05 Sci-Tech

US Commerce Department bans Chinese AI model DeepSeek on government devices – Caliber.Az – Новости Азербайджана и мира

pgnewser March 18, 2025 0

US Commerce Department bans Chinese AI model DeepSeek on government devices – Caliber.Az – Новости Азербайджана и мира
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The US Department of Commerce has recently notified its staff across various bureaus that the Chinese artificial intelligence model, DeepSeek, is now prohibited on all government devices.

The department issued a mass email to employees, stressing the need to maintain secure information systems, Caliber.Az reports via foreign media.

“To help keep Department of Commerce information systems safe, access to the new Chinese-based AI DeepSeek is broadly prohibited on all GFE,” the email read. “Do not download, view, access any applications, desktop apps, or websites related to DeepSeek.” The Department of Commerce has not yet responded to requests for additional comment.

DeepSeek, known for its low-cost AI models, caused a stir in January when it triggered a significant selloff in global equity markets. The selloff was driven by concerns from investors about the potential risks to the US technological leadership in artificial intelligence. US government officials and members of Congress have raised concerns about the risks DeepSeek poses to data privacy and the protection of sensitive government information.

Dinosaur Armor and Weaponry Was Even More Impressive Than Researchers Thought– www.scientificamerican.com

pgnewser March 18, 2025 0

Dinosaur Armor and Weaponry Was Even More Impressive Than Researchers Thought– www.scientificamerican.com
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In the pantheon of dinosaur royalty, sauropods may have been the biggest and tyrannosaurs the deadliest. But the ceratopsians, ankylosaurs and stegosaurs were the most metal dinosaurs of all. With their horns and spikes, body plates and tail clubs, these horned and armored dinosaurs have long captured popular imagination. In the early 1900s American paleoartist Charles R. Knight depicted one of these weapon wielders, the plant-eating Triceratops, as a worthy adversary of carnivorous Tyrannosaurus rex; Stegosaurus makes regular (and formidable) appearances in the Jurassic Park movie franchise that began in 1993. Yet despite our enduring fascination with these “living tanks,” as armor-bearing dinosaurs have been described, many details of their anatomy—including the composition and even the functions of their impressive accoutrements—have remained unknown.

The problem stemmed from the scarcity of fossils of these animals that, even when found, often consisted of mere scraps. These recovered specimens also preserved only the hard bony parts, not any of the associated soft tissue. In their efforts to reconstruct armored dinosaurs as they were in life based on this meager evidence, paleontologists took what they thought was a conservative approach and assumed that the bony remnants of the armor of these long-dead dinosaurs constituted the bulk of the armor in life. Those reconstructions revealed some magnificent creatures—ceratopsians equipped with three-foot-wide frills, stegosaurs brandishing 30-inch-long tail spikes, nodosaurs bristling with shoulder spikes nearly a foot and a half in length.

Researchers advance substrate engineering pathways to improve power electronics– phys.org

pgnewser March 18, 2025 0

Researchers advance substrate engineering pathways to improve power electronics– phys.org
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As the growth in global electricity need and supply continues to accelerate, efficient power electronics will be key to improving grid efficiency, stability, integration, and resilience for all energy sources.

Advances in wide-bandgap materials for semiconductors offer the potential to enable greater power handling in power electronics while reducing electrical and thermal losses. Wide-bandgap materials also allow for smaller, faster, more reliable, and more energy-efficient power electronic components than current commercial silicon-based power electronic components.

Researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the Colorado School of Mines, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory examined a potential route to achieve peak performance of aluminum gallium nitride, AlxGa1-xN, a key material for increasing power electronics’ energy efficiency and performance, through growth on optimized substrate materials.

 

Discovery of a new species of fossil tree helps paint picture of ancient African forest– phys.org

pgnewser March 18, 2025 0

Discovery of a new species of fossil tree helps paint picture of ancient African forest– phys.org
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Recent research by scientists at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT), Texas Tech University, and several other collaborating institutions have identified ancient fossils of a newly described tree species named Astropanax eogetem.

The discovery further reveals the details of life nearly 22 million years ago (a geological time known as the early Miocene) in a prehistoric forest in Ethiopia. The findings are published in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society.

The fossils were found in the Mush Valley, which is located about 160 miles northeast of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. Dr. Aaron Pan, Executive Director of the Museum of Texas Tech University and a Research Associate at BRIT, has conducted extensive excavations at the site as a member of a research team, uncovering a wealth of evidence of life in a lush tropical forest surrounding a volcanic crater lake.

Harvard Will Make Tuition Free for More Students– www.nytimes.com

pgnewser March 18, 2025 0

Harvard Will Make Tuition Free for More Students– www.nytimes.com
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But he referred to the value of bringing a cross-section of people together.

“Putting Harvard within financial reach for more individuals widens the array of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives that all of our students encounter, fostering their intellectual and personal growth,” Dr. Garber said in the announcement. “By bringing people of outstanding promise together to learn with and from one another, we truly realize the tremendous potential of the university.”

The annual cost of attending Harvard, including tuition and housing, was almost $83,000 this school year. In addition to offering free tuition to students with family incomes up to $200,000, Harvard said that students from families that make under $100,000 will pay for practically nothing.

For those students, Harvard will cover tuition, fees, food, housing, travel costs between campus and home, event fees and activities, and health insurance, if needed. The university will also pay for “winter gear” to help students brace against harsh winters on Harvard’s Cambridge, Mass., campus, along with a $2,000 “start-up” grant.

Missouri Orders Planned Parenthood To “Cease and Desist” Chemical Abortions– www.lifenews.com

pgnewser March 18, 2025 0

Missouri Orders Planned Parenthood To “Cease and Desist” Chemical Abortions– www.lifenews.com
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Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey issued a cease-and-desist order last week to Planned Parenthood formally prohibiting the abortion giant from performing chemical abortions in the state. The order advises the company to implement a “valid” health and safety plan to protect women and treat complications from abortion-inducing drugs, as required by state law. AG Bailey cited Planned Parenthood’s “uncontroverted track record” of disregarding Missouri health and safety laws as the reason for the temporary restraining order, which makes it a felony for the organization to dispense the high-risk drugs.

In November 2024, Missouri made abortion a constitutional “right” in the state, which nullified the state’s near-total abortion. Since then, Planned Parenthood has resumed surgical abortions at several Missouri facilities. In response to the order, Planned Parenthood officials have indicated that its Missouri facilities are not currently offering chemical abortions and won’t do so until the complication plans are approved.

However, AG Bailey stated in a press release that the order is due to Planned Parenthood’s “documented history” of “repeated and knowing” violations of state law. He noted the organization has “admitted under oath” to knowingly “refusing to file required complication reports” and that investigations had discovered other violations, such as failing to comply with informed consent laws and to sterilize surgical instruments.

 

USDA is betting $1 billion will solve Bird Flu Problem

pgnewser March 11, 2025 0

USDA Rolls Out $1 Billion Plan To Combat Bird Flu After Egg Prices Rise – Aberdeen Insider
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday it plans to spend up to $1 billion in Commodity Credit Corporation funds to try to reduce the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza in poultry.

The virus, also known as bird flu or H5N1, has disrupted the work of poultry farmers for years and began infecting dairy herds last year. But a recent spike in egg prices has led to renewed public attention to the disease.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the new five-point plan would implement increased biosecurity measures for poultry farms to help reduce interactions between domestic flocks and wild birds, provide funding for farmers to quickly repopulate after having to cull infected flocks, remove some regulations, import eggs from other countries and research a vaccine.

Rollins said she was “confident” that the firing of probationary federal employees and efforts to reduce the size of the federal workforce wouldn’t negatively affect USDA.

“As we look to streamline and make more efficient the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will we have the resources needed to address the plan I just laid out?” she said. “We are convinced that we will, as we realign and evaluate where USDA has been spending money, where our employees are spending their time.”

FCC Wants to Know if YouTube Hates Jesus

pgnewser March 11, 2025 0

FCC Chairman Sends Letter To Google CEO Over Network’s Complaint That YouTube TV “Discriminates” Against Faith-Based Programming – DEADLINE
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FCC Chairman Brendan Carr sent a letter to the CEOs of Alphabet and Google, calling out the refusal of YouTube TV to carry a network, Great American Family, as a potential case of discrimination against faith-based programming.

In his letter to Sundar Pichai and Neal Mohan, which he posted on X, Carr wrote that he has received a complaint from Great American Media in which they claim that YouTube TV “deliberately marginalizes faith-based and family-friendly content.” He noted that the network is carried on cable and streaming services including Comcast, Cox, Hulu, FuboTV and DirecTV stream.

As Trump Hopes for Extension, Four Contenders Emerge for TikTok Purchase

pgnewser March 11, 2025 0

Trump open to extending TikTok sale deadline · TechNode– technode.com
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US President Donald Trump said Thursday he is open to extending the April 5 deadline for TikTok’s sale in the country if necessary. Speaking at the White House, Trump noted “a lot of interest” in the deal but stated that an extension is not currently required. “We have a lot of interest in TikTok. And China is going to play a role, so hopefully China will approve of the deal, but they are going to play a role,” he said, without specifying potential buyers. A bipartisan law had initially set a Jan. 19 deadline for ByteDance to divest TikTok’s US operations, but Trump granted a 75-day extension, running until April 5. He has also expressed support for brokering a sale and suggested the US government should receive a 50% stake in the video-sharing platform. It remains unclear if further extensions are legally possible. [Bloomberg]

 

Trump Reveals There Are Four Groups That Could Buy TikTok – Forbes
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As TikTok’s future in the United States continues to hang in the balance, President Donald Trump has revealed that the U.S. government is actively engaging with potential buyers about the platform’s future.

Speaking aboard Air Force One on Sunday, as reported by Reuters, Trump stated that his administration was in touch with four groups regarding the sale of the Chinese-owned social media platform, with all options being regarded in a positive light. “A lot of people want it,” Trump told reporters, hinting at multiple potential paths forward, and “all four are good.”

Among the potential players, Frank McCourt — the former Los Angeles Dodgers owner — has emerged as one of the interested parties. Other prospective buyers in the past have also included the likes of Oracle and Microsoft, though the specific details of their current interest remain unclear.

Spooky Action Could Bring Quantum Computers to Life

pgnewser March 11, 2025 0

Scientists discover simpler way to achieve Einstein’s ‘spooky action at a distance’ thanks to AI breakthrough — bringing quantum internet closer to reality– www.space.com
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Scientists have used AI to discover an easier method to form quantum entanglement between subatomic particles, paving the way for simpler quantum technologies.

When particles such as photons become entangled, they can share quantum properties — including information — regardless of the distance between them. This phenomenon is important in quantum physics and is one of the features that makes quantum computers so powerful.

But the bonds of quantum entanglement have typically proven challenging for scientists to form. This is because it requires the preparation of two separate entangled pairs, then measuring the strength of entanglement — called a Bell-state measurement — on a photon from each of the pairs.

These measurements cause the quantum system to collapse and leave the two unmeasured photons entangled, despite them never having directly interacted with one another. This process of “entanglement swapping” could be used for quantum teleportation.

Could U.S. Subs One Day be Repurposed as Hypersonic Missile Launchers

pgnewser March 11, 2025 0

The Navy Could Turn Ohio-Class Subs and Nimitz Carriers Into Hypersonic Missile Trucks – 19FortyFive
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Key Points and Summary: The U.S. Navy’s hypersonic Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) missile offers rapid strikes at 2,200 nautical miles in just 30 minutes, significantly outpacing existing Tomahawks and aircraft. However, planned CPS deployment on Zumwalt destroyers and Virginia-class submarines alone is insufficient to counter China’s expanding hypersonic missile arsenal.

-To address this, the Navy could repurpose retiring Ohio-class submarines and Nimitz-class carriers into dedicated hypersonic missile platforms, dramatically increasing strike capability.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX gears up for mission to bring Sunita Williams back to Earth: Check launch date and mission details |– timesofindia.indiatimes.com

pgnewser March 11, 2025 0

Elon Musk’s SpaceX gears up for mission to bring Sunita Williams back to Earth: Check launch date and mission details |– timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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Elon Musk’s SpaceX is set to launch the highly anticipated Crew-10 mission, a critical step in ensuring the return of NASA astronaut Sunita Williams and her colleague Barry “Butch” Wilmore after an unexpectedly extended stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Originally, Williams and Wilmore were expected to stay for just eight days following their launch aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft in 2024. However, technical failures with the Starliner delayed their return for over eight months.
Now, with the Crew-10 mission scheduled for March 12, 2025, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, SpaceX aims to send a new team of astronauts to the ISS, allowing Williams and Wilmore to finally return home. Their prolonged stay has garnered political attention, with claims and counterclaims about the reasons behind their delay. However, NASA officials have assured that safety, rather than politics, dictated their extended mission.

Brain implants don’t change a person’s sense of self. Hear why– www.sciencenews.org

pgnewser March 11, 2025 0

Brain implants don’t change a person’s sense of self. Hear why– www.sciencenews.org Source Link Excerpt:

In the fifth episode of The Deep End, Jon Nelson describes depression as a “no-casserole disease,” one that people are often afraid to acknowledge because of the stigma around mental health disorders. This episode lets listeners into the experience of having a disease that’s often misunderstood, and why that can be so harmful for people who struggle with depression. There’s a philosophical angle here, too: Where does a person’s self come from? And how does the brain fit into that answer?

TRANSCRIPT

Laura Sanders: This episode deals with mental illness, depression, and suicide. Please listen with care. Previously on The Deep End.

Shannon O’Neill: And DBS is not going to give you happiness. It’s not going to just be a device that turns on happiness 24/7. It’s to get you out of the hole and be on solid ground.

Jon Nelson: So has the device made me happy? The device has made me disease-free. That’s all that I needed it to do. It has not taken away the typical emotions in life that I’m going to have forever, and those are happiness, sadness, anger. I’m gonna have those and I’m going to have to learn how to live with having those.