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☆ Why It’s So Hard to Slice Cheese
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( Helen Czerski | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Physicist Helen Czerski explores the complex science behind familiar phenomena. In every kitchen, there’s a drawer that acts as a window to the owner’s soul, revealing their weaknesses, hopes and regrets. Exhibit A in a kitchen I visited recently was a cheese wire. It was residing sadly in a corner because, well, knives exist. But the physics of cheese is surprisingly complicated, and maybe a cheese wire really can earn its place in the kitchen.

☆ 5 times scientists thought they'd maybe discovered signs of extraterrestrial life but sadly didn't
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Extraterrestrial life could exist, but mysterious objects in the sky aren't evidence of aliens. Scientists have thought they were close to discovering alien life a few times — none of it via UFOs. As the US discovered a flurry of UFOs — officially called "unidentified anomalous phenomena," or UAPs — in early February, Google searches for "extraterrestrial life" and "are aliens real" spiked. There have been incidents in the past where some researchers thought they'd come close to discovering signs of alien life — or even extraterrestrial intelligence — but none were UFOs. They dubbed the first interstellar object 'Oumuamua, which is a Hawaiian term meaning "a messenger from afar arriving first."

☆ 'Bond King' Jeffrey Gundlach tells investors to prepare for recession - and warns against trying to prevent a downturn
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Theron Mohamed | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Jeffrey Gundlach warned of a looming recession and advised investors to take precautions. Gundlach — whose nickname is the "Bond King" — is a billionaire investor and the boss of DoubleLine Capital. (Gundlach warned that tighter lending standards, a weakening economy, and low credit quality could lead to a spike in loan defaults.) We're pretty far away from that, but if that happens it suggests you're in more of a hard-landing type of recession." So the more you try to reduce the severity of problems, you're going to end up ultimately having a very high severity problem."

☆ ‘Liaison’ Review: A Spy Thriller in Brexit’s Shadow
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Global intrigue and international coproductions can go together like socks and sandals, but “Liaison” is a rather delicious thriller and one that’s reality-based—meaning there’s respect for real physics as well as for realpolitik. They’ve all trusted the wrong people, made decisions that endanger national security and committed romantic miscues that have worldwide consequences. But what sets off the bilateral contretemps in “Liaison” isn’t the U.K.’s departure from the European Union, exactly, but a consequent lack of cybersecurity agreements with its continental neighbors. Terrorism is a transnational enterprise after all, and per this story the appropriate treaties have to be renegotiated. And the Brits find themselves at a disadvantage when their vaunted national security apparatus proves to be a bit tatty.

☆ Putin's 'invincible' missile has a very common problem
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Michael Peck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Putin has touted Russian hypersonic weapons like the Zircon missile as impossible to defend against. A destroyer, for example, might not detect a missile until it gets to within about 15 miles, according to Kaushal. Russian frigate Admiral Groshkov launches a Zircon hypersonic missile in the White Sea in October 2020. Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via APThe weapon was developed remarkably quickly compared to previous Russian missiles. "Furthermore, there appear to be no reported test failures, which is irregular for a new missile, especially one as complex as a hypersonic cruise missile," Kaushal noted.

☆ Kia's new electric SUV is the stylish, super-quick competitor of Elon Musk's nightmares — but it has one big downside
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Tim Levin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The 2023 EV6 GT Kia lent me came out to roughly $63,000, including a destination fee. The 2023 Kia EV6 GT. The 2023 Kia EV6 GT. The 2023 Kia EV6 GT. Our impressionsThe 2023 Kia EV6 GT is a unique, adrenaline-inducing ball of energy that makes you feel outrageously cool while behind the wheel.

☆ Chinese Spy Balloons and the UFO Obfuscation
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Holman W. Jenkins | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Not many things with significant mass are drifting around tens of thousands of feet up. An unidentified object may be the size of a “small car,” as one pilot report passed along by the Pentagon claims, but it’s not a car. It may look “cylindrical,” as another states, but steel drums aren’t floating in the thin air at 20,000 feet. If it doesn’t have an engine and wings, it’s a balloon, thousands of which have no military purpose. The White House, so far, has been sure only that the objects weren’t alien spacecraft.

☆ Exclusive: Alphabet spinoff Sandbox AQ raises $500 mln for cyber security, other quantum work
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Jane Lanhee Lee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

OAKLAND, Calif., Feb 14 (Reuters) - Sandbox AQ, a startup spun off from Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) last year, said on Tuesday it raised $500 million as it helps customers prepare for a quantum computing future. Quantum computers, whose processors run based on quantum physics, could one day carry out certain calculations millions of times quicker than today's fastest super computers, yet they remain years away from making a big change, such as breaking encryption. The simulation does not currently need quantum computers to work, said Hidary. When quantum computers are ready, that work would speed up even further. Sandbox AQ is also using existing types of sensors based on quantum physics.

☆ Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak thinks ChatGPT is 'pretty impressive,' but warned it can make 'horrible mistakes': CNBC
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Felise Seah | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Steve Wozniak said OpenAI's ChatGPT is "pretty impressive," during an interview with CNBC on Wednesday. "The trouble is it does good things for us, but it can make horrible mistakes by not knowing what humanness is," Wozniak warned. "The trouble is it does good things for us, but it can make horrible mistakes by not knowing what humanness is," Wozniak warned. In the interview, Wozniak also drew a parallel to the concerns surrounding AI technology in self-driving cars, and said that AI cannot currently replace human drivers. Google's new experimental AI chatbot, Bard, gave an inaccurate answer to a question about the James Webb Space Telescope.

☆ Mysterious flying objects across the US probably aren't aliens, but experts believe life is out there. Here are 13 reasons why we haven't made contact yet.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Aylin Woodward | Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Even if intelligent aliens aren't flying overhead, though, many experts believe they're out there. Nobel Physics Laureate Didier Queloz speaks during a press conference at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden. Jonas Ekstromer /TT News Agency via AP"I can't believe we are the only living entity in the whole universe. Queloz had just won the Nobel prize in physics for his discovery of the first exoplanet orbiting a sun-like star. He said that his work has led him to become "absolutely convinced" that humans will detect alien life in the next 100 years.

☆ Fact Check-Earthquake in Turkey was not a HAARP operation
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Multiple experts told Reuters that HAARP could not have been responsible for the earthquake in Turkey or anywhere as it does not have such capabilities. HAARP CANNOT TRIGGER EARTHQUAKESAccording to the HAARP website’s FAQ section, it cannot control or manipulate the weather (haarp.gi.alaska.edu/faq). Nishimura said there may not have been lightning strikes at all in the video shared online. Experts say the Feb. 6 earthquake in Turkey was not a result of a HAARP operation because HAARP does not have capabilities to trigger earthquakes. (Update Feb. 13, 2023: Replaces paragraph 8 with response from HAARP program manager)This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team.

☆ Blind Software Engineer Expanded Access to Braille
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( James R. Hagerty | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

John J. Boyer , raised on a Minnesota farm family with 12 children, was born blind and lost most of his hearing by the time he was 10 years old. None of that stopped him from setting up a basement science lab and aspiring to be another Thomas Edison . What did frustrate him was a lack of textbooks in braille. “When I was in high school, my physics book was older than I was and didn’t even explain what made the sun hot,” he would later tell the Wisconsin State Journal.

Click to unmute A global city needs a global soundtrack, and in New York, you can find nearly anything you want. Over the past several months, we followed several New York musical scenes that reflect the city’s creative soul, thriving in community centers, local bars and public parks. The sight of a new generation encouraged Mr. Joseph, who sees the band as preserving traditional culture in the modern city. It becomes part of you.” New York itself is as much a player as any musician, transforming traditional tunes into something new. The people who embraced Mateo and his mother when they moved from Boston to New York in 2016 now consoled her.

☆ Check out the 10-page pitch deck a new adtech startup used to raise $8 million to help influencers and film studios power product placement with AI
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Ryan Joe | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The new adtech company Rembrand uses AI to digitally place products in videos. Product placement is a fast-growing part of the marketing landscape, with spend estimated at $26.2 billion in 2022. The first is through an ad network for product placement in influencer videos. Advertisers will run a product placement campaign and Rembrand's technology will place that product in influencer videos across its network. The $8 million Rembrand raised will provide it with about two years of runway, Tawakol said.

☆ ChatGPT is supercharging how EQT sources deals. A top tech exec at the investing giant gives an inside look at how it's 'trying to make cyborgs' out of its dealmakers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

But at Sweden-based investment firm EQT, the tech is being used at full throttle. "We're trying to make cyborgs," Alexandra Lutz, head of Motherbrain, EQT's AI platform, told Insider. With ChatGPT, Lutz said EQT has reached "the next frontier," putting the power of AI directly in the hands of its investors and portfolio companies. EQT's AI journey has been seven years in the makingThe impetus for EQT's AI platform can be traced back to a simple question. The AI platform generates lists of companies for EQT investors that look promising based on an input of desired attributes, from company size to geography and underlying technology.

☆ Inside the 'Wormhole,' Relativity Space's monster factory 3D-printing reusable rockets
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-04 | by ( Michael Sheetz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The exterior of "The Wormhole" factory. The inside of "The Wormhole" factory in Long Beach, California. A closeup look at one of the company's "Reaper" printers at work. The scale of one of the Stargate "Reaper" printers. A pair of the company's "Reaper" 3D-printers.

☆ Meet Maye Musk, the Sports Illustrated cover model and the glamorous mother of one of the richest men in the world
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-04 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Despite her support for her children, Maye Musk has been a celebrity in her own right for decades. Maye Musk Maye Musk attended the Met gala with Elon Musk last year. "They followed their passions, and they all went in different directions," Maye Musk told Insider in a 2020 interview. Elon Musk, in particular, had tried his hardest in school, but only in the subjects he liked, Maye Musk said. Even at 14 years old, Maye Musk said Elon Musk had shown a passion for investing.

☆ Astronomers document a not-so-super supernova in the Milky Way
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Will Dunham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

This binary system, studied using a telescope at the Chile-based Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, is located about 11,000 light years from Earth in our Milky Way galaxy in the direction of the constellation Puppis. Its companion star boasts a mass 18 to 19 times greater than the sun after cannibalizing its mate. The two stars orbit around each other every 59-1/2 days, separated by about eight-tenths of the distance existing between Earth and the sun. The type of binary system examined in this study is rare, with roughly 10 estimated to exist in a Milky Way populated by about 100-400 billion stars. "In the case of these massive stars, we have not yet detected planets around them.

☆ Quantum computing software startup Q-CTRL raises $27.4 mln
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Jane Lanhee Lee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

OAKLAND, Calif., Jan 31 (Reuters) - Sydney-based startup Q-CTRL, whose software helps run quantum computers more accurately, said on Tuesday it raised $27.4 million with Salesforce Ventures joining as a new investor. Billions of dollars have been invested to prepare for the moment quantum computers can outperform classical computers on important tasks as those could be industry changing, experts say. Several quantum computer makers say they will have over a thousand qubits in the next one to two years. Q-CTRL's software helps see through some of that static to increase the chances of reading the right answer from the quantum machine. It works with both quantum computer hardware and software makers, including IBM (IBM.N), IONQ (IONQ.N), and Classiq.

☆ The Green Comet will be closest to earth on Feb 1. Here's the science behind its ghoulish glow.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A green comet is whizzing past the earth for the first time since the ice age. The green comet, which last passed through the inner solar system about 50,000 years ago, will be at its brightest during this time. Comet ZTF (C/2022 E3) taken at NAOJ Mitaka Campus on January 31, 2023. Another green comet, called ISON, passed Earth in 2013. As it approaches the sun, the heat turns the ice into gas creating an atmosphere around the comet called the coma.

☆ Bob Born, the ‘Father of Peeps,’ has died
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Jordan Valinsky | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Ira “Bob” Born, known as the “Father of Peeps,” died on Sunday. Just Born Quality Confections, the Pennsylvania-based company that makes various candies, including the chick-shaped marshmallows, confirmed Born’s death in a statement. That helped him earn the nickname “Father of Peeps.”Originally created for Easter, Peeps makes themed candy for other holidays, too, including Valentine’s Day and Halloween. His father, Sam, a Russian immigrant, founded Just Born a year prior. Ross Born told the Lehigh Valley News said his father was a “real mensch,” adding that he was a “kind person, he was generous with his talents, sharing his abilities.”“The candy business was kind of catchy … it was interesting to him,” Ross Born told the newspaper.

☆ Explainer: What to expect during the green comet's encounter with Earth
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Nicknamed "dirty snowballs" by astronomers, comets are balls of ice, dust and rocks that typically hail from the ring of icy material called the Oort cloud at our solar system's outer edge. One known comet actually originated outside the solar system - 2I/Borisov. Comets are composed of a solid core of rock, ice and dust and are blanketed by a thin and gassy atmosphere of more ice and dust, called a coma. Its greenish, emerald hue reflects the comet's chemical composition - it is the result of a clash between sunlight and carbon-based molecules in the comet's coma. NASA plans to observe the comet with its James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which could provide clues about the solar system's formation.

☆ China’s Top Nuclear-Weapons Lab Used American Computer Chips Decades After Ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Liza Lin | Dan Strumpf | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics card. Nvidia said the semiconductors used in the Chinese institute’s research were general-purpose graphics chips. SINGAPORE—China’s top nuclear-weapons research institute has bought sophisticated U.S. computer chips at least a dozen times in the past two and half years, circumventing decades-old American export restrictions meant to curb such sales. A Wall Street Journal review of procurement documents found that the state-run China Academy of Engineering Physics has managed to obtain the semiconductors made by U.S. companies such as Intel Corp. and Nvidia Corp. since 2020 despite its placement on a U.S. export blacklist in 1997.

☆ Asteroid's sudden flyby shows blind spot in planetary threat detection
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

NASA for years has prioritized detecting asteroids much bigger and more existentially threatening than 2023 BU, the small space rock that streaked by 2,200 miles from the Earth's surface, closer than some satellites. If bound for Earth, it would have been pulverized in the atmosphere, with only small fragments possibly reaching land. But 2023 BU sits on the smaller end of a size group, asteroids 5-to-50 meters in diameter, that also includes those as big as an Olympic swimming pool. But with current capabilities, astronomers can't see when such a rock targets Earth until days prior. The successful demonstration, called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), affirmed for the first time a method of planetary defense.

☆ Aviation's best bet for cutting emissions is a new kind of fuel — but there's nowhere near enough of it
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Bianca Giacobone | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Sustainable aviation fuel can be up to 80% less carbon intensive than conventional jet fuel. The US wants 3 billion gallons of sustainable aviation fuel by 2030. Sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, is similar to conventional jet fuel, but it's much less carbon-intensive during its full lifecycle. From production to combustion, it releases up to 80% less carbon dioxide than conventional jet fuel, according to data from the International Air Transport Association. "There are very few that have seen the vision" of converting to SAF production.

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