Monthly Archives: May 2020

Thierry Henry preferred playing for Arsenal than Barcelona chess with Pep Guardiola – Daily Star

Posted: May 4, 2020 at 11:03 pm

Thierry Henry has revealed his preference between playing for Arsenal and Barcelona, saying it was like playing chess with Pep Guardiola at the Nou Camp.

The Frenchman is the Gunners all-time top-scorer with 175 goals, forming part of their Invincibles side in the 2003/04 season.

But he moved to Barcelona three years later, winning the Champions League against Manchester United in 2009.

And the 42-year-old has now revealed which side he preferred to play for.

Speaking to Manchester City forward Sergio Aguero on PUMAs Instagram channel, Henry said: At Arsenal I could go wherever I wanted, like when you played with Diego Forlan [at Atletico Madrid].

It was much easier for me at Arsenal because I had either [Dennis] Bergkamp or Kanu.

They liked staying in the middle which allowed me to drop back, move on the right side, left side.

And he compared it to life at the Nou Camp, where the former forward was not so much freedom.

I was at Arsenal, I never thought I was going to leave but I did, Henry said in a later chat with England women's star Nikita Parris.

I went to Barcelona, a different type of game, a different type of style to relearn how to play the game because at Arsenal, Dennis was there, Kanu was there and I could move everywhere up front, come in the middle, get the ball, go on the right and the left.

Then suddenly you arrive at Barcelona and I had [Frank] Rijkaard asking me to stay on the left and then when Pep arrived.

Pep is an amazing coach first and foremost but hes very demanding, very intense and its almost like you play chess with him.

You always want to be a step ahead of what youre doing. To do that you have to stay in your position in order to make the pitch as big as possible for the midfielders to operate what they need to operate.

And you need to make fake runs to take the backline away, to create space for the No.10 on your side because we were playing with one holding midfielder and two No.10s so I always had to make runs in behind to make sure that Andres [Iniesta] was going to get the ball and if you dont you kill the space. And then I started to understand space, move in the space.

It was a different type of game and then once I did adjust and adapt then in 2009 we went on the year of winning everything possible.

It was an amazing time but as you know, Arsenal is in my heart.

It comes as United legend Sir Alex Fergusons true thoughts on Henry have emerged.

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Futurism Art Term | Tate

Posted: at 11:02 pm

Futurism was launched by the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in 1909. On 20 February he published his Manifesto of Futurism on the front page of the Paris newspaper Le Figaro.

Among modernist movements futurism was exceptionally vehement in its denunciation of the past. This was because in Italy the weight of past culture was felt as particularly oppressive. In the Manifesto, Marinetti asserted that we will free Italy from her innumerable museums which cover her like countless cemeteries. What the futurists proposed instead was an art that celebrated the modern world of industry and technology:

We declarea new beauty, the beauty of speed. A racing motor caris more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace. (A celebrated ancient Greek sculpture in the Louvre museum in Paris.)

Futurist painting used elements of neo-impressionism and cubism to create compositions that expressed the idea of the dynamism, the energy and movement, of modern life.

Chief artists associated with futurism were Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, Gino Severini.

Vorticism was essentially the British equivalent to futurism, but Wyndham Lewis the founder of the vorticists was deeply hostile to the futurists.

After the brutality of the first world war, many artists rejected the avant-garde notions of futurism and other pre-war movements, by using more traditional and reassuring approaches, a phenomenon described as the return to order.

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Futurism – Literature | Britannica

Posted: at 11:02 pm

Not content with merely taking over the urban and modernist themes of Futurist painting, the writers who embraced Italian literary Futurism sought to develop a language appropriate for what they perceived to be the speed and ruthlessness of the early 20th century. They established new genres, the most significant being parole in libert (words-in-freedom), also referred to as free-word poetry. It was poetry liberated from the constraints of linear typography and conventional syntax and spelling. A brief extract from Marinettis war poem Battaglia peso + odore (1912; Battle Weight + Smell) was appended to one of the Futurists manifestos as an example of words-in-freedom:

Arterial-roads bulging heat fermenting hair armpits drum blinding blondness breathing + rucksack 18 kilograms common sense = seesaw metal moneybox weakness: 3 shudders commands stones anger enemy magnet lightness glory heroism Vanguards: 100 meters machine guns rifle-fire explosion violins brass pim pum pac pac tim tum machine guns tataratatarata

Designed analogies (pictograms where shape analogically mimics meaning), dipinti paroliberi (literary collages combining graphic elements with free-word poetry), and sintesi (minimalist plays) were among other new genres. New forms of dissemination were favoured, including Futurist evenings, mixed-media events, and the use of manifesto leaflets, poster poems, and broadsheet-format journals containing a mixture of literature, painting, and theoretical pronouncements. Until 1914, however, output fell far short of the movements declared program, and Futurist poetsin contrast to Marinettiremained largely traditionalist in their subject matter and idiom, as was demonstrated by the movements debut anthology I poeti futuristi (1912; The Futurist Poets).

Marinetti was for some time primarily associated with his African Mafarka le futuriste (1910; Mafarka the Futurist), a tale of rape, pillage, and battle set in North Africa. Apart from its misogyny, racism, and glorification of a cult of violence, the novel is remembered for its heros creation of a machine brought to life as a superman destined to inherit the future. Only when Marinetti started grounding his avant-garde poetry in the realities of his combat experiences as a war reporter during World War I, however, did a distinctly innovative Futurist idiom emerge, one that represented a significant break from past poetic practices.

The title of literary Futurisms most important manifesto, Distruzione della sintassiimmaginazione senza filiparole in libert (1913; Destruction of SyntaxWireless ImaginationWords-in-Freedom), represented Marinettis demands for a pared-down elliptical language, stripped of adjectives and adverbs, with verbs in the infinitive and mathematical signs and word pairings used to convey information more economically and more boldly. The resultant telegraphic lyricism is most effective in Marinettis war poetry, especially Zang tumb tumb and Dunes (both 1914). A desire to make language more intensive led to a pronounced use of onomatopoeia in poems dealing with machines and waras in the title of Zang tumb tumb, intended to mimic the sound of artillery fireand to a departure from uniform, horizontal typography. A number of Futurist painter-poets blurred the distinction between literature and visual art, as Severini did in Danza serpentina (1914; Serpentine Dance). While Marinettis poetic experiments revealed an indebtedness to Cubism, he elevated Italian literary collage, often created for the purpose of pro-war propaganda, to a distinctively Futurist art form. The culmination of this tendency came with Carrs Festa patriottica (1914; Patriotic Celebration) and Marinettis Les Mots en libert futuristes (1919; Futurist Words-in-Freedom).

A typographical revolution was also proclaimed in the Futurists 1913 manifesto; it grew out of both a desire to make form visually dynamic and a perceived need for visual effects in type that were capable of reflectingthrough size and boldnessthe noise of modern warfare and urban life. A diverse series of shaped poetic layouts depicted speeding cars, trains, and airplanes, exploding bombs, and the confusions of battle. Apart from Marinettis work, the most accomplished typographical experiments are to be found in the poetry of Francesco Cangiullo and Fortunato Depero.

During its first decade, Italian literary Futurism remained a largely homogeneous movement. By contrast, Russian Futurism was fragmented into a number of splinter groups (Ego-Futurists, Cubo-Futurists, Hylaea [Russian Gileya]) associated with a large number of anthologies representing continually regrouping artistic factions. While there was an urbanist strand to Russian Futurism, especially in the poetry of Vladimir Mayakovsky and Yelena Guro, Russian writers were less preoccupied with machines, speed, and violence than their Italian counterparts. The dominant strain of primitivism in Russian Futurism led some to conclude that the two movements have little in common apart from the word Futurism. While there was a shared interest in the renewal of language, the Italians innovations were invariably designed to express an ultramodern sensibility, whereas Russian Futurist poets and playwrights confined their attentions to The Word as Such (the title of one of their most famous manifestos, Slovo kak takovoye, published in 1913). A number of these writers, most impressively Velimir Khlebnikov, explored the archaic roots of language and drew on primitive folk culture for their inspiration.

As was the case in Italy, the main achievements of Russian Futurism lie in poetry and drama. As it did in Italy, neologism played a large role in Russian attempts to renew language, which in turn aimed at the destruction of syntax. The most-famous Futurist poem, Khlebnikovs Zaklyatiye smekhom (1910; Incantation by Laughter), generates a series of permutations built on the root -smekh (laughter) by adding impossible prefixes and suffixes. The result is a typical (for Russian Futurism) concern with etymology and word creation. Khlebnikovs and Alexey Kruchenykhs radical forays into linguistic poetry went hand in hand with an interest in the word as pure sound. Their invented zaumthe largely untranslatable name given to their transrational languagewas intended to take language beyond logical meanings in the direction of a new visionary mysticism. Kruchenykhs opera Pobeda nad solncem (1913; Victory over the Sun) and Khlebnikovs play Zangezi (1922) are two of the most-important examples of the Futurist blend of transrationalism with the cult of the primitive. Mayakovsky, the greatest Russian poet to have gone through a Futurist phase, was coauthor of the manifesto Poshchochina obshchestvennomu vkusu (1912; A Slap in the Face of Public Taste), and his poems figure in many of the movements key anthologies. While sharing an Italian-influenced Futurist sensibility with the Ego-Futurists and belonging more, on account of their concern with verbal innovation, to the body of works by the Cubo-Futurist painter-poets, his poetry and plays are, above all, Futurist in their provocative rejection of the past and their subjectivist approach to the renewal of poetic language.

During the 1920s, Marinetti and those around him gravitated toward fascism, whereas the Soviet communist regime became increasingly intolerant of what it dismissed as avant-garde Formalism. While relations between Italian and Russian Futurism were, on the whole, strained, the Italian Futurists exercised a strong influence on German Expressionism, English Vorticism, and international Dada.

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China to debut new version of powerful Long March 5 rocket this week – Spaceflight Now

Posted: at 11:01 pm

A view of the next-generation Chinese crew spacecraft during pre-launch processing. Credit: CCTV

A prototype for Chinas next-generation human-rated spacecraft flying on a test flight without astronauts is scheduled to ride a new version of the countrys heavy-lift Long March 5 rocket into orbit this week.

The Long March 5B rocket could take off as soon as Tuesday from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan Island in southern China, but Chinese officials have not officially announced the target launch date.

Riding a mobile launch platform, the heavy-duty rocket rolled to its launch pad at Wenchang on April 29 for final preparations before liftoff, according to reports and images from the launch site shared on social media. Once at the launch complex on Hainan Islands eastern coast, the Long March 5B was enclosed inside folding gantry structures inside a 300-foot-tall (92-meter) launch pad tower to give technicians access to the vehicle for final testing and inspections.

The 176-foot-tall (53.7-meter) Long March 5B rocket is a new version of the Long March 5 launcher, Chinas most powerful rocket. Designed to loft massive payloads into low Earth orbit, the Long March 5B rocket will launch without a second stage.

The launchers lift capability to low Earth orbit is around 48,500 pounds, or 22 metric tons, according to Chinese state media. Its tailored to launch large modules for Chinas planned space station.

The Long March 5Bs four liquid-fueled boosters, each powered by two kerosene-fed YF-100 engines, will power the rocket off the launch pad along with two YF-77 core stage engines burning cryogenic liquid hydrogen. The rocket will jettison the four booster modules around three minutes after liftoff, and the core stage engines will burn for approximately eight minutes.

The Long March 5B rocket will also debut a new large payload fairing measuring more than 67 feet (20.5 meters) long and 17 feet (5.2 meters) in diameter.The payload launching inside the Long March 5Bs new nose shroud is a prototype for Chinas next-generation crew capsule, designed to eventually replace the countrys Shenzhou spacecraft to ferry astronauts to a space station in Earth orbit.

The new capsule design is more capable than the Shenzhou, according to Chinese officials. It will be capable of carrying astronauts to the moon, and can accommodate up to six crew members at a time, more than the three astronauts that can fly on the Shenzhou, Chinese officials said.

In a different configuration, the crew capsule could launch and land with three astronauts, plus up to 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms) of cargo, according to Chinas state-run Xinhua news agency.The capability will allow China to return research specimens and hardware from the countrys space station back to Earth.

The Shenzhou crew craft can return only a limited amount of cargo, and Chinas Tianzhou supply ship for the countrys planned space station is not designed to bring any cargo back to Earth.

Chinas next-generation crew carrier is also reusable for up to 10 flights, with a detachable heat shield built to handle higher-temperature returns through Earths atmosphere, such as those a capsule would encounter on a re-entry from a lunar mission.

The short-duration orbital test flight this week is expected to conclude with a re-entry and landing in remote northwestern China, perhaps as soon as one day after its launch on the Long March 5B rocket.Few details about the test flight have been released by the Chinese government.

The Xinhua news agency reported the primary purpose of the crew capsule test flight is to verify the ships re-entry technologies, such as its heat shield and recovery system. The capsule will return under parachutes and inflate airbags to cushion its landing on solid ground.

The Shenzhou landing module also returns under parachutes, but uses rocket thrusters to soften the blow of landing. That makes for a rougher ride for passengers.

With its propulsion and power module, the crew spacecraft measures nearly 29 feet (8.8 meters) long. It will weigh around 47,600 pounds (21.6 metric tons) fully loaded with equipment and propellant, according to the China Manned Space Engineering Office, or CMSEO.

Chinese officials said earlier this year that the crew capsule on the Long March 5B test flight will be loaded with10 metric tons (22,000 pounds) of propellant, enabling extensive maneuvers in orbit. The fuel load will also match the spacecrafts weight to the expected launch weight of the Tianhe core module for Chinas space station, which is scheduled to be completed in 2022.

China launched a reduced-scale crew module on an unpiloted test flight in 2016.

Teams at the Wenchang launch base prepared the Long March 5B rocket and the prototype crew capsule for flight amid the coronavirus pandemic. Chinese state media said managers reduced staffing levels at the spaceport, and introduced telecommuting capabilities to allow some team members to participate in data reviews and meetings remotely.

China has conducted six space missions with astronauts since 2003. The most recent Shenzhou mission ended in November 2016 after a 32-day flight to the Chinese Tiangong 2 space lab with a two-man crew.

Plans to launch Chinas first Mars rover later this year could depend on the success of this weeks Long March 5B launch. A Long March 5 rocket in its previous configuration with an upper stage is scheduled to launch the robotic Mars mission in July.

Chinese officials last month announced the Mars mission will be named Tianwen 1. Tianwen, or Questions to Heaven, is a poem written by the ancient Chinese poet Qu Yuan. The China National Space Administration Chinas space agency said all of the countrys future planetary exploration missions will be named the Tianwen series.

Another Long March 5 rocket is scheduled to haul Chinas Change 5 robotic lunar mission into space later this year. Change 5 will attempt to retrieve samples from the moons surface and return them to Earth.

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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

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SpaceX Moon Contract Could Be Worth $7 Billion — Or Nothing – The Motley Fool

Posted: at 11:01 pm

NASA's award of $1 billion in contracts to Blue Origin, Dynetics, and SpaceX to build landers to carry astronauts back to the moon is dominating headlines this week -- and don't get me wrong, this is a really big deal. But it pales in comparison to another NASA contract that SpaceX won just a little over a month ago.

That contract, to provide logistics services to a planned Lunar Gateway space station orbiting the moon, could be worth as much as $7 billion -- and SpaceX might not have to share it with anyone.

SpaceX has a contract to send supplies to a lunar space station -- but will there be a space station there to receive them? Image source: SpaceX.

As NASA described the larger contract award back in March, SpaceX will be hired to "deliver critical pressurized and unpressurized cargo, science experiments and supplies to the Gateway." Once delivered, these supplies would be stored at the space station for resupply to astronauts exploring the lunar surface. By bringing a supply depot closer to the astronauts' place of work, the Gateway should be able to support longer-duration exploration of the moon, enabling astronauts visiting Earth's satellite to stay there longer.

SpaceX's supply runs will include "multiple supply missions" over a term of somewhere between 12 and 15 years. Other companies may receive similar contracts, and according to NASA, the "maximum total value ... across all contracts" could add up to $7 billion over the entire performance term. But with SpaceX currently the only contractor named to perform the service, there seems to be a very real chance that SpaceX alone could end up collecting the entire $7 billion.

Or not.

You see, there's just one problem with the contract that NASA awarded SpaceX on March 27. It centers on what NASA Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations Doug Loverro had said about the moon mission two weeks prior to the contract award.

Specifically, in discussions with NASA Advisory Council's science committee on March 13, Loverro appeared to be less than enthusiastic about the idea of using a Lunar Gateway. Highlighting the difficulty of meeting Vice President Pence's mandate to land astronauts on the moon by 2024, Loverro said the best way to make that happen is to "remove all the things that add to program risk along the way." One such "thing" is the Lunar Gateway itself.

There is a "high possibility," explained Loverro, that NASA won't be able to complete construction of the space station in time for astronauts to use it as a base from which to descend to, and ascend from, the moon in 2024. Moreover, "from a physics perspective," said Loverro, "I can guarantee you we do not need it for this launch." (He's also not particularly enamored of NASA's original plan "to launch a lander in three individual pieces that have to meet up at" an orbiting space station before making their final approach to the moon.)

Simply put, it's simpler and thus less risky to send astronauts straight from Earth to the moon and back than to have them make pit stops at an orbiting space station en route. Indeed, the Starship spaceship that SpaceX is building in Texas is expressly designed to make such direct flights possible, and intermediate steps such as the Gateway unnecessary.

Perversely, this means that if SpaceX's Starship is eventually chosen as the spaceship that takes astronauts back to the moon, it could make the Lunar Gateway -- and $7 billion worth of "logistics services" contracts to supply the Lunar Gateway -- unnecessary. There's a very real possibility that in building Starship, SpaceX could be working itself out of a $7 billion job!

If that were to happen -- if Lunar Gateway gets deemed unnecessary and never built -- it wouldn't just be bad news for SpaceX, either. Other space contractors, including those hired by NASA's international partners and also America's own Maxar Technologies and Northrop Grumman, both of which have been awarded contracts to build elements of the Lunar Gateway, could lose out as well.

Then again, with many companies in addition to SpaceX having vested interests (and valuable contracts) in the Lunar Gateway, NASA could end up building the thing anyway. Maybe not in time to facilitate the actual first trip by astronauts (back) to the moon, but later on -- because even after the astronauts arrive, the arguments in favor of establishing an orbital supply depot might still have merit.

In that regard, Loverro noted that he thinks the Lunar Gateway would help make lunar exploration missions "sustainable," and so he believes "100% positively it will be" built eventually if this can be done at a reasonable cost. But even so, this leaves open the possibility that a budget-conscious NASA may end up deciding the cost is not reasonable ... especially if SpaceX succeeds in building a spaceship that makes space stations irrelevant.

If you ask me, once that first spaceship bypasses a space station to touch down on the moon independently, a lot of folks (in NASA, and certainly in Congress) are going to start wondering whether spending extra billions to build a Lunar Gateway might be an unnecessary extravagance.

At that point, the clock will start ticking on Lunar Gateway -- and all the contracts tied to it -- going away forever.

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Devs: Here’s the real science behind the quantum computing TV show – New Scientist News

Posted: at 11:00 pm

By Rowan Hooper

BBC/FX Networks

TVDevsBBC iPlayer and FX on Hulu

Halfway through episode two of Devs, there is a scene that caused me first to gasp, and then to swear out loud. A genuine WTF moment. If this is what I think it is, I thought, it is breathtakingly audacious. And so it turns out. The show is intelligent, beautiful and ambitious, and to aid in your viewing pleasure, this spoiler-free review introduces some of the cool science it explores.

Alex Garlands eight-part seriesopens with protagonists Lilyand Sergei, who live in a gorgeous apartment in San Francisco. Like their real-world counterparts, people who work atFacebook orGoogle, the pair take the shuttle bus to work.

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They work at Amaya, a powerful but secretive technology company hidden among the redwoods. Looming over the trees is a massive, creepy statue of a girl: the Amaya the company is named for.

We see the company tag line asLily and Sergei get off the bus: Your quantum future. Is it just athrow-away tag, or should we think about what that line means more precisely?

Sergei, we learn, works on artificial intelligence algorithms. At the start of the show, he gets some time with the boss, Forest, todemonstrate the project he has been working on. He has managed to model the behaviour of a nematode worm. His team has simulated the worm by recreating all 302 of its neurons and digitally wiring them up. This is basically the WormBot project, an attempt to recreate a life form completely in digital code. The complete map of the connections between the 302 neurons of the nematode waspublished in 2019.

We dont yet have the processing power to recreate theseconnections dynamically in a computer, but when we do, it will be interesting to consider if the resulting digital worm, a complete replica of an organic creature, should be considered alive.

We dont know if Sergeis simulation is alive, but it is so good, he can accurately predict the behaviour of the organic original, a real worm it is apparently simulating, up to 10 seconds in thefuture. This is what I like about Garlands stuff: the show has only just started and we have already got some really deep questions about scientific research that is actually happening.

Sergei then invokes the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics conceived by Hugh Everett. Although Forest dismisses this idea, it is worth getting yourhead around it because the show comes back to it. Adherents say that the maths of quantum physics means the universe isrepeatedly splitting into different versions, creating a vast multiverse of possible outcomes.

At the core of Amaya is the ultrasecretive section where thedevelopers work. No one outside the devs team knows what it is developing, but we suspect it must be something with quantum computers. I wondered whether the devssection is trying to do with the 86 billion neurons of thehuman brain what Sergei has been doing with the 302 neurons of the nematode.

We start to find out when Sergei is selected for a role in devs. He must first pass a vetting process (he is asked if he is religious, a question that makes sense later) and then he is granted access to the devs compound sealed by alead Faraday cage, gold mesh andan unbroken vacuum.

Inside is a quantum computer more powerful than any currently in existence. How many qubits does it run, asks Sergei, looking inawe at the thing (it is beautiful, abit like the machines being developed by Google and IBM). Anumber that it is meaningless to state, says Forest. As a reference point, the best quantum computers currently manage around 50 qubits, or quantum bits. We can only assume that Forest has solved the problem ofdecoherence when external interference such as heat or electromagnetic fields cause qubits to lose their quantum properties and created a quantum computer with fantasticprocessing power.

So what are the devs using it for? Sergei is asked to guess, and then left to work it out for himself from gazing at the code. He figures it out before we do. Then comes that WTF moment. To say any more will give away the surprise. Yet as someone remarks, the world is deterministic, but with this machine we are gaining magical powers. Devs has its flaws, but it is energising and exciting to see TV this thoughtful: it cast a spell on me.

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When quantum computing and AI collide – Raconteur

Posted: at 11:00 pm

Machine-learning and quantum computing are two technologies that have incredible potential in their own right. Now researchers are bringing them together. The main goal is to achieve a so-called quantum advantage, where complex algorithms can be calculated significantly faster than with the best classical computer. This would be a game-changer in the field of AI.

Such a breakthrough could lead to new drug discoveries, advances in chemistry, as well as better data science, weather predictions and natural-language processing. We could be as little as three years away from achieving a quantum advantage in AI if the largest players in the quantum computing space meet their goals, says Ilyas Khan, chief executive of Cambridge Quantum Computing.

This comes after Google announced late last year that it had achieved quantum supremacy, claiming their quantum computer had cracked a problem that would take even the fastest conventional machine thousands of years to solve.

Developing quantum machine-learning algorithms could allow us to solve complex problems much more quickly. To realise the full potential of quantum computing for AI, we need to increase the number of qubits that make up these systems, says Dr Jay Gambetta, vice president of quantum computing at IBM Research.

Quantum devices exploit the strange properties of quantum physics and mechanics to speed up calculations. Classical computers store data in bits, as zeros or ones. Quantum computers use qubits, where data can exist in two different states simultaneously. This gives them more computational fire power. Were talking up to a million times faster than some classical computers.

And when you add a single qubit, you double the quantum computers processing power. To meet Moores Law [the number of transistors on a computer chip is doubled about every two years while the cost falls], you would need to add a single qubit every year, says Peter Chapman, chief executive of IonQ.

Our goal is to double the number of qubits every year. We expect quantum computers to be able to routinely solve problems that supercomputers cannot, within two years.

Already industrial behemoths, such as IBM, Honeywell, Google, Microsoft and Amazon, are active in the quantum computing sector. Their investments will have a major impact on acceleratingdevelopments.

We expect algorithm development to accelerate considerably. The quantum community has recognised economic opportunities in solving complex optimisation problems that permeate many aspects of the business world. These range from how do you assemble a Boeing 777 with millions of parts in the correct order? to challenges in resource distribution, explains Dr David Awschalom, professor of quantum information at the University of Chicago.

The quantum community has recognised economic opportunities in solving complex optimisation problems that permeate many aspects of the business world

Many of the computational tasks that underlie machine-learning, used currently for everything from image recognition to spam detection, have the correct form to allow a quantum speed up. Not only would this lead to faster calculations and more resource-efficient algorithms, it could also allow AI to tackle problems that are currently unfeasible because of their complexity and size.

Quantum computers arent a panacea for all humankinds informatic problems. They are best suited to very specific tasks, where there are a huge number of variables and permutations, such as calculating the best delivery route for rubbish trucks or the optimal path through traffic congestion. Mitsubishi in Japan and Volkswagen in Germany have deployed quantum computing with AI to explore solutions to these issues.

There will come a time when quantum AI could be used to help us with meaningful tasks from industrial scheduling to logistics. Financial optimisation for portfolio management could also be routinely handled by quantum computers.

This sounds like it might have limited use, but it turns out that many business problems can be expressed as an optimisation problem. This includes machine-learning problems, says Chapman.

Within a few short years we will enter the start of the quantum era. Its important for people to be excited about quantum computing; it allows government funding to increase and aids in recruitment. We need to continue to push the technology and also to support early adopters to explore how they can apply quantum computing to their businesses.

However, its still early days. The next decade is a more accurate time frame in terms of seeing quantum computing and AI coalesce and really make a difference. The need to scale to larger and more complex problems with real-world impact is one area of innovation, as is creating quantum computers that have greater precision and performance.

The limitation of quantum technology, particularly when it comes to AI, is summarised by the term decoherence. This is caused by vibrations, changes in temperature, noise and interfacing with the external environment. This causes computers to lose their quantum state and prevents them from completing computational tasks in a timely manner or at all, says Khan.

The industrys immediate priority has shifted from sheer processing power, measured by qubits, to performance, better measured by quantum volume. Rightly so the industry is channelling its energy into reducing errors to break down this major barrier and unlock the true power of machine-learning.

Over time it is the ease of access to these computers that will lead to impactful business applications and the development of successful quantum machine-learning. IBM has opened its doors to its quantum computers via the cloud since 2016 for anyone to test ideas. In the process it has fostered a vibrant community with more than 200,000 users from over 100 organisations.

The more developers and companies that get involved in first solving optimisation problems related to AI and then over time building quantum machine-learning and AI development, the sooner well see even more scalable and robust applications with business value, explains Murray Thom, vice president of software at D-Wave Systems.

Most importantly, we need a greater number of smart people identifying and developing applications. That way we will be able to overcome limitations much faster, and expand the tools and platform so they are easier to use. Bringing in more startups and forward-thinking enterprise organisations to step into quantum computing and identify potential applications for their fields is also crucial.

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Raytheon Technologies CEO and CFO to present at the BofA Securities 2020 Transportation and Industrials Conference – PRNewswire

Posted: at 11:00 pm

WALTHAM, Mass., May 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon Technologies (NYSE: RTX) Chief Executive Officer Greg Hayes and Chief Financial Officer Toby O'Brien will speak at the Bank of America Securities 2020 Transportation and Industrials Conference on Tuesday, May 12 at 9:20 a.m. Eastern Time. The presentation will be broadcast live at http://www.rtx.com and will be archived on the website afterward.

About Raytheon TechnologiesRaytheon Technologies Corporation is an aerospace and defense company that provides advanced systems and services for commercial, military and government customers worldwide. With 195,000 employees and four industry-leading businesses Collins Aerospace Systems, Pratt & Whitney, Raytheon Intelligence & Space and Raytheon Missiles & Defense the company delivers solutions thatpush the boundaries in avionics, cybersecurity, directed energy, electric propulsion, hypersonics, and quantum physics. The company, formed in 2020 through the combination of Raytheon Company and the United Technologies Corporation aerospace businesses, is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Media Contact Michele Quintaglie C: 860.493.4364 [emailprotected]

Investor Contact Kelsey DeBriyn C: 781.522.5141 [emailprotected]

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Raytheon Technologies CEO and CFO to present at the BofA Securities 2020 Transportation and Industrials Conference - PRNewswire

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Wolfram Physics Project Seeks Theory Of Everything; Is It Revelation Or Overstatement? – Hackaday

Posted: at 11:00 pm

Stephen Wolfram, inventor of the Wolfram computational language and the Mathematica software, announced that he may have found a path to the holy grail of physics: A fundamental theory of everything. Even with the subjunctive, this is certainly a powerful statement that should be met with some skepticism.

What is considered a fundamental theory of physics? In our current understanding, there are four fundamental forces in nature: the electromagnetic force, the weak force, the strong force, and gravity. Currently, the description of these forces is divided into two parts: General Relativity (GR), describing the nature of gravity that dominates physics on astronomical scales. Quantum Field Theory (QFT) describes the other three forces and explains all of particle physics.

An overview of particle physics by Headbomb [CC-BY-SA 3.0]Up to now, it has not been possible to unify both General Relativity and Quantum Field Theory since they are formulated within different mathematical frameworks. In particular, treating gravity within the formalism of QFT leads to infinite terms that cannot be canceled out within the generally accepted framework of renormalization. The two most popular attempts to deliver a quantum mechanical description of gravity are String Theory and the lesser know Quantum Loop Gravity. The former would be considered a fundamental theory that describes all forces in nature while the latter limits itself to the description of gravity.

Apart from the incompatibility of QFT and GR there are still several unsolved problems in particle physics like the nature of dark matter and dark energy or the origin of neutrino masses. While these phenomena tell us that the current Standard Model of particle physics is incomplete they might still be explainable within the current frameworks of QFT and GR. Of course, a fundamental theory also has to come up with a natural explanation for these outstanding issues.

Stephen Wolfram is best known for his work in computer science but he actually started his career in physics. He received his PhD in theoretical particle physics at the age of 20 and was the youngest person in history to receive the prestigious McArthur grant. However, he soon left physics to pursue his research into cellular automata which lead to the development of the Wolfram code. After founding his company Wolfram Research he continued to develop the Wolfram computational language which is the basis for the Wolfram Mathematica software. On the one hand, it becomes obvious that Wolfram is a very gifted man, on the other hand, people have sometimes criticized him for being an egomaniac as his brand naming convention subtly suggests.

In 2002, Stephen Wolfram published his 1200-page mammoth book A New Kind of Sciencewhere he applied his research on cellular automata to physics. The main thesis of the book is that simple programs, in particular the Rule 110 cellular automaton, can generate very complex systems through repetitive application of a simple rule. It further claims that these systems can describe all of the physical world and that the Universe itself is computational. The book got controversial reviews, while some found that it contains a cornucopia of ideas others criticized it as arrogant and overstated. Among the most famous critics were Ray Kurzweil and Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg. It was the latter who wrote that:

Wolfram [] cant resist trying to apply his experience with digital computer programs to the laws of nature. [] he concludes that the universe itself would then be an automaton, like a giant computer. Its possible, but I cant see any motivation for these speculations, except that this is the sort of system that Wolfram and others have become used to in their work on computers. So might a carpenter, looking at the moon, suppose that it is made of wood.

The Wolfram Physics Project is a continuation of the ideas formulated in A New Kind of Science and was born out of a collaboration with two young physicists who attended Wolframs summer school. The main idea has not changed, i.e. that the Universe in all its complexity can be described through a computer algorithm that works by iteratively applying a simple rule. Wolfram recognizes that cellular automata may have been too simple to produce this kind of complexity instead he now focuses on hypergraphs.

In mathematics, a graph consists of a set of elements that are related in pairs. When the order of the elements is taken into account this is called a directed graph. The most simple example of a (directed) graph can be represented as a diagram and one can then apply a rule to this graph as follows:

The rule states that wherever a relation that matches {x,y} appears, it should be replaced by {{x ,y},{y,z}}, wherez is a new element. Applying this rule to the graph yields:

By applying this rule iteratively one ends up with more and more complicated graphs as shown in the example here. One can also add complexity by allowing self-loops, rules involving copies of the same relation, or rules depending on multiple relations. When allowing relations between more than two elements, this moves from graphs to hypergraphs.

How is this related to physics? Wolfram surmises that the Universe can be represented by an evolving hypergraph where a position in space is defined by a node and time basically corresponds to the progressive updates. This introduces new physical concepts, e.g. that space and time are discrete, rather than continuous. In this model, the quest for a fundamental theory corresponds to finding the right initial condition and underlying rule. Wolfram and his colleagues think they have already identified the right class of rules and constructed models that reproduce some basic principles of general relativity and quantum mechanics.

A fundamental problem of the model is what Wolfram calls computational irreducibility, meaning that to calculate any state of the hypergraph one has to go through all iterations starting from the initial condition. This would make it virtually impossible to run the computation long enough in order to test a model by comparing it to our current physical Universe.

Wolfram thinks that some basic principles, e.g. the dimensionality of space, can be deduced from the rules itself. Wolfram also points out that although the generated model universes can be tested against observations the framework itself is not amenable to experimental falsification. It is generally true that fundamental physics has long decoupled from the scientific method of postulating hypotheses based on experimental observations. String theory has also been criticized for not making any testable predictions. However, String theory historically developed from nuclear physics while Wolfram does not give any motivation for choosing evolving hypergraphs for his framework. However, some physicists are thinking in similar directions like Nobel laureate Gerard tHooft who has recently published a cellular automaton interpretation of quantum mechanics. In addition, Wolframs colleague, Jonathan Gorard, points out that their approach is a generalization of spin networks used in Loop Quantum Gravity.

On his website, Wolfram invites other people to participate in the project although it is somehow vague how this will work. In general, they need people to work out the potential observable predictions of their model and the relation to other fundamental theories. If you want to dive into the topic in depth there is a 448-page technical introduction on the website and they have also recently started a series of livestreams where they plan to release 400 hours of video material.

Wolframs model certainly contains many valuable ideas and cannot be simply disregarded as crackpottery. Still, most mainstream physicists will probably be skeptical about the general idea of a discrete computational Universe. The fact that Wolfram tends to overstate his findings and publishes through his own media channels instead of going through peer-reviewed physics journals does not earn him any extra credibility.

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Wolfram Physics Project Seeks Theory Of Everything; Is It Revelation Or Overstatement? - Hackaday

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The Cool Parts Show Reveals 3D Printing Reality and Potential – Modern Machine Shop

Posted: at 11:00 pm

Did you know that there are FDA-registered companies using metal 3D printing to make titanium spine cages? That you can already buy customized products like shoe insoles and glasses frames made through 3D printing? That 3D printed vacuum chambers can support quantum physics research?Or that the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 contains a 3D printed bracket?

Its all true!

Over at Additive Manufacturing (a sister publication to Modern Machine Shop), weve built an entire YouTube showaround applications like these for industrial 3D printing technology. Each episode of our series The Cool Parts Show focuses on a unique, unusual or otherwise remarkable 3D-printed part. Think beyond models or rapid prototyping everyitem featured is a realpart in production today,or a proof-of-concept that soon could be. The goal is to provide a realistic picture of 3D printings capabilities and usefulness today, as well as a sneak peek at where it could go in the future.

Additive ManufacturingandModern Machine Shop Editor-in-Chief Peter Zelinskiis my cohost on the show. In each episode, we explore the details that went into making the part, as well as how it fits into larger themes like the Internet of Things, mass customization and sustainability. We strive to make every episode interesting and approachablewhether youre an AM pro or just curious about 3D printing.

There are two complete seasons of The Cool Parts Show out now, including episodes about all the cool parts mentioned above. Find them at thecoolpartsshow.com or on our YouTube channel; the full playlist is also embedded below.

Filming for Season 3 is already in progress, but in the more immediate future well be releasing some special coverage related to COVID-19.Were checking in with past subjects of the show to find out how they are adapting. Aspecial episode is also in the works on what might be the biggest production story for additive manufacturing that weve seen, pandemic or otherwise: testing swabs.

If you want to be notified about new episodes, subscribe to our channel on YouTube or to the weekly AM Update e-newsletter. Stay tuned!

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The Cool Parts Show Reveals 3D Printing Reality and Potential - Modern Machine Shop

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