Were well over six months into the pandemic and most things have opened back up - casinos, restaurants, even bars.

But even with Governor Steve Sisolak relaxing some of the guidelines that previously shut down nearly all forms of entertainment,thousands of actors, musicians and professionals remain without a paycheck.

For local theater companies to survive COVID-19, the show must (somehow) go on.

So, some of them have found clever workarounds, including ambient performances -- the only ones allowed under the states guidelines.

Sabrina Cofield is an actress and board member for The Lab LV, and director of the theater companys latest play, "Pass Over," which debuts Oct. 15.

The performance will take place outdoors with the audience wearing masks and socially distanced. The producers have described it as a panel discussion with the "ambient dialogue" of "Pass Over" by Antoinette Nwandu.

Cofield told KNPR's State of Nevada that the idea for ambient dialogue came about because there has not been any clear information from the state about how to safely conductlive performances.

Its just making sure we stay within the mandates set by the state, but still allowing ourselves to be creative and to express ourselves and also have these really important conversations that we think will happen with Pass Over, she said.

The Lab LV will hold the performance at a private location, and the audience will have to bring their own chairs or blankets. Cofield said that will add to the overallambiance of the play.

The lovely thing about what we are doing and specifically the ambient dialogue of Pass Over is it takes place outside and so being outdoors fits perfectly within the idea of us all sitting out in an open space and people bringing their own chairs, she said.

The play itself is centered on two Black men standing on the corner of an unnamed city longing for life to bedifferent. The play has been described as"Waiting for Godot" in the era of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Cofield said she hopes the play opens up a conversation that is needed in Southern Nevada, which is why the theater didn't want to wait until live theater is entirely open again to put on the play.

I think it is very clear that we cannot wait. That what was really front and center for this particular show, at this particular time," she said.

Another theater company that as come up with a unique workaround of the pandemic rules is the Majestic Repertory Theater.

The company will be performing "The Parking Lot" like a drive-in theater, but it's a bonus to the merchandise item you're buying because Majestic can't sell tickets to live performances.

Its a drive-in show,"said Troy Heard, artistic director. "You arrive in your vehicle. You stay in your vehicle for the duration of the show and you cant sell tickets to live events, but you can sell retail," he said,"So, were selling a customized air freshener that you can sit in your car and enjoy the new car scent while enjoying the ambient experience of the show.

The actors' microphones will be tuned to an FM frequency that people can get on their car radios.

Heard said that Majestic is already known for immersive-type theater and so this production was not too far off base from what they did before the pandemic.

We do miss the one-on-one experience not separated by a plate of glass, but for now, this is the story that was given to us to share and were rolling with it, he said.

He noted that creative people will come up with a way to get their workin front of an audience.

Its going to be a long time before were even allowed to set foot back into the theaters, but I think what Sabrina and Kate at The Lab are on the same path with me is were just trying to find a way to get back together to tell stories and share space in some way or another," he said.

The play itself was written by Adam Szymkowicz. It is about a couple who has been together for 10 years, butnow after quarantining together, they are considering getting a divorce.

Heard said the play is a metaphor for the world right now.

Like a parking lot, were stalled. Theater companies are stalled, venues are stalled, artists are stalled, but what do we do to survive and breathe and connect while we are stalled and [explore] how can we have hope for whats next? he said.

Heard has been vocal about his opposition to how the rules about live performances are being enforced in the state. He said there is a crisis going on now in Las Vegas' theater community because they are not allowed to produce.

If youre Ford or Chevy, you produce cars in your assembly line. Our assembly line are performers, writers, technicians, designers who come together to create this product, and right now, we are not allowed to create the product because we supposedly cant [ensure] safety [of] our consumers? he said.

Heard understands why Gov. Steve Sisolak shut down much of the economy to stop the spread of the virus but he doesn't believe the rules are consistent.

For example, the governor was criticized for going to a restaurant that had ambient entertainment in the form of a band and a singer. When pressed about the issue, the governor noted ambient music is allowed.

Heard doesn't understand how that is allowed but a drive-in theater experience is not.

How is that any less dangerous thansitting in a car in a drive-in? he said.

He said he would love to sit down and talk with the governor about the issue. If the rules don't change, he had a dire prediction for Southern Nevada's theater industry.

Heres whats going to happen: If we cant generate income and the government is not going to subsidize these nonprofit corporations, youre going to see A) a quick shutdown of venues and B) drainage of performers, of artists, of entertainers out of Las Vegas, and youre seeing that right now, he said.

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Theater Producers Go Rogue In The COVID Era - KNPR

The startup IonQ today announced what it's calling "the world's most powerful quantum computer."

Why it matters: Quantum is the next frontier in computing, theoretically capable of solving problems beyond the ability of classical computers. IonQ's next-generation computer looks set to push the boundaries of quantum, but it will still take years before the technology becomes truly reliable.

How it works: IonQ reports its new quantum computer system has 32 "perfect" qubits the basic unit of information in a quantum computer that the company says gives it an expected quantum volume of more than 4,000,000.

Background: IonQ was co-founded by Chris Monroe, a University of Maryland professor and major figure in the development of quantum computers. In the mid-1990s, he began working on entangling atoms to make more precise atomic clocks, the most accurate timekeeping devices known.

The catch: IonQ hasn't yet released detailed specifications of its new system, and its research needs to be verified.

Context: IonQ's announcement comes in the same week that its competitor Honeywell, which also use a version of trapped ions, reported achieving a quantum volume of 128, and the Canadian startup D-Wave announced a 5,000-qubit system built yet another way would that be available for customers, including via the cloud.

Be smart: Comparing different kinds of quantum computing systems is difficult because they function in fundamentally different ways.

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A new claimant for "most powerful quantum computer" - Axios

Digital Twin Earth will help visualize, monitor, and forecast natural and human activity on the planet. The model will be able to monitor the health of the planet, perform simulations of Earths interconnected system with human behavior, and support the field of sustainable development, therefore, reinforcing Europes efforts for a better environment in order to respond to the urgent challenges and targets addressed by the Green Deal. Credit: ESA

ESAs 2020 -week event kicked off this morning with a series of stimulating speeches on Digital Twin Earth, updates on -sat-1, which was successfully launched into orbit earlier this month, and an exciting new initiative involving quantum computing.

The third edition of the -week event, which is entirely virtual, focuses on how Earth observation can contribute to the concept of Digital Twin Earth a dynamic, digital replica of our planet which accurately mimics Earths behavior. Constantly fed with Earth observation data, combined with in situ measurements and artificial intelligence, the Digital Twin Earth provides an accurate representation of the past, present, and future changes of our world.

Digital Twin Earth will help visualize, monitor, and forecast natural and human activity on the planet. The model will be able to monitor the health of the planet, perform simulations of Earths interconnected system with human behavior, and support the field of sustainable development, therefore, reinforcing Europes efforts for a better environment in order to respond to the urgent challenges and targets addressed by the Green Deal.

Todays session opened with inspiring statements from ESAs Director General, Jan Wrner, ESAs Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Josef Aschbacher, ECMWFS Director General, Florence Rabier, European Commissions Deputy Director General for Defence Industry and Space, Pierre Delsaux, as well as Director General of DG CONNECT at the European Commission, Roberto Viola.

The -week 2020 opened on 28 September with inspiring statements from ESAs Director General, Jan Wrner (left) and ESAs Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Josef Aschbacher. Credit: ESA

Pierre Delsaux commented, As our EU Commission President repeated recently during her State of the Union speech, its clear we need to address climate change. The Copernicus program offers us some of the best instruments, satellites, to give us a complete picture of our planets health. But space is not only a monitoring tool, it is also about applied solutions for our economy to make it more green and more digital.

Roberto Viola said, -week is the week for disruptive technology and it is communities like this that our European programmes were designed to support.

Florence Rabier added, Machine learning and artificial intelligence could improve the realism and efficiency of the Digital Twin Earth especially for extreme weather events and numerical forecast models.

Jan Wrner concluded, -week is the perfect example of the New Space approach focusing on disruptive innovation, artificial intelligence, agility and flexibility.

During the week, experts will come together to discuss the role of artificial intelligence for the Digital Twin Earth concept, its practical implementation, the infrastructure requirements needed to build the Digital Twin Earth, and present ideas on how industries and the science community can contribute.

Cloud mask from -sat-1. Credit: Cosine remote sensing B.V

Earlier this month, on 3 September, the first artificial intelligence (AI) technology carried onboard a European Earth observation mission, -sat-1, was launched from Europes spaceport in French Guiana. An enhancement of the Federated Satellite Systems mission (FSSCat), the pioneering artificial intelligence technology is the first experiment to improve the efficiency of sending vast quantities of data back to Earth.

Today, ESA, along with cosine remote sensing, are happy to reveal the first ever hardware-accelerated AI inference of Earth observation images on an in-orbit satellite performed by a Deep Convolutional Neural Network, developed by the University of Pisa.

-sat-1 has successfully enabled the pre-filtering of Earth observation data so that only relevant part of the image with usable information are downlinked to the ground, thereby improving bandwidth utilization and significantly reducing aggregated downlink costs.

Initial data downlinked from the satellite has shown that the AI-powered automatic cloud detection algorithm has correctly sorted hyperspectral Earth observation imagery from the satellites sensor into cloudy and non-cloudy pixels.

Lake Tharthar, Iraq. Credit: Cosine remote sensing B.V

Massimiliano Pastena, -sat-1 Technical Officer at ESA, commented, We have just entered the history of space.

Todays successful application of the Ubotica Artificial Intelligence technology, which is powered by the Intel Movidius Myriad 2 Vision Processing Unit, has demonstrated real on-board data processing autonomy.

Aubrey Dunne, Co-Founder and Vice President of Engineering at Ubotica Technologies, said, We are very excited to be a key part of what is to our knowledge the first ever demonstration of AI applied to Earth Observation data on a flying satellite. This is a watershed moment both for onboard processing of satellite data, and for the future of AI inference in orbital applications.

As the overall 2017 Copernicus Masters winner, FSSCat, was proposed by Spains Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya and developed by a consortium of European companies and institutes including Tyvak International.

Also mentioned in his opening speech this morning, Josef Aschbacher made a special announcement regarding an exciting new ESA initiative, the EOP AI-enhanced Quantum Initiative for EO QC4EO in collaboration with the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).

Quantum computing has the potential to improve performance, decrease computational costs and solve previously intractable problems in Earth observation by exploiting quantum phenomena such as superposition, entanglement, and tunneling.

Quantum computing has the potential to improve performance, decrease computational costs and solve previously intractable problems in Earth observation by exploiting quantum phenomena such as superposition, entanglement and tunneling. Credit: IBM

The initiative involves creating a quantum capability which will have the ability to solve demanding Earth observation problems by using artificial intelligence to support programmes such as Digital Twin Earth and Copernicus. The initiative will be developed at the -lab an ESA laboratory at ESAs center for Earth observation in Italy, which embraces transformational innovation in Earth observation.

ESA and CERN enjoy a long-standing collaboration, centered on technological matters and fundamental physics. This collaboration will be extended to link to the CERN Quantum Technology Initiative, which was announced in June 2020 by the CERN Director General, Fabiola Gianotti.

Through this partnership, ESA and CERN will create new synergies, building on their common experience in big data, data mining and pattern recognition.

Giuseppe Borghi, Head of the -lab, said, Quantum computing together with AI are perhaps the most promising breakthrough to come along in computer technology. In the coming years, we will see more Earth or space science disciplines employing current or future quantum computing techniques to solve geoscience problems.

Josef Aschbacher added, ESA will exploit the broad range of specialized expertise available at ESA and we will place ourselves in a unique position and take a leading role in the development of quantum technologies in the Earth observation domain.

Alberto Di Meglio, Coordinator of the CERN Quantum Technology Initiative, said, Quantum technologies are a rapidly growing field of research and their applications have the potential to revolutionize the way we do science. Preparing for that paradigm change, by building knowledge and tools, is essential. This new collaboration on quantum technologies bears great promise.

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ESAs -Week: Digital Twin Earth, Quantum Computing and AI Take Center Stage - SciTechDaily

Schrdingers Web Jonathan P. Dowling CRC Press, $40.95

When news broke last year that Googles quantum computer Sycamore had performed a calculation faster than the fastest supercomputers could (SN: 12/16/19), it was the first time many people had ever heard of a quantum computer.

Quantum computers, which harness the strange probabilities of quantum mechanics, may prove revolutionary. They have the potential to achieve an exponential speedup over their classical counterparts, at least when it comes to solving some problems. But for now, these computers are still in their infancy, useful for only a few applications, just as the first digital computers were in the 1940s. So isnt a book about the communications network that will link quantum computers the quantum internet more than a little ahead of itself?

Surprisingly, no. As theoretical physicist Jonathan Dowling makes clear in Schrdingers Web, early versions of the quantum internet are here already for example, quantum communication has been taking place between Beijing and Shanghai via fiber-optic cables since 2016 and more are coming fast. So now is the perfect time to read up.

Dowling, who helped found the U.S. governments quantum computing program in the 1990s, is the perfect guide. Armed with a seemingly endless supply of outrageous anecdotes, memorable analogies, puns and quips, he makes the thorny theoretical details of the quantum internet both entertaining and accessible.

Readers wanting to dive right in to details of the quantum internet will have to be patient. Photons are the particles that will power the quantum internet, so we had better be sure we know what the heck they are, Dowling writes. Accordingly, the first third of the book is a historical overview of light, from Newtons 17th century idea of light as corpuscles to experiments probing the quantum reality of photons, or particles of light, in the late 20th century. There are some small historical inaccuracies the section on the Danish physicist Hans Christian rsted repeats an apocryphal tale about his serendipitous discovery of the link between electricity and magnetism and the footnotes rely too much on Wikipedia. But Dowling accomplishes what he sets out to do: Help readers develop an understanding of the quantum nature of light.

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Like Dowlings 2013 book on quantum computers, Schrdingers Killer App, Schrdingers Web hammers home the nonintuitive truths at the heart of quantum mechanics. For example, key to the quantum internet is entanglement that spooky action at a distance in which particles are linked across time and space, and measuring the properties of one particle instantly reveals the others properties. Two photons, for instance, can be entangled so they always have the opposite polarization, or angle of oscillation.

In the future, a user in New York could entangle two photons and then send one along a fiber-optic cable to San Francisco, where it would be received by a quantum computer. Because these photons are entangled, measuring the New York photons polarization would instantly reveal the San Francisco photons polarization. This strange reality of entanglement is what the quantum internet exploits for neat features, such as unhackable security; any eavesdropper would mess up the delicate entanglement and be revealed. While his previous book contains more detailed explanations of quantum mechanics, Dowling still finds amusing new analogies, such as Fuzz Lightyear, a canine that runs along a superposition, or quantum combination, of two paths into neighbors yards. Fuzz helps explain physicist John Wheelers delayed-choice experiment, which illustrates the uncertainty, unreality and nonlocality of the quantum world. Fuzzs path is random, the dog doesnt exist on one path until we measure him, and measuring one path seems to instantly affect which yard Fuzz enters even if hes light-years away.

The complexities of the quantum web are saved for last, and even with Dowlings help, the details are not for the faint of heart. Readers will learn how to prepare Bell tests to check that a system of particles is entangled (SN: 8/28/15), navigate bureaucracy in the Department of Defense and send unhackable quantum communications with the dryly named BB84 and E91 protocols. Dowling also goes over some recent milestones in the development of a quantum internet, such as the 2017 quantum-secured videocall between scientists in China and Austria via satellite (SN: 9/29/17).

Just like the classical internet, we really wont figure out what the quantum internet is useful for until it is up and running, Dowling writes, so people can start playing around with it. Some of his prognostications seem improbable. Will people really have quantum computers on their phones and exchange entangled photons across the quantum internet?

Dowling died unexpectedly in June at age 65, before he could see this future come to fruition. Once when I interviewed him, he invoked Arthur C. Clarkes first law to justify why he thought another esteemed scientist was wrong. The first law is that if a distinguished, elderly scientist tells you something is possible, hes very likely right, he said. If he tells you something is impossible, hes very likely wrong.

Dowling died too soon to be considered elderly, but he was distinguished, and Schrdingers Web lays out a powerful case for the possibility of a quantum internet.

Buy Schrdingers Web from Amazon.com.Science Newsis a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. Please see ourFAQfor more details.

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Schrdingers Web offers a sneak peek at the quantum internet - Science News

The Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C) and Hyperion Research are projecting that the global quantum computing (QC) market worth an estimated $320 million in 2020 will grow at an anticipated 27% CAGR between 2020 and 2024, reaching approximately $830 million by 2024.

This estimate is based on surveys of 135 US-based quantum computing researchers, developers and suppliers across the academic, commercial and government sectors. Supplemental data and insights came from a companion effort that surveyed 115 current and potential quantum computing users in North America, Europe and the Asia/Pacific region on their expectations, schedules and budgets for the use of quantum computing in their existing and planned computational workloads.

(Keeping track of the various quantum computing organization is becoming a challenge in itself. The Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C) is a consortium of stakeholders that aims to enable and grow the U.S. quantum industry. QED-C was established with support from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as part of the Federal strategy for advancing quantum information science and as called for by theNational Quantum Initiative Actenacted in 2018.)

Additional results from the study:

Based on our study and related forecast, there is a growing, vibrant, and diverse US-based QC research, development, and commercial ecosystem that shows the promise of maturing into a viable, if not profitable and self-sustaining industry. That said, it is too early to start picking winners and losers from either a technology or commercial perspective, said Bob Sorensen, quantum analyst for Hyperion Research.

A key driver for commercial success could be the ability of any vendor to ease the requirements needed to integrate QC technology into a larger HPC and enterprise IT user base while still supporting advanced QC-related research for a more targeted, albeit smaller, class of end-user scientists and engineers. This sector is not for faint of heart, but this forecast gives some sense of what is at stake hereat least for the next few years, noted Sorensen.

Source: QED-C

QED-C commissioned and collaborated with Hyperion Research to develop this market forecast to help inform decision making for QC technology developers and suppliers, national-level QC-related policy makers, potential QC users in both the advanced computing and enterprise IT marketplace investors and commercial QC funding organizations. This is a baseline estimate, and Hyperion Research and QED-C are looking to provide periodic updates of their QC market forecast as events, information, or decision- making requirements dictate. Contact: Celia Merzbacher, QED-C Deputy Director, [emailprotected]

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Global QC Market Projected to Grow to More Than $800 million by 2024 - HPCwire

Innovative technologies from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) to achieve higher energy efficiency in buildings, make lithium batteries safer and higher performing, and secure quantum communications were some of the inventions honored with R&D 100 Awards by R&D World magazine.

For more than 50 years, the annual R&D 100 Awards have recognized 100 technologies of the past year deemed most innovative and disruptive by an independent panel of judges. The full list of winners, announced by parent company WTWH Media LLC is available at the R&D World website.

Berkeley Labs award-winning technologies are described below.

A Tool to Accelerate Electrochemical and Solid-State Innovation

(from left) Adam Weber, New Danilovic, Douglas Kushner, and John Petrovick (Credit: Berkeley Lab)

Berkeley Lab scientists invented a microelectrode cell to analyze and test electrochemical systems with solid electrolytes. Thanks to significant cost and performance advantages, this tool can accelerate development of critical applications such as energy storage and conversion (fuel cells, batteries, electrolyzers), carbon capture, desalination, and industrial decarbonization.

Solid electrolytes have been displacing liquid electrolytes as the focus of electrochemical innovation because of their performance, safety, and cost advantages. However, the lack of effective methods and equipment for studying solid electrolytes has hindered advancement of the technologies that employ them. This microelectrode cell meets the testing needs, and is already being used by Berkeley Lab scientists.

The development team includes Berkeley Lab researchers Adam Weber, Nemanja Danilovic, Douglas Kushner, and John Petrovick.

Matter-Wave Modulating Secure Quantum Communicator (MMQ-Com)

Information transmitted by MMQ-Com is impervious to security breaches. (Credit: Alexander Stibor/Berkeley Lab)

Quantum communication, cybersecurity, and quantum computing are growing global markets. But the safety of our data is in peril given the rise of quantum computers that can decode classical encryption schemes.

The Matter-Wave Modulating Secure Quantum Communicator (MMQ-Com) technology is a fundamentally new kind of secure quantum information transmitter. It transmits messages by modulating electron matter-waves without changing the pathways of the electrons. This secure communication method is inherently impervious to any interception attempt.

A novel quantum key distribution scheme also ensures that the signal is protected from spying by other quantum devices.

The development team includes Alexander Stibor of Berkeley Labs Molecular Foundry along with Robin Rpke and Nicole Kerker of the University of Tbingen in Germany.

Solid Lithium Battery Using Hard and Soft Solid Electrolytes

(from left) Marca Doeff, Guoying Chen, and Eongyu Yi (Credit: Berkeley Lab)

The lithium battery market is expected to grow from more than $37 billion in 2019 to more than $94 billion by 2025. However, the liquid electrolytes used in most commercial lithium-ion batteries are flammable and limit the ability to achieve higher energy densities. Safety issues continue to plague the electronics markets, as often-reported lithium battery fires and explosions result in casualties and financial losses.

In Berkeley Labs solid lithium battery, the organic electrolytic solution is replaced by two solid electrolytes, one soft and one hard, and lithium metal is used in place of the graphite anode. In addition to eliminating battery fires, incorporation of a lithium metal anode with a capacity 10 times higher than graphite (the conventional anode material in lithium-ion batteries) provides much higher energy densities.

The technology was developed by Berkeley Lab scientists Marca Doeff, Guoying Chen, and Eongyu Yi, along with collaborators at Montana State University.

Porous Graphitic Frameworks for Sustainable High-Performance Li-Ion Batteries

High-resolution transmission electron microscopy images of the Berkeley Lab PGF cathode reveal (at left) a highly ordered honeycomb structure within the 2D plane, and (at right) layered columnar arrays stacked perpendicular to the 2D plane. (Credit: Yi Liu/Berkeley Lab)

The Porous Graphitic Frameworks (PGF) technology is a lithium-ion battery cathode that could outperform todays cathodes in sustainability and performance.

In contrast to commercial cathodes, organic PGFs pose fewer risks to the environment because they are metal-free and composed of earth-abundant, lightweight organic elements such as carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen. The PGF production process is also more energy-efficient and eco-friendly than other cathode technologies because they are prepared in water at mild temperatures, rather than in toxic solvents at high temperatures.

PGF cathodes also display stable charge-discharge cycles with ultrahigh capacity and record-high energy density, both of which are much higher than all commercial inorganic cathodes and organic cathodes known to exist.

The development team includes Yi Liu and Xinie Li of Berkeley Labs Molecular Foundry, as well as Hongxia Wang and Hao Chen of Stanford University.

Building Efficiency Targeting Tool for Energy Retrofits (BETTER)

The buildings sector is the largest source of primary energy consumption (40%) and ranks second after the industrial sector as a global source of direct and indirect carbon dioxide emissions from fuel combustion. According to the World Economic Forum, nearly one-half of all energy consumed by buildings could be avoided with new energy-efficient systems and equipment.

(from left) Carolyn Szum (Lead Researcher), Han Li, Chao Ding, Nan Zhou, Xu Liu (Credit: Berkeley Lab)

The Building Efficiency Targeting Tool for Energy Retrofits (BETTER) allows municipalities, building and portfolio owners and managers, and energy service providers to quickly and easily identify the most effective cost-saving and energy-efficiency measures in their buildings. With an open-source, data-driven analytical engine, BETTER uses readily available building and monthly energy data to quantify energy, cost, and greenhouse gas reduction potential, and to recommend efficiency interventions at the building and portfolio levels to capture that potential.

It is estimated that BETTER will help reduce about 165.8 megatons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) globally by 2030. This is equivalent to the CO2 sequestered by growing 2.7 billion tree seedlings for 10 years.

The development team includes Berkeley Lab scientists Nan Zhou, Carolyn Szum, Han Li, Chao Ding, Xu Liu, and William Huang, along with collaborators from Johnson Controls and ICF.

AmanziATS: Modeling Environmental Systems Across Scales

Simulated surface and subsurface water from Amanzi-ATS hydrological modeling of the Copper Creek sub-catchment in the East River, Colorado watershed. (Credit: Zexuan Xu/Berkeley Lab, David Moulton/Los Alamos National Laboratory)

Scientists use computer simulations to predict the impact of wildfires on water quality, or to monitor cleanup at nuclear waste remediation sites by portraying fluid flow across Earth compartments. The Amanzi-Advanced Terrestrial Simulator (ATS) enables them to replicate or couple multiple complex and integrated physical processes controlling these flowpaths, making it possible to capture the essential physics of the problem at hand.

Specific problems require taking an individual approach to simulations, said Sergi Molins, principal investigator at Berkeley Lab, which contributed expertise in geochemical modeling to the softwares development. Physical processes controlling how mountainous watersheds respond to disturbances such as climate- and land-use change, extreme weather, and wildfire are far different than the physical processes at play when an unexpected storm suddenly impacts groundwater contaminant levels in and around a nuclear remediation site. Amanzi-ATS allows scientists to make sense of these interactions in each individual scenario.

The code is open-source and capable of being run on systems ranging from a laptop to a supercomputer. Led by Los Alamos National Laboratory, Amanzi-ATS is jointly developed by researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Berkeley Lab researchers including Sergi Molins, Marcus Day, Carl Steefel, and Zexuan Xu.

Institute for the Design of Advanced Energy Systems (IDAES)

The U.S. Department of Energys (DOEs) Institute for the Design of Advanced Energy Systems (IDAES) project develops next-generation computational tools for process systems engineering (PSE) of advanced energy systems, enabling their rapid design and optimization.

IDAES Project Team (Credit: Berkeley Lab)

By providing rigorous modeling capabilities, the IDAES Modeling & Optimization Platform helps energy and process companies, technology developers, academic researchers, and DOE to design, develop, scale-up, and analyze new and potential PSE technologies and processes to accelerate advances and apply them to address the nations energy needs. The IDAES platform is also a key component in the National Alliance for Water Innovation, a $100 million, five-year DOE innovation hub led by Berkeley Lab, which will examine the critical technical barriers and research needed to radically lower the cost and energy of desalination.

Led by National Energy Technology Laboratory, IDAES is a collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories, Berkeley Lab, West Virginia University, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Notre Dame. The development team at Berkeley Lab includes Deb Agarwal, Oluwamayowa (Mayo) Amusat, Keith Beattie, Ludovico Bianchi, Josh Boverhof, Hamdy Elgammal, Dan Gunter, Julianne Mueller, Jangho Park, Makayla Shepherd, Karen Whitenack, and Perren Yang.

# # #

Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest scientific challenges are best addressed by teams, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and its scientists have been recognized with 13 Nobel Prizes. Today, Berkeley Lab researchers develop sustainable energy and environmental solutions, create useful new materials, advance the frontiers of computing, and probe the mysteries of life, matter, and the universe. Scientists from around the world rely on the Labs facilities for their own discovery science. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory, managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energys Office of Science.

DOEs Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.

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Berkeley Lab Technologies Honored With 7 R&D 100 Awards - Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Sept. 29, 2020 A oneAPI Academic Center of Excellence (CoE) is now established at the Heidelberg University Computing Center (URZ). The new CoE will conduct research supporting the oneAPI industry initiative to create a uniform, open programming model for heterogeneous computer architectures.

A common language for heterogeneous computing

URZ will focus its research and programming efforts on a fundamental high-performance computing (HPC) challenge where modern computers utilize different types of hardware for different calculations. Accelerators, including graphics processing units (GPUs) and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), are used in combination with general compute processors (CPUs). Using different types of hardware make computers very powerful and provide versatility for a wide range of situations and workloads. However, hardware heterogeneity complicates software development for these computers, especially when specialized components from a variety of vendors are used in tandem.

One major reason for this complication is that many accelerated compute architectures require their own programming models. Therefore, software developers need to learn and use a different and sometimes proprietary language for each processing unit in a heterogeneous system, which increases complexity and limits flexibility.

oneAPIs cross-architecture language Data Parallel C++ (DPC++), based on Khronos Groups SYCL standard for heterogeneous programming in C++, overcomes these challenges with its single, unified open development model for performant and productive heterogeneous programming and cross-vendor support.

Developing for Heterogeneous Systems: advancing features and capabilities, maximizing interoperability

URZs work as a oneAPI CoE will add advanced DPC++ capabilities intohipSYCL, which supports systems based on AMD GPUs, NVIDIA GPUs, and CPUs. New DPC++ extensions are part of the SYCL 2020 provisional specification that brings features such as unified shared memory to hipSYCL and the platforms it supports furthering the promise of oneAPI application support across system architectures and vendors.

URZ HPC technical specialist Aksel Alpay, who created hipSYCL, leads its on-going development. The whole project is quite ambitious, says Alpay, venturing a look into the future. hipSYCL is an academic research project as well as a development project, where the final product will be used in production operations. It is incredibly exciting to bring DPC++ and SYCL 2020 capabilities to additional architectures, such as AMD GPUs.

To expedite the research, URZ researchers and developers will access an international network of experts at Intel and numerous academic and government institutions a great advantage to advance hipSYCL capabilities and further the goal of the oneAPI initiative. For a scientific computing center to have access to this level of expertise and work together on an open standard with partners from around the globe, is a wonderful prospect, states Heidelberg Universitys CIO and URZ director Prof. Dr. Vincent Heuveline, who is a major proponent of the CoE. In addition to being the universitys main liaison for the center, he will function as its scientific advisor.

One of our strategic goals is to make a measurable contribution to the transfer of new technologies from research to industrial application, and of course to continuously expand our expertise and research efforts in the field of supercomputing. The oneAPI CoE will allow us to do both, explains Heuveline.

oneAPI is a true cross-industry initiative that seeks to simplify development of diverse workloads by streamlining code re-use across a variety of architectures through an open and collaborative approach. URZs research helps to deliver on the cross-vendor promise of oneAPI by expanding advanced DPC++ application support to other architectures, says Dr. Jeff McVeigh, Intel vice president of Datacenter XPU Products and Solutions.

About oneAPI

oneAPI is an industry initiative to create a single, unified, cross-architecture programming model for CPUs + accelerator architectures. Based on industry standards and its open development approach, the initiative will help streamline software development for high performance computers, increase performance, and provide specifications for efficient and diverse architecture programming.

Learn more

Source: Heidelberg University

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Anushka Sharma's powerful post on having male child: Don't think of it as a PRIVILEGE

Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma shared a powerful post on Friday reacting to the recent happenings in the country. The actress penned down how gender equality plays a role in these situations and about the privilege of having a male child. The actress wrote, "In our society having a male child is seen as a 'privilege.' Of course, it's no more privilege than having a girl child but the fact is that this so-called privilege has been viewed incorrectly and with an extremely myopic view. The only 'privilege' is that one has the opportunity to raise a boy in a way that he respects a girl. That's your DUTY as a parent to society. So, don't think of it as a PRIVILEGE."

Anushka Sharma added, "The gender of the child doesn't make you privileged but it is actually the responsibility you owe to society to raise a boy so well that women feel safe and protected."

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Anushka Sharma's powerful post on having male child

After the Hathras rape caser, the country witnessed another blow when a 22 years old girl was allegedly raped. Many Bollywood celebrities reacted to the horrific incident and slammed those who consider women as women. Anushka has also expressed her anger about the same and had written, "Barely any time has passed and we are hearing of another brutal rape!?! In which world do such monsters think they can do this to a young life. This is beyond comprehension, so distressing! Is there any fear in the minds of such men? How do we as a society put fear in them and protect our women?"

On a related note, Anushka Sharma is currently spending time with her husband, cricketer Virat Kohli, in the UAE, where the latest edition of Indian Premier League is being held. Last month, Anushka and Virat had announced that they are set to be parents for the first time. They will welcome their first born in January 2021.

Recently, Anushka Sharma treated fans with a new picture. In the Instagram image, Anushka, who is pregnant, flaunted her baby bump in black swimwear standing in a pool. "Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance' - Eckhart Tolle. Gratitude to all those who showed me kindness and made me believe in goodness in this world, opening my heart enough to practice the same with the hope to pay it forward. Because... After all, we are all just walking each other home - Ram Dass #worldgratitudeday (sic)," Anushka captioned the image.

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Anushka Sharma's powerful post on having male child: Don't think of it as a PRIVILEGE - India TV News

In our Q&A series Last Call, we get down to the bottom of every last thing with some of our favorite celebs from the last thing they texted to the last thing they binge-watched. This week, Mexican singer Sofa Reyes takes our call.

While most of us were staying home the past few months binge-watching new TV shows or baking bread, Mexican singer-songwriter Sofa Reyes has been hard at work, recording not one but two new songs: "Cuando Ests Tu," which she released back in June, and her latest single, "chalo Pa'Ca." To celebrate her new music, we chatted with Sofa about recording the tracks, the last piece of advice that changed her life, and more!

What was the last day recording "chalo Pa'Ca" like?

I mean, recording the song took a couple months because I was waiting for Lalo [Ebratt] and Darell to record their vocals, and I couldn't be more excited! I'm very grateful. Having them on my song is a big blessing.

Last piece of advice you received that changed your life?

"Live in the NOW." Life is now, and it's for real the key for me.

Last thing you texted?

The last thing I texted was to my mom of how much I miss [her].

Last thing you watched on Netflix?

Anne With an E.

Last photo on your camera roll?

It's a screenshot of a Bible verse.

Last thing you do before going to bed?

The last thing I do before going to bed is read. I'm reading a book called Permission to Feel [by Marc Brackett].

Last gift you received?

A watch [from] my friend that says "NOW." It's very meaningful because every time [we] would be on the phone or stressed out, he would go, "What time is it??"

Last workout?

My last workout was in 2018. Just kidding. I've been hiking every week; I hiked about three days ago at Runyon Canyon.

Last book you read?

The Power of Now [by Eckhart Tolle].

Last album you listened to?

In the Real World by Alex Serra.

Last time you were star-struck?

The last time I was starstruck was with Alan Menken. Thalia took us to his house/studio, and he played songs for us on the piano. Every Disney song that I grew up with are his, and that was mind-blowing. I touched his Oscars [laughs], especially the "Under the Sea" one.

Last song you sang in the shower?

"Can't Help Falling in Love" [by Elvis Presley].

Check out Sofia's latest single "Echalo Pa' Ca," out now!

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Sofa Reyes on the Last Time She Was Starstruck and the Last Thing She Watched on Netflix - POPSUGAR

In February, I learned that musician Kedaar Kumar, son of my long-ago Indian classical dance teacher, Rathna Kumar, had died suddenly of heart failure at 38. My heart sank. I reached out to Rathna Auntie with condolences. I had also wanted to send her a copy of my memoir, This Is One Way to Dance, which would be published in June; dance had played an important role in my life and I included her in my acknowledgments.

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Our reconnection was fortuitous; two months later I found myself studying with her once again, after three decades this time on Zoom. It was the antidote to pandemic grief I hadnt known I needed.

In the 1980s, an article about Rathna Kumar, a Houston-based professional dancer, appeared in India Abroad. She was our local teachers childhood friend from Chennai, and she visited Rochester, New York, during our school breaks, offering advanced workshops. We spent hours learning Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi and Mohiniyattam dances, interspersed with stories of Rathna Aunties sons and husband, and tales of Shiva and Parvati, Krishna and Radha, from Hindu mythology. Four of us had arangetrams, solo classical dance debuts, in which the guru presents the pupil to the community. I had not seen Rathna Auntie since mine, 30 years ago.

Dance is a kind of prayer, a way to celebrate and move through something, and also to mourn.

Rathna Auntie needed to keep dancing through her grief. In April, she added me to a WhatsApp group named Vintage Kuchipudi Divas. We, the divas, are in our 40s and 50s. A few are my childhood friends; a few I had not met. But now we have danced and talked and laughed together, remotely, several times on Wednesday evenings.

I had my own grief atop the pandemic: my fathers fast-growing cancer and chemo, evaporating events and a tour for a book that had taken 20 years to write. There was a day when everything was stuck. I was stuck. I grabbed my laptop and set up in our first-floor living room in front of a mirrored purple tapestry from Chennai, and logged on to Rathna Aunties Zoom class. That evening, she was the same as ever, telling stories about her childhood, about her dance teacher, asking us questions, making us laugh, demonstrating sequences. Then, we danced.

Something about moving together so many years later transported me: a reunion, but each of us in different homes and time zones, kids crouching on couches in the background. I was 16 again, laughing and dancing, absorbed in duplicating her steps, mirroring her hand gestures. My Tamilian husband walked by. Rathna Auntie wanted to meet him. I am not South Indian, but their culture feels familiar, from years of listening to Carnatic music, dancing for Onam, hearing the lilting cadences of friends parents and Rathna Auntie speaking Telegu, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam.

Dancing together lifted the heaviness Id been carrying. Somehow, in the percussive, rhythmic footwork and pounding steps, the vigorous movement in our creaky bodies, a weight shifted. After Rathna Aunties class, I played music at midnight and turned the camera on myself. I danced. No makeup, my hair escaping a messy bun, I wore a kurta and shot two videos of me dancing to vintage songs: CeCe Penistons Finally and Suzanne Vegas Left of Center posting them later to Instagram. It was May and I hadnt been able to dance in months. Sculpting my arms into tree branches, the motion loosened something in me. Bending my torso, stomping my feet, using more of my body than just my fingers and eyes, awoke parts of my brain that had been dormant. My videos garnered over 400 views; this surprised me. I felt happy dancing by myself and found a simple pleasure in sharing the dances. In comments, friends noted their own joy in witnessing my dancing.

Dancing with those women, something clicked. To hear Rathna Auntie, who had lost her son, not lose heart, but keep moving, even laughing. To connect! Dancing with my guru again, 30 years after I last saw her, is an astonishing gift of the pandemic. After hours disembodied before a blue-lit screen, I have to remind myself, we need to move more than fingers and eyes. We need community.

Rathna Auntie features this quote in the about section on her Facebook page: Life is the dancer and you are the dance Eckhart Tolle, followed by her own words: Dance is my raison dtre, my greatest solace. I appreciate that Rathna Auntie told us she needed to keep dancing while grieving. Sharing her dance with her students, she is still teaching us: here is a way to move through sorrow.

Sejal Shah is the author of This Is One Way to Dance, essays on race, place and belonging (University of Georgia Press, 2020). She lives in Rochester, New York

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Indian dance classes on Zoom lifted the heaviness Id been carrying - The Guardian