Lifeboat Foundation

An international team of Johannes Kepler University researchers is developing robots made from soft materials. A new article in the journal Communications Materials demonstrates how these kinds of soft machines react using weak magnetic fields to move very quickly—even grabbing a quick-moving fly that has landed on it.

When we imagine a moving machine, such as a robot, we picture something largely made out of hard materials, says Martin Kaltenbrunner. He and his team of researchers at the JKU’s Department of Soft Matter Physics and the LIT Soft Materials Lab have been working to build a soft materials-based system. When creating these kinds of systems, there is a basic underlying idea to create conducive conditions that support close robot-human interaction in the future—without the solid machine physically harming humans.

It’s a lucrative concept that has drawn the attention of researchers across the globe in recent years.

But thanks to a new generation of futuristic building materials, those materials could be poised for a significant upgrade. A team of researchers at the USDA and several research institutions say they’ve developed “transparent wood,” a glass-like material made almost entirely out of trees that they claim is stronger, safer, more cost efficient and more thermally efficient than glass.

Kicking Glass

Continue reading “Scientists Create Clear, Glasslike Material Out of Wood” »

The first Super Heavy prototype has entered assembly operations, with the forward barrel sleeved and the fuel stack section spotted. The LR1600/2 crane (aka Tankzilla) continued to grow, and Orbital Launch Pad construction continued with more concrete being pumped into the legs. Starships SN5 and 6 remain outside after having been moved out of the High Bay yesterday, and work continued around the site.

Video and Pictures from Mary (@BocaChicaGal). Edited by Brady Kenniston (@TheFavoritist).

Continue reading “SpaceX Boca Chica — Super Heavy Forward Dome Sleeved” »

Here at OVO we’re always keeping our eye out for the latest cutting-edge tech that might benefit the environment. That’s why we’re incredibly excited about the news that Julian Melchiorri, a design student at the Royal College of Art, has created the first man-made, biologically functional leaf. Christened ‘The Silk Leaf’, it’s the ultimate in ‘green’ technology in more ways than one.

The leaf contains chloroplasts taken from real plant cells, which are suspended in a silk protein material. When this comes into contact with carbon dioxide, water and light, it converts it into oxygen, just like a real plant.

Continue reading “Green technology: the man-made leaf that can produce oxygen” »

World hunger is a persistent problem despite all of humanity’s progress in recent years. However, I believe that we have a real shot at defeating world hunge…

Scientists are using high-energy pulses of electricity to turn any source of carbon into turbostratic graphene in an instant. The process promises environmental benefits by turning waste into valuable graphene that can then strengthen concrete and other composite materials.

The work has a wide range of applications for stronger materials.

Researchers have shown how to effectively transform one material into another using a finely shaped laser pulse.

All Hands

The new enzyme can make its way through plastic six times faster than the previous plastic-devouring enzyme developed by members of the same team, according to research published Monday in the journal PNAS.

“We were actually quite surprised it worked so well,” McGeehan told CNN, though he added that the enzyme is “still way too slow” to be helpful at any meaningful scale.

Researchers at Berkeley Lab in California have developed a new material that can close the loop on recycling plastics, keeping it out of the ocean and landfills.