From The University of Michigan: “Advancing chips for the auto sector is the goal of new Michigan-based initiative”

From The University of Michigan

5.19.23
Nicole Casal Moore

On the heels of the global chip shortage, the University of Michigan is part of a new public-private partnership that will establish a global semiconductor center of excellence in Michigan that focuses on the auto industry.

The Semiconductor Talent and Automotive Research (“STAR”) initiative is led by semiconductor company KLA and Belgium-based technology innovation hub Imec. The Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Washtenaw Community College and General Motors are also founding members.

The initiative will focus on developing the talent base and infrastructure necessary to accelerate advanced semiconductor applications for electrification and autonomous mobility and move the automotive industry forward, according to a KLA news release.

“The STAR initiative is creating, strengthening and sustaining an essential connection between the semiconductor and auto sectors—and it’s doing so at the right place at the right time,” said Santa J. Ono, president of the University of Michigan. “As the EV transition gains momentum, we must ensure that we can develop and manufacture the advanced microelectronics those vehicles will require.

“This initiative is a critical complement to several major efforts in both semiconductors and mobility already underway at U-M and we look forward to collaborating with our partners to advance and integrate this work.”

“KLA is focused on investment in research and development to help address key challenges for automotive semiconductors,” said Rick Wallace, president and CEO of KLA and U-M electrical engineering alumnus. “In 2019, KLA opened a second headquarters in Ann Arbor, putting us closer to automotive customers and the larger Michigan technology ecosystem. The STAR Michigan initiative accelerates our support for talent development, collaboration and innovation in the region.”

Secure, resilient, innovative

U-M has broad expertise in mobility and semiconductors. The Lurie Nanofabrication Facility supports semiconductor research, hands-on education and regional economic development. Over the past five years, 95 companies and 150 U-M faculty members have utilized the lab, as well as researchers from 40 other U.S. universities. MAVERIC, the Michigan Advanced Vision for Education and Research in ICs, is a semiconductor collaborative that is pulling together efforts from across the university to support a secure, resilient and innovative domestic semiconductor sector.

On the mobility and autonomous vehicle front, the $130 million University of Michigan Electric Vehicle Center is the latest addition, joining Mcity, the U-M Transportation Research Institute, the U-M Center for Connected and Automated Transportation and the U-M Robotics Department.

This initiative is designed to connect automotive, semiconductor and innovation research initiatives in Europe (Belgium), the United States (Michigan) and Asia (Japan). Each partner will bring relevant expertise to identify and manage programs aligned to the automotive industry, as well as talent development and recruitment.

“One of the most important jobs we have as a community college is to listen to industry partners to understand talent needs and then customize programs to quickly train the current and future workforce,” said WCC President Rose Bellanca in a WCC news release. “We stand ready to provide the training and education required to deepen our state’s talent pool with well-qualified technicians to support chip production.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer applauded the announcement.

“The decision by KLA and Imec to establish this new STAR center of excellence in Michigan underscores our global leadership as a hub for industry and innovation with a robust manufacturing, research and education infrastructure, and builds on our leadership in this high-tech, high-growth industry,” said Whitmer in an MEDC news release.

“I am proud that Michigan was selected as the location for the STAR Initiative’s North American research center, proving that we have the skilled workforce, growing economy and strong business-friendly environment necessary to win projects from one of the world’s most innovative companies. Let’s keep working together to bring advanced manufacturing and critical supply chains home as we create economic opportunity in every region and build a brighter future for Michigan.”

See the full article here .

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct. Use “Reply”.

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The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Originally, founded in 1817 in Detroit as the Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania, 20 years before the Michigan Territory officially became a state, the University of Michigan is the state’s oldest university. The university moved to Ann Arbor in 1837 onto 40 acres (16 ha) of what is now known as Central Campus. Since its establishment in Ann Arbor, the university campus has expanded to include more than 584 major buildings with a combined area of more than 34 million gross square feet (781 acres or 3.16 km²), and has two satellite campuses located in Flint and Dearborn. The University was one of the founding members of the Association of American Universities.

Considered one of the foremost research universities in the United States, the university has very high research activity and its comprehensive graduate program offers doctoral degrees in the humanities, social sciences, and STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) as well as professional degrees in business, medicine, law, pharmacy, nursing, social work and dentistry. Michigan’s body of living alumni (as of 2012) comprises more than 500,000. Besides academic life, Michigan’s athletic teams compete in Division I of the NCAA and are collectively known as the Wolverines. They are members of the Big Ten Conference.

At over $12.4 billion in 2019, Michigan’s endowment is among the largest of any university. As of October 2019, 53 MacArthur “genius award” winners (29 alumni winners and 24 faculty winners), 26 Nobel Prize winners, six Turing Award winners, one Fields Medalist and one Mitchell Scholar have been affiliated with the university. Its alumni include eight heads of state or government, including President of the United States Gerald Ford; 38 cabinet-level officials; and 26 living billionaires. It also has many alumni who are Fulbright Scholars and MacArthur Fellows.

Research

Michigan is one of the founding members (in the year 1900) of the Association of American Universities. With over 6,200 faculty members, 73 of whom are members of the National Academy and 471 of whom hold an endowed chair in their discipline, the university manages one of the largest annual collegiate research budgets of any university in the United States. According to the National Science Foundation, Michigan spent $1.6 billion on research and development in 2018, ranking it 2nd in the nation. This figure totaled over $1 billion in 2009. The Medical School spent the most at over $445 million, while the College of Engineering was second at more than $160 million. U-M also has a technology transfer office, which is the university conduit between laboratory research and corporate commercialization interests.

In 2009, the university signed an agreement to purchase a facility formerly owned by Pfizer. The acquisition includes over 170 acres (0.69 km^2) of property, and 30 major buildings comprising roughly 1,600,000 square feet (150,000 m^2) of wet laboratory space, and 400,000 square feet (37,000 m^2) of administrative space. At the time of the agreement, the university’s intentions for the space were not set, but the expectation was that the new space would allow the university to ramp up its research and ultimately employ in excess of 2,000 people.

The university is also a major contributor to the medical field with the EKG and the gastroscope. The university’s 13,000-acre (53 km^2) biological station in the Northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan is one of only 47 Biosphere Reserves in the United States.

In the mid-1960s U-M researchers worked with IBM to develop a new virtual memory architectural model that became part of IBM’s Model 360/67 mainframe computer (the 360/67 was initially dubbed the 360/65M where the “M” stood for Michigan). The Michigan Terminal System (MTS), an early time-sharing computer operating system developed at U-M, was the first system outside of IBM to use the 360/67’s virtual memory features.

U-M is home to the National Election Studies and the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index. The Correlates of War project, also located at U-M, is an accumulation of scientific knowledge about war. The university is also home to major research centers in optics, reconfigurable manufacturing systems, wireless integrated microsystems, and social sciences. The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute and the Life Sciences Institute are located at the university. The Institute for Social Research (ISR), the nation’s longest-standing laboratory for interdisciplinary research in the social sciences, is home to the Survey Research Center, Research Center for Group Dynamics, Center for Political Studies, Population Studies Center, and Inter-Consortium for Political and Social Research. Undergraduate students are able to participate in various research projects through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) as well as the UROP/Creative-Programs.

The U-M library system comprises nineteen individual libraries with twenty-four separate collections—roughly 13.3 million volumes. U-M was the original home of the JSTOR database, which contains about 750,000 digitized pages from the entire pre-1990 backfile of ten journals of history and economics, and has initiated a book digitization program in collaboration with Google. The University of Michigan Press is also a part of the U-M library system.

In the late 1960s U-M, together with Michigan State University and Wayne State University, founded the Merit Network, one of the first university computer networks. The Merit Network was then and remains today administratively hosted by U-M. Another major contribution took place in 1987 when a proposal submitted by the Merit Network together with its partners IBM, MCI, and the State of Michigan won a national competition to upgrade and expand the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET) backbone from 56,000 to 1.5 million, and later to 45 million bits per second. In 2006, U-M joined with Michigan State University and Wayne State University to create the the University Research Corridor. This effort was undertaken to highlight the capabilities of the state’s three leading research institutions and drive the transformation of Michigan’s economy. The three universities are electronically interconnected via the Michigan LambdaRail (MiLR, pronounced ‘MY-lar’), a high-speed data network providing 10 Gbit/s connections between the three university campuses and other national and international network connection points in Chicago.

From Engineering At The University of Michigan: “AI could run a million microbial experiments per year”

From Engineering

at

The University of Michigan

5.4.23 [Just today in social media.]
Jim Lynch

Professor Paul Jensen (second to the right) and graduate students (from left) Deepthi Suresh, Noelle Toong, and Benjamin David examine their robot performing automated experiments. Photo by Marcin Szczepanski/Michigan Engineering.

An artificial intelligence system enables robots to conduct autonomous scientific experiments—as many as 10,000 per day—potentially driving a drastic leap forward in the pace of discovery in areas from medicine to agriculture to environmental science.

Reported today in Nature Microbiology [below], the team was led by a professor now at the University of Michigan.

Autonomous experiments with AI robots.

That artificial intelligence platform, dubbed “BacterAI”, mapped the metabolism of two microbes associated with oral health—with no baseline information to start with. Bacteria consume some combination of the 20 amino acids needed to support life, but each species requires specific nutrients to grow. The U-M team wanted to know what amino acids are needed by the beneficial microbes in our mouths so they can promote their growth.

“We know almost nothing about most of the bacteria that influence our health. Understanding how bacteria grow is the first step toward reengineering our microbiome,” said Paul Jensen, U-M assistant professor of biomedical engineering who was at the University of Illinois when the project started.

Figuring out the combination of amino acids that bacteria like is tricky, however. Those 20 amino acids yield more than a million possible combinations, just based on whether each amino acid is present or not. Yet BacterAI was able to discover the amino acid requirements for the growth of both Streptococcus gordonii and Streptococcus sanguinis.

To find the right formula for each species, BacterAI tested hundreds of combinations of amino acids per day, honing its focus and changing combinations each morning based on the previous day’s results. Within nine days, it was producing accurate predictions 90% of the time.

Unlike conventional approaches that feed labeled data sets into a machine-learning model, BacterAI creates its own data set through a series of experiments. By analyzing the results of previous trials, it comes up with predictions of what new experiments might give it the most information. As a result, it figured out most of the rules for feeding bacteria with fewer than 4,000 experiments.

“When a child learns to walk, they don’t just watch adults walk and then say ‘Ok, I got it,’ stand up, and start walking. They fumble around and do some trial and error first,” Jensen said.

“We wanted our AI agent to take steps and fall down, to come up with its own ideas and make mistakes. Every day, it gets a little better, a little smarter.”

Little to no research has been conducted on roughly 90% of bacteria, and the amount of time and resources needed to learn even basic scientific information about them using conventional methods is daunting. Automated experimentation can drastically speed up these discoveries. The team ran up to 10,000 experiments in a single day.

But the applications go beyond microbiology. Researchers in any field can set up questions as puzzles for AI to solve through this kind of trial and error.

“With the recent explosion of mainstream AI over the last several months, many people are uncertain about what it will bring in the future, both positive and negative,” said Adam Dama, a former engineer in the Jensen Lab and lead author of the study. “But to me, it’s very clear that focused applications of AI like our project will accelerate everyday research.”

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health with support from NVIDIA.

Nature Microbiology

See the full article here .

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct. Use “Reply”.

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Please support STEM education in your local school system

Stem Education Coalition

University of Michigan Engineering campus[/caption]

Michigan Engineering provides scientific and technological leadership to the people of the world. Through our people-first engineering approach, we’re committed to fostering a community of engineers who will close critical gaps and elevate all people. We aspire to be the world’s preeminent college of engineering serving the common good.

Values

Leadership and excellence
Creativity, innovation and daring
Diversity, equity and social impact
Collegiality and collaboration
Transparency and trustworthiness

The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Originally, founded in 1817 in Detroit as the Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania, 20 years before the Michigan Territory officially became a state, the University of Michigan is the state’s oldest university. The university moved to Ann Arbor in 1837 onto 40 acres (16 ha) of what is now known as Central Campus. Since its establishment in Ann Arbor, the university campus has expanded to include more than 584 major buildings with a combined area of more than 34 million gross square feet (781 acres or 3.16 km²), and has two satellite campuses located in Flint and Dearborn. The University was one of the founding members of the Association of American Universities.

Considered one of the foremost research universities in the United States, the university has very high research activity and its comprehensive graduate program offers doctoral degrees in the humanities, social sciences, and STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) as well as professional degrees in business, medicine, law, pharmacy, nursing, social work and dentistry. Michigan’s body of living alumni (as of 2012) comprises more than 500,000. Besides academic life, Michigan’s athletic teams compete in Division I of the NCAA and are collectively known as the Wolverines. They are members of the Big Ten Conference.

At over $12.4 billion in 2019, Michigan’s endowment is among the largest of any university. As of October 2019, 53 MacArthur “genius award” winners (29 alumni winners and 24 faculty winners), 26 Nobel Prize winners, six Turing Award winners, one Fields Medalist and one Mitchell Scholar have been affiliated with the university. Its alumni include eight heads of state or government, including President of the United States Gerald Ford; 38 cabinet-level officials; and 26 living billionaires. It also has many alumni who are Fulbright Scholars and MacArthur Fellows.

Research

Michigan is one of the founding members (in the year 1900) of the Association of American Universities. With over 6,200 faculty members, 73 of whom are members of the National Academy and 471 of whom hold an endowed chair in their discipline, the university manages one of the largest annual collegiate research budgets of any university in the United States. According to the National Science Foundation, Michigan spent $1.6 billion on research and development in 2018, ranking it 2nd in the nation. This figure totaled over $1 billion in 2009. The Medical School spent the most at over $445 million, while the College of Engineering was second at more than $160 million. U-M also has a technology transfer office, which is the university conduit between laboratory research and corporate commercialization interests.

In 2009, the university signed an agreement to purchase a facility formerly owned by Pfizer. The acquisition includes over 170 acres (0.69 km^2) of property, and 30 major buildings comprising roughly 1,600,000 square feet (150,000 m^2) of wet laboratory space, and 400,000 square feet (37,000 m^2) of administrative space. At the time of the agreement, the university’s intentions for the space were not set, but the expectation was that the new space would allow the university to ramp up its research and ultimately employ in excess of 2,000 people.

The university is also a major contributor to the medical field with the EKG and the gastroscope. The university’s 13,000-acre (53 km^2) biological station in the Northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan is one of only 47 Biosphere Reserves in the United States.

In the mid-1960s U-M researchers worked with IBM to develop a new virtual memory architectural model that became part of IBM’s Model 360/67 mainframe computer (the 360/67 was initially dubbed the 360/65M where the “M” stood for Michigan). The Michigan Terminal System (MTS), an early time-sharing computer operating system developed at U-M, was the first system outside of IBM to use the 360/67’s virtual memory features.

U-M is home to the National Election Studies and the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index. The Correlates of War project, also located at U-M, is an accumulation of scientific knowledge about war. The university is also home to major research centers in optics, reconfigurable manufacturing systems, wireless integrated microsystems, and social sciences. The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute and the Life Sciences Institute are located at the university. The Institute for Social Research (ISR), the nation’s longest-standing laboratory for interdisciplinary research in the social sciences, is home to the Survey Research Center, Research Center for Group Dynamics, Center for Political Studies, Population Studies Center, and Inter-Consortium for Political and Social Research. Undergraduate students are able to participate in various research projects through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) as well as the UROP/Creative-Programs.

The U-M library system comprises nineteen individual libraries with twenty-four separate collections—roughly 13.3 million volumes. U-M was the original home of the JSTOR database, which contains about 750,000 digitized pages from the entire pre-1990 backfile of ten journals of history and economics, and has initiated a book digitization program in collaboration with Google. The University of Michigan Press is also a part of the U-M library system.

In the late 1960s U-M, together with Michigan State University and Wayne State University, founded the Merit Network, one of the first university computer networks. The Merit Network was then and remains today administratively hosted by U-M. Another major contribution took place in 1987 when a proposal submitted by the Merit Network together with its partners IBM, MCI, and the State of Michigan won a national competition to upgrade and expand the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET) backbone from 56,000 to 1.5 million, and later to 45 million bits per second. In 2006, U-M joined with Michigan State University and Wayne State University to create the the University Research Corridor. This effort was undertaken to highlight the capabilities of the state’s three leading research institutions and drive the transformation of Michigan’s economy. The three universities are electronically interconnected via the Michigan LambdaRail (MiLR, pronounced ‘MY-lar’), a high-speed data network providing 10 Gbit/s connections between the three university campuses and other national and international network connection points in Chicago.

From Curtin University (AU) : “First soil map of terrestrial and blue carbon highlights need for conservation”

From Curtin University (AU)

6.2.23
Lucien Wilkinson
Office +61 8 9266 9185
Mobile +61 401 103 683
lucien.wilkinson@curtin.edu.au

Vanessa Beasley
Office +61 8 9266 1811
Mobile +61 466 853 121
vanessa.beasley@curtin.edu.au

Yasmine Phillips
Office +61 8 9266 9085
Mobile +61 401 103 877
yasmine.phillips@curtin.edu.au

New Curtin University research has identified the most carbon-rich soils in Australia are in areas that are most threatened by human activities and climate change, including Eucalypt and mangrove forests, and woodland and grassland areas that cover large parts of the country’s interior. Curtin.

Lead researcher Dr Lewis Walden from Curtin’s Soil & Landscape Science Research Group in the School of Molecular and Life Sciences said the findings highlighted the need to protect key terrestrial and coastal marine ecosystems, which play an important contributing role in national strategies to mitigate climate change.

“Using multiscale machine learning, we mapped the carbon storage of soils across Australia and found the entire continent holds a total of 27.9 gigatonnes, or billion metric tonnes, of carbon in the top 30cm of the soil, which is equivalent to around 700 times Australia’s total annual electricity emissions,” Dr Walden said.

“Of this amount, 27.6 Gt of was in terrestrial ecosystems, with the remaining 0.35 Gt in coastal marine or ‘blue carbon’ ecosystems.

“We also found climate and vegetation were the main drivers of variations in carbon storage for the continent as a whole, while at a regional level this was determined by ecosystem type, the elevation and shape of the terrain, clay content, mineralogy and nutrients.

“Eucalypt and mangrove forests store the most carbon per unit area, but woodland and grasslands store more carbon in total, due to the vast areas across Australia they cover.”

Professor Raphael Viscarra Rossel, who leads Curtin’s Soil & Landscape Science Research Group said these carbon-rich ecosystems were known to be those most threatened by human activities and climate change.

“Our findings suggest these are essential ecosystems for conservation, preservation, emissions avoidance and nature-based climate change mitigation,” Professor Viscarra Rossel said.

“These ecosystems are important as sources of products and food, and in the case of blue carbon ecosystems for providing coastal protection against storm surges and erosion, and as fisheries habitats that provide breeding grounds and nurseries for many species of marine life.

“Understanding the variation and drivers of carbon storage will help manage those ecosystems better and inform national carbon inventories and environmental policy.”

Dr Walden is a Research Associate in Soil and Landscape Science Group.

Funding for the research was from the Australian Government’s Australia-China Science and Research Fund Joint Research Centre on ‘Next-generation soil carbon systems’.

The research used Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) infrastructure, which is enabled by the Australian Government’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy, and computational resources at the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre, which is funded by the Australian Government and the Government of Western Australia.
___________________________________________________

The Pawsey Supercomputing Centre an unincorporated joint venture between CSIRO, Curtin University, Edith Cowan University, Murdoch University and The University of Western Australia and is supported by the Western Australian and Federal Governments

Magnus Cray XC40 supercomputer at Pawsey Supercomputer Centre Perth Australia

Galaxy Cray XC30 Series Supercomputer at at Pawsey Supercomputer Centre Perth Australia

Fujitsu Raijin Supercomputer

Pausey HPE Cray EX supercomputer.

Pausey (AU) HPE Cray EX supercomputer depiction.

Pawsey Cray EX Supercomputer – Setonix

___________________________________________________

Digital maps of Soil Organic Carbon stocks are available for download via the TERN data portal.

The research is published in Communications Earth & Environment.

See the full article here .

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct. Use “Reply”.

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Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

Curtin University (AU) (formerly known as Curtin University of Technology and Western Australian Institute of Technology) is an Australian public research university based in Bentley and Perth, Western Australia. The university is named after the 14th Prime Minister of Australia, John Curtin, and is the largest university in Western Australia, with over 58,000 students (as of 2016).

Curtin would like to pay respect to the indigenous members of our community by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which the Perth campus is located, the Wadjuk people of the Nyungar Nation; and on our Kalgoorlie campus, the Wongutha people of the North-Eastern Goldfields.

Curtin was conferred university status after legislation was passed by the Parliament of Western Australia in 1986. Since then, the university has been expanding its presence and has campuses in Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai and Mauritius. It has ties with 90 exchange universities in 20 countries. The University comprises five main faculties with over 95 specialists centres. The University formerly had a Sydney campus between 2005 & 2016. On 17 September 2015, Curtin University Council made a decision to close its Sydney campus by early 2017.

Curtin University is a member of The Australian Technology Network , and is active in research in a range of academic and practical fields, including Resources and Energy (e.g., petroleum gas), Information and Communication, Health, Ageing and Well-being (Public Health), Communities and Changing Environments, Growth and Prosperity and Creative Writing.

It is the only Western Australian university to produce a PhD recipient of the AINSE gold medal, which is the highest recognition for PhD-level research excellence in Australia and New Zealand.

Curtin has become active in research and partnerships overseas, particularly in mainland China. It is involved in a number of business, management, and research projects, particularly in supercomputing, where the university participates in a tri-continental array with nodes in Perth, Beijing, and Edinburgh. Western Australia has become an important exporter of minerals, petroleum and natural gas. The Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited the Woodside-funded hydrocarbon research facility during his visit to Australia in 2005.

From The Tokyo Institute of Technology [東京工業大学] (JP): “Novel Tin-Based Metal–Organic Frameworks for Reducing Carbon Dioxide to Formate”

From The Tokyo Institute of Technology [東京工業大学] (JP)

6.2.23
Further Information
Professor Kazuhiko Maeda
Department of Chemistry
School of Science
Tokyo Institute of Technology
maedak@chem.titech.ac.jp

Contact
Public Relations Division,
Tokyo Institute of Technology
media@jim.titech.ac.jp
+81-3-5734-2975

Researchers from Tokyo Tech have developed a tin-based metal–organic framework (MOF) that can photocatalytically reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) into formate under visible light. The tin-based MOF exhibited a high apparent quantum yield of 9.8% and carried out extremely selective photoreduction without needing an additional photosensitizer. This could prove extremely useful, as currently, most metal complexes for reducing CO2 to useful chemicals utilize expensive, rare and precious metals.

The never-ending demand for carbon-rich fuels to drive the economy keeps adding more and more carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere. While efforts are being made to reduce CO2 emissions, that alone cannot counter the adverse effects of the gas already present in the atmosphere. So, scientists have come up with innovative ways to use existing atmospheric CO2 by transforming it into useful chemicals such as formic acid (HCOOH) and methanol. A popular method for carrying out such conversions is to use visible light for driving the photoreduction of CO2 via photocatalysts.

In a recent breakthrough published in Angewandte Chemie, International Edition[below] on May 8, 2023, a team of researchers led by Prof. Kazuhiko Maeda of Tokyo Institute of Technology developed a tin-based metal–organic framework (MOF) that can enable selective photoreduction of CO2. They reported a novel tin (Sn)-based MOF called KGF-10, with the formula [SnII2(H3ttc)2.MeOH]n (H3ttc: trithiocyanuric acid and MeOH: methanol). It successfully reduced CO2 into HCOOH in the presence of visible light. “Most high-performance CO2 reduction photocatalysts driven by visible light rely on rare, precious metals as principal components. Furthermore, integrating the functions of light absorption and catalysis into a single molecular unit made up of abundant metals has remained a long-standing challenge. Hence, Sn was the ideal candidate as it can overcome both challenges,” explains Prof. Maeda.

“MOFs”, which bring the best of both metals and organic materials, are being explored as the more sustainable alternative to conventional rare-earth metal-based photocatalysts. Sn, known for its ability to act as both a catalyst and absorber during a photocatalytic reaction, could be a promising candidate for MOF-based photocatalysts. While MOFs composed of zirconium, iron, and lead have been widely explored, not much is known about Sn-based MOFs.

For synthesizing the Sn-based MOF KGF-10, the researchers used H3ttc, MeOH, and tin chloride as the starting materials and chose 1,3-dimethyl-2-phenyl-2,3-dihydro-1H-benzo[d]imidazole as the electron donor and the hydrogen source. The prepared KGF-10 was then subjected to several analysis techniques. They revealed that the material showed moderate CO2 adsorption ability, had a bandgap of 2.5 eV, and absorbed visible light wavelengths.

Once aware of the physical and chemical properties of the new material, scientists used it for catalyzing the reduction of CO2 in the presence of visible light. They found that KGF-10 successfully reduced CO2 into formate (HCOO-) with 99% selectivity without needing any additional photosensitizer or catalyst. It also exhibited a record-high apparent quantum yield— the ratio of the number of electrons involved in the reaction to the total number of incident photons—of 9.8% at 400 nm. Furthermore, structural analysis carried out during the reactions revealed that KGF-10 underwent structural changes while facilitating photocatalytic reduction.

This study presented for the first time a tin-based high-performance, precious-metal free, and single-component photocatalyst for visible-light-driven reduction of CO2 to formate. The excellent properties of KGF-10 demonstrated by the team would open new avenues for its application as a photocatalyst in reactions such as solar energy-driven CO2 reduction. “The results of our study are a testimony to the fact that MOFs can be a platform for creating outstanding photocatalytic functions, usually unattainable with molecular metal complexes, using non-toxic, inexpensive, and Earth-abundant metals,” concludes Prof. Maeda.

Angewandte Chemie, International Edition

Figure 1

Crystal structures of KGF-10 (a) near the ligand and (b) whole structures without MeOH molecules for clarity. (c) PXRD patterns for KGF-10: simulated (black) and as-synthesized (red). The broad peak at ≈23° is from the glass substrate. (d) SEM and EDS mapping images, (e) N2 sorption isotherms at 77 K, (f) UV-vis diffuse-reflectance spectrum and (g) Mott–Schottky plots for KGF-10.

See the science paper for instructive material with images.

See the full article here .

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct. Use “Reply”.

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Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The Tokyo Institute of Technology [東京工業大学] (JP) is the top national university for science and technology in Japan with a history spanning more than 130 years. Of the approximately 10,000 students at the Ookayama, Suzukakedai, and Tamachi Campuses, half are in their bachelor’s degree program while the other half are in master’s and doctoral degree programs. International students number 1,200. There are 1,200 faculty and 600 administrative and technical staff members.

In the 21st century, the role of science and technology universities has become increasingly important. Tokyo Tech continues to develop global leaders in the fields of science and technology, and contributes to the betterment of society through its research, focusing on solutions to global issues. The Institute’s long-term goal is to become the world’s leading science and technology university.

Schools and departments

TokyoTech comprises 6 schools, a number of departments and Institute for Liberal Arts.

School of Science (ja)
Department of Mathematics
Department of Physics
Department of Chemistry
Department of Earth and Planetary Science
School of Engineering (ja)
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Department of Systems and Control Engineering
Department of Electrical and Electric Engineering
Department of Information and Communication Engineering
Department of Industrial Engineering and Economics
School of Life Science and Technology (ja)
Department of Life Science and Technology
School of Computing (ja)
Department of Mathematical and Computing Science
Department of Computer Science
School of Environment and Society (ja)
Department of Architecture and Building Engineering
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Department of Transdisciplinary Science and Engineering
Department of Social and Human Sciences
Technology Innovation Management / Department of Innovation Science
Institute for Liberal Arts

Research laboratories

Chemical Resources Laboratory
Precision and Intelligence Laboratory
Materials and Structures Laboratory
Research Laboratory for Nuclear Reactors
Quantum Nano Electronics Research Centre
Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI)

Centers
Politics and social sciences

Centre for Research in Advanced Financial Technology (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
Precision and Intelligence Laboratory (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
Solutions Research Laboratory
Integrated Research Institute
Global Edge Institute (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
Productive Leader Incubation Platform
Academy for Global Leadership
Centre for Research and Development of Educational Technology (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
Research Centre for Educational Facilities
Creative Research Laboratory
Research Centre for the Science of Institutional Management of Technology
Collaboration Centre for Design and Manufacturing (CODAMA)
Centre for Agent-Based Social Systems Sciences (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
Foreign Language Research and Teaching Centre
Centre for the Study of World Civilizations
Asia-Africa Biology Research Centre
Centre for CompView Research and Education
Career Advancement Professional School
Organization for Life Design and Engineering
Centre for Liberal Arts

Engineering and computing

Materials and Structure Laboratory (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
Frontier Research Centre
Imaging Science and Engineering Laboratory
Global Scientific Information and Computing Centre
Structural Engineering Research Centre
Super-Mechano Systems R&D Centre
Centre for Photonic Nano-Device Integrated Engineering
Photovoltaics Research Center
Inter-departmental organization for Informatics

Chemistry and life sciences

Chemical Resources Laboratory
Research Centre for Carbon Recycling and Energy
Centre for Biological Resources and Informatics
International Research Centre of Macromolecular Science
Bio-Frontier Research Centre
Emerging Nanomaterial Research Centre
Centre for Molecular Science and Technology
The Osmotic Power Research Centre

Physics and astronomy

Volcanic Fluid Research Centre (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
Research Laboratory for Nuclear Reactors (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
Research Centre for Low Temperature Physics
Quantum Nanoelectronics Research Centre
Centre for Urban Earthquake Engineering
Research Centre for Nanometer-Scale Quantum Physics
Research Centre for the Evolving Earth and Planets
Centre for Research into Innovative Nuclear Energy Systems

Other facilities

Asia-Oceania Top University League on Engineering
Tokyo Tech Archive Initiative
Health Service Centres
TITECH Earth Database Centre
Tokyo Tech Front
International Student Centre
Inter-departmental Organization for Environment and Energy
ICE Cube Centre

From Radboud University [Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen](NL) : “Eventually everything will evaporate – not only black holes”

From Radboud University [Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen](NL)

6.2.23
Dr M.F. Wondrak (Michael)
michael.wondrak@ru.nl

Prof. W.D. van Suijlekom (Walter)
waltervs@math.ru.nl
024-3652873

Prof. H.D.E. Falcke (Heino)
h.falcke@astro.ru.nl
024-3652020

Messier 87*, The first image of the event horizon of a black hole. This is the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy Messier 87. Image via The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration released on 10 April 2019 via National Science Foundation.

Messier 87* Supermassive Black Hole Image Evolves.

New theoretical research by Michael Wondrak, Walter van Suijlekom and Heino Falcke of Radboud University has shown that Stephen Hawking was right about black holes, although not completely. Due to Hawking radiation, black holes will eventually evaporate, but the event horizon is not as crucial as has been believed. Gravity and the curvature of spacetime cause this radiation too. This means that all large objects in the universe, like the remnants of stars, will eventually evaporate.

Using a clever combination of quantum physics and Albert Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, Stephen Hawking argued that the spontaneous creation and annihilation of pairs of particles must occur near the event horizon (the point beyond which there is no escape from the gravitational force of a black hole). A particle and its anti-particle are created very briefly from the quantum field, after which they immediately annihilate. But sometimes a particle falls into the black hole, and then the other particle can escape: Hawking radiation. According to Hawking, this would eventually result in the evaporation of black holes.

Spiral

In this new study the researchers at Radboud University revisited this process and investigated whether or not the presence of an event horizon is indeed crucial. They combined techniques from physics, astronomy and mathematics to examine what happens if such pairs of particles are created in the surroundings of black holes. The study showed that new particles can also be created far beyond this horizon. Michael Wondrak: “We demonstrate that, in addition to the well-known Hawking radiation, there is also a new form of radiation.”

Everything evaporates

Van Suijlekom: “We show that far beyond a black hole the curvature of spacetime plays a big role in creating radiation. The particles are already separated there by the tidal forces of the gravitational field.” Whereas it was previously thought that no radiation was possible without the event horizon, this study shows that this horizon is not necessary.

Falcke: “That means that objects without an event horizon, such as the remnants of dead stars and other large objects in the universe, also have this sort of radiation. And, after a very long period, that would lead to everything in the universe eventually evaporating, just like black holes. This changes not only our understanding of Hawking radiation but also our view of the universe and its future.”

The study was published on 2 June in the Physical Review Letters

https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.221502

See the full article here .

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Radboud University [Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen](NL) has seven faculties and enrolls over 19.900 students in 112 study programs (37 bachelor’s and 75 master’s programs).

As of September 2013, the university offers 36 international master’s programs taught in English and several more taught in Dutch. There are nine bachelor’s programs taught fully in English: American Studies, Artificial Intelligence, Biology, Chemistry, Computing Science, International Economics & Business, International Business Administration, English Language and Culture, and Molecular Life Sciences. International Business Communication, Psychology and Arts and Culture Studies offer English-language tracks. All other bachelors are in Dutch, although most of the required literature is in English. Some exams, papers and even classes may be in English as well, despite the programs being Dutch-taught. All master’s programs have been internationally accredited by the Accreditation Organization of the Netherlands and Flanders(NVAO).

From The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich [ETH Zürich] [Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich] (CH): “His mathematical intelligence was ‘unparalleled’” John von Neumann

From The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich [ETH Zürich] [Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich] (CH)

6.2.23
Florian Meyer

John von Neumann was one of the most important mathematicians and computer pioneers of the 20th century – and an ETH alumnus. He began his studies in chemistry here one hundred years ago. ETH Professor Benjamin Sudakov pays tribute to a mathematical legacy at a symposium.

The mathematical skills of John von Neumann (in the background on the left) were already legendary during his lifetime: while at Princeton, he engaged in dialogue with Albert Einstein. (Photograph: Princeton University / Palmer Lab Researchers and of Physics Department Faculty)

ETH News: Let’s start with an anecdote. John von Neumann’s mental arithmetic skills were legendary. It is said that he managed to solve even the most complex problems in his head at lightning speed.

Benjamin Sudakov: This is true: The first thing that people recall about John von Neumann is his phenomenal speed of thought. He didn’t have to remember things; he computed them. If he was asked a question and didn’t know the answer, he would think for three seconds and produce a response. Yet, fast thinking was not his most outstanding characteristic. He was also very deep. It is the breadth of his scientific heritage that amazes me the most.

Today, John von Neumann is recognized as being one of the most important mathematicians of the 20th century, not to mention a computer pioneer.

Benjamin Sudakov: He was a visionary when it came to the first computers. His interest in computers was motivated by the applied problems he sought to solve. He also had an incredible impact on the development of modern mathematics. Just to understand the sheer breadth of his heritage: even highly influential scientists are usually associated with at most three to perhaps seven major scientific achievements. If you look at John von Neumann, you will find he made more than 100 significant contributions to various subjects in different scientific fields. I think that in terms of mathematical intelligence, he was virtually unparalleled.

John von Neumann (1903–1957) studied chemistry at ETH Zürich in the 1920s. He made outstanding contributions to the fields of mathematics, computer science and quantum physics. (Photograph: U.S. Department of Energy)

When John von Neumann began his studies at ETH Zürich, he was enrolled in chemistry.

Benjamin Sudakov: Von Neumann studied chemistry for two reasons: On the one hand, it was a compromise with his father, a wealthy banker, who insisted that he study something that would allow him to earn a real income later. On the other, he had a great affinity for applications throughout his life, which manifested itself not only in his involvement in designing the first computers but also in chemistry. In the end, he graduated with a PhD in Chemical Engineering from ETH Zürich in 1926 while at the same time completing a PhD in Mathematics in 1926 in Budapest.

During his studies, ETH Zürich was also a global focal point for mathematical research. Did he have contact with ETH mathematicians?

Benjamin Sudakov: He actually engaged in dialogue with them. He often talked with another outstanding Hungarian mathematician, George Pólya, who was a professor at ETH Zürich during von Neumann’s time as a student. Pólya had a very famous saying about John von Neumann. He said that the only student he was ever afraid of was Johnny – as he used to call him. If Pólya mentioned an unsolved problem during the course of a lecture, the chances were that von Neumann would come to him as soon as the lecture was over with a few scribbles on paper on which he had come up with the complete solution.

What are von Neumann’s greatest achievements in mathematics?

Benjamin Sudakov: It is amazing how easy it was for him to switch from one area of mathematics to another. He not only solved existing fundamental problems but also created completely new fields. Among the areas of research to which he made a fundamental contribution at a very early stage, or was even the first to do so at all, are quantum physics, ergodic theory, game theory and the Monte Carlo method.

What was his contribution to quantum physics?

Benjamin Sudakov: When von Neumann left ETH Zürich, physicists had already come up with various concepts and insights into the workings of quantum mechanics. However, they lacked a stringent language and rigorous mathematical foundations to describe them. Von Neumann developed a whole mathematical language and methodology of quantum mechanics in very short time. His book on the mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics paved the way for a new field of research. This was such a major contribution to science that he would have been remembered for this alone.

What about his other major contributions?

Benjamin Sudakov: He was also one of the founding fathers of ergodic theory. This theory usually applies to the long-​term behaviour of various physical systems. For example, it relates the movements of individual molecules to the behaviour of gas as a whole. Here again, von Neumann laid the foundations for mathematically exact analyses.

What about Monte Carlo?

Benjamin Sudakov: He was working at Los Alamos as part of the Manhattan Project when the US was building the first atomic bomb. Together with other mathematicians, he carried out various very complicated computations related to nuclear chain reactions. The scientists developed a method of computation based on random measurements that enabled them to understand very complicated phenomena. Today, the Monte Carlo method is a very powerful tool that cannot be overestimated. It has proven useful in all areas of science, as it allows estimates to be drawn up for processes that are difficult to calculate empirically.

Why is it called Monte Carlo?

Benjamin Sudakov: John von Neumann and his partners Stan Ulam and Nicolas Metropolis were obliged to use a code word to keep their research secret. That’s when Metropolis remembered how his uncle used to gamble at the casino in Monte Carlo. Since what they were doing was very similar to gambling, they decided to call it the Monte Carlo method.

Regarding gambling, John von Neumann invented game theory, which is broadly used in economics and social sciences today. This theory also describes the logic of deterrence in the Cold War. What is its value in mathematics?

Benjamin Sudakov: Game theory was invented by von Neumann with the help of economist Oskar Morgenstern. One interesting output is the Minimax theorem, which is one of the key mathematical ideas in game theory. This theorem describes a zero-​sum game that, put simply, states that my loss and my opponent’s gain balance each other out. What is mathematically interesting is that this theorem can also be used as the basis to determine how efficient a randomized algorithm can be. This also plays a role in computer science.

So, the question remains, why didn’t he get a Nobel Prize? Was his field of research too broad?

Benjamin Sudakov: You know, the Nobel Prize is awarded for applied aspects of science. Mathematics is not on the list of disciplines eligible for the Nobel Prize. It is also usually awarded to people who are at a late stage in their career. Von Neumann died very young in 1957. The Nobel Prizes in Economics for game theorists were awarded much later.
________________________________________________________________________

Symposium in honour of John von Neumann

A symposium will be held today, Friday, 2 June 2023, in honour of John von Neumann (1903–1957), who began studying at ETH Zürich in 1923. It is being organized by professors from various departments of ETH Zürich and the University of Zürich.

Friday, 2 June 2023, in the ETH Zürich Audimax (HG F 30), Rämistrasse 101, Zürich. Starting at 3 p.m., with four lectures by:

Serge Haroche, ENS Paris, winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics, on quantum mechanics and quantum information.
Yurii Nesterov, UC Louvain, winner of the 2009 John von Neumann Theory Prize, on higher-​order methods for finding equilibrium
Larry Samuelson, Cowles Foundation at Yale University, on economics, utility and game theory
Benny Sudakov, ETH Zürich, on mathematical contributions by von Neumann

See the full article here .

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The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich [ETH Zürich] [Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich] (CH) is a public research university in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. Founded by the Swiss Federal Government in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the school focuses exclusively on science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Like its sister institution The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne [EPFL-École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne](CH) , it is part of The Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain (ETH Domain)) , part of the The Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research [EAER][Eidgenössisches Departement für Wirtschaft, Bildung und Forschung] [Département fédéral de l’économie, de la formation et de la recherche] (CH).

The university is an attractive destination for international students thanks to low tuition fees of 809 CHF per semester, PhD and graduate salaries that are amongst the world’s highest, and a world-class reputation in academia and industry. There are currently 22,200 students from over 120 countries, of which 4,180 are pursuing doctoral degrees. In the 2021 edition of the QS World University Rankings ETH Zürich is ranked 6th in the world and 8th by the Times Higher Education World Rankings 2020. In the 2020 QS World University Rankings by subject it is ranked 4th in the world for engineering and technology (2nd in Europe) and 1st for earth & marine science.

As of November 2019, 21 Nobel laureates, 2 Fields Medalists, 2 Pritzker Prize winners, and 1 Turing Award winner have been affiliated with the Institute, including Albert Einstein. Other notable alumni include John von Neumann and Santiago Calatrava. It is a founding member of the IDEA League and the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU) and a member of the CESAER network.

ETH Zürich was founded on 7 February 1854 by the Swiss Confederation and began giving its first lectures on 16 October 1855 as a polytechnic institute (eidgenössische polytechnische schule) at various sites throughout the city of Zurich. It was initially composed of six faculties: architecture, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, chemistry, forestry, and an integrated department for the fields of mathematics, natural sciences, literature, and social and political sciences.

It is locally still known as Polytechnikum, or simply as Poly, derived from the original name eidgenössische polytechnische schule, which translates to “federal polytechnic school”.

ETH Zürich is a federal institute (i.e., under direct administration by the Swiss government), whereas The University of Zürich [Universität Zürich ] (CH) is a cantonal institution. The decision for a new federal university was heavily disputed at the time; the liberals pressed for a “federal university”, while the conservative forces wanted all universities to remain under cantonal control, worried that the liberals would gain more political power than they already had. In the beginning, both universities were co-located in the buildings of the University of Zürich.

From 1905 to 1908, under the presidency of Jérôme Franel, the course program of ETH Zürich was restructured to that of a real university and ETH Zürich was granted the right to award doctorates. In 1909 the first doctorates were awarded. In 1911, it was given its current name, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule. In 1924, another reorganization structured the university in 12 departments. However, it now has 16 departments.

ETH Zürich, EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne) [École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne](CH), and four associated research institutes form The Domain of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (ETH Domain) [ETH-Bereich; Domaine des Écoles polytechniques fédérales] (CH) with the aim of collaborating on scientific projects.

Reputation and ranking

ETH Zürich is ranked among the top universities in the world. Typically, popular rankings place the institution as the best university in continental Europe and ETH Zürich is consistently ranked among the top 1-5 universities in Europe, and among the top 3-10 best universities of the world.

Historically, ETH Zürich has achieved its reputation particularly in the fields of chemistry, mathematics and physics. There are 32 Nobel laureates who are associated with ETH Zürich, the most recent of whom is Richard F. Heck, awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2010. Albert Einstein is perhaps its most famous alumnus.

In 2018, the QS World University Rankings placed ETH Zürich at 7th overall in the world. In 2015, ETH Zürich was ranked 5th in the world in Engineering, Science and Technology, just behind the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and University of Cambridge (UK). In 2015, ETH Zürich also ranked 6th in the world in Natural Sciences, and in 2016 ranked 1st in the world for Earth & Marine Sciences for the second consecutive year.

In 2016, Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranked ETH Zürich 9th overall in the world and 8th in the world in the field of Engineering & Technology, just behind the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, California Institute of Technology, Princeton University, University of Cambridge(UK), Imperial College London(UK) and University of Oxford(UK) .

In a comparison of Swiss universities by swissUP Ranking and in rankings published by CHE comparing the universities of German-speaking countries, ETH Zürich traditionally is ranked first in natural sciences, computer science and engineering sciences.

In the survey CHE Excellence Ranking on the quality of Western European graduate school programs in the fields of biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics, ETH Zürich was assessed as one of the three institutions to have excellent programs in all the considered fields, the other two being Imperial College London (UK) and the University of Cambridge (UK), respectively.

From “The New York Times” : “With a New and Improved ‘Einstein’ Puzzlers Settle a Math Problem”

From “The New York Times”

Earlier this spring “tiling” aficionados thought maybe they’d found the shape of their dreams. Now they’re certain.

6.1.23
Siobhan Roberts

Researchers have now unequivocally discovered an “einstein” — a single shape that tiles a plane, or an infinite two-dimensional flat surface, but only in a nonrepeating pattern. Credit: David Smith and Joseph Samuel Myers and Craig S. Kaplan and Chaim Goodman-Strauss.

In March, a team of mathematical tilers announced their solution to a storied problem: They had discovered an elusive “einstein” — a single shape that tiles a plane, or an infinite two-dimensional flat surface, but only in a nonrepeating pattern. “I’ve always wanted to make a discovery,” David Smith, the shape hobbyist whose original find spurred the research, said at the time.

Mr. Smith and his collaborators named their einstein “the hat.” (The term “einstein” comes from the German “ein stein,” or “one stone” — more loosely, “one tile” or “one shape.”) It has since been fodder for Jimmy Kimmel, a shower curtain, a quilt, a soccer ball and cookie cutters, among other doodads. Hatfest is happening at the University of Oxford in July.

“Who would believe that a little polygon could kick up such a fuss,” said Marjorie Senechal, a mathematician at Smith College who is on the roster of speakers for the event.

The researchers might have been satisfied with the discovery and the hullabaloo, and left well enough alone. But Mr. Smith, of Bridlington in East Yorkshire, England, and known as an “imaginative tinkerer,” could not stop tinkering. Now, two months later, the team has one-upped itself with a new-and-improved einstein. (Papers for both results are not yet peer reviewed.)

This tiling pursuit first began in the 1960s, when the mathematician Hao Wang conjectured that it would be impossible to find a set of shapes that could tile a plane only aperiodically. His student Robert Berger, now a retired electrical engineer in Lexington, Mass., proceeded to find a set of 20,426 tiles that did so, followed by a set of 104. By the 1970s, Sir Roger Penrose, a mathematical physicist at Oxford, had brought it down to two.

And then came the “monotile hat”.

https://hedraweb.wordpress.com/

But there was a quibble.

Paper cutouts of the T(1,1) tile assembled by David Smith into a contiguous patch; none of the tiles are reflections, or mirror images of the original. Credit: David Smith.

Dr. Berger (among others, including the researchers of the recent papers) noted that the hat tiling uses reflections — it includes both the hat-shaped tile and its mirror image. “If you want to be picky about it, you can say, well, that’s not really a one-tile set, that’s a two-tile set, where the other tile happens to be a reflection of the first,” Dr. Berger said.

“To some extent, this question is about tiles as physical objects rather than mathematical abstractions,” the authors wrote in the new paper. “A hat cut from paper or plastic can easily be turned over in three dimensions to obtain its reflection, but a glazed ceramic tile cannot.”

The new “monotile” discovery does not use reflections. And the researchers did not have to look far to find it — it is “a close relative of the hat,” they noted.

“I wasn’t surprised that such a tile existed,” said the co-author Joseph Myers, a software developer in Cambridge, England. “That one existed so closely related to the hat was surprising.”

Originally, the team discovered that the hat was part of a “morphing continuum”: an uncountable infinity of shapes, obtained by increasing and decreasing the edges of the hat — that produce aperiodic tilings using reflections.

But there was an exception, a “rogue member of the continuum,” said Craig Kaplan, a co-author and a computer scientist at the University of Waterloo. This shape, technically known as Tile (1,1), can be regarded as an equilateral version of the hat and as such is not an aperiodic monotile. (It generates a simple periodic tiling.) “It’s kind of ridiculous and amazing that that shape happens to have a hidden superpower,” Dr. Kaplan said — a superpower that unlocked the new discovery.

The equilateral polygon monotile at left; two “Spectre” monotiles at right. Credit:Craig Kaplan.

A selection of “Spectre” tiles that prohibit reflections. Credit: David Smith.

Inspired by explorations by Yoshiaki Araki, president of the Japan Tessellation Design Association in Tokyo, Mr. Smith began tinkering with Tile (1,1) shortly after the first discovery was posted online in March. “I machine-cut shapes from card, to see what might happen if I were to use only unreflected tiles,” he said in an email. Reflected tiles were forbidden “by fiat,” as the authors put it.

Mr. Smith said, “It wasn’t long before I produced a reasonably large patch” — fitting tiles together like a jigsaw puzzle, with no overlaps or gaps. He knew he was on to something.

Investigating further — with a combination of traditional mathematical reasoning and drawing, plus computational handiwork by Dr. Kaplan and Dr. Myers — the team proved that this tiling was indeed aperiodic.

“We call this a ‘weakly chiral aperiodic monotile,’” Dr. Kaplan explained on social media. “It’s aperiodic in a reflection-free universe, but tiles periodically if you’re allowed to use reflections.”

The adjective “chiral” means “handedness,” from the Greek “kheir,” for “hand.” They called the new aperiodic tiling “chiral” because it is composed exclusively of either left- or right-handed tiles. “You can’t mix the two,” said Chaim Goodman-Strauss, a co-author and outreach mathematician at the National Museum of Mathematics in New York.

The team then went one better: They produced a family of strong or “strictly chiral aperiodic monotiles” through a simple modification of the T(1,1) tile: They replaced the straight edges with curves.

Named “Spectres,” these monotiles, owing to their curvy contours, only allow nonperiodic tilings, and without reflections. “A left-handed Spectre cannot interlock with its right-handed mirror image,” said Dr. Kaplan.

“Now there is no quibbling about whether the aperiodic tile set has one or two tiles,” Dr. Berger said in an email. “It’s satisfying to see a glazed ceramic einstein.”

Doris Schattschneider, a mathematician at Moravian University, said, “This is more what I would have expected of an aperiodic monotile.” On a tiling listserv, she had just seen a playful “Escherization” (after the Dutch artist M.C. Escher) of the Spectre tile by Dr. Araki, who called it a “twinhead pig.”

“It’s not simple like the hat,” Dr. Schattschneider said. “This is a really strange tile. It looks like a mistake of nature.”
_______________________________________________________________________
The Curious World of Mathematics

Is there a single shape — an “einstein” — that can tile an infinite two-dimensional flat surface, but only in a nonrepeating pattern? Earlier this spring, tiling aficionados thought they had found one. Now they’re certain.

An online math community faced a problem-solving dilemma when it was asked a simple question: How can you chop a square into four similar rectangles?
The Quest to Find Rectangles in a Square
A puzzle posted in an online community unlocked a wormhole within the basic shape.

What is the sum of an infinite series of natural numbers? The answer may be smaller than you think.

A Texas oil heir was fascinated with one of math’s greatest enigmas: Fermat’s theorem. His private support may have been a critical factor in its solution.

See the full article here .

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From The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science At Columbia University: “New Method Predicts Extreme Events More Accurately”

From The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science

At

5.23.23

Holly Evarts
Director of Strategic Communications and Media Relations
(c) 347-453-7408
(o) 212-854-3206
holly.evarts@columbia.edu
Columbia University

New algorithm predicts precipitation especially extreme events more accurately.

Columbia Engineers develop machine-learning algorithm that will help researchers to better understand and mitigate the impact of extreme weather events, which are becoming more frequent in our warming climate.

Credit: “Rain Storm Colorado Springs Colorado” by Brokentaco/Flickr is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

With the rise of extreme weather events, which are becoming more frequent in our warming climate, accurate predictions are becoming more critical for all of us, from farmers to city-dwellers to businesses around the world. To date, climate models have failed to accurately predict precipitation intensity, particularly extremes. While in nature, precipitation can be very varied, with many extremes of precipitation, climate models predict a smaller variance in precipitation with a bias toward light rain.

Missing piece in current algorithms: cloud organization

Researchers have been working to develop algorithms that will improve prediction accuracy but, as Columbia Engineering climate scientists report, there has been a missing piece of information in traditional climate model parameterizations–a way to describe cloud structure and organization that is so fine-scale it is not captured on the computational grid being used. These organization measurements affect predictions of both precipitation intensity and its stochasticity, the variability of random fluctuations in precipitation intensity. Up to now, there has not been an effective, accurate way to measure cloud structure and quantify its impact.

A new study [PNAS (below)] from a team led by Pierre Gentine, director of the Learning the Earth with Artificial Intelligence and Physics (LEAP) Center, used global storm-resolving simulations and machine learning to create an algorithm that can deal separately with two different scales of cloud organization: those resolved by a climate model, and those that cannot be resolved as they are too small. This new approach addresses the missing piece of information in traditional climate model parameterizations and provides a way to predict precipitation intensity and variability more precisely.

“Our findings are especially exciting because, for many years, the scientific community has debated whether to include cloud organization in climate models,” said Gentine, Maurice Ewing and J. Lamar Worzel Professor of Geophysics in the Departments of Earth and Environmental Engineering and Earth Environmental Sciences and a member of the Data Science Institute. “Our work provides an answer to the debate and a novel solution for including organization, showing that including this information can significantly improve our prediction of precipitation intensity and variability.”

Using AI to design neural network algorithm

Sarah Shamekh, a PhD student working with Gentine, developed a neural network algorithm that learns the relevant information about the role of fine-scale cloud organization (unresolved scales) on precipitation. Because Shamekh did not define a metric or formula in advance, the model learns implicitly–on its own–how to measure the clustering of clouds, a metric of organization, and then uses this metric to improve the prediction of precipitation. Shamekh trained the algorithm on a high-resolution moisture field, encoding the degree of small-scale organization.

“We discovered that our organization metric explains precipitation variability almost entirely and could replace a stochastic parameterization in climate models,” said Shamekh, lead author of the study, published May 8, 2023, by PNAS. “Including this information significantly improved precipitation prediction at the scale relevant to climate models, accurately predicting precipitation extremes and spatial variability.”

Machine-learning algorithm will improve future projections

The researchers are now using their machine-learning approach, which implicitly learns the sub-grid cloud organization metric, in climate models. This should significantly improve the prediction of precipitation intensity and variability, including extreme precipitation events, and enable scientists to better project future changes in the water cycle and extreme weather patterns in a warming climate.

Future work

This research also opens up new avenues for investigation, such as exploring the possibility of precipitation creating memory, where the atmosphere retains information about recent weather conditions, which in turn influences atmospheric conditions later on, in the climate system. This new approach could have wide-ranging applications beyond just precipitation modeling, including better modeling of the ice sheet and ocean surface.

PNAS

Fig. 1.

Global storm resolving model. Snapshot of a cloud scene on 24 February 2016 from SAM as part of the DYAMOND dataset. Ten days, randomly selected, of the tropical regions (displayed between the two white dashed lines) from this simulation are used for this analysis. The inset plot shows precipitation versus precipitable water for 10 d of SAM simulations. Lines show the precipitation conditionally averaged by 0.3-mm bins of precipitable water and for 1-K bins of free tropospheric temperature. Scatter dots show the spread in precipitation for each bin of precipitable water and averaged free tropospheric temperature across the simulation domain and time period.

Fig. 2.

Overview of proposed framework for parameterizing precipitation. (A) Coarse-graining the high-resolution data. (B) Baseline-NN architecture: This network receives coarse-scale variables (e.g., SST and PW) as input and predicts coarse-scale precipitation. (C). Org-NN architecture: The Left panel shows the autoencoder that receives the high-resolution PW as input and reconstructs it after passing it through a bottleneck. The Right panel shows the neural network that predicts coarse-scale precipitation. The input to this network is the coarse-scale variables (as for the baseline network) as well as org extracted from the autoencoder. The two blocks are trained simultaneously.

See the science paper for instructive material with images.

See the full article here .

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The Columbia University Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science is the engineering and applied science school of Columbia University. It was founded as the School of Mines in 1863 and then the School of Mines, Engineering and Chemistry before becoming the School of Engineering and Applied Science. On October 1, 1997, the school was renamed in honor of Chinese businessman Z.Y. Fu, who had donated $26 million to the school.

The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science maintains a close research tie with other institutions including National Aeronautics and Space Administration, IBM, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and The Earth Institute. Patents owned by the school generate over $100 million annually for the university. Faculty and alumni are responsible for technological achievements including the developments of FM radio and the maser.

The School’s applied mathematics, biomedical engineering, computer science and the financial engineering program in operations research are very famous and ranked high. The current faculty include 27 members of the National Academy of Engineering and one Nobel laureate. In all, the faculty and alumni of Columbia Engineering have won 10 Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine, and economics.

The school consists of approximately 300 undergraduates in each graduating class and maintains close links with its undergraduate liberal arts sister school Columbia College which shares housing with SEAS students.

Original charter of 1754

Included in the original charter for Columbia College was the direction to teach “the arts of Number and Measuring, of Surveying and Navigation […] the knowledge of […] various kinds of Meteors, Stones, Mines and Minerals, Plants and Animals, and everything useful for the Comfort, the Convenience and Elegance of Life.” Engineering has always been a part of Columbia, even before the establishment of any separate school of engineering.

An early and influential graduate from the school was John Stevens, Class of 1768. Instrumental in the establishment of U.S. patent law. Stevens procured many patents in early steamboat technology; operated the first steam ferry between New York and New Jersey; received the first railroad charter in the U.S.; built a pioneer locomotive; and amassed a fortune, which allowed his sons to found the Stevens Institute of Technology.

When Columbia University first resided on Wall Street, engineering did not have a school under the Columbia umbrella. After Columbia outgrew its space on Wall Street, it relocated to what is now Midtown Manhattan in 1857. Then President Barnard and the Trustees of the University, with the urging of Professor Thomas Egleston and General Vinton, approved the School of Mines in 1863. The intention was to establish a School of Mines and Metallurgy with a three-year program open to professionally motivated students with or without prior undergraduate training. It was officially founded in 1864 under the leadership of its first dean, Columbia professor Charles F. Chandler, and specialized in mining and mineralogical engineering. An example of work from a student at the School of Mines was William Barclay Parsons, Class of 1882. He was an engineer on the Chinese railway and the Cape Cod and Panama Canals. Most importantly he worked for New York, as a chief engineer of the city’s first subway system, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company. Opened in 1904, the subway’s electric cars took passengers from City Hall to Brooklyn, the Bronx, and the newly renamed and relocated Columbia University in Morningside Heights, its present location on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Columbia University was founded in 1754 as King’s College by royal charter of King George II of England. It is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York and the fifth oldest in the United States.

University Mission Statement

Columbia University is one of the world’s most important centers of research and at the same time a distinctive and distinguished learning environment for undergraduates and graduate students in many scholarly and professional fields. The University recognizes the importance of its location in New York City and seeks to link its research and teaching to the vast resources of a great metropolis. It seeks to attract a diverse and international faculty and student body, to support research and teaching on global issues, and to create academic relationships with many countries and regions. It expects all areas of the University to advance knowledge and learning at the highest level and to convey the products of its efforts to the world.

Columbia University is a private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhattan Columbia is the oldest institution of higher education in New York and the fifth-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. It is one of nine colonial colleges founded prior to the Declaration of Independence, seven of which belong to the Ivy League. Columbia is ranked among the top universities in the world by major education publications.

Columbia was established as King’s College by royal charter from King George II of Great Britain in reaction to the founding of Princeton College. It was renamed Columbia College in 1784 following the American Revolution, and in 1787 was placed under a private board of trustees headed by former students Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. In 1896, the campus was moved to its current location in Morningside Heights and renamed Columbia University.

Columbia scientists and scholars have played an important role in scientific breakthroughs including brain-computer interface; the laser and maser; nuclear magnetic resonance; the first nuclear pile; the first nuclear fission reaction in the Americas; the first evidence for plate tectonics and continental drift; and much of the initial research and planning for the Manhattan Project during World War II. Columbia is organized into twenty schools, including four undergraduate schools and 15 graduate schools. The university’s research efforts include the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory, the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and accelerator laboratories with major technology firms such as IBM. Columbia is a founding member of the Association of American Universities and was the first school in the United States to grant the M.D. degree. With over 14 million volumes, Columbia University Library is the third largest private research library in the United States.

The university’s endowment stands at $11.26 billion in 2020, among the largest of any academic institution. As of October 2020, Columbia’s alumni, faculty, and staff have included: five Founding Fathers of the United States—among them a co-author of the United States Constitution and a co-author of the Declaration of Independence; three U.S. presidents; 29 foreign heads of state; ten justices of the United States Supreme Court, one of whom currently serves; 96 Nobel laureates; five Fields Medalists; 122 National Academy of Sciences members; 53 living billionaires; eleven Olympic medalists; 33 Academy Award winners; and 125 Pulitzer Prize recipients.

From “Science Magazine” : “Coral reefs are home to the greatest microbial diversity on Earth”

From “Science Magazine”

6.1.23
Elizabeth Pennisi

Doug Perrine/NPL/Minden Pictures.

Coral reefs, bastions of marine biodiversity because of the abundant fish, invertebrates, and algae they support, are also home to Earth’s greatest microbial diversity, according to a new estimate.

From 2016 to 2018, an international team of researchers aboard the sailing ship Tara studied 99 reefs off 32 islands across the Pacific Ocean, home to 80% of the world’s corals. They sequenced DNA from more than 5000 samples of three coral species, two fish species, and plankton. The team identified a half-billion kinds of microbes, mostly bacteria. Microbes were most diverse among the plankton; among animals, the blade fire coral (Millepora platyphylla) and Moorish idol (Zanclus cornutus) had the most types, the team reports today in Nature Communications [below].

When the researchers extrapolated those findings to estimate the total reef microbial diversity across the Pacific, it was equivalent to Earth’s total, previously estimated microbial diversity. The team members don’t know what leads to the great bacterial diversity, as it didn’t align with the greater diversity found in corals of the western Pacific. Nor did the microbial diversity correlate with seawater temperature. (During their research voyage, the scientists also measured temperature, salinity, and other environmental conditions.)

The researchers have yet to fully analyze these data, but they expect this high microbial diversity can help the reefs be more resilient in the face of heat waves, pollution, turbidity, and other stressors, acting as ecological insurance. Some bacteria on coral provide benefits—such as supplying vitamin B to their hosts—and their diversity suggests that at least some helpful microbes are likely to survive a particular environmental insult and can continue to support the coral.

Nature Communications

Fig. 1: Diversity and community composition of the plankton, coral, and fish microbiomes across 32 islands of the Pacific Ocean.

a) Map of the islands sampled. b) Accumulation curves of microbial community richness. The dashed line represents the shift between the small planktonic size fraction (  3 µm). c) Shannon diversity index across all samples (n = 3,298). The box plot horizontal bars show the median value, the box indicates the first and third QRs, and the whiskers indicate 1.5*IQR. Source data are provided as a Source Data file. d) Bray-Curtis based nMDS ordination (stress = 0.11) showing differences in microbial community composition between biomes with density plot on the right showing the distribution of MDS2 values in coral, small (0.2–3 µm) and large (3–20 µm) plankton size fractions, and fish gut and mucus. e) Prevalence and relative abundance of ASVs in plankton, coral, and fish samples. Endozoicomonadaceae ASVs (putative symbionts) are coloured in black, Vibrionaceae (putative pathogens) in grey and all other annotations in white. I01: Islas de las Perlas, I02: Coiba, I03: Malpelo, I04: Rapa Nui, I05: Ducie Island, I06: Gambier, I07: Moorea, I08: Cook Islands, I09: Niue, I10: Upolu, I11: Wallis and Futuna, I12: Tuvalu, I13: Kiribati, I14: Chuuk Island, I15: Guam, I16: Ogasawara Islands, I17: Sesoko Island, I18: Fiji Islands, I19: Great Barrier Reef, I20: Chesterfield, I21: New Caledonia, I22: Solomon Islands, I23: Normanby Island, I24: New Britain Island, I25: Southwest Palau Islands, I26: Babeldaob, I27: Crescent Island, I28: Taiwan, I29: Oahu Island, I30: Gulf of California, I31: Clipperton Island, I32: Islas Secas.

Fig. 2: Bray-Curtis based MDS ordinations showing differences in microbial community composition within each biomes.

a) Between Millepora, Porites and Pocillopora and b) their overall community composition for the 10 most abundant bacterial orders. c) Between Zanclus cornutus and Acanthurus triostegus gut and mucus. d) Between Pocillopora microbial communities and free-living planktonic communities (size 0.2–3 µm) sampled close to the Pocillopora colonies (colony water). e) Between planktonic communities sampled from sea surface water near the islands, surface water over the colonies, and close to the colonies (colony water) for the 0.2–3 µm size fraction and f for the 3–20 µm size fraction.

See the science paper for instructive material with images.

See the full article here .

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From “Science Magazine” : “Treasure hunt”

From “Science Magazine”

6.1.23
Paul Voosen

The first U.S. nationwide geological survey in a generation could reveal badly needed supplies of critical minerals

The U.S. Geological Survey is funding mapping of metamorphic rocks in eastern Alaska that are likely to hold a number of critical minerals, including rare earths. Adrian Bender/U.S. Geological Survey.

From the air, Maine is a uniform sea of green: Forests cover 90% of the state. But beneath the foliage and the dirt lies an array of geological terrains that is far more diverse, built from the relics of volcanic islands that collided with North America hundreds of millions of years ago.

Two years ago, sensor-laden aircraft began to survey these geochemically rich terrains for precious minerals. Researchers spotted an anomalous signal streaming out of Pennington Mountain, 50 kilometers from the Canadian border. State geologists bushwhacked through the paper mill–bound pine forests, taking rock samples. They eventually uncovered deposits containing billions of dollars’ worth of zirconium, niobium, and other elements that are critical in electronics, defense, and renewable energy technologies.

The anomaly at Pennington Mountain is visible in the geophysical data collected in aerial surveys conducted in 2021. Sources/Usage: Public Domain.
Above mapping:

Contacts
Anjana K Shah
Research Geophysicist
Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center
ashah@usgs.gov
303-236-1218

Alex Demas
Public Affairs Specialist
Communications and Publishing
apdemas@usgs.gov
703-648-4421

“It was a perfect discovery,” says John Slack, an emeritus scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) who worked on the Maine find. He expects more like it. “We think there’s potential throughout the Appalachians.”

Great Appalachian Valley
Provinces/States
Newfoundland and Labrador, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Québec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Washington, D.C., Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama.

A remarkable feature of the belt is the longitudinal chain of broad valleys, including the Great Appalachian Valley, which in the southerly sections divides the mountain system into two unequal portions.

Few topics draw more bipartisan support in Washington, D.C., than the need for the United States to find reliable sources of “critical minerals,” a collection of 50 mined substances that now come mostly from other countries, including some that are unfriendly or unstable. The list, created by USGS at the direction of Congress, contains not only the 17 rare earth elements produced mostly in China, but also less exotic materials such as zinc, used to produce steel, and cobalt, used in electric car batteries. “These commodities are necessary for everything,” says Sarah Ryker, USGS’s associate director for energy and minerals. “They’re also a flashpoint for conflict.”

The list: Yttrium Lanthanum Cerium Praseodymium Neodymium Promethium Samarium Europium
Gadolinium Terbium Dysprosium Holmium Erbium Thulium Ytterbium Lutetium Scandium

But last decade, when lawmakers began to ask USGS about U.S. supplies, the response was unsettling: The agency didn’t even know where to look. For decades, companies had been moving mining operations abroad, in part to avoid relatively stringent U.S. environmental regulations. The basic exploration needed to identify mineral resources and spur corporate interest had languished. The last nationwide survey, a quest for uranium, ended in the 1980s. Ryker says the U.S. is “undermapped” compared with most developed countries, including Australia, Canada, and even Ireland. “We’re at an embarrassing point.”

To start filling in this knowledge void, USGS in 2019 began what it calls the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative, or Earth MRI. With a modest $10 million annual budget, the agency began working with state geological surveys to digitize data and commission fieldwork to map the most promising terrain in fine detail.

Then, in 2021, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law directed $320 million into the program—nearly one-third of the entire USGS budget—to be spent over 5 years. That spending has already enabled hundreds of survey flights, and it is opening a golden age for economic geology. It is also a boon for basic science—filling in gaps in geologic history, identifying unknown earthquake faults, and revealing geothermal systems. “We’re seeing a renaissance throughout the whole country,” says Virginia McLemore, an economic geologist at the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources. “I’ve been training all my life to get to this point.”

The discoveries could spur a rash of mining, and environmentalists are wary. If USGS spots promising ore systems, companies will have to show that they can develop them safely and with minimal environmental impact, says Melissa Barbanell, director of U.S.-international engagement at the World Resources Institute, an environmental nonprofit. “It can never be zero harm,” she says. “But how can we minimize the harm and keep it to the mine itself?”

Mining companies, meanwhile, are embracing Earth MRI. Donald Hicks, a geophysicist at global mining giant Rio Tinto, which has dozens of operations worldwide but only a few in the U.S., says he has encouraged fellow miners to collaborate and share data with the program. Rio Tinto even funded some USGS flights in Montana, in return for 1 year’s exclusive access to the data. “Having this high-quality, large-scale data in the public domain will drive new ideas and new discoveries,” Hicks says.

For most of the history of mining, the origin story of a mineral lode was beside the point. Prospectors found it and miners dug it up. But by now, most of the obvious finds are gone, says Anne McCafferty, a USGS geophysicist. “The low-hanging fruit has been picked.”

This scarcity has pushed Earth MRI into adopting a “mineral systems” approach, first pioneered in Australia, that attempts to predict where critical minerals might be found based on the processes that form them. For example, a search for rare earth minerals might begin by looking for an unusual kind of carbon-rich rock called a carbonatite, which often contains pockets of rare earths formed when it crystallized out of lava. Or geologists might seek out clay-rich rocks or sediments that can capture concentrations of the rare earths after water erodes them from a source rock. Prospectors would also look for signs that these ore rocks were preserved across the eons.

To assemble these telltale rock histories, USGS scientists need to integrate a variety of information sources. Some already exist: large-scale geological maps based on decades of fieldwork, and surveys of the deep structure of rock formations based on the reflections of seismic waves from artificial or natural earthquakes.

Earth MRI’s airborne surveys, with flights just 100 meters above the surface, will add much more detail and inform a new generation of sharper geologic maps. One tool affixed to the aircraft is a magnetometer, which detects rocks rich in iron and other magnetic minerals—often a clue that they hold critical minerals. Another is a gamma ray spectrometer, which like a Geiger counter can capture the radiation emitted by thorium, uranium, and potassium. Those elements frequent the same volcanic rocks as rare earth minerals and are often incorporated into their crystal structures. Other aircraft carry laser altimeters that can map surface relief to reveal geologic history. And a pioneering “hyperspectral” instrument developed by NASA can identify minerals exposed on the surface based on the specific wavelengths of light they absorb. In the combined data, “You can see all the geology underneath,” says Anjana Shah, the USGS geophysicist leading the agency’s East Coast airborne surveys. “It’s a very powerful way of understanding the Earth.”

In early forays, Earth MRI aircraft criss-crossed North and South Carolina, tracing the ancient roots of the landscape. Hidden beneath the states’ tobacco farms are fossilized beaches that mark shorelines left during the warm periods between past ice ages, when sea levels were higher than today. Laser altimeter maps capturing subtle relief bloom with those shorelines and the paleorivers that dissected them, says Kathleen Farrell, a geomorphologist at the North Carolina Geological Survey. “There’s a lot more coastal plain than anyone thought.”

The ancient beaches hold deposits of black sands, eroded from mountains and deposited by rivers, that are rich in heavy elements. By combining the new airborne data collected by Shah with field mapping and boreholes drilled to sample the deep sediments, Farrell and her colleagues hope to learn how the Carolina sands originated. They want to know how the coastal plains were assembled over time, why the heavy sands formed only during certain periods, and where upriver those sands came from. The answers should help guide geologists to new heavy metal deposits; similar sites in northern Florida are among the few commercial sources of titanium in the U.S.

The airborne campaigns in South Carolina will have another benefit, Shah adds: They flew over Charleston, collecting magnetic data that, by identifying shifts and offsets in subsurface rocks, reveal the hidden seismic faults that ruptured in 1886 in an earthquake as large as magnitude 7. Such a quake, if it struck again today, would cause billions of dollars in damage.

This year, an Earth MRI survey covering parts of Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Illinois, and Indiana will probe another mysterious seismic zone. Buried under kilometers of sediment lurks the Reelfoot Rift, a gash in the continent’s bedrock likely created some 750 million years ago when the Rodinia supercontinent began to crack apart. In 1811 and 1812, faults tied to this rift caused the New Madrid earthquakes, the largest to ever strike the U.S. east of the Rocky Mountains. But despite the potential hazard, the fault zone remains poorly understood.

The Reelfoot and nearby bedrock deformations not only create hazards; they also create opportunities for minerals to form. The rifts provided conduits for magma to well up much later in geologic time, when Africa collided with North America to form the Appalachian Mountains [but see John McPhee “In Suspect Terrain” which posits not one but four orogenies which created what we have today]. This magma is thought to have expelled gases that flowed into limestones, chemically altering them. One result is the fluorspar district of southern Illinois, which once produced a majority of the country’s fluorite—used to smelt steel and create hydrofluoric acid.

Those magma injections could have played a role in creating Hicks Dome, which rises 1 kilometer above the Illinois countryside and is the closest thing the state has to a volcano. Jared Freiburg, critical minerals chief for the Illinois State Geological Survey, calls it “a crazy magmatic cryptovolcanic explosive structure.” It pops out as a magnetic anomaly in USGS airborne data, and cores drilled from the dome are rich in rare earth minerals. Geochemical tracers from the cores hint that deposits deeper in the dome were formed from carbonatites—the unusual volcanic rocks associated with the world’s best rare earth deposits. “It’s like a kitchen sink of critical minerals there,” McCafferty says.

The midcontinent surveys could also help geologists assess another resource: natural hydrogen, a clean-burning fuel. Currently, all hydrogen is manufactured, but some researchers believe, contrary to conventional wisdom, that Earth produces and traps vast stores of the gas. The iron-rich volcanic rocks of the Reelfoot are exactly the kind that could produce hydrogen. Yaoguo Li, a geophysicist at the Colorado School of Mines, is developing a Department of Energy (DOE) grant proposal to prospect for hydrogen source rocks with the USGS data. “We have not done anything yet,” he says. “But I can see there’s so much we can do.”

Besides identifying resources to extract, the surveys could pay other dividends. They are pinpointing the steel casings of abandoned oil and gas wells that often leak greenhouse gases. They will help identify porous rock reservoirs, bounded by faults, that could hold carbon dioxide captured from smokestacks, keeping it out of the atmosphere. And they could also map variations in the radioactive rocks that emit radon gas, a health hazard.

These days, no mineral may be more critical than the lithium, used in cellphone and electric car batteries, that moves an ever-increasing number of the world’s electrons. Yet only one lithium mine exists in the U.S., in Nevada, and its raw lithium is sent abroad for processing. The state has potential to hold much, much more, and could become an international lithium “epicenter,” says James Faulds, Nevada’s state geologist.

Lithium is often found in igneous rocks—magma that crystallized in the crust or lava that cooled on the surface. Many of the known lithium deposits are in the state’s north, in the McDermitt caldera, a volcanic crater formed 16 million years ago by the deep-Earth hot spot currently fueling Yellowstone. Rainwater falling within the caldera or hot water from below has concentrated lithium within caldera clay deposits to levels not seen elsewhere, in other eruptions of the Yellowstone hot spot. “Why did this mineralization happen?” asks Carolina Muñoz-Saez, a geologist at the University of Nevada, Reno. She and her collaborators are studying the geochemistry of the lithium and the clays to find out whether the element was formed and concentrated during the eruption itself by superheated water or whether the concentration came later, as water infiltrated the caldera’s ash-rich rocks. The answer could lead the geologists to other, equally rich deposits.

Mountain Pass in California is the only U.S. mine producing rare earth elements. The U.S. Geological Survey hopes the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative will encourage more mining.TMY350/Wikimedia Commons.

Earth MRI has already shown that lithium prospectors need not stick to calderas. Field geologists have found rocks that seem to be rich in lithium in basins bounded by tectonically uplifted blocks of crust. Nevada, famous for its “basin and range” topography, has a lot of places like that, Faulds says. Even better, the basins tend to host systems of hot brine, a potential source of geothermal power—one reason DOE is funding surveys in the state, says Jonathan Glen, a USGS geophysicist.

Just south of Nevada, DOE has similarly invested in USGS flights over California’s Salton Sea, which is being stretched apart by the movement of the Northern American and Pacific tectonic plates, leaving the crust thin and hot.

A woman walks along the shore of the Salton Sea in Southern California Robert Alexander / Getty Images

“Temperatures are really high,” Glen says. “There’s huge geothermal potential.” Beyond mapping potential lithium deposits and geothermal sites, the surveys have also found new faults at the southern end of the San Andreas, and what appear to be buried volcanoes beneath the Salton Sea. “This is brand new stuff,” Glen says. “We didn’t know any of this.”

The mineral stibnite is the ore for antimony, used in batteries.Niki Wintzer/USGS.

Those insights come from magnetometer, radiometric, and laser altimeter flights. But Earth MRI is also planning hyperspectral surveys that will scan the treeless, arid surface for pay dirt. Lithium and rare earth elements, for example, have strong spectral reflections; and other signatures can reveal the iron or clay minerals associated with lithium or other minerals. Beyond prospecting, the data will be valuable for spotting volcanic hazards. Those include rocks on the flanks of volcanoes that have been altered into soft clays by melting snow and heat, says Bernard Hubbard, a remote-sensing geologist at USGS. “Those become unstable—and then they collapse.”

Besides identifying the rock formations likely to hold mineral deposits, Earth MRI has accelerated USGS efforts to detect valuable resources left behind in tailings from defunct copper or iron mines. Last decade, Shah spotted the distinctive radioactive signatures of rare earths in such piles in Mineville, a hamlet in New York. With state geological agencies, USGS is compiling a national database of mine waste sites, along with methods for researchers to assess the waste’s mineral potential. “What’s the point of digging another hole in the ground if you can remine the rocks?” asks Darcy McPhee, Earth MRI’s program coordinator at USGS.

Those lingering tailings piles are a reminder of the environmental damage mining can do. For decades, the U.S. avoided environmental debates over mining by outsourcing it to other countries. The new consensus is that work should happen here, Ryker says. “But that means we have to deal with the conflict.” The survey will reveal new resources. But the rest is up to us, she says. “How much should we develop? That’s a much more complicated question.”

Those questions are now unfolding, state by state. In Nevada, lithium prospecting is booming, spurred by the Inflation Reduction Act’s mandate that electric cars must use some U.S.-sourced minerals for buyers to get a tax credit. But in Maine, legislators enacted a strict mining law in 2017, when the state’s largest landowner, the Canadian forestry company J.D. Irving, considered exploiting reserves of gold, silver, and copper found on its lands. Following the discovery of rare earth deposits at Pennington Mountain and lithium elsewhere in the state, lawmakers are now considering amending the law to allow some responsible mining.

Given the demands of green technology and the imperative to lower carbon emissions, many environmental groups are softening their stance on critical-mineral mining, Barbanell says. This exploitation doesn’t have to go on forever, she adds. Unlike coal, which must be mined indefinitely as it’s burned, the minerals used for batteries and wind turbines can almost always be recycled—as long as policymakers push for their reuse.

Slack would also welcome some mining. He retired to Maine for its natural splendor, but until recycling can cover society’s needs, critical mineral exploitation needs to happen somewhere. “We cannot have a low carbon future and green tech without mining,” he says. “It’s not an option. It’s a necessity. It’s essential.”

See the full article here .

Comments are invited and will be appreciated, especially if the reader finds any errors which I can correct. Use “Reply”.

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

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