Fans of the famous YouTube sensation MrBeast were surprised when they spotted someone who looked remarkably like him traveling in economy class

Scientists have claimed to make a breakthrough that would be “one of the holy grails of modern physics” – but experts have urged caution about the results. In recent days, many commentators have become excited by two papers that claim to document the production of a new superconductor that works at room temperature and ambient pressure. Scientists in Korea said they had synthesised a new material called LK-99 that would represent one of the biggest physics breakthroughs of recent decades. Superconductors are a special kind of material where electrical resistance vanishes, and which throw out magnetic fields. They are widely useful, including in the production of powerful magnets and in reducing the amount of energy lost as it moves through circuits. They are also often impractical, since they require low temperatures and high pressure. That means that they cannot be used in most traditional circuits, for instance. Since the beginning of the last century, scientists have been working not only to understand superconductivity but also develop new materials that would allow the phenomenon to be harvested at ambient temperatures and pressures. That has not been successful, and the discovery of such a material would mark a major breakthrough in physics. The new papers, published in recent days as a preprint on the website arXiv, claims to have overcome that problem. The researchers said they had not only found a way to synthesise such a superconducting material, but also that it could be done relatively easily – leading to huge excitement on social media. One Twitter thread from Alex Kaplan, a recent Princeton graduate who is now head of coffee product at startup Cometeer, helped propel the news into the mainstream. His thread had been viewed 8.5 million times, Twitter said, and has been retweeted more than 10,000 times. “Today might have seen the biggest physics discovery of my lifetime. I don’t think people fully grasp the implications of an ambient temperature / pressure superconductor,” he wrote in a long thread that went on to explain the possible applications of the material. Mr Kaplan pointed to the fact that vast amounts of energy are lost in the transmission of electricity across the world, that the the authors claimed material could be made in just 34 hours with simple equipment, and that such a superconductor would have revolutionary uses in everything from nuclear fusion reactors to batteries and quantum computers. Scientists away from the work agreed that such a breakthrough would be hugely significant. But they urged caution, pointing to the fact that the paper has not yet gone through the peer review process, the results have not been replicated, and that there could be other explanations for the apparently astonishing behaviour described in the work. “A real, working room-temperature superconductor which works at ambient pressure would be one of the holy grails of modern physics, unlocking major new developments in energy, transportation, healthcare, and communications,” said Mohammad Yazdani-Asrami of the University of Glasgow’s James Watt School of Engineering. “As it stands, however, the paper is not yet peer-reviewed and has not yet been tested in other labs to see if other researchers can reproduce its results. These are both key to determining for sure whether the world should be getting excited about the authors’ claims, which need much more scrutiny at this early stage. If the claims of findings are approved, perhaps, this is one of the most significant achievements of last few decades in physics and material engineering.” Others voiced specific concerns about the paper. Some of the results meant that other researchers working on superconductors were not convinced by the claims made in the paper. “The recent preprint by Lee, Kim and Kwon suggesting that they have observed room temperature superconductivity in the copper doped lead phosphate system, without the need for very high applied pressures, is interesting, but not yet wholly convincing,” said Susannah Speller, Professor of Materials Science at the University of Oxford, and Chris Grovenor, Professor of Materials at the University of Oxford. Professors Speller and Grovenor pointed to the fact that the data did not show the behaviour that would be expected to happen when the material became superconducting. Features that would be expected to be evident in the results were not, they said, and “and so it is too early to say that we have been presented with compelling evidence for superconductivity in these samples”. John Durrell, professor of superconductor engineering at Cambridge University, said that it could take considerable time to see the practical benefits of the breakthrough, even if the team’s results were confirmed. “There will be understandable scepticism about this result in the community as there have been numerous reports of room temperature superconductors over the years which have not held up,” he told The Independent. “I would, therefore, personally withhold judgement on this work until it becomes clear if the result is reproducible in other laboratories. “From my engineering point of view, a practical room temperature superconductor would be potentially transformative – allowing a host of exciting applications such as cheap MRI machines, more compact and efficient motors and low loss power transmission. “However, there can be significant challenges in turning a newly discovered superconducting material into a practical material. In previous cases, this has taken one or two decades and is not always possible.” Read More Europe to cover continent in fast EV chargers under new law Elon Musk takes control of @X account from user who had held it for 16 years iPhone users urged to check their photo library amid fears they could be deleted Europe to cover continent in fast EV chargers under new law Elon Musk takes control of @X account from user who had held it for 16 years iPhone users urged to check their photo library amid fears they could be deleted

TAIPEI (Reuters) -Shares of Taiwan's TSMC slumped more than 3% on Friday after the world's largest contract chipmaker flagged a

Future space missions might use all-female crews because they are more “efficient”, a new study has suggested. Many space agencies around the world are already preparing for the first human trips to Mars and perhaps other planets. But those trips will be incredibly resource-intensive, with the food and other material required to support a crew over years being an important consideration. One way to minimise that demand on resources would be to send all-female crews, a new study conducted by the European Space Agency suggests. It found that female astronauts would be likely to need less water to stay hydrated, expend less energy, need less oxygen and carbon dioxide and produce less heat than their male counterparts. That in turn would require less space to store the equipment needed to allow those astronauts to live, and therefore make the journey theoretically easier for engineers. The exact difference between a male and female crew would depend on the stature and other details of the astronauts that were chosen. But in all situations, the all-female crew were found to use less energy. That was because they are lighter than their male counterparts, and tend to use less oxygen when they are exercising. The difference remained true even when the astronauts were modelled as if they were engaging in the kind of exercise that astronauts have done on the International Space Station, which is required to ensure they stay fit and healthy without the usual gravity on Earth. The fact that women also tend to be smaller would be another advantage the scientists note, since it would mean that engineers would be able to build them smaller space habitat modules. “There may be a number of operational advantages to all-female crews during future human space exploration missions,” the team conclude in a new paper. The work was theoretical and used already published data on female astronauts and physiological research. The research is published in a new paper, ‘Effects of body size and countermeasure exercise on estimates of life support resources during all-female crewed exploration missions’, in Scientific Reports. Read More Why is Elon Musk purging Twitter accounts? Apple finally launches two professional apps on the iPad AI robots figure out how to play football in shambolic footage

MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 18, 2023--

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TikTok prankster Mizzy has been banned from using social media after he was found guilty of posting videos without consent. The star, real name Bacari-Bronze O’Garro, was found to have “deliberately flouted” a court order prohibiting him from sharing videos of people without their consent “within hours” of it being passed. Judge Matthew Bone, overseeing the 19-year-old’s trial at Stratford Magistrates Court on Thursday, slammed O’Garro for “lacking all credibility” after he denied four counts of breaching the order. He ordered the father-of-one not to use social media “at all” except to send messages until he is sentenced next month and warned that he could go to prison for the offences he had committed. It comes after O’Garro’s defence lawyer Paul Lennon revealed to the court earlier on Thursday that his client had been arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice. O’Garro’s main witness in the case, who was due to give evidence at the trial, was also arrested and both were bailed on the condition that they do not contact each other. Mr Lennon attempted to adjourn the hearing, claiming O’Garro was unable to receive a “fair trial” without his only witness, but his application was rejected by Judge Bone. I found it to be an intentional, immediate, and deliberate challenge to the criminal behaviour order Judge Bone The court heard how O’Garro began sharing videos of people without their consent on the same day the criminal behaviour order was passed on May 24 this year. It was shown footage, shared on O’Garro’s Twitter account on the night of May 24 featuring him in Westfield shopping centre, Stratford, after he appeared on Piers Morgan’s TalkTV show and mocked the British judicial system. In the video, passersby were visible in the background as Mizzy said to the camera: “The UK law is a joke.” Other videos shared on O’Garro’s Snapchat account, which were also in breach, showed him grabbing hold of a schoolboy by his uniform and another showing him fight a man with dwarfism, which O’Garro claimed were hoax videos made with their prior agreement. O’Garro’s claim that one of his friends, who had access to his login details, posted the Twitter videos without his consent, was dismissed by Judge Bone as “inconceivable”. The judge said: “I have to say I did not accept the evidence of the defendant – it lacked all credibility. “Within hours of the criminal behaviour order he posed (in Westfield) stating the video would be shared and it was. “The defendant was filmed trying to shake a man’s hand from whom consent was not obtained. “He had just appeared on national television saying the British law was weak. “I found it to be an intentional, immediate and deliberate challenge to the criminal behaviour order. You need to understand that you deliberately flouted this court order within hours of it being made Judge Bone “Dealing again with charge four, two people were roughed up on camera by the defendant – I found his behaviour was again a deliberate challenge to the criminal behaviour order.” Judge Bone found O’Garro not guilty on two further counts of the same charge, ruling that the videos in question may already have been shared before the criminal behaviour order was passed. However, he warned O’Garro: “The defendant shouldn’t take much comfort from that. “What I have convicted him of crosses the custody threshold. “This is a man who has stepped over the line of the order in a deliberate way. “You need to understand the seriousness of your situation now. “You need to understand that you deliberately flouted this court order within hours of it being made.” O’Garro will be sentenced on November 21 at Thames Magistrates Court. Read More Study finds ‘deepfakes’ from Ukraine war undermining trust in conflict footage More than 500 potential cyber attacks logged every second, BT says AI being used to create child abuse imagery, watchdog warns ChatGPT and other chatbots ‘can be tricked into making code for cyber attacks’ Tinder adds Matchmaker feature to let friends recommend potential dates Google and Meta withdraw from upcoming Web Summit

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 26, 2023--

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