Lifeboat Foundation

One of the barriers to generating electricity from wind and solar energy is their intermittent nature. A promising alternative to accommodate the fluctuations in power output during unfavorable environmental conditions are hydrogen storage systems, which use hydrogen produced from water splitting to generate clean electricity. However, these systems suffer from poor efficiency and often need to be large in size to compensate for it. This, in turn, makes for complex thermal management and a lowered energy and power density.

In a study published in Journal of Power Sources, researchers from Tokyo Tech have now proposed an alternative electric energy storage system that utilizes carbon © as an energy source instead of hydrogen. The new system, called a “carbon/air secondary battery (CASB),” consists of a solid-oxide fuel and electrolysis cell (SOFC/ECs) where carbon generated via electrolysis of carbon dioxide (CO₂), is oxidized with air to produce energy. The SOFC/ECs can be supplied with compressed liquefied CO₂ to make up the energy storage system.

“Similar to a battery, the CASB is charged using the energy generated by the renewable sources to reduce CO₂ to C. During the subsequent discharge phase, the C is oxidized to generate energy,” explains Prof. Manabu Ihara from Tokyo Tech.

Method combines quantum mechanics with machine learning to accurately predict oxide reactions at high temperatures when no experimental data is available; could be used to design clean carbon-neutral processes for steel production and metal recycling.

Extracting metals from oxides at high temperatures is essential not only for producing metals such as steel but also for recycling. Because current extraction processes are very carbon-intensive, emitting large quantities of greenhouse gases, researchers have been exploring new approaches to developing “greener” processes. This work has been especially challenging to do in the lab because it requires costly reactors. Building and running computer simulations would be an alternative, but currently there is no computational method that can accurately predict oxide reactions at high temperatures when no experimental data is available.

A Columbia Engineering team reports that they have developed a new computation technique that, through combining quantum mechanics and machine learning, can accurately predict the reduction temperature of metal oxides to their base metals. Their approach is computationally as efficient as conventional calculations at zero temperature and, in their tests, more accurate than computationally demanding simulations of temperature effects using quantum chemistry methods. The study, led by Alexander Urban, assistant professor of chemical engineering, was published on December 1, 2021 by Nature Communications.

If anything, the development is yet another indication of the threat actor’s capacity to continually “innovate and identify new techniques and tradecraft to maintain persistent access to victim environments, hinder detection, and confuse attribution efforts,” while also highlighting the “effectiveness of leveraging third parties and trusted vendor relationships to carry out nefarious operations.”

Microsoft had previously dubbed Nobelium as “skillful and methodic operators who follow operations security (OpSec) best practices.”

Ever since the SolarWinds incident came to light, the APT group has been connected to a string of attacks aimed at think tanks, businesses, and government entities around the globe, even as an ever-expanding malware toolbox has been put to use with the goal of establishing a foothold in the attacked system and downloading other malicious components.

The Neuro-Network.

GOING TO BED AFTER THIS SPECIFIC TIME DAMAGES METABOLIC HEALTH – STUDY

In a study published last week in Diabetologia, both disturbed sleep patterns and going to sleep after midnight were correlated to a less-than-optimal postprandial response. Specifically, poor sleep affected the body’s ability to rope glucose (sugar) levels back to normal after a meal.

Continue reading “Going to bed after this specific time damages metabolic health — study” »

The coldest continent on Earth used to be as warm as Italy. Here’s how we know.

A polar expedition drilled into the seafloor and unearthed 90-million-year-old tree roots.

A floating, robotic film designed at UC Riverside could be trained to hoover oil spills at sea or remove contaminants from drinking water.

Powered by light and fueled by water, the film could be deployed indefinitely to clean remote areas where recharging by other means would prove difficult.

“Our motivation was to make soft robots sustainable and able to adapt on their own to changes in the environment. If sunlight is used for power, this machine is sustainable, and won’t require additional energy sources,” said UCR chemist Zhiwei Li. “The film is also re-usable.”

Web3 and NFT investment has ‘recently started to accelerate,’ Greyscale said in a report, as pieces of virtual land sell for upwards of $2 million.

NASA is launching a spacecraft destined to slam into an asteroid as part of its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission tonight, from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Its purpose: to test whether we’re capable of deflecting a killer asteroid before it strikes Earth.

But before it meets its final destination, NASA is using the spacecraft to test out brand new ion drive technology — and it’s straight out of a science fiction movie.

The space agency’s Evolutionary Xenon Thruster-Commercial (NEXT-C) uses the spacecraft’s solar power to create an electrical field. This field then accelerates a xenon propellant to speeds of up to 90,000 mph, harnessing the resulting stream of “thousands of ion jets” as propulsion.

Cazenovia High School student Rio Harper taught his computer, using Artificial Intelligence — or A.I. — to create a variety of images. He has made mney off of the creations, and has developed ideas about how A.I. might shape his, and our, futures. Syracuse University Audio Production students T. Michael Collier and Cole Strong have this profile.