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For the PS5, PS4, and Xbox One, Jeff Minter remakes the Atari Arcade Prototype Akka Arrh

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At the moment, Atari is fantastic under the new leadership, don’t you think? Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration, arguably the best retro compilation ever made, has been released in addition to some really valuable Recharged remakes of some of its biggest hits. Additionally, it has now hired renowned Tempest designer Jeff Minter to virtually recreate its long-lost prototype Akka Arrh from 1982.

For those of you who don’t know, Atari developed this game in the early 1980s, but it wasn’t mass-produced because it tested poorly. Only a few cabinets are thought to be still in existence.

According to the press release, Akka Arrh “embodies the chaotic fun of the 80s arcade experience and brings it to modern audiences with a vengeance. It is dripping in Minter’s style, sense of humor, and unique genius. You will be exposed to a new type of web whether you view Akka Arrh as Minter’s Tempest’s spiritual successor or as a vibrant work entirely of its own.

The gameplay is exactly what you’d expect from Minter: a total sensory overload with sharp angles, vibrant pulsating colors, and a dizzying array of particle effects. In “early 2023,” Akka Arrh will be released on PS5 and PS4, and we can’t wait to blast our way to a high score while achieving zen-like status.

As Editor here at GeekReply, I'm a big fan of all things Geeky. Most of my contributions to the site are technology related, but I'm also a big fan of video games. My genres of choice include RPGs, MMOs, Grand Strategy, and Simulation. If I'm not chasing after the latest gear on my MMO of choice, I'm here at GeekReply reporting on the latest in Geek culture.

Engineering

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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