A few weeks ago, we wrote how Eliyan’s NuLink PHY could do away with silicon interposers and integrate everything into an single, elegant package. How, essentially, the socket could become the motherboard.
At the recent 30th annual North America Technology Symposium, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) revealed plans to construct a version of its chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology that could lead to system-in-packages (SiPs) over twice the size of the current largest ones.
“With System-on-Wafer, TSMC is providing a revolutionary new option to enable a large array of dies on a 300mm wafer, offering more compute power while occupying far less data center space and boosting performance per watt by orders of magnitude,” the company said.
An enormous amount of power
TSMC’s first SoW offering, a logic-only wafer based on Integrated Fan-Out (InFO) technology, is already in production.
A chip-on-wafer version using CoWoS technology is expected to arrive in 2027, and will enable the “integration of SoIC, HBM and other components to create a powerful wafer-level system with computing power comparable to a data center server rack, or even an entire server.“
Reporting on the move, Tom’s Hardware expands on this saying, “One of the designs that TSMC envisions relies on four stacked SoICs mated with 12 HBM4 memory stacks and additional I/O dies. Such a giant will certainly draw an enormous amount of power – we are talking about thousands of watts here and will need a very sophisticated cooling technology. TSMC also expects such solutions to use a 120x120mm substrate.”
TSMC’s ambitious pursuit to create gigantic chips, however, is dwarfed by Cerebras Systems’ newest Wafer Scale Engine 3 (WSE-3), termed the “fastest AI chip in the world”. The WSE-3 boasts four trillion transistors and is twice as powerful as its predecessor, the WSE-2, while maintaining the same energy consumption and price. This new chip created on a 5nm TSMC process, provides a staggering peak AI performance of 125 petaflops – which is equivalent to 62 Nvidia H100 GPUs.
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When introducing the new M4 iPad Pro models, Apple showed a video of a hydraulic press crushing all manner of creative tools, including musical instruments, electronic equipment, arcade games, paint and brushes, computers, cameras, and more, with the aim of demonstrating how the iPad represents all of the tools condensed into a single device.
The ad was a play on the popular hydraulic press videos that are popular across social media sites, but creatives found the concept to be in poor taste. Actor Hugh Grant referred to the ad as the “destruction of the human experience,” director Reed Morano told Apple to “read the room” and called it “actually psychotic,” and Basecamp CTO David Heinemeier Hansson said it “symbolizes everything everyone has ever hated about digitization.”
The upset over the Crush ad led Apple to issue an apology. In a statement to Ad Age, Apple marketing vice president Tor Myhren said that the video ultimately “missed the mark.”
Creativity is in our DNA at Apple, and it’s incredibly important to us to design products that empower creatives all over the world. Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. We missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry.
Apple left the Crush video on its YouTube channel, but the ad won’t be running on television.
Apple today unveiled redesigned iPad Pro models featuring the M4 chip, Ultra Retina XDR OLED displays, a nano-texture display option, and more. The new iPad Pro offers a considerably thinner design and slightly larger 11- and 13-inch display size options. The 11-inch model is 5.3mm thick and weighs less than a pound, while the 13-inch model is just 5.1mm thick and weighs a quarter pound less …
Apple’s “Let Loose” event kicks off today at the unusual time of 7:00 a.m. Pacific Time, and we’re expecting to see an iPad-focused event with new iPad Pro and iPad Air models, updated Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard accessories, and perhaps some other announcements. Apple is providing a live video stream on its website, on YouTube, and in the company’s TV app across various platforms. We…
Apple today held the first event of 2024, debuting new iPad Air and iPad Pro models and accompanying accessories. While the event was faster than normal and took 40 minutes, we’ve condensed it down even further for those who want a quick overview of everything that was announced. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. We’ve also got a full recap of all of the coverage…
Apple at its “Let Loose” event today announced a new Magic Keyboard for the latest iPad Pro models, with a thinner, lighter design. Apple says the Magic Keyboard has been redesigned to be thinner and lighter, while maintaing the same floating design. Two colors are available that match the new iPad Pro. New features include a function row with screen brightness controls, an aluminum…
Apple today announced that iOS 17.5 will be released to the public “soon,” following over a month of beta testing. While the software update is relatively minor, it does have a few new features and changes, as outlined in the list below. “The new Pride Radiance watch face and iPhone and iPad wallpapers will be available soon with watchOS 10.5, iOS 17.5, and iPadOS 17.5,” said Apple, in its…
On 16 April, the Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq) announced a bold initiative to combat the brain drain in Brazilian academia. Over five years, the talent-repatriation programme will invest 1 billion reais (US$190 million) into encouraging expatriated scientists to return to Brazil and expanding collaborations with Brazilian researchers overseas. In 2023, more than 35,000 academics were expats, or 14% of those active in research in Brazil.
As one such researcher, currently a biologist in the United Kingdom and a honorary professor in Brazil, I welcome these grants. But I know that a temporary injection of money alone will not solve the problem. What will happen after the five years? Brazil has too few tenure-track positions to sustain the returnees’ careers.
Brazil budget cuts could leave science labs without power and water
Short-termism has hampered previous initiatives to internationalize science in Brazil. For example, from 2011 to 2017, Brazil’s Science without Borders programme provided more than 100,000 scholarships to Brazilian students to study overseas. I was an early recipient, using it to pursue research in Italy and the United Kingdom. But there was no guaranteed position afterwards.
In my view, expats will not return in numbers until the Brazilian academic system is reformed. Achieving change in Brazil’s polarized political landscape is challenging but essential for fostering a vibrant academic environment.
The two streams of the repatriation programme demonstrate the problem. The first, with an 800-million-reai budget, covers salary and project costs for up to five years for academics and industry professionals seeking to return to Brazil. It is clearly aimed at researchers who are not yet established, but neither the CNPq nor public universities guarantee support after the term. The second stream, with a budget of 200 million reais, aims to foster partnerships between expatriate and resident researchers or industry partners. This might appeal to tenured academics overseas, but it offers no incentives for their permanent return.
In a wider context, it seems likely that the repatriation programme might have another aim — to lower the litigation costs relating to CNPq international scholarships. Brazil regards international scholarships as benefits that must be repaid. On signing the contract, recipients commit to returning to Brazil to further its science. If they do not fulfil this obligation, the CNPq can pursue legal action, requiring them to repay the scholarship amount.
In Brazil, one in two female researchers has faced sexual harassment
Since 2016, the CNPq has offered an alternative pathway to returning, called ‘Novation’. Scholarship holders outside Brazil can substitute their obligation with approved activities that benefit Brazilian science, such as supervising and teaching students in Brazil — as I do. Some expatriates do neither, resulting in heavy costs (millions of reais per year) for the CNPq and other funding bodies.
In 2023, the CNPq reached out to expatriates to explore other ways to enforce these obligations. In this context, I interpret the repatriation programme as a way for the CNPq to financially help expatriates seeking to rectify their status to avoid legal action and contribute to Brazilian science. In this regard, the CNPq’s programme is generous. However, the initiative does not address the reasons many academics move abroad, including inadequate support for researchers in Brazil and the lure of higher salaries elsewhere.
A scarcity of tenure-track positions in public institutions — staff members with such positions being responsible for more than 95% of Brazil’s scientific output — compounds these issues. In 2022, the ministry of education estimated a deficit of around 11,000 jobs for technical and tenured staff. Bureaucratic and opaque recruitment processes for tenure-track roles, known as concurso publico, exacerbate inequity. Individuals who are not fluent in Portuguese, including Indigenous and international researchers, are rarely hired.
Although exceptions exist, such as the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) with its generous budgets, funding in Brazil is scarce, and awards are often modest. Public-university infrastructure is underfunded. Low salaries have triggered a national strike among public university staff, and postdocs lack basic employment benefits such as pensions. Collectively, these factors contribute to an insular academic system that aspires to be globally competitive but lacks the institutional processes and support to do so.
Big science in Latin America: accelerate particles and progress
If Brazil recruited researchers in a more equitable and transparent way — as is done in the United States, United Kingdom and European Union — it would be better able to attract returning expats. It could issue fairer wages and benefits to postdoctoral researchers. The influx of ideas, perspectives and experiences would benefit academia and society.
A stronger research system would also attract international funding and strategic partnerships — two of the CNPq’s goals. The CNPq could look to FAPESP’s international partnerships with the US National Science Foundation and UK Research and Innovation, for example.
Brazil’s government has promised more funding for science and technology. A constitutional amendment, led by former minister of science and technology and astronaut Marcos Pontes and presented to the Senate last July, aims to double the allocation of resources to science and technology, to reach 2.5% of Brazilian gross domestic product by 2033.
To reap the benefits, action is needed now. Collective effort from academics, ministries and research councils to solve these challenges will pave the way for meaningful change to benefit all Brazilian scientists.
In a report detailing his expectations for Apple’s upcoming event, Gurman noted that there are a total of five things that the company is holding for later in the year:
AI features: While Apple may tease new AI capabilities with the next-generation iPad Pro, Apple will not “formally unveil” the features until WWDC in June where iPadOS 18 will be previewed.
Lower-cost entry-level iPad: Apple is apparently working on a version of the 10th-generation iPad introduced in 2022 with a lower price. The current model is $449, sitting in the lineup above the $329 ninth-generation iPad that remains in the lineup. The company is likely to phase out this older model and bring the price down of the redesigned model, but Gurman says this “isn’t expected until the end of the year at the earliest.”
Seventh-generation iPad mini: A refreshed iPad mini is said to be in the works featuring improved performance thanks to a faster chip, but it is not due to be announced next week.
New Macs: While the new iPad Pro models may contain the M4 chip, a processor that will later come to the Mac, Apple is not planning to unveil any new Mac models at the “Let loose” event.
Fourth-generation AirPods: Apple is said to be nearing production of the fourth-generation AirPods, but these will not launch until the fall alongside the iPhone 16 lineup.
Apple’s “Let loose” event is expected to focus on the unveiling of redesigned iPad Pro models with OLED displays, two new iPad Air models, a high-end Magic Keyboard accessory, and a new Apple Pencil. It will take place on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual.
Apple is expected to announce iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, and new features have already been rumored for many apps, including Apple Music, Apple Maps, Calculator, Messages, Notes, Safari, and others. Below, we recap iOS 18 rumors on a per-app basis, based on reports from MacRumors, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, and others: Apple Maps: At least two new Apple Maps features are…
With the 10th anniversary of the Apple Watch approaching, we thought it would be fun to take a look back at an interesting bit of Apple Watch history. After the Apple Watch was announced in 2014, and before it became available in 2015, Apple sent out custom Apple Watch iPad demo kiosks to retail stores. The Apple Watch and iPad units used for these devices were specially designed, had custom …
While Apple’s upcoming iPad Pro models have been expected to feature the M3 chip for over a year, recent reports have unexpectedly suggested that the new devices will instead feature the as-yet-unannounced M4 chip. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Last week, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said that he now believes there is a “strong possibility” that the upcoming iPad Pro …
With iOS 17.5, Apple is adding a “Repair State” feature that is designed to allow an iPhone to be sent in for service without deactivating Find My and Activation Lock. The fourth iOS 17.5 beta that came out today adds a “Remove This Device” option for all devices in Find My, and using it with an iPhone puts that iPhone into the new Repair State. Right now, sending an iPhone to Apple to be…
An in-depth Bloomberg report today resurfaced General Motors’ decision to replace Apple CarPlay with its own software. Last year, GM announced that it planned to forgo Apple CarPlay in its new electric vehicles, starting with the 2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV. Instead, the automaker introduced a proprietary infotainment platform, aiming to control and customize the digital experience within its…
Amazon today kicked off numerous discounts across multiple Apple products and accessories, the highlight being the AirPods Pro 2 with USB-C for $179.99, down from $249.00. You’ll also find deals on the Apple Pencil 2, AirTags, and Studio Display. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep…
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of “Let Loose” and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more …
Intel has launched a new AI processor series for the edge, promising industrial-class deep learning inference. The new ‘Amston Lake’ Atom x7000RE chips offer up to double the cores and twice the higher graphics base frequency as the previous x6000RE series, all neatly packed within a 6W–12W BGA package.
The x7000RE series packs more performance into a smaller footprint. Boasting up to eight E-cores it supports LPDDR5/DDR5/DDR4 memory and up to nine PCIe 3.0 lanes, delivering robust multitasking capabilities.
Intel says its new processors are designed to withstand challenging conditions, enduring extreme temperature variations, shock, and vibration, and to operate in hard-to-reach locations. They offer 2x SATA Gen 3.2 ports, up to 4x USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, a USB Type-C port, 2.5GbE Ethernet connection, along with Intel Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 5G platform capabilities.
Embedded, industrial, and communication
The x7000RE series consists of four SKUs, all suitable for embedded, industrial, and communication use under extended temperature conditions. The x7211RE and x7213RE have 2 cores and relatively lower base frequencies, while the x7433RE has 4 cores, and the x7835RE has 8 cores with higher base frequencies.
All four SKUs support a GPU execution unit count of either 16 or 32, and Intel’s Time Coordinated Computing and Time-Sensitive Networking GbE features. The x7000RE offer integrated Intel UHD Graphics, Intel DL Boost, Intel AVX2 with INT8 support, and OpenVINO toolkit support.
Intel says the chips will allow customers to easily deploy deep learning inference at the industrial edge and in smart cities, and “enhance computer vision solutions with built-in AI capabilities and ecosystem-enabled camera modules” as well as “capture power- and cost-efficient performance to enable latency-bounded workloads in robotics and automation.”
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We all have days when we use our phones right before going to bed, even though we know we shouldn’t. Admit it. We know our phones keep us awake. Some people try to mitigate the negative effects on sleep with blue-light glasses, which claim to block out rhythm-affecting blue tones in screen light, but if you’re using a fitness tracker (and if you are, it’s probably one of the best sleep trackers or best fitness trackers from our lists) you’ve likely had at least one morning when you’ve woken up, checked your stats and seen exactly how little sleep you had the night before.
It turns out, it’s not the blue-light effect from your phone that’s keeping you awake at night, according to sleep scientist Dr Sophie Bostock. I met Dr Bostock at an event to celebrate the launch of the OnePlus Watch 2 Nordic Blue in Helsinki, and she was able to answer a few burning questions about late-night phone use.
“There are several aspects of light which affect your circadium rhythm. Brightness of light is really important. If you get very bright light it’s going to activate the receptors, which contain a pigment called melanopsin, in the back of your retina. This sends a message to the clock in your brain which tells you to be alert.
“This pigment is more sensitive to light in the blue visible end of the spectrum, true, and when you look at a phone, it tends to be rich in blue wavelength light. But that is completely irrelevant if the light from your phone is very dim.
“The light you typically get from your phone is about 80 lux. Usually, in the studies used to look at impact on your circadian rhythm, you expose someone to at least 2000 lux, perhaps 5,000 lux. A SAD lamp is usually 10,000 lux. The light from your phone’s impact on circadian rhythm is negligible.”
(Image credit: Getty Images)
So if it’s not the blue light beaming from your phone, what’s actually keeping you awake? Dr Bostock had the answer.
“Research has found using the bright light element of your phone only delays sleep for around 10 minutes. People getting locked into losing track of time, delaying sleep because of what they’re doing on their phone, probably delays sleep by closer to an hour. Relative to that sleep displacement, the blue light exposure is negligible.”
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Fear around phones comes from massive large-scale studies that state people who use phones before bed sleep really poorly, so the conclusion was always ‘phones must be causing poor sleep’.
“There are two more aspects to consider. One is that people leave their phone by their bed, while it pings and alerts during the night… but phones can be helpful, some people use it as a distraction. Audiobooks are phenomenally popular.”
While Dr Bostock’s main advice is to keep your phone out of the bedroom to avoid the temptation to doomscroll, if you use it to play sleep-aid content, it’s perhaps worth keeping it across the room on another surface, out of arm’s reach.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage‘s director has said that he has ideas on how to extend the story of protagonist Basim.
Although it’s been previously confirmed that the latest Assassin’s Creed title won’t be getting any downloadable content (DLC), in a recent Reddit AMA, game director Stéphane Boudon revealed that the team still has some ideas on how to add to Basim’s story (via VGC).
When asked if the studio would ever think about making a DLC or new storyline content for the game, considering the positive reception, Boudon said: “We’re thrill[ed] by the reception of Mirage! Mirage [h]as been design[ed] as a standalone experience without any DLC plan.
“However, we have ideas on how we could extend the story of Basim, surely. But as of today, no post launch content is planned for Mirage.”
In terms of working on another game starring Basim, the game director said there’s more to tell with Basim, but the team would like to explore elsewhere.
“Telling the coming-of-age story of Basim was a blast for us so clearly yes, we still have a lot to say about Basim,” he said. “On the other hand, creating a game with that much constraints is a difficult exercise and as the team we would also love to explore new horizons and having more creative freedom.”
In the thread, Boudon explained that Ubisoft won’t release any more major updates for Mirage, but said the team will “keep monitoring the game and listening to player feedback.”
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Following its launch, the game received New Game Plus and later a new setting called Full Synchronisation Challenge mode, which offered a permadeath run of the entire game. These appear to be the only updates that Ubisoft will be adding post-launch.
The best OLED TVs are about to get a whole lot better. A new panel technology known as eLEAP will officially go into production later this year, according to FlatpanelsHD. Although it won’t be going into any big-name TVs at first, the new screen technology promises to deliver brightness in excess of 3,000 nits and improved durability, which means that it could make screens last longer, helping to cut down on e-waste.
eLeap was developed by Japan Display (JDI), which is a firm that was created by the merger of the display businesses of Sony, Toshiba and Hitachi. And while we first started reporting on it in 2022, it’s only just starting to ramp up production with plans to expand this to the mainstream market in late 2024.
Although no consumer brands have yet announced plans to use the new tech, the panels are likely to appear in laptops first, with one of the first panels being a 14-inch OLED for portable computers. That’ll deliver peak brightness of 1,600 nits, but even brighter panels are imminent.
What is eLeap OLED?
eLeap – it’s an extremely tenuous acronym for “environment positive lithography with maskless deposition, extreme long life, low power and high luminance” – uses light to transfer patterns in the manufacturing of integrated circuits, a process that can deliver increased brightness and increased durability too, which is great news for cutting down on e-waste.
This is the first OLED technology to use such a process, and according to Japan Display the production process is currently six months ahead. In the eight months before launch, JDI says it’s already achieving production yields of 60%. The higher the yield the more efficient the production and the lower the cost.
According to JDI, it will supply eLeap panels “for use in a wide array of end-use applications, including smartwatches and wearables, smartphones, notebook PCs, and automotive displays”. TVs are currently conspicuous by their absence, however. That’s because the manufacturing capacity isn’t there yet to produce larger panels: JDI’s plant for that is not expected to be online until 2027.
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The first time I heard Taylor Swift’s Fortnight, a new song off the Tortured Poet’s Department featuring Post Malone, it was through an FM radio built into a 22-year-old Sony Walkman CD player, but even with the poor reception, the lyrics resonated with this almost forgotten technology:
“I was supposed to be sent away
But they forgot to come and get me”
Listening to Swift’s new blockbuster, the thirty-one-track-double album Tortured Poet’s Department, on vintage technology was, I admit, an accident.
I’d unexpectedly discovered the Sony Walkman model D-FS601 buried in a box in my basement while searching for a firewire cable for another aging piece of technology (a 2008 camcorder, but that’s another story).
Though yellowing, the player, which also includes an AM/FM radio, dedicated weather channels, and even TV channels, looked otherwise in decent shape. I forgot all about the Firewire and brought the classic Sony Walkman upstairs to my home office.
As the name suggests, Sony Walkman’s were meant to go where you go, which means battery operation (there’s also a DC-in port so I could plug it into the wall but then what’s the point?). With more than a little trepidation, I opened the battery compartment, which sits inside the device and under where you’d normally place a CD. I was praying that it wasn’t filled with a pair of exploded double AA batteries. To my surprise and relief, it was empty and clean as a whistle.
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(Image credit: Future)
Shake it off
Holding the Walkman in my hand, I was surprised at its heft. Though listed on Amazon as weighing 9.6 ounces, I’d contend it weighs at least a pound. Like the original Sony Walkman (circa 1979) the player’s shape was defined by its media. Whereas the first Walkman wrapped itself around a cassette tape, this 2002 model was mostly a circle. I say mostly because one side of the player is a big, grippable section.
The idea was to put all the controls within thumb or fingertip reach. A built-in band would slip over your palm and you could control the power, play, skip, and pause with just your thumb. You’d still need to use your other hand to press almost a dozen other button options on the Walkman, though.
(Image credit: Future)
There’s something very forward-looking and also retrograde about this design. Who wants to carry around a pound of gear in their hand while running? Oh, and yes, this was a CD player designed to withstand a splash of water and take the bumps of a runner’s road with what’s known as built-in “G” protection. \
This didn’t mean that the laser never skipped. Instead, the system cached 30-40 seconds of music (depending on the setting, I think) and would automatically cancel out missed bits of music. It was a smart idea that also ate up a little battery life.
A CD with style
(Image credit: Future)
I found some fresh batteries, put them in, and immediately discovered that the radio worked. It was still set to one of our favorite radio stations from 20 years ago: 95.5, which has since become an all-religion network.
Putting the Sony Walkman aside for a minute, I headed back to the basement to dig through my still extensive CD collection. With almost all the songs ever recorded available online on the best music streaming services, there’s probably no good reason to hold onto all these plastic bits of music memories. However, if you are, as I am, currently in between music services, they may not seem so obsolete after all.
I popped in a Mowtown: Jackson 5 Greatest Hits album and then went back to the box where I found the player to see if the originally wired headphones were still around. They were not but I found a pair with “MP3” printed on them, so I chose those and quickly wished I hadn’t. The cable was too short, the earbuds fit was basic, and the sound was abysmal. I soon found a newer pair from Samsung and the sound was lovely and rich. Of course, there’s a bass boost (three settings) on the Walkman, and I amped it to the mid-range. I won’t claim the audio was better than what I get from, say, Spotify or Apple Music on my iPhone but it was good.
These features were over now
Image 1 of 2
(Image credit: Future)
(Image credit: Future)
Naturally, I would much rather use a Bluetooth headphone with the Walkman, but that wireless protocol was only a few years old in 2002 and not widely used in music players and stereo headphones. I could, if I wanted, spend $20 for a Bluetooth transmitter that plugs into the player’s 3.5mm headphone jack.
There’s a lot on this Walkman that is no longer useful. It has built-in TV audio receivers for a collection of local broadcast channels that no longer transmit in anything except digital. Plus there are those weather stations that now play nothing but static.
As I noted earlier, the radio, both AM and FM, still works. I started looking for a single station I could reliably pick up – and that’s when I found Z100 and Taylor Swift.
Founded in 1983, Z100 had been broadcasting top 40 hits to millions of listener’s ears six years before Taylor Swift was born but unlike some old stations that stuck with the music that brought them, Z100 changes with the times and is in step with what’s new, fresh, and undeniably hot. In today’s moment, that’s Taylor Swift and the Tortured Poet’s Department.
The mega music star launched her surprise dual album on April 19, coincidentally the same day I began playing with the vintage Sony Walkman CD Player.
Don’t blame me
(Image credit: Future)
As I tuned the radio to Z100, I heard familiar vocals. It was Taylor Swift, and not just any Taylor Swift, (say a banger from 1989 or Anti-Hero from Midnight). No, I could tell, this was one of Swift’s song-poems from the Tortured Poet’s Department. In quick succession, the station played Fortnight, I Can Do It with a Broken Heart, and My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys. Suddenly, the album was in heavy rotation.
It also sounded terrible.
Not the songs. Even from the static-filled bits I could make out, this was some beautiful and tortured stuff. But no matter where I moved in my house, the reception and clarity were abysmal, far worse than even my car radio.
I quickly realized this was the wrong introduction to Swift’s last bit of unloading about yet another past relationship (and maybe her current one with football star Travis Kelce). After a few tracks, I gave up.
There is nothing wrong with using this yellowed CD player for physical media, especially the classics, but new tunes deserve the best mp3 player and best headphones you can buy. It’s Taylor Swift, she deserves no less and I offer apologies to all the Swifties I’ve offended.
An independent review board concluded last year that NASA’s Mars sample return mission could cost as much as US$11 billion, more than what it cost to launch the James Webb Space Telescope. In a report released today, a separate NASA review team concluded that even if the agency spent that much money, the dropoff of the samples on Earth would be delayed until 2040. The agency had originally sought to land the samples on Earth in the early 2030s.
The $11 billion price tag is “too expensive,” said NASA administrator Bill Nelson at a press briefing, and “not returning the samples until 2040 is unacceptable.” Nelson said the agency “is committed to bringing at least some of the samples back” and later said NASA would return “more than 30” of the 43 planned samples.
Scaling back
NASA’s Perseverance rover has already collected more than 20 rock samples from Jezero Crater, where the rover landed in 2020. Scientists think that the crater was once filled with a lake of water, and samples from the crater and its surroundings could provide a window into the planet’s history and, perhaps, evidence of past life on the red planet.
In the agency’s original vision, a NASA spacecraft would have flown to Mars carrying a two-part retrieval system: a half-ton lander — which would have been the most massive vehicle to ever land on Mars — and a rocket to fly the lander and samples into Martian orbit. There they were to meet a spacecraft launched by the European Space Agency that would fly the samples to Earth.
Now NASA plans to solicit proposals — from companies as well as NASA centres — for a streamlined system, perhaps one that uses a lighter lander, Nicky Fox, the associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said at the briefing. The deadline for proposals is 17 May, and the revised mission will be chosen later this year. Fox did not respond directly to reporters’ questions about when the samples will reach Earth under the new scheme.
NASA recommends spending $200 million of its planetary-science budget in 2025 on assessing alternative architectures for Mars sample return, Fox said. Dedicating any more money to the mission threatened to “cannibalize” other planetary science missions, Nelson said.
Back to the drawing board
Vicky Hamilton, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, expressed disappointment that eight months after the independent review board released its report, the agency still lacks a solid plan for “a very valuable science goal.”
Returning these samples would also demonstrate capability for two-way trip to Mars before we can send astronauts, says Bethany Ehlmann, a planetary scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. “The sample return technology is here, it exists,” she says. “It’s a matter of putting the pieces together.”
But scientists were relieved by one announcement: Fox said the revised timeline for sample return will not affect the science goals for Perseverance, including plans for it to explore terrain beyond Jezero Crater.
NASA’s Mars rover makes ‘fantastic’ find in search for past life
Among samples collected outside the crater will be “some of the ancient crust of Mars, representing rocks older than we have seen yet in Jezero Crater, some of which may have been altered by near-surface water,” says Meenakshi Wadhwa, a planetary scientist at Arizona State University in Tempe and principal scientist for the Mars Sample Return program.
So far, the only Mars samples that scientists have been able to study on Earth are bits and pieces ejected from the red planet that made it to Earth as meteorites. All known Martian meteorites are “igneous” rocks, meaning that they solidified from lava, and all are very old. As a result, they provide valuable timestamps for Mars’ geological evolution, but carry little information about how the planet’s surface was shaped by the water that once flowed across it.
To achieve the mission’s main goal of searching for signs of past life, the real treasures are layered sedimentary rocks formed by minerals and organic matter deposited over the aeons by water. Perseverance’s instruments have already detected organic molecules in Martian samples, but whether those molecules are a marker of past life can only be determined by closer scrutiny in laboratories on Earth.