為什麼鑽石是電腦晶片新的寵兒（1/2）

Recently the New York Times reported the following:

Why Diamonds Are a Computer Chip’s New Best Friend (1/2)

Data centers squander vast amounts of electricity, most of it as heat. The physical properties of diamond offer a potential solution, researchers say.

The NYT - By Amos Zeeberg

Oct. 8, 2025

With tech companies racing to build more data centers housing servers that run the latest A.I. models, the amount of electricity these facilities consume is skyrocketing. But most of that electricity doesn’t power computing at all. It is squandered in the crudest way: as heat, spilling out of every one of the hundreds of billions of transistors in a modern chip.

 “The dirty secret in chips is that more than half of all energy is wasted as leakage current at the transistor level,” said R. Martin Roscheisen, an electrical engineer and entrepreneur at Diamond Foundry, a company in South San Francisco that manufactures specialized diamonds for use in electronics.

This heat is a great waste of energy that significantly shortens a chip’s life and makes it run less efficiently, generating still more wasteful heat. Consequently, one of the critical tasks in data centers is keeping the temperature of servers down so they can run smoothly.

Mr. Roscheisen is one of many engineers developing ways to embed tiny pieces of synthetic diamond, of all things, into chips to keep them cool. Diamond, in addition to being the hardest known material, is also exceptionally good at moving heat from place to place.

“Most people do not realize that diamond has the best heat-conduction properties of any material,” said Paul May, a physical chemist at the University of Bristol in England. He added that diamond conducts heat several times faster than copper, a material often used in heat sinks for chips.

The high thermal conductivity of diamond arises from the same property that makes it so hard: Each carbon atom is bonded strongly to four neighbors, with no weak link in any direction. Those strong bonds are efficient at carrying the vibrations that move heat through a crystal.

“High-end electronics can already be bought that use diamond heat-spreaders,” Dr. May said. “Within a few years, even the processor in your home PC or mobile phone will probably be attached to a diamond heat-spreader.”

In recent years, Mr. Roscheisen’s company has been exploring how to make a thin layer of heat-dissipating diamond and attach it to the back of the silicon wafers on which chips are built. One selling point of this approach is that its thin diamond layers are made of single crystals, which are better at dissipating heat than arrays of crystals are. But such thin layers are harder to make, and consequently more expensive.

The company manufactures diamonds by making a very hot gas, or plasma, rich in carbon and coaxing it to deposit carbon atoms in precisely the right configuration. A key step, according to the company, is tricking each diamond to begin crystallizing as though it were growing atop a layer of existing, perfectly ordered diamond.

This effectively shows the new carbon atoms how to fit together. Proceeding without that instruction, the company’s website states, “is like multiple people trying to tile a floor from different ends of a room without using a template: They would meet somewhere in the middle without fitting” into a single, unified crystal.

(to be continued)

Translation

為什麼鑽石是電腦晶片新的寵兒（1/2）

數據中心浪費了大量電力，其中大部分以熱量的形式釋放。研究人員表示，鑽石的物理特性提供了一個潛在的解決方案。

隨著科技公司競相建造更多數據中心用於收容運行最新人工智能模型的伺服器，這些設施的耗電量正在飆升。但這些電力大部分根本沒有用來運算。它們以最原始的方式浪費：以熱量的形式，從現代晶片中數千億個電晶體中散發出來。

南舊金山一家專門生產電子產品用的鑽石製造公司 - Diamond Foundry的電氣工程師兼企業家R. Martin Roscheisen說道: 「晶片中一個不光彩的秘密是，超過一半的能量在晶體管層面以漏電流的形式被浪廢了」。

這些熱量會大大浪費能源，顯著縮短晶片壽命，降低晶片運作效率，並產生出更多浪費的熱能。因此，數據中心的關鍵任務之一就是降低伺服器的溫度，以確保其平穩運作。

Roscheisen先生是眾多工程師之一，正在開發將微小的人造鑽石嵌入晶片, 令人驚訝地, 以保持晶片冷卻的方法。鑽石不僅是已知最堅硬的材料，而且還非常善於將熱量從一個地方轉移到另一個地方。

英國布里斯託大學的物理化學家Paul May說:「大多數人沒有意識到，鑽石的導熱性能是所有材料中最好的」。他又補充說，鑽石的導熱速度是銅的數倍，而銅是晶片散熱器中常用的材料。

鑽石的高導熱性源自於其堅硬的特性：每個碳原子都與四個相鄰的碳原子牢固地鍵合，在任何方向上都沒有薄弱環節。這些牢固的鍵能夠有效地傳遞熱量在晶體中移動的振動。

May博士說: 「現在高端電子產品已經可以買到使用鑽石散熱器了」; 「幾年之內，就連家用電腦或手機的處理器也很可能連接到鑽石散熱器上」。

近年來，Roscheisen先生的公司一直在探索如何製造一層薄薄的散熱鑽石，並將其附著在建造晶片的矽晶圓背面。這種方法的一大賣點是，其薄鑽石層由單晶構成，比晶體陣列散熱效果更好。但這種薄層製造起來更困難，因此成本也更高。

該公司透過製造富含碳的高溫氣體或等離子體，誘導其精確地沉積碳原子到一個恰好的正確組態來製造鑽石。根據該公司介紹，關鍵步驟是誘導每顆鑽石開始結晶，就像它們生長在一層現有的、排列完整的鑽石之上一樣。

其真正結果是提點了新碳原子如何組合在一起。該公司網站稱，如果不按照該指示去進行，「就像多人不使用模板而試圖去從房間的不同起點鋪設地板：他們會在中間某個地方相遇，而無法拼合」成一個單一, 完整的晶體。

（待續）

大型投資者翹首以盼特朗普的阿根廷救助計劃帶來意外之財（2/2）

Recently the New York Times reported the following:

Big Investors Await Windfall from Trump’s Argentina Bailout (2/2)

The United States finalized a $20 billion lifeline for Argentina that will benefit Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s allies.

The NYT - By Alan Rappeport and Maria Abi-Habib

Oct. 9, 2025

(continue)

It is unclear if Mr. Citrone played any role in convincing Mr. Bessent to prop up Argentina’s currency. But two people familiar with the deal said Mr. Citrone was in close contact with Mr. Bessent in the lead-up to the Treasury announcement last month, arguing that if Argentina’s currency crashed, so too would the political fortunes of Mr. Milei.

Mr. Citrone told Mr. Bessent that if Mr. Milei were to lose the upcoming elections, Argentina would pivot to China for more economic assistance, according to one of the people familiar with the contacts. Mr. Citrone also apparently told Mr. Bessent that such an outcome would mean the United States could lose one of its most steadfast Latin American allies.

A Treasury Department spokesman, Elliott Hulse, did not respond to requests for comment about Mr. Bessent’s conversations about Argentina with Mr. Druckenmiller or Mr. Citrone. A spokesman for Mr. Citrone declined to comment. Mr. Druckenmiller said that he had no communication with Mr. Bessent about Argentina before or after last month’s bailout announcement.

Argentine media reported earlier on Mr. Bessent’s ties to Mr. Citrone.

Mr. Milei’s party suffered a devastating loss in a key provincial election in September, and analysts are projecting that his party will face another disappointing result in legislative polls later this month. Such a loss would likely prevent Mr. Milei from continuing his pro-market, austerity-focused plans, which Mr. Trump’s administration has praised and, in many ways, replicated.

Some conservative observers were critical of Treasury’s plans to support Argentina, arguing that the deal could instead end up supporting the country’s leftist, pro-spending political opposition, which is likely to sweep polls later this month.

Mr. Citrone and leaders of the Conservative Political Action Conference, better known as CPAC, may have also been instrumental in lobbying both the International Monetary Fund and Mr. Bessent to bail out Argentina, according to the two people familiar with the agreement. In April, the I.M.F. shored up Argentina’s economy with its own $20 billion bailout agreement. The 48-month loan was Argentina’s 23rd such economic support package from the fund since the 1950s.

Just days after the I.M.F. deal was announced in April, Mr. Citrone flew down to Buenos Aires to meet with Mr. Milei on a plane owned by one of the leaders of Tactic Global, known as CPAC’s lobbying arm, according to an adviser to the Trump administration and Argentine media reports. The plane was owned by Leonardo Scatturice, one of the founders of Tactic, who has made a fortune off lucrative government contracts doled out by Mr. Milei’s government.

Mr. Citrone met with the Argentine president just hours before Mr. Bessent, who had flown separately to the country’s capital.

During that visit, Mr. Bessent announced the I.M.F. deal. Those funds are intended to help Argentina loosen its currency controls while maintaining the government’s plans to scale back subsidies and spending.

Last month, Mr. Bessent said the United States would provide more economic support to Argentina in the form of a $20 billion financial lifeline. The Treasury secretary added that Washington hoped the additional support would prevent Argentina from giving up mining rights to China. Argentina’s economy has largely been propped up over the years by an $18 billion currency swap provided by China.

The United States has not said if there will be any guardrails to protect taxpayer money. Mr. Bessent emphasized that the currency swap the government plans to offer Argentina does not amount to a bailout.

“We are not putting money into Argentina,” Mr. Bessent told CNBC.

The politics of supporting Argentina has become especially fraught in the United States because China has been buying soybeans from Argentine farmers instead of American growers this year. The fact that Argentina is the most frequent recipient of I.M.F. bailouts and also the institution’s largest debtor raises questions about whether it could ever repay the United States.

“They can call it what they want, but it’s a bailout,” said Monica de Bolle, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “It’s a country in crisis, it’s running out of dollars, and the U.S. is giving the country dollars. That’s a bailout by definition.”

In negotiations over the terms of a support package, U.S. officials have been pushing for Argentina to scale back ties with China and have been seeking access to its uranium and lithium supplies, according to a person familiar with the matter.

In Argentina, legislators and governors have more say in those contracts than Mr. Milei does, and the U.S. Treasury’s support for the Argentine president may not translate into more American companies securing mining rights.

Mr. Bessent said on Thursday that bolstering Argentina is a matter of national and economic security.

“The success of Argentina’s reform agenda is of systemic importance, and a strong, stable Argentina which helps anchor a prosperous Western Hemisphere is in the strategic interest of the United States,” Mr. Bessent said.

Translation

大型投資者翹首以盼特朗普的阿根廷救助計劃帶來意外之財（2/2）

美國敲定了一項200億美元的阿根廷紓困計劃，將惠及財政部長貝森特的盟友。

（繼續）

目前尚不清楚Citrone先生是否在說服貝森特先生支撐阿根廷貨幣方面發揮了任何作用。但兩位知情人士表示，在上個月財政部宣布這項消息之前，Citrone先生曾與貝森特先生保持密切聯繫，他認為，如果阿根廷貨幣暴跌，Milei先生的政治命運也將隨之崩盤。

據一位知情人士透露，Citrone先生告訴貝森特先生，如果Milei先生在即將到來的選舉中落敗，阿根廷將轉向中國尋求更多經濟援助。Citrone先生顯然也告訴貝森特先生，這樣的結果意味著美國可能會失去最堅定的拉丁美洲盟友之一。

財政部發言人Elliott Hulse 沒有回應就貝森特先生與Druckenmiller先生或Citrone先生就阿根廷問題進行的談話置評的請求。Citrone先生的發言人拒絕置評。Druckenmiller先生表示，在上個月救助計劃宣佈之前或之後，他都沒有與貝森特先生就阿根廷問題進行溝通。

阿根廷媒體早些時候報導了貝森特先生與Citrone先生的關係。

Milei先生的政黨在9月份一場關鍵的省級選舉中慘敗，分析師預測，他的政黨將在本月晚些時候的立法選舉中再次遭遇令人失望的結果。這樣的損失可能會阻止Milei先生繼續推行其親市場、以緊縮政策為重點的計劃，而特朗普政府對這些計劃表示讚賞，並在許多方面效仿了這些計劃。

一些保守派觀察家批評財政部支持阿根廷的計劃，認為這項協議最終反而可能會支持該國的左翼, 支持花費的政治反對派，而該反對派很可能在本月晚些時候的選舉中大獲全勝。

據兩位知情人士透露，Citrone先生和保守派政治行動會議（CPAC）的領導人可能也在遊說國際貨幣基金組織及貝森特先生去救助阿根廷方面發揮了重要作用。今年4月，國際貨幣基金組織透過其200億美元的紓困協議支撐了阿根廷經濟。這筆為期48個月的貸款是自1950年代以來該組織向阿根廷提供的第23筆此類經濟支持計劃。

根據特朗普政府的一位顧問和阿根廷媒體報道，在4月IMF協議宣布幾天后，Citrone先生就飛往布宜諾斯艾利斯與Milei先生會面。他搭乘的飛機屬於Tactic Global 的一位領導人。 Tactic Global是CPAC的遊說部門。這架飛機的主人是Tactic Global的創始人之一Leonardo Scatturice，他從Milei先生政府所分發出的豐厚政府合約中賺取了巨額財富。

Citrone先生會見阿根廷總統幾個小時前與貝森特先生會面，貝森特先生是單獨飛往阿根廷首都。

在那次訪問期間，貝森特先生宣佈了與國際貨幣基金組織的協議。這些資金旨在幫助阿根廷放鬆貨幣管制，同時維持政府削減補貼和支出的計劃。

上個月，貝森特先生表示，美國將以200億美元金融救助金的形式向阿根廷提供更多經濟支持。財政部長補充說，華盛頓希望額外的支持能阻止阿根廷把採礦權拱手讓給中國。多年來，阿根廷的經濟很大程度上由中國提供的180億美元貨幣互換協議所支撐。

美國尚未透露是否會採取任何措施來保護納稅人的錢。貝森特先生強調，政府計劃向阿根廷提供的貨幣互換協議不算是一個救助計劃。

貝森特先生告訴CNBC:「我們不會向阿根廷投入資金」。

在美國，支持阿根廷的政治立場變得特別緊張，因為今年中國一直在從阿根廷農民而不是美國種植者手中購買大豆。阿根廷是國際貨幣基金組織最頻密的救助計劃接受者，也是該機構最大的債務國，這引發了人們對阿根廷是否有能力償還美國債務的質疑。

彼得森國際經濟研究所高級研究員 Monica de Bolle 說: 「他們可以隨便叫它是什麼，這就是個救助計劃」; 「這是一個陷入危機的國家，美元即將耗盡，而美國正在向它提供美元。從定義上來說這是一次救助」。

據一位知情人士透露，在有關援助方案條款的談判中，美國官員一直在敦促阿根廷減少與中國的聯繫，及尋求得到鈾和鋰供應。

在阿根廷，立法者和州長在這些合約中比Milei先生擁有更大的發言權，而美國財政部支持阿根廷總統的立場可能不會轉化為更多美國公司獲得採礦權。

貝森特先生週四表示，支持阿根廷攸關國家和經濟安全。

貝森特先生說:「阿根廷改革議程的成功具有系統重要性，一個強大、穩定的阿根廷有助於鞏固繁榮的西半球，這符合美國的戰略利益」。

So, Argentina’s economy has largely been propped up over the years by a $18 billion currency swap provided by China and now the Trump administration is moving forward with its bailout of Argentina, making a direct purchase of pesos and finalizing terms of a $20 billion lifeline. The funds would come in the form of a currency swap with Argentina’s central bank. Washington hopes that the additional support would prevent Argentina from giving up mining rights to China. Apparently, the success of Argentina’s reform is important because a strong, stable Argentina is in the strategic interest to the United States.

大型投資者翹首以盼特朗普的阿根廷救助計劃帶來意外之財（1/2）

Recently the New York Times reported the following:

Big Investors Await Windfall from Trump’s Argentina Bailout (1/2)

The United States finalized a $20 billion lifeline for Argentina that will benefit Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s allies.

The NYT - By Alan Rappeport and Maria Abi-Habib

Oct. 9, 2025

The Trump administration moved forward on Thursday with its bailout of Argentina, making a direct purchase of pesos and finalizing terms of a $20 billion lifeline, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

The terms and conditions of the economic support package were not announced, but Mr. Bessent said the funds would come in the form of a currency swap with Argentina’s central bank. Big global investors have been anxiously awaiting the details of the bailout, which critics have said will benefit wealthy fund managers at a time when American farmers are struggling and the U.S. government is shut down.

Officials from both countries spent the last four days racing to finalize terms of the bailout ahead of high-stakes legislative elections in Argentina later this month and a visit to Washington next week by President Javier Milei, Argentina’s libertarian leader who is a close ally of President Trump.

“Argentina faces a moment of acute illiquidity,” Mr. Bessent wrote on X. “The U.S. Treasury is prepared, immediately, to take whatever exceptional measures are warranted to provide stability to markets.”

The Treasury secretary added that American business leaders have told him that they want to deepen ties with Argentina and that the Trump administration will stand behind its Latin American ally.

But the administration’s decision to rescue Argentina’s economy is raising concerns about whether the real aim is to help rich investors whose bets on Argentina could falter if its economy sinks.

Those efforts have been complicated by the fact that major hedge funds, including those led by friends of Mr. Bessent, stand to benefit financially from an Argentina economic lifeline. Funds at investment firms including BlackRock, Fidelity and Pimco are heavily invested in Argentina, as are investors such as Stanley Druckenmiller and Robert Citrone, both of whom worked with Mr. Bessent when he was an investor for George Soros.

The Treasury’s intervention on Thursday offered a lifeline to Argentina’s financial markets, which have floundered as the country has faced a severe cash crunch. Dollar-denominated bonds set to expire in 2035 rebounded to levels last seen when Mr. Bessent first announced the United States would be stepping in. The peso also rebounded, although currency experts worry that it will soon come under pressure again without a longer-term fix for the country’s financial woes.

The prospect that the Trump administration would rescue Argentina’s economy and aid wealthy investors at a time when federal workers aren’t getting paid amid a shutdown and struggling American farmers are awaiting an economic relief package has drawn criticism from Democrats, farm industry groups and others.

On Thursday, a group of eight Democratic senators introduced legislation that would prevent the Treasury Department from using its Exchange Stabilization Fund to shore up Argentina’s finances.

“It is inexplicable that President Trump is propping up a foreign government, while he shuts down our own,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the banking committee, who helped draft the legislation. “Trump promised ‘America First,’ but he’s putting himself and his billionaire buddies first and sticking Americans with the bill.”

The legislation is unlikely to pass, but it demonstrates the political headwinds that Republicans could be facing over Argentina.

Ahead of his meeting with Luis Caputo, Argentina’s economy minister, Mr. Bessent insisted last weekend that the proposed $20 billion central bank swap line did not amount to a bailout of Argentina or a gift to wealthy investors.

“This trope that we’re helping out wealthy Americans with interest down there couldn’t be more false,” Mr. Bessent told CNBC. “What we’re doing is maintaining a U.S. strategic interest in the Western Hemisphere.”

International investors have long looked at Argentina as a place to make a profit, particularly related to government debt that successive leaders have taken on. In many instances, investors are not the original bondholders, but have bought at a discount from the nation’s original lenders, and are wagering that the liens will eventually be repaid or renegotiated.

That view is beginning to pay off. One Fidelity fund this summer credited winnings from the country’s debt with helping compensate for losses from investments in other so-called emerging market countries including Venezuela and Ukraine.

In particular, wealthy Americans with close ties to Mr. Bessent stand to win big.

Mr. Druckenmiller was a mentor to Mr. Bessent at Soros Fund Management. The Duquesne family office, which he runs, was the second largest investor in Argentina’s principal exchange-traded fund, a pool of Argentine stocks.

Mr. Citrone, the founder of Discovery Capital Management, has made Latin America his biggest bet in the world, and Argentina is the fund’s biggest investment in the region. Mr. Citrone has said that when he worked with Mr. Bessent under Mr. Soros in 2013, he convinced them to make their now famous bet against the Japanese yen and that he was responsible for most of the bonus that Mr. Bessent earned.

“I kind of convinced George and Scott Bessent at the time to go big on that. And, you know, Scott says I’m responsible for 75 percent of his bonus at Soros, kind of jokingly, over that time,” Mr. Citrone said in an interview on a podcast hosted by Goldman Sachs in May, according to the transcript posted on the bank’s website.

(to be continued)

大型投資者翹首以盼特朗普的阿根廷救助計劃帶來意外之財（1/2）

美國敲定了一項200億美元的紓困計劃，將惠及財政部長貝森特的盟友。

美國財政部長貝森特表示，特朗普政府週四推動了對阿根廷的紓困計劃，直接購買阿根廷比索，並敲定了200億美元紓困計劃的條款。

這項經濟支持計劃的條款和條件尚未公佈，但貝森特表示，這筆資金將以與阿根廷央行進行貨幣互換的形式發放。全球大型投資者一直在焦急地等待救助計劃的細節，批評人士稱，在美國農民苦苦掙扎、美國政府關門之際，該計劃將使富有的基金經理人受益。

兩國官員在過去四天裡爭分奪秒地敲定救助條款，以應對本月晚些時候阿根廷舉行的至關重要的立法選舉，以及下週阿根廷總統 Javier Milei 訪問華盛頓的事宜。他是阿根廷自由主義領袖，也是特朗普總統的親密盟友。

貝森特先生在X網站上寫道:「阿根廷正面臨嚴重的流動性短缺」; 「美國財政部已準備好立即採取一切必要的特殊措施，以穩定市場」。

財政部長補充說，美國商界領袖告訴他，他們希望深化與阿根廷的關係，特朗普政府將支持其拉丁美洲盟友。

但美國政府拯救阿根廷經濟的決定引發了人們的擔憂，人們擔心其真正目的是否是為了幫助那些賭注在阿根廷的富裕投資者, 如果經濟下滑他們可能蒙受損失投資。

這些努力因大型對沖基金（包括貝森特先生朋友所領導的基金）將可從這條阿根廷經濟生命線中而獲益而變得更加複雜。BlackRock, Fidelity 和 Pimco 等投資公司的基金在阿根廷投入了大量資金，還有其他投資者例如 Stanley Druckenmiller  和 Robert Citrone, 两投資者都曾在貝森特先生擔任索羅斯(George Soros) 的投資者時一起共事。

美國財政部週四的干預措施為阿根廷金融市場提供了一線生機。由於阿根廷面臨嚴重的資金短缺，金融市場一度陷入困境。 2035年到期的美元計價債券價格反彈至貝森特先生首次宣布美國將介入時的水平。阿根廷比索也出現反彈，但貨幣專家擔心，如果該國的財政困境無法長期解決，比索很快就會再次受壓。

在聯邦政府工作人員因政府停擺而拿不到工資、美國農民苦苦掙扎正在等待經濟救助方案之際，特朗普政府拯救阿根廷經濟並援助富裕投資者的前景招致了民主黨、農業產業團體和其他人士的批評。

週四，由八名民主黨參議員組成的小組提出了一項法案，該法案將阻止財政部動用其外匯穩定基金來支撐阿根廷的財政狀況。

參與起草該法案的銀行委員會民主黨高層、馬薩諸塞州參議員 Elizabeth Warren說:「特朗普總統一邊支持外國政府，一邊卻讓我們自己的政府關門，這真是令人費解」;「特朗普承諾 ‘美國優先’，但他卻把自己和他的億萬富翁夥伴放在第一位，讓美國人買單」。

這項法案不太可能獲得通過，但它表明共和黨在阿根廷問題上可能面臨的政治阻力。

在與阿根廷經濟部長 Luis Caputo會晤之前，貝森特先生上週末堅稱，擬議的200億美元央行互換額度並非對阿根廷的救助，也不是對富裕投資者的禮物。

貝森特先生告訴CNBC：“我們幫助在那處有利益的美國富人的說法再荒謬不過了。我們所做的是維護美國在西半球的戰略利益。”

長期以來，國際投資者一直將阿根廷視為獲利之地，尤其是在歷屆領導人所承擔的政府債務方面。在許多情況下，投資者並是非最原先的債券持有人，而是以折扣價從該國最初的貸款方手中購買，並押注這些留置權最終會被償還或重新談判。

這種觀點開始奏效。今年夏天，Fidelity旗下的一種基金將該國債務的收益用於彌補在其他所謂新興市場國家（包括委內瑞拉和烏克蘭）的投資損失。

尤其是與貝森特先生關係密切的美國富豪，他們有望獲得巨額利益。

Druckenmiller先生曾是貝森特先生在索羅斯基金管理公司時的導師。他經營的Duquesne家族辦公室是阿根廷主要交易所交易基金（ETF）的第二大投資者，該基金是阿根廷股票池。

作為 Discovery Capital Management 的創始人， Citrone先生將拉丁美洲視為他在全球最大的賭注，而阿根廷是該基金在該地區最大的投資。Citrone先生曾表示，2013年他與貝森特先生一起為索羅斯工作時，他說服他們押注日圓走弱，貝森特先生所獲獎金的大部分都是他賺來的。

根據該銀行網站上發布的採訪記錄, Citrone先生在5月份接受高盛播客採訪時說道:「當時我說服了索羅斯和貝森特大舉押注日元。你知道喇，貝森特像似開玩笑地說，那段時間他在索羅斯的獎金有75%因我而獲得」。

（待續）

Note:

1. Fidelity Investments, formerly known as Fidelity Management & Research (FMR), owned by FMR LLC and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, provides financial services. Established in 1946, the company is one of the largest asset managers in the world, with $5.8 trillion in discretionary assets under management, and $15.1 trillion in assets under administration, as of December 2024. (Wikipedia)

2. Pacific Investment Management Company LLC (PIMCO) is an American investment management firm. While it has a specific focus on active fixed income management worldwide, it manages investments in many asset classes, including fixed income, equities and other financial assets across public and private markets. PIMCO is one of the largest investment managers, actively managing more than $2 trillion in assets for central banks, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, corporations, foundations and endowments, as well as individual investors around the world. PIMCO has over 3,100 employees working in 22 offices throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia. PIMCO is also the world's largest active ETF manager, as well as one of the first to introduce actively managed ETFs. (Wikipedia)

OpenAI 同意使用 AMD 的電腦晶片

Recently the New York Times reported thee following:

OpenAI Agrees to Use Computer Chips From AMD

Weeks after a $100 billion agreement to use computer chips from Nvidia, OpenAI has signed a similar deal with a rival chipmaker.

The NYT - By Cade Metz Reporting from San Francisco

Oct. 6, 2025

Late last month, OpenAI announced a $100 billion agreement to use computer chips from Nvidia, the world’s most valuable publicly traded company.

Now, OpenAI has entered a similar agreement with AMD, one of the many chipmakers hoping to challenge Nvidia as the dominant supplier of chips used to power artificial intelligence technologies like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

On Monday, OpenAI said it would begin using AMD chips in the second half of next year as it built computer data centers. The new facilities would be separate from the data centers that OpenAI has committed to building in Texas, New Mexico, Ohio and an unnamed site in the Midwest.

Over several years, OpenAI plans to deploy enough AMD chips to consume six gigawatts of power, an amount that could supply all the households in Massachusetts. As part of its recent agreement with Nvidia, OpenAI agreed to deploy enough chips to consume 10 gigawatts.

AMD is not investing in OpenAI. But the agreement allows OpenAI to buy up to 160 million shares in the chipmaker at a penny per share, which would give OpenAI a 10 percent stake in the company. It could also supply OpenAI with additional capital as it works to build computing facilities over the next several years.

The unorthodox arrangement — the latest in a series of unusual financing deals that OpenAI has made in recent months to support its plans to build data centers across the world — could help AMD gain a foothold in the market for A.I. chips that has been dominated by Nvidia. By some estimates, Nvidia sells 90 percent of graphics processing units chips that are vital to the development of A.I. technologies.

By essentially giving away shares to OpenAI, AMD has closely aligned itself with the company that is leading the A.I. boom. And it now has a major customer for its own GPUs.

Until now, the only limitation on Nvidia’s growth has been its ability to produce enough chips to meet demand. But several other companies, including AMD, tech giants like Google and Amazon and start-ups like Cerebras and Groq, are racing to challenge its dominance.

AMD’s shares jumped more than 20 percent in premarket trading on Monday, as did the share price of several other chipmakers. Nvidia’s stock was down slightly.

“This partnership is a major step in building the compute capacity needed to realize A.I.’s full potential,” OpenAI chief executive, Sam Altman, said in a statement.

The agreement is part of a wider effort among tech companies to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on the construction of data centers. OpenAI, Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft plan to spend more than $325 billion combined on these facilities by the end of this year alone.

Tech giants, which pull in tens of billions of dollars in profits each year, have been able to finance data center construction with cash. But as newer and smaller companies like OpenAI have built computing facilities, they have been forced to raise or borrow tens of billions of dollars.

Through its Stargate Project, OpenAI previously said it was working with the cloud computing company Oracle and the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank to spend more than $400 billion on new data centers in the United States. But the start-up and its partners do not have the money needed to pay for these data centers, so it has looked for creative ways of bridging the financial gap.

In its recent deal with Nvidia, OpenAI agreed to deploy Nvidia’s chips. It also received a $100 billion investment from Nvidia. After investing an initial $10 billion in OpenAI, the chipmaker plans to invest an additional $90 billion in the company over the next several years. The agreement was the latest example of OpenAI’s raising money from the companies it relies on for products and services.

Translation

OpenAI 同意使用 AMD 的電腦晶片

在與英偉達簽署價值 1000 億美元的電腦晶片使用協議幾週後，OpenAI 又與另一家晶片競爭對手簽署了類似的協議

上個月底，OpenAI 宣布了一項價值 1000 億美元的協議，將使用全球市值最高的上市公司英偉達的電腦晶片。

現在，OpenAI 又與 AMD 達成了類似的協議。 AMD 是眾多希望挑戰英偉達在人工智能晶片領域主導地位的晶片製造商之一，這些晶片用於支援 OpenAI 的 ChatGPT 等技術。

週一，OpenAI 表示，將在明年下半年開始使用 AMD 晶片建造電腦數據中心。新設施將與 OpenAI 承諾在德克薩斯州、新墨西哥州、俄亥俄州以及中西部未透露名稱的地點建設的數據中心分開。

OpenAI 計劃在未來幾年內部署足夠多的 AMD 晶片，需要耗用 6 千兆瓦的電力，這耗電量足以滿足馬薩諸塞州所有家庭的用電需求。作為其最近與英偉達達成協議的一部分，OpenAI 同意部署足夠多的晶片，需要耗用 10 千兆瓦的電力。

AMD 並未向 OpenAI投資。但該協議允許 OpenAI 以每股 1 美分的價格收購這家晶片製造商最多 1.6 億股股票，這將使 OpenAI 擁有該公司 10% 的股份。這筆交易還可以為 OpenAI 提供額外資金，幫助其在未來幾年內建造運算設施。

這項異常的安排 - 這是 OpenAI 近幾個月為支持其在全球建設數據中心的計劃而達成的一系列不尋常的融資交易中的最新一筆 - 可能有助於 AMD 在一直由英偉達主導的人工智能晶片市場站穩陣腳。據估計，英偉達銷售了對人工智能技術發展至關重要的圖形處理單元 (GPU) 晶片的90%。

實際上AMD是將股份贈予 OpenAI，從而與引領人工智能熱潮的公司建立了緊密的聯繫。現在，AMD 的 GPU 也迎來了一位重要客戶。

到目前為止，限制英偉達成長的唯一因素是其晶片產量能否滿足需求。但包括 AMD、Google和亞馬遜等科技巨頭以及 Cerebras 和 Groq 等初創公司在內的其他幾家公司正在競相挑戰其主導地位。

AMD 的股價在周一盤前交易中上漲了 20% 以上，其他幾家晶片製造商的股價也出現了上漲。英偉達的股價略為下跌。

OpenAI 執行長 Sam Altman 在一份聲明中表示： “此次合作是去建立充分發揮人工智能潛力所需計算能力的重要一步。”

這項協議是科技公司斥資數千億美元建造數據中心的廣泛努力的一部分。 OpenAI、亞馬遜、Google、Meta 和微軟計劃僅在今年底就在這些設施上投入超過 3,250 億美元。

科技巨頭每年賺取數百億美元的利潤，能夠用現金資助數據中心的建置。但隨著像 OpenAI 這樣的新興小型公司紛紛建造運算設施，科技巨頭被迫籌集或借入數百億美元的資金。

OpenAI 先前曾表示，透過其「星際之門」項目，它正與雲端運算公司甲骨文和日本軟銀集團合作，在美國投資超過 4,000 億美元建設新的數據中心。但這家初創公司及其合作夥伴缺乏建造這些數據中心所需的資金，因此一直在尋找有創意的方法來彌補資金缺口。

OpenAI在最近與英偉達達成的協議中， 同意部署英偉達的晶片。此外，它還獲得了英偉達 1000 億美元的投資。英偉達在向 OpenAI 投資 100 億美元後，還計劃在未來幾年內再向該公司投資 900 億美元。這項協議是 OpenAI 從其所依賴的產品和服務公司籌集資金的最新例證。

So, OpenAI previously has announced a $100 billion agreement to use computer chips from Nvidia.  Now, OpenAI enters a similar agreement with AMD, a chipmaker that is hoping to challenge Nvidia as the dominant supplier of chips. While big companies are earning tens of billions of dollars in profits each year and are able to finance data center construction with cash, a start-up and its partners do not have the money needed to pay for these data centers, so it has to look for creative ways to bridge the financial gap.

OpenAI稱疑似中國政府特工利用ChatGPT構思出大規模監控提案

 Recently Google News on-line picked up the following:

Suspected Chinese government operatives used ChatGPT to shape mass surveillance proposals, OpenAI says

CNN - By Sean Lyngaas, Jim Sciutto

Oct 7, 2025

Suspected Chinese government operatives asked ChatGPT to help write proposal for a tool to conduct large-scale surveillance and to help promote another that allegedly scans social media accounts for “extremist speech,” ChatGPT-maker OpenAI said in a report published Tuesday.

The report sounds the alarm about how a highly coveted artificial intelligence technology can be used to try to make repression more efficient and provides “a rare snapshot into the broader world of authoritarian abuses of AI,” OpenAI said.

The US and China are in an open contest for supremacy in AI technology, each investing billions of dollars in new capabilities. But the new report shows how AI is often used by suspected state actors to carry out relatively mundane tasks, like crunching data or making language more polished, rather any startling new technological achievement.

“There’s a push within the People’s Republic of China to get better at using artificial intelligence for large-scale things like surveillance and monitoring,” Ben Nimmo, principal investigator at OpenAI, told CNN. “It’s not last year that the Chinese Communist Party started surveilling its own population. But now they’ve heard of AI and they’re thinking, oh maybe we can use this to get a little bit better.”

In one case, a ChatGPT user “likely connected to a [Chinese] government entity” asked the AI model to help write a proposal for a tool that analyzes the travel movements and police records of the Uyghur minority and other “high-risk” people, according to the OpenAI report. The US State Department in the first Trump administration accused the Chinese government of genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghur Muslims, a charge that Beijing vehemently denies.

Another Chinese-speaking user asked ChatGPT for help designing “promotional materials” for a tool that purportedly scans X, Facebook and other social media platforms for political and religious content, the report said. OpenAI said it banned both users.

AI is one of the most high-stakes areas of competition between the US and China, the world’s two superpowers. Chinese firm DeepSeek alarmed US officials and investors in January when it presented a ChatGPT-like AI model called R1, which has all the familiar abilities but operates at a fraction of the cost of OpenAI’s model. That same month, President Donald Trump touted a plan by private firms to invest up to $500 million in AI infrastructure.

Asked about OpenAI’s findings, Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC, said: “We oppose groundless attacks and slanders against China.”

China is “rapidly building an AI governance system with distinct national characteristics,” Liu’s statement continued. “This approach emphasizes a balance between development and security, featuring innovation, security and inclusiveness. The government has introduced major policy plans and ethical guidelines, as well as laws and regulations on algorithmic services, generative AI, and data security.”

The OpenAI report includes several other examples of just how commonplace AI is in the daily operations of state-backed and criminal hackers, along with other scammers. Suspected Russian, North Korean and Chinese hackers have all used ChatGPT to perform tasks like refining their coding or make the phishing links they send to targets more plausible.

One way state actors are using AI is to improve in areas where they had weaknesses in the past. For instance, Chinese and Russian state actors have often struggled to avoid basic language errors in influence operations on social media.

“Adversaries are using AI to refine existing tradecraft, not to invent new kinds of cyberattacks,” Michael Flossman, another security expert with OpenAI, told reporters.

Meanwhile, scammers very likely based in the Southeast Asian country of Myanmar have used OpenAI’s models for a range of business tasks, from managing financial accounts to researching criminal penalties for online scams, according to the company.

But an increasing number of would-be victims are using ChatGPT to spot scams before they are victimized. OpenAI estimates that ChatGPT is “being used to identify scams up to three times more often than it is being used for scams.”

CNN asked OpenAI if it was aware of US military or intelligence agencies using ChatGPT for hacking operations. The company did not directly answer the question, instead referring CNN to OpenAI’s policy of using AI in support of democracy.

US Cyber Command, the military’s offensive and defensive cyber unit, has made clear that it will use AI tools to support its mission. An “AI roadmap” approved by the command pledges to “accelerate adoption and scale capabilities” in artificial intelligence, according to a summary of the roadmap the command provided to CNN.

Cyber Command is still exploring how to use AI in offensive operations, including how to use it to build capabilities to exploit software vulnerabilities in equipment used by foreign targets, former command officials told CNN.

Translation

OpenAI稱疑似中國政府特工利用ChatGPT構思出大規模監控提案

ChatGPT開發者OpenAI在周二發佈的一份報告中稱，疑似中國政府特工要求ChatGPT協助撰寫一項用於進行大規模監控的工具提案，並協助推廣另一項據稱可以掃描社交媒體帳戶以查找「極端主義言論」的工具。

OpenAI表示，這份報告敲響了警鐘，提醒人們一項備受追捧的人工智能技術可能被用來提高鎮壓效率，並「罕見地展現了專制政府濫用人工智能的廣闊世界」。

美國和中國正在公開爭奪人工智能技術的霸主地位，雙方都投入了數十億美元用於開發新技術。但這份新報告顯示，可疑國家行動執行者通常使用人工智能執行相對平凡的任務，例如處理數據或使語言更精煉，而不是任何令人震驚的新技術成就。

OpenAI 首席研究員 Ben Nimmo 告訴 CNN： “中華人民共和國內部正在努力改進人工智能應用在大規模事務例如監視和監控”; “中國共產黨開始監控本國人口並非去年才開始的。但現在他們聽說了人工智能，並開始思考， ‘哦，也許我們可以利用它做得更好一點。’”

OpenAI 的報告稱，在一個案例中，一位「可能與[中國]政府機構有聯繫」的 ChatGPT 用戶請求人工智能模型協助撰寫一份提案，該提案旨在開發一種工具，用於分析維吾爾族和其他「高危險」人群的旅行軌跡和警方記錄。在特朗普第一屆政府時期，美國國務院指控中國政府對維吾爾族穆斯林犯下了種族滅絕和反人類罪，但北京方面對此予以堅決否認。

報道稱，另一位中文用戶請求ChatGPT協助為一款工具設計“宣傳材料”，該工具據稱可以掃描X、Facebook和其他社交媒體平台上的政治和宗教內容。 OpenAI表示已封禁這兩位用戶。

人工智能是中美這兩個世界超級大國之間競爭風險最高的領域之一。今年1月，中國公司DeepSeek推出了一款名為R1的類似ChatGPT的人工智能模型，令美國官員和投資者感到震驚。模型擁有所有常見的功能，但運行成本僅為OpenAI模型的一小部分。同月，特朗普總統吹捧一個投資高達5億美元用於人工智能基礎建設的私人企業計劃。

當被問及OpenAI的調查結果時，中國駐華盛頓大使館發言人劉鵬宇表示：“我們反對對中國的無端攻擊和誹謗。”

劉鵬宇的聲明繼續說道，中國正在「快速建構具有鮮明國家特色的人工智能治理體系」; 「這種方法強調發展與安全之間的平衡，強調創新、安全和包容。政府推出了重要的政策計劃和道德準則，以及關於演算法服務、生成式人工智能和資料安全的法律法規」。

OpenAI 的報告列舉了其他幾個例子，顯示人工智能在有國家支持的駭客、犯罪分子以及其他詐騙分子的日常行動中是多麼普遍。疑似俄羅斯、北韓和中國的駭客都使用 ChatGPT 來執行諸如改進代碼或使其發送給目標的網路釣魚連結更加可信等任務。

國家行動執行者使用人工智能的一種方式, 是改善過去存在的弱點。例如，中國和俄羅斯的國家行動執行者在去影響社交媒體的行動中, 經常難以避免基本的語言錯誤。

OpenAI 的另一位安全專家 Michael Flossman 告訴記者： “對手正在使用人工智能去改進現有的技術，而不是發明新的網路攻擊。”

同時，據 OpenAI 稱，很可能來自東南亞國家緬甸的詐騙者已將 OpenAI 的模型用於一系列商業任務，從管理金融帳戶到研究網路詐騙的刑事處罰。

但越來越多的潛在受害者正在使用 ChatGPT 來識別詐騙，以免上當。 OpenAI 估計，ChatGPT「用於識別詐騙的頻率是其被用於進行詐騙的三倍」。

CNN 詢問 OpenAI 是否知道美國軍方或情報機構正在使用 ChatGPT 進行駭客行動。 OpenAI 並沒有直接回答這個問題，而是請CNN去參考 OpenAI 使用人工智能支援民主的政策。

美國軍方的攻防網路部隊美國網路司令部已明確表示，將使用人工智能工具來支援其使命。根據該司令部向 CNN 提供的路線圖摘要，該司令部批准的「人工智能路線圖」承諾「加速人工智能的採用和擴展能力」。

網路司令部前指揮官告訴 CNN，網路司令部正在探索如何在攻擊行動中使用人工智能，包括如何使用它來建立能力, 去利用外國目標所使用的設備的軟體漏洞。

So, ChatGPT-maker OpenAI says in a report that suspected Chinese government operatives has asked ChatGPT to help write proposal for a tool to conduct large-scale surveillance etc. Meanwhile the US Cyber Command has made clear that it will use AI tools to support its mission. Apparently, the US and China are using AI technology to help their operations.

研究表明，雌性哺乳動物比雄性壽命更長，這與性行為有關 (2/2)

Recently Google News on-line picked up the following:

Female mammals live longer than males because of their sexual behavior, study suggests (2/2)

CNN - By Amarachi Orie

Oct 3, 2025

(continue)

Bigger, not better

One theory, the sexual selection hypothesis, suggests that some male animals spend their energy developing traits and behavior to compete for and attract mates, such as changing their physical size, developing big antlers or horns, and fighting to compete for a female. In doing so, they may be “sacrificing their survival,” Colchero said.

Another, the cost of reproduction hypothesis, suggests that carrying and delivering a child, and providing parental care, can come with a survival cost, according to the study.

The scientists found evidence in support of the sexual selection theory, with female mammals living longer than males in species that were non-monogamous — having more than one sexual partner. This suggests that spending too much energy trying to build up your size to find mates, for example, has a “cost,” Colchero said.

However, analyzing data from zoos, the researchers found the opposite trend to what they would have expected under the cost of reproduction theory.

Females with childcare responsibilities tended to live longer than males in zoos. This was the same in the wild, although the researchers said they had less evidence for this.

“This seems to be counterintuitive because, for anyone that has babies, you know that the energy that you put in care — you have to put a lot of energy. And you would imagine that that energy would come at the expense of survival,” Colchero said.

However, he added that it “does make sense” in terms of evolution, since some scientists have argued that the sex doing the caregiving needs to survive longer, especially if the offspring is highly dependent, as the caregiver has to ensure that the child can survive to adulthood and reproduce themselves.

The species in which only the females take on childcare also tend to be species that are polygamous, with the males trying to mate with many females. Therefore, it could also be that the males are at a disadvantage regardless, because they are spending more energy mating, the researchers noted.

“This study expands our knowledge of the complex interplay of factors that contribute to sex differences in adult lifespan, including heterogametic sex determination,” ecologist Zoe Xirocostas, a chancellor’s research fellow at the University of Technology Sydney in Australia, told CNN on Thursday.

While the study lends “further evidence in support of the heterogametic sex hypothesis,” it “mainly considers other evolutionary drivers of sex differences in lifespan that may be just as important, such as parental care and mating system,” Xirocostas, who was not involved in the study added, highlighting the “impressive” breadth of species covered, “including groups with limited coverage in previous studies.”

Biologist Gerald S. Wilkinson, a professor at the University of Maryland, who was not involved in the research, also said the “impressive” study “provides some additional support in favor of the heterogametic sex hypothesis for which sex is expected to have a shorter lifespan.”

“But, I think the more interesting result is that they found strong evidence indicating that the mating system and sexual size dimorphism explain much of the life expectancy variation,” Wilkinson added.

“That is somewhat surprising given that mating systems in zoos are not often typical of what happens in the wild. This result indicates that factors that influence lifespan persist even in controlled environments,” he continued.

Translation

研究表明，雌性哺乳動物比雄性壽命更長，這與性行為有關 (2/2)

（繼續）

更大，並非會更好

一種理論，即性選擇假說，認為一些雄性動物會花費精力發展各種特徵和行為來競爭和吸引配偶，例如改變體型、長出大鹿角或犄角，以及為爭奪雌性而爭鬥。Colchero表示，這樣做可能「犧牲了生存」。

另一種理論:生殖成本假說，認為懷孕、分娩以及提供父母的照顧可能會帶來生存成本。

科學家發現了支持性選擇理論的證據，在非一夫一妻制的物種中，雌性哺乳動物的壽命比雄性更長 - 擁有多個性伴侶。Colchero表示，這表明，花費過多精力來增大體型以尋找配偶是有「代價」的。

然而，研究人員分析了動物園的數據，發現趨勢與他們根據生殖成本理論的預期截然相反。

在動物園中，承擔育兒責任的雌性動物往往比雄性動物壽命更長。在野外也是如此，儘管研究人員表示，他們缺乏這方面的證據。

Colchero說:「這似乎違反直覺，因為對於任何養育幼崽的人來說，你都知道你投入到照顧幼崽上的精力 - 你必須投入大量的精力。而且你會想像，這些精力是以犧牲生存為代價的」。

然而，他補充說，從進化的角度來看，這“確實有道理”，因為一些科學家認為，承擔照顧責任的性別需要存活更長時間，尤其是在後代高度依賴的情況下，因為照顧者必須確保幼崽能​​夠存活到成年並繁殖後代。 

僅有雌性負責育幼的物種，也傾向於實行一夫多妻制, 雄性會試圖與多位雌性交配。因此，研究人員指出，雄性也可能無論如何都處於劣勢，因為它們在交配上花費了更多能量。

澳洲雪梨科技大學校長研究員、生態學家 Zoe Xirocostas 週四告訴CNN:「這項研究擴展了我們對導致成年壽命性別差異的複雜因素相互作用的認識，包括異性配子性別決定」。

未參與這項研究的 Xirocostas 補充道, 雖然這項研究 “提供了進一步的證據來支持異性配子性別假說”，但它“主要考慮了其他可能同樣重要的由進化驅動的壽命性別差異因素，例如父母撫育和交配制度”，他並強調了該研究涵蓋的物種範圍“令人印象深刻”，“包括了先前研究中有限地涉及的物種。”

未參與這項研究的生物學家 Gerald S. Wilkinson 的馬裡蘭大學教授也表示，這項 “令人印象深刻” 的研究為異性配子性別假說提供了一些額外的支持，該假說認為，性預計會縮短壽命。”

Wilkinson 補充道: 「但我認為更有趣的結果是，他們發現了強有力的證據表明，交配制度和性別上的體型差異在很大程度上解釋了預期壽命的差異」。

他繼續說道:「考慮到動物園裡的交配制度通常與野外的情況並不完全一致，這解釋多少有些令人驚訝。這一結果表明，即使在受控環境中，影響壽命的因素仍然存在」。

So, according to a new study, sexual behavior is one reason why female mammals typically live longer than their male counterparts. One interesting result of this research is that there is strong evidence to suggest that the mating system and sexual size dimorphism may explain much of the life expectancy variation.

Note:

1. Heterogametic sex determination (異性配子性別決定) refers to a mode of sex determination where two different types of sex chromosomes are involved, leading to distinct male and female roles in reproduction.

研究表明，雌性哺乳動物比雄性壽命更長，這與性行為有關 (1/2)

 Recently Google News on-line picked up the following:

Female mammals live longer than males because of their sexual behavior, study suggests (1/2)

CNN - By Amarachi Orie

Oct 3, 2025

Sexual behavior is one reason why female mammals typically live longer than their male counterparts, according to a new study.

Researchers from Germany, Denmark, France, Hungary and Belgium analyzed data relating to 528 mammal species and 648 bird species in zoos, in the most comprehensive study to date on sex differences in adult life expectancy in mammals and birds, published in the journal Science Advances on Wednesday.

They also analyzed data on populations in the wild for 110 species, to see if the findings would be the same in natural settings.

Among mammals, adult females lived 12% longer than males, the study found. However, the opposite trend was found among birds, with adult males living 5% longer.

The differences in longevity between the sexes were much more pronounced in the wild than in zoos for both mammals and birds, as there were fewer stressors, such as harsh climates and predators, in zoos, the study said.

Competing theories

There are several theories about why there are these sex differences in longevity. A leading theory relates to the sex chromosomes, explained study co-author Fernando Colchero, a statistical and mathematical ecologist who leads the Statistical Demography Group at Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

In this theory, known as the heterogametic sex hypothesis, it is thought that females, who have two X chromosomes, have an advantage over males, who have one X chromosome and a Y chromosome, because “if there are mutations in the X chromosome, if you only have one copy of that X chromosome, you don’t have a backup essentially. So, those mutations will eventually be harmful and reduce your longevity,” Colchero told CNN.

The same is thought to apply to birds, but with males living longer. They have two Z chromosomes, giving them an advantage over females, which have only one Z chromosome, along with one W.

However, there were exceptions to the longevity trends among some animals, leading the researchers to explore other factors that could also be causing the differences, Colchero said.

For example, some birds of prey did not conform to the male advantage among birds, with female falcons and hawks in zoos outliving their male counterparts, according to the study.

Colchero described this as “puzzling” because, among these animals, “the females are the largest, the females tend to engage more — sometimes more than the males — in territorial defenses and things like that. But, still, the females are the ones that live longer.”

Since these exceptions were found among particular families, the study authors suggested that some groups “may have evolved different strategies.”

They therefore looked at how sexual selection and the cost of reproduction relate to the sex differences in life expectancy.

(to be continued)

研究表明，雌性哺乳動物比雄性壽命更長，這與性行為有關 (1/2)

一項新研究表明，性行為是使雌性哺乳動物通常比雄性壽命更長的原因之一。

來自德國、丹麥、法國、匈牙利和比利時的研究人員分析了動物園中528種哺乳動物和648種鳥類的數據，這是迄今為止關於哺乳動物和鳥類成年預期壽命性別差異的最全面的研究，該研究於週三發表在《科學進展》雜誌上。

他們也分析了110個物種的野生族群數據，以驗證在自然環境中是否也存在相同的結果。

研究發現，在哺乳動物中，成年雌性的壽命比雄性長12%。然而，鳥類的趨勢卻相反，成年雄性的壽命比雌性長5%。

研究表明，無論是哺乳動物還是鳥類，在野外，兩性壽命的差異都比在動物園裡明顯得多，因為動物園裡的壓力源（例如惡劣的氣候和捕食者）較少。

 

不同的的理論

關於兩性壽命差異的原因，目前有幾種理論。該研究的共同作者、統計和數學生態學家、德國萊比錫馬Max Planck 進化人類學研究所統計人口統計小組負責人Fernando Colchero解釋說，一種主流理論與性染色體有關。

這個理論被稱為異配性別假說，認為擁有兩條X染色體的雌性比擁有一條X染色體和一條Y染色體的雄性更具優勢，因為, Colchero告訴CNN:「如果X染色體發生突變，而你只有一個X染色體拷貝，那麼你實際上就沒有備份。因此，這些突變最終會造成損害，縮短你的壽命」。

同樣的道理也適用於鳥類，但雄性壽命較長。它們擁有兩條Z染色體，這使其比只有一條Z染色體和一條W染色體的雌性更具優勢。

然而，Colchero表示，一些動物的長壽趨勢也存在例外，促使研究人員探索其他可能導致這種差異的因素。

例如，一些猛禽並不符合鳥類中雄性優勢的規律，研究表明，動物園裡的雌性獵鷹和雌鷹的壽命比雄性更長。

Colchero稱這 “令人費解” ，因為在這些動物中， “雌性體型最大，而且雌性往往較多（有時甚至比雄性更多）參與領土防禦等活動。但雌性仍然是壽命更長的。”

由於這些例外情況只存在於某些家族中，研究作者認為，一些群體「可能進化出了不同的策略」。

因此，他們研究了性選擇和生殖成本與預期壽命的性別差異之間的關係。

（待續）

中國失業青年對新推出的「K簽證」去吸引外國專業人才的計劃不滿 (2/2)

Recently Google News on-line picked up the following:

China’s jobless youth aren’t happy with a plan to attract foreign professionals with a new ‘K-visa’ (2/2)

CNN - By Simone McCarthy;  CNN’s Joyce Jiang in Beijing contributed to this report

Oct 2, 2025

(continue)

Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily on Tuesday alluded to that point in an editorial that aimed to tamp down on the widespread backlash to the initiative.

“Amidst a backdrop of some countries tightening borders and sidelining international talent, China has astutely seized this important opportunity and promptly enacted policies that will undoubtedly have a profound impact on our future development,” the editorial said.

“However, some people have misinterpreted and misunderstood the policy, spreading bizarre theories that mislead the public and create unnecessary anxiety.”

China’s leaders have long aimed to recruit high-level talent to their research institutions as they vie to establish the country as a tech and science powerhouse – a goal that’s become even more critical as China is under pressure to innovate in the face of American export controls on high-tech.

China has an existing R-visa category for “foreigner of high talent or specialists urgently needed by the State.”

When asked about the changes to the US H1-B program last month, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the US policy, saying instead that China “welcomes talents from various sectors and fields across the world to come and find their footing in China for the progress of humanity and career success.”

But the K-visa backlash highlights how these ambitions are butting up against economic insecurities and nationalist views within a country that has fewer than 1 million foreign residents.

 

‘The anxiety young people face’

The common thread underlying most discussion has been a concern that welcoming overseas talent will disadvantage those from China who are already struggling – a debate not unlike the one driving changes to the H1-B in the United States.

Some discussion on Chinese social media in recent days has also reflected a bias against potential Indian applicants to the K-visa. Indian professionals hold the largest share of H1-B visas in the US.

The People’s Daily editorial said that the K-visa “should not be equated with immigration,” but rather was designed to “facilitate the work and life of young foreign talent in China.”

China’s youth unemployment rate hit 18.9% in August, the highest since December 2023, when the country began releasing the figure following a pause as it changed its methodology. About half of China’s graduates across all levels of higher education between 2012 and 2022 hold STEM degrees, according to official data cited by Chinese researchers – amounting to a talent pool of some 24 million people.

Hu Xijin, a Chinese pundit and former editor-in-chief of the state-run tabloid Global Times on Wednesday called the K-visa a test of China’s “execution capabilities” in terms of selecting recipients and said it must come alongside job creation in China.

“The real issue at the heart of the K-visa controversy is that it reflects the tension in the domestic job market and the anxiety young people face in finding employment,” Hu wrote on his official Weibo account.

“Improving the domestic employment rate, especially in terms of high-quality jobs, is crucial for governance at this moment.”

Translation

中國失業青年對新推出的「K簽證」吸引外國專業人才的計劃不滿 (2/2)

（繼續）

中共喉舌《人民日報》週二發表社論，暗示了這一觀點，旨在平息外界對該倡議的普遍反對。

社論指出：“在一些國家收緊邊境、排擠國際人才的背景下，中國敏銳地抓住了這一重要機遇，迅速出台了一系列無疑將對我國未來發展產生深遠影響的政策。”

“然而，一些人對這項政策進行了曲解和誤解，散佈了一些荒誕的理論，誤導公眾，製造了不必要的焦慮。”

中國領導人長期以來致力於招募高水準人才加入其科研機構，力爭將中國打造為科技強國。面對美國對高科技出口的管制，中國面臨創新的壓力，這個目標變得更加重要。

中國目前有一個R簽證類別，專門針對「國家急需緊缺的外國人才或專門人才」。

上個月，當被問及美國H1-B簽證計劃的變化時，中國外交部發言人拒絕就美國政策發表評論，而是表示「中國歡迎世界各國各行各業的優秀人才來華發展，為人類進步和職業成功貢獻力量」。

但K簽證面對強烈反對凸顯了這些雄心壯志正與一個只有不足100萬外國居民的國家的經濟不安全感和民族主義觀點相衝突。

 

“年輕人面臨的焦慮”

大多數討論的共同點在於，人們擔心歡迎海外人才會給那些本已舉步維艱的中國人才帶來不利影響 - 這一爭論與推動美國H1-B簽證改革的爭論頗為相似。

最近幾天，中國社群媒體上的一些討論也反映出對印度K簽證潛在申請人的偏見。印度專業人士持佔美國H1-B簽證的最大份額。

《人民日報》的社論稱，K簽證“不應等同於移民”，而是為了“便利外國青年人才在中國的工作和生活”。

中國8月青年失業率達18.9%，為2023年12月以來的最高水準。此前，中國因調整統計方法而暫停公佈該數據，並於同年12月開始公佈。根據中國研究人員引用的官方數據，2012年至2022年期間，中國各級高等教育畢業生中約有一半擁有STEM學位，相當於一個有約2,400萬人的人才庫。

中國評論員、前官方報紙《環球時報》主編胡錫進週三稱，K簽證是對中國在甄選簽證發放者方面的“執行力”的一次考驗，並表示K簽證必須與中國創造就業機會同步推進。

胡錫進在其官方微博上寫道：“K簽證爭議的核心問題在於，它反映了國內就業市場的緊張局勢以及年輕人在求職過程中面臨的焦慮。”

“提高國內就業率，尤其是高品質就業，對當前的治理至關重要。”

So, a new visa category, known as the “K-visa,” launched by the Chinese government to attract young science and technology professionals is causing fervent backlash in China where well-educated young people are already struggling to find work. This decision is widely seen as a part of Beijing’s bid to gain an edge in its technology rivalry with the US as Donald Trump pushes to slash federal funding for research and tightens restrictions on international students and workers. I am interested in knowing how the CCP would allay the worries of the unemployed young people.