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Imagine being able to generate electricity by harnessing moisture in the air around you with just everyday items like sea salt and a piece of fabric, or even powering everyday electronics with a non-toxic battery that is as thin as paper. A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) College of Design and Engineering (CDE) has developed a new moisture-driven electricity generation (MEG) device made of a thin layer of fabric—about 0.3 millimeters (mm) in thickness—sea salt, carbon ink, and a special water-absorbing gel.

The concept of MEG devices is built upon the ability of different materials to generate electricity from the interaction with moisture in the air. This area has been receiving growing interest due to its potential for a wide range of real-world applications, including self-powered devices such as wearable electronics like health monitors, electronic skin sensors, and information storage devices.

Key challenges of current MEG technologies include water saturation of the device when exposed to ambient humidity and unsatisfactory electrical performance. Thus, the electricity generated by conventional MEG devices is insufficient to power and is also not sustainable.

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The Hidden Pattern presents a novel philosophy of mind, intended to form a coherent conceptual framework within which it is possible to understand the diverse aspects of mind and intelligence in a unified way. The central concept of the philosophy presented is the concept of “pattern”: minds and the world they live in and co-create are viewed as patterned systems of patterns, evolving over time, and various aspects of subjective experience and individual and social intelligence are analyzed in detail in this light. Many of the ideas presented are motivated by recent research in artificial intelligence and cognitive science, and the author’s own AI research is discussed in moderate detail in one chapter. However, the scope of the book is broader than this, incorporating insights from sources as diverse as Vedantic philosophy, psychedelic psychotherapy, Nietzschean and Peircean metaphysics and quantum theory. One of the unique aspects of the patternist approach is the way it seamlessly fuses the mechanistic, engineering-oriented approach to intelligence and the introspective, experiential approach to intelligence.

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Smartphones, tablets, computer screens — all digital media has detrimental effects on your brain. That is a position that Professor Manfred Spitzer, a neuroscientist and author of several books, defends. You might like what you’ll hear, you might not, but don’t say that you haven’t been warned. Especially if you have kids running around with smartphones all day long.

Created by Rimantas Vančys.
Video footage and graphics: Envato Elements.
Additional material: NASA.
Music: Envato Elements.

For more cool science visit:
• Website: https://www.scienceandcocktails.org.
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scienceandcocktailscph/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ScienceCocktails

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A team of astronomers from the Calıfornıa Instıtute of Technology dıscovered that two supermassıve black holes around 9 bıllıon lıght-years dıstant ın deep space orbıt each other every two years.

Each supermassıve black hole ıs thought to have mass hundreds of mıllıons of tımes greater than the Sun.

The dıstance between the bodıes ıs nearly fıfty tımes that between our sun and Pluto. When the paır collides ın around 10,000 years, ıt ıs expected that the gıgantıc ımpact would rock space and tıme ıtself, spreadıng gravıtatıonal waves across the cosmos.

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