Day: August 28, 2023

Physicists have uncovered a mysterious mechanism responsible for high-temperature superconductivity, and it could help in the search for one of the “holy grails” of physics.

The new finding, known as oscillating superconductivity, identifies a process that enables materials to superconduct at much higher temperatures than normal — paving the way for the discovery of room-temperature superconductor materials that could facilitate the near-lossless transmission of energy. The researchers published their findings July 11 in the journal Physical Review Letters.

“One of the holy grails of physics is room-temperature superconductivity that is practical enough for everyday-living applications,” Luiz Santos, an assistant professor of physics at Emory University, said in a statement. “That breakthrough could change the shape of civilization.”

Related: Novel superconducting magnet thrusters to be tested out on space station

Superconductivity emerges from the ripples caused by electrons as they move through a material. At low enough temperatures, these ripples cause atomic nuclei to become drawn to each other, in turn causing a slight offset in charge that attracts a second electron to the first. 

The force of this attraction causes something strange to happen: Instead of repelling each other through the force of electrostatic repulsion, the electrons get bound together into a “Cooper pair.”

Cooper pairs follow different quantum mechanical rules than those of lonesome electrons. Instead of stacking onto each other to form energy shells, they act like particles of light, an infinite number of which can occupy the same point in space at the same time. If enough of these Cooper pairs are created throughout a material, they become a superfluid, flowing without any loss of energy from electrical resistivity.

The first superconductors, discovered by Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes in 1911, transitioned into this zero electrical resistivity state at unimaginably cold temperatures — near absolute zero (minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 273.15 degrees Celsius). Yet, in 1986, physicists found another type of material, called a cuprate, which becomes a superconductor at a much warmer (but still very cold) minus 211 F (minus 135 C). 

Physicists hoped this discovery would lead to the finding of room-temperature superconductors, which would open the door to the near-lossless transmission of electricity. Yet the discoveries petered out, and recent claims of room-temperature superconductors have ended in scandal and disappointment. 

Until now, the failure to find room-temperature, ambient-pressure superconductors has partly stemmed from a lack of understanding among physicists of the theoretical conditions that permit electrons to form Cooper pairs at relatively high temperatures (roughly three times as low as a standard freezer’s temperature). 

To investigate this, the researchers behind the new study focused on a particular form of high-temperature superconductivity that emerges when Cooper pairs arrange into oscillating patterns known as charge density waves. The relationship between the waves, a kind of mass synchronized dance between paired electrons across a material, has a complex connection to superconductivity: In some circumstances, the waves drown out the effect, while in others, they aid in gluing electrons together. 

By modeling these waves, the physicists found that the key to the waves’ emergence was likely a property known as a van Hove singularity. Usually, in physics, the energy of a moving particle is, rather intuitively, related to the speed at which it’s traveling.

But some material structures break this rule, enabling electrons with different speeds to exist at the same energies. When all of the electrons’ energies are equal, they can interact and pair up to form dancing Cooper pairs more readily.

“We discovered that structures known as Van Hove singularities can produce modulating, oscillating states of superconductivity,” Santos said. “Our work provides a new theoretical framework for understanding the emergence of this behavior, a phenomenon that is not well understood.”

The physicists stressed that, so far, their work is purely theoretical, meaning that more experimental efforts will be needed to flesh out the underlying mechanism. However, they hope that by establishing a foundation between van Hove singularities and dancing waves, they have found a connection that other physicists can build upon.

“I doubt that Kamerlingh Onnes was thinking about levitation or particle accelerators when he discovered superconductivity,” Santos said. “But everything we learn about the world has potential applications.”

Insects have been making commercial inroads as feed for poultry, fish, pigs, cattle and even pet food, though, for now, it remains a niche product. Biotech tools, however, are allowing breeders to ramp up insect production, and with new investment, their approach is gaining traction.

In the last several years, companies producing black soldier flies (BSF, or Hermetia illucens) and mealworms (Tenebrio molitor) have raised forged ahead, paving the way for insect products to reach European and Asian markets. Insect factories are expanding, and some companies are applying gene editing to improve protein quality and speed up hatching and growth. If the momentum continues to build, the insect protein market is forecast to grow $1.14 billion by 2027.

In Israel, a consortium of insect-based animal feed companies backed by the Israel Innovation Authority was set up in January, bringing them together with researchers using machine learning and fly genomics to optimize and scale up BSF production and the insects’ nutritional profile. The companies — Entoprotech, FreezeM, Ambar, Shachar, NRGene, NeoManna, BugEra and Rafael Feed Mills — are joined by academic researchers from five academic institutes, all of whom are editing genes in the fly genome sequence to enhance breeding.

Part of the consortium is FreezeM, based in Nachshonim. The startup was set up by three Weizmann Institute of Technology doctoral graduates, who developed a technology that induces neonatal larvae into suspended animation to extend shelf life for shipment purposes. It is a “paused larvae” stage obtained through environmental conditions, says Yuval Gilad, FreezeM co-founder and CEO, and just as with hibernation, it is reversible.

FreezeM has also turned to CRISPR–Cas9 to improve the nutritional content of BSF strains. The company has deployed 400 CRISPR–Cas9 guide RNAs to target about 150 genes that control metabolism, which yielded strains with bigger larvae, a longer larval period and increased resilience under stress.

One of the genes they’ve edited is a key regulator of molting from larva to pupa, which, when tweaked, yields larvae 50 percent larger than an unedited one. Other genes worth targeting would be those controlling chitin, the hard polysaccharide that makes up insects’ exoskeleton. A reduction in chitin would prove valuable for optimizing aquaculture feed, says Idan Alyagor, FreezeM co-founder and chief technology officer.

Another Israeli company, BugEra, a startup from Ben Gurion University, is genetically engineering strains of black soldier for use as biofuel. Fly maggots are rich in lipids that could provide a sustainable alternative to crop oils. Another advantage is that BSF farming could tap into circular economy opportunities. “BSF can be reared on different substrates, like food waste and manure,” says Yoav Etgar, CEO and co-founder of the Beer Sheva-based biotech. Fly oil, however, has yet to take off commercially because, so far, the market has leaned towards feed production, says Anna Melkov, BugEra chief technology officer and co-founder.

To overcome this bias, BugEra has developed a BSF strain with double the lipid content, using the CRISPR–Cas9 gene-editing technique to modify genes involved in fat metabolism. Because identifying flies with desirable mutations is time intensive and can become a bottleneck, BugEra developed a technique that allows DNA extraction and screening of hundreds of individuals per day. The startup also expects to add a phenotypic marker such as eye color to accelerate screening further, as well as gene downregulation techniques, such as RNA interference (RNAi), to broaden the characteristics of BSF lines.

Meanwhile, the UK insect genetics company Beta Bugs focuses on selecting strains with the best traits for breeding. The company scientists at the facility, located at the Roslin Innovation Centre near Edinburgh, start by collecting physical and environmental insect parameters from their insect populations, selecting for increased larval biomass, faster development and greater number of eggs laid. This approach allows them to disentangle favorable genetics from possible environmental variables: “We can be assured that our insects’ performance is increasing not because they received more food, or were reared in a higher temperature, but because we are improving the underlying genetics,” says Thomas Farrugia, the company’s CEO. Beta Bugs ships BSF lines to customers in the insect farming industry.

To support the industry’s expansion, Beta Bugs recently co-founded the UK’s Insect Bioconversion Association, in conjunction with BSF company Better Origin and other commercial insect producers. Their goal is to raise awareness of the role insect farming can play in reducing food waste while providing high-quality animal feed, oils and fertilizer. They also work to expedite the regulatory pathway through engagement with the U.K. government.

A type of beetle larva commonly called a mealworm is also part of the surging interest in bug farms. Beta Hatch produces mealworms (the larvae of Tenebrio molitor) for use as feed in aquaculture and farm animal nutrition, as well as pet food. “The potential for insects in the food supply chain is immense,” says entomologist Virginia Emery, who is founder and CEO of Beta Hatch. Beyond providing high-quality nutrients for animal feed and plant fertilizer, larvae in the Tenebrionidae are remarkable for their digestive powers, which include plastic waste biodegradation. “The only known way to biodegrade Styrofoam is in the gut of a mealworm,” says Emery, adding that worms can digest and eliminate harmful mycotoxins and process all kinds of waste.

Beta Hatch deploys genomic tools to raise their bugs in the most efficient and scalable way possible. Through selective breeding, the scientists map key traits such as weight and development time, tracking their heritability, and monitoring the genomic diversity of their breeding stock. In addition, Beta Hatch is developing a CRISPR proof-of-concept toolkit to produce custom proteins in their insects.

Another mealworm farm with products on the market is Ÿnsect. Its protein ingredient is already in U.S. luxury dog food brand Bernie’s, among others, and is exported around the world for use in pet food or to feed fish, to fertilize plants and for human consumption. The Paris-based company was founded in 2011 by four scientists and environmental activists with a vision to produce an alternative, sustainable product for feed and food. They set up vertical insect farms powered by robotics, each yielding several tons of mealworm products a year, and in 2021, the European food safety authority deemed mealworms safe for human consumption.

In June 2023 Ÿnsect launched the world’s first high-density gene chip for insect breeding. The chip contains 679,205 single-nucleotide polymorphisms, covering more than 99 percent of the mealworm’s coding regions. It can help scientists identify genes linked to traits of interest, such as growth performance, reproduction, or disease resistance. The company plans to make the new chip, called AxiomYNS_Mol1, available to the wider scientific community to help users decipher biological pathways, answer fundamental questions or improve selection of mealworm lines with desired traits.

All in all, with the work of these companies and genetic editing tools, insect farming is gaining ground in the global food economy as an alternative source of animal protein.

This article is reproduced with permission and was first published on August 11, 2023.

For the first time ever, India’s space agency has landed on the Moon. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) confirmed on Wednesday that its Chandrayaan-3 Mission has succeeded in its bid to land an uncrewed craft on the Moon.

The craft landed on the unexplored south pole of the Moon, and the timing is significant. Just days ago, a Russian lander trying to land in a similar spot crashed on the way down.

“This moment is unforgettable. It is phenomenal. This is a victory cry of a new India,” Indi Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, as reported by Reuters.

You can see the moment that the craft landed on the Moon in the video below, at around 44:45. It’s a nice moment to see all the engineers and workers launch into jubilation as the ship touches down.

No nation or private company has ever landed a human or a craft on the south pole of the moon. It’s believed there is ice on this part of the moon that could be used for drinking water and to create oxygen, which is part of the reason why countries like Russia and India wanted to get there first.

Before this, only the US, China, and the Soviet Union had landed on the Moon. India’s successful Moon landing is expected to help further legitimize the country’s space agency and to help accelerate interest and funding for it. The country has a crewed mission in the works.

In other space news, four astronauts are headed to the International Space Station on a SpaceX spacecraft for a mission set to take off on August 25.

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AMD has announced the next-generation of FidelityFX Super Resolution, or FSR, with the GPU manufacturer adding its own version of frame generation to the suite of optimization tools.

FSR 3 introduces a frame-generation technique similar to that found in Nvidia’s DLSS 3, but without the requirement to own the latest AMD GPU (or even an AMD GPU at all). Unlike Nvidia’s method, which uses motion vector data from individual frames and utilizes specific optical flow hardware on RTX 40-series cards, AMD leverages software to make up for the missing hardware. The process for injecting synthetic frames in between ones rendered by the game remains the same, but its effectiveness now more heavily relies on how well the underlying game is running.

Since FSR 3 will use software to perform the optical flow calculations, attempting to use frame generation on games already struggling to maintain a relatively high frame rate won’t produce great results, introducing stutter and latency. AMD recommends that a game be running at around 60fps already before trying to apply frame generation on top of that, meaning that it’s gear more towards boosting already good frame rates into much higher territory for high-refresh rate display and not a silver bullet for getting poorly running ones more smoothly. This is also the case with Nvidia’s own frame generation technique, despite its use of dedicated hardware, so it shouldn’t be too surprising.

In addition to frame generation, FSR 3 comes with the same upscaling techniques found in FSR 2, but now with the addition of Native AA. This setting doesn’t render your game at a lower resolution, but instead just applies the same anti-aliasing methods to your native resolution to help overcome games with poorly performing anti-aliasing options. This won’t improve performance alone (it might actually hamper it slightly), but AMD says that in combination with frame generation you can enjoy a much higher quality image with a higher framerate overall.

FSR 3 support will gradually roll out, with Forspoken and Immortals of Aveum being the first titles to feature the suite of options later this year. AMD has announced 10 games that will support FSR 3 in the near future, including Cyberpunk 2077, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Black Myth: Wokong, Starship Troopers: Extermination, and more. Despite being an AMD-promoted title, Bethesda’s Starfield was not on the list. Several developers have also partnered with AMD to support FSR 3 in future titles, including Square Enix, Ubisoft Massive, CD Projekt Red, SEGA, RGG Studio, and others. AMD is also working with Epic Games to incorporate FSR 3 into Unreal Engine 5 for seamless integration with existing projects.

AMD says that frame generation and the entirety of the FSR 3 suite is supported on its latest generation of GPUs, which now includes two mid-range options in the RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT. It’s also supported on AMD Radeon cards from the RX 5700 and above. Nvidia’s RTX cards from the 20-series and up are also all supported. For simple super resolution support, AMD says older cards from the Radeon RX 590 and better will be supported, while Nvidia support goes further back to the GTX 10-series of cards.

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