4,000 luxury cars going down with the ship.

Google’s DeepMind AI can now control superheated plasma in a nuclear fusion reactor, solar panels on water canals could generate 13GW of power for California Feb 18, 2022 [View in browser]( Keep your eyes on the horizon today: A mammoth cargo ship carrying luxury cars caught fire and had to be abandoned in the ocean. Finders, keepers? Feels like the automotive industry just can’t catch a break. Automakers couldn’t lift their inventory to pre-pandemic levels. But now, the cargo ship is still on fire (and full of lithium). Yikes. News like this gives me an existential crisis whenever I opt for paper straws, instead of plastic. But before we go down with the ship, we have the perfect video about sinkholes — they can be deadly, and with climate change accelerating, some of you might lose your footing. Good morning. I’m Derya, an editor at IE, wishing you a happy Friday. This is The Blueprint. Let’s dive in. [Video]VIDEO OF THE DAY [Here's how the dangerous and terrifying sinkholes are formed]( Look down. [Here's how the dangerous and terrifying sinkholes are formed]( TRANSPORTATION [A cargo ship carrying 4,000 cars caught fire. Here's everything we know.]( [A shot of the burning cargo ship, Felicity Ace.]( A cargo ship named Felicity Ace, tasked with carrying cars from Volkswagen's facility in Germany to the U.S., [caught fire earlier this week]( and had to be abandoned in the ocean. - Roughly 4,000 vehicles were aboard the ship, including luxury brands like Porsche, Audi, Lamborghini, and Bentley — all part of the Volkswagen group. Uh-oh. While the cause of the fire is still unknown, the cargo ship continues to float in the ocean and is still on fire. A statement from the Portuguese Navy says no pollution or fuel spill has happened, yet. But we’re taking it with a grain of salt, since everyone knows plumes of smoke from burning metals and rubber aren’t great for the environment. We won’t know the full damage inflicted by the fire unless or until the cargo ship is brought back to shore. [Read More]( SCIENCE [Google’s DeepMind AI can now control superheated plasma in a nuclear fusion reactor]( [The TCV reactor.]( Google-owned DeepMind, a U.K.-based company building AI to take on some of the world's most complex science problems, [has trained a deep reinforcement learning algorithm]( to control the burning plasma inside a nuclear fusion reactor. - DeepMind was able to apply its machine learning knowledge to control a tokamak — a round nuclear fusion reactor that could one day allow us to tap the energy of the sun’s core. Tame the tokamak. Controlling the plasma in the reactor requires constant monitoring of the magnetic field. With this in mind, the team trained its AI to control plasma in a computer simulation. It was then allowed to control the magnets in the Variable Configuration Tokamak (TCV), an experimental reactor in Lausanne, Switzerland. This is one of the most challenging applications of reinforcement learning to manage a real-world system ever attempted, and it could provide physicists with [a better understanding of how fusion works](. [Read More]( INNOVATION [Solar panels on water canals could generate 13GW of power for California]( [An artist’s rendering of solar panels across the 110-foot-wide Main Canal.]( The little-known Turlock Irrigation District (TID) in California [has taken a bold and ambitious step]( to put solar panels on its open water canals. - The project is the on-ground realization of a study conducted by researchers at the University of California Merced and University of California Santa Cruz. Published last year, the study used simulations to calculate that California's open canal system could save 63 billion gallons of water every year if it put a lid on top of its canals. Bright idea. Installing solar panels would help the canals become a hub of renewable energy, producing 13 gigawatts of electricity. That’s about one-sixth of the energy that the state of California generates. The saved water could be used to irrigate 50,000 acres of farmland, or supply drinking water to two million people. Although this may look like a drop in the ocean of the nine million acres of California farmland, it could help to mitigate the ongoing and severe drought. [Read More]( MAIL & MUSINGS With costs falling dramatically over the past decade, the future could be bright for solar energy. Which solar energy application of the future seems most promising? Be sure you check back tomorrow for the results! [I want them on me! Put solar panels on a jacket, and I'll wear it.]( [Solar roadways. Everywhere.]( [Build a Dyson sphere, and we'll talk.]( [It won’t get anywhere with energy storage issues.]( Yesterday’s Results We asked which breakthrough in healthcare excites you the most. It looks like it was a heated race between vaccines and Wade Wilson's baby hands. Regrowing damaged body parts. I want to Deadpool myself. 43% New vaccines. We should eradicate all diseases. 41% AI doctors. Let’s just get rid of all human interactions and call it a day. 9% A pill that lets you know you have taken it would change my life. 6% QUOTE OF THE DAY “ The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age or his nation, and from convictions which have grown up in his mind without the cooperation or consent of his deliberate reason. ” Bertrand Russell in 'The Problems of Philosophy' (1912) AND ANOTHER THING... - Engineers [are building bridges with recycled wind turbine]( blades, bringing new life to aging technology. - A popular criticism of Bitcoin is that it’s only good for laundering money. But the problem is just the opposite. [It’s not good enough](. (Bloomberg $) - Can data science make your team win? Some teams have shown that [strategies built by data definitely work](. - Was the mysterious “Russian flu” actually a coronavirus? [Some scientists think so](. (Live Science) - Ukraine passed a new law to officially legalize Bitcoin, in addition to other cryptocurrencies. Here's [why this could galvanize the beleaguered country](. - [Everything you see is from 15 seconds in the past]( a new study claims. And that's probably the reason why our vision doesn't constantly make us throw up. (Popular Mechanics) - Things are about to get heavy: A new experiment will see astronauts [hand-mix a small sample of concrete]( in space. [Share to Win]SHARE TO WIN [All products]( Share The Blueprint! Give your friends deeper insights into engineering and tech, and win exclusive IE swag for free. [Read Details]( Share your link Copy & share your referral link with others. 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