Lifeboat Foundation

Space, the final frontier. The starship Enterprise pursues its mission to explore the galaxy, when all communication channels are suddenly cut off by an impenetrable nebula. In many episodes of the iconic TV series, the valiant crew must “tech the tech” and “science the science” within just 45 minutes of airtime in order to facilitate their escape from this or a similar predicament before the end credits roll. Despite spending a significantly longer time in their laboratories, a team of scientists from the University of Rostock has succeeded in developing an entirely new approach for the design of artificial materials that can transmit light signals without any distortions by means of precisely tuned flows of energy. They have published their results in Science Advances.

“When light spreads in an inhomogeneous medium, it undergoes scattering. This effect quickly transforms a compact, directed beam into a diffuse glow, and is familiar to all of us from summer clouds and autumn fog alike,” Professor Alexander Szameit of the Institute for Physics at the University of Rostock describes the starting point of his team’s considerations. Notably, it is the microscopic density distribution of a material that dictates the specifics of scattering. Szameit continues, “The fundamental idea of induced transparency is to take advantage of a much lesser-known optical property to clear a path for the beam, so to speak.”

This second property, known in the field of photonics under the arcane title of non-Hermiticity, describes the flow of energy, or, more precisely, the amplification and attenuation of light. Intuitively, the associated effects may seem undesirable—particularly the fading of a light beam due to absorption would seem highly counterproductive to the task of improving signal transmission. Nevertheless, non-Hermitian effects have become a key aspect of modern optics, and an entire field of research strives to harness the sophisticated interplay of losses and amplification for advanced functionalities.

Power-hungry, fossil-fuel dependent Japan has successfully tested a system that could provide a constant, steady form of renewable energy, regardless of the wind or the sun.

For more than a decade, Japanese heavy machinery maker IHI Corp. has been developing a subsea turbine that harnesses the energy in deep ocean currents and converts it into a steady and reliable source of electricity. The giant machine resembles an airplane, with two counter-rotating turbine fans in place of jets, and a central ‘fuselage’ housing a buoyancy adjustment system. Called Kairyu, the 330-ton prototype is designed to be anchored to the sea floor at a depth of 30–50 meters (100−160 feet).

Tested in one of the world’s strongest ocean currents, a prototype generator could herald the start of a new stream of renewable energy.

Continue reading “Giant Deep Ocean Turbine Trial Offers Hope of Endless Green Power” »

Chemical reactions that are driven by light offer a powerful tool for chemists who are designing new ways to manufacture pharmaceuticals and other useful compounds. Harnessing this light energy requires photoredox catalysts, which can absorb light and transfer the energy to a chemical reaction.

MIT chemists have now designed a new type of photoredox catalyst that could make it easier to incorporate light-driven reactions into manufacturing processes. Unlike most existing photoredox catalysts, the new class of materials is insoluble, so it can be used over and over again. Such catalysts could be used to coat tubing and perform chemical transformations on reactants as they flow through the tube.

“Being able to recycle the catalyst is one of the biggest challenges to overcome in terms of being able to use photoredox catalysis in manufacturing. We hope that by being able to do flow chemistry with an immobilized catalyst, we can provide a new way to do photoredox catalysis on larger scales,” says Richard Liu, an MIT postdoc and the joint lead author of the new study.

Ford Motor Company recently filed a patent for a combustion engine that will run on hydrogen, Motor1 reports. The patent isn’t like your normal hydrogen-powered vehicle which uses a propulsion system that converts energy stored as hydrogen to electricity via a fuel cell. The patent Ford filed is for a turbocharged combustion engine that runs on hydrogen.

Muscle Cars and Truck, which initially discovered and reported on the patent, noted that on paper, Ford’s engine should be capable of operating across a wide range of air/fuel lambda, which is the Greek letter used to represent a fuel’s stoichiometric value as 1.00, with values depending on torque demands. MCT also noted that internal exhaust gas recirculation and valve timing will be used to control combustion.

MCT quickly touched upon the importance of the stoichiometric value of a fuel, which is the ratio by which all of the fuel is mixed with all of the oxygen to produce a competitive burn. Notably, Ford’s new method of turbocharged hydrogen will explore lambda values in excess of 2.00. This means that the new engine would be able to operate in an extremely lean state and use more than double the amount of air required for the stoichiometric combustion of hydrogen. You can read more about this here.

A 100% renewable energy future cannot ignore geothermal as part of the mix.

Modelling only looked at solar and wind rather than considering the baseload capability of geothermal as a renewable energy solution.

A century later, Nikola Tesla’s dream comes true.