Engineering – Page 12

Battery, Energy, Engineering, Science & Technology News

Graphene sponge helps lithium sulphur batteries reach new potential

September 19, 2019

An illustration of the Chalmers design for a lithium sulfur battery. The highly porous quality of the graphene aerogel allows for high enough soaking of sulfur to make the catholyte concept worthwhile. Credit: Yen Strandqvist/Chalmers University of Technology

To meet the demands of an electric future, new battery technologies will be essential. One option is lithium sulphur batteries, which offer a theoretical energy density more than five times that of lithium ion batteries. Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, recently unveiled a promising breakthrough for this type of battery, using a catholyte with the help of a graphene sponge.

The researchers’ novel idea is a porous, sponge-like aerogel made of reduced graphene oxide that acts as a free-standing electrode in the battery cell and allows for better and higher utilisation of sulphur.

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Engineering, Science & Technology News, Space, Space Flight

These researchers want to run cable from the Earth to the Moon

September 9, 2019

It’s a space elevator concept that could actually work.

It would be much easier to escape Earth’s gravity if you could skip the energy-intensive rockets.

That’s the idea behind the Spaceline, a newly-proposed type of space elevator that would link the Earth and the Moon in a bid drastically cut the cost of space travel.

Described in research published to the preprint server ArXiv by researchers at Columbia University and Cambridge University, the Spaceline would be tethered to the surface of the Moon and dangle down into geostationary orbit around the Earth like a plumb bob, waiting for astronauts to latch on and ride into the cosmos. The proof-of-concept paper found that the Spaceline could be constructed out of materials that exist today, raising the possibility of easier space travel and perhaps even orbital settlements.

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Aviation, Engineering, Record Breaker, Science & Technology News, Weapons

This video of a rocket sled doing 6,599mph at Hollman AFB is absolute insanity

September 7, 2019

The sound alone of something ripping by at hypersonic speed just feet above the desert floor is worth the click!

The internet is full of many wondrous things, most of which you have likely already seen. But something you probably have never seen before is an object rocketing along a set of tracks at 6,599 miles per hour, or right around Mach 8.6. No, I did not screw those metrics up, the video below shows a test being conducted on an object that is moving far beyond the threshold of hypersonic speed (Mach 5) just a few feet over the desert floor near Alamagordo, New Mexico.

Continue reading… “This video of a rocket sled doing 6,599mph at Hollman AFB is absolute insanity”

Engineering, Nanotechnology, new technology, Science & Technology News

The world’s most advanced nanotube computer may keep Moore’s Law alive

September 6, 2019

Up close photograph of nanotube

MIT researchers have found new ways to cure headaches in manufacturing carbon nanotube processors, which are faster and less power hungry than silicon chips.

A team of academics at MIT has unveiled the world’s most advanced chip yet that’s made from carbon nanotubes—cylinders with walls the width of a single carbon atom. The new microprocessor, which is capable of running a conventional software program, could be an important milestone on the road to finding silicon alternatives.

The electronics industry is struggling with a slowdown in Moore’s Law, which holds that the number of transistors that can be packed on a silicon processor doubles roughly every couple of years. This trend is facing its physical limits: as the sizes of the devices shrink to a few atoms, electrical current is starting to leak from the metallic channels that shuttle it through transistors. The heat that’s released saps semiconductors’ energy efficiency—and may even cause them to fail.

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cutting edge, Engineering, Robotics, Robots, Science & Technology News

A cave is no place for humans, so DARPA is sending in the robots

September 3, 2019

DARPA’s Subterranean Challenge aims to make cave exploration a more robotic affair.

Outside its cavernous passageways, the mine’s entrance is emblazoned in red lettering that reads “Safety Research Coal Mine.” This site is just one of two mine systems at the Bruceton Research Center in Pittsburgh. They were once part of a full mine system but were split apart for research purposes after the U.S. Bureau of Mines leased 38 acres of land from the Pittsburgh Coal Company in 1910.

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Breakthrough Thinking, Energy, Engineering, Science & Technology News

Is Thorium the fuel of the future to revitalize nuclear?

September 3, 2019

Nuclear energy produces carbon-free electricity, and the United States has used nuclear energy for decades to generate baseline power.

Nuclear energy, however, carries a dreaded stigma. After disasters such as Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukishima, the public is acutely aware of the potential, though misguided, dangers of nuclear energy. The cost of nuclear generation is on the rise–a stark contrast to the decreasing costs of alternative energy forms such as solar and wind, which have gained an immense amount of popularity recently.

This trend could continue until market forces make nuclear technology obsolete. Into this dynamic comes a resurgence in nuclear technology: liquid fluoride thorium reactors, or LFTRs (“lifters”). A LFTR is a type of molten salt reactor, significantly safer than a typical nuclear reactor. LFTRs use a combination of thorium (a common element widely found in the earth) and fluoride salts to power a reactor.

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Engineering, Healthcare, new technology, Science & Technology News

Quantum radar has been demonstrated for the first time

August 30, 2019

A radar device that relies on entangled photons works at such low power that it can hide behind background noise, making it useful for biomedical and security applications.

One of the advantages of the quantum revolution is the ability to sense the world in a new way. The general idea is to use the special properties of quantum mechanics to make measurements or produce images that are otherwise impossible.

Much of this work is done with photons. But as far as the electromagnetic spectrum is concerned, the quantum revolution has been a little one-sided. Almost all the advances in quantum computing, cryptography, teleportation, and so on have involved visible or near-visible light.

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Architecture, Engineering, Housing, Science & Technology News

Are these fireproof, hurricane-proof geodesic domes the post-climate change house of the future?

August 21, 2019

Geoship is touting the bioceramic geodesic dome as the home of the future—and getting help on the rollout from Zappos, which wants to build some near its headquarters to give to the homeless.

In a world where wildfires and hurricanes are becoming more frequent, design for new housing would be smart to anticipate the climate disasters that are coming. So these new buildings aren’t made from wood or any other conventional building materials. Instead, they’re made from bioceramic—which can withstand disasters, and perhaps dramatically lower construction costs.

It’s the design of a startup called Geoship, which is using the material to build new dwellings in the form of a geodesic dome and has plans to produce both backyard cottages and full communities. It’s caught the attention of Zappos and is working with the company to build a small “village” of the domes in Las Vegas near the online shoe retailer headquarters. The plan is to offer them as free housing for some of the many people who are experiencing homelessness in the city.

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Engineering, Health & Fitness, New Inventions, Science & Technology News

Scientists create contact lenses that zoom on command

August 14, 2019

Blink twice to get a closer look.

Nosebleed seats may soon be a thing of the past. Scientists at the University of California San Diego have created a prototype contact lens that is controlled by the eye’s movements. Wearers can make the lenses zoom in or out by simply blinking twice. A paper detailing the team’s findings was published this month in Advanced Functional Materials.

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City Planning, Engineering, Housing, Science & Technology News

MbS goes Elon Musk on steroids: Seeks flying cars, electric dinosaurs, robot maids, & glowing sand for Barren Saudi desert

August 9, 2019

In northwest Saudi Arabia, where most people see a barren wasteland, Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman has envisioned the future, and according to the Wall Street Journal, it is something straight out of an Elon Musk wet dream, complete with flying taxis, robot maids, robot dinosaurs, robot martial arts, endless booze and glow-in-the-dark sand, among other things.

Perhaps MbS has been following Elon Musk’s Twitter account a little too closely. Or perhaps he has joined him in a microdosing regimen. Regardless, MbS has hatched a $500 billion plan to cover 10,000 square miles of this desert to attract the “world’s greatest minds and best talents” to the world’s best paying jobs in the world’s most livable city.

A true modern day, pardon, future Shangri-La.

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Engineering, new technology, Record Breaker, Science & Technology News, Transportation, Travel

World’s longest hyperloop track in the works for Saudi Arabia

August 9, 2019

A 35-km-long (21.- mi) hyperloop test track is planned for Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Economic City

Virgin Hyperloop One has expanded its relationship with Saudi Arabia, with the two announcing plans to develop a new test track in the country’s west. The facility would become the world’s longest Hyperloop tube, and would be used to test out the technology as the gulf nation eyes a wider rollout of the futuristic transport system.

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Engineering, New Inventions, Science & Technology News

Scientists capture photographic proof of quantum entanglement

August 4, 2019

Humans tend to think they have a pretty good handle on how the physical world operates, but things get unspeakably weird at the small scale. Particles aren’t always particles, and sometimes those particles (or waves) behave in bizarre, counterintuitive ways. One of the strangest features of physics is quantum entanglement, and scientists from the University of Glasgow have just captured the first photo demonstrating the effect.

When two particles or molecules become entangled on a quantum level, they share one or more properties such as spin, polarization, or momentum. This effect persists even if you move one of the entangled objects far away from the other. Einstein famously called entanglement “spooky action at a distance.” Einstein felt the existence of entanglement meant there were gaping holes in quantum mechanical theory.

Scientists have successfully demonstrated quantum entanglement with photos, electrons, molecules of various sizes, and even very small diamonds. The University of Glasgow study is the first ever to capture visual evidence of entanglement, though. The experiment used photons in entangled pairs and measured the phase of the particles — this is known as a Bell entanglement.

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