Latest News - Page 1234

A recent study published in Developmental Cell has shown how cell membranes curve to consume material in their environment.

Cells can use their membrane to envelope material in their extracellular environment, then bring it into the cell, in a process known as endocytosis. After encircling a given substance, the membrane buds off into a vesicle, a tiny sac that carries substances around and in and out of the cell.

The cell membrane first needs to form a highly curved basket-like structure before closing around its target. Scientists previously believed the structure began as a flat lattice, but the mechanics of the membrane forming a pocket to move the substances it encounters has eluded scientists for almost forty years.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is expected to operate for a lot longer than the mission engineers most hopeful estimate before launch.

The JWST was designed with a mission length of at least five years, with those working on the project hoping for closer to ten. NASA now expects that the JWST should have enough propellant to support continued science operations for "significantly more" than ten years.

This revelation comes after analysis of the JWST's current progress toward the second Lagrange point, L2, and the two mid-course corrections undertaken so far to keep it on track. The rocket propellant onboard the JWST not only has to carry it toward this point but will contribute to keeping it in orbit around it throughout its mission, firing its thrusters in what is known as "station keeping" maneuvers.

Samsung unveiled its next-gen PM1743 PCIe 5.0 SSD a few days ago, and now Ryan Shrout -- who now works for Intel, he used to own and run PC Perspective -- has run the Samsung PM1743 on a fresh new Intel Alder Lake-based Core i9-12900K system.

Intel had planned to show off the Samsung PM1743 PCIe 5.0 SSD at CES 2022 next week, but with more and more companies pulling out of physical in-person attendance at CES 2022, the company decided to get Shrout to work over the holidays. This isn't a bad thing, because I would've (hell, I haven't stopped bar ~24 hours for Christmas or so) especially when it's something this exciting.

The new Intel Core i9-12900K processor was installed onto an ASUS ROG Maximum Z690 APEX motherboard -- don't worry, it's not the one that can catch fire -- with an EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card installed. The motherboard has 2 x PCIe 5.0 slots (x16 and x8) so with the GPU occupying the first PCIe 5.0 slot, the second slot had an AIB installed that allowed Shrout to install the Samsung PM1743 SSD -- the adapter, converts the enterprise-tier (or any other 2.5-inch drive) into the PCIe slot on an x4 interface.

CDKeysales reached out to us with some great deals for its New Year sales event. Below, you will find some epic deals on not only Windows 10, but also Microsoft's newest operating system, Windows 11. There's also some hot deals on Microsoft Office (2016 and 2019), as well as some super bundle deals for Windows and Office together. Happy shopping and happy new year!

Applying the TT25 35% off discount code is very easy. As you can see below, just click "Buy Now" on the product you wish to order and then in the checkout area, just type in "TT25" into the Promotion Code text box and click "Apply". The 35% discount will then be applied to your order.

Below you can see a couple of screenshots of Windows 10 activated using one of the keys provided by CDKeysales.

Game developers responsible for mega-hit franchises like Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and NieR are all interested in exploring NFTs.

NFTs and blockchain are gaming's latest craze. Any new multi-million dollar business model turns heads (just look at how microtransactions have grown), and Ubisoft is pioneering NFTs with its widely-unpopular Quartz program. Square Enix is set to expand further into the NFT market following the success of its Shi‐San‐Sei Million Arthur digital collectibles.

In a recent interview with Famitsu, multiple high-profile Square Enix developers have expressed interest in NFTs. While no plans have been set in stone, developers like Yoshinori Kitase (Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger), Yosuke Saito (NieR franchise), and Dragon Quest alum Noriyoshi Fujimoto all want to see what happens in this lucrative million-dollar market.

Koei Tecmo says it will unleash its full power in 2022 with multiple new high-profile games.

The developer behind Dead or Alive, Dynasty Warriors, Hyrule Warriors, and NiOh is teasing big things for 2022 and plans to release a handful of big projects next year. According to a recent interview with Japanese news site 4Gamer, Koei Tecmo's lineup for next year includes games that've been in development for the last few years. 2022 will see these labors come to fruition.

Koei Tecmo is currently working on a number of titles including Nobunaga's Ambition: Rebirth, and three unannounced games. These mystery titles include a new action game set in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, a new breakthrough game from Fatal Frame producer Yosuke Kikuchi, and a game from Ninja Gaiden 3 director Fumihiko Yasuda. In the interview, Koei Tecmo EVP Yosuke Hayashi said the games have been finished and in 2022 we'll "feel the full power of Koei Tecmo."

Work-for-hire support studio Mutan Insight Co. is working on a new 'high-profile PS5 remake,' a new job listings says.

Tokyo-based Japanese game studio Mutan Inc. is helping develop a new remake for PlayStation 5 and is hiring new positions for the project including:

The listings directly mention new optimized engines like Unreal Engine 5, hinting that Mutan could be helping Square Enix make the new Final Fantasy 7 Remake chapter 2 game. Mutan has helped Luminous Productions on Final Fantasy XV's myriad of post-launch DLC expansions and content drops, and has also worked on the Atelier franchise of games.

Star Citizen raised nearly $86 million throughout 2021, making it the most successful year of funding since the game's rollout in 2012.

Redditor Mottfield released a new Star Citizen funding chart that chronicles the game's monthly revenues since funding began in 2012. The results are pretty eye-opening and show just how much the space sim has grown throughout the last nine years.

2021 was the biggest year for Star Citizen with over $85.890 million in funding throughout the year, with November being the largest funding month. While most companies like EA, Take-Two, Sony, and Nintendo have all seen pandemic spending even out, RSI has enjoyed a hefty boost from 2020 to 2021. Overall funding was up 10% to $85,890,852 in 2021, as compared to $77,675,457 in 2020.

Cloud Imperium Games is selling a Star Citizen ship bundle that costs $40,000 USD.

The new Legatus pack is up on Star Citizen's storefront, and it's the same price of a brand new car. The Legatus 2951 bundle costs a cool $40,000 and is the successor to the infamous Legatus 2950 pack released earlier this year for $36,000. The Legatus bundles are infamous for their massive price tags and typically include over 100 of the highest-profile ships in the game. CIG originally released the first Legatus pack in 2018 for $27,000.

Not everyone can buy the pack and it's exclusive to high rollers with a "concierge" designation who spent at least $1,000 on the game's funding. Earlier this year, Roberts Space Industries and Cloud Imperium Games had raised over $400 million in funding since Star Citizen's inception in 2012, making it one of the most expensive games of all time--especially one that's continuing development.

As NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) makes its way to the second Lagrange point, L2, you can keep an eye on its progress.

The JWST has already made it more than a third of the way to its final destination, orbiting around L2. In addition to the recent instrument deployments to help unfold its sunshield, the JWST has finished deploying its temperature sensors, measuring both the hot side of the observatory facing the sun and the cold side shaded by the sunshield.

NASA's website allows you to see the JWST's flight time elapsed since launch, distance traveled from Earth, distance until orbit around L2 is reached, the cruising speed, and the temperature readings from each of the four temperature sensors. The site also provides information on the deployments of other instruments aboard the observatory.

A new study has been published in Nature Microbiology examining the link.

Studies in previous years have correlated diets with high red and processed meat consumption with increased risk of heart disease and strokes, but scientists don't fully understand the mechanisms causing this. The new research has found that a particular bacteria in the gut microbiome is responsible for turning carnitine into a harmful chemical known as TMAO, which promotes blood clotting and clogged arteries. The bacteria are found in larger quantities in individuals who consume more red meat.

Previously, scientists suspected that the saturated fats found in these foods contributed to the higher risks of heart disease and strokes. Saturated fats can boost LDL cholesterol, which contributes to cardiovascular disease. However, Stanley Hazen of the Cleveland Clinic's Center for Microbiome and Human Health, co-author of the study, says the research on saturated fats shows its adverse effects are not enough to explain the increased risks associated with red meat consumption.

The China National Space Administration (CNSA) recently announced that its uncrewed station on the moon will be completed around 2027.

The station will be built in partnership with Russia and is now expected to be completed eight years ahead of the previous schedule. The Chang'e 8 scheduled for 2027 was set to conduct science operations such as 3D printing using lunar dust but has now been expanded to include the construction of the uncrewed lunar station.

Wu Yanhua, the Deputy Director of CNSA, made the announcement, stating the mission is to "build a solid foundation for the peaceful use of lunar resources." The updated timeline could be in response to the proposed Artemis Accords put forward by the U.S. government and NASA, which would allow governments and private companies to cordon off their facilities and certain zones on the moon, forbidding entry by others.

SpaceX's Starship's first orbital test flight has been delayed, but work is still underway.

Starship's first orbital test flight hinges upon SpaceX's South Texas launch site, Starbase, passing a programmatic environmental assessment (PEA) conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). This assessment was to be completed by December 31st, 2021; however, this has been pushed back. The FAA announced on December 28th that the assessment is now due to be completed by February 28th, 2022.

The test flight was targeted for January or February but now will occur no earlier than March. In the meantime, Starship testing will continue, with the latest testing taking place on December 29th. The Starship SN20 (Serial Number 20) prototype has fired its engines in a "static fire" test at Starbase. The spacecraft remained anchored to the ground while its Raptor engines were ignited briefly.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) just took another step closer to deploying its sunshield.

On December 29th, the Deployable Tower Assembly (DTA) was successfully deployed aboard the observatory. It extends 1.22 meters (4 feet) and connects the two halves of the telescope. The DTA's movement allows for the separation between the telescope and the rest of the spacecraft, necessary for there to be room for the sunshield membranes to unfold.

The extra distance also allows for better thermal isolation for the upper section of the observatory, which houses the mirrors and scientific instruments. They need to be cooled to extremely low temperatures to detect the infrared light that the JWST will be observing.

We're just days away from CES 2022, but it seems LG Display is too excited to stop itself from talking about its next-gen display technologies ahead of the big tradeshow next week.

LG Display has just announced a new OLED display that it calls OLED EX, and the South Korean giant then taps deuterium during the manufacturing process -- something that the company says makes the OLED EX up to 30% brighter than current large-sized OLED TVs.

LG Display will be producing the new OLED EX panels at two of its OLED plants, which will kick off in Q2 2022 -- meanwhile, what the hell is deuterium? Deuterium is an isotope of hydrogen and packs twice the mass of a regular hydrogen atom and LG Display is using deuterium compounds that allow the new OLED EX panels to have up to 30% more brightness, as the deuterium compounds are improving the efficiency of LG's in-house organic light-emitting diodes.

Xiaomi has just unleashed its new Xiaomi 12 family of smartphones, packing Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8 Gen1, with 3 phones announced: Xiaomi 12, 12 Pro, and the knocked-down Xiaomi 12x smartphone.

The new flagship Xiaomi 12 Pro packs a larger 6.7-inch QHD display with a smooth 120Hz display, as well as Qualcomm's new flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC. There's up to 12GB of RAM and up to 256GB of internal storage included, with a larger 4600mAh battery -- the higher-end Xiaomi 12 Pro has 120W wired charging (yeah, that's fast) and 50W of wireless charging (which is also fast).

The normal Xiaomi 12 has a 6.28-inch FHD 120Hz display, with a peak brightness of 1100 nits and Gorilla Glass Victus that protects the phone from drops, scratches, and more. Inside, is a 4500mAh battery with 67W fast-charging over USB-C, and the same 50W wireless charging as the higher-end Xiaomi 12 Pro.

A major defect has been detected in the ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 HERO motherboards, which are spitting out "Code 53" errors and some of them are burning... yeah, with fire and stuff.

The ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 HERO motherboards have been confirmed by the manufacturer to have some major issues, with the Taiwanese giant offering a free replacement to any user that has been affected. OC enthusiast Bullzoid over at Actually Hardcore Overclocking did an investigation and found one of the memory capacitors on the board was reversed... causing all those "Code 53" errors.

ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 HERO motherboards with the part number 90MB18E0-MVAAY0, and serial number starting with MA, MB, or MC.

Intel has officially launched its new 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPUs into the wild, but the mid-range Core i5-12400 isn't with us just yet... but you might want to wait for it.

In some new leaked benchmarks, the Core i5-12400 -- which is a 6-core, 12-thread CPU with only Golden Cove (P-cores). Intel's mid-range Core i5-12400 has 18MB of L3 cache, and will have the 6 cores and 12 threads at 3.00GHz base, and up to 4.6GHz for only 65W TDP.

Intel's mid-range Core i5-12400 will be aimed at AMD's Zen 3-powered Ryzen 5 5600X which also offers 6 cores and 12 threads, but the thing is -- the Core i5-12400 actually beats Intel's previous-gen, but flagship Core i9-11900K -- in gaming benchmarks. The Core i5-12400 is running in the MSI B660M Mortar DDR5 motherboard, cooled by the MSI MAG CoreLiquid C240 AIO liquid CPU cooler.

Intel's new RM1 stock cooler for its new 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" processors has been tested, with the new 12th Gen Core 65C CPU series launching in January 2022 with these spiffy new RM1 stock coolers. Check it out:

The cooler was tested by the team at 163, with Intel's new "Laminar RM1" stock cooler tested with the unreleased mid-range Core i5-12400 processor -- a new 6-core, 12-thread Alder Lake CPU -- with the power consumption averaging out at 81W, peaking at 89C.

In an 8-minute FPU stress test in AIDA64, the Intel Core i5-12400 cooled with the new RM1 stock cooler had an average CPU temp of 70C, and peak temperature of 75W -- with the fan speed at 3100RPM and reported to be "audible". There's no RGB lighting here, as the higher-end RH1 stock cooler will have RGB lighting and better thermal performance.

COLORFUL has just introduced 2 new entry-level PCIe 3.0 NVMe M.2 SSDs, with the new Warhalberd CN600 NVMe SSD being offered in 256GB and 512GB capacities.

The new Warhalberd CN600 NVMe SSDs are the first PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSDs that COLORFUL has made, with the Chinese manufacturer teaming with Yangtze Memory (YMTC) and Maxio Technology for its new CN600 SSD. The collaboration between the 3 companies allowed COLORFUL to ensure the quality and performance of the flash components and the NVMe controller.

COLORFUL's new entry-level Warhalberd CN600 NVMe SSDs are available in the low-profile form in the standard 2280 M.2 form factor, which means it'll fit into virtually anything: desktop PCs, laptops, ultrabooks, and mini-PCs. The PCIe 3.0 x4 interface allows it to reach not-so-entry-level read speeds of up to 3.3GB/sec (3300MB/sec) and writes of up to 2.6GB/sec (2600MB/sec).