Circa 2014
An artificial leaf converts water and light to oxygen, and that’s good news for road-tripping to places beyond Earth.
“If we’re going to use scrap aluminum for hydrogen generation in a practical application, we need to be able to better predict what hydrogen generation characteristics we’re going to observe from the aluminum-water reaction,” says Laureen Meroueh PhD ’20, who earned her doctorate in mechanical engineering.
Since the fundamental steps in the reaction aren’t well understood, it’s been hard to predict the rate and volume at which hydrogen forms from scrap aluminum, which can contain varying types and concentrations of alloying elements. So Hart, Meroueh, and Thomas W. Eagar, a professor of materials engineering and engineering management in the MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering, decided to examine — in a systematic fashion — the impacts of those alloying elements on the aluminum-water reaction and on a promising technique for preventing the formation of the interfering oxide layer.
To prepare, they had experts at Novelis Inc. fabricate samples of pure aluminum and of specific aluminum alloys made of commercially pure aluminum combined with either 0.6 percent silicon (by weight), 1 percent magnesium, or both — compositions that are typical of scrap aluminum from a variety of sources. Using those samples, the MIT researchers performed a series of tests to explore different aspects of the aluminum-water reaction.
As Russia ramps up preparations for a possible assault on Ukraine, President Biden has ruled out sending U.S. troops, but an invasion would still face serious resistance and Ukraine’s defense minister promising a ‘bloody massacre’ if Russia invades. While Ukraine is heavily outmatched by Russian forces, the threat of heavy casualties is one which Russian cannot ignore. This is why uncrewed systems – remote-controlled robot warriors – could play an important part where the fighting is heaviest.
Soviet Russia shrugged off mass casualties, with Stalin remarking, “One death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.” During World War II – the Great Patriotic War to Russians – the Soviet Union lost more than 8 million members of its armed forces, 20 times as many as the United States. Names like Stalingrad became legendary for bloody battles and tough resistance regardless of casualties.
Modern Russia is very different. Unlike Stalin, President Putin cannot ignore public opinion, and his media machine will hide or deny Russian casualties in foreign operations. Mercenaries are increasingly used to keep conflict at arm’s length, as the loss of contractors does not play so badly in the motherland.
According to a news release by The University of Manchester, a groundbreaking study published in the journal Scientific Reports provides new evidence that helps us to understand the asteroid impact that brought an end to 75 percent of life on Earth, including non-avian dinosaurs, at the Cretaceous-Paleogene transition 66 million years ago.
This project has been a huge undertaking but well worth it. For so many years we’ve collected and processed the data, and now we have compelling evidence that changes how we think of the KPg event, but can simultaneously help us better prepare for future ecological and environmental hazards.
Time of year plays an important role in many biological functions— reproduction, available food sources, feeding strategies, host-parasite interactions, seasonal dormancy, breeding patterns, to name a few. It is hence no surprise that the time of year for a global-scale disaster can play a big role in how harshly it impacts life. The seasonal timing of the Chicxulub impact has therefore been a critical question for the story of the end-Cretaceous extinction. Until now the answer to that question has remained unclear.
And it looks a little creepy.
Roboticists at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) strapped a fully functioning jetpack onto their humanoid robot, called iRonCub, a report from IEEE Spectrum reveals.
Continue reading “A Synthetic Humanoid Robot Might Soon Fly Thanks to Iron-Man Jetpacks” »
And it can go faster than five times the speed of sound.
A team of researchers in China has built and tested a prototype hypersonic flight engine based on a design that was scrapped by NASA over 20 years ago, according to a report from the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Continue reading “China’s New Hypersonic Aircraft Is Based on a Rejected NASA Design” »
And the company is still building prototypes.
As we patiently wait for the Cybertruck to be rolled out, a Recreational Vehicle (RV) attachment designed to convert Tesla’s electric pickup into a camper vehicle has caught the attention of the public. Unveiled earlier this year, the RV attachment called Cyberlandr has gathered over 2,000 pre-orders worth $100 million, its makers Stream It Inc., claim.
Earlier in May, we had reported that the Cyberlandr had bagged over 1,000 pre-orders in the initial 15 days of its launch. These were still early days and excitement about the new product was high. However, like the Cybertruck, this unofficial accompaniment has also continued to retain customer interest and managed to double its orders before the end of the year.
Continue reading “The RV Attachment for Cybertruck Now Has $100 Million Worth in Pre-Orders” »
And it can be used on any aircraft that uses electric propulsion.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has funded a company called Electric Sky to build a prototype for a wireless charger for its drone swarms.
The concept of wireless power has been around for many years now, and innovators have used different techniques such as lasers and microwaves, to name a few. The most common complaint of these techniques, however, is that the charging gets weaker as the distance between the transmitter and the receiver increases. Seattle-based Electric Sky has proposed a solution that addresses this issue.
Continue reading “DARPA Is Working on A New Wireless Tech to Charge Drone Swarms Seamlessly” »
