Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Aaswath Raman @aaswath.bsky.social · 21h

Diamonds are for..thermal management www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/s...

Why Diamonds Are a Computer Chip’s New Best Friend

www.nytimes.com

Aaswath Raman @aaswath.bsky.social · 1d

All-UC as well! (Though really this one is Berkeley's given the specific work it's honoring)

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Aaswath Raman @aaswath.bsky.social · 2d

I'm sure I'm not the first to note this, but...

a man in a star trek uniform has a necklace around his waist that says tt on it

ALT: a man in a star trek uniform has a necklace around his waist that says tt on it

media.tenor.com

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Aaswath Raman @aaswath.bsky.social · 2d

If DARPA ever becomes WARPA then there might be some interesting acronym opportunities for y'all

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Aaswath Raman @aaswath.bsky.social · 12d

arbitrary and unfortunate (adjectives to apply to everything these days!)

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Reposted by Aaswath Raman

Science Magazine @science.org · 17d

Fifty years ago, Carol Baker proposed vaccinating pregnant women to save babies from a deadly microbe. Now, the idea is nearing fruition. https://scim.ag/4ptSSMl

Vaccine given during pregnancy could protect babies from an invisible killer

Shots target group B streptococcus, a little-known microbe that can cause stillbirths and life-threatening disease in infants

scim.ag

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Aaswath Raman @aaswath.bsky.social · 19d

Fees are supposed to be relative to cost recovery, and not by fiat. So I’m guessing no.. uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?r...

uscode.house.gov

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Reposted by Aaswath Raman

lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · Jul 24

Here's a poem by one of the old Chinese scholar bureaucrats that I think captures a certain Vibe very well

Dreams - Su Shi (trans. Arthur Waley)

Families, when a child is born
Want it to be intelligent.
I, through intelligence,
Having wrecked my whole life,
Only hope the baby will prove
Ignorant and stupid.
Then he will crown a tranquil life
By becoming a Cabinet Minister.

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Aaswath Raman @aaswath.bsky.social · Jun 23

As one surprising example we show that a recent NREL-designed 6-junction cell would be *more* efficient in low Earth orbit if you removed the lowest-bandgap junction, because it would operate at a lower temperature!

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Aaswath Raman @aaswath.bsky.social · Jun 23

New preprint! Turns out that there is a thermal penalty to harvesting longer wavelength solar photons when your operating temperature is constrained by your radiating surface area (ie: in space). arxiv.org/abs/2506.16588

The Thermal Cost of Harvesting the Solar Infrared Tail in Space-Based Photovoltaics

Space applications require the highest performing photovoltaic devices. Typically these are multi-junction devices that are capable of converting a larger bandwidth of the solar spectrum. However, the...

arxiv.org

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Aaswath Raman @aaswath.bsky.social · Jun 19

Yes that’s going to generally be the case. As a minor theoretical point the “true” ideal selective emitter has a different spectral/ directional emissivity at each temperature. Formally speaking, there always exists a selective emitter that can outperform BB at any temp below ambient

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Reposted by Aaswath Raman

Mikhail Kats @mickeykats.bsky.social · Jun 19

We have a new preprint on arXiv, "Passive radiative cooling using temperature-dependent emissivity can sometimes outperform static emitters", led by Yeonghoon Jin

We show how one can design a thermal emitter with temperature-dependent emissivity to optimize radiative-cooling performance 💡🧪

Passive radiative cooling using temperature-dependent emissivity can sometimes outperform static emitters

In passive sky-facing radiative cooling, wavelength-selective thermal emitters in the atmospheric transparency window of 8-13 $μ$m can reach lower temperatures compared to broadband emitters, but broa...

arxiv.org

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Aaswath Raman @aaswath.bsky.social · Jun 19

Nice! I always wanted to see this kind of design - glad you were able to include it in this paper

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Aaswath Raman @aaswath.bsky.social · May 30

I guess the AGIs will do all the research for us soon enough, so why bother?

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Reposted by Aaswath Raman

David Priess @davidpriess.bsky.social · May 28

John Tyler became US president in 1841.

His youngest grandson just died this past weekend.

www.richmonder.org/harrison-ruf...

Harrison Ruffin Tyler, grandson of 10th U.S. president and longtime Richmonder, dies at 96

The Richmond resident, preservationist and chemical engineer, for whom William & Mary’s history department is named, also had the distinction of being the grandson of a man who became U.S. president i...

www.richmonder.org

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Aaswath Raman @aaswath.bsky.social · May 26

It remains *very* popular with a certain age group :)

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Aaswath Raman @aaswath.bsky.social · May 20

Yeah, same here. And for quite a few of them we are well past when we were supposed to hear back..

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Reposted by Aaswath Raman

Nature Sustainability @natsustain.nature.com · May 7

New online! Efficient outdoor thermal comfort via radiant cooling and infrared-reflective walls

Efficient outdoor thermal comfort via radiant cooling and infrared-reflective walls

Nature Sustainability, Published online: 05 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01558-0Active radiant cooling is an emerging technology that consumes less energy than traditional air conditioning. This work demonstrates an outdoor radiant cooling structure incorporating infrared-reflective surfaces that delivers enhanced thermal comfort.

bit.ly

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Aaswath Raman @aaswath.bsky.social · May 7

I had a grad physics class that had both a take-home and in-person component. Perhaps some combination is suitable for more advanced coursework. I also remember a grad cs theory class I took at Harvard where some of the problems were essentially open research problems.. so that's another approach :)

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Aaswath Raman @aaswath.bsky.social · May 5

This was part of our UCLA Sustainable LA-funded project "Heat Resilient LA". Heat already kills more people than any other weather-related phenomenon here in the United States. There is an urgent need for more engineering research, innovation and investment in this area!

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Aaswath Raman @aaswath.bsky.social · May 5

How can we keep people safe outdoors in extreme heat? In a paper out today in @naturesustain.bsky.social we demonstrate that active radiant cooling and IR-reflective walls can deliver thermal comfort and be accepted by members of heat-vulnerable communities. rdcu.be/ekMzN

Efficient outdoor thermal comfort via radiant cooling and infrared-reflective walls

Nature Sustainability - Active radiant cooling is an emerging technology that consumes less energy than traditional air conditioning. This work demonstrates an outdoor radiant cooling structure...

rdcu.be

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Reposted by Aaswath Raman

kottke.org @kottke.org · May 1

Why Lawrence of Arabia Still Looks Like a Billion Bucks. “I got to see Lawrence of Arabia on a big screen last fall and it was stunning — the colors, the amount of detail, the cinematography in general.” [kottke.org]

Why Lawrence of Arabia Still Looks Like a Billion Bucks

Even after 60+ years, Lawrence of Arabia is one of the best-looking films out there; this video explores why. I got to see Lawrence of Arabia on a big screen last fall and it was stunning — the colors, the amount of de

kottke.org

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Aaswath Raman @aaswath.bsky.social · Apr 26

Bringing back some early college memories for me.. can’t believe it was 23 years ago! Also I only realized know they’re Moldovan and not Romanian..

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Reposted by Aaswath Raman

Riker Googling @rikergoogling.bsky.social · Apr 26

is ds9 called terok nor again

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