Lifeboat Foundation

See how we developed Hybrid rockets and launched them from high altitude balloon initially with the Huntsville Alabama L5 Society (HAL5)‘s High Altitude Lift-Off (HALO) Program and later with our High Altitude Research Corporation (HARC). See our Balloon Launch Return Vehicle (BLRV) and our HARC Cheap Access to Space (CATS) Prize rocket. Hear some of our war stories from these adventures. A balloon launched rocket is known as a rockoon.

Watch next week for a related interview, The Inside Scoop on Virgin Galactic with Tim Pickens.

Continue reading “HALO & HARC Balloon Launched Hybrid Rockets with Bill Brown” »

Home batteries are becoming increasingly popular ways to store solar energy to power houses at night, but what if one could make the whole house a battery? Rechargeable cement batteries prove the idea is possible, even if it has a long way to go to be affordable.

Dr Emma Zhang of Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, mixed 0.9 percent carbon fibers into cement and poured it over a metal-coated carbon fiber mesh to make concrete blocks. In the journal Buildings, Zhang and colleagues report that with iron anodes and nickel cathodes these blocks become rechargeable batteries.

At 0.8 Watthours per liter, Zhang’s battery is hundreds of times less energy-dense than a lithium-ion battery, and completely useless for transportation purposes. However, it stores about ten times more energy than previous rechargeable concrete batteries. These, Zhang said in a statement; “Showed very low performance,” forcing her and colleagues to seek new ideas on how to produce the electrodes.

Aging, DNA Repair, And Clinical Innovation — Dr. Morten Scheibye-Knudsen — University of Copenhagen.

Dr. Morten Scheibye-Knudsen is an Associate Professor at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, and at the Center for Healthy Aging (CEHA), at the University of Copenhagen.

Continue reading “Dr. Morten Scheibye-Knudsen — University of Copenhagen — Aging, DNA Repair, And Clinical Innovation” »

One of the more interesting areas of battery research centers on how these devices can not just store energy, but also double as structural components. We’ve seen some impressive examples of this that could be worked into electric vehicles, and now scientists in Sweden have applied this type of thinking to big buildings, demonstrating a novel type of cement-based battery that could see large structures constructed from functional concrete.

The research was carried out at Chalmers University of Technology, where scientists were working on developing more sustainable building materials, with a particular focus on concrete. As the world’s most widely-used material and one that is very energy intensive to produce, we’re seeing a lot of research into how the carbon footprint of concrete could be reduced, and the authors of this new study have come up with an interesting potential solution.

Like regular concrete, it starts with a cement-based mixture, but one spiked with small amounts of short carbon fibers to add conductivity and flexural strength. Also incorporated into the mix are a pair of carbon fiber meshes, one coated in iron to act as the battery’s anode and the other coated in nickel to act as the cathode. As the battery’s two electrodes, these ferry electrons back and forward as the device is charged and discharged.

Do we need to revisit this? 🤔

Airborne transmission by droplets and aerosols is important for the spread of viruses. Face masks are a well-established preventive measure, but their effectiveness for mitigating SARS-CoV-2 transmission is still under debate. We show that variations in mask efficacy can be explained by different regimes of virus abundance and related to population-average infection probability and reproduction number. For SARS-CoV-2, the viral load of infectious individuals can vary by orders of magnitude. We find that most environments and contacts are under conditions of low virus abundance (virus-limited) where surgical masks are effective at preventing virus spread. More advanced masks and other protective equipment are required in potentially virus-rich indoor environments including medical centers and hospitals. Masks are particularly effective in combination with other preventive measures like ventilation and distancing.

Airborne transmission is one of the main pathways for the transmission of respiratory viruses, including the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (1). Wearing face masks has been widely advocated to mitigate transmission. Masks are thought to protect people in two ways: source control reducing the emission and spread of respiratory viruses through airborne droplets and aerosols, and wearer protection reducing the inhalation of airborne respiratory viruses.

Continue reading “Face masks effectively limit the probability of SARS-CoV-2 transmission” »

Audacious French company Nawa showed off a concept bike in 2019, claiming its supercapacitor-hybrid battery pack could massively boost power and urban range for electric motorcycles. Now, it seems we’ll get a chance to see if the numbers stack up.

We’ve been following Nawa since 2018, when we first spoke to these guys about the potential benefits of using powerful ultracapacitors alongside energy-dense lithium batteries to extend the range and boost the peak power of electric vehicles.

Continue reading “World’s first supercapacitor-hybrid electric motorcycle will get a chance to prove itself” »

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This interactive map tracks all the known space junk orbiting Earth. (via BBC World Service.

More on sustainability in space 🚀 https://bbc.in/3n9VQ95

Famed longevity pioneer Aubrey de Grey, Chief Science Officer of SENS Research Foundation, joins Geoffrey Woo, Founder and Chairman of Health Via Modern Nutrition Inc., for an enlightening conversation about advances in longevity, the investments and technologies that extend life, and the challenges and opportunities of a world in which people live longer. He walks us through his damage repair therapies with a focus on rejuvenation, prevention, and wearable technologies. Filmed on May 17, 2021. To continue the discussion with fellow Real Vision members on this interview, click here to visit the Exchange: https://rvtv.io/2T7nqZL

Key Learnings: Longevity escape velocity, which is a term de Grey coined, is the idea in which life expectancy is extended longer than the time that is passing, and he estimates a 50% chance that aging could be brought under medical control in as little as 15 years’ time. To learn more about SENS’ research and advancements, please visit their site here: https://www.sens.org/.

Automakers are expecting $110 billion in lost sales this year due to shortages.