Science and technology strategy
The U.S. Department of State disclosed the progress of promoting the construction of the international carbon market
According to the U.S. Department of State on April 19, the U.S. State Department disclosed the relevant progress in promoting the construction of the international carbon market: the establishment of the Accelerating Forest Finance to Reduce Emissions (LEAF) Alliance to stop and reverse deforestation, and the implementation of the Energy Transition Accelerator (ETA) to support the energy transition of developing countries. According to the U.S. Department of State, the LEAF and ETA initiatives have pioneered a global, industry-scale approach to carbon credits, and both initiatives require participating companies to implement the principles of transparency in emissions and carbon credits. In addition, ETA announced the establishment of a high-level advisory group to advise on the design and operation of ETA, chaired by former U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a $95 billion national security package to provide foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific region
According to CNN on April 20, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the "2024 Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act", "2024 Ukraine Security Supplemental Appropriations Act", "Indo-Pacific Security Supplemental Appropriations Act" and "21st Century Peace Through Force Act" on the same day. The bill provides for $61 billion for Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel, and $8 billion for Indo-Pacific security, and requires TikTok to be banned nationwide if it is not sold. It is reported that the four bills will be combined into one amendment and submitted to the Senate, which will vote on April 23. Currently, Biden is urging the Senate to pass the bill so that it can be signed into law as soon as possible.
Information
Intel Corporation of the United States has released Hala Point, a large neuromorphic computer that simulates the way the human brain processes and stores data
According to China Science and Technology Network on April 18, Intel Corporation of the United States released the world's largest neuromorphic computer Hala Point, which can simulate the way the human brain processes and stores data. Hala Point contains 1.152 billion artificial neurons distributed across 1,152 Loihi 2 chips and is capable of performing 380 trillion synaptic operations per second, improving the efficiency and capabilities of AI models. Intel says Hala Point uses only one-percent of the energy to run optimization problems than traditional computers, and in the future, it hopes that the neuromorphic computer will be able to create AI models that learn sustainably.
Microsoft Corporation of the United States has launched the AI framework VASA-1, which can generate realistic lip-syncing portrait videos
According to the news on April 22, Microsoft Corporation of the United States launched the AI framework VASA-1, which can generate realistic lip-syncing portrait videos. VASA-1 is capable of combining still images or drawings with audio files to generate faces with dynamic facial expressions and head movements. This means that just one image and one sound can create a real person, whose lip movements can even match the voice or song perfectly. This technology can be misused to create deepfake videos, so Microsoft has not disclosed any online demos, APIs, products, or related implementation details.
Malaysia plans to build the largest integrated circuit design park in Southeast Asia
According to Reuters news on April 22, the Malaysian government said that it plans to build the largest integrated circuit design park in Southeast Asia, and will provide incentives including tax breaks, subsidies and visa fee waivers to attract global technology companies and investors. Malaysia, a major player in the semiconductor industry, with around 13% of the global test and packaging share, aims to establish Kuala Lumpur as a regional digital hub, with the goal of being among the top 20 countries in the Global Startup Ecosystem Index by 2030.
creature
WHO outlines the latest terminology for airborne pathogens
According to the WHO official website on April 18, the WHO released the "Global Technical Consultation Report on the Proposed Terminology of Airborne Pathogens", introducing the latest terminology of airborne pathogens. The report identifies pathogens that cause respiratory tract infections such as COVID-19, influenza, measles, MERS, SARS and tuberculosis. The consultation resulted in an agreed principle for airborne diseases and a new starting point for further technical and multidisciplinary research.
PathAI has partnered with Google Cloud to provide AI-based image management for pathology labs
According to the WHO official website on April 18, PathAI, an American pathological intelligence technology company, has established a strategic partnership with Google Cloud to provide AI-based image management solutions for anatomic pathology laboratories. Under the terms of the agreement, PathAI will support access to the image management system AISight on Google Cloud Infrastructure, provide unified case and related image management outcomes, and add tools for real-time collaboration, case review, and more seamless interaction between users. This collaboration provides a secure and scalable solution to meet the needs of AI drug discovery, laboratory operations, and biomarker quantification, contributing to the development of precision medicine.
Westlake University has developed and open-sourced a general protein model based on structural vocabulary
According to the ScienceAI official account on April 19, the scientific research team of Westlake University used the current maximum of 40 million protein structures, trained on 64 A100 sheets for 3 months, and finally open-sourced the model SaPro with 650M parameters. The model uses Foldseek to encode protein structures and construct a new structure-aware vocabulary using structure embedding, so as to train and enhance the representation ability of the model. Experimental results show that the proposed model contains rich structural information, and its performance in various protein structure prediction tasks far exceeds that of previous sequence and structure models such as ESM-2.
NTI held the first International Artificial Intelligence Biology Forum
According to the NIT official website on April 17, the United States Nuclear Threat Reduction Initiative (NTI) held the first International Artificial Intelligence Biology Forum. More than 25 participants included senior biosafety professionals, AI experts and policymakers from China, India, Nigeria, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The meeting focused on defining the scope, institutional structure and initial priorities of the International Forum on Artificial Intelligence for Biology to enable it to successfully mitigate the risks associated with rapidly advancing AI capabilities into engineered living systems.
ARPA-H seeks technologies to improve the accuracy and safety of medical chatbots for the general public
According to the news on the official website of ARPA-H on April 19, the U.S. Health Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-H) launched the chatbot accuracy and reliability evaluation (CARE) exploration theme (ET) to fund the testing and evaluation of the output of chatbots for patient-oriented applications. CARE ET aims to better evaluate medical chatbot applications with the efficiency of computational methods and the accuracy of human experts, and to help reduce the risk of ARPA-H future large language model (LLM) combinations. The proposal will fund two technology areas, namely the improvement of instant generation technology and the development of new chatbot evaluation technology, which is expected to help a wider range of health-related fields such as clinical diagnostics and biomedical research in the future.
energy
South Korea launches research program on nuclear-powered ships and floating small reactor power plants
According to the China Nuclear Think Tank on April 19, the South Korean Institute of Ship and Ocean Engineering (KRISO) announced that it has launched a research plan to develop the core technology of nuclear-powered ships and floating small reactor power plants from 2024 to 2028. The institute will develop core technologies for a nuclear-powered, high-speed neo-Panamax container ship with a capacity of 15,000 TEUs, including the conceptual design of nuclear-powered ships, the development of an integrated nuclear-powered ship safety analysis framework, and the design of thrusters and the conceptual design of nuclear-powered propulsion systems. In addition, the institute will carry out research and design work on floating small reactor power plants. Such power plants could supply electricity to the islands and open up new avenues for commercial applications of small reactors.
ocean
According to the British media, the United States plans to develop a submarine-launched nuclear warhead W93
According to the reference news network on April 22, the British "Daily Mail" reported that the Pentagon is preparing to develop the first nuclear warhead W93 in 40 years at a time of rising global tensions. British media reported that the nuclear warhead, which is designed with a submarine-launched design, is one of the projects in the $19.3 billion budget for 2025 requested by the US National Nuclear Security Administration, and its production will start in the mid-30s. According to reports, the W93 warhead will be equipped on the US Navy's next-generation "Columbia"-class ballistic missile submarines and the "Ohio"-class submarines currently in service. In addition to the W93, the Department of Defense will invest nearly $3 billion to modernize other nuclear warheads in the U.S. military's arsenal.
The United States and the Philippines launched the 2024 "Shoulder to Shoulder" joint military exercise
According to the news of the global network on April 22, on the morning of April 22, the 2024 "shoulder to shoulder" joint military exercise between the Philippines and the United States was launched in Manila. The Philippine military said the exercise, which will last until May 10, will involve more than 16,700 soldiers, including 11,000 U.S. troops and 5,000 Filipino soldiers. "Shoulder to Shoulder" is an annual regular joint military exercise between the Philippines and the United States. The Philippines and the United States signed the Visiting Forces Agreement in 1998. The agreement sets out the conditions, scope of activities, and facilities available for U.S. military personnel, military-related personnel, and military equipment to enter the Philippines, including arrangements for military exercises between the two sides.
aviation
The U.S. Department of Defense plans to extend the F-35 fighter jet's service until 2088
According to the news of national defense science and technology news on April 19, the US Department of Defense plans to extend the service time of the F-35 fighter, and the total investment cost is expected to exceed 2 trillion US dollars. The projected costs are an increase from the $1.7 trillion budgeted cost assessed by the U.S. Government Accountability Office in September 2023, including nearly $1.6 trillion in access security costs (a 44% increase from the $1.1 trillion projected in 2018) and about $442 billion in acquisition costs (including R&D and procurement costs). In its report to Congress, the U.S. Government Accountability Office noted that the Department of Defense now plans to keep the F-35 in service until 2088, 11 years longer than previously projected. The U.S. Government Accountability Office believes that factors such as longer service life and inflation are important reasons for the increase in the total cost of the F-35.
space flight
The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory awarded BlueHalo a $24.4 million contract to evaluate the satellite's performance changes in response to directed energy interference
According to the SpaceNews website on April 20, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) awarded BlueHalo a contract worth $24.4 million to evaluate the performance changes of satellites under directed energy interference. The contract is designed to support the AFRL Satellite Assessment Center to test the effects of directed energy means such as lasers on spacecraft components and materials, and to use the data to build high-fidelity computer models for predictive analysis and research. Under the contract, the company will conduct work on directional energy impact spacecraft predictive analytics, satellite modeling, resilience studies, and an innovative test environment to assess the impact of natural and anthropogenic directed energy on space systems, respectively.
Slovenia signs the Artemis Accords
According to the SpaceNews website on April 20, Slovenia signed the "Artemis Accords" with the United States, becoming the 39th country to sign the agreement, and the third country signed by NASA within a week after Switzerland and Sweden. Slovenia said that the signing will strengthen the strategic partnership between Slovenia and the United States in the field of deep space exploration, space research and other aerospace fields, and provide support for the development of Slovenia's space field. The Artemis Accords aim to provide the United States and its allies with a series of guidelines for lunar exploration and lunar mineral development, and to create a favorable international environment for activities such as the development and utilization of space resources.
Materials
Pacific Northwest Laboratory has discovered a new chemical that can capture twice as much carbon
According to the double carbon intelligence on April 22, researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in the United States have discovered a new chemical that can capture double the carbon - carbon dioxide anhydrides (CO2 anhydrides). In experiments and model studies of one-component water-depleted solvents, the researchers found that CO2 trapping was accompanied by self-assembly of antimicellar-like tetrameric clusters in solution. This flexible structure undergoes a series of transitions to accommodate the trapped CO2 molecules, which eventually reach the core of the cluster. The structure shows the inner core of a hydrogen bond, which resembles the active site of an enzyme, so that once both CO2 molecules are within the cluster, they can react with each other, enabling the formation of CO2-containing molecular species such as carbamate, carbamic anhydride, and alkoxycarbamic anhydride. The study opens the way for materials with higher CO2 storage capacity and opens up the possibility for carbamate to act as an initiator for CO2 oligomerization or polymerization in the future.
Advanced manufacturing
Australian researchers have developed drug-loaded 3D printed films that can be used to treat cancer
According to the Antarctic Bear 3D Printing Network on April 22, Australian scientists have developed a drug-loaded 3D printing film for the first time. It is made of a gel containing specific doses of the anti-cancer drugs 5-fluorouracil and cisplatin, which kills cancer cells, significantly reduces the recurrence rate, and minimizes the toxicity of traditional chemotherapy. The research paper was published in the latest issue of the International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
The University of Wolverhampton in the UK has partnered with EOS and AMCM to establish a Centre of Excellence for Additive Manufacturing
According to the news on the 3dprint website on April 19, the University of Wolverhampton (University of Wolverhampton) in the United Kingdom will cooperate with EOS and AMCM, a leading German additive manufacturing company, to establish an additive manufacturing (AM) center of excellence in the university's Manufacturing Skills Center of Excellence (ECMS). The centre is partly funded by the UK's Regional Innovation Fund (RIF) to drive R&D innovation with a focus on materials and process development. The new facility will be equipped with an EOS M 290 machine upgraded with nLIGHT lasers to enhance beam forming technology. In addition, the center will explore the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques to optimize laser processing data. The move not only strengthens Wolverhampton's position in the field of advanced manufacturing, but also marks the UK's determination to catch up in the global competition for high-end manufacturing. Of particular note is that the centre will focus on applied research into copper materials and is expected to play an exemplary role in the UK's key critical mineral resources strategy. In addition, the recent joint ban on Russian aluminum, nickel and copper imports by the United Kingdom and the United States demonstrates a shared focus on strengthening supply chains.
-END-
Consolidated by the International Institute of Technical Economics
Please indicate
About the Institute
Founded in November 1985, the International Institute of Technology and Economics (IITE) is a non-profit research institute affiliated to the Development Research Center of the State Council, whose main functions are to study major policy, strategic and forward-looking issues in the economic, scientific and technological and social development of the mainland, track and analyze the development trend of the world's science and technology and economic development, and provide decision-making consulting services for the central government and relevant ministries and commissions. The "Global Technology Map" is the official WeChat account of the International Institute of Technology and Economics, which is dedicated to conveying cutting-edge technology information and technological innovation insights to the public.
Address: Block A, Building 20, Xiaonanzhuang, Haidian District, Beijing
Phone: 010-82635522
WeChat: iite_er