# New Century Research Publications > Technology and science news, referenced ## Posts - [Bismuth sulfide absorbs light strongly but holds on to charges, study finds](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/bismuth-sulfide-delayed-recombination-solar/): A Nature study led by Oxford physicists finds bismuth sulfide cuts its rate of charge loss by about 75% versus comparably absorbing materials, easing a solar trade-off. - [Three analyses link Typhoon Dujuan's heavier rain in Japan to climate change](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/typhoon-dujuan-rain-climate-change-attribution/): World Weather Attribution, ClimaMeter and Japanese government scientists all find warming boosted Typhoon Dujuan's September rain near Tokyo, with estimates ranging from 5% to 40%. - [IBM links two quantum processors with 80-centimeter superconducting cables](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/ibm-links-quantum-processors-l-couplers/): IBM connected two 120-qubit Nighthawk processors with four cable links and moved quantum states between them at 99% average fidelity, according to a preprint not yet peer reviewed. - [Iceberg A-81 reaches South Georgia after a three-year drift from Antarctica](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/iceberg-a81-reaches-south-georgia/): Iceberg A-81, about 1,550 square kilometers in size, has drifted from Antarctica's Brunt Ice Shelf to the edge of South Georgia's shallow shelf, where satellite images show it slowing. - [Perseverance finds ultrafine Mars dust clinging to spacesuit materials](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/perseverance-finds-ultrafine-mars-dust-on-spacesuit-materials/): A peer-reviewed PNAS study using NASA's Perseverance rover found Martian dust particles as small as about 100 nanometers clinging to spacesuit materials, with implications for crews. - [How large language models are trained, explained in plain terms](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/how-large-language-models-are-trained/): Large language models learn by predicting the next token across vast amounts of text, then are fine-tuned with human feedback. Here is each stage, drawn from the original papers and NIST guidance. - [Apple's new iPad mini gets an 8.5-inch OLED screen, A20 Pro chip and IP67 rating](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/apple-ipad-mini-oled-a20-pro-ip67/): Apple's new iPad mini has an 8.5-inch OLED display, the A20 Pro chip, IP67 water and dust resistance and a 5.4 mm body. It starts at $699, with pre-orders from October 28. - [NASA's Swift gamma-ray observatory ends science mission ahead of re-entry](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/nasa-swift-observatory-ends-science-mission/): NASA's Swift observatory has ended science operations after atmospheric drag pulled it below 171 miles. A commercial boost attempt failed, and re-entry is expected within weeks. - [Oxygen collisions at RHIC show jet quenching, a quark-gluon plasma signature](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/star-oxygen-collisions-jet-quenching-rhic/): The STAR experiment reports a 20% suppression of energetic particles in oxygen-oxygen collisions at 200 GeV, strong evidence of jet quenching in a small collision system. - [What happens during a solar eclipse, and when the next total eclipses are](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/what-happens-during-a-solar-eclipse-and-next-total-eclipses/): Why solar eclipses happen only a few times a year, what observers see from first contact to totality, and NASA's dates for the next total solar eclipses in 2027, 2028 and 2030. - [Superconducting neural-network chip keeps pace with fusion plasma data](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/superconducting-neural-network-chip-fusion-plasma/): A superconducting chip from startup Great Sky processed tokamak data at one million samples per second in tests led by Brookhaven National Laboratory. No paper has been published yet. - [Garmin's Edge 1060 bike computer adds hands-free voice control and a speaker](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/garmin-edge-1060-voice-control-cycling-computer/): Garmin's $799.99 Edge 1060 lets cyclists ask for routes, report hazards and hear ride stats by voice. Two cheaper Edge Explore 3 models launched the same day. - [Europe completes first series-built divertor target for the ITER fusion project](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/iter-first-series-divertor-inner-vertical-target/): Germany's Research Instruments has finished the first series-production inner vertical target for ITER's divertor, a tungsten-armored part built to take heat loads of up to 20 MW/m². - [Quantinuum reports color-code error rates well below threshold on Helios](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/quantinuum-color-code-error-correction-helios/): Quantinuum says color-code error correction on its Helios trapped-ion computer reached logical error rates near five per million, 10 times lower than its September record. - [Euclid space telescope discovers its first new comet, C/2026 S1 (Euclid)](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/euclid-discovers-first-new-comet/): ESA's Euclid telescope has found its first previously unknown comet, C/2026 S1 (Euclid), in September images; the Minor Planet Center confirmed it on Oct. 8 after ground follow-up. - [NOAA winter outlook leans on very strong El Niño: warmer north, wetter south](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/noaa-winter-outlook-very-strong-el-nino/): NOAA's 2026-27 Winter Outlook favors a warmer northern U.S. and a wetter South and East Coast from December to February, driven by an El Niño that forecasters say may become historic. - [How GPS works, and why it needs Einstein's relativity to stay accurate](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/how-gps-works-and-why-it-needs-relativity/): GPS receivers find their position by timing signals from satellites 20,200 km up. Without relativity corrections, those satellite clocks would run fast by about 38 microseconds a day and fixes would drift. - [US regulator renews AP1000 reactor design, folding in lessons from Vogtle](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/nrc-renews-ap1000-design-certification/): The NRC renewed Westinghouse's AP1000 design certification through 2066 and updated it with changes made while building and running Vogtle Units 3 and 4. - [AI emulator mimics a storm-resolving weather model at about 1/300th the cost](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/ai-emulator-storm-resolving-weather-data/): Ai2's HiRO-ACEv2 generates global 3 km rain, wind and pressure data, including hurricanes, for roughly 300 times less than the physics model it imitates, a preprint reports. - [Meta puts Ray-Ban Meta Audio, its first audio glasses, on sale from $349](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/ray-ban-meta-audio-glasses-on-sale/): Meta's Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses, which it calls its first audio glasses, went on sale on October 13 from $349, weighing 43 grams with up to 12 hours of battery life. - [September 2026 ranks second-warmest on record as ocean temperatures hit highs](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/september-2026-second-warmest-record-ocean-temperatures/): Copernicus and NOAA both rank September 2026 as the second-warmest September on record, with non-polar ocean surface temperatures setting a new high for the month as El Niño strengthens. - [How heat pumps heat and cool a home by moving heat instead of making it](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/how-heat-pumps-heat-and-cool-a-home/): A heat pump uses a refrigerant cycle to pull heat from outdoor air, the ground or water and move it indoors, then runs the same cycle in reverse to cool. Here is how it works and how efficient it is. - [Microsoft opens pre-orders for Surface Laptop Ultra built on Nvidia's RTX Spark](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/microsoft-surface-laptop-ultra-pre-orders-rtx-spark/): Microsoft's 15-inch Surface Laptop Ultra, built on Nvidia's RTX Spark chip with up to 128 GB of unified memory, is on pre-order from $2,599 and goes on sale October 16. - [Arctic sea ice ties 10th-lowest minimum as Antarctic ice hits record lows](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/arctic-sea-ice-ties-tenth-lowest-minimum-antarctic-record-lows/): Arctic sea ice bottomed out on Sept. 12 at a joint 10th-lowest extent after a cool, stormy summer, NSIDC said, while Antarctic ice has been at record daily lows since Oct. 2. - [NASA releases Artemis II Moon images, crew audio and preliminary science report](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/nasa-releases-artemis-ii-lunar-science-data/): NASA has put more than 800 gigabytes of Artemis II lunar data in its public archive, including 11,000-plus images, and a preliminary report on impact flashes seen by the crew. - [Researchers retrofit language models to read raw bytes instead of tokens](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/language-models-retrofitted-to-read-raw-bytes/): A Nature paper from Ai2 and university partners shows existing language models can be converted to read raw bytes using less than 1% of a typical pretraining budget. - [Crew-13 reaches the space station in record time as Crew-12 prepares to leave](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/crew-13-reaches-space-station-in-record-time/): Four Crew-13 members docked at the space station on Oct. 1 after NASA's fastest U.S. launch-to-docking there, and began health studies as Crew-12 prepared to head home. - [Samsung's SmartThings update adds Matter 1.6 support and faster local control](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/samsung-smartthings-update-matter-1-6-local-control/): Samsung has redesigned the SmartThings Home tab around suggestion cards, added Matter 1.6 support and expanded local control, which it says makes devices respond about 30% faster. - [IEA review warns Southeast Asia's energy security challenge is intensifying](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/iea-review-southeast-asia-energy-security/): An International Energy Agency review finds Southeast Asia more reliant on imported oil and gas, and urges diversified supply, domestic resources and faster electrification. - [How lithium-ion batteries wear out, and what slows the decline](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/how-lithium-ion-batteries-wear-out/): Lithium-ion batteries lose capacity with both time and use. Here is what national-lab researchers and a major device maker say drives that wear, and which charging and storage habits slow it. ## Pages - [Editorial policy](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/editorial-policy/): How we report, reference, correct and label our articles. - [Contact](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/contact/): Tips, corrections and questions. - [About New Century Research Publications](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/about/): An independent publication reporting on technology and science, with references for every article. - [Privacy policy](https://lightsteelblue-parrot-949241.hostingersite.com/privacy-policy/): What we collect and why. [comment]: # (Generated by Hostinger Tools Plugin)