🤖 Tech & Computer Science

Feds clear way for EVTOL startups to bring flying vehicles to U.S. airspace

Federal regulators have approved electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft to operate in U.S. airspace alongside traditional planes and helicopters. The FAA's final ruling, announced at the NBAA-Business Aviation Convention, introduces "powered-lift" vehicles, allowing for air taxi services expected to begin in 2025 by companies like Joby and Archer Aviation. The ruling includes guidelines for pilot training and certifications, enhancing operational rules for this emerging industry .

Imbalanced graph learning via mixed entropy minimization

GraphME is a new method for node classification on imbalanced graphs, utilizing mixed entropy minimization to improve performance without synthetic oversampling. It balances correct class probabilities while reducing the impact of incorrect ones. Experiments show that GraphME consistently outperforms traditional cross-entropy objectives, enhancing robustness and classification accuracy. Additionally, it integrates well with adversarial training techniques, leading to significant improvements in efficiency compared to existing methods.

➕ Math

Largest known prime number, spanning 41 million digits, discovered by amateur mathematician using free software

The largest known prime number, 2^{13,426,879,841} - 1, has been discovered by Luke Durant, an amateur researcher and former Nvidia employee. This new prime has 41,024,320 digits, surpassing the previous record by over 16 million digits. Durant utilized the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) and coordinated thousands of GPUs across multiple data centers. This prime is the 52nd Mersenne prime, a type defined by subtracting one from powers of two. For more details, check the GIMPS website.

⚛️ Physics and Chemistry

How fast is quantum entanglement? Scientists investigate it at the attosecond scale

Researchers from TU Wien and China have developed computer simulations to investigate ultrafast quantum processes, allowing the study of quantum entanglement on attosecond time scales. This advancement challenges the traditional view of instantaneous quantum events, showing that entangled particles cannot be described separately. Their findings, published in Physical Review Letters, highlight that entangled particles share common properties, making them inseparable, even at great distances.

Multi-qubit entangled states boost atomic clock and sensor performance

Two independent US research teams have achieved improved frequency measurements using multi-qubit entangled states, surpassing the standard quantum limit. The Colorado team enhanced atomic clock precision, while the California group explored entangled states in quantum sensing. Atomic clocks, which rely on narrow atomic transitions, benefit from these advancements as they allow for more precise timekeeping without the challenges associated with higher-energy transitions. These developments mark significant progress in quantum measurement technologies.

🧬 Biology & Medicine

Oral Semaglutide Cuts Cardiovascular Events in T2D

Oral semaglutide (Rybelsus) reduced the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) by 14% compared to placebo in the SOUL trial, involving 9,650 participants with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular conditions. The trial met its primary endpoint, which included cardiovascular death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, and nonfatal stroke. Rybelsus was found to be safe and well-tolerated. Novo Nordisk plans to seek label expansion for MACE reduction in the US and EU by early 2025, with detailed results to be presented at a conference that year.

P-stalk ribosomes identified as key regulators of immune evasion in cancer

A study published in Cell found that P-stalk ribosomes (PSRs) are crucial for CD8+ T cell recognition of tumor antigens, indicating their role in immune detection. PSR knockdown significantly reduced T cell recognition. The research shows that PSRs mediate cytokine regulation and drive the translation of mRNAs essential for immune responses, highlighting a generalized mechanism of tumor immune evasion. This insight could inform future strategies to prevent or treat various cancers, particularly through immune checkpoint blockade therapies.

🔭 Space & Astronomy

See the 99-Ton Robot That’s Printing Rocket Lab’s Neutron Rocket

Rocket Lab's Maryland facility features the world's largest automated fiber placement (AFP) machine, a 99-ton, 39-foot-tall robot that streamlines the production of their Neutron rocket. This custom 3D printer enhances efficiency by stacking carbon composite layers to create key rocket components, including domes, barrels, and panels for the upper and interstage sections. CEO Peter Beck emphasized the need for such advanced technology in building the world's largest carbon composite rocket.

SpaceX to launch 23 Starlink broadband satellites from Florida on Oct. 23

SpaceX plans to launch 23 Starlink satellites on October 23 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, using a Falcon 9 rocket. The launch is set for a 3.5-hour window starting at 5:47 p.m. EDT. After liftoff, the first stage of the rocket will attempt to land on the drone ship "A Shortfall of Gravitas" in the Atlantic Ocean. This mission marks the 18th launch for this booster and its 13th Starlink mission. The satellites will deploy into low Earth orbit about 65 minutes after launch.

Thanks For Reading!

Please move this email to your Primary Inbox (if it is not already there) to make sure you don’t miss any of the exciting news and updates!
Reply directly to this email with any questions, comments or suggestions. 🚀