The commitments by telecoms firms include allowing customers struggling with bills to move to cheaper packages without charge or penalty. Credit: Rui Vieira/PAThe UK's broadband and biggest mobile companies have agreed on a strategy to help consumers struggling to pay bills amid the cost of living crisis, including moving to permit switching to cheaper deals...
University of Cincinnati computational chemist Yu Shi. Credit: Andrew Higley, University of CincinnatiA chemist at the College of Cincinnati has come up with a unique means to examine the thermodynamic properties of molten salts that are utilized in numerous nuclear and solar power applications.UC College of Arts and Sciences research join and computational chemist...
A new working paper attempts to quantify the importance of more powerful computers for improving outcomes across society. In it, researchers analyzed five areas where computation is critical, including weather forecasting, oil exploration, and protein folding (important for drug discovery). Credit: MITQ&A: MIT's Neil Thompson on Calculating Power and InnovationTechnology in many industries has...
Kristina Armitage for Quanta MagazineThree computer scientists have actually posted a proof of the NLTS opinion, showing that systems of knotted particles can remain challenging to analyze even away from extremes.A striking new proof in quantum computational complexity could best be comprehended with a lively idea experiment. Run a bath; after that dispose a...
Horticulturalist Carlos Magdalena in Bolivia viewing the largest known giant water lily species (Victoria boliviana). Credit: Cesar David SalazarAn artist's observations, two botanists' suspicions, and DNA tests reveal a case of mistaken identity among giant water plants.When 19th-century European botanists encountered impressive water lilies with leaves more extensive than a pingpong table, they initially...
Smart people are not afraid to say "I don't know."In the age of social networks and rolling information, there's a continuous pressure to be in the know, always available with an aperçus or two (2).Today, intellectual humility, therefore, feels more significant than ever-- having the insight and honesty to hold your hands up and...
The cost to producers for implementing EPR for packaging fell by £1 billion due to the exclusion of business waste.The Recycling Association has cautioned that proposals for business waste collection areas in the Scottish Government's circular economy bill could be "damaging" to the recycling industry.Within the consultation, the Scottish Government states it intends to...
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public DomainFor decades, scientists have been seeking a catalyst that dramatically lowers the price of fabricating hydrogen fuel cells.Such an advance could trigger a green power transformation, with everything from laptops to locomotives running on a fuel whose merely byproduct is water.A new study led by the University at Buffalo indicates that...
The researchers' method: introducing ripples in 2D material, molybdenum disulfide to achieve two orders of magnitude enhancement in carrier mobility at room temperature, allowing electrons to move faster through the material. Credit: Dr. Wu Jing, A*STAR, Institute of Materials Research and Engineering.Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors are semiconducting materials with thicknesses on the atomic range, which...
AMANO Jun-ichi/WikimediaIn Kasukabe, Japan lies the world's biggest underground floodwater facility. Large artificial concrete caverns that compose the Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel, also called the G-Cans project, sprawl under the city's surface-level infrastructure.The large subterranean drainage system was developed to prevent devastating flooding of the waterways that surround the city. Because of...
