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Discreetly launching the Arc A310 graphics card is Intel.

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Intel has formally unveiled the Arc A310 graphics card after months of rumors, teasers, conjecture, and the Arc A380’s half-launch (opens in new tab). It is something, if not the RTX 40 killer we would have hoped for. This news is unexpected given how extensively Arc has been covered in the tech media over the past two years. It’s debatable whether this is because of its understated character or because Intel purposefully made it a low-key rollout. Even if they are unattractive to players, these cards do have a position in the market.

You wouldn’t purchase the A310 to play Cyberpunk 2077 in 4K with ray tracing. In actuality, you wouldn’t use it at 720p on low settings. According to its specifications, it is made to provide video signals for computers without integrated graphics.

Six Xe cores, 4GB of GDDR6 memory over a 64-bit bus, a graphics speed of 2000MHz, and a 75W TDP are important features. It so competes with AMD’s RX 6400(opens in new tab) and more potent CPUs with integrated graphics. There are undoubtedly discrete choices. Full height dual slot coolers might appear excessive, yet dual slot cards are unavoidable assuming partners provide their own versions.

As part of the editorial team here at Geekreply, John spends a lot of his time making sure each article is up to snuff. That said, he also occasionally pens articles on the latest in Geek culture. From Gaming to Science, expect the latest news fast from John and team.

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Exploring the Depths: The Quest for Dark Matter Beneath the Earth’s Surface

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Based on observations made by astronomers studying the observable universe, it has been determined that approximately 5 percent of the universe consists of matter. The remaining portion, or the vast majority of it, consists of dark matter (approximately 27 percent) and dark energy (approximately 68 percent).

Dark matter is a type of matter that cannot be detected through its own light emission. It only interacts with regular matter through the force of gravity. This interaction can be observed in galaxies and galaxy clusters, providing evidence for its existence. However, considering the abundance of this mysterious substance compared to regular matter, it is only natural for scientists to actively search for concrete proof of its presence.

One way to locate it, which may seem surprising since dark matter accounts for what we observe in the stars and galaxies, is to go underground.

Scientists around the world conduct research in various underground facilities to study phenomena like weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) and the impact of neutrinos. It is believed that the WIMPs are constantly passing through the Earth as it moves through space. To detect them, we require highly sensitive detectors capable of capturing these subtle interactions.

“In the Stanford LUX-ZEPLIN experiment, an electric field is applied across the volume of liquid, causing the released electrons to be pushed towards the liquid’s surface,” explained Hugh Lippincott, a physics professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in an article for The Conversation.

When they break through the surface, an additional electric field propels them into the xenon-filled space above the liquid, where they produce a second burst of light. Two extensive arrays of light sensors capture the two bursts of light, enabling researchers to reconstruct the precise location, energy, and nature of the interaction that occurred.

They are very good scanners, and even if they don’t find dark matter, they can help narrow down what it isn’t. It’s just that putting them on the surface would make them pick up way too much noise.

“On Earth, however, we are constantly surrounded by low, nondangerous levels of radioactivity coming from trace elements—mainly uranium and thorium—in the environment, as well as cosmic rays from space,” Lippincott said. “The goal in hunting for dark matter is to build as sensitive a detector as possible, so it can see the dark matter, and to put it in as quiet a place as possible, so the dark matter signal can be seen over the background radioactivity.”

They are put deep below the ground so they can find dark matter. SNOLAB is the world’s deepest and cleanest lab. Every day, scientists have to go 2 kilometers (1.24 miles) underground and then walk further inside a working mine to get there.

The LUX-ZEPLIN project, which is deep in the Black Hills of South Dakota, has been recording about five events a day. This is a lot less than the trillion events it would pick up at the surface. Scientists have ruled out dark matter as a possible cause for all of them, though. But as long as the tests keep going, there is still hope that they will find proof of all the lost stuff in the universe deep underground.

 

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Russia And China Are Planning On Building A Nuclear Reactor On The Moon

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In 2021, the Chinese and Russian space agencies forged a collaborative agreement to establish a research base on the Moon. According to recent reports, space agencies have revealed their plans to construct an automated nuclear reactor on the lunar surface. The objective is to provide power to the International Lunar Research Station by the year 2035.

It is worth noting that there has been no human presence on the Moon since Apollo 17 departed in December 1972. Several unmanned missions have been launched to the Moon recently, yielding mixed results. However, it will still take a while before humans can once again explore our beloved satellite firsthand.

China and Russia have set ambitious goals to land humans on the Moon within the next decade. However, both space agencies are also exploring the possibility of placing the reactor on the Moon without direct human involvement.

“Today, we are actively exploring the possibility of a project to send a power reactor to the Moon in collaboration with our Chinese partners, aiming for a timeframe between 2033 and 2035,” stated Yury Borisov, the CEO of Russian space agency Roscosmos, in an interview with state-owned news site Tass. “This is a significant challenge […] It would be ideal to have it done automatically, without human intervention.”

Borisov explained that solar panels alone would not be enough to power future human settlements, but nuclear power could be a viable solution.

Since the announcement of the Lunar Research Station in 2021, the availability of international use has been affected by the strained relations between Russia and international co-operators in space due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russia is currently developing a nuclear-powered cargo spaceship as part of its efforts to establish a lunar base on the Moon.

“We are currently developing a space tugboat,” Borisov stated, according to AP. “This massive structure has the capability, with the help of a nuclear reactor and powerful turbines, to transport large cargoes between orbits, gather space debris, and perform various other tasks.”

He mentioned that the space agency has successfully addressed all technical issues regarding the spaceship. However, they are still working on finding a solution to cool the nuclear reactor, which is a crucial task in order to achieve the ambitious goal of establishing a moon base by 2035.

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Groundbreaking Discovery: Nature Reveals Unprecedented Superconductor

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Researchers have identified the initial non-traditional superconductor that has a chemical composition with natural substances. The mineral under consideration is known as miassite, a remarkably distinctive material. Three further natural superconductors exist, all of which adhere to the principles outlined in the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer hypothesis, which is recognized as the initial microscopic theory of superconductivity. The presence of lab-grown miassite is distinct.

Superconductivity refers to the property of a substance to exhibit zero electrical resistance, allowing it to transfer electricity without any energy loss while simultaneously generating magnetic fields outside the material. This phenomenon occurs at temperatures below a specific critical threshold. The production of electron pair bonding in a state is responsible for this phenomenon in typical superconductors. They are commonly referred to as cooperating pairs. Unconventional superconductors have similar macroscopic properties, but their state is attributed to a distinct factor.

Conventional and unusual superconductors exhibit a distinct disparity. The former has a critical temperature that is significantly closer to absolute zero, whereas the latter demonstrates the ability to exhibit high-temperature superconductence. High temperature refers to temperatures exceeding 77 Kelvin, which is still distant from achieving room-temperature superconductivity but is progressing towards it.

Miassite is the solution for this situation. Despite possessing a very low critical temperature of -267.75°C (-449.95°F), this material exhibits the characteristic features of superconductors with higher critical temperatures. Consequently, researchers aim to utilize this material in order to get a deeper comprehension of the underlying mechanisms responsible for unconventional superconductivity. The compound exhibits a sophisticated chemical formula consisting of 17 rhodium atoms and 15 sulfur atoms (Rh17S15).

Senior author Ruslan Prozorov from the Ames National Laboratory stated that it is improbable for this phenomenon to occur naturally and that it is intuitively believed to be the result of deliberate creation by a focused investigation. However, it is evident that it does.

Miassite was observed in the vicinity of the Miass River inside the Chelyabinsk Oblast of Russia. The ingredients responsible for its reactivity with oxygen contribute to its relatively low occurrence. Furthermore, due to its inability to form well-defined crystals, the evaluation of its qualities can only be conducted through laboratory growth.

Scientists were investigating rhodium-sulfur systems as a potential location for the presence of intriguing superconductors. Prozorov’s group maintained the material at a temperature just above absolute zero (-273.1°C/-460°F), and after achieving superconductivity, they conducted tests to determine its typical behavior.

A test known as the “London penetration depth” is conducted. Within a typical superconductor, a feeble magnetic field has the ability to permeate the entirety of the material at a consistent distance. In an atypical manner, this phenomenon varies in accordance with the temperature.

An alternative methodology involved subjecting the material to high-energy electrons, resulting in the formation of flaws. These flaws have a significant impact on unconventional superconductors. Miassite exhibited characteristics akin to those of an unusual superconductor.

“It is akin to uncovering a concealed fishing hole that is teeming with large, fatty fish.” Three novel superconductors were identified in the Rh-S system. According to Professor Paul Canfield, affiliated with Iowa State University and Ames Lab, it was determined through Ruslan’s meticulous measurements that miassite exhibits characteristics of an unusual superconductor. Canfield created miassite specifically for this endeavor.

The findings have been documented in a scholarly article published in the journal Communications Materials.

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