The largest surrender in British history | Singapore, 1942

Very recommendable!

(144) The largest surrender in British history | Singapore, 1942 - YouTube

The seniors still practising taekwondo in their 70s and 80s in Singapore

Very recommendable! Perhaps at age 70 I will get my first black belt! I feel inspired! 😊

Singapore to be first country outside US to host Quantinuum's Helios quantum computer

Good news!

The women in hijab on Singapore's pro wrestling scene

Go ladies! And they are wrestling men too!

She juggles homework and fast cars. This 15-year-old is Singapore's first female Formula 4 driver

A need for speed!

India Eyes Key Role in Malacca Strait Security, Gains Singapore’s Backing with Palki Sharma

Recommendable! Good news!

Tracing humanity’s longest walk to the southern most tip of South America

Amazing stuff!

"During the late Pleistocene epoch, ancient humans expanded out of Africa, eventually spreading all over the world. Those who reached the southernmost tip of South America completed the longest migration of all—although when exactly they arrived has long been the subject of debate.

Now, using DNA sequence data from 1537 individuals representing 139 ethnic groups, scientists have unlocked some of the mysteries of this historic journey . The new study, led by researchers from the GenomeAsia 100k project, reveals that early Asians traveled more than 20,000 kilometers from North Asia to South America—a trek that would have taken multiple generations. After arriving at the northwestern tip of South America about 14,000 years ago, these early migrants split into four distinct groups: One remained in the Amazon basin, another moved eastward to the dry Chaco region, a third went south to Patagonia, and the fourth to the valleys of the Andes mountains.

The long, arduous migration caused genetic diversity to dwindle. Once the South American groups split up and became geographically isolated, this diversity decreased even more—leading to a marked reduction in variation in human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes, which play a key role in the immune system. The loss of diversity in these genes could explain why some Indigenous communities were so susceptible to diseases later introduced by European colonists, the researchers say. ..."

From the editor's summary and abstract:

"Editor’s summary

From our origins in Africa, humans have migrated and settled across the world. Perhaps none of these migrations has been the subject of as much debate as the expansion into and throughout the Americas. Gusareva et al. used 1537 whole-genome sequenced samples from 139 populations in South America and Northeast Eurasia to shed light on the population history of Native Americans. Collected as a part of the GenomeAsia 100K consortium, analysis of these data showed that there are four main ancestral lineages that contributed to modern South Americans. These lineages diverged from each other between 10,000 and 14,000 years ago, and this analysis reveals more details of the population history dynamics in these groups. ...

Abstract

Genome sequencing of 1537 individuals from 139 ethnic groups reveals the genetic characteristics of understudied populations in North Asia and South America. Our analysis demonstrates that West Siberian ancestry, represented by the Kets and Nenets, contributed to the genetic ancestry of most Siberian populations. West Beringians, including the Koryaks, Inuit, and Luoravetlans, exhibit genetic adaptation to Arctic climate, including medically relevant variants.

In South America, early migrants split into four groups—Amazonians, Andeans, Chaco Amerindians, and Patagonians—~13,900 years ago.

Their longest migration led to population decline, whereas settlement in South America’s diverse environments caused instant spatial isolation, reducing genetic and immunogenic diversity. These findings highlight how population history and environmental pressures shaped the genetic architecture of human populations across North Asia and South America."

ScienceAdviser

Asians made humanity’s longest prehistoric migration and shaped the genetic landscape in the Americas, finds NTU Singapore-led study

Longest early human migration was from Asia, finds NTU-led study published in Science (original news release, YouTube video)

 

From North Asia to South America: Tracing the longest human migration through genomic sequencing (open access)

Fig. 1. Population structure and admixture.

City of Others: Asian Artists in Paris, 1920s-1940s | National Gallery Singapore

This could be an interesting exhibition!

"City of Others: Asian Artists in Paris, 1920s-1940s is a groundbreaking exhibition that examines the art history of Paris from Asian perspectives. The exhibition compares the experiences of Asian artists in Paris during a dynamic period of time, featuring works by artists such as Foujita Tsuguharu, Georgette Chen, Lê Phổ, Liu Kang, Pai Un-soung, Itakulla Kanae, Hamanaka Katsu, and more!

Hundreds of artists from Asia were active in Paris in the 1920s-40s. City of Others will show the work of over 90 different artists who either lived, worked or exhibited there during this period. ..."

City of Others: Asian Artists in Paris, 1920s-1940s | National Gallery Singapore

Credits: Nikkei Asia newsletter

How Singapore's Ruling Party Won Every Election for 6 Decades with Palki Sharma

Recommendable!

PAP wins by a landslide in Singapore election

When will we finally have elections like this in China!

Photonic computer chips perform as well as purely electronic counterparts, but faster

Good news! Amazing stuff!

"Researchers in Singapore and the US have independently developed two new types of photonic computer chips that match existing purely electronic chips in terms of their raw performance. The chips, which can be integrated with conventional silicon electronics, could find use in energy-hungry technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI). ...

Light-based computation, which exploits photons instead of electrons, is a promising alternative because it can perform multiplication and accumulation (MAC) much more quickly and efficiently than electronic devices. ...

The Singapore device was made by researchers at the photonic computing firm Lightelligence and is called PACE, for Photonic Arithmetic Computing Engine. It is a hybrid photonic-electronic system made up of more than 16 000 photonic components integrated on a single silicon chip and performs matrix MAC on 64-entry binary vectors. ...

The Lightelligence device, which the team describe in Nature, can solve complex computational problems known as max-cut/optimization problems that are important for applications in areas such as logistics. Notably, its greatly reduced minimum latency – a key measure of computation speed – means it can solve a type of problem known as an Ising model in just five nanoseconds. This makes it 500 times faster than today’s best graphical-processing-unit-based systems at this task. ...

Independently, researchers led by Nicholas Harris at Lightmatter in Mountain View, California, have fabricated the first photonic processor capable of executing state-of-the-art neural network tasks such as classification, segmentation and running reinforcement learning algorithms.

Lightmatter’s design consists of six chips in a single package with high-speed interconnects between vertically aligned photonic tensor cores (PTCs) and control dies. The team’s processor integrates four 128 x 128 PTCs, with each PTC occupying an area of 14 x 24.96 mm. It contains all the photonic components and analogue mixed-signal circuits required to operate and members of the team say that the current architecture could be scaled to 512 x 512 computing units in a single die.

The result is a device that can perform 65.5 trillion adaptive block floating-point 35 (ABFP) 16-bit operations per second with just 78 W of electrical power and 1.6 W of optical power. Writing in Nature, the researchers claim that this represents the highest level of integration achieved in photonic processing. ...

can implement complex AI models such as the neural network ResNet (used for image processing) and the natural language processing model BERT (short for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) – all with an accuracy rivalling that of standard electronic processors. It can also compute reinforcement learning algorithms such as DeepMind’s Atari. ...

Both teams fabricated their photonic and electronic chips using standard complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) processing techniques. This means that existing infrastructures could be exploited to scale up their manufacture. Another advantage: both systems were fully integrated in a standard chip interface – a first. ..."

"... Computing stands at an inflection point unlike anything we’ve seen since the transistor was invented. Artificial intelligence workloads are driving computational demands beyond what traditional scaling laws—Moore’s Law, Dennard scaling, and memory scaling—can deliver. All three have effectively stalled, particularly on a per-silicon-area basis. ..."

From the abstract (1):

"Integrated photonics, particularly silicon photonics, have emerged as cutting-edge technology driven by promising applications such as short-reach communications, autonomous driving, biosensing and photonic computing. As advances in AI lead to growing computing demands, photonic computing has gained considerable attention as an appealing candidate. Nonetheless, there are substantial technical challenges in the scaling up of integrated photonics systems to realize these advantages, such as ensuring consistent performance gains in upscaled integrated device clusters, establishing standard designs and verification processes for complex circuits, as well as packaging large-scale systems. These obstacles arise primarily because of the relative immaturity of integrated photonics manufacturing and the scarcity of advanced packaging solutions involving photonics.

Here we report a large-scale integrated photonic accelerator comprising more than 16,000 photonic components. The accelerator is designed to deliver standard linear matrix multiply–accumulate (MAC) functions, enabling computing with high speed up to 1 GHz frequency and low latency as small as 3 ns per cycle. Logic, memory and control functions that support photonic matrix MAC operations were designed into a cointegrated electronics chip.

To seamlessly integrate the electronics and photonics chips at the commercial scale, we have made use of an innovative 2.5D hybrid advanced packaging approach. Through the development of this accelerator system, we demonstrate an ultralow computation latency for heuristic solvers of computationally hard Ising problems whose performance greatly relies on the computing latency."

From the abstract (2):

"Over the past decade, photonics research has explored accelerated tensor operations, foundational to artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning, as a path towards enhanced energy efficiency and performance. The field is centrally motivated by finding alternative technologies to extend computational progress in a post-Moore’s law and Dennard scaling era.

Despite these advances, no photonic chip has achieved the precision necessary for practical AI applications, and demonstrations have been limited to simplified benchmark tasks.

Here we introduce a photonic AI processor that executes advanced AI models, including ResNet3 and BERT, along with the Atari deep reinforcement learning algorithm originally demonstrated by DeepMind. This processor achieves near-electronic precision for many workloads, marking a notable entry for photonic computing into competition with established electronic AI accelerators and an essential step towards developing post-transistor computing technologies."

Photonic computer chips perform as well as purely electronic counterparts, say researchers – Physics World

A New Kind of Computer (original press release)

An integrated large-scale photonic accelerator with ultralow latency (1, open access)

Universal photonic artificial intelligence acceleration (2, no public access)

Fig. 2: PACE system implementation.

Photonic processor PCI-e card top view and side view as well as a bottom view of the photonic processor chip package.

Inside Singapore's only human milk bank

What an effort! But it benefits e.g. premature babies or mothers with triplets!

The donor presented in this video is afraid of donating blood, because of the needles, so she donates breast milk. Hopefully, we will have better solutions!

Preserving the dead: Meet the Singapore museum curator who collects roadkill for research

What a job! But you never know what you find!

Is this rechargeable paper battery the key to truly sustainable power storage?

Sounds almost too good to be true!

"... using a chemistry of renewables to store over 220 Wh/kg. Singaporean startup Flint ...

Flint says the rechargeable batteries will have a life cycle comparable to traditional battery technologies, unlike other single-use paper battery designs. ...

The company's proprietary battery chemistry relies on cellulose, the structural plant material used to make paper, as the medium for ion transfer between the anode and cathode. Flint then replaces problematic non-renewables like cobalt and lithium with less environmentally impactful, easily recycled metals like zinc and manganese. ...

As to cost, the company believes it can eventually build its batteries for roughly US$50/kWh, less than half the average 2024 cost of lithium-ion. ...."

Is this paper battery the key to truly sustainable power storage?

Flint’s Paper Battery Technology Secures US$2 Million in Seed Funding to Revolutionize the Sustainable Energy Storage Space

Singapore Gives Police Unprecedented Power to Freeze Bank Accounts (of scam victims) with Palki Sharma

Recommendable! Food for thought!

Singapore, Malaysia to Launch Special Economic Hub

Good news!

BSI - Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik baut Kooperation mit Partnerbehörde aus Singapur zur Anerkennung von IT-Sicherheitskennzeichen weiter aus

Gute Nachrichten!

"Das IT-Sicherheitskennzeichen wird künftig neben smarten Verbrauchergeräten nun auch für Router in Singapur Anerkennung finden. Im Gegenzug wird das Cybersecurity Label der singapurischen Cyber Security Agency (CSA) die Erteilung des IT-Sicherheitskennzeichens in Deutschland erleichtern. Das Abkommen zur gegenseitigen Anerkennung des Cybersecurity Labels (CLS) in Singapur und des deutschen IT-Sicherheitskennzeichens des BSI wurde auf der diesjährigen Singapore International Cyber Week (SICW) dahingehend bestärkt und erweitert. David Koh, CEO der Cyber Security Agency (CSA) Singapore, unterzeichnete das Abkommen im Beisein von Barbara Kluge, Ständige Vertreterin der Abteilungsleitung Cyber- und Informationssicherheit im Bundesministerium des Innern und für Heimat (BMI). ..."

BSI - Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik - BSI baut Kooperation mit Partnerbehörde aus Singapur zur Anerkennung von IT-Sicherheitskennzeichen weiter aus

Ending jet lag: Scientists discover secret to regulating our body clock

Good news! Now we need hypersonic planes to travel faster!

"Scientists have discovered a revolutionary way to put an end to jet lag by uncovering the secret at the tail end of Casein Kinase 1 delta (CK1δ), a protein that regulates our body clock. This breakthrough, achieved by researchers ... offers a new approach to adjusting our circadian rhythms, the natural 24-hour cycles that influence sleep-wake patterns and overall daily functions. ...

Using advanced spectroscopy and spectrometry techniques to zoom in on the tails, the researchers found that how the proteins are tagged is determined by their distinct tail sequences. ..."

"... This discovery highlights how a small part of CK1δ can greatly influence its overall activity. This self-regulation is vital for keeping CK1δ activity balanced, which, in turn, helps regulate our circadian rhythms.

The study also addressed the wider implications of these findings. CK1δ plays a role in several important processes beyond circadian rhythms, including cell division, cancer development, and certain neurodegenerative diseases. By better understanding how CK1δ’s activity is regulated, scientists could open new avenues for treating not just circadian rhythm disorders but also a range of conditions. ..."

From the significance and abstract:

"Subtle control of kinase activity is critical to physiologic modulation of multiple physiological processes including circadian rhythms. Casein kinase 1δ (CK1δ) and the closely related Casein kinase 1 epsilon (CK1ε) regulate circadian rhythms by phosphorylation of PERIOD2 (PER2), but how kinase activity itself is controlled is not clear. Building on the prior observation that two splice isoforms of CK1δ have opposite effects on the circadian period, we show that the difference maps to three phosphorylation sites specific to δ1 in the variably spliced region [extreme C termini (XCT)] that cause feedback inhibition of the kinase domain. More broadly, the data suggest a general model where CK1 activity on diverse substrates can be controlled by signaling pathways that alter tail phosphorylation.

Abstract

Casein kinase 1δ (CK1δ) controls essential biological processes including circadian rhythms and wingless-related integration site (Wnt) signaling, but how its activity is regulated is not well understood. CK1δ is inhibited by autophosphorylation of its intrinsically disordered C-terminal tail. Two CK1 splice variants, δ1 and δ2, are known to have very different effects on circadian rhythms. These variants differ only in the last 16 residues of the tail, referred to as the extreme C termini (XCT), but with marked changes in potential phosphorylation sites. Here, we test whether the XCT of these variants have different effects in autoinhibition of the kinase. Using NMR and hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry, we show that the δ1 XCT is preferentially phosphorylated by the kinase and the δ1 tail makes more extensive interactions across the kinase domain. Mutation of δ1-specific XCT phosphorylation sites increases kinase activity both in vitro and in cells and leads to changes in the circadian period, similar to what is reported in vivo. Mechanistically, loss of the phosphorylation sites in XCT disrupts tail interaction with the kinase domain. δ1 autoinhibition relies on conserved anion-binding sites around the CK1 active site, demonstrating a common mode of product inhibition of CK1δ. These findings demonstrate how a phosphorylation cycle controls the activity of this essential kinase."

Ending jet lag: Scientists discover secret to regulating our body clock

Scientists discover a secret to regulating our body clock, offering new approach to end jet lag (original news release) "A team of scientists in Singapore and the US uncovered how a protein that controls our biological clock modifies its own function, offering new ways for treating jet lag and seasonal adjustments"

Isoform-specific C-terminal phosphorylation drives autoinhibition of Casein kinase 1 (open access)

Fig. 1 CK1δ isoforms change kinase activity in vitro and regulation of XCT phosphorylation in cells.

A peptide (shown in mesh) with attached phosphate tags (red and orange spheres) blocks the active site of CK1δ. Tagging the tail end of CK1δ, a process known as auto-phosphorylation, makes the protein less active, and with that less able to fine-tune the body’s internal clocks.

Glenda Chong pregnant at 51 years old after 10 IVF tries over 10 years

Congratulations! Age is only a number! Some people never give up! 😊

Liechtenstein's VP Bank to exit Hong Kong after 18 years and transfers Asian business to Singapore

Bad news for Hong Kong!

Since the illegal takeover by the Communist Party of China, Hong Kong, once a Mekka of free trade and laissez faire, is in decline.

The tiny Principality of Liechtenstein (population about 40,000), located in the center of Europe, sandwiched between Switzerland and Austria, is a bellwether of global financial markets and private wealth management!

I bet, most people have never even heard of this country.

The VP Bank is specialized on (discrete) private banking.

"Private banking specialist VP Bank Asia's Hong Kong office will shut down after its chief executive officer and chief operations officer resigned Thursday, according to people with knowledge of the matter. ..."

Liechtenstein's VP Bank to exit Hong Kong after 18 years - Nikkei Asia "CEO Pamela Hsu Phua and COO Heline Lam resign; Singapore office to focus on Asia"