World's 1st Laser Weapon Is Ready to Blast Rogue Drones

The world's first laser weapon — one that can "kill" threatening, airborne drones — is ready for action, according to news sources.

The laser, known as the Laser Weapons System (LaWS), may seem as though it were pulled straight from a James Bond movie, but it's entirely functional and can shoot with stunning accuracy, the U.S. Navy told CNN. The LaWS is currently deployed aboard the USS Ponce, an amphibious transport ship, in the Persian Gulf.

"Operationally, it works just like a laser pointer," Lt. Cale Hughes, a LaWS officer, told CNN. "There's a chamber inside with special materials that release photons." [7 Technologies That Transformed Warfare].The LaWS laser beam is completely silent and invisible. It's also fast: The laser travels at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second, or about 300,000 kilometers per second), meaning it's about 50,000 times the speed of an incoming intercontinental ballistic missile, such as the one North Korea is testing, the Navy told CNN.

The $40 million system requires a team of three to operate it and a small generator to power its electricity supply, according to the Navy.

However, each blast is relatively cheap. "It's about a dollar a shot," Hughes told CNN.

In addition to being able to take down threats in the air, the LaWS can hit and disable objects in the water. The laser's accurate blasts, heated to thousands of degrees, might even mean fewer casualties in combat, Inez Kelly, a U.S. Naval Forces Central Command science adviser, told CNN.

For instance, if the laser is aimed at an enemy boat, operatives can "take out exactly the engine, and not necessarily damage anything else," Kelly said. "That type of precision weapon work is something that you don't really get with conventional weapons, because there tends to be more collateral damage."

Under Geneva Convention rules, armed forces are not allowed to use laser weapons directly against people, reported Optics.org, a site that tracks the photonics industry. The U.S. will abide by that protocol, Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder, chief of naval research, said in 2014 at a news conference in Washington, D.C., according to Optics.org.

The U.S. Navy is already developing second-generation systems that might be able to target threats other than drones and water vessels. These missions are classified, but when asked whether the LaWS could shoot and destroy missiles, USS Ponce Capt. Christopher Wells said "maybe" and smiled, according to CNN.

Original article on Live Science.

Carbon Nanotubes Enable Highly Energy-Efficient Computing

This Behind the Scenes article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation.

Miniaturization is the principal driver of the semiconductor industry, and the most significant challenge to continued miniaturization of electronic systems is energy efficiency.

"As we approach the ultimate limits of Moore’s Law, however, silicon will have to be replaced in order to miniaturize further," said Jeffrey Bokor, of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley.

To this end, carbon nanotubes are a significant departure from traditional silicon technologies and a promising path to solving the challenge of energy efficiency in computer circuits. Carbon nanotubes are cylindrical nanostructures of carbon with exceptional electrical, thermal and mechanical properties. Nanotube circuits could provide an order-of-magnitude improvement in energy efficiency over traditional silicon technology.

When the first rudimentary nanotube transistors were demonstrated in 1998, researchers imagined a new age of highly efficient, advanced computing electronics. That promise, however, has yet to be realized due to substantial material imperfections inherent to nanotubes that have left engineers wondering whether carbon nanotubes will ever prove viable.

Over the last few years, however, a team of Stanford engineering professors, doctoral students, undergraduates and high-school interns, led by professors Subhasish Mitra and H.-S. Philip Wong, took on the challenge. Their work has produced a series of breakthroughs that represent the most advanced computing and storage elements yet created using carbon nanotubes.

Stubborn challenges

While there have been significant accomplishments in carbon nanotube circuits over the years, they have come mostly at the single-nanotube level.

"The first carbon nanotubes wowed the research community with their exceptional electrical, thermal and mechanical properties over a decade ago, but this recent work at Stanford has provided the first glimpse of their viability to complement silicon CMOS transistors," said Larry Pileggi, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.

At least two major barriers remain before carbon nanotubes can be harnessed into technologies of practical impact. First, processing must achieve near-perfect alignment of nanotubes. Misaligned nanotubes introduce detrimental, stray, conducting paths and faulty functionality into the circuits. Second, engineers must eliminate metallic carbon nanotubes (as opposed to more desirable semiconducting carbon nanotubes) from the circuits. Metallic carbon nanotubes lead to short circuits, excessive power leakage and susceptibility to circuit noise. No carbon nanotube synthesis technique has yet produced exclusively semiconducting nanotubes.

Circumventing barriers

Realizing that better processes alone will never overcome these imperfections, the Stanford engineers circumvented the barriers using a unique imperfection-immune design. They have produced the first full-wafer-scale digital logic structures based on carbon nanotubes that are unaffected by misaligned and mis-positioned nanotubes. Additionally, they have addressed the challenges of metallic carbon nanotubes with the invention of a technique to remove these undesirable elements from their circuits.

"Carbon nanotube transistors are attractive for many reasons as a basis for dense, energy efficient integrated circuits in the future," said Supratik Guha, director of the Physical Sciences Department at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center. "But, being borne out of chemistry, they come with unique challenges as we try to adapt them into microelectronics for the first time. Chief among them is variability in their placement and their electrical properties. The Stanford work, which looks at designing circuits that take into consideration such variability, is therefore an extremely important step in the right direction."

The Stanford design approach has two striking features in that it sacrifices virtually none of carbon nanotubes’ energy efficiency and also is compatible with existing fabrication methods and infrastructure, pushing the technology a significant step toward to commercialization.

"This is very interesting and creative work. While there are many difficult challenges ahead, the work of Wong and Mitra makes good progress at solving some of these challenges," said Bokor.

"This transformative research is made all the more promising by the fact that it can co-exist with today’s mainstream silicon technologies, and leverage today’s manufacturing and system design infrastructure, providing the critical feature of economic viability," said Betsy Weitzman of the Focus Center Research Program at the Semiconductor Research Corporation.

Demonstrating possibilities

The engineers next demonstrated the possibilities of their techniques by creating the essential components of digital integrated systems: Arithmetic circuits and sequential storage, as well as the first monolithic 3D integrated circuits with extreme levels of integration.

The Stanford team’s work was featured recently as an invited paper at the prestigious International Electron Devices Meeting as well as a "keynote paper" in the April 2012 issue of the prestigious journal IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems.

"Many researchers assumed that the way to live with imperfections in carbon nanotube manufacturing was through expensive fault-tolerance techniques. Through clever insights, Mitra and Wong have shown otherwise. Their inexpensive and practical methods can significantly improve carbon nanotube circuit robustness, and go a long way toward making carbon nanotube circuits viable," said Sachin S. Sapatnekar, editor-in-chief of the journal. "I anticipate high reader interest in the paper."

Editor's Note:The researchers depicted in Behind the Scenes articles have been supported by the National Science Foundation, the federal agency charged with funding basic research and education across all fields of science and engineering. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. See the Behind the Scenes Archive.

New 3D Computer Chip Uses Nanotech to Boost Processing Power

A new type of 3D computer chip that combines two cutting-edge nanotechnologies could dramatically increase the speed and energy efficiency of processors, a new study said.

Today's chips separate memory (which stores data) and logic circuits (which process data), and data is shuttled back and forth between these two components to carry out operations. But due to the limited number of connections between memory and logic circuits, this is becoming a major bottleneck, particularly because computers are expected to deal with ever-increasing amounts of data.

Previously, this limitation was masked by the effects of Moore's law, which says that the number of transistors that can fit on a chip doubles every two years, with an accompanying increase in performance. But as chip makers hit fundamental physical limits on how small transistors can get, this trend has slowed. [10 Technologies That Will Transform Your Life]

The new prototype chip, designed by engineers from Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, tackles both problems simultaneously by layering memory and logic circuits on top of each other, rather than side by side.

Not only does this make efficient use of space, but it also dramatically increases the surface area for connections between the components, the researchers said. A conventional logic circuit would have a limited number of pins on each edge through which to transfer data; by contrast, the researchers were not restricted to using edges and were able to densely pack vertical wires running from the logic layer to the memory layer.

"With separate memory and computing, a chip is almost like two very populous cities, but there are very few bridges between them," study leader Subhasish Mitra, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Stanford, told Live Science. "Now, we've not just brought these two cities together — we've built many more bridges so traffic can go much more efficiently between them."

On top of this, the researchers used logic circuits constructed from carbon nanotube transistors, along with an emerging technology called resistive random-access memory (RRAM), both of which are much more energy-efficient than silicon technologies. This is important because the huge energy needed to run data centers constitutes another major challenge facing technology companies.

"To get the next 1,000-times improvement in computing performance in terms of energy efficiency, which is making things run at very low energy and at the same time making things run really fast, this is the architecture you need," Mitra said.

While both of these new nanotechnologies have inherent advantages over conventional, silicon-based technology, they are also integral to the new chip's 3D architecture, the researchers said.

The reason today's chips are 2D is because fabricating silicon transistors onto a chip requires temperatures of more than 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (1,000 degrees Celsius), which makes it impossible to layer silicon circuits on top of each other without damaging the bottom layer, the researchers said.

But both carbon nanotube transistors and RRAM are fabricated at cooler than 392 degrees F (200 degrees C), so they can easily be layered on top of silicon without damaging the underlying circuitry. This also makes the researchers' approach compatible with current chip-making technology, they said. [Super-Intelligent Machines: 7 Robotic Futures]

Stacking many layers on top of each other could potentially lead to overheating, Mitra said, because top layers will be far from the heat sinks at the base of the chip. But, he added, that problem should be relatively simple to engineer around, and the increased energy-efficiency of the new technology means less heat is generated in the first place.

To demonstrate the benefits of its design, the team built a prototype gas detector by adding another layer of carbon nanotube-based sensors on top of the chip. The vertical integration meant that each of these sensors was directly connected to an RRAM cell, dramatically increasing the rate at which data could be processed.

This data was then transferred to the logic layer, which was implementing a machine learning algorithm that enabled it to distinguish among the vapors of lemon juice, vodka and beer.

This was just a demonstration, though, Mitra said, and the chip is highly versatile and particularly well-suited to the kind of data-heavy, deep neural network approaches that underpin current artificial intelligence technology.

Jan Rabaey, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California at Berkeley, who was not involved in the research, said he agrees.

"These structures may be particularly suited for alternative learning-based computational paradigms such as brain-inspired systems and deep neural nets, and the approach presented by the authors is definitely a great first step in that direction," he told MIT News.

The new study was published online July 5 in the journal Nature.

TOKYO: A virtual reality "space ride" in which viewers feel as if they are flying through the air inside a giant glass ball has been developed in Japan.

TOKYO: A virtual reality "space ride" in which viewers feel as if they are flying through the air inside a giant glass ball has been developed in Japan.

Unlike conventional VR systems, the "8K:VR Ride" -- which resembles a cross between a theme park ride and a miniature IMAX theatre -- does not require users to wear any headgear.

Instead they are placed on two swivelling, elevated chairs just in front of a semi-spherical screen which entirely engulfs their field of vision.

"Unlike the conventional flat screen, you can see images coming closer to you physically in this dome screen," said Makoto Nakahira, an engineer at Wonder Vision Techno Laboratory.

"This is a system in which you can experience visuals that you have never seen before."

The experimental technology was unveiled to Japanese media for the first time on Tuesday before a scheduled showing at Japan´s Digital Content Expo 2017 in October.

Its name refers to the screen´s super-high definition 8K technology, which is 16 times more detailed than most current HD images.

Wonder Vision co-developed the system with Japan-based NHK Enterprises and NHK Media Technology -- both affiliated with public broadcaster NHK -- and RecoChoku Labo.

The space ride was first showcased at SXSW 2017, a major conference on convergence in the interactive, film and music industries, in Austin, Texas in March.

The system features a hemispherical theatre known as Sphere 5.2 -- a screen 5.2 metres (17 feet) wide, 3.4 metres tall and 2.6 metres deep.

Russia launches 73 satellites into orbit

MOSCOW:  An imaging satellite and 72 micro-satellites were launched into orbit Friday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Russian space agency Roscosmos and research centre Glavcosmos announced.

The Soyuz 2-1A rocket successfully lifted off at 0643 GMT with the satellite payload, Roscosmos said in a statement.

According to Russian news agencies, Glavcosmos, charged with putting the satellites into orbit, later reported that by 1441 GMT all the satellites had successfully separated. They were released into three different orbits.

"For the first time in the world, such a complex and large mission has been developed and implemented," said Glavcosmos.

The primary payload, the Kanopus-V-IK satellite, is to provide wide-angle images of the Earth and will be used especially to detect forest fires or to update the topography of maps.

The 72 small satellites include those made by Japan, Germany and Canada along with 62 nanosatellites known as CubeSats, developed by the United States.

South Africa confirm gamble on Morkel

DUNEDIN, New Zealand: South Africa will gamble on the fitness of speedster Morne Morkel when the first Test against New Zealand begins in Dunedin on Wednesday (today).

With cool, blustery conditions expected and a green hue to the wicket, New Zealand would not confirm their likely line-up on Tuesday, leaving open the option of playing a second spin bowler.

But South African captain Faf du Plessis felt that one spinner and Morkel slotting in as the third seamer behind Vern Philander and Kagiso Rabada would give his side the best balance.

The 1.96 metre (6ft 5in) Morkel, with 242 Test wickets, has been out of international action since early last year with a back injury which he aggravated again during a tour match in Australia last November.

Du Plessis said the risk of putting the tall paceman back into action against New Zealand was worth it. “If he’s not going to be able to play now then we’ll never know if we don’t take that chance,” du Plessis said Tuesday.

“Every time he’s bowled in the nets it felt to me like he was bowling at his best.

“So it’s an opportunity we have to take as a team and see where Morne is with his back. All the reports say it’s 100 percent fine.”

PSL 2017: Karachi Kings qualify for playoffs, Qalandars eliminated

DUBAI: Karachi Kings defeated Islamabad United by six wickets in rain-reduced Twenty20 match and qualified for playoffs of the Pakistan Super League 2017.

Although, Islamabad United had already qualified for the playoffs but their encounter with Karachi Kings on Sunday was important for Lahore Qalandars too.

With the defeat of Islamabad United, Lahore Qalandars are now eliminated from the tournament.

Earlier, Islamabad United set a target of 124 runs for Karachi Kings after the match was reduced to 15 overs a side due to rain here at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday night.

Karachi Kings reached the target at the loss of four wickets with 1 ball remaining. Chris Gayle scored quick-fire 44 runs off 17 balls —striking back-to-back three sixes.

Washington Nationals Trade for Two Oakland Relievers

To fortify a bullpen that has squandered more than a third of its save chances, the Washington Nationals acquired relievers Ryan Madson and Sean Doolittle from the Oakland Athletics on Sunday for the right-hander Blake Treinen and the prospects Jesus Luzardo, a left-hander, and Sheldon Neuse, an infielder.

Madson, a 36-year-old right-hander, has a 2.06 E.R.A. and is seventh among relievers in hits plus walks per inning, at 0.79. Doolittle is a 30-year-old left-hander who has held left-handed batters hitless in 23 at-bats this year, with 12 strikeouts and no walks.

AROUND THE MAJORS Jose Quintana, acquired by the Chicago Cubs last week in a trade with the White Sox, struck out a season-high 12 while allowing three hits and no walks in seven innings in an 8-0 victory over the host Baltimore Orioles. Daniel Murphy hit two of Washington’s five home runs to lead the Nationals to a 14-4 win at Cincinnati. Justin Turner homered and singled, raising his batting average to .374 and helping the Los Angeles Dodgers extend their winning streak to nine games with a 3-2 victory at Miami. Five Los Angeles pitchers combined for 16 strikeouts with no walks. Cleveland starter Trevor Bauer got just two outs in a four-run first inning as the Athletics beat the Indians, 7-3, in Oakland, Calif.

CYCLING

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Froome Holds Lead Despite Broken Wheel

Chris Froome fought back from a bike breakdown to hang onto the race leader’s yellow jersey on the tricky Stage 15 of the Tour de France, won by Bauke Mollema with a courageous solo breakaway.

The back wheel of Froome’s bike broke just as the AG2R team of his close rival Romain Bardet was picking up the pace before the last big climb of the day, a five-mile slog up the Col de Peyra Taillade. But Froome, a three-time Tour champion, worked furiously on the climb to reel in Bardet’s group. He now takes the jersey and an 18-second lead over Fabio Aru into Monday, a rest day.

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GOLF

Strong Finish Gives Title to DeChambeau

Bryson DeChambeau overcame a four-stroke deficit to beat Patrick Rodgers by a stroke at the John Deere Classic for his first PGA Tour title and a spot in this week’s British Open. DeChambeau, 23, birdied four of the final six holes at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Ill., for a six-under-par 65 and an 18-under total of 266. Rodgers closed with a 70.

COURSE RECORD AT SCOTTISH OPEN Rafa Cabrera Bello shot a course-record 64 at Dundonald Links in Irvine and then birdied the first hole of a playoff with Callum Shinkwin to win the Scottish Open for his first title in over five years.

MCCARRON PREVAILS Scott McCarron shot a six-under 66 and took advantage of a collapse by the three-time defending champion Bernhard Langer to win the Constellation Senior Players Championship in Owings Mills, Md.

AUTO RACING

Hamilton Wins British Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton slashed Sebastian Vettel’s lead in the Formula One championship to 1 point by winning a record-tying fifth British Grand Prix.

Vettel was in third place heading into the penultimate lap at Silverstone, England, but fell into seventh after his front left tire shredded. So did the 20-point lead he held over Hamilton going into the 10th round of the 20-race season.

HAMLIN CAPTURES NASCAR RACE Denny Hamlin held off Kyle Larson over the final laps to win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H., and send Joe Gibbs Racing to victory lane for the first time this season.

Hamlin needed his 30th career Cup Series victory to secure a berth in Nascar’s version of the postseason and end a winless streak that stretched to last September at Richmond. Martin Truex Jr. was third.

AMERICAN TAKES INDYCAR EVENT Josef Newgarden raced to his second Toronto IndyCar title in three years, dominating on the streets surrounding Exhibition Place.

Newgarden, an American, came out in front on Lap 25 after a crash by Tony Kanaan led to a caution. Newgarden maintained an advantage of over two seconds for most of the rest of the race. The win gave Team Penske its 193rd victory, the most of any team. Alexander Rossi was second.

PRO BASKETBALL

Hartley Leads the Way for the Liberty

After his team’s recent scoring struggles, Liberty Coach Bill Laimbeer restored Bria Hartley to the starting lineup in place of Sugar Rodgers. The move worked.

Hartley scored 15 points to help the host Liberty beat the short-handed Washington Mystics, 85-55. Rodgers came off the bench to add 14 points for the Liberty (9-9). The Mystics (11-9), who were missing their star, Elena Delle Donne, because of a right ankle injury, were led by Emma Meesseman’s 19 points.

Bologna vs Cagliari – The FBAs in Italy!

Arriving at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara just over an hour before kick off, tickets were easy to purchase from a window at the stadium. As Bologna vs Cagliari is a fairly low-key fixture, and Italian sides rarely sell out, it was hardly a challenge to find tickets. I asked in broken Italian for ‘non expensive’ tickets, and sure enough €18 + €16 Euros departed my wallet and I secured a spot on the Curva San Luca. Strangely my girlfriend @Aysha_Smith got in for €2 Euros less than I despite us both being the same age on our passports shown when buying – perhaps someone more well versed on Italian football ticket prices can comment below to explain that?

The purpose of this trip? Purely self-indulgence, but doesn’t that apply to most trips to the football? Finding myself in Italy it would be crude not to sample Italian football for the first time, especially with so much made in the UK about Italian ‘ultra’ culture.

From our perch just four rows from the front behind the goal on the Curva San Luca I had a great panorama looking over to the Curva Bulgarelli – home of said Ultras. They did not disappoint. Despite the match itself not being a classic, the singing was non-stop and the addition of flares and sporadic cannon fire, meant the spectacle that will live long in the memory extends beyond the football on show. The Ultras were a sight to behold, and closer inspections of fans around us proved to be somewhat eye-opening. Whereas in the UK, a football fan may groan at a misplaced pass, in Bologna some men literally engaged in a 10 second shouting match with the floor and anyone around them who would listen. It is possible that it sounded more intimidating than it in fact was due to the language barrier, but one particular man with multiple tear drop tattoos (if you know, you know) did strike a degree of fear into this Englishman.

A quick report of the football: Bologna won 2-1, after Cagliari were reduced to 10 men when ‘keeper and club captain Marco Storari saw a straight red on 54 minutes. The I Sardi stopper cynically took out Bologna’s Ladislav Krejci as the last man, resulting in a lengthy injury break. The home side opened the scoring through Simone Verdi’s 23rd minute free-kick (which happened to be right in front of where we were sitting). The set piece was one of those where you are unsure whether it is an excellently placed shot (bouncing right in front of the goalkeeper) or if, in fact, the man between the sticks should have done better.

The rest of the first half, on the pitch at least, was something of a non-event. Bologna were superior to their Sardinian opponents but lacked a killer instinct. They also did a lot to dispel the myth of Italian football being of a slow tempo style nature, with both sides fully exerting themselves either side of a drinks break in the first 45.

The red card just before the hour did change the game, as Bologna returned to the dominance they had in the first half, after a 10 minute spell in which, clearly with manager Massimo Rastelli’s words ringing in their ears, Cagliari for the first time meaningfully imposed themselves in the opponent’s half. Substitute Federico Di Francesco doubled the home side’s lead on 74 minutes, against the beleaguered 10 men, admirably backed by 250-300 or so that made the long trip from Sardinia.

However, that was not all she wrote, as Bruno Alves struck a powerful free kick to ensure no one left the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara early.

Final score 2-1, and as a first taste of Serie A football not bad at all. Three goals, a red card, a fast tempo match in the 30 degree plus heat and some interesting interactions will die-hard Italian fans all for around £15- £17 each.

Sung Hyun Park Wins U.S. Women’s Open, Edging an Amateur

BEDMINSTER, N.J. — Sung Hyun Park, a 23-year-old South Korean with a fluid swing and stalwart nerves, dropped a 20-foot putt on the 15th green and then a 6-footer on the 17th, capturing the United States Women’s Open with the decisive birdies on Sunday.

Consistency and length carried the day for Park, who carded only one bogey to shoot a five-under-par round of 67 at Trump National Golf Club. Park chased and then surpassed Hye-Jin Choi, a plucky 17-year-old amateur from South Korea, playing one pairing behind her. Choi dumped a critical seven-iron shot off the tee into a pond on the 16th to wreck her own fairy tale.

Feng Shanshan of China, the front-runner for most of the tournament, imploded on the final hole with a triple-bogey 8, dropping her into a tie for fifth at six under.

“I have had a lot of winnings, but winning here at the U.S. Open means so much more,” said Park, who had seven victories on the Korean tour last year.

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She has the nickname Dak Gong, an informal phrase that can be translated as “Shut up and attack.”

“Not like other Koreans, I am more aggressive in my game,” Park said through an interpreter. “I focus on my attack and being aggressive. And I like that name.”

The triumph for Park, her first major title and her first victory on the L.P.G.A. Tour, represented a significant breakthrough. With her 11-under 277, she defeated Choi by two strokes to earn the largest prize in the history of women’s golf, $900,000.

But there was considerable irony embedded in the final leaderboard. Playing under the gaze of the club’s owner, President Trump, who preaches “America first,” golfers from the United States failed to finish among the top 10 in this tournament for the first time.

Trump did not attend the victory ceremony, but he applauded the top two finishers as they passed under his box.

“I flew all the way here from Korea, long distance, and then on top of that the United States president clapped for me and cheered for me,” Choi said. “I was touched.”

Marina Alex, from Wayne, N.J., about 40 miles away, was the top American finisher, in a tie for 11th. Paula Creamer’s seventh-place tie in 2012, behind six non-Americans, represented the previous United States low point at the Open.

Off the 18th green, Alex was greeted with a hug from her first-grade teacher before declining to provide a detailed answer to a question about whether the Americans’ performance was cause for concern. “No, sir, I don’t think so,” she said. “Next question.”

Lexi Thompson entered the tournament ranked third in the Rolex rankings, while Cristie Kerr, Stacy Lewis and Danielle Kang, who recently won the Women’s P.G.A. Championship, were all among the top 20. Ten of the top 15 players were from East Asia, including eight from South Korea. Park was 11th.

Politics continued to dog the tournament Sunday, the president’s third straight day at the club, as protests directed at him moved inside the gate. Six New Jersey-based protesters bought tickets and stood near a concession stand with shirts that spelled out “R-e-s-i-s-t” on the front and “This is not … N-o-r-m-a-l,” on the back.

When Trump appeared in his customized tent near the 15th green early in the afternoon, he was greeted with cheers from a gathering of supporters. But another group of four protesters stood facing him, wearing purple jerseys that read, “Dump Sexist Trump.”

“I, like millions of others, am a survivor of sexual harassment and assault,” said Hope Singsen of New York. “I’m here to express my disgust at the U.S.G.A. for using sport to legitimize a sexual predator,” she continued, with a reference to the United States Golf Association.

The president was photographed pointing at the protesters, though he spent most of the time with his back turned to the crowd, watching the tournament on a television in his suite. Late in the day, he was joined by his wife, Melania. Security guards did not remove any protesters from the course.

Park produced her biggest putt on the 15th hole right in front of Trump, pushing her into the lead at the time at 10-under. Choi followed with her own 15-foot birdie putt on that same green minutes later, also moving to 10-under.

Choi finally erred on the next hole, a 139-yard par 3. She tried to land her tee shot on a narrow strip below the pin. She came up short, and the ball plopped into the water. Her double bogey dropped her two strokes behind Park with only two holes to play.

“I tried to squeeze the distance, and the club was not quite right,” said Choi, who recovered nicely with a birdie on No. 18. “I thought all my good work would disappear.”

Choi would have earned $540,000 for her second-place finish, but she is too young to turn professional in South Korea and must give up the substantial prize money. She was trying to become only the second amateur to capture the Open; Catherine Lacoste of France, in 1967, was the first.

Choi’s score of 279 was the lowest in Open history for an amateur.

“It would be nice if I did get the money, but the primary goal was to compete,” Choi said, smiling. “Getting the second place is more of an honor. I’m not focusing on the money right now. Just that I can come and play is an honor.”

Park, who is in her first season on the L.P.G.A. Tour, is an elegant golfer with a graceful, long swing line and a seemingly limitless future.

“She’s a super rookie this year,” Feng said. “She was the money queen in Korea. She’s young and long. She hits the ball very long and very straight. I don’t see any weak part in her game. I’m not surprised she won this week.”

Mets Can’t Escape Ghosts of a Dejecting Playoff Loss

When the St. Louis Cardinals’ starting lineup was announced Monday night, starting pitcher Adam Wainwright was mildly booed by the Citi Field crowd, apparently still harboring ill will 11 years after he struck out Carlos Beltran to end Game 7 of the 2006 National League Championship Series at Shea Stadium.

As the night progressed, Wainwright provided more for the home crowd to dislike. He continued to stoke the ire of Mets fans, hitting a run-scoring double and picking up the win in a 6-3 victory over the Mets.

Mets starter Zack Wheeler traded zeros with Wainwright over the first four innings, and Wheeler even escaped the fifth unscathed after walking the bases loaded with two out. But the sixth inning conjured bad memories of 2006 for Mets fans, and Wheeler retired only one more batter after the fifth.

Yadier Molina, who hit the go-ahead home run in the ninth inning of Game 7 in 2006, led off the sixth with an infield single. Molina’s grounder sputtered toward shortstop Jose Reyes, who could not cleanly barehand the ball; Reyes, of course, hit leadoff for the Mets 11 years ago.

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St. Louis shortstop Paul DeJong, who was 13 during the 2006 playoffs, added his own bit of torment in the Cardinals-Mets rivalry, homering to drive in Molina. DeJong became the first Cardinal to hit a home run in four straight games against the Mets.

“He left it out over the plate, which is the pitch he’s been killing us with,” Mets Manager Terry Collins said of DeJong’s home run off Wheeler.

Later in the inning, with Magneuris Sierra on first base, Wainwright launched his double to right field. The Cardinals scored all six of their runs in the sixth, with four charged to Wheeler — whom the Mets acquired in 2011 when they traded away Beltran. It was the fifth straight start in which Wheeler did not last beyond the sixth inning.

After the game, Wheeler was particularly upset about allowing Wainwright to reach base, which prevented him from stifling the Cardinals’ rally early. Wheeler threw a fastball up in the zone, which Wainwright, who now has 28 R.B.I. over the last two seasons, feasted on.

“We got to get the pitcher out in that situation,” Collins said of Wainwright’s sixth inning at-bat.

If the Mets felt haunted by ghosts from 2006 during the game, they received more auspicious visits earlier Monday, when they welcomed familiar faces back to Citi Field.

Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard played catch in the outfield for about 15 minutes before batting practice, throwing from about 70 feet. It was the first time either had publicly performed any baseball activities since sustaining injuries this season — Harvey to his right shoulder in June, and Syndergaard to his right lat muscle in April.

Second baseman Neil Walker also ran the bases and fielded grounders, moving closer to his own return after he partly tore his left hamstring on June 14.

Hansel Robles, too, was back on the grounds, recalled from Class AAA Las Vegas after pitching six and two-thirds scoreless innings in his last five outings in the minors. Before the game, Robles called his demotion in May a low point of his career and said that he thought the mental break of pitching outside the majors would help him regain consistency.

It did not come right away. Against his first batter in the sixth inning Monday, Robles gave up a three-run homer to Tommy Pham, which brought in Wainwright and Matt Carpenter.

The Mets scored the first run of the game when Michael Conforto led off the fifth inning with a solo home run. Lucas Duda hit a solo homer in the sixth and the next batter, Reyes, also rounded the bases in one fell swoop, doubling to center field and scoring after errors by center fielder Dexter Fowler, who misplayed the ball, and Sierra, whose throw into the infield went awry toward the Cardinals dugout.

The Mets looked close to eradicating their haunted past with Wainwright when Travis d’Arnaud followed Reyes by reaching second after Fowler dropped a fly ball. But d’Arnaud was stranded — another common theme for the Mets on Monday, when they went 0 for 11 with runners in scoring position.

Perhaps pressing for a run-scoring hit in the ninth with runners on the corners and one out, Yoenis Cespedes swung on a 3-0 pitch, grounding into a double play to end the game.