Friday, April 26

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An Electrical Engineer Explains What A Semiconductor Is And How These Critical Electronic Components Work And How They Are Made
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TECHNOLOGY

An Electrical Engineer Explains What A Semiconductor Is And How These Critical Electronic Components Work And How They Are Made

Semiconductors are a critical part of almost every modern electronic device, and the vast majority of semiconductors are made in Tawain. Increasing concerns over the reliance on Taiwain for semiconductors – especially given the tenuous relationship between Taiwan and China – led the U.S. Congress to pass the CHIPS and Science act in late July 2022. The act provides more than US$50 billion in subsidies to boost U.S. semiconductor production and has been widely covered in the news. Trevor Thornton, an electrical engineer who studies semiconductors, explains what these devices are and how they are made. Thin, round slices of silicon crystals, called wafers, are the starting point for most semiconductor chips. Hebbe/Wikimedia Commons 1. What is a semiconductor? Generally speaking, the term sem...
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These 5 Shows Bring Everyone Together Both Liberals And Conservatives With Wildly Different TV-Viewing Habits
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TELEVISION

These 5 Shows Bring Everyone Together Both Liberals And Conservatives With Wildly Different TV-Viewing Habits

There’s been a lot of concern about how conservatives and liberals consume their news from sources that merely confirm their preexisting beliefs. The result, supposedly, has been a disintegration of a shared reality and a fracturing of the nation’s political life. But does this trend extend to the shows we choose to watch on TV to relax and unwind? Since 2007, the Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California has been tracking how Americans’ favorite TV shows are connected to their attitudes on a host of hot-button political issues. In each of these studies – including our most recent one – we found that people with different political beliefs seem to be drawn to different types of TV entertainment. But in the most recent study, there was also a distinct overlap: certain ...
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Only Some Players Have The Ability To Go On These Basket-Making Streaks – The ‘Hot Hand’ Is A Real Basketball Phenomenon
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SPORTS

Only Some Players Have The Ability To Go On These Basket-Making Streaks – The ‘Hot Hand’ Is A Real Basketball Phenomenon

To say a player is “hot” or has “hot hands” means the player is on a streak of making many consecutive shots. A question that has dogged researchers, coaches and fans for years is whether players on these streaks can defy random chance, or if hot hands are just an illusion and fit within statistical norms. We are two researchers who study information sciences and operations and decision technologies. In our recent study, we examined whether players can indeed get hot in actual live-game situations. Our analysis showed that some players do get consistently “hot” during games and make more shots than expected following two shots made consecutively. However, when we looked at all players together, we found that usually when a player makes more shots than normal after making consecutive shots...
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Try These 6 Underprescribed Lifestyle Medicines For A Better, Longer Life But They Don’t Come As Pills
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SOCIETY

Try These 6 Underprescribed Lifestyle Medicines For A Better, Longer Life But They Don’t Come As Pills

The majority of Americans are stressed, sleep-deprived and overweight and suffer from largely preventable lifestyle diseases such as heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes. Being overweight or obese contributes to the 50% of adults who suffer high blood pressure, 10% with diabetes and additional 35% with pre-diabetes. And the costs are unaffordable and growing. About 90% of the nearly $4 trillion Americans spend annually for health care in the U.S. is for chronic diseases and mental health conditions. But there are new lifestyle “medicines” that are free that doctors could be prescribing for all their patients. Lifestyle medicine is the clinical application of healthy behaviors to prevent, treat and reverse disease. More than ever, research underscores that the “pills” today’s physici...
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What’s Wrong With These People? Don’t They Have The App?
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TECHNOLOGY

What’s Wrong With These People? Don’t They Have The App?

"Mum, I don't know why you don't just get the app on your phone," my daughter Heather, said to me, as I handed the Starbucks Barista my gold card. "Because I like human interaction much better," I said. "I don't like that they keep trying to shove more and more technology down our throats." "Suit yourself. But I'm telling you, it's so much more convenient, and you don't even have to wait in line anymore!" That conversation rang in my ears one morning as I was running late to my writing class. I'd been anticipating treating myself to a chai latte with soy for days, knowing I was coming back to my old stomping grounds in Boston. I missed the days when Heather worked at the Starbucks on Berkeley and Boylston Streets--when they would start making my drink as soon as they saw me walk thro...
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Moving To 100% Renewable Electricity – These 3 Energy Storage Technologies Can Help Solve The Challenge
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ENVIRONMENT, TECHNOLOGY

Moving To 100% Renewable Electricity – These 3 Energy Storage Technologies Can Help Solve The Challenge

TECHNOLOGY Kerry Rippy, National Renewable Energy Laboratory In recent decades the cost of wind and solar power generation has dropped dramatically. This is one reason that the U.S. Department of Energy projects that renewable energy will be the fastest-growing U.S. energy source through 2050. However, it’s still relatively expensive to store energy. And since renewable energy generation isn’t available all the time – it happens when the wind blows or the sun shines – storage is essential. As a researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, I work with the federal government and private industry to develop renewable energy storage technologies. In a recent report, researchers at NREL estimated that the potential exists to increase U.S. renewable energy storage capacity by as m...
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Why Women Shouldn’t Have To Risk Trading Their Freedom For Safety, The Sarah Everard Story
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SOCIETY

Why Women Shouldn’t Have To Risk Trading Their Freedom For Safety, The Sarah Everard Story

Earlier this month, Sarah Everard was allegedly abducted and killed while walking home from a friend’s house in London. In response to her disappearance, women were reportedly advised to avoid going out alone. Yet at the same time, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, Cressida Dick, sought to reassure women that incidences of abduction and murder are rare. Heavy police presence and use of force during a recent gathering to remember Everard also raised issues about the way women are treated by authorities when demonstrating against sexual harassment and violence. It’s an issue which, in some circles, has led to demands for police reform and Dick’s resignation as commissioner. As one popular argument goes, penalising and physically handling women at a vigil didn’t just ignore some women’s ...
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Using Data In Sports For These Students, Is About More Than Winning Games
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TECHNOLOGY

Using Data In Sports For These Students, Is About More Than Winning Games

When professional sports teams use big data and analytics, their objective is to improve player performance and win more games. That approach is paying off in a major way. For instance, after the Golden State Warriors became one of the first NBA teams to invest in analytics, the team subsequently won league championships in 2015, 2017 and 2018. Analytics is the science of looking for patterns in data to make more informed decisions. The Warriors also get regular assists from partners in Silicon Valley – the famed tech hub near where the team is based. For that reason, it’s a small wonder why, in 2016, the Warriors were recognized at a sports analytics conference as the “Best Analytics Organization.” National Football League teams rely heavily on data as well. For instance, the Philadelp...
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Are These Game-Changing COVID-19 Vaccines Safe? They Were Developed In Record Time
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IN OTHER NEWS

Are These Game-Changing COVID-19 Vaccines Safe? They Were Developed In Record Time

There are now two COVID-19 vaccines that, at least according to preliminary reports, appear to be 94.5% and 95% effective. Both were developed in a record-breaking 11 months or so. I am an infectious diseases specialist and professor at the University of Virginia. I care for patients with COVID-19 and am conducting the local site for a phase 3 clinical trial of Regeneron’s antibody cocktail as a tool to prevent household transmission of COVID-19. I’m also conducting research on how dysregulation of the immune system during SARS-CoV-2 infection causes lung damage. Despite the vaccines’ relatively rapid development, the normal safety testing protocols are still in place. How long does most vaccine development take? Vaccines typically take at least a decade to develop, test and manufacture....
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Let’s call athletes ‘workers,’ and let’s call these NBA protests what they were – strikes
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SPORTS

Let’s call athletes ‘workers,’ and let’s call these NBA protests what they were – strikes

The Milwaukee Bucks’ startling refusal to take to the court for their NBA playoff game on Aug. 26 was the most consequential political development in sports over the last 50 years. In recent years, the prevailing media narrative is that athletes have routinely used their platforms to “raise awareness” or “bring attention” to a social issue. Awareness, though, has its limits. Rarely does it lead to the kind of structural changes the shooting by police of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin seems to demand. In this case, the players met the moment, marking a fundamental shift in the direction of activism generated by Black athletes. The mass player walkouts that followed the Bucks’ initial protest were no exercise in awareness, though some commentators framed it as that way. Instead, these...
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