• MatterGen: A new paradigm of materials design with generative AI
    www.microsoft.com
    Materials innovation is one of the key drivers of major technological breakthroughs. The discovery of lithium cobalt oxide in the 1980s laid the groundwork for todays lithium-ion battery technology. It now powers modern mobile phones and electric cars, impacting the daily lives of billions of people. Materials innovation is also required for designing more efficient solar cells, cheaper batteries for grid-level energy storage, and adsorbents to recycle CO2 from atmosphere.Finding a new material for a target application is like finding a needle in a haystack. Historically, this task has been done via expensive and time-consuming experimental trial-and-error. More recently, computational screening of large materials databases has allowed researchers to speed up this process. Nonetheless, finding the few materials with the desired properties still requires the screening of millions of candidates.Today, in a paper published in Nature (opens in new tab), we share MatterGen, a generative AI tool that tackles materials discovery from a different angle. Instead of screening the candidates, it directly generates novel materials given prompts of the design requirements for an application. It can generate materials with desired chemistry, mechanical, electronic, or magnetic properties, as well as combinations of different constraints. MatterGen enables a new paradigm of generative AI-assistedmaterials design that allows for efficient exploration of materials, going beyond the limited set of known ones.Figure 1: Schematic representation of screening and generative approaches to materials designA novel diffusion architectureMatterGen is a diffusion model that operates on the 3D geometry of materials. Much like an image diffusion model generates pictures from a text prompt by modifying the color of pixels from a noisy image, MatterGen generates proposed structures by adjusting the positions, elements, and periodic lattice from a random structure. The diffusion architecture is specifically designed for materials to handle specialties like periodicity and 3D geometry.Figure 2: Schematic representation of MatterGen: a diffusion model to generate novel and stable materials. MatterGen can be fine-tuned to generate materials under different design requirements such as specific chemistry, crystal symmetry, or materials properties.The base model of MatterGen achieves state-of-the-art performance in generating novel, stable, diverse materials (Figure 3). It is trained on 608,000 stable materials from the Materials Project (opens in new tab) (MP) and Alexandria (opens in new tab) (Alex) databases. The performance improvement can be attributed to both the architecture advancements, as well asthe quality and size of our training data.Figure 3: Performance of MatterGen and other methods in the generation of stable, unique, and novel structures. The training dataset for each method is indicated in parentheses. The purple bar highlights performance improvements due to MatterGens architecture alone, while the teal bar highlights performance improvements that come also from the larger training dataset.MatterGen can be fine-tuned with a labelled dataset to generate novel materials given any desired conditions. We demonstrate examples of generating novel materials given a targets chemistry and symmetry, as well as electronic, magnetic, and mechanical property constraints (Figure 2). Outperforming screeningFigure 4: Performance of MatterGen (teal) and traditional screening (yellow) in finding novel, stable, and unique structures that satisfy the design requirement of having bulk modulus greater than 400 GPa.The key advantage of MatterGen over screening is its ability to access the full space of unknown materials. In Figure 4, we show that MatterGen continues to generate more novel candidate materials with high bulk modulus above 400 GPa, for example, which are hard to compress. In contrast, screening baseline saturates due to exhausting known candidates.Spotlight: Blog postMedFuzz: Exploring the robustness of LLMs on medical challenge problemsMedfuzz tests LLMs by breaking benchmark assumptions, exposing vulnerabilities to bolster real-world accuracy.Read moreOpens in a new tab Handling compositional disorderFigure 5: Illustration of compositional disorder. Left: a perfect crystal without compositional disorder and with a repeating unit cell (black dashed). Right: crystal with compositional disorder, where each site has 50% probability of yellow and teal atoms.Compositional disorder (Figure 5) is a commonly observed phenomenon where different atoms can randomly swap their crystallographic sites in a synthesized material. Recently (opens in new tab), the community has been exploring what it means for a material to be novel in the context of computationally designed materials, as widely employed algorithms will not distinguish between pairs of structures where the only difference is a permutation of similar elements in their respective sites.We provide an initial solution to this issue by introducing a new structure matching algorithm that considers compositional disorder. The algorithm assesses whether a pair of structures can be identified as ordered approximations of the same underlying compositionally disordered structure. This provides a new definition of novelty and uniqueness, which we adopt in our computational evaluation metrics. We also make our algorithm publicly available (opens in new tab) as part of our evaluation package.Experimental lab verificationFigure 6: Experimental validation of the proposed compound, TaCr2O6In addition to our extensive computational evaluation, we have validated MatterGens capabilities through experimental synthesis. In collaboration with the team led by Prof Li Wenjie from the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (opens in new tab) (SIAT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, we have synthesized a novel material, TaCr2O6, whose structure was generated by MatterGen after conditioning the model on a bulk modulus value of 200 GPa. The synthesized materials structure aligns with the one proposed by MatterGen, with the caveat of compositional disorder between Ta and Cr. Additionally, we experimentally measure a bulk modulus of 169 GPa against the 200 GPa given as design specification, with a relative error below 20%, very close from an experimental perspective. If similar results can be translated to other domains, it will have a profound impact on the design of batteries, fuel cells, and more. AI emulator and generator flywheelMatterGen presents a new opportunity for AI accelerated materials design, complementing our AI emulator MatterSim. MatterSim follows the fifth paradigm of scientific discovery, significantly accelerating the speed of material properties simulations. MatterGen in turn accelerates the speed of exploring new material candidates with property guided generation. MatterGen and MatterSim can work together as a flywheel to speed up both the simulation and exploration of novel materials.Making MatterGen availableWe believe the best way to make an impact in materials design is to make our model available to the public. We release the source code of MatterGen (opens in new tab) under the MIT license, together with the training and fine-tuning data. We welcome the community to use and build on top of our model.MatterGen represents a new paradigm of materials design enabled by generative AI technology. It explores a significantly larger space of materials than screening-based methods. It is also more efficient by guiding materials exploration with prompts. Similar to how generative AI has impacted drug discovery (opens in new tab), it will have profound impact on how we design materials in broad domains including batteries, magnets, and fuel cells.We plan to continue our work with external collaborators to further develop and validate the technology. At the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), were dedicated to the exploration of tools with the potential to advance discovery of novel, mission-enabling materials. Thats why we are interested in understanding the impact that MatterGen could have on materials discovery, said Christopher Stiles, a computational materials scientists leading multiple materials discovery efforts at APL.AcknowledgementThis work is the result of highly collaborative team efforts at Microsoft Research AI for Science. The full authors include: Claudio Zeni, Robert Pinsler, Daniel Zgner, Andrew Fowler, Matthew Horton, Xiang Fu, Zilong Wang, Aliaksandra Shysheya, Jonathan Crabb, Shoko Ueda, Roberto Sordillo, Lixin Sun, Jake Smith, Bichlien Nguyen, Hannes Schulz, Sarah Lewis, Chin-Wei Huang, Ziheng Lu, Yichi Zhou, Han Yang, Hongxia Hao, Jielan Li, Chunlei Yang, Wenjie Li, Ryota Tomioka, Tian Xie.Opens in a new tab
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  • Meet the AirTag alternative everyones talking about
    www.popsci.com
    Stack CommerceShareWe may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Learn more When you think about getting a tracker for your wallet or keys, the first thing that comes to mind is likely Apples AirTag. But many people are replacing theirs with this other, wallet-friendly device in the shape of a credit card.The KeySmart SmartCard is built for wallets, but it still works with the same Find My system as the AirTag. The SmartCard will fit beside your credit cards and cash, whereas Apples tracker will leave a huge bulge and not fit comfortably in your pocket.These credit card-shaped trackers arent just good for wallets, but also luggage, passports, and pet carriers. You can pick up a 3-pack for $79.97 with free shipping for a limited time (reg. $119.97)just $27 each, which is cheaper than the AirTag. Single units are also available.SmartCard vs. AirTagThis wallet tracker is probably so loved because its basically an AirTag, just in a new form and with some pretty significant improvements. Just like the AirTag, it pairs with Apples Find My app, allowing you to:See your items real-time location on a mapPlay a sound on the SmartCard to locate itGet notifications when you leave your item behindHowever, unlike the AirTag, the SmartCard will never need a battery replacement. Instead, just lay it on a Qi-enabled wireless charger every five months to keep it powered up.The SmartCard is also more water-resistant than the AirTag with an IPX8 waterproof rating (the AirTag is rated IP67). This means its more durable in various weather conditions, ensuring the odds of tracking your items are higher if theyre lost outdoors or submerged in water.Get your wallet-friendly AirTag alternatives in a 3-pack for $79.97 with free shipping (reg. $119.97) for a limited time. No coupon is needed for this price drop.StackSocial prices subject to change.KeySmart SmartCard Works with Apple Find My (3-Pack) $79.97See Deal
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  • A generative model for inorganic materials design
    www.nature.com
    Nature, Published online: 16 January 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08628-5XXX.
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  • Argyria: The rare disease that turns people blue
    www.livescience.com
    Argyria is caused by a buildup of silver in the body, which discolors the skin.
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  • Seamless Procedural Permafrost Loop
    v.redd.it
    submitted by /u/mcnull [link] [comments]
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  • Remedy shared they discovered one of the bugs in Alan Wake 2 thanks to a speedrun. The team promised not to fix it, as it doesnt affect regular play...
    x.com
    Remedy shared they discovered one of the bugs in Alan Wake 2 thanks to a speedrun. The team promised not to fix it, as it doesnt affect regular playthroughs in any way.Here's what's broken: https://80.lv/articles/remedy-won-t-fix-a-bug-in-alan-wake-2-used-by-speedrunners/#AlanWake #alanwake2 #games #videogames #gamedev
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  • Nintendo Switch 2 Revealed, Full Nintendo Direct Coming In April
    www.gamespot.com
    Nintendo has officially revealed the Switch 2, its successor to the wildly popular Switch console. Like the original Switch, the Switch 2 is a hybrid home and handheld gaming console, but with beefier system specs and several other improvements when compared to its predecessor. In the reveal trailer, Nintendo confirmed that the Switch 2 will be backward compatible with most physical and digital Switch games. "Certain Nintendo Switch games may not be supported on or fully compatible with Nintendo Switch 2," the company added. More details on the Switch 2 console are set to be revealed in a Nintendo Direct scheduled for April 2, 2025.The trailer also revealed the Switch 2 controllers in more detail, confirming the new magnetic Joy-Con design. Compared to the first iteration of the Joy-Cons that slid into position via rails, the Switch 2 controllers snap into place on the console. There was also a brief look at what appears to be a new Mario Kart game, but other details on the launch date, price, and system specs are still being kept under wraps for now.Continue Reading at GameSpot
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  • Have You Heard of Delta Force?
    gamerant.com
    Delta Force is a free-to-play tactical FPS recently released on Steam and mobile by developer Team Jade. If youre looking to sink your teeth into a new shooter, but not sure if Delta Force is the one for you, then well provide you with everything youll need to know!
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  • To Spline or not to BSpline
    gamedev.net
    Hot digity it's true. I was thinking , enforce "take from the largerNice one.
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  • Switch 2 Nintendo Direct coming in April
    www.polygon.com
    Nintendo officially revealed its next-gen console, Nintendo Switch 2, on Thursday though the company didnt say much beyond confirming the Switch 2s existence, its surprisingly straightforward name, and a 2025 release window in a short teaser video.Thankfully, Nintendo promised to share more details about Switch 2 in a dedicated Nintendo Direct presentation thats scheduled for Wednesday, April 2. Details about the Switch 2 Nintendo Direct are still forthcoming, but this post will be update with official start time, duration, and what to expect from the April showcase.Expect Nintendo to reveal much more about the Switch 2 software lineup during its April Nintendo Direct. The only game officially confirmed for Switch 2 thus far is a new Mario Kart, but since Nintendo is taking its next-gen console on a global hands-on tour starting April 6, it will need to reveal its game lineup by then. Hopefully, the Nintendo Direct will address one big question: What will become of Metroid Prime 4?Switch 2 is slated for release sometime in 2025, possibly as early as June, based on the timing for Nintendos hands-on events for its successor to the Switch.
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