Photo credit: Jose-Luis Olivares, MIT
MIT engineers have come up with some ingenious work: they’ve created tiny silicon structures that can crunch numbers using heat that would otherwise be wasted rather than energy. It’s a game changer for dealing with heat in electronics, and a team of MIT researchers lead by undergraduate physics wiz Caio Silva has proved that it truly works. In a study published in Physical Review Applied, they show off the results of their simulation work, demonstrating that these small devices can do some rather important math operations with surprising accuracy.

The truth is, most of the time, heat from computers and chips is just a nuisance, a byproduct of processors doing their tasks that must be removed as soon as possible via fans and cooling, but the researchers at this lab did something completely different. They decided to utilize heat to represent the actual calculations themselves, and guess what? It works.

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Each of these tiny structures is roughly the size of a particle of dust and is constructed of silicon with carefully arranged holes. This allows you to precisely control how heat travels through the material, which happens quite naturally. Naturally, heat goes from hot to cold. It was the researchers that came up with the idea of using this natural flow to perform actual computations. They’ve devised a method to depict the data entering a calculation as temperature patterns derived from the heat that ordinarily accumulates beneath the feet of a device. As the heat passes through the silicon, the unique shape of the structure directs the flow, resulting in your response as the quantity of power collected at a specified cooler end.

This is accomplished entirely using analog computing, which employs continuous physical processes rather than the discrete electrical impulses seen in most computers. They were able to get matrix-vector multiplication to operate, which is a calculation used in many machine learning models. The team’s simulations revealed that these teeny-tiny structures can correctly predict the answer more than 99% of the time for small matrices.

Getting all of this set up in silicon eliminates the need for traditional guesswork regarding shape. These researchers automated all of their work with an optimization technique. They give the computer what math problem they want to answer, such as a matrix of numbers indicating how the input should be converted into the output. The computer then gets to work, determining where to place the pores and how thick each component of the structure should be. All the time, it is verifying and rechecking to ensure that the heat flow is doing precisely what it should be doing in order to obtain the correct answer.

Heat conduction only travels one way, from hot to cold, thus positive values are easy to obtain; however, negative values require a method to make them work. The researchers work around this by dividing any matrix with negative integers into positive and negative ones. Each portion is ran through its own customized configuration before the results are pooled using a simple subtraction method. The ability to modify the structure’s thickness allows you to fine-tune how easy heat may pass through at certain spots.

These structures offer a wide range of possible applications beyond simple calculation, such as monitoring how heat flows through electronics without using extra power or separate temperature sensors. In many circumstances, isolated hot spots lead to the discovery of other concerns, such as when some piece of electronics is prone to failure owing to overheating or an uneven build-up of stress. The beauty of this design is that you can just embed the devices directly into the electronics, and they will automatically detect these issues as they occur, using the heat to report back to you on the status of things. Temperature gradients are basically a goldmine of information, according to Giuseppe Romano, senior researcher at MIT’s Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies. However, if you get a heat source in a place it shouldn’t be, you know you’ve got a problem, and these structures can pick on it without having to go digital.
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• Broadcom launches new Wi-Fi 8 chips for enterprise access points and switches
• Access point chips combine processing, networking, and wireless functions in a single device
• Wi-Fi 8 radio chips handle wireless transmission across enterprise environments efficiently

Broadcom has announced a new set of enterprise Wi-Fi 8 chipsets covering access points and campus switching hardware.

The launch builds on the company’s earlier disclosure of Wi-Fi 8 radios and extends into full wired and wireless infrastructure.

Auto enthusiast Nathan Paykin purchased a 2006 Suzuki Swift for the bargain price of AU$500 (approximately US$350) and converted it into a full-size replica of the vintage Little Tikes Cozy Coupe toy vehicle that many children most likely played with. This classic red-and-yellow Cozy Coupe now appears as a real-life car that adults can drive, complete with flames.

Paykin began with what was essentially a low-end hatchback before performing a major overhaul on it. He sliced the car in half, removed the back doors and a large part from the center, and then welded the two halves back together. As a result, the thing is now shorter and fatter than a Smart Fortwo, has lost a few inches from the back end, and is essentially an extreme version of the conventional proportions, to the point where the front end scrapes the ground when you brake hard.

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Little Tikes Cozy Coupe

• Made in the USA. The Little Tikes Company is located in the heartland of America.
• GROWS AS KIDS DO. The removable floorboard makes this ride-on transition easily between parent-controlled and kid-powered modes
• KIDS TAKE THE WHEEL. Take the removable floorboard out and kids can roll themselves around using their feet

The exterior resembles a Cozy Coupe toy car with none of the sacrifice. The majority of the automobile is bright, fire engine red, with yellow trim in strategic locations. Steel wheels coated white look exactly like the plastic ones on the old toy. The textured bodywork / paint job gives it an interesting molded-plastic finish appearance. The exhaust now exits the side, and Paykin built a unique flamethrower arrangement that fires real flames on demand.

Inside, there’s just enough room for two people to squeeze in, and nothing else fits elsewhere. He’s removed the inside storage area in order to keep the device as compact as feasible. Paykin refers to this monstrosity as the ‘Suzuki Sui,’ a reference to the large hole in the middle that defines it.

Handling the thing is as crazy as it seems, because the very short wheelbase allows it to flip its back wheels off the ground every time you brake, resulting in what they call ‘stoppies’. You must rely on the front end dragging along the road to keep the back end from washing out. Not the most balanced everyday driver you’ll ever see, but it moves on its own and provides the pleasure of being fully at the mercy of the road.

This vehicle took a while to build because it required hacksawing, grinding, welding, filling in holes in the body, and painting. Paykin considers himself a certified butcher, given how he disassembled and reassembled that Swift. Reviving childhood memories with an automobile that roars and spits fire instead of trundling silently down the driveway is just the icing on top.
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The final trailer for Project Hail Mary lands just before the big game, Super Bowl LX, and it hits the ground running, literally. Ryan Gosling plays Ryland Grace, a former middle school science teacher who awakens on a spaceship alone and with amnesia. The stakes are evident from the start: Earth is on the verge of annihilation due to a dimming sun, and this long-shot mission is the last chance to reverse the damage.

Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller quietly but steadily create the tale, as if they were playing with puzzle pieces. At first, we witness Grace piece together what’s going on from the sterile confines of the Hail Mary spaceship. The urgency is clearly conveyed through voiceover lines and fast cuts. Gosling questions aloud if that is actually him in the mirror reflection, and then a robot tells him to keep moving. The seclusion begins to feel heavy at this point, but Gosling has some determination; it’s as if he’s continuously walking a tightrope and never gets overwhelmed.

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The trailer starts off, and after 11.9 lightyears of travel, we arrive at our destination. What do you know? There is a large, rocky body right in front of us, yet it is not a natural creation. No way; it’s just another ship. That indicates we have first contact, which is what everyone has been waiting for. Grace meets Rocky, an alien with rock-like limbs that move in ways that will blow your mind.

What about the dialogue? It’s when the charm truly shines, as these two make a great duo. Grace basically narrates an alien who is really a great engineer, and when the communication goes wild, Rocky ends up making a puppet show out of it, explaining the whole thing to what Grace terms a’real simple brain’. It’s funny in a lighthearted way that doesn’t take away from the extremely high stakes.

Lord and Miller describe the film as being about emotions, humor, and hope, with two people breaking down obstacles by working together. Their camaraderie ends up being the driving factor for their survival, and it’s very incredible to see. Project Hail Mary is set to hit theaters on March 20th, 2026, but this last look has us all persuaded that it will be a wild adventure that appropriately balances science and emotion.

As Sam Cooke sang many decades ago, “a change is gonna come”, and as far as applying that thought to the world of TVs, the landscape is constantly changing.

And the last ten years have provided plenty of upheaval for the TV industry. There’s more competition than before and prices are being driven down. Great for consumers, less so for TV brands.

New technology hasn’t been embraced by consumers, TV brands are partnering up as profit margins shrink. The market seems to be contracting rather than growing.

But there’s one area where there’s plenty of investment, and that is in streaming platforms.

With streaming platforms, you can watch what you want, any time, and possibly anywhere with the right device, a marked change from the traditional linear broadcasts you’d get from an aerial.

The streaming ‘revolution’ is building momentum, and in the UK there’s a new tiny streaming device looking to usher in this new age in the Manhattan Aero. But these new devices do come with a significant catch that many won’t like…

The streaming future is here

People’s tastes when it comes to entertainment have changed and are changing. People have switched to online to get their music, TV, news, film and other media.

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All of this suggests that a move to streaming isn’t just a fad but fast becoming a fabric of people’s lives. With the rise interconnected devices your TV can talk to your fridge, and you can monitor what’s happening outside your front door by looking at an app on your smartphone.

Everything is becoming connected.

TV manufacturers and broadcasters have been slowly, but surely, adapting to this change. First came smart TVs, then came streaming devices and now we have TVs with built-in streaming platforms that can curate content and offer recommendations to keep you watching.

We’re in the era of content, content, and more content. While streaming devices are not much different than they were when the first Fire TV streamer hit the market, they’ve grown in importance, finally usurping traditional modes of receiving content into homes.

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Which brings me to the Manhattan Aero.

The Aero is a 4K streamer – nothing new here, we’ve seen plenty of them before. It’s not even the first streamer with Freely on it, as the Netgem Pleio launched in 2025. The Aero follows the Pleio and Sky Stream before it, in its vision of the future that is streaming focused.

Unlike Sky Stream, there is no aerial input included with the Aero. There is no Freeview backup in case the internet goes down, a not an unfamiliar occurrence (my router went down as I writing this piece).

You can, of course, use the aerial on your TV to get broadcast content, but it’s inconvenient to swap between the TV interface and that of a streamer – especially as your smart TV likely has access to the same apps as a streaming device. So why bother with having something such as the Manhattan Aero?

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Because there is a ticking clock you may not be aware of.

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Much like the switch from analogue to digital, another switch is taking place. Freeview is due to be turned off within the next decade, with the BBC aiming to switch off access in 2034.

Aerial broadcasts, in much the same way as satellite broadcasts, are being ushered out the door, their limited functionality fast becoming a relic of the past. With streaming platforms, everyone has access to ‘everything’ (at least everything made available). Would you like to watch an episode of EastEnders or Coronation Street from twenty years ago? You can, and fairly easily too.

The promise of this streaming future is that you can tap into anything, as long as it’s available, a great big reservoir of content (almost too big).

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I grew up having access to just four channels through an aerial; once a program was finished you could only again if you caught the repeat at what might be some ungodly time in the middle of the night. Now I could restart the programme just as it’s about to finish.

Not everyone is excited by this future. There’s concern that moving to streaming will leave a number of households behind, households that rely on aerial broadcasts and have little interest in paying for Internet services or creating multiple accounts for streaming apps. On that point, I can agree. Wouldn’t it be helpful if there was a universal account for the UK on-demand apps?

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The way people watch TV is likely to become a generational divide, but time waits for no one. Devices like Sky Stream and the Manhattan Aero are the future presented now. Either you jump onboard or be left behind because a change is gonna come.

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• A Guatemalan family recently traded in a 39-year-old CRT TV for a new LCD
• Samsung accepted the TV as part of its Eco Exchange program
• Engineers fully restored the set and it’s now an exhibit at its Panama City HQ

It’s easy to wistfully mutter ‘things were built differently back then’ when looking back at your old gadgets. But a Guatemalan couple recently shocked even Samsung with the longevity of the CRT TV they recently traded in for a new flatscreen model.

The Morales family bought their trusty Samsung set way back in 1987. After an impressive 39 years of service, the TV was finally struggling enough to convince them to enter the 21st century with a new flatscreen model.