Lifeboat Foundation

With the continual miniaturization of electronic devices, there is an urgent need to understand the electron emission and the mechanism of electrical breakdown at nanoscale. For a nanogap, the complete process of the electrical breakdown includes the nano-protrusion growth, electron emission and thermal runaway of the nano-protrusion, and plasma formation. This review summarizes recent theories, experiments, and advanced atomistic simulation related to this breakdown process. First, the electron emission mechanisms in nanogaps and their transitions between different mechanisms are emphatically discussed, such as the effects of image potential (of different electrode’s configurations), anode screening, electron space-charge potential, and electron exchange-correlation potential. The corresponding experimental results on electron emission and electrical breakdown are discussed for fixed nanogaps on substrate and adjustable nanogaps, including space-charge effects, electrode deformation, and electrical breakdown characteristics. Advanced atomistic simulations about the nano-protrusion growth and the nanoelectrode or nano-protrusion thermal runaway under high electric field are discussed. Finally, we conclude and outline the key challenges for and perspectives on future theoretical, experimental, and atomistic simulation studies of nanoscale electrical breakdown processes.

Does Planet Nine exist? At 5 Sigma, Konstantin Batygin, Mike Brown, and others have found the best evidence yet of it’s existence.

Generation of Low-Inclination, Neptune-Crossing TNOs by Planet Nine.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.

Continue reading “New Evidence Found for Planet 9 with Konstantin Batygin” »

Imagine a real spider 3,300 feet across.

The European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter has spotted “spiders” on the Red Planet’s southern polar region.

But they’re not the arachnids we fear or adore back on Earth — they’re the result of a complex geological process that causes carbon dioxide to sublimate, digging up darker material from below the surface during the planet’s spring.

Continue reading “Orbiter Spots ‘Spiders’ on Surface of Mars” »

From stabilizing qubits (the basic unit of information in a quantum computer) to maintaining the superconducting properties of materials and keeping NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope cool enough to observe the heavens, ultracold refrigeration is essential to the operation of many devices and sensors. For decades, the pulse tube refrigerator (PTR) has been the workhorse device for achieving temperatures as cold as the vacuum of outer space.

These refrigerators cyclically compress (heat) and expand (cool) high pressure helium gas to achieve the “Big Chill,” broadly analogous to the way a household refrigerator uses the transformation of freon from liquid to vapor to remove heat. For more than 40 years, the PTR has proven its reliability, but it is also power-hungry, consuming more electricity than any other component of an ultralow temperature experiment.

A scientist at the University of Portsmouth claims to have ‘evidence’ that humanity exists with a simulation. In the 1999 movie The Matrix, the plot centers around the fact that we live in a digital simulation, and scientist Melvin Vopson claims that fact may match the fiction of the popular blockbuster.

Vopson has written extensively on the topic of the possibility that the known universe is a digital facsimile. He has provided articles for The Conversation and authored a book, Reality Reloaded, on the theme.

But while many of the theories posited about the universe being a simulation are in the realm of the abstract, Vopson now claims to have evidence that support his theory. “In physics, there are laws that govern everything that happens in the universe, for example how objects move, how energy flows, and so on. Everything is based on the laws of physics,” the scientist said in 2022, reports Popular Mechanics.

The molecule 2-methoxyethanol could reveal how the cosmos grew so complex.

A collaborative study by the University of Oxford and MIT has uncovered a 3.7-billion-year-old magnetic field record from Greenland, demonstrating that Earth’s ancient magnetic field was as strong as it is today, crucial for protecting life by shielding against cosmic and solar radiation.

A new study has recovered a 3.7-billion-year-old record of Earth’s magnetic field, and found that it appears remarkably similar to the field surrounding Earth today. The findings have been published today (April 24) in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

Without its magnetic field, life on Earth would not be possible since this shields us from harmful cosmic radiation and charged particles emitted by the Sun (the ‘solar wind’). But up to now, there has been no reliable date for when the modern magnetic field was first established.

Is a short film I made to explore my fascination with artificial gravity in space.

It takes place aboard the \.

NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover has made consistent and puzzling findings while roaming the barren surface of the planet’s Gale Crater: mysterious puffs of methane gas that only appear at night and vanish during the day.

Over the years, the rover’s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument has repeatedly detected significant concentrations of the gas, sometimes spiking to 40 times the usual levels — and scientists are still trying to figure out the source, as NASA details in a new blog post.

It’s an especially intriguing finding, given that living creatures produce methane here on Earth, giving the findings special significance as NASA scans the Red Planet for signs of subterranean life.