Lifeboat Foundation

The invention relates to the use of the collision of matter and antimatter as a means of propulsion in a spacecraft, to the control system for said engine and to a block diagram of the connections for same, in which all of the functions are divided into modules. Said invention refers to a form of propulsion that is totally different to those know at present, which enables spacecraft to move considerably faster in outer space and to reach up to one third of the speed light owing to the controlled collision of matter and antimatter. The control system works in conjunction with the engine in order to control the collision and to maintain the optimal parameters for performing said movement.

Wind and solar power are intermittent, generating power when it’s available rather than when it’s needed, so the green energy transition will require huge amounts of energy storage. This could end up taking many forms, from conventional lithium-based “big battery” installations, to flow batteries, silicon phase-change batteries, molten salt batteries, iron-air batteries, gravity batteries, carbon dioxide expansion batteries, and other more unusual ideas like buoyancy batteries.

Each has its own advantages and disadvantages in terms of efficiency, size, location, installation costs, operating costs, input and output power ratings, longevity and how long it can store the energy for. That’s good, since different solutions will fill different needs – some backing up the power grid during instantaneous demand spikes, others smoothing out the mismatched daily curves between demand and renewable supply, and others still helping to address seasonal supply drops, like when solar drops off through the winter.

Continue reading “World’s first commercial sand battery begins energy storage in Finland” »

Precision measurement of how a proton’s structure deforms in an electric field has revealed new details about an unexplained spike in proton data.

Nuclear physicists have confirmed that the current description of proton structure isn’t perfect. A bump in the data in probes of the proton’s structure has been revealed by a new precision measurement of the proton’s electric polarizability performed at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. When this was seen in earlier measurements, it was widely thought to be a fluke. However, this new, more precise measurement has confirmed the presence of the anomaly and raises important questions about its origin. The research was published on October 19 in the journal Nature.

“There is something that we’re clearly missing at this point. The proton is the only composite building block in nature that is stable. So, if we are missing something fundamental there, it has implications or consequences for all of physics.” —

In a new study, researchers grew cordyceps mushrooms on six different kinds of insects. They found that mushrooms grown amid high levels of oleic fatty acid contained the most cordycepin, a potential therapeutic agent with antiviral and anticancer properties.

The wearable robot helps patients who are afraid of needles.

A recent study in Japan has revealed that a hand-held soft robot can improve the experience of patients while undergoing medical treatments, such as injections and other unpleasant therapies or immunizations.

Inspired by vaccinations during Covid

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It can download 230 million photographs in one second.

We all want more internet power and now we may just get it. A single computer chip has transmitted a record 1.84 petabits of data per second via a fiber-optic cable.

230 million photographs downloaded in one second

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Knowing a meteorite’s origin is key to understanding the universe.

An international team of scientists has been exploring the samples of asteroid Ryugu brought back to Earth in 2020 by Hayabusa2 and may have stumbled upon their source, according to a press release published by the Natural History Museum on Thursday.

Continue reading “Researchers find rarest groups of meteorites originating as far out as Neptune” »

The new research saw scientists follow 100,000 participants in the UK Biobank national cohort.

Smartphones could soon be used to predict populations’ mortality rates, according to a press release by PLOS Digital Health.

Previous studies have used measures of physical fitness, including walk tests and self-reported walk pace, to predict individual mortality risk. Now scientists are taking it a step further.

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It enables us to make extraordinary leaps of imagination.

We all have to make hard decisions from time to time. The hardest of my life was whether or not to change research fields after my Ph.D., from fundamental physics to climate physics. I had job offers that could have taken me in either direction — one to join Stephen Hawking’s Relativity and Gravitation Group at Cambridge University, another to join the Met Office as a scientific civil servant.

I wrote down the pros and cons of both options as one is supposed to do, but then couldn’t make up my mind at all. Like Buridan’s donkey, I was unable to move to either the bale of hay or the pail of water.

Continue reading “How our brain noises could make computers as imaginative as Shakespeare” »