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- Crazy to go: pansies from dementia and the largest nuclear container ship
Crazy to go: pansies from dementia and the largest nuclear container ship
Scientists from Russia have figured out how to turn radioactive waste into energy for satellites, adapt the shape of pansies for biomedical sensors, and program the properties of bacteria to create dietary supplements and fermented dairy products with desired properties. And China is developing a "revolutionary" nuclear cargo ship with an innovative reactor that will run on thorium salts. About this and other news from the world of science and technology — in the material of Izvestia.
Radioactive waste will be turned into energy for satellites
Scientists from the Far Eastern Federal University, in cooperation with specialists from the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, have developed a material and technology for the harmless collection of radioactive waste and its subsequent safe long-term storage.
It is based on a synthetic sorbent, which extracts radioactive strontium from water. Then everything is sintered together into super-dense ceramics. In this form, waste can be stored for a long time. If necessary, radioactive elements can be extracted to make useful products from them. For example, rtgs are radioisotope sources of electricity that are used on space satellites and underwater lighthouses.
— It is important to note that the technology not only offers a safe and reliable solution to the problem of radioactive waste fixation, but also contributes to the development of environmentally sustainable and efficient nuclear energy of the future. The key advantage of the approach is that the same material consistently performs the function of a sorbent and then a final matrix for burial," commented Ivan Tananaev, scientific supervisor of the direction, Professor of the Department of Nuclear Technologies at the ITPM FEFU, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Software for evaluating the beneficial properties of bacteria
Specialists from Don State Technical University (DSTU), I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University and Wageningen University (the Netherlands) have developed the KEGGaNOG software tool, which allows for fast and accurate analysis of the metabolic capabilities of bacteria. It will help biotechnologists and microbiologists more efficiently select strains of microorganisms for the production of vitamins, antibiotics and other biologically active substances.
As scientists told Izvestia, microorganisms are widely used in pharmaceuticals, the food industry and the environment. Many bacteria are involved in the synthesis of enzymes and vitamins, and are also part of probiotics that improve digestion and support the immune system. In order to determine which useful compounds a particular strain can synthesize, it is necessary to decode its genome. However, the search and analysis of genes responsible for complex biochemical reactions requires considerable time.
"We started developing this tool when we encountered difficulties in quickly analyzing the intestinal microbial communities of bats. This prompted us to create a convenient and reproducible method for evaluating bacterial genomes and metagenomes," Igor Popov, a researcher at DSTU, told Izvestia.
According to the authors, the development will find application in microbial ecology — to study the role of microorganisms in the circulation of substances and interactions in natural ecosystems. It will also allow you to create dietary supplements and fermented milk products with specified properties.
Pansies-shaped sensors
MIPT specialists have developed a technology that allows you to automatically evaluate the properties of various natural surfaces and thus select the most suitable ones to solve the desired problem. Scientists have already managed to create an artificial substrate for the sensor, which mimics the structure of the petals of pansies. Due to this structure, the nature-like material captures red blood cells well from the blood for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, as well as for the detection of hypertension and diabetes mellitus in the early stages.
— The unique topography of the replica pansies creates the perfect trap for the red blood cell. The cell is gently fixed, and the signal is amplified 2-7 times compared to other patterns. We have reached the level of sensitivity necessary for the transition to real clinical applications," said Sergey Novikov, head of the Laboratory of Controlled Optical Nanostructures at the Center for Photonics and Two—Dimensional Materials at MIPT.
Modern diagnostic methods make it possible to detect the smallest biochemical changes in cells, which opens up new opportunities for the detection of serious diseases. One of the most promising is giant raman spectroscopy (SERS), which makes it possible to obtain the "molecular fingerprint" of a cell without destroying it. However, existing sensors capable of "catching" the cells needed for the study in the blood are expensive or not effective enough.
To search for surfaces, an algorithm has been created that uses a special "difficulty coefficient" to evaluate the suitability of natural surfaces for cell retention. The higher this indicator, the more promising this or that material is for diagnostic purposes.
China announced the development of a nuclear ship reactor
China is developing a "revolutionary" nuclear cargo ship with an innovative reactor. It will be installed on the world's largest container ship.
The vessel will be able to carry up to 14,000 containers and will be equipped with a thorium reactor generating 50 MW of electricity, which is enough for long—term operation without refueling. To increase reliability in emergency situations, a backup diesel generator with a capacity of 10 MW is provided.
The reactor will run on molten thorium salt. This fuel is considered safer than uranium and does not require water to cool the reactor, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) writes.
If this technology proves successful in its application, it could significantly change the paradigm in commercial shipping and naval shipbuilding.
Apple and Google's AI Deal
Apple will pay Google almost $1 billion annually for using a super-powerful AI model to update Siri, the deal is nearing completion, writes Bloomberg. Some functions will still work on native models.
The iPhone developer plans to introduce an AI model with 1.2 trillion parameters, which significantly exceeds the current model with 150 billion. Such a step will significantly expand the capabilities of the system and its ability to process complex data and understand the context. Earlier, the Cupertino company considered the possibility of implementing ChatGPT from OpenAI and Claude from Anthropic, but after conducting tests, it settled on Gemini.
According to the upcoming agreement, the language model will perform the functions of an adder (creating summaries of notifications, web pages, texts, etc.) and a scheduler (a system that determines how commands are executed) in Siri.
The updated model will run on the company's own cloud computing servers, which guarantees the protection of user data from Google's infrastructure.
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