Lifeboat Foundation

We’ve still got a long way to go.

Scientists found that solar sails, not rockets, could be the best option to return materials mined from asteroids back to Earth.

A team of researchers at the Korean Advanced Institute of Science (KAIST) has succeeded in developing a new artificial muscle using graphene-liquid crystal composite fibers.

The team, led by Professor Kim Sang-ouk of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, stressed that the artificial muscle was found to be the most similar to human muscle among those reported to the scientific community so far.

Also, the artificial muscle showed up to 17 times stronger strength when compared to human muscles.

Electronics engineers are continuously trying to develop thinner, more efficient and better performing transistors, the semiconductor devices at the core of most modern electronics. To do this, they have been evaluating the potential of a broad range of materials.

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), compounds based on transition metals and chalcogen elements, have very attractive electronic and mechanical properties that make them promising candidates for the development of future generations of transistors. Most notably, they have an atomically thin structure with no dangling bonds and a bandgap similar to that of silicon.

Despite their advantageous characteristics, TMDs have not yet been used to create transistors on a large scale. The main reason for this is the weak adhesion energy at the interface between these materials and substrates, which makes their widespread fabrication challenging.

How do you connect with nature?
Sophia explores the relationship between art, nature, and existence while perceiving her environment using an adaptive-style-transfer neural network.

#AdaptiveStyleTransfer #NeuralNetworks #perception #robotics #imagerecognition #computervision #MachineLearning #art.

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A quantum camera can take images using light that has never actually illuminated the subject. It could be useful for imaging particularly fragile tissues and materials.

Working with one of the world’s preeminent thermoelectric materials researchers, a team of researchers in the Clemson Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Clemson Nanomaterials Institute (CNI) has developed a new, fool-proof method to evaluate thermoelectric materials.

Department of Physics and Astronomy Research Assistant Professor Sriparna Bhattacharya, Engineer Herbert Behlow, and CNI Founding Director Apparao Rao collaborated with world-renowned researcher H. J. Goldsmid, professor emeritus at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia, to create a one-stop method for evaluating the efficiency of thermoelectric materials.

Goldsmid is considered by many to be the “father of thermoelectrics” for his pioneering work in thermoelectric materials. Bhattacharya first connected with Goldsmid on LinkedIn, telling him she had confirmed one of his theoretical predictions during her graduate studies at Clemson University.

Research finds secret of durability of buildings such as the Pantheon could be in the techniques used at the time.

Many applications, from fiber-optic telecommunications to biomedical imaging processes require substances that emit light in the near-infrared range (NIR). A research team in Switzerland has now developed the first chromium complex that emits light in the coveted, longer wavelength NIR-II range. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, the team has introduced the underlying concept: a drastic change in the electronic structure of the chromium caused by the specially tailored ligands that envelop it.

Many materials that emit NIR light are based on expensive or rare metal complexes. Cheaper alternatives that emit in the NIR-I range between 700 and 950 nm have been developed but NIR-II-emitting complexes of non–precious metals remain extremely rare. Luminescence in the NIR-II range (1000 to 1,700 nm) is, for example, particularly advantageous for in vivo imaging because this light penetrates very far into tissues.

The luminescence of complexes is based on the excitement of electrons, through the absorption of light, for example. When the excited electron drops back down to its ground state, part of the energy is emitted as radiation. The wavelength of this radiation depends on the energetic differences between the electronic states. In complexes, these are significantly determined by the type and arrangement of the ligands bound to the metal.

Wait, how many stars were at this party? It’s likely there were up to five – but only two appear now! A research team recently began digging into Webb’s highly detailed images of the Southern Ring Nebula to reconstruct the scene. It’s possible more than one star interacted with the dimmer of the two central stars, which appears red in this image, before it created this jaw-dropping planetary nebula. The first star that “danced” with the party’s host created a light show, sending out jets of material in opposite directions. Before retiring, it gave the dim star a cloak of dust. Now much smaller, the same dancer might have merged with the dying star – or is now hidden in its glare.

A third partygoer may have gotten close to the central star multiple times. That star stirred up the jets ejected by the first companion, which helped create the wavy shapes we see today at the edges of the gas and dust. Not to be left out, a fourth star with an orbit projected to be much wider, also contributed to the celebration. It circled the scene, further stirring up the gas and dust, and generating the enormous system of rings seen outside the nebula. The fifth star is the best known – it’s the bright white-blue star visible in the images that continues to orbit predictably and calmly.

The final showstopping finding is an accurate measurement of the mass that the central star had before it ejected its layers of gas and dust. Researchers estimate the star was about three times the mass of the Sun before it created this planetary nebula – and about 60 percent of the mass of the Sun after. It’s still early days – this is some of the first published research about some of Webb’s first images to be released, so plenty more details are sure to come.