year’s Q4. Total revenue for client computing in 2022 dropped 23% compared with 2021. Its Data Center and AI (DCAI) group’s revenue fell 33% YoY, and 15% for the year as a whole. The only bright spots were gains in Mobileye, Intel Foundry Services, and its graphics division. All three divisions posted increases, with its foundry services posting a surprising 30% improvement for the quarter.
Despite the grim report, Intel says it’s still on target to achieve its long-term goals. It notes it’s still pursuing its “five nodes in four years” strategy laid out by CEO Gelsinger upon his arrival in 2021. This will theoretically allow it to achieve industry leadership in both transistor performance and efficiency leadership by 2025. To that end, Gelsinger says it’s looking to begin its ramp for Meteor Lake in the second half of 2023. If that occurs, we’ll be surprised as it’s been rumored to be delayed. Instead, we may see a Raptor Lake refresh.
“We are at or ahead of our goal of five nodes in four years,” said Gelsinger in the earnings report. “Intel 7 is now in high-volume manufacturing for both client and server. On Intel 4, we are ready today for manufacturing and we look forward to the MTL (Meteor Lake) ramp in the second half of the year,” he said.
Unfortunately for Intel, it doesn’t anticipate a quick rebound from its financial nadir. Its CEO predicted continuing “macro weakness” through the first half of 2023. However, he noted there’s a possibility of an uptick later this year. Given the uncertain economic conditions though, Intel is only providing guidance for Q1 of 2023 and nothing beyond that. That guidance is even more brutal than this report: It predicts YoY revenue will be down 40%, with gross margins hitting 39%.
Intel’s earnings report follows news this week that it has canceled a planned $700 million R&D facility in Oregon. It was also announced this week that it was laying off 544 employees in California as it begins to tighten its belt. It’s stated it plans on reducing expenses by $3 billion in 2023, with that number increasing to $10 billion by 2025.
This image by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) features the central region of the Chamaeleon I dark molecular cloud, which resides 630 light years away. The cold, wispy cloud material (blue, center) is illuminated in the infrared by the glow of the young, outflowing protostar Ced 110 IRS 4 (orange, upper left). The light from numerous background stars, seen as orange dots behind the cloud, can be used to detect ices in the cloud, which absorb the starlight passing through them.
An international team of astronomers has reported the discovery of diverse ices in the darkest regions of a cold molecular cloud measured to date by studying this region. This result allows astronomers to examine the simple icy molecules that will be incorporated into future exoplanets, while opening a new window on the origin of more complex molecules that are the first step in the creation of the building blocks of life.
Hello, folks, and welcome back to your favorite Friday roundup of all the space news fit to print. This week we’ve got experimental rocket engines, a gigantic map, and galaxies galore. The James Webb Space Telescope found hydrogen in a galaxy more than eight billion light years away, and the coldest ice ever, but it’s currently down due to a software glitch.
Closer to home, Rocket Lab launched their Electron rocket from US soil for the first time. NASA came together for a day of remembrance that somehow managed to be both somber and ineffably sweet.
JWST Spots the Coldest Chamaeleon
If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. And somewhere along the way, you’ll need one of the ancient molecular clouds of dust and ice from which stars and habitable planets like Earth are born. This week, Webb scientists announced that the telescope has spotted just such a place. It’s a stellar nursery called the Chamaeleon I cloud, loaded with these primordial crystals. That’s the tableau you’re seeing in the image above — you can tell it’s from Webb by those iconic six-pointed stars. The ice contains traces of sulfur and ammonia, along with simple organic molecules like methanol. And at just ten degrees above absolute zero, it’s the coldest ice ever found.
“We simply couldn’t have observed these ices without Webb,” said Klaus Pontoppidan, a Webb project scientist involved in the research. “The ices show up as dips against a continuum of background starlight. In regions that are this cold and dense, much of the light from the background star is blocked, and Webb’s exquisite sensitivity was necessary to detect the starlight and therefore identify the ices in the molecular cloud.”
‘Virginia Is for Launch Lovers’: Rocket Lab Launches Electron Rocket From US Soil
Late Wednesday evening, aerospace startup Rocket Lab successfully launched its Electron rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. This was the 33rd launch of the Electron, but its first launch from American soil.
The Electron isn’t reusable — but in 2021, Rocket Lab announced the Neutron. Designed for reusability, the Neutron will have about a third of the lift capacity of a Falcon 9.
NASA ‘Rotating Detonation Engine’ Aces Hot Fire Tests
Speaking of 3D-printed rocket engines: NASA announced this week that it has successfully validated a next-gen rocket engine it hopes will revolutionize rocket design. The new engine generates thrust “using a supersonic combustion phenomenon known as a detonation.” And this is no experimental error — their full-scale alpha build produced more than 4,000 pounds of thrust at full throttle.
These engines get their name (rotating detonation rocket engine, or RDRE) from the unique way they produce thrust. Detonation waves echo around a circular chamber, wringing out every bit of energy from the rocket fuel. It’s great for efficiency, but it puts the whole system under extreme pressure. Undaunted, NASA turned to an advanced additive manufacturing process, even developing its own bespoke metal alloy for the task.
According to the agency, the RDRE incorporates the agency’s GRCop-42 copper alloy into a powder bed fusion (PBF) additive manufacturing process. PBF uses a laser or particle beam to seamlessly fuse ultra-fine particles. It’s a lot like the sintering process used to make the space shuttle rocket engines — and even they had to be actively cooled by the rockets’ own cryofuel, in order to withstand the unearthly temperatures and pressures of takeoff. If the design holds up, NASA intends to use RDRE in its efforts to establish a long-term presence off-planet.
Dark Energy Detector Plots Largest-Ever Map of Galaxy
Astronomers have created a gargantuan map of the Milky Way, using a telescope built to detect dark energy. Featuring more than three billion stars, it focuses on the galaxy’s orbital plane — a region notoriously difficult to study.
Earth’s atmosphere scatters starlight so that points of light turn into point clouds. So, the astronomers just dove right in. To isolate different stars and celestial objects, the group used some extra-snazzy math to get rid of noise. This allowed them to “paint in” the proper background, letting them tell one star from another.
Astronomers have released a gargantuan survey of the galactic plane of the Milky Way. The new dataset contains a staggering 3.32 billion celestial objects — arguably the largest such catalog so far. The data for this unprecedented survey were taken with the US Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera at the NSF’s Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of NOIRLab. Credit: Saydjari et al., via NoirLab
“One of the main reasons for the success of DECaPS2 is that we simply pointed at a region with an extraordinarily high density of stars and were careful about identifying sources that appear nearly on top of each other,” said Andrew Saydjari, lead author on the (open-access!) paper accompanying the gigantic map. “Doing so allowed us to produce the largest such catalog ever from a single camera, in terms of the number of objects observed.”
Experts: Milky Way Too Large for Its “Cosmological Wall”
The history of astronomy has been all about recognizing that our place in the universe isn’t all that special. We’ve gone from the center of all existence to just another planet orbiting an average star in one of billions and billions of galaxies. However, a new simulation hints that there might be something special about the Milky Way after all.
Yepun, one of the four Unit Telescopes of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the European Southern Observatory, studies the center of the Milky Way. Yepun’s laser beam creates an artificial “guide star” to calibrate the telescope’s adaptive optics. Image: ESO/Yuri Beletsky
The model suggests that the Milky Way is far larger than it should be, based on the scale of the “cosmological wall”: an incomprehensibly huge semi-planar structure occupied by the Milky Way and other galaxies in the Local Group.
Scientists Detect Atomic Hydrogen in Most Distant Galaxy Ever
An international team of astronomers announces the discovery of cold atomic hydrogen, more than eight billion light-years from Earth. Cooler than ionized plasma but warmer than molecular hydrogen gas, atomic hydrogen is the raw fuel of coalescing stars. The researchers used gravitational lensing to spot the telltale — but deeply redshifted — 21cm line.
Webb Spies Centaur Chariklo’s Delicate Rings
Named for the daughter of Apollo, Chariklo is a centaur: a Kuiper belt object that orbits out past Saturn. It’s the first of its kind ever found with a confirmed ring system. The thing really is tiny; it’s about 160 miles in diameter and has less than two percent the mass of Earth. But a new report from Webb shows even that much mass is enough to sustain two slender rings, for a time.
In a remarkable stroke of scientific luck, the telescope was pointed just right to catch Chariklo as it passed in front of a star. When it did, the star’s light fluttered in a way that betrayed the presence of the rings.
Chariklo has two thin rings — the first rings ever detected (in 2013) around a small Solar System object. When Webb observed the occultation, scientists measured dips in the brightness of the star. These dips corresponded exactly as predicted to the shadows of Chariklo’s rings. pic.twitter.com/sqH08v1lOB
Nothing less than delighted, the astronomers report that Chariklo’s rings are two and four miles wide, respectively. But the asteroid actually has something in common with the Chamaeleon I cloud. Chariklo’s surface is covered in exotic phases of water ice that only Webb can see.
Principal investigator Dean Hines added, “Because high-energy particles transform ice from crystalline into amorphous states, detection of crystalline ice indicates that the Chariklo system experiences continuous micro-collisions that either expose pristine material or trigger crystallization processes.” It’ll be up to the JWST to find out more.
Software Glitch Brings JWST Down for Maintenance
Unfortunately, observations of Chariklo and other celestial bodies will have to wait a while. The JWST had a software glitch this week. Per NASA, the telescope’s Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) “experienced a communications delay within the instrument, causing its flight software to time out.” Unfortunately, this led to a software gridlock.
The telescope is unavailable for science observations because NASA and the Canadian Space Agency are doing root-cause analysis to figure out and fix the problem. But NASA emphasizes that the telescope is fine. There’s no damage and no indication of any danger. If it’s a software problem, it may well be a software fix.
Perseverance Files First Weather Report
Now that it’s been on Mars for a while, the Perseverance rover has filed an authoritative report on Martian weather. The number one takeaway: It’s cold on the Red Planet! The average surface temperature is -67C.
It’s also windy on Mars. Since Mars has an atmosphere, it has surface weather. It also has an axial tilt, so it has seasons, just like Earth. Dust storms can envelop Mars’ entire northern hemisphere.
Plumes of darker, subsurface dust waft to the surface when the sun warms Martian sands beneath transparent sheets of ice. Mars’ shifting winds then blow these plumes of dust into V-shaped patterns. Astronomers are using the plumes to learn more about Mars’ weather and surface climate. Image: NASA
Perseverance is covered in a suite of sensors that constantly monitor wind speed and direction, atmospheric pressure, temperature, humidity, and dust. Together, they make the rover’s Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA).
Here, you can see the MEDA sensors extending from the rover’s mast below the iconic ChemCam.
“The dust devils are more abundant at Jezero than elsewhere on Mars and can be very large, forming whirlwinds more than 100 meters in diameter. With MEDA we have been able to characterize not only their general aspects (size and abundance) but also to unravel how these whirlwinds function,” says Ricardo Hueso, of the MEDA team.
Perseverance has captured numerous dust devils as they sweep through Jezero Crater. However, to get that data, MEDA’s exposed sensors also face damage from the harsh radiation environment, extreme temperature swings, and the ever-present Martian dust. A dust devil in January of last year kicked up enough debris that it damaged one of MEDA’s wind instruments. Still, the rover perseveres.
NASA’s Bittersweet 2023 Day of Remembrance
Every year, NASA holds a memorial for staff, astronauts, and alumni who have died. 2023’s Day of Remembrance holds a somber significance, as Feb. 1 is the 20th anniversary of the Columbia disaster. Unfortunately, this year’s fallen also included Apollo 7 pilot Walt Cunningham, who passed earlier this month. Cunningham was the last surviving member of the Apollo 7 crew.
As in years past, NASA staff gathered this week at space centers and labs around the country, to honor the sacrifices of those who have given their lives in pursuit of exploration and discovery. But they did it in a way only NASA could do. They held nationwide town-hall safety meetings, to reflect on and improve NASA’s aerospace safety culture.
Ask not for whom the safety alarm tolls; it tolls for thee. NASA safety-culture town hall meeting at its Washington headquarters after the Arlington memorial service. Image: NASA/Keegan Barber via NASA HQ Flickr
What a fitting way to honor lives lost, while still reaching for the stars. Town-hall safety culture meetings. We love you guys. Never change.
Psyche Mission Now Targeting October 2023 Launch
Steady as she goes: After a year’s delay and a missed launch window, NASA’s Psyche mission team is getting the spacecraft in shape to launch this year. In a blog post, the agency said, “After a one-year delay to complete critical testing, the Psyche project is targeting an October 2023 launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.”
When it launches, Psyche will carry a technology demo for NASA’s shiny new Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) network. DSOC systems will use lasers for high-bandwidth communications between Earth and the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Beyond a deluge of scientific data, NASA expects that the network will be able to handle high-def images and video.
Skywatchers Corner
Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is a long-period comet that last visited Earth in the time of the Neanderthals. Now it’s back for another close approach. And although we didn’t know this when we found it last year, it turns out the comet’s tail glows pale green, like a luna moth under a streetlight.
The robin’s-egg glow of Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF)’s tail shines against its twin tails. Image: Dan Bartlett/NASA
At first, astronomers thought it might require binoculars to catch a glimpse of the thing. However, as ExtremeTech’s Adrianna Nine writes, the comet is now visible to the naked eye in places across much of the Northern Hemisphere.
Our verdant visitor will continue its brightening trend while it sails toward Earth. It will make its closest approach to us on February 2: perhaps too soon for a Valentine’s Day spectacular, but right on time for Imbolc, Candlemas, and Groundhog Day.
When it comes to treating cancer, groups of synergistic drugs are often more effective than standalone drugs. But coordinating the delivery of multiple drugs is easier said than done. Drugs’ molecular properties tend to differ, making it difficult to ensure that pharmaceuticals make it to their destinations without losing effectiveness along the way. An all-new multidrug nanoparticle might be the solution. A team of researchers at MIT has created a “molecular bottlebrush” capable of delivering any number of drugs at the same time.
Drug-loaded nanoparticles—or ultrafine particles ranging from one to 100 nanometers in diameter—prevent treatments from being released prematurely, which ensures that the drug reaches its destination before beginning to do its job. This means nanoparticles carrying cancer treatments can collect at the tumor site, facilitating the most effective treatment possible. There is, of course, one caveat: Only a few cancer-treating nanoparticles have been approved by the FDA, and only one of those is capable of carrying more than one drug.
MIT’s molecular bottlebrush, detailed Thursday in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, challenges that. Chemists start by inactivating drug molecules by binding and mixing them with polymers. The result is a central “backbone” with several spokes. All it takes to activate the inactivated drugs sitting along the backbone is a break in one of those spokes. This unique design is what enables the new nanoparticle to carry (and thus deliver) multiple drugs at a time.
(Image: Detappe et al/Nature Nanotechnology/MIT)
The team tested the molecular bottlebrush in mice with multiple myeloma, a type of cancer that targets the body’s plasma cells. They loaded the nanoparticle with just one drug: bortezomib. On its own, bortezomib usually gets stuck in the body’s red blood cells; by hitching a ride on the bottlebrush, however, bortezomib accumulated in the targeted plasma cells.
The researchers then experimented with multidrug combinations. They tested three-drug bottlebrush arrangements on two mouse models of multiple myeloma and found that the combinations slowed or stopped tumor growth far more effectively than the same drugs delivered sans bottlebrush. The team even found that solo bortezomib, which is currently approved only for blood cancers and not solid tumors, was highly effective at inhibiting tumor growth in high doses.
Through their startup Window Therapeutics, the researchers hope to develop their nanoparticle to the point that it can be tested through clinical trials.
We’ve been waiting a long time to see how DirectStorage performs in the real world. Forspoken is the first game to support it and it was released this week after a multi-month delay. Now it’s in gamers’ hands and we finally have some numbers to pore over, thanks to some benchmarks a hardware testing site in Germany has posted. They’re not for loading times but for overall performance. As it turns out, offloading asset compression from the CPU to the GPU does impact gaming performance. Your mileage may vary, of course, but in the first tests, it’s up to an 11% penalty in frames per second.
The tests were performed by PC Games Hardware. To test DirectStorage 1.1, it set up a test bench with a Core i9-12900K and an RTX 4090. On the SSD side, they tested three models: SATA, and PCIe 3.0 and 4.0. Oddly, the testers didn’t say which models of SSDs they used for testing. Regardless, DirectStorage doesn’t work with SATA, so we’re able to glean the effects of the asset decompression happening on the GPU instead of the CPU. The tests were run in 4K and showed some clear results.
In an unexpected twist, the SATA SSD offered the highest fps, coming in at 83.2 on average. When switching to the fastest PCIe 4.0 SSD, the average frame rate was 11% slower at 74.4fps. The PCIe 3.0 drive was just as fast as PCIe 4.0, averaging a single fps more on average. Since they only tested at 4K, we don’t know if this situation is the same at lower resolutions. The good news for gamers is the 1% and 0.2% fps averages were essentially the same across all three drives. This would indicate that the player would not notice any performance spikes while playing.
Previously, it was reported that DirectStorage can lead to a huge increase in data transfer speeds. In that test, it was Intel’s GPU that was the fastest, beating out pricier GPUs from AMD and Nvidia. Clearly, more testing is needed across the GPU spectrum. We’d also be curious to see what a PCIe 5.0 SSD could do with Forspoken. Sadly, those drives are not quite ready yet. Also, keep in mind this is just one data point. Another YouTuber named Bang4BuckPC Gamer also has a SATA vs. PCIe 4.0 side-by-side, and in the majority of the scenes, the performance is the same. Sometimes, though, the NVME drive is noticeably faster than the SATA drive.
At this point, we need to see more SSDs and GPUs tested to see what the performance penalty is (if any). Though 11% is a higher number than expected, the game’s frame rate was still well above 60fps and it looks very smooth in the video. We also don’t think the RTX 4090 is the best GPU to test this on, as someone with that card never really has to worry about fps in any game, even at 4K. We’d be curious to see what the impact is on Windows 10 as well, as it has a watered-down version of DirectStorage.
You may think that when and if the robot apocalypse happens, we’ll be able to lock the robots up to keep humanity safe. Well, think again. A team of researchers from the Soft Machines Lab at Carnegie Mellon University have created a rudimentary robot that can become a liquid on demand, a capability the lead author compared to the T-1000 from Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
Most of the robots you’ve seen are of the “hard” variety. They’re made of solid metal, with unyielding graspers and ranges of motion dictated by the type and orientation of linear actuators. Soft robotics is an emerging field of study that seeks to build robots that are more flexible, allowing them to handle objects and navigate complex environments without the same risk of damage — to the robot as well as anyone or anything that might be nearby.
The liquid metal robot created at Carnegie Mellon, with assistance from Sun Yat-sen University and Zhejiang University, is based on gallium with embedded magnetic nanoparticles. Since Gallium has an unusually low melting point of just 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29 degrees Celsius), it’s possible to shift it between liquid and metal without any special equipment. The team calls this “magnetoactive phase transitional matter” or MPTM.
We’ve seen several soft robotics projects that use magnets for external control. But the MPTM work at Carnegie Mellon adds morphological adaptability to the equation. The magnetic nanoparticles allow the researchers to move the robots around and even generate enough heat to melt them on the spot. “When you have a metal that’s in the presence of an alternating magnetic field, we just know from fundamental principles of electromagnetism that causes basically electrical current to spontaneously flow through that metal,” lead author Carmel Majidi tells Vice.
The video above demonstrates how the tiny gallium figure is able to liquefy and squirm through the bars of its cage, just like that famous scene from Terminator 2 when the T-1000 walks through the bars. There’s one important caveat, though. While it looks like the robot returns to its original shape on its own, it had to be remolded by hand for that shot. There is currently no mechanism to control the shape of the robot with that much precision as it returns to its solid state. Maybe one day, though. The researchers see numerous potential applications for a meltable magnetic robot, including biomedicine, where it could deliver drugs or remove foreign objects from the body.
We may have robot frycooks, robot bartenders, and even robot shoe-shiners, but robot lawyers are apparently where we draw the line. Human lawyers have prevented an artificial intelligence-equipped robot from appearing in court, where it was scheduled to fight a defendant’s speeding ticket.
The “robot lawyer” is the latest creation from DoNotPay, a New York startup known for its AI chatbot of the same name. Last year our colleagues at PCMag reported that DoNotPay had successfully negotiated down people’s Comcast bills and canceled their forgotten free trials. Since then, the chatbot has expanded to help users block spam texts, file corporate complaints, renew their Florida driver’s licenses, and otherwise take care of tasks that would be annoying or burdensome without DoNotPay’s help.
But it appears DoNotPay has taken things a bit too far. Shortly after the startup added legal capabilities to its chatbot’s feature set, a user “hired” the bot to fight their speeding ticket. On Feb. 22, the bot was scheduled to “appear” in court by way of smart glasses worn on the human defendant’s head. These glasses would record court proceedings while using text generators like ChatGPT and DaVinci to dictate responses into the defendant’s ear. According to NPR, the appearance was set to become the first-ever AI-powered legal defense.
DoNotPay’s UI, as illustrated on its website.
As human lawyers found out about DoNotPay, however, the chatbot and its defendant were required to revise their plan. DoNotPay CEO Joshua Browder told NPR that multiple state bar associations threatened the startup, even going so far as to mention a district attorney’s office referral, prosecution, and prison time. Such consequences would be made possible by rules prohibiting unauthorized law practice in the courtroom. Eventually, Browder said, the threat of criminal charges forced the startup to wave a white flag.
Unfortunately for Browder, this isn’t the end of DoNotPay’s legal scrutiny. Several state bar associations are now investigating the startup and its chatbot for the same reason as above. Browder reportedly believes in AI’s eventual place in the courtroom, saying it could someday provide affordable legal representation for people who wouldn’t be able to swing a human attorney’s fees. But if DoNotPay hopes to make robot lawyers a real thing, it’ll have to rethink its strategy: It’s illegal to record audio during a live legal proceeding in federal and some state courts, which collapses the whole smart glasses technique.
DoNotPay still lists multiple legal disputes on its website, indicating that the startup might have faith in its ability to escape from these probes unscathed.
The Perseverance rover has spent almost two Earth years on Mars, which is just a single Martian year. With a full seasonal cycle in the books, researchers from the University of the Basque Country in Madrid have released the first detailed weather report from Perseverance. The study, published in Nature Geoscience, explores how temperature, wind speed, and atmospheric pressure vary over time in Jezero Crater.
Perseverance is equipped with seven major scientific instruments, including the MEDA (Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer). This tool is under the supervision of researcher José Antonio Rodríguez-Manfredi, who works at the university’s Centre for Astrobiology (CAB). MEDA includes sensors that can monitor temperature, pressure, wind speed, humidity, and dust concentrations.
Jezero Crater is near the planet’s equator, but it never gets very warm there. Perseverance reports the average temperature is -67 degrees Fahrenheit (-55 degrees Celsius), but the temperature swings wildly throughout the day, with temperatures between 50 and 60 degrees Celsius warmer during the day than at night. As temperatures drop off at night, so does the wind. The CAB researchers report that heating of the thin Martian atmosphere generates turbulent air movements due to convection. When the sun sets, the air settles. Perseverance recorded strong winds moving to the southeast during the day, reaching speeds of 82 feet (25 meters) per second. In the afternoon, winds dropped to just 13 feet (4 meters) per second, and the wind often died completely from 4 to 6 a.m. local time.
Here, you can see the MEDA sensors extending from the rover’s mast below the iconic ChemCam.
Pressure sensors in MEDA show a marked change throughout the year. The daily thermal cycle causes its own fluctuations, of course, but the melting and refreezing of the planet’s carbon dioxide ice caps produce a denser atmosphere during the Martian summer and a thinner one in the winter.
NASA chose Jezero Crater as the landing zone because there’s a huge ancient river delta inside it that could contain evidence of ancient life. As it turns out, Jezero Crater also has an extraordinary number of whirlwinds (or dust devils, if you prefer) compared with other regions on Mars. Perseverance regularly detected very large whirlwinds measuring more than 328 feet (100 meters) in diameter.
While it’s nice to have a weather report from another world, it’s more than a novelty. A better understanding of the Martian atmosphere will help NASA plan future automated missions, as well as hypothetical future crewed Mars landings. Perseverance can pave the way while it searches for its next prized rock sample.
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