Latest News - Page 1250

Methane is more than 25 times a potent atmospheric heat trapper than carbon dioxide, so researchers have developed a new technology to convert it into more valuable products to curb its impact on climate change.

Methane is also the second most abundant greenhouse gas behind carbon dioxide, so it is critical to find a way to deal with methane emissions when attempting to combat global warming. Trying to convert methane to other chemical products is generally either expensive and potentially dangerous given the reactants or inefficient and leads to carbon dioxide production, not necessarily a desirable outcome.

Yue Wu and colleagues from the Iowa State University have developed and tested a catalyst technology that consists of one or two layers of platinum, each only an atom thick. The layers are deposited onto "MXenes," two-dimensional metal carbide structures. The thin layers of platinum allowed all platinum atoms to act as catalysts without being deactivated by residue formation. Also, the carbide structure was extremely active and able to absorb molecules when carbide materials are typically relatively inert.

The reusable Neutron rocket has its inaugural launch scheduled for 2024 and builds on the experience gained from Rocket Lab's currently flying Electron rocket.

Electron is one of the most frequently launched American rockets since 2019, which made its first flight in 2017. It is a two-stage rocket capable of launching payloads up to 300 kg (661 lbs). Since then, Rocket Lab has experimented with retrieving the first-stage booster of the Electron to begin introducing reusable components into its rockets.

The Neutron reusable rocket, first unveiled on March 1st, 2021, was revealed to be a two-stage reusable rocket that can carry 8,000 kg (17,600 lbs) to Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) and 1,500 kg (3,300 lbs) to Mars or Venus. Now, in Rocket Lab's most recent video, Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck explains the updated design accommodates a maximum payload of up to 15,000 kg (33,070 lbs) to LEO. It will also be the first carbon composite large launch vehicle and use the new Archimedes rocket engine.

A trend analysis report from NewsBitcoin suggests that Bitcoin's price has stabilized and is ready for a steady increase.

The report outlines that Bitcoin made a sharp dip down to $49,000 but was quickly scooped up by buyers that pushed the price to above $49,500, according to the 100-hour simple moving average. BTC has a fight ahead to increase value, with its next key resistance being close to the $50,400 level and the following resistance being at $50,500 (on the 1-hour chart).

According to the report, breaking through the aforementioned resistance levels and reaching a price of $52,000 may result in a sharp price increase. If Bitcoin can't rally and more sell-offs occur, the price could see a sharp decline down to the $49,000 support, and if that doesn't hold, then the price may slump down to the $47,200 level.

Reddit has jumped into the world of cryptocurrency with a new optional program called "Community Points", which is currently being run on the Ethereum blockchain.

Reddit has announced a wait-list for the upcoming expansion, which will entail Redditors gaining Community Points for participating in their respective communities. Points can be gained by uploading content that is deemed valuable by the community or volunteering to moderate the community. The new program is currently running on the Rinkeby testnet version of the Ethereum blockchain, but there are plans to migrate it over to the Ethereum mainnet eventually.

Any subreddit that chooses to participate in the program will get "Special Memberships" enabled, which can then be purchased with Community Points by users. Special Memberships include unlocks such as badges, GIFs, animated emojis, and more. Additionally, the program includes a "weighted polls" feature that will enable devoted community members with high Community Points to have a larger voice in the subreddit.

About 72% of Earth's surface is covered in liquid water, but are we the only planet in the universe to have an abundance of water, or are there others?

A new video a part of NASA's "We Asked an Expert" YouTube series explores the question of "Are There Oceans on Other Worlds?". In this week's episode, NASA Planetary Scientist Lucas Paganini explains that Earth isn't the only planet to have water and that there is actually an abundance of planets that researchers have identified as having water.

Additionally, Paganini explains that you don't have to go very far from Earth to find planets or even moons with water, as some are in our solar system. Paganini says that moons such as Jupiters moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus may be hosting liquid oceans under their icy crusts. The planetary scientists explains that ocean worlds are a focus of researchers because water is a building block of life, which means that worlds that harbor water potentially have life.

Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan had pledged billions of dollars towards analyzing any biological processes of the human body.

On Tuesday, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) announced that it intends to "observe, measure, and analyze any biological process throughout the human body - across spatial scales and in real-time." To achieve its goal of curing and preventing biological diseases, the organization will be donating $3.4 billion towards developing a variety of new institutions, as well as new research and technologies. The venture will span over 10 years.

A spokesperson for CZI, Jeff MacGregor, said that the organization will be giving $500 million over the next 15 years to develop a new artificial intelligence-focussed institution at Harvard University. This new institution will be named after Zuckerberg's mother, Karen Kempner Zuckerberg.

In the last days of 2021, three asteroids will be approaching Earth, according to NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).

The first of the three asteroids that will be approaching Earth has been dubbed 2016 TR54, and according to NASA's database, it will pass by Earth on December 24, at 6:30 a.m. UTC. The asteroid is estimated to be anywhere between 328 and 754 feet in diameter and will be passing Earth at a speed of 34,700 miles per hour at a distance of four million miles, or around 17 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

The next asteroid that will pass by Earth is called 2018 AH, and is estimated to be slightly smaller than 2016 TR54 at a diameter of anywhere between 254 and 623 feet. 2018 AH is expected to have its closest approach on December 27 at 2:40 p.m. UTC (9:40 a.m. ET) at a speed of 28,400 miles per hour, at a distance of 622,800 miles, which is just over double the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

Many people missed out on the only total solar eclipse for 2021, but an observatory located one million miles out in deep space certainly didn't.

The only total solar eclipse for 2021 was only visible to those that were in Antarctica or in the Southern Ocean on Saturday, December 4. If you were located anywhere else you would have only seen a partial solar eclipse, or nothing at all. The remote locations to see the totallity of the solar eclipse didn't stop some resaerchers and photographers, who ventured out to the Union Glacier to take these photographs.

The photographers stationed on Union Glacier weren't the only cameras involved in the event, as NOAA's Deep Space Climate Observatory (DISCOVR) that's located 950,000 miles away from Earth in deep space had its camera pointed at the planet. The observatory was tracking the shadow of the solar eclipse as it passed over Earth and snapped an image using the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) built by NASA.

A team of astronomers has located a planet in a star system that previously wasn't thought to be able to host stars.

The two-star system is located approximately 325 light-years away from Earth within the constellation Centaurus. The system is called b Centauri and measures in at six times the mass of our Sun, which makes it the largest star system to have a planet orbiting it. Up until now, astronomers only found planets orbiting stars that were maximum three times the mass of our Sun. The discovery of this planet has expanded astronomers' knowledge of where its possible planets can form.

Samsung has pushed out its big new update to its two flagship foldable smartphones in the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3, with a new One UI 4 with Android 12 on its way to the two foldable.

The Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 in SM-F711N and SM-F711B variants are receiving their first stable build of One UI 4 in firmware version F711NKSU2BUKM and F711BXXU2BUKM, respectively. Samsung's SM-F926N version of the Galaxy Z Fold 3 has also got the new One UI 4 update based on Android 12 under firmware version F926NTBU1BUKO.

The OTA (over-the-air) updates to Samsung's foldable Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 smartphones seems to be for the Korean market only at the moment, here in Australia I personally own both of those foldables and have been itching for the upgrade and it's still not available. We should expect the global rollout of One UI 4 with Android 12 over the next week or so.

The team at Electroneum has announced that their cryptocurrency (ETN) can be used to purchase PlayStation Network (PSN) vouchers.

Using ETN to purchase PSN vouchers is a big deal for Electroneum, as the crypto team points out that while you might find it nigh impossible to buy a next-gen PlayStation 5 console, PSN vouchers that can be used to buy games and in-game items for games, can be purchased directly through the ETN app.

A post on the official Electroneum website explains: "Every game developer, of every popular game made in the last decade, is constantly renewing their games with new map updates and games modes that keep millions of gamers playing their games month after month. Grand Theft Auto V, a game that was released more than eight years ago, remains one of the most popular games played today. And it's these in-game add-ons that people are attracted to, more so than new games themselves".

If you've been loving Assetto Corsa Competizione, then you will have been loving it so much more since its recent Update 1.8 patch. The Steam update notes are pretty hefty if you want to give them a read.

Assetto Corsa Competizione's recent Update 1.8 patch includes a bucket load of improvements and fixes, but it also adds support for both NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR technologies. NVIDIA DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) will work on GeForce RTX 20 series GPUs and newer, while AMD FSR (FidelityFX Super Sampling) will work on all graphics cards.

NVIDIA DLSS 2.0 is featured in Assetto Corsa Competizione, so while it might be the very latest DLSS 2.2 or the upcoming DLSS 2.3 update, but DLSS 2.0 is fantastic on its own and far superior to any version of FSR right now. There's also massive changes to the game's physics, user interface, multiplayer mode, controls, and gameplay.

Alphacool has unveiled its new Eiswolf 2 AIO cooling solution for just a handful of very specific graphics cards: NVIDIA's own GeForce RTX 3080 Founders Edition, and MSI's custom Radeon RX 6800, and Radeon RX 6800 XT Gaming X Trio graphics cards.

The new Eiswolf 2 uses Alphacool's 360mm NexXxoS ST30 full copper radiator, while for the fans they've used 120mm Alphacool Aurora Rise fans. To round up the AIO, Alphacool has used its Eisblock Aurora water cooler, which doesn't just cool the GPU chip but also all of the important components around it -- especially the GDDR6/X memory and VRAM -- and of course, beautiful RGB lighting rounding it off.

Alphacool's own DIY range has all of these parts available separately, but you get them all in the package: the radiator, fan, cooler, DC-LT 2 pump, and more. Alphacool adds: "The combination of all components results in a solution that is as easy to install as an AIO, but offers the performance of a pre-assembled and pre-filled custom loop".

Halo Infinite might have gamers' attention right now but YouTuber "Digital Dreams" has my attention with their latest work: Halo 3 running at the glorious 8K resolution with the Beyond All Limits ReShade ray tracing mod... and man, are the results freaking impressive. Check it out:

Halo 3 wasn't the best-looking game of its generation, but running at 8K (7680 x 4320) which is 4x the pixels of 4K and 16x the pixels of 1080p... it looks glorious. Halo 3 is part of the Halo: The Master Chief Collection on the PC and can be run at the 8K resolution if you've got the GPU grunt to handle it.

Digital Dreams used the "Beyond All Limits" ReShade ray tracing preset for Halo 3, which makes major improvements to the Global Illumination and Ambient Occlusion in the game. With these improvements, Halo 3 looks fantastic at 8K on the right PC... not too bad for a game released in 2007, hey? It actually makes me want to go back and play through the entire Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

ASUS has just unleashed its new GeForce RTX 2060 12GB Dual EVO Series graphics cards, aimed at both gamers and crypto-miners.

The new ASUS GeForce RTX 2060 12GB Dual EVO Series graphics cards are pretty much like every other custom AIB variant: a simple dual-fan design, and a single 8-pin PCIe power connector. ASUS does have a more premium-looking card than the competitors so far with its new RTX 2060 12GB Dual EVO.

ASUS will have two different variants to choose from: the DUAL GeForce RTX 2060 12GB EVO, and the DUAL GeForce RTX 2060 12GB EVO OC Edition. Both of the cards arrive in a 2.7-slot design, with the dual fans being of the ASUS Axial-tech design, with IP5X dust resistance and larger blades that shift more air around.

NVIDIA has made its refreshed GeForce RTX 2060 12GB official, and now Inno3D has unveiled its new GeForce RTX 2060 12GB Twin X2 OC graphics card.

Inno3D's new custom GeForce RTX 2060 12GB Twin X2 OC graphics card rocks the refreshed Turing TU106-300 GPU, 12GB of GDDR6 memory clocked at 14Gbps on a 192-bit memory bus. Inno3D is using a dual-fan cooling design on its card, which should keep the Turing-based GPU and 12GB of GDDR6 memory cool during gaming (and crypto-mining) loads.

There's a basic backplate on the card, with a single 8-pin PCIe power connector required. The dual-fan cooler comprises of 2 x 9cm scythe fan blades, with 3 copper heat pipes that will keep the card "performing at an optimal level, this is especially important when the factory overclocked TWIN X2 OC is tackling the most demanding of games".

If you've been waiting to play all of the Uncharted games and wanted to enjoy them with the best graphics and performance? Well, that's what the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection on the PlayStation 5 will deliver. Check out the pre-order trailer:

Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection will include Uncharted 4: A Thief's End and The Lost Legacy, both releasing on January 28, 2021, on the PlayStation 5. The PS5 version of the game includes some next-gen features including multiple display modes (Fidelity, Performance, and Performance+ Mode), near-instant load times, DualSense controller support, and more.

Already own Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, or Uncharted 4: A Thief's End & Uncharted: The Lost Legacy Digital Bundle? That's fine... you can upgrade to the new Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection for only $10. This bundle isn't valid for anyone who has claimed Uncharted 4: A Thief's End through PlayStation Plus.

Battlefield 2042 has been YET ANOTHER clusterfu*k for EA, with major reshuffles internally post-launch now that Battlefield 2042 is in the wild. But fresh info from Battlefield insider Tom Henderson gives us a better look at the development of the game, and what a mess it has been.

The game only had 15 months of development time, with full production of Battlefield 2042 beginning in August 2020 -- after being delayed a couple of times, and then released in November 2021. EA DICE knew that they were in trouble just 6 months in at around early March 2021, with Frostbite engine problems making headaches for EA.

We saw the flow-on effects from this just days ago, with Respawn Entertainment boss (and ex-Infinity Ward boss) Vince Zampella taking over the Battlefield franchise. EA DICE has also turfed Battlefield executive producer Aleksander Grondal, who spent 14 years working at DICE producing Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, and acted as the executive producer on Battlefield 2042.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has chosen Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) to build its third-gen, high-performance computing (HPC) system, called Kestrel.

NREL's new Kestrel supercomputer was named after a falcon that has "keen eyesight and intelligence, Kestrel's moniker is apropos for its mission-to rapidly advance the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) energy research and development (R&D) efforts to deliver transformative energy solutions to the entire United States".

The new supercomputer will be installed in the fall of 2022 at NREL's Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) data center and will have a mind-boggling 44 petaflops of computing power. But the most interesting thing here is that NREL's new Kestrel supercomputer is powered by future next-gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors (Sapphire Rapids) and NVIDIA A100NEXT Tensor Core GPUs "to accelerate AI", not play Crysis.

Apple is expected to launch a totally new product range in 2022 with an exciting new AR headset on the way, with some new rumors from industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

In a new note to investors, Kuo says that the chip powering Apple's new AR headset will be "significantly higher" than the iPhone. Apple uses its in-house A-series chips in its iPhones, while the higher-end iPad Pro and new MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops use the higher-end M1-series chips, with the new M1X SoC in fisticuffs with Sony's next-gen PlayStation 5 console.

Kuo explained: "[The] computing power of the sensor is significantly higher than that of the iPhone. [The main processor will have] the same level of computing power as Macs. The power management unit (PMU) design of the high-end processor is similar to that of M1 because it has the same level of computing power".