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quietus writes:Remember graphene, the single-atom-thick material nobody has managed to bring to production scale (yet)?Problem with graphene -- and other 2D materials -- is that their atoms have always tended to cluster together to make nanoparticles instead. Instead of a clean sheet of material, you'll get a 3D blob, and a mournful look at the Star Trek poster on your lab wall.Now scientists have managed to make such a 2D, single-atom, layer, using a fairly simple technique. This opens up the possibility of having a valid candidate for mass production.The new technique was discovered through the well-honed scientific process of trying (and failing) to do something else. In this case, the investigators started out with a material containing atomic monolayers of silicon sandwiched between titanium carbide. The researchers' aim was to coat this electrically conductive ceramic with a thin layer of gold, at a high temperature, to make a contact. (Maybe someone of the team had plumbing problems at home.)To their surprise, instead of a nice golden coat they ended up with intercalation, where one material in a layered structure is replaced by another. In this case, the silicon atoms were replaced with gold atoms. Some smart-ass noted that this meant they effectively had a 2D layer of gold atoms sandwiched in between layers of something else. Maybe, if we remove the titanium carbide?How they got the idea is not clarified (an iaido practitioner in the ranks, one presumes), but the team turned to an etching technique used by ancient Japanese blacksmiths. While the process immediately showed promise, the researchers said that finding the exact formula involved months of trial and error, but no limbs were lost.In the end, what was crucial was the solution and duration of application of the reagent (Murakami's etch) used, as well as complete darkness. That's because light hitting Murakami's reagent can produce cyanide, which dissolves gold. When trying to create a 2D gold sheet, having it dissolve is clearly an unwanted result.Read more of this story at SoylentNews.

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upstart writes:The universe may be dominated by particles that break causality and move faster than light, new paper suggests:

JoeMerchant writes:Braarudosphaera bigelowii is a species of algae, a coastal coccolithophore in the fossil record going back 100 million years. It has recently been found to have engulfed a cyanobacterium that lets them do something that algae, and plants in general, can't normally do: "fixing" nitrogen straight from the air, and combining it with other elements to create more useful compounds.

quietus writes:The EU is at it again -- with unleashing a new raft of legislation upon world+donkey.Maybe some of the colored tape bureaucrats are avid readers of Soylentnews, as this time they got top management in their crosshairs.EU members need to implement the directive into national law by January 16, next year (2025). Full text of the directive here, interesting reviews here and here, and a link to the EU's wider Cybersecurity Strategy (which also involves security of hardware and software products) here.The culprit of service is the second generation of the EU's Cybersecurity Directive (NIS2). The new legislation widely extends its scope to nearly any company with more than 50 employees and 10M+ in yearly revenue. On top of that, the number of industrial sectors which are deemed essential in terms of critical infrastructure doubles from 6 to 12, including ICT service management, government institutions, post and courier services, manufacturing companies, the food-processing industry, waste water management, space companies, research organisations and the chemical industry as a whole. Suppliers to these companies can also fall under the new regulation.In practice, national centers for cybersecurity will be responsible to execute cybersecurity checks through audits and/or unannounced security scans. If the target company neglects their recommendations, it risks heavy fines: at least 2 percent of worldwide revenue up to a maximum of 10 million for companies with more than 250 employees, or more than 50 million yearly revenue. Smaller companies risk at least 1.4 percent of yearly revenue with a maximum of 7 million.These fines cannot just be classified under company expenses, though. Under the new regulation, CEOs and board members are obligated to follow cybersecurity training, and to sign off on all cybersecurity measures. They are deemed personally responsible, and run the risk of being barred temporarily from similar roles, and -- most importantly -- of having to pay the resulting fine out of their own pocket, not through the company.Original SubmissionRead more of this story at SoylentNews.

damnbunni writes:https://hackaday.com/2024/04/19/end-of-life-for-z80-cpu-and-peripherals-announced/Zilog To End Standalone Sales Of The Legendary Z80 CPU

upstart writes:US Air Force successfully tests AI-controlled fighter jet in dogfight against human pilots:

Freeman writes:https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/04/linus-torvalds-reiterates-his-tabs-versus-spaces-stance-with-a-kernel-trap/

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acid andy writes:https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/04/philosopher-daniel-dennett-dead-at-82/

Freeman writes:https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/04/thousands-complain-about-prime-videos-wrong-titles-lost-episodes-other-errors/

Mojibake Tengu writes:Michael Larabel of Phoronix informs us:

canopic jug writes:The Conversation has an article about five things their team learned when researching 16th century beer making. A lot has changed since then, such as standardized grain varieties, standardized yeasts, standardized hops varieties, standardized temperatures, and so on.

Anonymous Coward writes:University of Queensland researchers have built a generator that absorbs carbon dioxide (CO2) to make electricity."This nanogenerator is made of two components: a polyamine gel that is already used by industry to absorb CO2 and a skeleton a few atoms thick of boron nitrate that generates positive and negative ions," Dr Wang said."In nature and in the human body, ion transportation is the most efficient energy conversion - more efficient than electron transportation which is used in the power network.""At present we can harvest around 1 per cent of the total energy carried intrinsically by gas CO2 but like other technologies, we will now work on improving efficiency and reducing cost.""We could make a slightly bigger device that is portable to generate electricity to power a mobile phone or a laptop computer using CO2 from the atmosphere," Professor Zhang said."A second application on a much larger scale, would integrate this technology with an industrial CO2 capture process to harvest electricity."https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2024/04/uq-turns-co2-sustainable-power

upstart writes:First law protecting consumers' brainwaves signed by Colorado governor:

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Freeman writes:https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/04/renovation-relic-man-finds-hominin-jawbone-in-parents-travertine-kitchen-tile/

upstart writes:Juno captures images of Io's violence as study says it has always been that way:

Freeman writes:https://www.popsci.com/technology/paintball-armed-ai-home-security-camera/

calmond writes:The Atlantic has an interesting editorial posted, titled Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls. The case for making journalism free-at least during the 2024 election.It's probably an interesting read, but of course it's behind a paywall. Nevertheless, the concept is pretty straightforward. Discuss.[Editors note: See below for snippets from the article]Read more of this story at SoylentNews.

OpenAI Winds Down AI Image Generator That Blew Minds and Forged Friendships in 2022upstart writes:OpenAI winds down AI image generator that blew minds and forged friendships in 2022:

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Freeman writes:https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/04/cops-can-force-suspect-to-unlock-phone-with-thumbprint-us-court-rules/

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upstart writes:Target collecting and storing customers' face and fingerprint scans without consent: class action lawsuit:

DannyB writes:NASA confirms origin of space junk that crashed through Florida homeThe 1.6-pound metal object should have burned up in the Earth's atmosphere.

upstart writes:xz-style Attacks Continue to Target Open-Source Maintainers:

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Freeman writes:https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/04/man-indicted-in-cryptojacking-scheme-that-stole-3-5m-from-cloud-providers/

After coming across a reference to an upcoming EU regulation for large batteries, such as used in battery-electric vehicles, I poked around and found this link, https://www.circularise.com/blogs/eu-battery-passport-regulation-requirements From their About section:

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DannyB writes:I flew Boeing's Starliner spacecraft in 4 different simulators. Here's what I learned"That's what we're paid to do, is overcome problems."

Freeman writes:https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/04/apple-removes-the-first-ios-game-boy-emulator-released-under-new-app-store-rules/

taylorvich writes:https://physics.aps.org/articles/v17/61

owl writes:https://axleos.com/building-a-gps-receiver-part-1-hearing-whispers/

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upstart writes:Bridge Collapses After Just 10 Years Because Designers Were Too Focused On Looks:

upstart writes:PuTTY vulnerability vuln-p521-bias:

taylorvich writes:http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/Physics.17.44

upstart writes:We wonder why Microsoft hinders third-party software in this way?

fliptop writes:Apple shipped 50.1 million iPhones in the first three months, according to IDC's preliminary figures, falling shy of an average of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg of 51.7 million units for the period:

fliptop writes:Tesla has announced layoffs of "more than 10%" of its global workforce in an internal company-wide email:

taylorvich writes:https://newatlas.com/biology/bird-sleeping-dream-song/Researchers have tracked muscle contractions in a bird's vocal tract, and reconstructed the song it was silently singing in its sleep. The resulting audio is a very specific call, allowing the team to figure out what the bird's dream was about.

upstart writes:No patch yet for unauthenticated code-execution bug in Palo Alto Networks firewall:

upstart writes:Tesla Model 3 Traps TikToker Inside 115-Degree Car During A Software Update:

looorg writes:Human hugs > robot hugs > no hugsA systematic review and multivariate meta-analysis of the physical and mental health benefits of touch interventions: