Lifeboat Foundation

Results are in from the six-month test of the Pyxis Ocean, a cargo ship outfitted with fiberglass sails as part of a fuel-saving test by Cargill Inc.

The Wayzata, Minn.-based agriculture giant said the partially wind-powered cargo ship saved an average of 3 tons of fuel per day and 11.2 tons of carbon dioxide emissions. Cargill calculates that this savings would be the equivalent of taking 480 cars off the road.

In optimal conditions, the ship saved nearly 11 tons per day. That’s roughly a 37% decrease in carbon emissions. According to Ship and Bunker’s global 20 port average, that’s a savings of about $656 per metric ton in fuel. Most cargo ships are fueled by bunker fuel, also known as heavy fuel oil.

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a cubic-kilometer-sized neutrino telescope at the South Pole, has observed a new kind of astrophysical messenger. In a new study recently accepted for publication as an Editors’ Suggestion by the journal Physical Review Letters and available on the arXiv preprint server, the IceCube collaboration, including Penn State researchers, presented the discovery of seven of the once-elusive astrophysical tau neutrinos.

Since November 2023, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has been sending a steady radio signal to Earth, but the signal does not contain usable data. The source of the issue appears to be with one of three onboard computers, the flight data subsystem (FDS), which is responsible for packaging the science and engineering data before it’s sent to Earth by the telemetry modulation unit.

On March 3, the Voyager mission team saw activity from one section of the FDS that differed from the rest of the computer’s unreadable data stream. The new signal was still not in the format used by Voyager 1 when the FDS is working properly, so the team wasn’t initially sure what to make of it. But an engineer with the agency’s Deep Space Network, which operates the radio antennas that communicate with both Voyagers and other spacecraft traveling to the Moon and beyond, was able to decode the new signal and found that it contains a readout of the entire FDS memory.

The FDS memory includes its code, or instructions for what to do, as well as variables, or values used in the code that can change based on commands or the spacecraft’s status. It also contains science or engineering data for downlink. The team will compare this readout to the one that came down before the issue arose and look for discrepancies in the code and the variables to potentially find the source of the ongoing issue.

Scientists have created a communication network entirely based on light that enables seamless connectivity across space, air, and underwater environments. The new network design combines different types of light sources to ensure connectivity no matter the environment.

“In today’s world, data transmission is critical for communication, navigation, emergency response, research, and commercial activities,” said research team leader Yongjin Wang from Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications and Suzhou Lighting Chip Monolithic Optoelectronics Technology Co. Ltd., both in China. “This new wireless network enables uninterrupted connectivity across environments, facilitating two-way real-time data transmission between the network nodes that carry out communication and data exchange within and between networks.”

Continue reading “Breaking Barriers: Groundbreaking All-Light Network Bridges Space, Air, and Sea” »

University of Waterloo researchers have created a new technology that can remove harmful nanoplastics from contaminated water with 94% efficiency. The study, “Utilization of epoxy thermoset waste to produce activated carbon for the remediation of nano-plastic contaminated wastewater,” was published in the journal Separation and Purification Technology.

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Falling just short of hypersonic velocity.

Can virtual reality (VR) be tailored to explore larger areas and allow users to “walk” around their environment? This is what a recent study published in IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics hopes to address as a team of international researchers have developed a new VR system called RedirectedDoors+ that can allow users to expand their environments beyond the real-world physical boundaries, such as walls and doors. This study holds the potential to not only expand VR environments but also drastically reduce the real-world environments that are typically required for VR experiences.

“Our system, which built upon an existing visuo-haptic door-opening redirection technique, allows participants to subtly manipulate the walking direction while opening doors in VR, guiding them away from real walls,” said Dr. Kazuyuki Fujita, who is an assistant professor in the Research Institute of Electrical Communication (RIEC) at Tohoku University and a co-author on the study. “At the same time, our system reproduces the realistic haptics of touching a doorknob, enhancing the quality of the experience.”

Measles outbreaks are growing globally.

Seven additional states have reported measles cases since the CDC issued an emergency warning at the end of January.