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Cake day: February 20th, 2021

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  • I’m just tempering the headline, not throwing doubt at the research and development possibilities.

    I got excited about the headline, thinking they’d experimentally achieved ore-melting temperatures with a heat pump (“Ultra-hot heatpump breakthrough paves the way […]”).

    I guess I perceive 270°C as below the threshold of “ultra hot”.

    Later in the article it’s revealed that the breakthrough experiment is paving the way to the (as yet unrealised) ultra-hot (“Luo summarised various research fronts […] promising pathways towards the realisation of ultra-high-temperature heat pumps.”)

    Still – 270°C! Commercial/domestic baking ovens when?


  • Probably yet another overblown headline.

    Does anyone have access to the full text of the paper?

    https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adv7434

    Abstract

    Large-scale generative artificial intelligence (AI) is facing a severe computing power shortage. Although photonic computing achieves excellence in decision tasks, its application in generative tasks remains formidable because of limited integration scale, time-consuming dimension conversions, and ground-truth-dependent training algorithms. We produced an all-optical chip for large-scale intelligent vision generation, named LightGen. By integrating millions of photonic neurons on a chip, varying network dimension through proposed optical latent space, and Bayes-based training algorithms, LightGen experimentally implemented high-resolution semantic image generation, denoising, style transfer, three-dimensional generation, and manipulation. Its measured end-to-end computing speed and energy efficiency were each more than two orders of magnitude greater than those of state-of-the-art electronic chips, paving the way for acceleration of large visual generative models.


  • For over a century, the dream of efficiently concentrating low-grade heat into high-temperature industrial energy has been constrained by a stubborn ceiling: 200 degrees Celsius (392 degrees Fahrenheit).
    Now, a team from China has shattered that temperature limit. Using a revolutionary heat pump with no moving parts, they achieved an output of 270 degrees with a 145-degree heat source to drive the cycle.

    …so a modest but significant improvement has been achieved, but nowhere near the temps required for melting ore.

    But maaaaybe, theoretically, with materials and technologies not yet developed, possibly by 2040:

    In a December 5 article in Nature Energy, Luo summarised various research fronts, including his team’s thermoacoustic Stirling heat pump, as promising pathways towards the realisation of ultra-high-temperature heat pumps.
    He also suggested development directions for materials and technologies needed for future ultra-high-temperature heat pumps operating from 600K to 1,600K, or 327 degrees to 1,327 degrees, saying these could be achieved by 2040.










  • rcbrk@lemmy.mltoProgrammer Humor@lemmy.mlAlways happens
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    4 months ago

    Trollies are usually plastic-coated. If you’re gonna do this please burn it off first with a nice hot fire, then scrub off all the plastic residue before cooking food on it.

    If it’s tin- or zinc-plated you run the risk of metal fume fever if you breathe the fumes, but once-off it’s probably not much of a hazard. Unless it’s cadmium plated (peculiar yellowish hue), in which case the fumes and residue are quite hazardous.

    It’s also worth bringing a spanner to remove the castors – they’re usually decent quality and can be used for better purposes than a shopping trolley.

    Not sure if any of this advice transfers with the programming analogy.