Lifeboat Foundation

This article is part of our new series, Currents, which examines how rapid advances in technology are transforming our lives.

Imagine operating a computer by moving your hands in the air as Tony Stark does in “Iron Man.” Or using a smartphone to magnify an object as does the device that Harrison Ford’s character uses in “Blade Runner.” Or a next-generation video meeting where augmented reality glasses make it possible to view 3D avatars. Or a generation of autonomous vehicles capable of driving safely in city traffic.

These advances and a host of others on the horizon could happen because of metamaterials, making it possible to control beams of light with the same ease that computer chips control electricity.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) — A global semiconductor chip shortage, which has hurt Mexico’s auto industry, could improve but still not be fully resolved by the end of the year, said the head of Intel Corp’s Mexico unit, Santiago Cardona.

Intel in late March said it will greatly expand its advanced chip manufacturing capacity with plans to spend as much as $20 billion to build two factories in Arizona and open its factories to outside customers.

Check out http://kiwico.com/Hacksmith50 for 50% off your first month of any crate!

Thanks to Grepow for providing the Epic LiPo batteries ► http://bit.ly/2JLYClt.
Visit Twin City Graphics for all your vinyl wrapping needs ► http://www.twincitygraphics.com/
Check out K&J Magnetics for all your magnet needs! https://www.kjmagnetics.com/

Continue reading “Hoverboard Test! (Part 2/2)” »

Advances in machine learning have made it possible to automate a growing array of coding tasks, from auto-completing segments of code and fine tuning algorithms… See More.

Programs such as GPT-3 can compose convincing text. Some people are using the tool to automate software development and hunt for bugs.

In February, the researchers introduced a new biomanufacturing platform that can quickly make shelf-stable vaccines at the point of care, ensuring they will not go to waste due to errors in transportation or storage. In its new study, the team discovered that enriching cell-free extracts with cellular membranes — the components needed to made conjugate vaccines — vastly increased yields of its freeze-dried platform.

The work sets the stage to rapidly make medicines that address rising antibiotic-resistant bacteria as well as new viruses at 40000 doses per liter per day, costing about $1 per dose. At that rate, the team could use a 1000-liter reactor (about the size of a large garden waste bag) to generate 40 million doses per day, reaching 1 billion doses in less than a month.

While leaded gasoline was fully phased out in 1996 with the passage of the Clean Air Act, it still fuels a fleet of 170000 piston-engine airplanes and helicopters. Leaded aviation fuel, or avgas, now makes up “the largest remaining aggregate source of lead emissions to air in the U.S.,” according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Meanwhile residents continue to live with the air quality that comes with living near an airport where small planes burning leaded fuel fly in and out, said Alarcon, who is also a volunteer organizer with the nonprofit tenant advocacy group Vecinos Activos. It’s also unclear to air quality experts and residents what is arguably safe.

“There is no bright line that says ‘Above this concentration lead is safe and below this concentration’ that it is not. You’d have to make a policy decision,” said Jay Turner, an engineering education professor at Washington University in St. Louis and member of the EPA’s Science Advisory Board. “We’re really careful to come back to this point that just because public areas might meet the EPA standard [for lead] doesn’t mean zero risk or zero concern.”

Continue reading “Why small planes still use leaded fuel decades after phase-out in cars” »

Bye Aerospace reveals a design for an 8-seat electric airplane aimed to replace the best-selling turboprop, the King Air, with comparable performance and a similar price — but with less than one-fifth the operating costs. Bye’s plans hinge on claims of a battery breakthrough by partner Oxis.

Oxygen diatomic molecules have lone-pair electrons and magnetic moments. A high-pressure phase called epsilon oxygen is considered stable in a wide pressure range. This material exhibits the transition to metal at ∼100 GPa (1000, 000× atmospheric pressure). The change in the electronic structure involved in the transition under pressure is difficult to measure using conventional methods. In this study, the electronic structures of oxygen have been successfully measured with oxygen K-edge X-ray Raman scattering spectroscopy. We found a change in the spectra related to the metallization of oxygen. Another change in the electronic structure was also observed at ∼40 GPa. This is likely related to the semimetallic transition.

Electronic structures of dense solid oxygen have been investigated up to 140 GPa with oxygen K-edge X-ray Raman scattering spectroscopy with the help of ab initio calculations based on density functional theory with semilocal metageneralized gradient approximation and nonlocal van der Waals density functionals. The present study demonstrates that the transition energies (Pi*, Sigma*, and the continuum) increase with compression, and the slopes of the pressure dependences then change at 94 GPa. The change in the slopes indicates that the electronic structure changes at the metallic transition. The change in the Pi* and Sigma* bands implies metallic characteristics of dense solid oxygen not only in the crystal a–b plane but also parallel to the c axis. The pressure evolution of the spectra also changes at ∼40 GPa.

**Engineers, using artificial intelligence and wearable cameras, now aim to help robotic exoskeletons walk by themselves.**

Increasingly, researchers around the world are developing lower-body exoskeletons to help people walk. These are essentially walking robots users can strap to their legs to help them move.

Continue reading “Robotic Exoskeletons Could One Day Walk” »