The power to turn invisible, which has long been a hallmark of science fiction and fantasy, would be a revolutionary technical breakthrough. Check out how scientists are making an invisibility cloak into reality.
Category: materials – Page 155
Scientists develop first fabric to automatically cool or insulate depending on conditions
Despite decades of innovation in fabrics with high-tech thermal properties that keep marathon runners cool or alpine hikers warm, there has never been a material that changes its insulating properties in response to the environment. Until now.
University of Maryland researchers have created a fabric that can automatically regulate the amount of heat that passes through it. When conditions are warm and moist, such as those near a sweating body, the fabric allows infrared radiation (heat) to pass through. When conditions become cooler and drier, the fabric reduces the heat that escapes. The development was reported in the February 8, 2019 issue of the journal Science.
The researchers created the fabric from specially engineered yarn coated with a conductive metal. Under hot, humid conditions, the strands of yarn compact and activate the coating, which changes the way the fabric interacts with infrared radiation. They refer to the action as “gating” of infrared radiation, which acts as a tunable blind to transmit or block heat.
Asteroid Mining Startup About to Launch First Mission
An asteroid mining startup called AstroForge is preparing to launch two missions to space this year, Bloomberg reports — inaugural, albeit early attempts to extract valuable resources from space rocks.
AstroForge isn’t looking to actually land on an asteroid and start extracting materials just yet. Its first mission to space, slated to launch aboard a SpaceX rideshare in April, will involve testing out ways of refining platinum from asteroid-like materials in space.
New Faraday Cages Can Be Switched Off and On
Advanced new Faraday cages—the metal mesh enclosures that can block wireless signals—can also be switched on and off for reversible protection against noise, a new study finds.
In addition, these new shields can be easily fabricated through a technique akin to spray-painting, which could help them find use in electronics, researchers say.
Built out of a novel material called MXene, these cages could block and allow signals as desired.
The World Is Amazed by the First Organic Modular Body
The world has witnessed many bizarre things, but seeing a biological body devoid of life become functional with the help of technology is a totally new tale. OSCAR, a living being formed from human cells, was born. Cornelis Vlasman is the protagonist, a talented biologist who believes that the path less trodden is, by definition, the least interesting. He creates his own laboratory with a few like-minded people, where he experiments with organic materials on his own initiative, with his own resources, and with his own crew.
After many years of hard labor, Vlasman’s team is successful in creating new life from cells collected from his own body. Under his guidance, OSCAR, the world’s first living organism, is being built. OSCAR is a human-sized prototype built with interactive organ modules created from human cells.
In a modular system, independent modules, similar to building blocks, constitute a transformable and thus changeable arrangement.
Macroscopic laser pulling based on the Knudsen force in rarefied gas
Optical pulling is an attractive concept due to the counterintuitive feature, the profound mechanism underneath and promising applications. In recent ten years, optical pulling of micro-nano objects have been fully demonstrated. However, optical pulling of a macroscopic object is challenging. Herein, laser pulling of a macroscopic object is presented in rarefied gas. The pulling force is originated from the Kundsen force when a gauss laser beam irradiates a macroscopic structure composed of the absorptive bulk cross-linked graphene material and a SiO2 layer. A torsional pendulum device qualitatively presents the laser pulling phenomenon. A gravity pendulum device was used to further measure the pulling force that is more than three orders of magnitudes larger than the radiation pressure. This work expands the scope of optical pulling from microscale to macroscale and provides an effective technique approach for macroscopic optical manipulations.
Asteroid mining: SpaceX will help a startup launch operations in 2023
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.
Watch a sea cucumber-inspired shapeshifting robot escape jail
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.