News

16-year-old on finding primes with neural networks

Inspired by the triumphs of the “AlphaGo” project by DeepMind, I focused my research into the extensions and optimisation techniques that are so common in neural network design. There are many useful packages in machine learning, such as tensor flow, which can generate complex neural networks which work well, very quickly, but for this project I really wanted to develop an understanding of the inner workings of modern neural networks. So I went through the arduous calculus myself giving a much less efficient but more rewarding program.

Breakthrough pushes Quantum Key Distribution beyond 500km

Cambridge physicists have come up with a new way to build a secure Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) network that could extend the technology’s range beyond 500km for the first time.

Having AI systems try to outwit one another could help judge their intentions

NASA’s Launching a Lander That Will Dig on Mars

InSight will accomplish this feat with its Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3), nicknamed “the mole” because it can burrow through regolith (the loose rocky surface layer on Mars and many other terrestrial planets). The instrument consists of a tube with a spring-loaded mechanism that will hammer out a hole in half-meter increments. Every 50 centimeters, it will stop for several hours or days to take thermal measurements and cool down from the frictional and operational heat generated by the dig process.

Sorry Elon Musk, there’s no clear evidence Autopilot saves lives

Performance analysis of cloud applications

Today’s choice gives us an insight into how Google measure and analyse the performance of large user-facing services such as Gmail (from which most of the data in the paper is taken). It’s a paper in two halves. The first part of the paper demonstrates through an analysis of traffic and load patterns why the only real way to analyse production performance is using live production systems.

Biology Will Be the Next Great Computing Platform

Crispr, the powerful gene-editing tool, is revolutionizing the speed and scope with which scientists can modify the DNA of organisms, including human cells. So many people want to use it—from academic researchers to agtech companies to biopharma firms—that new companies are popping up to staunch the demand. Companies like Synthego, which is using a combination of software engineering and hardware automation to become the Amazon of genome engineering.

Technique to manipulate electrons with light could make computers much faster

Yale physicists find signs of a time crystal

Time crystals, first identified in 2016, are different. Their atoms spin periodically, first in one direction and then in another, as a pulsating force is used to flip them. That’s the “ticking.”

Experts say Tesla has repeated car industry mistakes from the 1980s