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The Prius Prime's efficiency, and more in the week that was
What does Tesla have up its sleeve? The automaker is planning to unveil a mysterious new product on Monday, and speculation so far ranges from the finalized Model 3 to a major Autopilot update. Meanwhile, the Toyota Prius Prime received a spectacular 133 MPGe rating, making it the most efficient electrified vehicle you can buy in the US. A new European law could require all new homes to install electric vehicle chargers. And Vello launched the world's first folding electric bike that can power itself.
Fukushima nuclear reactor will get mapped with subatomic particles
Scientists from Los Alamos National Lab have discovered how to look through and map just about anything with a new process: the science-fictionally sounding muon tomography. Even in places like the highly radioactive Fukushima reactor, the method doesn't require any disassembly or any need for x-rays or ultrasound. Instead it logs the movement of muons (of course), a radioactive subatomic particle that exists, well, everywhere. Two giant aluminum sides are put either side of whatever needs looking into, and the system measures the trajectory of these muon particles. From this, the scientists are able sketch the object, given enough of the tiny things.
Los Alamos National Lab has had quantum-encrypted internet for over two years
Nothing locks down data better than a laser-based quantum-encrypted network, where the mere act of looking at your data causes it to irrevocably change. Although such systems already exist, they're limited to point-to-point data transfers since a router would kill the message it's trying to pass along just by reading it. However, Los Alamos National Labs has been testing an in-house quantum network, complete with a hub and spoke system that gets around the problem thanks to a type of quantum router at each node. Messages are converted at those junctures to conventional bits, then reconverted into a new encrypted message, which can be securely sent to the next node, and so on. The researchers say it's been running in the lab for the last two and a half years with few issues, though there's still a security hole -- it lacks quantum integrity at the central hub where the data's reconverted, unlike a pure quantum network. However, the hardware would be relatively simple to integrate into any fiber-connected device, like a TV set-top box, and is still more secure than any current system -- and infinitely better than the 8-character WiFi code you're using now.
IBM Roadrunner retires from the supercomputer race
For all the money and effort poured into supercomputers, their lifespans can be brutally short. See IBM's Roadrunner as a textbook example: the 116,640-core cluster was smashing records just five years ago, and yet it's already considered so behind the times that Los Alamos National Laboratory is taking it out of action today. Don't mourn too much for the one-time legend, however. The blend of Opteron and Cell processors proved instrumental to understanding energy flow in weapons while also advancing the studies of HIV, nanowires and the known universe. Roadrunner should even be useful in its last gasps, as researchers will have a month to experiment with the system's data routing and OS memory compression before it's dismantled in earnest. It's true that the supercomputer has been eclipsed by cheaper, faster or greener competitors, including its reborn Cray arch-nemesis -- but there's no question that we'll have learned from Roadrunner's brief moment in the spotlight.
Los Alamos nuclear weapons lab removes Chinese tech over spying concerns
One of the leading US nuclear weapons labs, Los Alamos National Laboratory, has removed networking switches manufactured by H3C, a former venture between Huawei and 3Com, and now a full subsidiary of HP. According to a letter from November obtained by Reuters, government security specialists were alerted to the components by a lab engineer, who said the parts were installed the month before. It went on to state that two of the switches were "promptly replaced," but other H3C components may still remain in the lab, and will likely be replaced "as quickly as possible." Though H3C is no longer affiliated with Huawei, it states on its website that it maintains a close relationship with the Chinese manufacturer -- which has gone to great lengths to prove that it has no capability for surveillance in any of its products. Apparently, it still has a long ways to go before the US government is buying any of it.
Wasteland Diaries: A fond farewell
Fallen Earth's Alpha County: the first installment of Sector 4 is here at long last. There was a time when the place was considered a myth by many wastelanders, but it has finally become a reality. If you want to see what it has in store, check it out for yourself. It's very likely that's what I'm currently doing. Since the patch date got pushed back a day, I wasn't able to do a piece on my first impressions of the new zone. Maybe I'll handle that next week. I've instead decided to do a retrospective on what I am leaving behind in Fallen Earth, a fond farewell to some of the things that will no longer matter. There are a great many things I will miss as I cross over into S4, and there will be a great many things I won't miss. As a creature of habit, I fear change, but I'm trying to be as optimistic as possible. With that in mind, after the cut, I'll try to concentrate on some of the changes that I'll be pleased about.
Mini nuclear plant is safe, affordable and purifies water (but doesn't turn lead into gold)
This isn't the first time we've seen a micro nuclear reactor, and with the looming energy crisis it probably won't be the last. Designed by scientists at Los Alamos, the Hyperion Power Module will retail for $25 million, has no moving parts, is about the size of a hot tub (less than 5 feet wide) and should generate enough electricity for about 10,000 homes, running up to ten years before it needs refueled. And if all that isn't enough, the company claims that the module is meltdown proof (the small amount of enclosed fuel would immediately cool if ever exposed to open air), that the enclosed material is unsuitable for proliferation, and in addition to generating inexpensive power the HPM can be used to purify water. Are you sold? Be sure to hit that read link -- Hyperion is taking orders now![Via Switched]
