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EU Nearing Deal to End Russian Fossil Fuel Imports
The European Union is closing in on a deal to phase out Russian fossil fuels, a move that will embed into law the end of the bloc’s reliance on its former top energy supplier. Negotiators representing member states, the European Parliament and the European Commission are scheduled to meet on Tuesday evening in Brussels to iron out the final shape of a regulation that will set a date for banning Russian gas imports. The measure was proposed by the commission in June to address risks to EU energy security after the crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Moscow’s subsequent curbs on gas flows to the bloc. Despite recent attempts by the US to broker a peace deal in Ukraine, the EU has no plans to give up on the shift away from Russian gas. Speculation that a potential agreement could eventually lead to an easing of sanctions on Moscow’s energy exports, allowing other regions to buy fuel, has contributed to benchmark European gas futures recording their longest downward streak in almost four years. The EU talks will need to resolve the exact timeline for the phaseout. While member states in the EU Council endorsed the commission’s plan to ban all Russian gas supplies by the end of 2027, the Parliament is pushing to accelerate it by one year. That would align the end of piped-gas imports with the halt to seaborne deliveries already approved by the EU under its latest sanctions package on Russia. But whereas sanctions are temporary by design, the regulation known as RePowerEU is a separate, long-term plan to cut reliance on Moscow for good. The commission has made it clear that the measure will remain, regardless of any peace deal. “The European Union can make history tonight and change the course of our energy
AlphaFold: Five years of impact
Increasing speed of discoveryCyril Zipfel, professor of Molecular & Cellular Plant Physiology at the University of Zurich and Sainsbury Lab, saw research timelines shrink drastically. They used AlphaFold alongside comparative genomics to better understand how plants perceive changes in their environment, paving the way for more resilient crops.AlphaFold has been cited in more than 35,000 papers and more than 200,000 papers incorporated elements of AlphaFold 2 in their methodology. It’s also enhancing the quality of work being produced.An independent analysis of AlphaFold 2’s impact, carried out by the Innovation Growth Lab, suggests that researchers using AlphaFold 2 see an increase of over 40% in their submission of novel experimental protein structures. Those protein structures are more likely to be dissimilar to known structures, encouraging the exploration of uncharted areas of science. Also, research linked to AlphaFold 2 is twice as likely to be cited in clinical articles, and is significantly more likely to be cited by a patent, than typical works in structural biology.A new era of digital biologyOne of the most exciting examples of AlphaFold’s impact is Isomorphic Labs – an AI drug discovery company founded in 2021 when the breakthrough model proved to be powerful enough to be applied to rational drug design. Isomorphic Labs has since developed a unified drug design engine to dramatically change how it designs new medicines and speed up scientific discovery with an ambition to one day solve all diseases.Together with Isomorphic Labs, we developed AlphaFold 3, which offers an unprecedented view into cells that we expect to drive a transformation of the drug discovery process and usher in an era of “digital biology.”The model is designed to predict the structure and interactions of all of life’s molecules — not just proteins, but DNA, RNA, and ligands (the small molecules that make up most drugs). It can also generate the joint 3D structures of entire molecular complexes, allowing a holistic view of how a potential drug molecule binds to its target protein, or how proteins interact with genetic material.The AlphaFold Server is empowering non-commercial researchers globally to harness this technology, accelerating their ability to formulate and test new hypotheses. So far, it’s helped make more than 8 million folds – predictions of structures and interactions – for thousands of researchers around the world.
Revealing a key protein behind heart disease
In a breakthrough powered by AlphaFold, scientists have mapped the structure of the large protein that gives “bad cholesterol” its form – a discovery that could help transform how researchers and clinicians treat the world’s leading cause of deathThe race to reveal a key protein behind heart disease has long been both an important public health goal and a stubborn scientific problem.For assistant professors Zachary Berndsen and Keith Cassidy at the University of Missouri (Mizzou), it was also personal. Both have a family history of heart disease – a reminder of what’s at stake in their work to better understand and ultimately help treat this deadly condition.“For 50 years, people have wanted to see what this protein looked like,” says Berndsen.That protein, apoB100, has defied mapping not only because it’s enormous (for a protein), but also because it connects to fats and other molecules in complicated ways. ApoB100 forms the molecular scaffold of “bad cholesterol”, which is known to scientists as low-density lipoprotein (LDL).LDL is the major carrier of fat through the bloodstream and a key risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), the world’s leading cause of death. Discovering the structure of its key protein promised to shed light on how bad cholesterol becomes harmful inside the body, giving scientists a better chance to develop ways to prevent and treat ASCVD. AlphaFold is playing a central role in this effort.At Mizzou, biochemist Berndsen first used cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to capture images of LDL particles. The images weren’t sharp enough to map the structure of apoB100 with atomic precision, so Berndsen’s physicist collaborator, Cassidy, turned to AlphaFold. He used it to generate atomic-resolution predictions of the protein’s structure and then refined those predicted shapes by comparing them against the cryo-EM image data.Coming at the problem using both cryo-EM microscopy and Alphafold is what unlocked this breakthrough, says Cassidy: “AlphaFold played a profound role in this discovery, providing the raw material to interpret our experimental structure in a way that was frankly impossible before.”The resulting model revealed bad cholesterol’s key protein in remarkable detail: a cage-like shell that wraps around each LDL particle, including a ribbon-like belt that keeps the particle intact in the bloodstream. Knowing this structure opens new possibilities for preventing, diagnosing and treating high cholesterol and ASCVD, including therapies that could target LDL more precisely. The potential benefit to global health is hard to overstate.While such applications will take time, revealing the structure of apoB100 is a landmark achievement, and a deeply satisfying one for Berndsen. “It was the first structure I ran through AlphaFold the week it became available, and the first protein I wanted to look at with our two-storey cryo-EM machine,” he says. “Solving the structure of apoB100 was a dream come true.”
How we’re bringing AI image verification to the Gemini app
What’s nextThis launch builds on our history of providing context about images in Google Search and exploring new research innovations like Backstory from Google DeepMind. Looking ahead, we will continue to invest in more ways to empower you to determine the origin and history of content online. Soon, we’ll expand SynthID verification to support additional formats beyond images, such as video and audio, and bring these capabilities to more surfaces, such as Search.In addition to our own tools, we are collaborating with industry partners to advance content transparency and authenticity standards across our product ecosystem — including YouTube, Search, Pixel and Photos — through our role on the steering committee of the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA).As part of this, rolling out this week, images generated by Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) in the Gemini app, Vertex AI and Google Ads will have C2PA metadata embedded, providing further transparency into how these images were created. We look forward to expanding this capability to more products and surfaces in the coming months.Over time, we will also extend our verification approach to support C2PA content credentials, meaning you’ll be able to check the original source of content created by models and products that exist outside of Google’s ecosystem.This work is central to our commitment to bold and responsible AI. We look forward to further contributing to the future of AI transparency.
Build with Nano Banana Pro, our Gemini 3 Pro Image model
With 2K and 4k resolution available, you can ensure outputs meet resolution standards required for professional production. Effortlessly create cohesive advertisements by combining diverse elements such as product images, logos, and references. Achieve consistent resemblance for up to five individuals, integrate six high-fidelity shots, or blend as many as fourteen standard inputs into a single, polished ad. Try our demo app that allows you to pair logos with products to create your own mockup designs.
Introducing Nano Banana Pro
How Nano Banana Pro helps you bring any idea or design to lifeNano Banana Pro can help you visualize any idea and design anything — from prototypes, to representing data as infographics, to turning handwritten notes into diagrams.With Nano Banana Pro, now you can:Generate more accurate, context-rich visuals based on enhanced reasoning, world knowledge and real-time informationWith Gemini 3’s advanced reasoning, Nano Banana Pro doesn’t just create beautiful images, it also helps you create more helpful content. You can get accurate educational explainers to learn more about a new subject, like context-rich infographics and diagrams based on the content you provide or facts from the real world. Nano Banana Pro can also connect to Google Search’s vast knowledge base to help you create a quick snapshot for a recipe or visualize real-time information like weather or sports.
EU Nearing Deal to End Russian Fossil Fuel Imports
The European Union is closing in on a deal to phase out Russian fossil fuels, a move that will embed into law the end of the bloc’s reliance on its former top energy supplier. Negotiators representing member states, the European Parliament and the European Commission are scheduled to meet on Tuesday evening in Brussels to iron out the final shape of a regulation that will set a date for banning Russian gas imports. The measure was proposed by the commission in June to address risks to EU energy security after the crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Moscow’s subsequent curbs on gas flows to the bloc. Despite recent attempts by the US to broker a peace deal in Ukraine, the EU has no plans to give up on the shift away from Russian gas. Speculation that a potential agreement could eventually lead to an easing of sanctions on Moscow’s energy exports, allowing other regions to buy fuel, has contributed to benchmark European gas futures recording their longest downward streak in almost four years. The EU talks will need to resolve the exact timeline for the phaseout. While member states in the EU Council endorsed the commission’s plan to ban all Russian gas supplies by the end of 2027, the Parliament is pushing to accelerate it by one year. That would align the end of piped-gas imports with the halt to seaborne deliveries already approved by the EU under its latest sanctions package on Russia. But whereas sanctions are temporary by design, the regulation known as RePowerEU is a separate, long-term plan to cut reliance on Moscow for good. The commission has made it clear that the measure will remain, regardless of any peace deal. “The European Union can make history tonight and change the course of our energy
AlphaFold: Five years of impact
Increasing speed of discoveryCyril Zipfel, professor of Molecular & Cellular Plant Physiology at the University of Zurich and Sainsbury Lab, saw research timelines shrink drastically. They used AlphaFold alongside comparative genomics to better understand how plants perceive changes in their environment, paving the way for more resilient crops.AlphaFold has been cited in more than 35,000 papers and more than 200,000 papers incorporated elements of AlphaFold 2 in their methodology. It’s also enhancing the quality of work being produced.An independent analysis of AlphaFold 2’s impact, carried out by the Innovation Growth Lab, suggests that researchers using AlphaFold 2 see an increase of over 40% in their submission of novel experimental protein structures. Those protein structures are more likely to be dissimilar to known structures, encouraging the exploration of uncharted areas of science. Also, research linked to AlphaFold 2 is twice as likely to be cited in clinical articles, and is significantly more likely to be cited by a patent, than typical works in structural biology.A new era of digital biologyOne of the most exciting examples of AlphaFold’s impact is Isomorphic Labs – an AI drug discovery company founded in 2021 when the breakthrough model proved to be powerful enough to be applied to rational drug design. Isomorphic Labs has since developed a unified drug design engine to dramatically change how it designs new medicines and speed up scientific discovery with an ambition to one day solve all diseases.Together with Isomorphic Labs, we developed AlphaFold 3, which offers an unprecedented view into cells that we expect to drive a transformation of the drug discovery process and usher in an era of “digital biology.”The model is designed to predict the structure and interactions of all of life’s molecules — not just proteins, but DNA, RNA, and ligands (the small molecules that make up most drugs). It can also generate the joint 3D structures of entire molecular complexes, allowing a holistic view of how a potential drug molecule binds to its target protein, or how proteins interact with genetic material.The AlphaFold Server is empowering non-commercial researchers globally to harness this technology, accelerating their ability to formulate and test new hypotheses. So far, it’s helped make more than 8 million folds – predictions of structures and interactions – for thousands of researchers around the world.
Revealing a key protein behind heart disease
In a breakthrough powered by AlphaFold, scientists have mapped the structure of the large protein that gives “bad cholesterol” its form – a discovery that could help transform how researchers and clinicians treat the world’s leading cause of deathThe race to reveal a key protein behind heart disease has long been both an important public health goal and a stubborn scientific problem.For assistant professors Zachary Berndsen and Keith Cassidy at the University of Missouri (Mizzou), it was also personal. Both have a family history of heart disease – a reminder of what’s at stake in their work to better understand and ultimately help treat this deadly condition.“For 50 years, people have wanted to see what this protein looked like,” says Berndsen.That protein, apoB100, has defied mapping not only because it’s enormous (for a protein), but also because it connects to fats and other molecules in complicated ways. ApoB100 forms the molecular scaffold of “bad cholesterol”, which is known to scientists as low-density lipoprotein (LDL).LDL is the major carrier of fat through the bloodstream and a key risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), the world’s leading cause of death. Discovering the structure of its key protein promised to shed light on how bad cholesterol becomes harmful inside the body, giving scientists a better chance to develop ways to prevent and treat ASCVD. AlphaFold is playing a central role in this effort.At Mizzou, biochemist Berndsen first used cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to capture images of LDL particles. The images weren’t sharp enough to map the structure of apoB100 with atomic precision, so Berndsen’s physicist collaborator, Cassidy, turned to AlphaFold. He used it to generate atomic-resolution predictions of the protein’s structure and then refined those predicted shapes by comparing them against the cryo-EM image data.Coming at the problem using both cryo-EM microscopy and Alphafold is what unlocked this breakthrough, says Cassidy: “AlphaFold played a profound role in this discovery, providing the raw material to interpret our experimental structure in a way that was frankly impossible before.”The resulting model revealed bad cholesterol’s key protein in remarkable detail: a cage-like shell that wraps around each LDL particle, including a ribbon-like belt that keeps the particle intact in the bloodstream. Knowing this structure opens new possibilities for preventing, diagnosing and treating high cholesterol and ASCVD, including therapies that could target LDL more precisely. The potential benefit to global health is hard to overstate.While such applications will take time, revealing the structure of apoB100 is a landmark achievement, and a deeply satisfying one for Berndsen. “It was the first structure I ran through AlphaFold the week it became available, and the first protein I wanted to look at with our two-storey cryo-EM machine,” he says. “Solving the structure of apoB100 was a dream come true.”
How we’re bringing AI image verification to the Gemini app
What’s nextThis launch builds on our history of providing context about images in Google Search and exploring new research innovations like Backstory from Google DeepMind. Looking ahead, we will continue to invest in more ways to empower you to determine the origin and history of content online. Soon, we’ll expand SynthID verification to support additional formats beyond images, such as video and audio, and bring these capabilities to more surfaces, such as Search.In addition to our own tools, we are collaborating with industry partners to advance content transparency and authenticity standards across our product ecosystem — including YouTube, Search, Pixel and Photos — through our role on the steering committee of the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA).As part of this, rolling out this week, images generated by Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) in the Gemini app, Vertex AI and Google Ads will have C2PA metadata embedded, providing further transparency into how these images were created. We look forward to expanding this capability to more products and surfaces in the coming months.Over time, we will also extend our verification approach to support C2PA content credentials, meaning you’ll be able to check the original source of content created by models and products that exist outside of Google’s ecosystem.This work is central to our commitment to bold and responsible AI. We look forward to further contributing to the future of AI transparency.
Build with Nano Banana Pro, our Gemini 3 Pro Image model
With 2K and 4k resolution available, you can ensure outputs meet resolution standards required for professional production. Effortlessly create cohesive advertisements by combining diverse elements such as product images, logos, and references. Achieve consistent resemblance for up to five individuals, integrate six high-fidelity shots, or blend as many as fourteen standard inputs into a single, polished ad. Try our demo app that allows you to pair logos with products to create your own mockup designs.
Introducing Nano Banana Pro
How Nano Banana Pro helps you bring any idea or design to lifeNano Banana Pro can help you visualize any idea and design anything — from prototypes, to representing data as infographics, to turning handwritten notes into diagrams.With Nano Banana Pro, now you can:Generate more accurate, context-rich visuals based on enhanced reasoning, world knowledge and real-time informationWith Gemini 3’s advanced reasoning, Nano Banana Pro doesn’t just create beautiful images, it also helps you create more helpful content. You can get accurate educational explainers to learn more about a new subject, like context-rich infographics and diagrams based on the content you provide or facts from the real world. Nano Banana Pro can also connect to Google Search’s vast knowledge base to help you create a quick snapshot for a recipe or visualize real-time information like weather or sports.
Energy Department Selects TVA and Holtec to Advance Deployment of U.S. Small Modular Reactors
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced the selection of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and Holtec Government Services to support early deployments of advanced light-water small modular reactors (SMRs) in the United States. The project teams will receive up to $800 million in federal cost-shared funding to advance initial projects in Tennessee and Michigan and help expand the Nation’s capacity while facilitating additional follow-on projects and associated supply chains. The selections announced today will help deliver new nuclear generation in the early 2030s, strengthen domestic supply chains, and advance President Trump’s Executive Orders to usher in a nuclear renaissance and expand America’s Energy Dominance agenda. “President Trump has made clear that America is going to build more energy, not less, and nuclear is central to that mission,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. “Advanced light-water SMRs will give our nation the reliable, round-the-clock power we need to fuel the President’s manufacturing boom, support data centers and AI growth, and reinforce a stronger, more secure electric grid. These awards ensure we can deploy these reactors as soon as possible.” With today’s announcement, DOE is supporting the following first-mover teams to develop and construct the first Gen III+ small modular reactor (Gen III+ SMR) plants in the United States: Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) – $400,000,000 TVA plans to advance deployment of a GE Vernova Hitachi BWRX-300 at the Clinch River Nuclear site in Tennessee, as well as accelerate the deployment of additional units with Indiana Michigan Power and Elementl. Additionally, TVA plans to work with the domestic nuclear supply chain partners Scot Forge, North American Forgemasters, BWX Technologies, and Aecon. Other partners supporting the project include Duke Energy, Oak Ridge Associated Universities, and the Electric Power Research Institute. Holtec Government Services, LLC (Holtec) – $400,000,000 Holtec plans to deploy
Americans lost more power last year than any year in previous decade: EIA
Listen to the article 3 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. U.S. electricity customers experienced an average of 11 hours of power outages in 2024, nearly twice as many as the annual average across the previous decade, according to a new report from the Energy Information Administration. Hurricanes accounted for 80% of those lost hours, with most of last year’s outages resulting from major weather events like hurricanes Beryl, Helene and Milton, EIA said in the report released Monday. “Interruptions attributed to major events averaged nearly nine hours in 2024, compared with an average of nearly four hours per year in 2014 through 2023,” EIA said. “Service interruptions that aren’t triggered by major events routinely average about two hours per year.” Optional Caption Courtesy of Energy Information Administration Customers in South Carolina were significant outliers in terms of outage duration, the report said, experiencing an average of 53 hours of outages in 2024. Much of this was due to last September’s Hurricane Helene, which left 1.2 million customers in South Carolina without electricity. The report appears to build on a growing body of evidence that extreme weather is taking a heavier toll on the electric power system in parts of the country. In October, JD Power released a report that found the average length of the longest outages are getting longer and concluded that disasters have become a “fact of life” for many utility customers. Helene, in particular, caused severe damage to utility systems in the U.S. Southeast and Mid-Atlantic. Duke Energy said after the hurricane that transmission infrastructure in upstate South Carolina “was severely damaged and, in many cases, destroyed” and would need to be entirely rebuilt. Three days after the hurricane struck, 900,000 Duke customers remained without power across North Carolina and South
Petrogas spuds exploration well onshore Indonesia
Petrogas (Basin) Ltd. spudded the Karim-1 exploration well in the Kepala Burung Production Sharing Contract (PSC), Southwest Papua, Indonesia. The well is being drilled onshore in a relatively under-explored area within Arar block and is about 23 km east of the Petrogas’ existing Arar production cluster. The well will be vertical and drilled to about 1,311 m TD. Drilling and completion is estimated to take 43 days. Karim-1 well is designed to assess the oil potential of the Miocene Kais reservoir within a structural closure located updip of the previous Klaifi-1 oil discovery, situated about 7 km northwest of Karim-1. The Miocene Kais formation is a carbonate sequence that forms a broad shallow marine platform with localized reefal complexes and is the main producing reservoir in the PSC. Following completion of Karim-1 well, the drilling rig will be deployed to drill the Northwest Klagagi-1 exploration well, which is about 15 km northeast of the Arar production cluster and about 12 km from the Karim-1 well site. The Karim-1 well and the Northwest Klagagi-1 well are part of exploration wells being drilled under the firm work commitment of the Kepala Burung PSC which began in 2020. Kepala Burung PSC covers an onshore area of 1,030 sq km within Salawati basin, which is one of the most prolific petroleum basins in Indonesia. Petrogas (Basin) Ltd. is a subsidiary of RH Petrogas Ltd. (82.65% owned). RH Petrogas is operator of the Kepala Burung PSC (70%) with Pertamina holding the remaining 30%.
NextDecade progresses Rio Grande LNG Train 6 plan with FERC pre-filing
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Then & Now: Global oil supply transformation
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bp Trinidad and Tobago completes Cypre drilling
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LG rolls out new AI services to help consumers with daily tasks
Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More LG kicked off the AI bandwagon today with a new set of AI services to help consumers in their daily tasks at home, in the car and in the office. The aim of LG’s CES 2025 press event was to show how AI will work in a day of someone’s life, with the goal of redefining the concept of space, said William Joowan Cho, CEO of LG Electronics at the event. The presentation showed LG is fully focused on bringing AI into just about all of its products and services. Cho referred to LG’s AI efforts as “affectionate intelligence,” and he said it stands out from other strategies with its human-centered focus. The strategy focuses on three things: connected devices, capable AI agents and integrated services. One of things the company announced was a strategic partnership with Microsoft on AI innovation, where the companies pledged to join forces to shape the future of AI-powered spaces. One of the outcomes is that Microsoft’s Xbox Ultimate Game Pass will appear via Xbox Cloud on LG’s TVs, helping LG catch up with Samsung in offering cloud gaming natively on its TVs. LG Electronics will bring the Xbox App to select LG smart TVs. That means players with LG Smart TVs will be able to explore the Gaming Portal for direct access to hundreds of games in the Game Pass Ultimate catalog, including popular titles such as Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, and upcoming releases like Avowed (launching February 18, 2025). Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members will be able to play games directly from the Xbox app on select LG Smart TVs through cloud gaming. With Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and a compatible Bluetooth-enabled
Big tech must stop passing the cost of its spiking energy needs onto the public
Julianne Malveaux is an MIT-educated economist, author, educator and political commentator who has written extensively about the critical relationship between public policy, corporate accountability and social equity. The rapid expansion of data centers across the U.S. is not only reshaping the digital economy but also threatening to overwhelm our energy infrastructure. These data centers aren’t just heavy on processing power — they’re heavy on our shared energy infrastructure. For Americans, this could mean serious sticker shock when it comes to their energy bills. Across the country, many households are already feeling the pinch as utilities ramp up investments in costly new infrastructure to power these data centers. With costs almost certain to rise as more data centers come online, state policymakers and energy companies must act now to protect consumers. We need new policies that ensure the cost of these projects is carried by the wealthy big tech companies that profit from them, not by regular energy consumers such as family households and small businesses. According to an analysis from consulting firm Bain & Co., data centers could require more than $2 trillion in new energy resources globally, with U.S. demand alone potentially outpacing supply in the next few years. This unprecedented growth is fueled by the expansion of generative AI, cloud computing and other tech innovations that require massive computing power. Bain’s analysis warns that, to meet this energy demand, U.S. utilities may need to boost annual generation capacity by as much as 26% by 2028 — a staggering jump compared to the 5% yearly increases of the past two decades. This poses a threat to energy affordability and reliability for millions of Americans. Bain’s research estimates that capital investments required to meet data center needs could incrementally raise consumer bills by 1% each year through 2032. That increase may
Final 45V hydrogen tax credit guidance draws mixed response
Dive Brief: The final rule for the 45V clean hydrogen production tax credit, which the U.S. Treasury Department released Friday morning, drew mixed responses from industry leaders and environmentalists. Clean hydrogen development within the U.S. ground to a halt following the release of the initial guidance in December 2023, leading industry participants to call for revisions that would enable more projects to qualify for the tax credit. While the final rule makes “significant improvements” to Treasury’s initial proposal, the guidelines remain “extremely complex,” according to the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association. FCHEA President and CEO Frank Wolak and other industry leaders said they look forward to working with the Trump administration to refine the rule. Dive Insight: Friday’s release closed what Wolak described as a “long chapter” for the hydrogen industry. But industry reaction to the final rule was decidedly mixed, and it remains to be seen whether the rule — which could be overturned as soon as Trump assumes office — will remain unchanged. “The final 45V rule falls short,” Marty Durbin, president of the U.S. Chamber’s Global Energy Institute, said in a statement. “While the rule provides some of the additional flexibility we sought, … we believe that it still will leave billions of dollars of announced projects in limbo. The incoming Administration will have an opportunity to improve the 45V rules to ensure the industry will attract the investments necessary to scale the hydrogen economy and help the U.S. lead the world in clean manufacturing.” But others in the industry felt the rule would be sufficient for ending hydrogen’s year-long malaise. “With this added clarity, many projects that have been delayed may move forward, which can help unlock billions of dollars in investments across the country,” Kim Hedegaard, CEO of Topsoe’s Power-to-X, said in a statement. Topsoe
Texas, Utah, Last Energy challenge NRC’s ‘overburdensome’ microreactor regulations
Dive Brief: A 69-year-old Nuclear Regulatory Commission rule underpinning U.S. nuclear reactor licensing exceeds the agency’s statutory authority and creates an unreasonable burden for microreactor developers, the states of Texas and Utah and advanced nuclear technology company Last Energy said in a lawsuit filed Dec. 30 in federal court in Texas. The plaintiffs asked the Eastern District of Texas court to exempt Last Energy’s 20-MW reactor design and research reactors located in the plaintiff states from the NRC’s definition of nuclear “utilization facilities,” which subjects all U.S. commercial and research reactors to strict regulatory scrutiny, and order the NRC to develop a more flexible definition for use in future licensing proceedings. Regardless of its merits, the lawsuit underscores the need for “continued discussion around proportional regulatory requirements … that align with the hazards of the reactor and correspond to a safety case,” said Patrick White, research director at the Nuclear Innovation Alliance. Dive Insight: Only three commercial nuclear reactors have been built in the United States in the past 28 years, and none are presently under construction, according to a World Nuclear Association tracker cited in the lawsuit. “Building a new commercial reactor of any size in the United States has become virtually impossible,” the plaintiffs said. “The root cause is not lack of demand or technology — but rather the [NRC], which, despite its name, does not really regulate new nuclear reactor construction so much as ensure that it almost never happens.” More than a dozen advanced nuclear technology developers have engaged the NRC in pre-application activities, which the agency says help standardize the content of advanced reactor applications and expedite NRC review. Last Energy is not among them. The pre-application process can itself stretch for years and must be followed by a formal application that can take two
Qualcomm unveils AI chips for PCs, cars, smart homes and enterprises
Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Qualcomm unveiled AI technologies and collaborations for PCs, cars, smart homes and enterprises at CES 2025. At the big tech trade show in Las Vegas, Qualcomm Technologies showed how it’s using AI capabilities in its chips to drive the transformation of user experiences across diverse device categories, including PCs, automobiles, smart homes and into enterprises. The company unveiled the Snapdragon X platform, the fourth platform in its high-performance PC portfolio, the Snapdragon X Series, bringing industry-leading performance, multi-day battery life, and AI leadership to more of the Windows ecosystem. Qualcomm has talked about how its processors are making headway grabbing share from the x86-based AMD and Intel rivals through better efficiency. Qualcomm’s neural processing unit gets about 45 TOPS, a key benchmark for AI PCs. The Snapdragon X family of AI PC processors. Additionally, Qualcomm Technologies showcased continued traction of the Snapdragon X Series, with over 60 designs in production or development and more than 100 expected by 2026. Snapdragon for vehicles Qualcomm demoed chips that are expanding its automotive collaborations. It is working with Alpine, Amazon, Leapmotor, Mobis, Royal Enfield, and Sony Honda Mobility, who look to Snapdragon Digital Chassis solutions to drive AI-powered in-cabin and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). Qualcomm also announced continued traction for its Snapdragon Elite-tier platforms for automotive, highlighting its work with Desay, Garmin, and Panasonic for Snapdragon Cockpit Elite. Throughout the show, Qualcomm will highlight its holistic approach to improving comfort and focusing on safety with demonstrations on the potential of the convergence of AI, multimodal contextual awareness, and cloudbased services. Attendees will also get a first glimpse of the new Snapdragon Ride Platform with integrated automated driving software stack and system definition jointly
Oil, Gas Execs Reveal Where They Expect WTI Oil Price to Land in the Future
Executives from oil and gas firms have revealed where they expect the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil price to be at various points in the future as part of the fourth quarter Dallas Fed Energy Survey, which was released recently. The average response executives from 131 oil and gas firms gave when asked what they expect the WTI crude oil price to be at the end of 2025 was $71.13 per barrel, the survey showed. The low forecast came in at $53 per barrel, the high forecast was $100 per barrel, and the spot price during the survey was $70.66 per barrel, the survey pointed out. This question was not asked in the previous Dallas Fed Energy Survey, which was released in the third quarter. That survey asked participants what they expect the WTI crude oil price to be at the end of 2024. Executives from 134 oil and gas firms answered this question, offering an average response of $72.66 per barrel, that survey showed. The latest Dallas Fed Energy Survey also asked participants where they expect WTI prices to be in six months, one year, two years, and five years. Executives from 124 oil and gas firms answered this question and gave a mean response of $69 per barrel for the six month mark, $71 per barrel for the year mark, $74 per barrel for the two year mark, and $80 per barrel for the five year mark, the survey showed. Executives from 119 oil and gas firms answered this question in the third quarter Dallas Fed Energy Survey and gave a mean response of $73 per barrel for the six month mark, $76 per barrel for the year mark, $81 per barrel for the two year mark, and $87 per barrel for the five year mark, that
Start building with Gemini 3
Google AntigravityTo advance how the model and IDE work together, we’re introducing Google Antigravity to showcase what’s possible with Gemini 3. It’s an agentic development platform that enables developers to operate at a higher, task-oriented level by managing agents across workspaces, while retaining a familiar AI IDE experience at its core.It’s a faster way to develop: you act as the architect, collaborating with intelligent agents that operate autonomously across the editor, terminal, and browser. These agents plan and execute complex software tasks, communicating their work with the user via detailed artifacts. This elevates all aspects of development, from building features, UI iteration, and fixing bugs to researching and generating reports. Visit the Google Antigravity website to download the public preview at no charge, now available for MacOS, Windows and Linux.
We’re expanding our presence in Singapore to advance AI in the Asia-Pacific region
Through cutting-edge research, a growing bench of world-class talent, and deepening work with government, we’ll accelerate real-world benefits and applications of AIThe Asia-Pacific region is home to more than half the world’s population and is poised for immense growth. The Singapore government’s ambitious and forward-looking approach — exemplified by their National AI Strategy 2.0 and Smart Nation 2.0 and their openness to global talent — make this an excellent location to expand our presence as we open a new Google DeepMind research lab in Singapore.This investment builds on Google’s longstanding commitment to the Asia-Pacific ecosystem, and follows a more-than doubling of Google DeepMind’s APAC team over the past year.Advancing Gemini and frontier AI impactOur growing team in Singapore will consist of exceptional research scientists, software engineers, and AI impact experts focused on critical areas of research and development. This builds on our efforts to pioneer foundational research in linguistic and cultural inclusivity for Asia Pacific, advance Gemini’s core capabilities, and apply the latest models across Google products and for Cloud customers.Our new research lab will be focused on collaboration as we work directly with government, businesses, civil society and world-class academic institutions across the region. We are focused on understanding how our technologies can be best built to serve the diverse needs of the Asia-Pacific region.Building on a foundation of positive impactWe are already seeing the extraordinary positive impact that our teams and partners are generating by applying Google technologies across Singapore and the wider region. Beyond our core products like Gemini, we are seeing creative and exciting examples of our AI technology in action when used collaboratively and responsibly:In Science: A multidisciplinary research team at Singapore’s Agency of Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and the National Neuroscience Institute (NNI) used AlphaFold to pioneer a breakthrough in understanding Parkinson’s disease, establishing a link between immunology and neurodegenerative diseases that could lead to earlier diagnosis and targeted therapies.In Public Services: We are working closely with GovTech, the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA), and the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA). Together, we launched an AI agent sandbox to safely test autonomous solutions that enhance public sector efficiency and service delivery.Regarding multilinguality: We have collaborated with AI Singapore to launch Project Aquarium, an open data platform for Southeast Asian Languages. We’ve also expanded our partnership to support further developments of SEA-LION – a family of LLMs trained and tuned to be representative of Southeast Asia’s cultural contexts and linguistic nuances. This enabled the launch of their first multimodal model, SEA-LION v4, built on Gemma 3’s multimodal capabilities.In Education: We are giving students in Singapore one-year free access to the Google AI Pro Plan to unlock upgraded AI features for creativity and learning, and we introduced Gemini Academy to IMDA’s Singapore Digital Office to broaden AI literacy and make AI accessible to all.With Startups: Through our Google for Startups: AI First accelerator, we are supporting Singaporean AI-first startups that are using generative AI to tackle significant economic, societal and environmental issues.These examples reflect what’s possible when cutting-edge AI research meets Singapore’s forward-looking innovation and strong public purpose.Our shared vision for the futureAs we expand our presence in Singapore, we’re committed to ensuring the benefits of AI are realized across the region. Through our new AI research lab, we will continue collaborating with the region’s vibrant ecosystem of partners to unlock AI’s transformative benefits for diverse communities. Together, we are responsibly shaping how AI can serve the needs, and reflect the cultures, of over half the world’s population.
Introducing Nano Banana Pro
How Nano Banana Pro helps you bring any idea or design to lifeNano Banana Pro can help you visualize any idea and design anything — from prototypes, to representing data as infographics, to turning handwritten notes into diagrams.With Nano Banana Pro, now you can:Generate more accurate, context-rich visuals based on enhanced reasoning, world knowledge and real-time informationWith Gemini 3’s advanced reasoning, Nano Banana Pro doesn’t just create beautiful images, it also helps you create more helpful content. You can get accurate educational explainers to learn more about a new subject, like context-rich infographics and diagrams based on the content you provide or facts from the real world. Nano Banana Pro can also connect to Google Search’s vast knowledge base to help you create a quick snapshot for a recipe or visualize real-time information like weather or sports.
Build with Nano Banana Pro, our Gemini 3 Pro Image model
With 2K and 4k resolution available, you can ensure outputs meet resolution standards required for professional production. Effortlessly create cohesive advertisements by combining diverse elements such as product images, logos, and references. Achieve consistent resemblance for up to five individuals, integrate six high-fidelity shots, or blend as many as fourteen standard inputs into a single, polished ad. Try our demo app that allows you to pair logos with products to create your own mockup designs.
How we’re bringing AI image verification to the Gemini app
What’s nextThis launch builds on our history of providing context about images in Google Search and exploring new research innovations like Backstory from Google DeepMind. Looking ahead, we will continue to invest in more ways to empower you to determine the origin and history of content online. Soon, we’ll expand SynthID verification to support additional formats beyond images, such as video and audio, and bring these capabilities to more surfaces, such as Search.In addition to our own tools, we are collaborating with industry partners to advance content transparency and authenticity standards across our product ecosystem — including YouTube, Search, Pixel and Photos — through our role on the steering committee of the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA).As part of this, rolling out this week, images generated by Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) in the Gemini app, Vertex AI and Google Ads will have C2PA metadata embedded, providing further transparency into how these images were created. We look forward to expanding this capability to more products and surfaces in the coming months.Over time, we will also extend our verification approach to support C2PA content credentials, meaning you’ll be able to check the original source of content created by models and products that exist outside of Google’s ecosystem.This work is central to our commitment to bold and responsible AI. We look forward to further contributing to the future of AI transparency.
Revealing a key protein behind heart disease
In a breakthrough powered by AlphaFold, scientists have mapped the structure of the large protein that gives “bad cholesterol” its form – a discovery that could help transform how researchers and clinicians treat the world’s leading cause of deathThe race to reveal a key protein behind heart disease has long been both an important public health goal and a stubborn scientific problem.For assistant professors Zachary Berndsen and Keith Cassidy at the University of Missouri (Mizzou), it was also personal. Both have a family history of heart disease – a reminder of what’s at stake in their work to better understand and ultimately help treat this deadly condition.“For 50 years, people have wanted to see what this protein looked like,” says Berndsen.That protein, apoB100, has defied mapping not only because it’s enormous (for a protein), but also because it connects to fats and other molecules in complicated ways. ApoB100 forms the molecular scaffold of “bad cholesterol”, which is known to scientists as low-density lipoprotein (LDL).LDL is the major carrier of fat through the bloodstream and a key risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), the world’s leading cause of death. Discovering the structure of its key protein promised to shed light on how bad cholesterol becomes harmful inside the body, giving scientists a better chance to develop ways to prevent and treat ASCVD. AlphaFold is playing a central role in this effort.At Mizzou, biochemist Berndsen first used cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to capture images of LDL particles. The images weren’t sharp enough to map the structure of apoB100 with atomic precision, so Berndsen’s physicist collaborator, Cassidy, turned to AlphaFold. He used it to generate atomic-resolution predictions of the protein’s structure and then refined those predicted shapes by comparing them against the cryo-EM image data.Coming at the problem using both cryo-EM microscopy and Alphafold is what unlocked this breakthrough, says Cassidy: “AlphaFold played a profound role in this discovery, providing the raw material to interpret our experimental structure in a way that was frankly impossible before.”The resulting model revealed bad cholesterol’s key protein in remarkable detail: a cage-like shell that wraps around each LDL particle, including a ribbon-like belt that keeps the particle intact in the bloodstream. Knowing this structure opens new possibilities for preventing, diagnosing and treating high cholesterol and ASCVD, including therapies that could target LDL more precisely. The potential benefit to global health is hard to overstate.While such applications will take time, revealing the structure of apoB100 is a landmark achievement, and a deeply satisfying one for Berndsen. “It was the first structure I ran through AlphaFold the week it became available, and the first protein I wanted to look at with our two-storey cryo-EM machine,” he says. “Solving the structure of apoB100 was a dream come true.”
EU Nearing Deal to End Russian Fossil Fuel Imports
The European Union is closing in on a deal to phase out Russian fossil fuels, a move that will embed into law the end of the bloc’s reliance on its former top energy supplier. Negotiators representing member states, the European Parliament and the European Commission are scheduled to meet on Tuesday evening in Brussels to iron out the final shape of a regulation that will set a date for banning Russian gas imports. The measure was proposed by the commission in June to address risks to EU energy security after the crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Moscow’s subsequent curbs on gas flows to the bloc. Despite recent attempts by the US to broker a peace deal in Ukraine, the EU has no plans to give up on the shift away from Russian gas. Speculation that a potential agreement could eventually lead to an easing of sanctions on Moscow’s energy exports, allowing other regions to buy fuel, has contributed to benchmark European gas futures recording their longest downward streak in almost four years. The EU talks will need to resolve the exact timeline for the phaseout. While member states in the EU Council endorsed the commission’s plan to ban all Russian gas supplies by the end of 2027, the Parliament is pushing to accelerate it by one year. That would align the end of piped-gas imports with the halt to seaborne deliveries already approved by the EU under its latest sanctions package on Russia. But whereas sanctions are temporary by design, the regulation known as RePowerEU is a separate, long-term plan to cut reliance on Moscow for good. The commission has made it clear that the measure will remain, regardless of any peace deal. “The European Union can make history tonight and change the course of our energy
AlphaFold: Five years of impact
Increasing speed of discoveryCyril Zipfel, professor of Molecular & Cellular Plant Physiology at the University of Zurich and Sainsbury Lab, saw research timelines shrink drastically. They used AlphaFold alongside comparative genomics to better understand how plants perceive changes in their environment, paving the way for more resilient crops.AlphaFold has been cited in more than 35,000 papers and more than 200,000 papers incorporated elements of AlphaFold 2 in their methodology. It’s also enhancing the quality of work being produced.An independent analysis of AlphaFold 2’s impact, carried out by the Innovation Growth Lab, suggests that researchers using AlphaFold 2 see an increase of over 40% in their submission of novel experimental protein structures. Those protein structures are more likely to be dissimilar to known structures, encouraging the exploration of uncharted areas of science. Also, research linked to AlphaFold 2 is twice as likely to be cited in clinical articles, and is significantly more likely to be cited by a patent, than typical works in structural biology.A new era of digital biologyOne of the most exciting examples of AlphaFold’s impact is Isomorphic Labs – an AI drug discovery company founded in 2021 when the breakthrough model proved to be powerful enough to be applied to rational drug design. Isomorphic Labs has since developed a unified drug design engine to dramatically change how it designs new medicines and speed up scientific discovery with an ambition to one day solve all diseases.Together with Isomorphic Labs, we developed AlphaFold 3, which offers an unprecedented view into cells that we expect to drive a transformation of the drug discovery process and usher in an era of “digital biology.”The model is designed to predict the structure and interactions of all of life’s molecules — not just proteins, but DNA, RNA, and ligands (the small molecules that make up most drugs). It can also generate the joint 3D structures of entire molecular complexes, allowing a holistic view of how a potential drug molecule binds to its target protein, or how proteins interact with genetic material.The AlphaFold Server is empowering non-commercial researchers globally to harness this technology, accelerating their ability to formulate and test new hypotheses. So far, it’s helped make more than 8 million folds – predictions of structures and interactions – for thousands of researchers around the world.
Revealing a key protein behind heart disease
In a breakthrough powered by AlphaFold, scientists have mapped the structure of the large protein that gives “bad cholesterol” its form – a discovery that could help transform how researchers and clinicians treat the world’s leading cause of deathThe race to reveal a key protein behind heart disease has long been both an important public health goal and a stubborn scientific problem.For assistant professors Zachary Berndsen and Keith Cassidy at the University of Missouri (Mizzou), it was also personal. Both have a family history of heart disease – a reminder of what’s at stake in their work to better understand and ultimately help treat this deadly condition.“For 50 years, people have wanted to see what this protein looked like,” says Berndsen.That protein, apoB100, has defied mapping not only because it’s enormous (for a protein), but also because it connects to fats and other molecules in complicated ways. ApoB100 forms the molecular scaffold of “bad cholesterol”, which is known to scientists as low-density lipoprotein (LDL).LDL is the major carrier of fat through the bloodstream and a key risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), the world’s leading cause of death. Discovering the structure of its key protein promised to shed light on how bad cholesterol becomes harmful inside the body, giving scientists a better chance to develop ways to prevent and treat ASCVD. AlphaFold is playing a central role in this effort.At Mizzou, biochemist Berndsen first used cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to capture images of LDL particles. The images weren’t sharp enough to map the structure of apoB100 with atomic precision, so Berndsen’s physicist collaborator, Cassidy, turned to AlphaFold. He used it to generate atomic-resolution predictions of the protein’s structure and then refined those predicted shapes by comparing them against the cryo-EM image data.Coming at the problem using both cryo-EM microscopy and Alphafold is what unlocked this breakthrough, says Cassidy: “AlphaFold played a profound role in this discovery, providing the raw material to interpret our experimental structure in a way that was frankly impossible before.”The resulting model revealed bad cholesterol’s key protein in remarkable detail: a cage-like shell that wraps around each LDL particle, including a ribbon-like belt that keeps the particle intact in the bloodstream. Knowing this structure opens new possibilities for preventing, diagnosing and treating high cholesterol and ASCVD, including therapies that could target LDL more precisely. The potential benefit to global health is hard to overstate.While such applications will take time, revealing the structure of apoB100 is a landmark achievement, and a deeply satisfying one for Berndsen. “It was the first structure I ran through AlphaFold the week it became available, and the first protein I wanted to look at with our two-storey cryo-EM machine,” he says. “Solving the structure of apoB100 was a dream come true.”
How we’re bringing AI image verification to the Gemini app
What’s nextThis launch builds on our history of providing context about images in Google Search and exploring new research innovations like Backstory from Google DeepMind. Looking ahead, we will continue to invest in more ways to empower you to determine the origin and history of content online. Soon, we’ll expand SynthID verification to support additional formats beyond images, such as video and audio, and bring these capabilities to more surfaces, such as Search.In addition to our own tools, we are collaborating with industry partners to advance content transparency and authenticity standards across our product ecosystem — including YouTube, Search, Pixel and Photos — through our role on the steering committee of the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA).As part of this, rolling out this week, images generated by Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) in the Gemini app, Vertex AI and Google Ads will have C2PA metadata embedded, providing further transparency into how these images were created. We look forward to expanding this capability to more products and surfaces in the coming months.Over time, we will also extend our verification approach to support C2PA content credentials, meaning you’ll be able to check the original source of content created by models and products that exist outside of Google’s ecosystem.This work is central to our commitment to bold and responsible AI. We look forward to further contributing to the future of AI transparency.
Build with Nano Banana Pro, our Gemini 3 Pro Image model
With 2K and 4k resolution available, you can ensure outputs meet resolution standards required for professional production. Effortlessly create cohesive advertisements by combining diverse elements such as product images, logos, and references. Achieve consistent resemblance for up to five individuals, integrate six high-fidelity shots, or blend as many as fourteen standard inputs into a single, polished ad. Try our demo app that allows you to pair logos with products to create your own mockup designs.
Introducing Nano Banana Pro
How Nano Banana Pro helps you bring any idea or design to lifeNano Banana Pro can help you visualize any idea and design anything — from prototypes, to representing data as infographics, to turning handwritten notes into diagrams.With Nano Banana Pro, now you can:Generate more accurate, context-rich visuals based on enhanced reasoning, world knowledge and real-time informationWith Gemini 3’s advanced reasoning, Nano Banana Pro doesn’t just create beautiful images, it also helps you create more helpful content. You can get accurate educational explainers to learn more about a new subject, like context-rich infographics and diagrams based on the content you provide or facts from the real world. Nano Banana Pro can also connect to Google Search’s vast knowledge base to help you create a quick snapshot for a recipe or visualize real-time information like weather or sports.
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