Przemysaw Krokosz, Edge and Embedded Technology Solutions Expert,MobicaJanuary 27, 20255 Min ReadDragos Condrea via Alamy StockArtificial Intelligence continues to gain traction as one of the hottest areas in the technology sector. To meet AIs requirements for processing power we are seeing a race by US vendors to establish data centers worldwide. Google recently announced a $1 billion investment in cloud infrastructure in Thailand, which was followed almost immediately by Oracles promise of $6.5bn in Malaysia. Added to this are many similar ventures in Europe, all under the flag of AI development. Its hardly surprising then that people thinking about AI investment, typically think of a cloud-based project. Yet, we are also seeing significant growth in AI deployments at the edge, and theres good reason for this. The Case for the EdgeTwo of the most compelling reasons are the superiority of speed and security that edge computing can offer. Edges freedom from dependence on connectivity provides low latency and makes it possible to create air gaps through which cyber criminals cannot penetrate. These are both vitally important issues. Speed is of the essence in many applications -- in hospitals, industrial sites or transportation, for example. A delay in machine calculations in a critical care unit is literally a matter of life and death. The same applies to an autonomous vehicle detecting an imminent collision. Theres no time for the technology to wait for a cellular connection. Related:Meanwhile, cybercrime increasingly poses a major threat throughout the world. The 2024 Cloud Security Report from Check Point software and Cybersecurity Insiders, based on conversations with 800 cloud and cybersecurity professionals, found that 96% of respondents were concerned about their capacity to manage cloud security risks, with 39% describing themselves as very concerned. For sectors such as energy, utilities, and pharmaceuticals, security is a top priority for obvious reasons.Another reason for considering the edge deployment for an AI implementation is cost. If you have a user base that is likely to grow substantially, operational expenditure may increase significantly in a cloud model. It may do so even more if the AI solution also requires the regular transfer of large amounts of data, such as video imagery. In these cases, a cloud-based approach may not be financially sustainable in the long term. Developments at the EdgeWhile edge will never be able to compete with the cloud in terms of sheer processing power, a new class of system-on-chip (SoC) processors has emerged, which is designed for AI inference. Many of the vendors in this space have also designed chipsets that are dedicated to specific use cases that allow further cost optimization. Related:Some specific examples of these new products are Intels platforms to support computer vision edge deployments, Qualcomms improved chips for mobile and wearable devices, and Ambarella advancing whats possible with video and image processing. Meanwhile, Nvidia is producing versatile solutions for applications in autonomous vehicles, healthcare, industry and more.These are just some of the contributory factors in the growth of the global edge AI market. One market research company recently estimated that it would grow to $61.63 billion in 2028, from $24.48 billion in 2024. Taking AI to the EdgeSo how do you bring your AI project to the edge? The answer is carefully. Perhaps counter-intuitively, an edge AI project often should begin in the cloud. The initial development of edge AI inference usually requires a level of processing power that can only be found in a cloud environment. But once the development and training of the AI model is complete, the fully mature version can be deployed at the edge. The next step will be to consider how the data processing requirements can be kept to a minimum. The insatiable demand for computing power from the most capable AI models is widely known, but this applies to all scales of AI -- even smaller models at the edge. Therefore, at this point, a range of optimization techniques will be required to minimize the size of both processing power and required data inputs. Related:This will involve reviewing the specific use case and the capabilities of the selected SoC, along with all edge device components, such as cameras and sensors, that may be supplying the data. The process is likely to involve a sizeable degree of experimentation and adjustment to find the lowest acceptable level of decision-making accuracy that can be achieved without undue compromises in the quality of the solution. The AI model itself also needs to be iteratively optimized to enable inference at the edge. Achieving this almost certainly will involve several transformations, as the model goes through the processes of quantization and simplification. Businesses also need to address openness and extensibility factors to ensure that the system will be interoperable with third party products. This will likely involve the development of a dedicated API to support the integration of internal and external plugins, and the creation of a software development kit to ensure smooth deployments. Finally, AI solutions are progressing at an unprecedented rate, with better models being released all the time. So, there needs to be a reliable method for quickly updating the ML models at the core of an edge solution. This is where MLOps kicks in, alongside DevOps methodology, to provide the complete development pipeline. Tools and techniques developed for and used in traditional DevOps, such as containerization, can be applied to maintain competitive advantage.Given the speed of AI development, most organizations will soon be considering its adoption in one form or another. With edge technology advancing rapidly as well, businesses need to seriously consider the benefits this can provide before they invest. About the AuthorPrzemysaw KrokoszEdge and Embedded Technology Solutions Expert,MobicaPrzemysaw Krokosz is an edgeand embedded technology solutions expertatMobica. He works closely with some of the worldslargest and most prestigious organizations on innovative areas of tech development.See more from Przemysaw KrokoszNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also LikeWebinarsMore WebinarsReportsMore Reports

Du liebst Herausforderungen und mchtest Teil eines innovativen Teams sein? Wie wre es, wenn du dich unserem groartigen internationalen Team anschliet und deine Ideen in spannenden Projekten verwirklichst?Wir bieten dir die Chance, remote zu arbeiten oder dich nach erfolgreicher Zusammenarbeit in unserem modernen Headquarter in Dubai weiterzuentwickeln. Arbeite mit den Besten, gestalte die Zukunft der Finanztechnologie und bring deine Fhigkeiten auf das nchste Level. Gemeinsam schaffen wir Innovationen, nehmen Herausforderungen an und entwickeln Lsungen, die einen Unterschied machen.Klingt das nach deinem perfekten Arbeitsumfeld? Dann lass uns herausfinden, ob wir zusammenpassen!Aufgaben Entwicklung und Optimierung von Finanztechnologien: Du wirst unsere bestehenden Systeme und Anwendungen im Bereich Brse und Trading weiterentwickeln und optimieren. Backend- und Frontend-Entwicklung: Je nach Spezialisierung wirst du an der Weiterentwicklung unserer Trading-Plattformen und Analyse-Tools beteiligt sein. Automatisierung von Prozessen: Entwicklung von Automatisierungen fr Datenverarbeitung und Analyse, um effizientere Arbeitsablufe zu ermglichen. Arbeiten mit APIs: Integriere externe Datenquellen (Brsendaten, Finanzmarktinformationen) und entwickle APIs fr den effizienten Datenaustausch. Problemanalyse und Debugging: Behebe technische Fehler und stelle sicher, dass alle Systeme fehlerfrei laufen.Qualifikation Erfahrung in der Softwareentwicklung: Du hast mindestens 2-3+ Jahre Berufserfahrung in der Entwicklung von Software, idealerweise im Bereich Fintech, Brse oder Trading. Technische Fhigkeiten: Du beherrschst gngige Programmiersprachen und Frameworks wie Python, Java, C++, JavaScript, Go, SolidJS, React oder hnliche Technologien. Kenntnisse in Datenbanken: Du hast Erfahrung in der Arbeit mit Datenbanken (SQL, NoSQL) und bist in der Lage, groe Datenmengen effizient zu verwalten. Erfahrung mit APIs und Automatisierung: Du hast bereits APIs entwickelt oder mit ihnen gearbeitet und kennst dich mit der Automatisierung von Prozessen aus. Kenntnis der Finanzwelt/Trading: Ein Interesse und Verstndnis fr Brse, Finanzmrkte und Trading-Prozesse sind von Vorteil. Eigenstndige Arbeitsweise: Du arbeitest selbststndig und bist in der Lage, Projekte zuverlssig und termingerecht umzusetzen. Sprache: Wir sind ein deutschsprachiges Team, deshalb ist es uns wichtig, dass auch du deutsch sprichstBenefits Dynamisches Arbeitsumfeld: Arbeite in einem ambitionierten Team mit flachen Hierarchien. Weiterentwicklungsmglichkeiten: Du wirst in spannende Projekte eingebunden, die deine Fhigkeiten fordern und erweitern. Remote-Arbeit mglich: Flexible Arbeitszeiten und die Mglichkeit, remote zu arbeiten. Zugang zur Finanzwelt: Arbeite direkt an der Schnittstelle von Technologie und Finanzmrkten. Related Jobs See more Full-Stack Programming jobs

On January 8, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang jolted the stock market by saying that practical quantum computing is still 15 to 30 years away, at the same time suggesting those computers will need Nvidia GPUs in order to implement the necessary error correction. However, history shows that brilliant people are not immune to making mistakes. Huangs predictions miss the mark, both on the timeline for useful quantum computing and on the role his companys technology will play in that future. Ive been closely following developments in quantum computing as an investor, and its clear to me that it is rapidly converging on utility. Last year, Googles Willow device demonstrated that there is a promising pathway to scaling up to bigger and bigger computers. It showed that errors can be reduced exponentially as the number of quantum bits, or qubits, increases. It also ran a benchmark test in under five minutes that would take one of todays fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years. While too small to be commercially useful with known algorithms, Willow shows that quantum supremacy (executing a task that is effectively impossible for any classical computer to handle in a reasonable amount of time) and fault tolerance (correcting errors faster than they are made) are achievable. For example, PsiQuantum, a startup my company is invested in, is set to break ground on two quantum computers that will enter commercial service before the end of this decade. The plan is for each one to be 10 thousand times the size of Willow, big enough to tackle important questions about materials, drugs, and the quantum aspects of nature. These computers will not use GPUs to implement error correction. Rather, they will have custom hardware, operating at speeds that would be impossible with Nvidia hardware. At the same time, quantum algorithms are improving far faster than hardware. A recent collaboration between the pharmaceutical giant Boehringer Ingelheim and PsiQuantum demonstrated a more than 200x improvement in algorithms to simulate important drugs and materials. Phasecraft, another company we have invested in, has improved the simulation performance for a wide variety of crystal materials and has published a quantum-enhanced version of a widely used Advances like these lead me to believe that useful quantum computing is inevitable and increasingly imminent. And thats good news, because the hope is that they will be able to perform calculations that no amount of AI or classical computation could ever achieve. We should care about the prospect of useful quantum computers because today we don't really know how to do chemistry. We lack knowledge about the mechanisms of action for many of our most important drugs. The catalysts that drive our industries are generally poorly understood, require expensive exotic materials, or both. Despite appearances, we have significant gaps in our agency over the physical world; our achievements belie the fact that we are, in many ways, stumbling around in the dark. Nature operates on the principles of quantum mechanics. Our classical computational methods fail to accurately capture the quantum nature of reality, even though much of our high-performance computing resources are dedicated to this pursuit. Despite all the intellectual and financial capital expended, we still dont understand why the painkiller acetaminophen works, how type-II superconductors function, or why a simple crystal of iron and nitrogen can produce a magnet with such incredible field strength. We search for compounds in Amazonian tree bark to cure cancer and other maladies, manually rummaging through a pitifully small subset of a design space encompassing 1060 small molecules. Its more than a little embarrassing. We do, however, have some tools to work with. In industry, density functional theory (DFT) is the workhorse of computational chemistry and materials modeling, widely used to investigate the electronic structure of many-body systemssuch as atoms, molecules, and solids. When DFT is applied to systems where electron-electron correlations are weak, it produces reasonable results. But it fails entirely on a broad class of interesting problems. Take, for example, the buzz in the summer of 2023 around the room-temperature superconductor LK-99. Many accomplished chemists turned to DFT to try to characterize the material and determine whether it was, indeed, a superconductor. Results were, to put it politely, mixedso we abandoned our best computational methods, returning to mortar and pestle to try to make some of the stuff. Sadly, although LK-99 might have many novel characteristics, a room-temperature superconductor it isnt. Thats unfortunate, as such a material could revolutionize energy generation, transmission, and storage, not to mention magnetic confinement for fusion reactors, particle accelerators, and more. AI will certainly help with our understanding of materials, but it is no panacea. New AI techniques have emerged in the last few years, with some promising results. DeepMinds Graph Networks for Materials Exploration (GNoME), for example, found 380,000 new potentially stable materials. The fundamental issue is that an AI model is only as good as the data it's trained on. Training an LLM on the entire internet corpus, for instance, can yield a model that has a reasonable grasp of most human culture and can process language effectively. But if DFT fails for any non-trivially correlated quantum systems, how useful can a DFT-derived training set really be? We could also turn to synthesis and experimentation to create training data, but the number of physical samples we can realistically produce is minuscule relative to the vast design space, leaving a great deal of potential untapped. Only once we have reliable quantum simulations to produce sufficiently accurate training data will we be able to create AI models that answer quantum questions on classical hardware. And that means that we need quantum computers. They afford us the opportunity to shift from a world of discovery to a world of design. Todays iterative process of guessing, synthesizing, and testing materials is comically inadequate. In a few tantalizing cases, we have stumbled on materials, like superconductors, with near-magical properties. How many more might these new tools reveal in the coming years? We will eventually have machines with millions of qubits that, when used to simulate crystalline materials, open up a vast new design space. It will be like waking up one day and finding a million new elements with fascinating properties on the periodic table. Of course, building a million-qubit quantum computer is not for the faint of heart. Such machines will be the size of supercomputers, and require large amounts of capital, cryoplant, electricity, concrete, and steel. They also require silicon photonics components that perform well beyond anything in industry, error correction hardware that runs fast enough to chase photons, and single-photon detectors with unprecedented sensitivity. But after years of research and development, and more than a billion dollars of investment, the challenge is now moving from science and engineering to construction. It is impossible to fully predict how quantum computing will affect our world, but a thought exercise might offer a mental model of some of the possibilities. Imagine our world without metal. We could have wooden houses built with stone tools, agriculture, wooden plows, movable type, printing, poetry, and even thoughtfully edited science periodicals. But we would have no inkling of phenomena like electricity or electromagnetismno motors, generators, radio, MRI machines, silicon, or AI. We wouldnt miss them, as wed be oblivious to their existence. Today, we are living in a world without quantum materials, oblivious to the unrealized potential and abundance that lie just out of sight. With large-scale quantum computers on the horizon and advancements in quantum algorithms, we are poised to shift from discovery to design, entering an era of unprecedented dynamism in chemistry, materials science, and medicine. It will be a new age of mastery over the physical world. Peter Barrett is a general partner at Playground Global, which invests in early-stage deep-tech companies including several in quantum computing, quantum algorithms, and quantum sensing: PsiQuantum, Phasecraft, NVision, and Ideon.

The team selected for the estimated 359,000 contract will deliver an upgrade of the landmark John Fogarty-designed Grade II*-listed building which holds 40,000 artworks and is located on the East Cliff overlooking Bournemouth town centre.The project, planned to complete in 2028, will refurbish and upgrade the historic complex which was originally constructed as a private house before becoming a public art gallery but has seen little investment since 1999 despite its exposed coastal location facing the sea.According to the brief: Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum (RCAGM) is a Grade II*-listed building, located on the East Cliff of Bournemouth and housing an internationally important collection of 40,000 items of Victorian fine and decorative art and world cultures, much on open display.AdvertisementThis procurement is to obtain the professional services of a suitably qualified conservation accredited specialist (architect, chartered surveyor or chartered architectural technologist to lead a team of specialist consultants from RIBA Stage 4 (Technical Design) to Stage 6 (Handover).The successful Bidder will be expected to commence the works April 2025. The Successful Bidder will be required to ensure the works are completed by March 2028.The Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum was originally constructed as a house and private gallery in 1894 and was gifted to the local council in 1908. The complex is subject to extreme climatic conditions and is need of repair.The latest procurement comes two years after Burrell Foley Fischer won a competition for a landmark new 3 million-to-3.5 million beach pavilion in Sandbanks nearby.Bids for the latest commission will be evaluated 60 per cent on quality and 40 per cent on price. Applicants must hold employers liability insurance of 5 million, public liability insurance of 5 million and professional indemnity insurance of 5 million.AdvertisementCompetition detailsProject title Design Lead for Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum ConservationClientContract value 359,000First round deadline 2pm, 28 February 2025Restrictions TbcMore information https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/002412-2025

The scheme for St William, a Berkeley company, is the fourth phase of the AJ100 practices Kings Road Park masterplan. Consent was recently handed down by the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham for development through delegated powers.The Fosters scheme will see the eastern part of the site, a former gasworks located just south of Chelsea Football Clubs home stadium at Stamford Bridge, redeveloped.The plans feature a seven-storey podium building, a 28-storey tower and a 38-storey tower, together providing 357 private homes and amenities. In addition, nearly two acres of new parkland and public open space will be created.AdvertisementThe consented design includes one less tower than outline proposals first drawn up by Fosters for the Kings Road Park masterplan with single staircases, which were approved in February 2019 before new fire safety regulations were introduced. The previous vision also featured smaller floorplates.Fosters said the updated design reduces the developments embodied carbon compared with the outline planning application, while meeting new fire safety requirements. It also increases daylight entering the new park by 59 per cent.Giles Robinson, senior partner at Foster + Partners, said: The scheme will provide the highest-quality homes that overlook one of Londons most spectacular new public parks.Our design complements the historic urban surroundings and enhances connections with nature by significantly increasing the amount of green space at the base of the towers and extending the experience of the park onto the podiums rooftop.The wider Kings Road Park masterplan proposes 1,800 new homes, both private and affordable, on the site of the former gasworks off Imperial Road. The scheme also includes a new park and a restored Grade II*-listed gasholder.AdvertisementAn earlier vision for the masterplan and fourth phase was drawn up by Apt, also for St William, and was approved in 2018 before Fosters took over the job.Phase 1, including 345 homes, was designed by EPR Architects and is nearing completion.The timeline for completion of the works is unknown.

Warwick doesn't have many internet service providers, but there are a few high-speed internet plans in the city. Here are CNET's picks of the best in the Rhode Island city.

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra's amazing camera setup meant it wasn't just one of the best camera phones of 2024, it was one of the best cameras I've ever seen on a phone. It achieved this primarily with its 1-inch type image sensor, which is physically larger than almost any other smartphone camera sensor. That bigger size, together with the wide, variable aperture, let it capture more light to produce some of the best results I've ever seen from a camera phone. It even blew us away when taking images during Taylor Swift's Eras tour.It also packed a top-end processor for lightning-fast performance, a vibrant display and a battery that lasted the better part of a day. All in all, it was a superb flagship Android phone for those of you wanting to focus on your image-taking.But the tech world doesn't hang around for long and already there are rumors circulating around what we might see from its successor, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. Here then is what we know about this potential photography powerhouse. We'll be updating this article over the coming weeks and months as more rumors surface, so make sure to check back regularly to find out more about the phone.Xiaomi 15 Ultra release date and priceThe 14 Ultra was announced in China in February and was first shown off to Western press -- including CNET -- at Mobile World Congress 2024 in Barcelona back in February. It wasn't until later in March that I was able to get my hands on it for testing. While Xiaomi has yet to confirm the launch date for the phone, all signs suggest that the company is planning a similar timeframe for the follow-up.It's already taken the wraps off the base Xiaomi 15 and 15 Pro for the Chinese market -- again, following the same schedule as the 14 and 14 Pro last year. The 14 Ultra went on sale in the UK for 1,299 and while it's not officially on sale in the US, that price equates to $1,640. There's been no word on any significant changes in the company's pricing so we'd expect the 15 Ultra to sit in that ballpark. The Xiaomi 14 Ultra's cameras. Andrew Lanxon/CNETXiaomi 15 Ultra camerasXiaomi's Ultra line has always focused on photography, with the 14 Ultra packing not just a massive image sensor, but a variable aperture and an impressive 5x optical zoom. We firmly expect the 15 Ultra to be similarly aimed towards photographers and indeed early leaks support that.Known tipster Ice Universe reported that the 15 Ultra's periscope telephoto camera will feature a whopping 200-megapixel image sensor. That's a huge step up from the 50-megapixel sensor found on the 14 Ultra. The downside? Ice Universe also says the optical zoom will drop from 5x to 4.4x, although the extra resolution will presumably allow for further digital zoom without a noticeable loss in quality. Alleged leaked renders of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. SmartprixThis change to the telephoto camera unit is apparently backed up by leaked renders of the phone from SmartPrix, which show an off-center camera unit at the top. A further leaked image (via GSM Arena) purportedly showing the internals of the camera setup indicates that it's off center in order to make room for its large periscope unit. The renders, if accurate, also confirm the continued relationship between Xiaomi and Leica, so expect high-quality lens optics and various Leica color presets to spice up your images.More recently, internet tipster Kartikey Singh posted an image to X purporting to be of the back of the 15 Ultra, while confirming the 1-inch type image sensor and 200 megapixel resolution. The image matches the earlier renders.So far there are few other rumors around the rest of the cameras, including any changes to the main camera and its 1-inch type sensor. I'd certainly hope that Xiaomi continues using at least this sensor size -- if not going even larger -- and maintaining its variable aperture, which can go from wide open at f/1.6 to more closed down at f/4, resulting in attractive starbursts around points of light at night.Xiaomi 15 Ultra processor, display and batteryGiven that the 14 Ultra packed the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor when it launched, it's safe to assume that Xiaomi will equip its new model with Qualcomm's next-generation silicon. Qualcomm took the wraps off the Snapdragon 8 Elite in October, and we've already seen the power this chip can offer in the OnePlus 13. It's also the same chip found inside Samsung's entire Galaxy S25 range.Apart from an expected overall increase in speed, the 8 Elite processor promises improved web browsing speed and is particularly geared towards AI tasks, including powering on-device AI tools like Samsung's Galaxy AI. At its launch event, Qualcomm showed off an AI-powered tool that adds artificial lighting to your selfies, which CNET's David Lumb called "delightfully fun and helpful" when he tried it for himself. We expect to see a variety of AI tools on board Xiaomi's 15 Ultra, for both image manipulation and virtual assistance. The Xiaomi 14 Ultra was a powerhouse. The 15 Ultra is expected to be the same, with the latest Qualcomm chips on board. Andrew Lanxon/CNETRumors tentatively suggest that the 15 Ultra's display will remain at 6.7 inches, like the 14 Ultra, although the battery may be expanded to 6,000 mAh, up from 5,000 mAh. Whether this remains the case on models outside of China remains to be seen as the 14 Ultra did have a slightly larger battery size for models sold within China.It's expected that the phone will continue to offer 90W wired charging, although I'd like to see the company take this further. Some of Xiaomi's other phones -- including the 11T Pro, released back in 2021 -- offer 120W fast charging and it's disappointing not to see such speeds on the company's flashiest, most expensive model.

January 26, 2025WHO Withdrawal, Bird Flu News and the Way Prehab Affects Surgical OutcomesA rundown on whats at stake for global health if the U.S. withdraws from the World Health Organization and an update on bird flu are in this weeks science news roundup. Anaissa Ruiz Tejada/Scientific AmericanSUBSCRIBE TO Science QuicklyRachel Feltman: Happy Monday, listeners. For Scientific Americans Science Quickly, Im Rachel Feltman. Lets kick off the week by catching up on some of the latest science news.[CLIP: None of My Business, by Arthur Benson]Feltman: First, weve got a quick update from one of our SciAm correspondents. On January 20, President Donald Trump signed an executive order stating his intention to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization, or WHO. Here to unpack that for us is Tanya Lewis, a senior editor covering health and medicine at Scientific American.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Tanya Lewis: The World Health Organization is an agency of the United Nations. It was founded in 1948, and it has nearly 200 member states. It has a pretty broad scope, from working to expand health care access around the world to responding to disease outbreaks and pandemics.So Trump issued an executive order that signaled that he intends to withdraw from the WHO, but the full process actually takes a year. He tried to do this during his last term, but Biden reversed it before it took effect.Trump said hes withdrawing because he thinks the organization handled the COVID pandemic poorly and because he thinks the U.S. pays an unfair share of the agencys funding. Its true that we do pay the most of any member country, but most of our contributions are actually voluntary and earmarked for specific projects.[CLIP: The Farmhouse, by Silver Maple]Lewis: The WHO is definitely not perfect. It did make some notable mistakes during the pandemic. For example, the agency initially dismissed the possibility that the virus was airborne, and it was very slow to correct that idea, but it did still play an important role in communicating information to countries and helping them get access to vaccines and treatments for the disease.The WHO has a very broad remit, which arguably makes it harder to achieve any one goal, and at the end of the day, it really lacks the power to enforce any rules on its member states.Being part of WHO means the U.S. gets a seat at the table for how the rest of the world handles major health challenges, and experts have told me that if we leave, it will create a vacuum that China will probably fill. The WHO also shares important data and information with its member states, such as the genetic sequence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID. Our CDC and other health agencies can fill some of these gaps, but the U.S. withdrawing will definitely have a big impact on the WHO and on other countries. Clear global communication will be especially important if we face a pandemic of bird flu, which poses a growing threat here in the U.S.Many of the WHOs member states are low- or middle-income countries that rely on the public health expertise of U.S. scientists because they dont have a strong CDC of their own. These countries could have a much harder time fighting disease outbreaks or improving health care access. And even though it seems like the WHO gets a lot more from the U.S. than the other way around, its really important to be a part of these larger conversations around global public health threats because if theres one thing weve learned from the COVID pandemic, its that viruses and diseases do not respect borders, and if we dont know what threats there are around the world, we wont be able to protect Americans at home.Feltman: Thanks for that explainer, Tanya. Listeners, well keep tabs on this and other executive orders related to science and health as we move forward.Now lets forget things on Earth for a minute by checking out some space news.[CLIP: Handwriting, by Frank Jonsson]Feltman: Last Tuesday scientists publishing in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics described an exoplanet with wind speeds that put those found in our own solar system to shame. WASP-127b, which is about 520 light-years away, has supersonic jet-stream winds unlike any weve seen before. At the planets equator, winds move at around 20,100 miles per hour. While a couple of other exoplanets have been found with faster atmospheric wind speeds, this is the fastest jet stream found circling around a whole planet, according to Reuters. For context our own planets jet streams can sometimes make it over 275 miles per hour. And the fastest winds on Neptune, which is widely thought to have the strongest winds in our solar system, can surpass 1,100 miles per hour.WASP-127b is a type of gas giant known as a hot Jupiter, which, among other things, means that its quite close to its host star. The windy world is about a third larger than Jupiter but has only around 16 percent of the massso its pretty fluffy. It also has one side facing its sun in perpetual daylight. In fact, one of the study's authors told Reuters that this fierce radiation provides the main energy source for those intense winds.Back down on Earth weve got a troubling bird flu update. On January 17 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced new policies and regulations for pet food manufacturers in response to more than a dozen deaths or illnesses among domestic cats. H5N1 cases in domestic and wild cats have been connected to raw food products in Colorado, Washington, Oregon and California, according to the agency. According to the CDC and the American Veterinary Medical Association, cooked and pasteurized pet foods are the safest options, especially given the ongoing bird flu outbreak. But the FDA is now requiring cat and dog food manufacturers that do use raw poultry or beef products to develop and implement food safety plans that take H5N1 into account.[CLIP: It Doesnt End Here (Instrumental), by Nehemiah Pratt]Feltman: For some pets, a bird flu infection can have serious consequences. While dogs seem to generally experience only mild illness when infected with H5N1, cats can experience seizures and blindness. Now, theres currently no evidence that cats can pass bird flu on to humans, but while the risk of such a jump is extremely low, its not zero, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. Of course, youre much more at risk if youre partaking in raw dairy and unpasteurized products yourself. But if youre worried about switching up your shopping habits, either for you or your pets, the good news is theres no evidence that raw dairy provides any health benefits for humansat least none that you wouldnt also get from drinking pasteurized dairyand the World Small Animal Veterinary Association says the same is true of raw meat and dairy for cats.In other health news, two new studies offer advice for dealing with surgery and serious illness. A paper published Tuesday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine focused on how physical fitness can improve outcomes during cancer treatment. The paper, which reviewed 42 previous studies involving nearly 47,000 patients, found that muscular strength was associated with a significantly lower risk of death, and high cardiorespiratory fitness had a similar link. The researchers say its possible that tailored strength training and other workout programs could promote better outcomes for cancer patients.[CLIP: Those Rainy Days, by Elm Lake]Feltman: Another study published last Wednesday in the BMJ explored the importance of prehabilitation, a.k.a. prehab. Youre likely already familiar with the idea of rehabthe kind of physical therapy and support you might get after particular types of surgery. Prehab allows people to access nutritional support, exercise guidance, cognitive training and other potentially helpful services before a planned surgery.According to the new study, which reviewed data from more than 186 clinical trials involving a total of more than 15,000 patients, there is consistent evidence that prehab improves surgical outcomes. The researchers say the effects of exercise-based prehab programs are especially significant. And although the researchers called for further investigation into exactly what kinds of prehab are most effective and why, the studys lead author noted in a press release that if youre preparing to undergo surgery, its always a good idea to ask your doctor about prehab options.Okay, lets end on a fun note. Youve heard of contagious laughter and probably contagious yawning. But what about contagious peeing?In a study published last week in Current Biology, researchers from Kyoto University in Japan described an unusual social phenomenon in captive chimpanzees. After spending more than 600 hours observing the animals, the researchers concluded that chimps are ever-so-slightly more likely to pee after they see other chimps do it. The effect was amplified if chimps were physically closer to each other.[CLIP: Theme music]Feltman: The researchers also noticed that a chimps social standing seemed to impact their urine influencer status: low-ranking chimps were more likely to copy the bathroom behaviors of high-ranking chimps. And to that I say: Gee whiz! Sorry.Thats all for this weeks news roundup. Well be back on Wednesday to talk all about the science of the sun. And on Friday well be chatting with an expert on human behavior about why being cynical might not be as protective as you think.Science Quickly is produced by me, Rachel Feltman, along with Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Subscribe to Scientific American for more up-to-date and in-depth science news.For Scientific American, this is Rachel Feltman. Have a great week!

Ubisoft responds to report claiming it's signed a Saudi deal for fresh Assassin's Creed Mirage contentBacked by controversial Public Investment Fund.Image credit: Ubisoft News by Tom Phillips Editor-in-Chief Published on Jan. 27, 2025 Ubisoft has responded to a report that claims fresh content for 2023's Assassin's Creed Mirage is on the way, following investment from Saudi Arabia's controversial Public Investment Fund (PIF).The report, published by French financial newspaper Les Echoes, states that Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot secured PIF funding during a meeting last month in Saudi Arabia (thanks, j0nathan).In a statement to Eurogamer today, a Ubisoft spokesperson declined to offer more detail, but did not offer a denial."We'll decline to comment," a Ubisoft spokesperson said. "We are focused on finishing Assassin's Creed Shadows and excited for players to get to play it on 20th March."Ian goes hands-on with Assassin's Creed Mirage.Watch on YouTubeThe PIF is an initiative designed as a way to diversify the country's revenues via investment in foreign companies, with a large arm focused on the video games industry. It's chaired by Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the controversial ruler blamed by the CIA for the assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who has upheld the country's notoriously poor human rights record.Despite this, the PIF holds a notable stake in a swathe of gaming companies, including Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two Interactive, Nintendo, EA, Embracer, Nexon and Capcom.Ubisoft has recently been seeking investment, as the company discusses its future with Chinese stakeholder Tencent and explores sale options.Additional content for Assassin's Creed Mirage is something of a surprise, considering Ubisoft's upcoming push for the long-awaited Shadows.Mirage, set in ninth-century Baghdad, was designed as a smaller project similar in scope to the Assassin's Creed series' earliest entries, and something of a palate cleanser after a trilogy of enormous Assassin's Creed epics.Released in late 2023, Mirage was primarily developed by Ubisoft Bordeaux, a team which is now building Claws of Awaji, the first 10-hour expansion for Assassin's Creed Shadows that anyone who pre-orders the game will now get for free.But DLC for Mirage could tie into Ubisoft's plans for a more cohesive overall storyline for the series, found within its Animus Hub. This will launch alongside Shadows, and serve as a primary home for ongoing story content and free rewards. (Eurogamer recently got to take a deep dive into Assassin's Creed's new Animus Hub, and everything we know so far that it'll contain.)Shadows looks to tell a completely new story, with a modern day now set in the "near future". Could fresh DLC for Mirage be used to tie up some dangling plot threads, perhaps - particularly what happened next in the series' modern day, following the ending of Assassin's Creed Valhalla?Eurogamer recently went hands-on with Assassin's Creed Shadows, which our Katharine described as the series' "biggest shake-up of the series in years".

Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap review - a tempered return for this tower defence titanGoing rogue, like.Image credit: Eurogamer/Robot Entertainment Review by Jeremy Peel Contributor Published on Jan. 27, 2025 A typically snappy entry in the best series that action tower defence has to offer, held back by a repeating roguelite structure that's only partially successful.It never goes well for the greenskins at the vanguard of an orc invasion force, but spare a thought for the guys in the second row - no less doomed, and with the added dread of seeing precisely what's coming to them. "Is it just me," bellows one orc to another in a goofy baritone, over the boom of drums and cannon fire, "or are these traps getting stronger?" Seconds later, he rounds the corner into a shipyard and steps onto a briar patch which, by rights, ought not to be there. Not to mention the auto-crossbows firing from the ceiling, the plants belching poison from the corner, and the saw blades ricocheting off the walls. Uruk-bye, my perceptive friend. That's a four-times combo.Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap reviewDeveloper: Robot EntertainmentPublisher: Robot EntertainmentPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Out on 28th January on PC (Steam, Epic Games Store), Xbox Series X/S and Game PassIn the most fundamental sense, it's business as usual. Orcs Must Die! is a series about protecting a portal, or two, at the centre of a map from encroaching waves of fantasy monsters. You do so by creating elaborate Rube Goldberg deathzones for your imminent guests - laying down barricades to block off routes before guiding the flow of orcs, ogres, trolls and frost giants towards choke points, which you then fill with careering mine carts, pits of tar and dispensers of boiling hot molten gold. If you can stick a single enemy with five, six or seven different methods of pain-giving before they're finally torn in half, youll get extra cash for the combo, which is spent fending off subsequent waves with further traps.Watch on YouTubeIt's tower defence, then, but with the breathless twist of a ground-level perspective, and a responsibility to dive into the fray even as you try and hold a high level strategy in your head. It's both art and science - handing you a gridded map you could halfway-solve on graph paper, but for the fact that no plan survives contact with a live environment. You can't always account for the physics flip-trap that sends a single orc wide, hurtling towards the rift from a path you thought closed off completely, forcing you to sprint after it, your blunderbuss shouting, "Stop!".As hybrid genre formulae go, it's one of the finest ever conceived, and has seen the series safely into its second decade, even after a painfully ignored detour into Tencent-funded PvP. This new version is, in the playing, as good as any before it. And it's cheap to boot - the sort of game you could ask your co-op mates to stump up for without prompting a cost-benefit analysis in the WhatsApp group. Image credit: Eurogamer/Robot EntertainmentThe orc with the lovely baritone was right, though. The traps are getting a little stronger - very gradually, match after match, as I slowly push back the borders of Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap's progression system - and it's this wider structural change to the way the series works that I'm less sold on.On the one hand, I'm picking up enough golden skulls from the bodies of my enemies to unlock one, two or even three new trap types to play with after every run. Ooo - now I can freeze flying gargoyles with icy ballistas, or lay down a cursed paving flag that becomes more deadly with every soul it consumes, making it a long-term tactical investment. These are undeniably exciting additions to my arsenal that leave me eager to switch up my loadout and uncover new possibilities.Outside that, however, I'm handing over my hard-won resources to improve the reset speed of burning coals by half a second, or slightly reducing the cost of an arrow-wall so that I can install a couple more per wave. These sorts of highly incremental, barely perceptible upgrades are very modern, aren't they? The ones designed to keep you tending to a screen-filling skill tree, chasing percentage increases across hundreds of hours, rather than tens. Yet I'm rarely convinced they're better for the player than chunky, tangible choices they can feel altering their playstyle. Image credit: Eurogamer/Robot EntertainmentThese background systems tie into a roguelite run structure that replaces the more traditional campaigns of previous Orcs Must Die! games. And there, it must be said, you're presented with meaningful options at every juncture. Before every stage, you're given a choice of three maps, each of which has a different negative modifier attached to it. You might decide you can handle a couple of extra Fire Elementals per wave, or are prepared to work around double-price ceiling traps. You'll weigh that decision against your familiarity with the maps themselves - most of which you'll know from previous runs.After each wave of enemies you'll pick up Threads, magical boons which stack over the course of a run and can shift your approach as you take advantage of, say, a boost in fire damage if an orc is already coated in tar, or double pain helpings from your crossbow once your ultimate is activated. And at the end of a level, you'll decide whether to bank your earnings and return to base for upgrades, or bet a large chunk of your skulls on the conviction that you can handle another map. After a couple of such adventures, you'll be faced with a boss level that will lay you low the first few times you attempt it. Should you win, your next run will be elongated, and your map selection slightly expanded. Image credit: Eurogamer/Robot EntertainmentWhile Deathtrap is very playable in single-player, it's also designed around four-player co-op - and from that point of view, this roguelike business makes quite a bit more sense than a lengthy campaign. No longer will a drop-in companion find themselves halfway up someone else's difficulty curve, struggling for air. Now, everybody's starting fresh together, even if their individual skill trees might be growing at different rates. What's more, while levels can last up to an hour, you're free to quicksave at their conclusion and come back to a run later. In all this, Orcs Must Die! has never been more approachable.Like the Cyclops Druid who insists on flying over my barricades, however, I must admit I prefer the old ways. Part of the creative and strategic joy of the series has always been the process of figuring out a map for the first time - experimentally plonking down barricades, your most powerful tool, to discover how you might funnel monsters coming from multiple doors into one, glorious corridor of death. There might be different ways of doing it, but the solution is yours, and that eureka moment only comes once per level. Image credit: Eurogamer/Robot EntertainmentBy asking you to repeat a handful of maps across its roguelike structure, Deathtrap ensures those moments come about much less frequently. That's not to say that developer Robot Entertainment has failed to think of ways to keep things fresh. Upon returning to a familiar map, you might find that Rift corruption has entangled your favourite choke point in grim, grey roots, forcing you to rethink your plans; or that an end-of-level boon has made wall traps 50 percent more effective, causing you to ditch your usual ceiling lasers. There are strong incentives for teaching yourself new tricks.Nonetheless, in the 18 or so hours I've spent in Deathtrap's company, I've spent 45 minute stretches fighting battles already solved - shunting orcs down the same routes when I'd rather have moved on to new layouts that prompted different solutions. During the first map of a run in particular, the challenge level can be underwhelming for a veteran, before rising sharply for a boss encounter that, more often than not, ends with a serious hit to your resources. Failure might be part of the roguelite parcel, but faced with the prospect of unnecessary repetition, I'm more inclined to return to Orcs Must Die! 3 for the second campaign I never quite got around to. Image credit: Eurogamer/Robot EntertainmentThere are other, smaller issues with the moment-to-moment magic of playing Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap. Beyond some opening videos, there's a curious lack of tutorialisation which meant, across multiple maps, I had no idea the aforementioned Druid could 'silence' my character with his eye laser - leading me to swear fruitlessly as my ultimate failed to activate, and ogres plunged into the Rift. But the fundamentals are so winning that I've had a largely fantastic time in its company regardless.There's something about the meeting of deep strategic thinking and chaotic third-person imprecision that tickles the brain like nothing else - the sweet spot that renders Orcs Must Die! both a casual distraction and an engrossing equation. Deathtrap explores the full spectrum of that identity better than ever before - following maps like Town Plaza, a mathsy network of right angles and tight bridges begging to be cancelled out with barricades, with the wide-open bloodbath of Dry Docks. The latter pushes you to master the MOBA-like synergies of your character abilities - a welcome hangover from the Tencent days. Image credit: Eurogamer/Robot EntertainmentOrcs Must Die! Deathtrap accessibility optionsSeparate sliders for music, sound effects, dialogue and enemy dialogue. Subtitles, voice chat and gore toggles. Aim assist option. Choice of controller vibration. Language, preferred region and crossplay settings. Camera sensitivity sliders, and camera shake and inversion options.In the most important ways, Deathtrap is still wonderfully old-fashioned - eschewing the apologetic design that finds many modern developers tweaking the fun out of their creations in a process of death by patch note. It's happy to let you break its systems with lucky combinations of Threads and traps which can generate more cash than you know what to do with once they click into place. When that happens, you simply stand back and laugh at the factory line mass murder you've facilitated, all fire and lighting and really sharp spikes.Then, before you can get bored, it's all wiped away for you to start anew on the next level. In the past, I've compared the feeling of playing Orcs Must Die! rather pompously to Buddhist sand mandalas - the extraordinary artworks which are ritualistically destroyed as a reminder of the transitory nature of life. And hey, I stand by it. To pick a less pretentious reference point: a thing isn't beautiful because it lasts. And this daft thing that Orcs Must Die! has us doing, feeding both id and ego at once, is one of the most beautiful and underrated experiences gaming has to offer. No amount of roguelike revisions to the formula can change that.A copy of Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap was provided for review by developer Robot Entertainment.