Challenging Dark Energy, Solar Wind Mysteries, and Venus's Volcanic Past: S28E04

[00:00:00] This is SpaceTime, Series 28, Episode 4, for broadcast on the 8th of January 2025.

[00:00:06] Coming up on SpaceTime, more evidence that dark energy might not exist after all.

[00:00:12] New observations show the solar winds slowing down beyond Pluto,

[00:00:16] and Venus's ancient layered folded rocks are pointing to a volcanic origin.

[00:00:22] All that and more coming up on SpaceTime.

[00:00:26] Welcome to SpaceTime with Stuart Gary.

[00:00:45] A new paper claims that one of the biggest mysteries in science, dark energy, doesn't actually exist.

[00:00:51] Now if correct, it would force scientists to begin looking for new ways to try and explain

[00:00:56] the accelerating expansion of the universe. For the past hundred years, physicists have

[00:01:01] generally assumed that the cosmos is growing equally in all directions. They employed the idea of dark

[00:01:08] energy as a sort of placeholder to explain the unknown physics behind this which they simply don't

[00:01:13] understand. The thing is, this contentious theory has always had its problems.

[00:01:18] Now, a team of physicists and astronomers from the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand,

[00:01:23] are once again challenging the status quo, using improved analyses of supernova light curves to show

[00:01:30] that the universe is expanding in a more varied, lumpier way.

[00:01:33] The new evidence supports something we've talked about before on SpaceTime, and on StarStuff before

[00:01:39] SpaceTime. Namely, the concept of Timescape, a model of cosmic expansion which doesn't have the

[00:01:44] need for dark energy, because the differences in stretching light aren't the result of an

[00:01:49] accelerating universe, but instead a consequence of how we calibrate time and distance.

[00:01:55] Timescape takes into account the fact gravity slows time, so an ideal clock in empty space would be

[00:02:01] ticking faster than one inside a galaxy. The model suggests that a clock in the Milky Way galaxy would

[00:02:06] be about 35% slower than the same clock in an average position in the large cosmic void, meaning billions

[00:02:13] more years would have passed in the voids. This would in turn allow more expansion of space, making it seem

[00:02:19] like the expansion's getting faster when such vast empty voids grow to dominate the universe.

[00:02:25] Now once again, the scientist behind this study is Professor David Wiltshire, who's led previous

[00:02:31] research into Timescape and dark energy. Wiltshire says the new findings confirm earlier studies that

[00:02:37] we don't need dark energy to explain why the universe appears to expand at an accelerating rate.

[00:02:42] He says dark energy is simply a misidentification of variations in kinetic energy of expansion,

[00:02:48] which is not uniform in the universe as lumpy as the one we actually live in. And the new research

[00:02:53] may provide compelling evidence that could resolve some of the key questions around some of the quirks of

[00:02:58] our expanding cosmos. See, with the new data, the universe's biggest mystery could be settled by the

[00:03:04] end of the decade. The new analysis has been published in the monthly notices of the Royal

[00:03:09] Astronomical Society Letters. Dark energy is commonly thought to be a weak anti-gravity force,

[00:03:15] which acts independently of matter and makes up around two-thirds of the mass energy density of the

[00:03:20] universe. The standard lambda-cold-dark-matter model of the universe requires dark energy to explain the

[00:03:27] observed acceleration in the rate at which the cosmos is expanding. Scientists base these conclusions

[00:03:32] on measurements to distant supernerve explosions in distant galaxies, which appear to be further away

[00:03:38] than they should be if the universe's rate of expansion wasn't accelerating. The problem is the

[00:03:43] present rate of expansion of the universe is increasingly being challenged by new observations.

[00:03:49] Firstly, evidence from the afterglow of the Big Bang, known as the Cosmic Microwave Background

[00:03:54] Radiation shows the expansion of the early universe is at odds with the current expansion of the

[00:03:59] universe, an anomaly known as Hubble tension. In addition, recent analyses of new high-precision data

[00:04:05] from the dark energy spectroscopic instrument DESI has found that the lambda-cold-dark-matter model

[00:04:10] does not fit in as well as models in which dark energy is evolving over time rather than remaining

[00:04:16] constant. Both the Hubble tension and the surprises revealed by DESI are difficult to resolve in models which

[00:04:22] use a simplified 100-year-old cosmic expansion law known as Friedman's equation. This assumes that

[00:04:28] on average the universe expands uniformly, as if all cosmic structures were put in a blender making it a

[00:04:34] featureless soup with no complicating structure. However, that's not the way the universe is.

[00:04:39] The present universe actually contains a complex cosmic web of galaxy clusters in sheets and filaments,

[00:04:45] and these surround and thread through vast empty voids. Wilscher points out that we now have so much data

[00:04:52] that we can finally answer the question, how and why does a simple average expansion law emerge from

[00:04:58] complexity? He points out that a simple expansion law consistent with Einstein's general relativity

[00:05:04] theory doesn't have to obey Friedman's equations. The European Space Agency's Euclid satellite,

[00:05:09] which was launched back in July 2023, has the power to test and distinguish the Friedman

[00:05:14] equation from the Timescape alternative. However, this will require at least a thousand independent

[00:05:20] high-quality supernova observations. When the proposed Timescape model was last tested back in 2017,

[00:05:27] the analysis suggested that it was only a slightly better fit than the Lambda Cold Dark Matter model

[00:05:32] as an explanation for cosmic expansion. So, Wilscher and colleagues worked closely with the Parthenon Plus

[00:05:38] collaboration team who had painstakingly produced a catalogue of 1,535 distinct supernovae.

[00:05:45] They say the new data provides very strong evidence for Timescape, and it may also point to a compelling

[00:05:51] resolution of Hubble tension and other anomalies related to the expansion of the universe.

[00:05:56] Further observations from Euclid, as well as the new Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, will be needed to

[00:06:01] bolster support for the Timescape model. This explanation of dark energy from Dr Don Lincoln of

[00:06:07] Fermilab. You know something? Science is pretty amazing. For thousands of years, people have wondered

[00:06:15] about the ultimate building blocks of the cosmos. And in the 20th and 21st century, we've made some

[00:06:21] incredible progress. For instance, if you take a bunch of quarks and you take some leptons, you take

[00:06:29] these quarks and leptons and you shake them up, you can make atoms. Atoms make up all of ordinary matter,

[00:06:37] those distant galaxies. In fact, our best estimates tell us that there are about 10 to the 80. That's a 1

[00:06:44] followed by 80 zeros of atoms in the universe. They're all basically the same and we understand

[00:06:51] them very well using chemistry and nuclear physics. However, I have some humbling news for you. If you add

[00:06:57] up all of the matter tied up in stars and planets, it only amounts to half a percent of the matter and

[00:07:03] energy in the universe. Even if you include the hydrogen gas between the stars and galaxies that is

[00:07:08] invisible to ordinary light, you still have only about five percent. Five percent. So what is the other

[00:07:16] 95 percent and how is it that we've missed finding it? Scientists think that the universe is composed of

[00:07:22] three different substances. Five percent is ordinary matter, 27 percent is a substance called dark matter,

[00:07:29] and 68 percent is called dark energy. I want to tell you about dark energy. First, I should tell you that

[00:07:36] even though dark matter and dark energy have similar names, they are really very different things.

[00:07:42] Scientists have known for a long time that the universe is expanding and have called that process

[00:07:47] the Big Bang. From what we understand about gravity, it seems clear that the expansion of the universe

[00:07:53] should be slowing down. After all, gravity is an attractive force. If I throw this ball up,

[00:07:59] gravity will pull the ball back downwards. Its motion will slow down. What we didn't know was how gravity

[00:08:06] would determine the ultimate fate of the universe. Was the universe going to expand forever without ever

[00:08:11] stopping? Expand and stop at some unfathomable distant time in the future? Or expand for a while,

[00:08:17] then have the expansion overcome by gravity and have the universe collapse in some sort of big crunch?

[00:08:24] Nobody knew the answer and the debate raged. In order to resolve the question, we needed to understand

[00:08:30] the expansion history of the universe. And to do that, astronomers used a class of supernovae,

[00:08:36] which is the explosion of a dying star. This kind of supernovae was very well understood. If you saw one,

[00:08:43] you knew the brightness of the explosion. However, just like a distant candle appears dimmer than a close

[00:08:49] one, so too it is with exploding stars. By knowing the intrinsic brightness of the explosion and how

[00:08:56] bright the star appeared in your telescope, you could work out how far away it was. That's the first

[00:09:01] measurement. The second measurement of distance uses the same idea as a train whistle. That same drop in

[00:09:10] pitch that you hear as the train passes and begins to move away from you also shows up in the study of

[00:09:16] distant stars and galaxies. Stars moving towards you appear bluer than the same star when stationary,

[00:09:23] while stars moving away from you appear redder. The faster the star moves away from you, the redder it

[00:09:29] appears. Since distant galaxies appear reddish, they are moving away from us. In addition, we can relate

[00:09:36] their distance and their velocity. If galaxies a certain distance away are moving with a particular

[00:09:42] velocity, galaxies twice as far away are moving with double the velocity and so on. In this way,

[00:09:48] we can measure the color of the distant galaxies and determine their velocity and then work out their

[00:09:54] distance. It's all a bit tricky, but these two methods of measuring distance are not very controversial

[00:09:59] and they should agree. So, in 1998, two experiments applied these techniques and looked at the most

[00:10:06] distant supernova ever and they found that supernovae were dimmer than predicted by the expansion of the

[00:10:13] universe. This means that the stars were farther away than expected, but that meant something even

[00:10:19] more shocking. It meant that the expansion of the universe wasn't slowing down. It was speeding up.

[00:10:25] That was really a mind-blowing observation. From what we knew about gravity, the expansion of the universe

[00:10:32] should have been slowing down. We didn't know the details, but the slowing down seemed assured, and yet

[00:10:37] that's not what the data said. In physics, data is king. If an idea disagrees with an accurate measurement,

[00:10:44] the idea is wrong. So this meant that in order for the expansion of the universe to be getting faster,

[00:10:50] there had to be some form of gravity that was repulsive. It turns out that Einstein once postulated

[00:10:57] a repulsive form of gravity in his equations. This was because he knew that ordinary matter should make

[00:11:02] the universe contract and he needed some kind of repulsive gravity to overcome the attraction.

[00:11:07] However, when the universe was found to be expanding in the 1920s, Einstein took that extra form of gravity out

[00:11:14] of his equations. He even called it his biggest blunder. Imagine if he hadn't done that. I mean,

[00:11:20] the dude could have been famous. Now, it seems that we need a repulsive kind of gravity to explain our

[00:11:26] observations. So what is the source of this new form of gravity? It turns out that if the universe has

[00:11:33] an energy field of the right kind, it can make the expansion of the universe accelerate. This form of

[00:11:40] energy is now called dark energy. Now, to be honest, we aren't 100% sure about this dark energy hypothesis,

[00:11:48] although there are now many measurements that support the idea. Even though dark energy is the most popular

[00:11:54] explanation for the expansion mystery, other suggestions have been made. While dark energy is a

[00:11:59] constant energy density, another idea called quintessence is also a contender. Quintessence is an energy field

[00:12:06] that varies in time and there are several ideas in contention. We need to understand that the observation

[00:12:13] of the accelerating expansion of the universe is only about 15 years old. It took a little while to

[00:12:19] assimilate the discovery and then many years to design and build new facilities to study it better.

[00:12:25] Over the next couple of years, several new observatories will begin operations to explore this surprising

[00:12:31] discovery. I don't know what the final answer will be, but I do know that anytime you don't understand 95%

[00:12:38] of something, that somebody will figure it out. That's Dr. Don Lincoln from Fermilab. And this is

[00:12:43] Space Time. Still to come, the solar wind apparently slowing down once it gets beyond Pluto. And scientists have

[00:12:51] discovered that some of the oldest terrain on Venus, known as Tesserae, have layering which is consistent

[00:12:56] with volcanic activity. All that and more still to come on Space Time. New measurements by NASA's

[00:13:17] New Horizons spacecraft has confirmed earlier data showing that the solar wind, the supersonic stream of

[00:13:23] charged particles flowing from the Sun, slows down the further away it gets. The findings reported in the

[00:13:30] astrophysical journal are providing important new insights into some of the furthest reaches of space

[00:13:35] ever explored. Previously, only the 1970s vintage pioneers 10 and 11 and Voyager's 1 and 2 spacecraft

[00:13:43] had explored the outer solar system and furthest reaches of the heliosphere, the bubble of the Sun's

[00:13:49] atmosphere which encompasses the entire solar system. But now New Horizons is doing the same journey,

[00:13:55] and it's using far more modern and advanced scientific instruments. The study's lead author,

[00:14:00] Heather Elliott from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, says the Sun's

[00:14:05] influence on the space environment extends well beyond the outer planets, and New Horizons showing

[00:14:10] new aspects of how that environment changes with distance. New Horizons is collecting detailed

[00:14:16] daily measurements of the solar wind, which is composed primarily of ionized hydrogen,

[00:14:21] that is free electrons and protons, as well as helium nuclei, known as alpha particles,

[00:14:26] and trace amounts of heavy ions and atomic nuclei, including carbon, nitrogen, oxygen,

[00:14:31] neon, magnesium, sulfur, silicon and iron, all ripped apart by the extreme million degree

[00:14:37] temperatures in the Sun's outer atmosphere or corona. New Horizons is also collecting data on

[00:14:43] other key particles called interstellar pickup ions in the outer heliosphere. Now these interstellar

[00:14:49] pick-up ions are created when neutral material from interstellar space enters our solar system,

[00:14:54] becomes ionized by light from the Sun or through charge exchange interactions with solar wind ions.

[00:15:00] As the solar wind moves further away from the Sun, it's encountering an increased amount of material

[00:15:05] from interstellar space. And when interstellar material is ionized, the solar wind picks up that

[00:15:11] material and researchers theorize slows down and heat in response. And New Horizons is now detected

[00:15:17] and confirmed this effect. The authors compared the New Horizons solar wind speed measurements from

[00:15:23] 21 to 42 astronomical units to speeds measured just one astronomical unit recorded by both the Advanced

[00:15:29] Composition Explorer or ACE spacecraft and the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory or Stereo

[00:15:34] spacecraft. By the way, an astronomical unit is the average distance between the Earth and the Sun,

[00:15:39] which equates to 150 million kilometers or 8.3 light minutes. By 21 astronomical units, it seems New

[00:15:47] Horizons could be detecting the slowing down of the solar wind in response to picking up interstellar

[00:15:52] material. And when New Horizons traveled beyond Pluto between 33 and 42 astronomical units out from the

[00:15:59] Sun, the solar wind was measured at 6 to 70 percent slower than what it was at one astronomical unit distance,

[00:16:05] thereby confirming the effect. Now, in addition to confirming the slowing of the solar wind at great

[00:16:10] distances, the change in the solar wind's temperature and density could also provide a

[00:16:14] means to estimate when New Horizons will join the Voyager spacecraft on the other side of the

[00:16:19] termination shock. That's the boundary marking where the solar wind slows to lessen the speed of sound

[00:16:24] as it approaches the interstellar medium. Voyager 1 crossed the termination shock back in 2004 at 94

[00:16:32] astronomical units, followed by Voyager 2 in 2007 at 84 astronomical units.

[00:16:38] Now, based on lower levels of solar activity at the time of measurements and lower solar wind

[00:16:43] pressures as a result, the termination shock is expected to have moved closer to the Sun since the

[00:16:48] Voyager crossings. Extrapolating current trends in the New Horizons measurements also indicates that

[00:16:54] the termination shock might now be closer than what it was when intersected by Voyager. At the earliest,

[00:16:59] New Horizons could reach the termination shock next year. But as the solar cycle activity increases

[00:17:05] towards solar max, the increase in pressure will likely expand the heliosphere. And this could push

[00:17:11] the termination shock back out to 84 to 94 astronomical units before New Horizons has time to reach it.

[00:17:17] That's the same range found by the Voyager spacecraft. New Horizons' journey through the outer heliosphere

[00:17:23] contrasts somewhat with that of the Voyager's in that the current solar cycle is fairly mild in comparison

[00:17:28] the very active solar cycle the Voyagers experience when they're in the outer heliosphere.

[00:17:33] Of course, right now, the two Voyagers are beyond our solar system, flying through interstellar space.

[00:17:39] In addition to measuring the solar wind, New Horizons' extreme sensitivity allows it to also

[00:17:44] measure the low fluxes of interstellar pickup ions with unprecedented time resolution.

[00:17:49] If all goes well, New Horizons will be the first spacecraft to measure both the solar wind and

[00:17:55] interstellar pickup ions at the termination shock. Needless to say, we'll keep you informed.

[00:18:01] This is space time. Still to come, researchers find some of the oldest train on Venus known as Tesserae

[00:18:08] have layering consistent with volcanic activity. And later in the science report, researchers in South

[00:18:14] Korea have developed swarms of tiny robots that work together like ants. Could we be entering a brave new world?

[00:18:22] All that and more still to come on Space Time.

[00:18:40] Scientists have found that some of the oldest train on Venus known as Tesserae have layering which is

[00:18:46] consistent with volcanic activity. The new findings could provide fresh insights into the enigmatic

[00:18:51] planet's geological history. Tesserae are tectonically deformed regions of the surface of Venus.

[00:18:57] They're often more elevated than the surrounding landscape. They comprise about 7% of the planet's

[00:19:03] surface and are always the oldest feature in their immediate surroundings, dating back about 750

[00:19:09] million years. The new research reported in the journal Geology suggests that a significant

[00:19:14] proportion of Tesserae have striations consistent with layering. The study's lead author, associate

[00:19:20] professor Paul Byrne from North Carolina State University, says Tesserae are either made up of volcanic rocks

[00:19:26] or they're counterparts to the Earth's continental crust. But he says the layering found on some Tesserae

[00:19:32] isn't consistent with the continental crust explanation. Byrne and colleagues analyzed images

[00:19:37] of Venus's surface from NASA's 1989 Magellan mission which used radar to map 98% of the

[00:19:43] planet through its dense atmosphere. Scientists have been studying Venus's Tesserae formations for decades,

[00:19:49] but this layering of the Tesserae hadn't previously been recognized as widespread. And according to Byrne,

[00:19:55] this layering wouldn't have been possible if the Tesserae were simply portions of continental crust.

[00:20:00] Continental crust, at least here on Earth, is composed mainly of granite, an igneous rock formed when

[00:20:06] tectonic plates move and water is subducted from the surface. The thing is, granite doesn't form layers.

[00:20:12] If there's continental crust on Venus, then it's below the visible layered rocks. Aside from volcanic

[00:20:19] activity, the only other way to make layered rock is through sedimentary deposits, things like sandstone

[00:20:23] or limestone. Problem is, there isn't anywhere on Venus today where these kinds of rocks could have

[00:20:28] formed. The surface of Venus is hot enough to melt lead and it has a hundred times the air pressure at

[00:20:34] sea level on Earth. So the evidence right now points to some portions of Tesserae being made up of layered

[00:20:41] volcanic rock, similar to what's found here on Earth. Either way, the study is hoping to shed new light on

[00:20:46] Venus's complicated geological history. This is space time. And time now to take another brief look at some

[00:21:08] of the other stories making news in science this week with a science report. Scientists have identified

[00:21:14] a new genetic link to autism spectrum disorder. A report in the American Journal of Human Genetics

[00:21:20] has identified a previously unknown gene variant on the DDX53 gene on the X chromosome which appears to

[00:21:27] contribute to autism. The disorder, which affects more males than females, encompasses a group of

[00:21:32] neurodevelopmental conditions that results in challenges related to communications, social

[00:21:37] understanding and behaviour. The findings are based on research on 10 individuals with autism spectrum

[00:21:42] disorder from eight different families and found that variants in the DDX53 gene was maternally inherited

[00:21:49] and present in all the individuals. While DDX53 located on the X chromosome was already known to play a

[00:21:56] role in brain development and function, it was not previously definitively associated with autism.

[00:22:02] Following the recent wet La Niña years with widespread flooding, today's drier conditions have

[00:22:08] resulted in a drop in waterbird numbers and breeding in 2024. The University of New South Wales annual

[00:22:15] waterbird survey has observed fewer waterbirds breeding and a drop of nearly 50 percent in overall

[00:22:21] numbers compared to 2023. The researchers spotted 287,231 birds in this year's survey. That's down from 579,641

[00:22:32] birds in 2023, ranking this year approximately in the middle of the 42 years that the survey's been running.

[00:22:40] Scientists in South Korea have developed swarms of tiny magnetic robots that worked together like ants to achieve

[00:22:47] truly herculean feats, including traversing and picking up objects up to 2,000 times their size.

[00:22:53] The engineers testing the microbots found swarms could climb an obstacle five times higher than a single

[00:23:00] microbot and they could hurl themselves one by one over an obstacle. Swarms of 1,000 microbots could wrap

[00:23:06] around a pill weighing 2,000 times the mass of an individual microbot and transport the drug through

[00:23:12] liquid. Another swarm of microbots managed to transport cargo and dry land which was 350 times

[00:23:18] heavier than each of the individual microbots. The research reported in the journal device

[00:23:23] suggests that these microbot swarms could operate under a rotating magnetic field and they could be used

[00:23:29] to tackle difficult tasks in challenging environments that individual robots would struggle to handle,

[00:23:34] such as offering a minimally invasive treatment for clogged arteries or precisely guiding organisms.

[00:23:41] The world's largest consumer electronics show, CES, is on again in Las Vegas.

[00:23:47] With the details, we're joined by Alex Saharov-Royt from techadvice.life.

[00:23:51] LG have recently commercialized their transparent OLED television.

[00:23:56] It's a product that no one really wants at this stage.

[00:23:59] That's right. Now, interestingly, LG is going to release a fridge with a transparent OLED door.

[00:24:06] So this allows you to see through the door inside of the fridge. Now, the front of the display is

[00:24:12] like a giant tablet.

[00:24:13] So it saves you from opening the door for 10 minutes and looking at what's inside to say,

[00:24:17] what do I really want to eat? That's right. And you also have cameras in there that can use

[00:24:21] software and AI to tell you what sort of meals you can create with the contents of what's in your

[00:24:26] fridge. I mean, look, that is a useful reason to have a transparent screen because obviously you can

[00:24:33] make a fridge just with a transparent panel. You don't have to have a display in it. But when it's

[00:24:37] a display, it can be used as a tablet. It can show you information. And so that is interesting.

[00:24:41] And there's going to be microwave ovens with multiple cameras inside. So you can see the cooking

[00:24:45] process in chief. It's cooked before you open the door. I mean, look, manufacturers are trying

[00:24:49] to think of ways to incorporate AI and modern tech into devices that just do very simple things.

[00:24:54] Keep food cold, cook food. So we're going to see a lot of creativity.

[00:24:58] There's some news from Nintendo as well.

[00:25:00] Nintendo has announced that it will launch its Nintendo Switch by the end of the financial year

[00:25:05] for them, which is March 31st. So if you've just bought a Nintendo Switch, it's almost basically

[00:25:10] out of date. And if you haven't bought one, but want to get one, wait for the Switch 2.

[00:25:13] And something to make me feel really old, the flip phone turns 29. I had one of those.

[00:25:19] It was a lot of fun to have the original flip phone. This was on January the 3rd, 1996.

[00:25:25] It was actually designed based on the communicator that was seen in Star Trek. So it was just under

[00:25:31] 100 kilograms, a clamshell flip phone. It couldn't send SMS. It could only receive them. And it's

[00:25:37] the equivalent of about $1,600 in today's money. Blast from the past, but you won't even connect

[00:25:44] to a phone network today.

[00:25:45] Apple's Vision Pro. It's gone bye-bye, at least for a little while.

[00:25:48] Yes, look, it was listed by various tech publications as one of the big flops of last

[00:25:52] year, of 2024. And not because it didn't work. I mean, it worked beautifully well. I've had one

[00:25:57] on my head and it's quite incredible. The problem is it's heavy and it's expensive. I mean, in Australian

[00:26:02] dollars, it's about five, six grand. In US dollars, it's about $3,500. So more than what you pay for

[00:26:08] a traditional iPhone. Now, Apple is said to be working on ways to make it lighter and cheaper,

[00:26:13] but I've read reports that they're flummoxed on exactly how to do that because all the components

[00:26:17] are so expensive. So the word is that Apple has ceased production of the current Apple Vision Pro

[00:26:23] 1. And we just have to wait and see what they come up with, hopefully sometime later this year for

[00:26:28] version two. And last, but by no means least, Microsoft have announced their own version of Apple's

[00:26:33] Mac mini. Yes. Now there have been a number of these small mini PCs over the past few

[00:26:38] years copying Apple's Mac mini. But what sets these ones apart is that they will have the ARM

[00:26:42] processor inside, which is what we see Apple doing with its current range of Macs where they've taken

[00:26:48] the iPhone chip and supercharged it to become a chip capable of running desktop applications and more.

[00:26:53] And so Microsoft hasn't had mini PCs running ARM and running Windows 11 and this new Copilot Plus

[00:27:00] capability, which is where all the AI is baked in. We're expected to see a series of these mini PCs

[00:27:05] with the ARM chips arriving, which should turbocharge this category because it'll be a cheap way for

[00:27:10] people to get into the small mini PC that's running Windows 11 and running ARM and using very little

[00:27:16] power. Doing all the things that Apple promised with its Macs. And it's also going to be coming on

[00:27:20] what is effectively Microsoft's 50th year of existence. Their birthday is April 4, 1975.

[00:27:27] Interestingly, Apple is April 1, 1976, so they're 49 years old.

[00:27:31] That's Alex Sahar of Roy from techadvice.life. And that's the show for now.

[00:27:52] Space Time is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Apple Podcasts, iTunes, Stitcher,

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[00:28:10] Space Time's also broadcast through the National Science Foundation on Science Zone Radio and on

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[00:28:22] Time store for a range of promotional merchandising goodies, or by becoming a Space Time patron,

[00:28:28] which gives you access to triple episode commercial free versions of the show, as well as lots of bonus

[00:28:33] audio content which doesn't go to air, access to our exclusive Facebook group, and other rewards.

[00:28:38] Just go to spacetimewithstuartgary.com for full details.

[00:28:43] You've been listening to Space Time with Stuart Gary.

[00:28:46] This has been another quality podcast production from Bytes.com.