Lifeboat Foundation

A universe-opening theory suggested in issue 3 of the Justice League/Power Rangers comic book series has roots in real physics.

“Tesla Inc. has completed a solar project in Hawaii that incorporates batteries to sell power in the evening, part of a push by the electric car maker to provide more green power to the grid.”

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Earlier this year, physicists had put together a blueprint for how to make and measure time crystals — a bizarre state of matter with an atomic structure that repeats not just in space, but in time, allowing them to maintain constant oscillation without energy.

Two separate research teams managed to create what looked an awful lot like time crystals back in January, and now both experiments have successfully passed peer-review for the first time, putting the ‘impossible’ phenomenon squarely in the realm of reality.

“We’ve taken these theoretical ideas that we’ve been poking around for the last couple of years and actually built it in the laboratory,” says one of the researchers, Andrew Potter from Texas University at Austin.

Continue reading “It’s Official: Time Crystals Are a New State of Matter, and Now We Can Create Them” »

Superlubricity nano-structured self-assembling coating repairs surface wear, decreases emissions and increases HP and gas mileage.

Globally about 15 percent of manmade carbon dioxide comes from vehicles. In more developed countries, cars, trucks, airplanes, ships and other vehicles account for a third of emissions related to climate change. Emissions standards are fueling the lubricant additives market with innovation.

Up to 33% of fuel energy in vehicles is used to overcome friction. Tribology is the science of interacting surfaces in relative motion inclusive of friction, wear and lubrication. This is where TriboTEX, a nanotechnology startup is changing the game of friction modification and wear resilience with a lubricant additive that forms a nano-structured coating on metal alloys.

This nano-structured coating increases operating efficiency and component longevity. It is comprised of synthetic magnesium silicon hydroxide nanoparticles that self-assemble as an ultralow friction layer, 1/10 of the original friction resistance. The coating is self-repairing during operation, environmentally inert and extracts carbon from the oil. The carbon diamond-like nano-particle lowers the friction budget of the motor, improving fuel economy and emissions in parallel while increasing the power and longevity of the motor.

TriboTEX has a Kickstarter campaign that has just surpassed $100,000 in funding. The early bird round has just closed that offered the product at one half the cost of its retail. The final round offers the lubricant system self-forming coating at 75 percent and is ending shortly. The founder Dr. Pavlo Rudenko, Ph.D. is a graduate of Singularity University GSP11 program.

Hydrogen can be used in combustion like a regular gas engine or mixed with oxygen in a fuel cell for an electric engine.

A Tel Aviv University team led by Iftach Yacoby genetically engineered algae to emit hydrogen five times more efficiently to potentially power hydrogen cars.

Continue reading “New strain of algae produces five times more hydrogen fuel” »

MIT physicists have created a new form of matter, a supersolid, which combines the properties of solids with those of superfluids.

By using lasers to manipulate a superfluid gas known as a Bose-Einstein condensate, the team was able to coax the condensate into a quantum phase of matter that has a rigid structure—like a solid—and can flow without viscosity—a key characteristic of a superfluid. Studies into this apparently contradictory phase of matter could yield deeper insights into superfluids and superconductors, which are important for improvements in technologies such as superconducting magnets and sensors, as well as efficient energy transport. The researchers report their results this week in the journal Nature.

“It is counterintuitive to have a material which combines superfluidity and solidity,” says team leader Wolfgang Ketterle, the John D. MacArthur Professor of Physics at MIT. “If your coffee was superfluid and you stirred it, it would continue to spin around forever.”

Continue reading “Researchers create new form of matter—supersolid is crystalline and superfluid at the same time” »

Denmark’s wind turbines produced enough electricity to power the entire country last month.

The Scandinavian nation generated 97 gigawatt-hours (GWh) on 22 February, thanks to particularly windy weather, which is enough to power 10 million average EU households for the day.

Wind Europe spokesman Oliver Joy said the “impressive” feat was another boon for wind energy.

Continue reading “Denmark runs entirely on wind energy for a day” »

Word association time. I say “quasistatic cavity resonance”; you say…?

“Whaaaa?” or “Heh heh, cavity” are expected. But if you said “enabling purpose-built structures, such as cabinets, rooms, and warehouses, to generate quasistatic magnetic fields that safely deliver kilowatts of power to mobile receivers contained nearly anywhere within,” you win the virtual no-prize.

Continue reading “Disney Brings You the Wireless-Powered Room–Is Real-Life TRON Next?” »

British and Czech scientists have unveiled a new “super laser” that they claim is the most powerful pulse laser available today.

The laser was developed by Britain’s Central Laser Facility (CLF) and Czech research and development project HiLASE (high average power pulsed laser). The 22-ton device has been dubbed Bijov after a mythical Czech strongman, and it cost $48 million to build.

Bijov has an average power output of 1,000 watts — a world record for pulse lasers. It first crossed this “magical barrier” on December 16, 2016, and HiLASE physicist Martin Divoky told AFP that it is “10 times as powerful” as any other laser of the same type.

Continue reading “Scientists Have Unveiled The World’s Most Powerful ‘Super Laser’” »