Lifeboat Foundation

Japanese scientists have developed a new type of plastic that’s strong at room temperature, but can be easily broken down on demand into its base components. In seawater, it starts to break down into food for marine life, and just to top it off, it can self-heal and remember past shapes.

Plastic is everywhere in our modern world, for better or worse. Its toughness makes it an extremely useful material for everything from household items to vehicle parts, but that same toughness makes it hard to break down for recycling or disposal.

In the new study, scientists at the University of Tokyo developed a new plastic material that can be broken down more easily, either in recycling plants or in nature. It’s based on a class of plastic called an epoxy resin vitrimer, which are strong at room temperature but can be reshaped and molded with a bit of added heat. Normally, vitrimers are brittle, but the team improved the recipe by adding a molecule called polyrotaxane.

Awkward name aside, the Lexus LF-ZC Concept that debuted at the Japan Mobility Show last week is a very big deal. When it goes into production in 2026, it will be the first electric vehicle on an all-new, ground-up Toyota platform; will do some very next-level things with the company’s steer-by-wire technology; and an alleged 620 miles of electric range.

It is not, however, going to do that with some huge battery pack that weighs as much as an apartment building. Instead, it’s going to rely mostly on chemistry to deliver on those big range claims.

As part of the auto show festivities, Toyota invited several international media outlets, including InsideEVs, to Japan last week. There, the world’s largest automaker previewed a number of emerging technology concepts, including a simulated “manual transmission” for electric cars, an advanced in-car AI assistant and its EV battery plans for the next few years.

Electric SUV platform – to be used by next Discovery Sport and Evoque – will underpin new brand Avinya’s EVs.

Tesla is going to integrate Elon Musk’s newly launched Grok AI assistant in its electric vehicles, according to the CEO.

Earlier this year, Musk launched a new AI startup, xAI, and said that it will work closely with Tesla.

The company’s mission is “to understand the true nature of the universe”, but in practice, its first project is to build a chatbot or AI assistant à la ChatGPT.

Things may not have ended well for dinosaurs on Earth, but Cornell University astronomers say the “light fingerprint” of the conditions that enabled them to emerge here provide a crucial missing piece in our search for signs of life on planets orbiting alien stars.

Their analysis of the most recent 540 million years of Earth’s evolution, known as the Phanerozoic Eon, finds that telescopes could better detect potential chemical signatures of life in the atmosphere of an Earth-like exoplanet.

An exoplanet (or extrasolar planet) is a planet that is located outside our Solar System, orbiting around a star other than the Sun. The first suspected scientific detection of an exoplanet occurred in 1988, with the first confirmation of detection coming in 1992.

A newly identified process could explain a variety of natural phenomena and enable new approaches to desalination.

Evaporation is happening all around us all the time, from the sweat cooling our bodies to the dew burning off in the morning sun. But science’s understanding of this ubiquitous process may have been missing a piece all this time.

In recent years, some researchers have been puzzled upon finding that water in their experiments, which was held in a sponge-like material known as a hydrogel, was evaporating at a higher rate than could be explained by the amount of heat, or thermal energy, that the water was receiving. And the excess has been significant — a doubling, or even a tripling or more, of the theoretical maximum rate.

Samsung, the South Korean tech giant, has recently made a groundbreaking announcement in the field of battery technology. The company claims to have developed an all solid-state battery that could revolutionize the way we power our devices. This breakthrough could potentially lead to longer-lasting batteries with faster charging times, addressing one of the biggest pain points for consumers.

Solid-state batteries are a next-generation energy storage technology that replaces the liquid electrolyte found in traditional lithium-ion batteries with a solid material. This innovation offers several advantages, including increased energy density, improved safety, and enhanced lifespan. Samsung’s new solid-state battery reportedly boasts an energy density of up to 900 watt-hours per liter, which is nearly double the capacity of current lithium-ion batteries.

Batteries are regarded as crucial technologies in the battle against climate change, particularly for electric vehicles and storing energy from renewable sources. Anthro Energy’s novel flexible batteries are presently available to wearable manufacturers and could be employed in a variety of areas, including electric cars and laptops.

The innovative batteries score well in fire safety, thanks to new materials and design features that eliminate internal and external mechanical safety risks like explosions. Many of today’s batteries, such as lithium-ion batteries, contain a flammable liquid as an electrolyte.

Anthro Energy’s David Mackaniac and his team have created a flexible polymer electrolyte that is malleable like rubber. The new technology provides increased design flexibility for use across a range of devices, with adaptable shapes and sizes to suit specific applications.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently had an opportunity to visit the Tesla Giga Berlin-Brandenburg plant in Grünheide near Berlin, Germany. Besides making some pronouncements about interior decor, Musk reportedly let on that the plant is expected to be engaged in making Tesla’s next-generation, affordable electric car model.

According to the https://twitter.com/Gf4Tesla?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5E…vs.com%2F” target=“_blank” rel=“noopener noreferrer”>Gigafactory Berlin News channel on Twitter/X, which covers plant-related news, Musk announced during his visit that the upcoming €25,000 electric car (known in the U.S. to be a $25,000 electric car) will be produced in Berlin.