Lifeboat Foundation

A new North Carolina State University study, performed in collaboration with battery testing researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, shows that extremely short pulses from a high-powered laser can cause tiny defects in lithium-ion battery materials—defects that can enhance battery performance.

The technique, called nanosecond pulsed laser annealing, lasts for only 100 nanoseconds and is generated by the same type of laser used in modern-day eye surgeries. Researchers tested the technique on graphite, a material widely used in lithium-ion battery anodes, or positive electrodes. They tested the technique in batches of 10 pulses and 80 pulses and compared the differences in current capacity; power is calculated by multiplying voltage by current.

Lithium-ion batteries are widely used in portable electronic devices and electric cars. With further improvements, these batteries could have a major impact on transportation and as storage devices for renewable energy sources like wind and solar.

(https://www.timothywittig.com/) is a conservationist, professor, and former defense intelligence analyst. He is a research fellow at Oxford University (Oxford Martin School), an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London, and has served as Head of Intelligence for both the Royal Foundation’s United for Wildlife Transport and Financial Taskforces (https://unitedforwildlife.org/), and the wildlife investigations charity Focused Conservation.

Dr. Wittig has lived in 8 countries on 3 continents and worked in nearly 50 different countries. His professional background is in research & development and applied sciences, intelligence-led targeting of illicit financial networks, and African and global security.

Continue reading “Dr. Tim Wittig, Ph.D. — Applying Data & Intelligence To Defeat Global Wildlife Trafficking” »

The future is bright!

Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted Wednesday that he will present the long-awaited and often teased Master Plan 3 during the company’s investor day March 1.

Tesla’s investor day will be held at the company’s Gigafactory Texas located near Austin. The event will be live streamed. Some of the company’s institutional and retail investors will be invited to attend in person, according to the company. Investors will be able to see its production line and discuss topics like the company’s long-term expansion plans, generation 3 platform and capital allocation with its leadership team, according to the company.

Musk first hinted about the Master Plan 3 last March with vague goals to scale operations at Tesla to “extreme size.” He also leaned into themes like AI and noted that this next stage in the plan would include his other companies SpaceX and The Boring Company. Later in the year, Musk revealed more details about his Master Plan part three. Per a companywide meeting, the plan’s raison d’etre is: “How do you get to enough scale to actually shift the entire energy infrastructure of earth?”

I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.

After a long day, you are finally at your favorite restaurant and you order the burger you have been dreaming of the whole time. The burger is gone within minutes, or seconds depending on your appetite. You call the waiter to send compliments to the chef for that delicious burger but are surprised to learn that your burger’s meat has been grown in a laboratory. How would you feel about eating lab-grown meat? Would you even care or does this scenario not make sense because you would have understood in the first bite that you are not eating “real meat”? What is lab-grown meat, anyway?

Continue reading “How Lab-grown meat is made” »

It will produce three times more energy in winter months.

AlpinSolar, a joint venture between three Swiss companies, has successfully completed installing 5,000 solar panels on the Lake Muttsee Dam in Switzerland, Reuters.

Continue reading “Switzerland installs 5,000 solar panels on Europe’s highest dam” »

Monica P. Medina (https://www.state.gov/biographies/monica-p-medina/) is Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. She was also recently appointed as United States Special Envoy for Biodiversity and Water Resources.

Previously, Secretary Medina was an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. She was also a Senior Associate on the Stephenson Ocean Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Co-Founder and Publisher of Our Daily Planet, an e-newsletter on conservation and the environment.

Continue reading “Monica Medina, Assistant U.S. Secretary, Oceans & International Environmental & Scientific Affairs” »

The loss of pollinators, such as bees, is a huge challenge for global biodiversity and affects humanity by causing problems in food production. At Tampere University, researchers have now developed the first passively flying robot equipped with artificial muscle. Could this artificial fairy be utilized in pollination?

The development of stimuli-responsive polymers has brought about a wealth of material-related opportunities for next-generation small-scale, wirelessly controlled soft-bodied robots. For some time now, engineers have known how to use these materials to make small robots that can walk, swim and jump. So far, no one has been able to make them fly.

Researchers of the Light Robots group at Tampere University are now researching how to make smart material fly. Hao Zeng, Academy Research Fellow and the group leader, and Jianfeng Yang, a doctoral researcher, have come up with a new design for their project called FAIRY – Flying Aero-robots based on Light Responsive Materials Assembly. They have developed a polymer-assembly robot that flies by wind and is controlled by light.

Food from thin air?

Food production, as we know it, is entirely dependent on land and weather conditions. Protein production is a massively disproportionate squanderer of the Earth’s resources. It’s time to enter the era of sustainable food production to liberate our planet from the burdens of agriculture.