New Exascale Supercomputer Completed

Image: Aronne National Laboratory

Scientists at Argonne National Laboratory have completed the installation of Aurora, a supercomputer that can perform more than two billion billion calculations per second. Aurora is one of the first such exascale machines in the world. The system consists of 10,624 “blades” that each contain Intel CPUs and GPUs. Aurora will soon be available for researchers to tackle some of the most challenging scientific problems, such as climate change, drug discovery, and quantum physics. Press release here. Video here.

This week's episode of Science News covers quantum computers that are really good at guessing, room-temperature superconductors, how we changed the tilt of Earth's axis without noticing, the environmental impact of the metaverse, and more. 

The World’s Smallest Wine Glass

Image: KTH

A team of researchers at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm has 3D-printed the world's smallest wineglass with a rim smaller than the width of a human hair. The tiny glass was made to showcase a new technique for creating silica glass structures for various applications, such as lenses, filters and micro-robots. The technique does not require thermal treatment and can use commercial materials, making it simpler and more energy-efficient than existing methods. Paper here, press release here.

Intel Releases New Quantum Computing Chip For Research

Image: Intel

Intel has released a new quantum computing chip with 12 spin qubits that will be available for the research community to play with. While Google and IBM are offering researchers access to their smaller quantum computers in the cloud, Intel is catering to those who like to get their hands on the hardware. The new chip is etched on silicon wafers in one of Intel’s factories. Video here. Press release here.

I need a new laptop but I’ve heard there’s a microchip shortage driving up prices. What happened and is it still going on? I’ve looked at it for this week’s video.

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