Science News Thread (for articles that don't relate to ongoing discussions)

[James Kerman]

Some content has been removed. Please avoid religion when posting because the forum is meant to be a friendly and welcoming place for everyone.

[darthgently]

To balance any aspersions made to this research based on who presented in the vid and to defend the grad student Jun Yao’s work on silicon oxide only memory I am obliged to post this overview from grok:

Spoiler

Jun Yao's findings on memory chips using silicon oxide for resistive memory have garnered significant attention and support in the scientific community, evidenced by:

 

1. **Peer-Reviewed Publications:**

   - Yao's work has been published in reputable scientific journals, indicating peer review and validation by experts in the field. His breakthrough was first detailed in a paper published in *Nano Letters*, confirming the scientific rigor applied to his findings.[](https://www.nanotech-now.com/news.cgi?story_id=40390)

   - Subsequent research was published in *Nature Communications*, showcasing the development of transparent, non-volatile memory devices from silicon oxide and graphene, further validating the initial discovery.[](https://spectrum.ieee.org/silicon-oxide-as-resistive-memory-goes-transparent)

 

2. **Academic and Institutional Support:**

   - Yao's research was conducted at Rice University, under the guidance of Professor James Tour, known for his contributions to nanotechnology and materials science. This institutional backing from a prestigious university lends credibility to the research.

   - The research was supported by various funding bodies, including the National Science Foundation, indicating confidence in the potential of the findings.[](https://beta.nsf.gov/news/electronics-breakthrough-could-revolutionize)

 

3. **Commercial Interest and Collaboration:**

   - There has been commercial interest in Yao's work, with companies like PrivaTran working on prototypes based on his silicon oxide memory concept. This collaboration suggests that Yao's findings are seen as potentially viable for real-world applications.[](https://www.nanotech-now.com/news.cgi?story_id=40390)[](https://www.understandingnano.com/silicon-oxide-nanowire-memory.html)

   - Yao's work has led to the development of memory chips with industry partners, aiming at high-capacity, 3-D memory solutions. This commercial engagement signifies practical support for his findings.[](https://new.nsf.gov/news/electronics-breakthrough-could-revolutionize)[](https://beta.nsf.gov/news/electronics-breakthrough-could-revolutionize)

 

4. **Further Research and Extensions:**

   - Additional researchers have explored similar concepts, suggesting that Yao's work has inspired or contributed to broader research in the field of resistive memory using silicon oxide. For instance, other teams have independently found similar effects, as noted in IEEE Spectrum articles.[](https://spectrum.ieee.org/silicon-proves-its-mettle-as-resistive-memory)

 

5. **Media and Public Recognition:**

   - The significance of Yao's discovery was highlighted in various media outlets, including the New York Times, which covered his research on the day of its publication in *Nano Letters*, indicating public and scientific interest.[](https://www.nanotech-now.com/news.cgi?story_id=40390)

 

6. **Scientific Validation:**

   - The mechanism of silicon oxide memory, where voltage pulses can break and reform conductive pathways, has been replicated and studied, providing empirical support for Yao's findings. 

 

While these points collectively indicate substantial support for Jun Yao's findings, it's also important to note that scientific validation is an ongoing process. The potential for further refinement or challenge to the current understanding exists as the field of memory technology continues to evolve. However, as of the information available, there's a clear foundation of academic, commercial, and scientific support for Yao's innovative use of silicon in memory chips.

 

[darthgently]

Anyway, the idea that memory ICs might be manufacturable from silicon and oxygen only with no rare earth elements would have big implications for manufacture on the Moon, and that was my point in posting.  I don’t see how this could be applied to general ICs at this time as it seems more relevant to memory and perhaps with a limit on writes, or perhaps write speed.  

Edited January 4 by darthgently

[boriz]

On 12/31/2024 at 5:43 PM, darthgently said:

Personally, I’d find a universe that can self-assemble consciousness damn miraculous

Who do you think performed this miracle?

[Mr. Kerbin]

7 minutes ago, boriz said:

Who do you think performed this miracle?

A miracle does NOT mean divine intervention, or that a person/someone did it.

Another meaning is 

Quote

a highly improbable or extraordinary event, development, or accomplishment that brings very welcome consequences.

Or even

Quote

an amazing product or achievement, or an outstanding example of something.

It’s very possible this is what @darthgently  means.

Edited January 11 by Mr. Kerbin

[Lisias]

2 hours ago, Mr. Kerbin said:

A miracle does NOT mean divine intervention, or that a person/someone did it.

As a matter of fact, it's the original meaning of the word, and it's pretty reasonably to conclude that if there's a miracle, some deity would be responsible for it.

 

2 hours ago, Mr. Kerbin said:

<other possible meanings for "Miracle">

It’s very possible this is what @darthgently  means.

Agreed, but it's not impossible they would had used the word at value's face.

At least me use this word with the original meaning, even when using it on a tongue-in-cheek catch phrase.

[Mr. Kerbin]

5 minutes ago, Lisias said:

As a matter of fact, it's the original meaning of the word, and it's pretty reasonably to conclude that if there's a miracle, some deity would be responsible for it.

 

Agreed, but it's not impossible they would had used the word at value's face.

At least me use this word with the original meaning, even when using it on a tongue-in-cheek catch phrase.

Spoiler

SSSSSHHHHHH!!!!

I'M TRYING NOT TO GET US BANNED HERE!

HAVE YOU HEARD RULE 2.2B?

PLUS, WE'RE OFF TOPIC!

AJNFSNHSFHNSHFSFBSDHBUFBH

seriously, we are off topic and this is a infraction of 2.2b, this post, the one I quoted, and the other one I made.

Assume in good faith. (When applicable. Posting spam, not quite applicable.)

 

[James Kerman]

Sometimes words that originally had a biblical meaning enter the vernacular.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

Anyone notice the irony of the present manufactured outrage? 

Bitte, shrei uns nicht an, boriz. 

Lass los, freund! 

[Mr. Kerbin]

1 hour ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Bitte, shrei uns nicht an, boriz. 

Lass los, freund! 

He says:

Please don’t shout at us boriz.

Let go, friend!

[Nuke]

On 1/3/2025 at 8:49 PM, darthgently said:

Anyway, the idea that memory ICs might be manufacturable from silicon and oxygen only with no rare earth elements would have big implications for manufacture on the Moon, and that was my point in posting.  I don’t see how this could be applied to general ICs at this time as it seems more relevant to memory and perhaps with a limit on writes, or perhaps write speed.  

there is probibly a much wider array of viable semiconductors out there than we give credit. some with properties useful for space applications, others with properties that make them more environmentally friendly to manufacture, and others may be cheaper to manufacture. however the process from going to a viable semiconductor and making chips that can compete with traditional silicon is a long, complex, and very expensive process.

[AckSed]

1 minute ago, Nuke said:

There are probably a much wider array of viable semiconductors out there than we give credit, some with properties useful for space applications, others with properties that make them more environmentally friendly to manufacture, and others may be cheaper to manufacture. However, the process from going to a viable semiconductor and making chips that can compete with traditional silicon is a long, complex, and very expensive process.

No "probably" about it: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Zl_B_IbC_UFx4VfFamhCQcGgUdtk64r6wOdQ_wO3lHU/

That is a dataset of the 160 different semiconductors that have been grown into crystals in microgravity since Skylab.

Here's the meta-analysis that shows that of the 140 with data, and depending on crystal-growing method, 80% showed an improvement in at least one of being more uniform in distribution, including dopants, with better structure and smaller voids and/or improved performance. 50% grew larger crystals: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41526-024-00410-7.pdf

So yes, there's fertile grounds for research. Some of these (I'm personally eyeing the copper-aluminium) would be excellent for ISRU electronics and power circuitry.

[AckSed]

Spectrometers. Large and heavy lab equipment that needs miracles of miniaturisation to fit into space probes and telescopes. Well, not any more. With Fresnel optics you can cram one inside a bullet-sized probe, and scatter-shoot multiple all over a crater: https://www.universetoday.com/168591/could-you-find-what-a-lunar-crater-is-made-of-by-shooting-it/

[Nuke]

power electronics have really improved in the last 20 years. tiny rice grains channeling power which would have let the magic smoke out prior.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

4 hours ago, AckSed said:

Spectrometers

"This invention, which NASA has patented, could also be used on Earth if a mining or petroleum company wants to quickly sample an area’s geological makeup" 

... From the link above. 

 

Um. 

 

Mining / petroleum company sampling via this method is likely to only know what the topsoil is. 

Pretty sure they're interested in what's several hundred to several thousand feet down. 

As someone with a fair amount of experience using projectiles to affect things on the surface, allow me to suggest that 'spectrometry via bullet' isn't going to produce much useful information on this planet. 

[darthgently]

58 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

"This invention, which NASA has patented, could also be used on Earth if a mining or petroleum company wants to quickly sample an area’s geological makeup" 

... From the link above. 

 

Um. 

 

Mining / petroleum company sampling via this method is likely to only know what the topsoil is. 

Pretty sure they're interested in what's several hundred to several thousand feet down. 

As someone with a fair amount of experience using projectiles to affect things on the surface, allow me to suggest that 'spectrometry via bullet' isn't going to produce much useful information on this planet. 

Yeah, one would need to upgrade to the premium level bunker buster spectrometry very large bullet.  Which would have geopolitical implications

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

"We're just building Spectrometers... Honest!" 

[AckSed]

You're seeing the 'shooting' part and not seeing the 'tiny spectrometer' part. Lower one of these down a well, gain a molecular signature of the geology.

[StrandedonEarth]

14 hours ago, AckSed said:

You're seeing the 'shooting' part and not seeing the 'tiny spectrometer' part. Lower one of these down a well, gain a molecular signature of the geology.

Or simply a highly portable means to assay core samples 

[darthgently]

16 hours ago, AckSed said:

You're seeing the 'shooting' part and not seeing the 'tiny spectrometer' part. Lower one of these down a well, gain a molecular signature of the geology.

I think the disjoint is that the image of using these on earth from orbit was the obvious, if not most logical, mental parse of the phrasing

[darthgently]

Our civ needs a million more moments like this.  What a time to be alive!

Harriet Hunt of Firefly is living the dream

 

[AckSed]

The 2025 NIAC Phase 1 entrants are in, and there's a lot of weird and wonderful proposals:

A balloon probe that uses a reversible solid-oxide CO/O2 fuel-cell to explore Venus (the key feature of a SOFC is the high temperatures needed to activate the catalyst - not a problem on Venus);

Another Venus probe that uses the difference in velocity between cloud layers to power both ends of the craft;

A solar sail that is one continuous self-supporting ribbon, simplifying deployment;

Automated glass-blowing to construct a circular habitat from microwave-melted regolith (exactly the kind of far-out thinking I miss from 80s and 90s moon-base concepts).

There's also more serious things, like a new process for catalysing electrolysis of water on a spacecraft, a constellation of X-ray telescopes to image supermassive black holes and someone outright proposing a shipyard in LEO.

No shortage of dreams here.

[darthgently]

1 hour ago, AckSed said:

The 2025 NIAC Phase 1 entrants are in, and there's a lot of weird and wonderful proposals:

A balloon probe that uses a reversible solid-oxide CO/O2 fuel-cell to explore Venus (the key feature of a SOFC is the high temperatures needed to activate the catalyst - not a problem on Venus);

Another Venus probe that uses the difference in velocity between cloud layers to power both ends of the craft;

A solar sail that is one continuous self-supporting ribbon, simplifying deployment;

Automated glass-blowing to construct a circular habitat from microwave-melted regolith (exactly the kind of far-out thinking I miss from 80s and 90s moon-base concepts).

There's also more serious things, like a new process for catalysing electrolysis of water on a spacecraft, a constellation of X-ray telescopes to image supermassive black holes and someone outright proposing a shipyard in LEO.

No shortage of dreams here.

Some interesting ideas there, some pretty wild.  The mitochondrial backup and restore is audacious and not ready for prime time but I hope it gets funded purely for what will be learned trying to sort it out

[AckSed]

Varda just hitched a ride on Transporter 12, and its pharmecutical-producing capsule is not only going to reenter and land on the Koonibba Test Range in Australia, it's also carrying a spectrometer from the ARFL designed to record spectral measurements of the dynamic reentry plasma environment: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vardas-second-mission-w-2-launches-with-payloads-from-air-force-research-laboratory-and-nasa-302350940.html

Side note: it's running on a Rocket Lab satellite bus. I suppose business is business, and launch isn't half as profitable as satellites.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

Dark Oxygen:

Initial research suggested potato-size nodules rich in metals, predominantly found 4,000 meters (13,100 feet) below the surface in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, released an electrical charge, splitting seawater into oxygen and hydrogen through electrolysis. The unprecedented natural phenomenon challenges the idea that oxygen can only be made from sunlight via photosynthesis.

...

In some cases, the dark oxygen had been isolated from the atmosphere aboveground for more than 40,000 years.

If oxygen is not continuously being added to an environment (by trees and plants, for example), it would eventually disappear.

“After 40,000 years or 30,000 years (separated from surface processes), there’s no reason really to think that there should be any oxygen left. Because oxygen is such a yummy electron acceptor, it usually either chemically oxidizes or microbially oxidizes,” Ruff said. “So what was it doing there?”

...

After patiently working in the lab and field, Ruff ultimately discovered that microbes in the water were producing oxygen. The microbes had apparently evolved an obscure but neat trick that allowed them to produce molecules in the absence of light.

Through a series of chemical reactions, the microbes were able to break down soluble compounds called nitrites, molecules made of one nitrogen and two oxygen atoms, to produce molecular oxygen in a process known as dismutation. The microbes also had the ability to use the oxygen to consume methane in the water for energy.

What’s more, Ruff found that the quantity of oxygen produced was enough to sustain other oxygen-dependent microbial life in the groundwater.

The hunt for ‘dark’ oxygen and why it might be more common than first thought | CNN

(Note: this is a new article about a discovery I linked to a while back.)