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The article discusses the impact of surging energy prices on research institutes that operate supercomputers, accelerators and laser beamlines in Europe. The energy crisis is mainly attributed to a rebound from an economic slowdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, as power stations that had been shut down had been unable to increase production in time to meet renewed demand. Reducing operations at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron in Germany could affect important research.

Now, researchers say they have figured out why Roman concrete remains so resilient: Quicklime used in the mix may have given the material self-healing properties. The work could help engineers improve the performance of modern concrete, says Marie Jackson, a geologist who studies ancient Roman concrete at the University of Utah, but who was not involved with the research. [Extracted from the article]

The article informs that managers at high-performance computing (HPC) facilities, which include both supercomputers and data centers, are facing costly effects of climate change and wildfires and storms are intensifying it. It is evident that climate change not only increase heat, but also increase humidity reducing the efficiency of evaporative coolers many HPC centers rely on. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is exploring possibility of moving its computers underground.

The article reports on the selection of researchers John Clauser, Alain Aspect and Anton Zeilinger as winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2022 for their work on a phenomenon called entanglement that investigated the nature of reality and launched the field of quantum information.