How long has the mariana trench existed

Blum, J. Mercury isotopes identify near-surface marine mercury in deep-sea trench biota. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Nov , 47 , doi: Habitat heterogeneity of hadal trenches: Considerations and implications for future studies.

Progress in Oceanography, , , doi: Ritchie, H. Genome size variation in deep-sea amphipods. Royal Society Open Science, 4 9 , doi: Weston, J. ZooTaxa, 1 , doi: Habitat influences skeletal morphology and density in the snailfishes family Liparidae.

Frontiers in Zoology, 18 16 , doi: In the News. Sea Ghost! Jeff Drazen Chief Scientist. Timothy Shank. Anna Downing. Logan Peoples. Jill Bourque. Chloe Weinstock. Mackenzie Gerringer. Alan Jamieson. Patricia Fryer. The Chinese government is funding a lot of startups that are designing a variety of chips.

The number of newly registered Chinese chip-related companies more than tripled in the first five months of from the same period a year ago.

And the biggest Chinese technology companies like Alibaba, Baidu, and Huawei are developing their own chips rather than banking on those from Intel, Nvidia, and other United States-based companies. China is intent on developing semiconductor independence, both in design and manufacture of state-of-the-art chips. The urgency for doing so has been helped along by U. The sanctions extend to any Huawei suppliers that use U. The United States, alarmed at China's campaign to bring Taiwan under its control, has also begun an ambitious program to 'reshore' its semiconductor manufacturing after allowing much of it to migrate to Taiwan.

Around 80 percent of the world's semiconductor production capacity is in Asia, and nearly all the most advanced logic chip production is in Taiwan. No Chinese semiconductor foundry has yet achieved the 5-nanometer processing needed to make Alibaba's new ARM-based chip, so it is still beholden to Taiwan for manufacturing. But the implications of Alibaba's general choice of Arm and RISC-V instruction set architectures is perhaps more consequential for the long term. An instruction set architecture, or ISA, is the language in which software talks to hardware, and thus determines the kind of software that can run on a particular chip.

Most servers use CPUs based on Intel's x86 instruction set architecture. But UK-based Arm, which licenses its instruction set architecture to chip designers, has been gaining a foothold in this market.

RISC-V, which refers to the fifth generation of an open-source reduced instruction set computer architecture created by U. This past June, China hosted the fourth annual RISC-V summit, bringing together industry, academia, and government to talk about the future of the architecture. In the wake of the U. Unable to buy Intel chips because of the sanctions, Huawei most recently sold its x86 server unit to a company owned by China's Henan province.

From the beginning, the company indicated that it intended to open the CPU's source code—the hardware description language that describes the structure and behavior of the CPU core's electronic circuits. It has now done so… with little fanfare. Its Yitian server system on a chip SoC , manufactured by Taiwan's TSMC, will have a total of Arm-based cores, with 60 billion integrated transistors and a top clock speed of 3.

Alibaba said it is the first server processor compatible with the latest Armv9 architecture. Alibaba said the SoC achieved a score of in SPECint a standard benchmark for measuring CPU integer processing power , surpassing that of the current state-of-the-art Arm server processor based on Armv8 by 20 percent in performance and 50 percent in energy efficiency. The company also announced the development of proprietary servers, under the brand name Panjiu , developed for the next-generation of cloud-native infrastructure.

By separating computing from storage, the servers are optimized for both general-purpose and specialized AI computing, as well as high-performance storage. The company vowed to provide more services and support for RISC-V development tools, software development kits, and customized cores in the future. Consultant Gwennap suggests that Alibaba's Arm and RISC-V efforts are experiments more than commercial endeavors, noting that Alibaba is still using x86 Intel chips for the vast majority of its internal use.

Alibaba's new Arm-based server chip will be used in Alibaba datacenters to provide cloud services to customers.. The company will continue to offer Intel-based services, so it's up to customers to choose Arm over xbased chips. When Amazon did something similar a few years ago, there was little uptake for the Arm-based chips.

But true semiconductor independence will require China to develop its own extreme ultraviolet lithography machines , required to etch microscopic circuits on silicon. SMIC , China's main chip foundry, can't provide anything smaller than 14 nm. SMIC claims to have mastered the 3nm chip process in the lab and is trying to buy the EUV lithography machines necessary for production from ASML, the Dutch company that currently has a monopoly on the critical equipment.

But the United States is intent on blocking the sale. The bioluminescent organisms produce light themselves to attract mates or startle prey. To compensate for the absence of photosynthesis, they rely on chemosynthesis carried out by the bacteria, which turns inorganic substances into organic. Fish carcasses and even the wood sinking down become reliable food sources.

Dr Ram emphasises on the need for research in the deepest, darkest nook of the world. The biggest puzzle that could be solved by looking deep, is the changing environment of the earth. Life existing in extreme conditions, such as high pressures, freezing temperatures and absolute darkness can help man know about evolution that leads to life as we know it. Researchers have found microbes which could be potential sources of antibiotic and anti-cancer drugs.

The most heart-breaking thing that humanity has done to the mother earth, it is tainting the pristine landscape with its contaminated footsteps. According to a research published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, pollution level in the Mariana Trench was more than the heavily industrialised regions nearby. It suggests that pollution from anthropogenic sources has increased due to bioaccumulation and thus, has been observed in the deepest trench of the planet.

Plastic cans, disposable utensils and bags have been found at the bottom of the trench. More worrying were the results of a research published in the British Royal Society Journal which claimed to have found microplastics in the amphipods.

Microplastic is a part of our system from plastic bottles to the synthetic clothes that we wear. Dr Karan says mostly it reaches from industrial regions of Asian countries like China and Japan.

Due to earthquakes at the bottom of the trench, the sediments reach the deepest regions. The fact that we found such extraordinary levels of these pollutants really brings home the long-term, devastating impact that mankind is having on the planet," Dr Ram said. A more recent research by the University of Michigan found that the sinking carcasses of fish from near-surface waters deliver toxic mercury pollution to the Trench. Discovery of this neurotoxin indicates a dangerous trend.

This mercury eventually reaches the sea in rain, dust, and runoff from rivers and estuaries," Dr Ram said. All rights reserved. Share Tweet Email. Read This Next Wild parakeets have taken a liking to London. Animals Wild Cities Wild parakeets have taken a liking to London Love them or hate them, there's no denying their growing numbers have added an explosion of color to the city's streets.

India bets its energy future on solar—in ways both small and big. Environment Planet Possible India bets its energy future on solar—in ways both small and big Grassroots efforts are bringing solar panels to rural villages without electricity, while massive solar arrays are being built across the country. Epic floods leave South Sudanese to face disease and starvation. Travel 5 pandemic tech innovations that will change travel forever These digital innovations will make your next trip safer and more efficient.

But will they invade your privacy? Go Further. Animals Wild Cities This wild African cat has adapted to life in a big city. Animals This frog mysteriously re-evolved a full set of teeth.

Animals Wild Cities Wild parakeets have taken a liking to London. Animals Wild Cities Morocco has 3 million stray dogs. Meet the people trying to help.