Lifeboat Foundation

Definitely makes sense when you consider how things work in nature.

Generally, water repellent objects and those that attract or absorb water have very different microscopic-level attributes that endow them with their behavior. For example, the myriad tiny hairs on a gecko’s body help it to efficiently repel water, whilst specially treated cotton designed for harvesting water from the air contains millions of tiny pores that draw in liquid. Now researchers have discovered a way to use a single type of material to perform both functions, switching between liquid attraction and liquid repulsion, simply through the application of an electric voltage.

Developed by a team of scientists from TU Wien, the University of Zurich, and KU Levin, the new material alters its water-handling behavior by changing its surface structure at the nanoscale to effect a change at the macroscale. Specifically, the behavior of liquid on the new material is as a result of altering the “stiction” (static friction) of the molecular surface. One with a high-level of stiction keeps moisture clinging to it, whilst one with a low-level allows the liquid to run right off.

Continue reading “New material switches from water-repelling to water-loving with electric current” »

This couldn’t of happened at a worse time. Everyone was starting to ramp up for self driving cars. It looked like everyone was going to start taking them to market in 2020. This one incident might move things back 5 years.

Elon Musk’s confidence in Tesla’s technology has seemed boundless, but trying to stay ahead of the competition has posed risks.

An interview with Stewart Patrick, “a Senior Fellow and Director of the International Institutions and Global Governance Program at the Council on Foreign Relations.”

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RNA polymerase!

SanDisk doubles the capacity of its microSD memory cards with 256GB Ultra and Extreme options.

Investigators at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in collaboration with scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have identified a natural molecular pathway that enables cells to burn off calories as heat rather than store them as fat. This raises the possibility of a new approach to treating and preventing obesity, diabetes, and other obesity-linked metabolic disorders including cancer.

Reporting in an online publication by the journal Cell, scientists led by Bruce Spiegelman, PhD, director of the Center for Energy Metabolism and Chronic Disease at Dana-Farber, and professor of cell biology and medicine at Harvard Medical School, discovered the mechanism in energy-burning brown and beige fat cells in mice. They identified an enzyme, PM20D1, which is secreted by the cells and triggers the production of compounds called N-acyl amino acids. These N-acyl amino acids “uncouple” fat burning from other metabolic processes, allowing for weight loss. Such “uncouplers” were known as synthetic chemicals but this is the first known natural small molecule with uncoupling activity.

When they injected the N-acyl amino acids into obese mice which ate a high-fat diet, the researchers noted significant weight loss after eight days of treatment. The weight loss was entirely in fatty tissue.

The telescope was used by prehistoric people to predict the changing of the seasons.

Adam Crowl talking about the energy of the Sun and what we can do with it.

No one thinks big better than Adam Crowl, a Centauri Dreams regular and mainstay of the Icarus Interstellar attempt to reconfigure the Project Daedalus starship design of the 1970’s. If you’re looking for ideas for science fiction stories, you’ll find them in the essay below, where Adam considers the uses to which we might put the abundant energies of the Sun. Starships are a given, but what about terraforming not just one but many Solar System objects? Can we imagine a distant future when our own Moon is awash with seas, and snow is falling on a Venus in the process of transformation? To keep up with Adam, be sure to check his Crowlspace site regularly. It’s where I found an earlier version of this now updated and revised essay.

By Adam Crowl

Continue reading “Interstellar Comparisons” »

North american leaders set goals to mitigate climate change.

President Obama, Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada and President Peña Nieto of Mexico met in Ottawa on Wednesday, agreeing on goals and targets to lower emissions, raise efficiency and bring better protections to the environment.

Renewables, nuclear and carbon capture and storage technology will be on the table to help North Americans meet their goal of 50 percent clean, emissions-free energy by 2025.

Continue reading “Half Of North America’s Electricity Will Be Emissions-Free By 2025” »