Donald Bitzer and his team at the University of Illinois developed the plasma display screen in the 1960s to overcome bandwidth and storage limitations of cathode ray tubes in the PLATO computerized instruction system. After Robert Willson built a single-pixel prototype in 1962, a 1964 breakthrough—moving electrodes outside the glass sandwich and accidentally introducing air—gave the display a memory effect, enabling it to retain images with minimal power.
Google is partnering with Constellation Energy to upgrade six existing nuclear plants across Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, adding 890 megawatts of clean power to the PJM grid by 2032. The company will deploy its Gemini Enterprise AI to optimize plant operations, supporting roughly 4,400 existing jobs and 7,200 new construction jobs while strengthening U.S. energy infrastructure at no cost to other ratepayers.
Empire Market co-founder Rahim Hamilton was sentenced to 40 years in prison and fined $5 million for conspiracy to distribute narcotics. Hamilton agreed to forfeit approximately 1,230 BTC and other assets. The darknet marketplace operated from 2018 to 2020, processing over $430 million in cryptocurrency transactions.