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Category: materials – Page 143

The space tech startup, AstroForge, hopes to complete two proof-of-concept missions this year using SpaceX rockets.

In what might be a groundbreaking moment in space industry history, a new startup plans to launch not one but two space missions this year. This might not sound like a big deal, but the company wants to go into space to find and use minerals from asteroids and other deep-space objects.

With the potentially infinite worth of valuable materials in deep space, asteroid mining startup AstroForge hopes its endeavors will pay off. If successful, this could result in a very healthy return.

Posteriori/iStock.

Asteroids are believed to contain various precious minerals, including metals such as iron, nickel, and cobalt, and rarer elements such as platinum and gold. They might also have water and other volatile substances that could be useful for future space exploration and settlement.

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It can even liquefy and move through small spaces, just like T-1000 in Terminator 2.

An international team of scientists created sea cucumber-inspired miniature robots that can quickly shift between liquid and solid states.

They built the new robots with a material they dubbed a “magnetoactive solid-liquid phase transitional machine.” The robots are also magnetic and can conduct electricity, as per a press release.

Wang and Pan et al.

During a mobility test, the researchers put the robot through an obstacle course, which saw it liquefy and move through jail bars. The move recalls the robot T-1000 from Terminator 2, which was able to liquefy and change shape at will.

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The method detects all the objects in the room and cancels out the static objects.

Researchers have been working on ways to “see” people without using cameras or expensive LiDAR hardware for years. In 2013, a team of researchers at MIT found a way to use cell phone signals to see through walls. In 2018, another MIT team used WiFi to detect people in another room and translate their movements into walking stick figures. Now, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Waterloo are advancing our ability to see through walls using WiFi.

Sauliakas/iStock.

The technology works by sending a low-powered WiFi signal through a wall, which reverberates around the room. It detects all the objects in the room, cancels out the static objects, and when the signal bounces back, uses the reflection of moving objects to generate a radar-like image. It can work through standard drywall, wooden fences, and even concrete walls, though the range and accuracy depend on the type of wall.

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Roman concrete has mostly stood the test of time. The Pantheon for example was dedicated in 128 CE and has the world’s largest unreinforced concrete dome. Today, it’s still intact.

Even some ancient Roman aqueducts still deliver water to Rome.

On the other hand – In your town or city you probably have at least one piece of brutalist architecture. Big in the 50s and 60s, these now controversial concrete structures were considered utilitarian and long lasting. Yet today, without restoration, some of these reinforced concrete buildings have begun to crumble.

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New Hubble Space Telescope readings show the last moments of a star before it’s devoured by a black hole.

Astronomers used NASA’s iconic Hubble Space Telescope to record detailed observations of a star’s final moments before it was torn apart by a black hole.

As per a NASA blog post, the astronomers used Hubble to focus on the immense gravitational impact on the dying star.

NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI)

The violent encounter, also known as a “tidal disruption event,” both pulls in material from the star and also shoots radiation out into the cosmos. In the process, a massive donut-shaped gas cloud is formed.

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When searching for catalysts for the energy transition, materials consisting of at least five elements are considered highly promising. But there are theoretically millions of them—how do we identify the most powerful one?

A Bochum-based research team led by Professor Alfred Ludwig, head of the Materials Discovery and Interfaces Department (MDI), has succeeded in placing all possible combinations of five elements on a in a single step. In addition, the researchers developed a method to analyze the electrocatalytic potential of each of the combinations in this micromaterial library in high throughput.

This is how they hope to speed up the search for potential catalysts by a considerable degree. The team from Ruhr University Bochum published its findings in the journal Advanced Materials.

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Researchers in Drexel University’s College of Engineering have developed a thin film device, fabricated by spray coating, that can block electromagnetic radiation with the flip of a switch. The breakthrough, enabled by versatile two-dimensional materials called MXenes, could adjust the performance of electronic devices, strengthen wireless connections and secure mobile communications against intrusion.

The team, led by Yury Gogotsi, Ph.D., Distinguished University and Bach professor in Drexel’s College of Engineering, previously demonstrated that the two-dimensional layered MXene materials, discovered just over a decade ago, when combined with an , can be turned into a potent active shield against .

This latest MXene discovery, reported in Nature Nanotechnology, shows how this shielding can be tuned when a small voltage—less than that produced by an alkaline battery—is applied.

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