Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: innovation – Page 160

Circa 1990 to current o.o

The Woodward effect, also referred to as a Mach effect, is part of a hypothesis proposed by James F. Woodward in 1990.[1] The hypothesis states that transient mass fluctuations arise in any object that absorbs internal energy while undergoing a proper acceleration. Harnessing this effect could generate a reactionless thrust, which Woodward and others claim to measure in various experiments.[2][3]

Hypothetically, the Woodward effect would allow for field propulsion spacecraft engines that would not have to expel matter. Such a proposed engine is sometimes called a Mach effect thruster (MET) or a Mach Effect Gravitation al Assist (MEGA) drive.[4][5] So far, experimental results have not strongly supported this hypothesis,[6] but experimental research on this effect, and its potential applications, continues.[7]

The Space Studies Institute was selected as part of NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program as a Phase I proposal in April 2017 for Mach Effect research.[8][9][10][11] The year after, NASA awarded a NIAC Phase II grant to the SSI to further develop these propellantless thrusters.[12][13].

Read more | >

Conclusion

The race is on to develop the hardware that will power the upcoming era of AI. More innovation is happening in the semiconductor industry today than at any time since Silicon Valley’s earliest days. Untold billions of dollars are in play.

This next generation of chips will shape the contours and trajectory of the field of artificial intelligence in the years ahead. In the words of Yann LeCun: “Hardware capabilities…motivate and limit the types of ideas that AI researchers will imagine and will allow themselves to pursue. The tools at our disposal fashion our thoughts more than we care to admit.”

Read more | >

A “cutting edge” alternative ventilator for coronavirus patients has been developed by a taskforce. The ‘exovent’ is a reinvention of the traditional iron lung, which saved the lives of countless polio victims during the 20th century.

Unlike the usual ventilators, which are positive pressure ventilators (PPV), the exovent is a non-invasive negative pressure ventilation (NPV) device, which could be used both in intensive care or on an ordinary hospital ward.

www.cambridge-news.co.uk/…/cambridge-coronavirus-ventillato…

Developed by a task force including Cambridge-based Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group, it can be manufactured in parallel with other ventilator designs.

Read more | >

A team at UPV’s Nanophotonics Technology Center has discovered a new fundamental symmetry in electromagnetism, acoustics and elasticity laws: a temporal supersymmetry.

According to Carlos García Meca and Andrés Macho Ortiz, researchers at NTC-UPV, this new symmetry allows the conservation of the linear moment between dramatically different physical systems. This paves the way to designing pioneering optical, acoustic and elastic devices, including invisible omnidirectional, polarization-independent materials, ultra-compact frequency shifters, isolators and pulse-shape transformers.

“These devices allow us to unusually modify different properties of light signals inside photonic circuits to process the spread of information. This is vital in communication systems. Moreover, we can adapt the functionality of those devices to the requirements at any time, as they are dynamically configurable,” explained Carlos García Meca.

Read more | >

Circa 2018 face_with_colon_three

Jong-Kyu Park and colleagues predicted a set of distortions that could control ELMs without any additional instabilities. They then tested these distortions at the Korean Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR)—a ring-shaped magnetic fusion confinement device. Their experiments worked.

“We show for the first time the full 3D field operating window in a tokamak to suppress ELMs without stirring up core instabilities or excessively degrading confinement,” Park said. “For a long time we thought it would be too computationally difficult to identify all beneficial symmetry-breaking fields, but our work now demonstrates a simple procedure to identify the set of all such configurations.”

This breakthrough means scientists will be able to better predict the distortions for a far larger tokamak—the ITER, the world’s largest fusion experiment that will take place inside the most complex machine ever built. Being able to control the plasma inside the ITER Tokamak will be essential if fusion energy is to be produced from it. At the moment, scientists believe the ITER Tokamak will start producing plasma in December 2025.

Read more | >

The U.S. space agency National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA), European Space Agency (ESA), and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are inviting coders, entrepreneurs, scientists, designers, storytellers, makers, builders, artists, and technologists to participate in a virtual hackathon May 30–31 dedicated to putting open data to work in developing solutions to issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the global Space Apps COVID-19 Challenge, participants from around the world will create virtual teams that – during a 48-hour period – will use Earth observation data to propose solutions to COVID-19-related challenges ranging from studying the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and its spread to the impact the disease is having on the Earth system. Registration for this challenge opens in mid-May.

“There’s a tremendous need for our collective ingenuity right now,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “I can’t imagine a more worthy focus than COVID-19 on which to direct the energy and enthusiasm from around the world with the Space Apps Challenge that always generates such amazing solutions.”

The unique capabilities of NASA and its partner space agencies in the areas of science and technology enable them to lend a hand during this global crisis. Since the start of the global outbreak, Earth science specialists from each agency have been exploring ways to use unique Earth observation data to aid understanding of the interplay of the Earth system – on global to local scales – with aspects of the COVID-19 outbreak, including, potentially, our ability to combat it. The hackathon will also examine the human and economic response to the virus.

Continue reading “NASA, partners launch virtual hackathon to develop COVID-19 solutions” | >

Scientists from Princeton University and the Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have used radio frequency waves and temperature to stabilize the white-hot and volatile plasma that swirls inside of fusion reactors like tokamaks and stellarators.

The radio waves disrupt the magnetic islands that form and disrupt the plasma flow, and temperature magnifies the stabilizing effect. As the saying goes, the disruptor of your disruptor is your friend.

Read more | >