Lifeboat Foundation

Unless it is augmented with graphene, watching concrete dry might not be the most thrilling activity. Graphene was initially isolated in 2004 by scientists at The University of Manchester and has become iconic in materials research, with applications ranging from energy storage and water filtering to transportation and construction, including concrete.

A new future for cement is being facilitated by graphene. Soon, everyone will have the option to select the color, texture, and features that they want very soon. More significantly, though, and even more so than its practicality and beauty, the increasing global sustainability movement is rekindling interest in the possibilities of concrete enriched with graphene.

The building sector is confronted with a plethora of obstacles in light of Net Zero aims, and a viable path toward progress could be through the extensive integration of cutting-edge materials. Cement production accounts for 8–10% of worldwide CO₂ emissions, making it one of the industries with the largest carbon footprints.

Continental and Aurora unveiled a four-year plan for scalable autonomous trucks, emphasizing collaboration, safety, and production readiness by 2027.

Joining forces, Continental and Aurora map out a 4-year journey to autonomous trucking, promising safety, scalability, and production in 2027.

face_with_colon_three year 2022.

One of the biggest concerns about EVs is that the batteries will need replacing after a few years, at great expense. After all, your smartphone battery is likely to have seen better days within as little as three years. But a Tesla researcher is getting ready to kick this idea into touch once and for all, after demonstrating batteries that could potentially outlive most human beings.

Tesla enthusiasts are likely to have heard of Jeff Dahn already. He’s a professor at Dalhousie University and has been a research partner with Tesla since 2016. His focus has been to increase the energy density and lifetime of lithium-ion batteries, as well as reducing their cost. Dahn appears to have hit the motherload along with colleagues on his research team. In a paper published in the Journal of the Electrochemical Society, the group claims to have created a battery design that could last 100 years under the right conditions.

Continue reading “Tesla Researcher Demonstrates 100-Year, 4-Million-Mile Battery” »

CES has always been the place for weird, out-there gadgets to make their debuts, and this year’s show is no exception.

Skyted, a Toulouse, France-based startup founded by former Airbus VP Stéphane Hersen and acoustical engineer Frank Simon, is bringing what look like a pair of human muzzles to CES 2024. Called the “Mobility Privacy Mask” and “Hybrid Silent Mask,” the face-worn accoutrements are designed to “absorb voice frequencies” in noisy environments like plains, trains and rideshares, Hersen says.

Continue reading “This startup is bringing a ‘voice frequency absorber’ to CES 2024” »

Self-driving labs can perform experiments thousands of times faster than a human and they don’t need to sleep. That means more science in less time, but many questions remain, says Alex Wilkins

By Alex Wilkins

Dive into the future of road safety as Toyota introduces the world’s first self-drifting GR Supra, combining racing instincts and AI magic!

The city of Austin asked Cruise to idle its robotaxis on Halloween due to safety concerns. The request shows how cities barred by state law from regulating driverless cars must resort to diplomacy.

An electric airplane developed by Beta Technologies, an ex-NHL player’s startup, is on the wish lists of Amazon, the US Army, UPS, and more.

Recent studies by Zampaloni et al. and Pahil et al. published in the journal Nature describe a novel method of inhibiting the growth of Gram-negative bacteria such as Acinetobacter using antibiotics consisting of macrocyclic peptides that target the bacterial protein bridge machinery that transports lipopolysaccharides from the cytoplasm to the outer membrane.

The amphipathic lipopolysaccharides in the outer leaflet of the asymmetric outer membrane bilayer of Gram-negative bacteria block antibiotic entry, making the treatment of bacterial infections involving Gram-negative bacteria difficult. Furthermore, the development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria, especially Gram-negative bacteria such as Acinetobacter baumannii, is a rapidly increasing global health concern since antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections are becoming increasingly common among hospitalized and critically ill patients.

The lipopolysaccharide is synthesized inside the bacterial cell in the inner membrane, transported across the cell membrane, and assembled in the outer leaflet. The transportation of lipopolysaccharides occurs with the help of LptB₂FGC, a subcomplex in the inner membrane that enlists adenosine triphosphate (ATP) hydrolysis and a protein bridge to extract lipopolysaccharides from the inner membrane and transport it to the outer membrane. Targeting this transportation complex could effectively inhibit the lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis, making the Gram-negative bacteria susceptible to antibacterial activity.