Unbound: No 107
How big data could form the cornerstone of the metaverse
By Dmytro Spilka, Solvid | Venturebeat
The emergence of the metaverse will be big business for virtually every company across a broad range of industries. Bloomberg’s estimates place the potential market value at $800 billion by 2024, and in October 2021 Facebook rebranded to Meta in preparation for the brand new digital landscape.
The metaverse has been heralded by many as a brand new frontier for immersive technology that combines the likes of artificial intelligence, interactive video graphics, and both virtual and augmented reality.
For many businesses, however, the key technology that appears set to grow alongside the metaverse is big data. Today, it’s possible for companies to learn actionable insights surrounding swathes of customers as they browse online, but in the age of the metaverse, the sheer volume of data that individuals will produce will vastly multiply.
New method of controlling qubits could advance quantum computers
by Yokohama National University | Psyh.org
Quantum computing, a field that relies on the principles of quantum mechanics to calculate outcomes, has the potential to perform tasks too complex for traditional computers and to do so at high speeds, making it in some ways the new frontier for science and engineering. To get to the point where quantum computers can meet their expected performance potential, the development of large-scale quantum processors and quantum memories is needed. Precise control of qubits—or quantum bits, the basic building blocks of quantum computers—is critical to do this, but methods of controlling qubits have limitations for massive high-density wiring with high precision.
Now, researchers from Yokohama National University in Japan have found a way to precisely control qubits without the previous limitations. Their results were published in Nature Photonics on July 26, 2022.
Textile recycling, across the pond
By Deonna Anderson | GreenBiz
Imagine if a significant portion of the textiles that cannot be reused in their current form could be recycled. That’s part of the vision for the base-case and upside-case scenarios laid out in a recent report on textile recycling in Europe from the consulting firm McKinsey.
Here's the base-case scenario: 50 percent of post-consumer household textile waste in the 27 European Union countries and Switzerland is collected, up from today's 30 to 35 percent. In the upside case, 80 percent is collected.
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🌙 NASA - Best Photo from Last Week
Zeta Ophiuchi: A Star With a Complicated Past
Zeta Ophiuchi is a star with a complicated past, having likely been ejected from its birthplace by a powerful stellar explosion. A new look by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory helps tell more of the story of this runaway star.
Located about 440 light-years from Earth, Zeta Ophiuchi is a hot star that is 20 times more massive than the Sun. Previous observations have provided evidence that Zeta Ophiuchi was once in close orbit with another star, before being ejected at about 100,000 miles per hour when this companion was destroyed in a supernova explosion over a million years ago. Previously released infrared data from NASA's now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope, seen in this new composite image, reveals a spectacular shock wave (red and green) that was formed by matter blowing away from the star's surface and slamming into gas in its path. Data from Chandra shows a bubble of X-ray emission (blue) located around the star, produced by gas that has been heated by the effects of the shock wave to tens of millions of degrees.
Read more: Embracing a Rejected Star
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Dublin Inst. Advanced Studies/S. Green et al.; Infrared: NASA/JPL/Spitzer
Last Updated: Jul 29, 2022
Editor: Michael Bock
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