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Does the Moon’s crust have more water than previously thought? This is what a recent study published in Nature Astronomy hopes to figure out as a team of international researchers investigated how the mineral apatite found within a Moon meteorite provides greater insight into how the Moon’s early crust from billions of years ago could have possessed higher amounts of water than scientists have previously hypothesized. This study holds the potential to not only help scientists better understand lunar history but also provide a gateway to unlocking lunar water for future astronaut missions, as well.

“The discovery of apatite in the Moon’s early crust for the first time is incredibly exciting – as we can finally start to piece together this unknown stage of lunar history,” said Dr. Tara Hayden, who is a postdoctoral associate at Western University and lead author of the study. “We find the Moon’s early crust was richer in water than we expected, and its volatile stable isotopes reveal an even more complex history than we knew before.”

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“The missing piece is AI,” he says.

AI has also shown promise in getting robots to respond to verbal commands, and helping them adapt to the often messy environments in the real world. For example, Google’s RT-2 system combines a vision-language-action model with a robot. This allows the robot to “see” and analyze the world, and respond to verbal instructions to make it move. And a new system called AutoRT from DeepMind uses a similar vision-language model to help robots adapt to unseen environments, and a large language model to come up with instructions for a fleet of robots.

And now for the bad news: even the most cutting-edge robots still cannot do laundry. It’s a chore that is significantly harder for robots than for humans. Crumpled clothes form weird shapes which makes it hard for robots to process and handle.

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A newly invented fuel cell taps into naturally present, and ubiquitous microbes in the soil to generate power.

This soil-powered device, about the size of a regular paperback book, offers a viable alternative to batteries in underground sensors used for precision agriculture.

Northwestern University highlighted the durability of its robust fuel cell, showcasing its ability to withstand various environmental conditions, including both arid soil and flood-prone areas.

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‘This is the first room-temperature quantum coherence of entangled quintets.’

A team of researchers from Kyushu University’s Faculty of Engineering, led by Associate Professor Nobuhiro Yanai, has shattered barriers by achieving quantum coherence at room temperature.

Researchers show room-temperature quantum coherence by observing the entangled quintet state with four electron spins in molecular systems.

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The new method from ETH Zurich departs from traditional carbon capture, relying on temperature or pressure, minimizing energy consumption.

The details of the study, led by Maria Lukatskaya, Professor of Electrochemical Energy Systems at ETH Zurich, were published in the journal ACS.

Acid switch

The team at ETH Zurich utilized the principle that CO2 exists in its gaseous form in acidic aqueous solutions. In contrast, in alkaline aqueous solutions, it undergoes a reaction to produce carbonates, referred to as salts of carbonic acid. This chemical transformation is reversible, and the acidity level of a liquid decides whether it contains CO2 or carbonates.

Continue reading “Researchers use light-reactive molecules to capture carbon dioxide” | >