Lifeboat Foundation

A new technology could dramatically improve the safety of lithium-ion batteries that operate with gas electrolytes at ultra-low temperatures. Nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego developed a separator—the part of the battery that serves as a barrier between the anode and cathode—that keeps the gas-based electrolytes in these batteries from vaporizing. This new separator could, in turn, help prevent the buildup of pressure inside the battery that leads to swelling and explosions.

“By trapping gas molecules, this separator can function as a stabilizer for volatile electrolytes,” said Zheng Chen, a professor of nanoengineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering who led the study.

The new separator also boosted battery performance at ultra–low temperatures. Battery cells built with the new separator operated with a high capacity of 500 milliamp-hours per gram at-40 C, whereas those built with a commercial separator exhibited almost no capacity. The battery cells still exhibited high capacity even after sitting unused for two months—a promising sign that the new separator could also prolong shelf life, the researchers said.

Army researchers have developed a pioneering framework that provides a baseline for the development of collaborative multi-agent systems.

The framework is detailed in the survey paper “Survey of recent multi-agent reinforcement learning algorithms utilizing centralized training,” which is featured in the SPIE Digital Library. Researchers said the work will support research in reinforcement learning approaches for developing collaborative multi-agent systems such as teams of robots that could work side-by-side with future soldiers.

“We propose that the underlying information sharing mechanism plays a critical role in centralized learning for multi-agent systems, but there is limited study of this phenomena within the research community,” said Army researcher and computer scientist Dr. Piyush K. Sharma of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, known as DEVCOM, Army Research Laboratory. “We conducted this survey of the state-of-the-art in reinforcement learning algorithms and their information sharing paradigms as a basis for asking fundamental questions on centralized learning for multi-agent systems that would improve their ability to work together.”

It’s on track to be the first country to legalize fully autonomous “robotaxis,” beating out the United States and China.

Microsoft president: Orwell’s 1984 could happen in 2024.

Tech executives warned that democracy has to win the AI arms race, in a new BBC Panorama.

Therapy increases survival in grim diagnosis.

Circumstantial evidence could point to a mind-blowing solution to an antimatter mystery—or to the need for better space-based particle physics experiments.

Misfits Market is an online grocery delivery service that sells “ugly” organic produce for cheap. In the first four months of 2021 alone, Misfits Market rescued the same amount of food it saved in 2020 as a whole. In 2020, Misfits Market shipped 77 million pounds of food to more than 400000 households across the U.S. Since launching in 2018, Misfits Market has expanded to both coasts, has over 1000 employees and has received over $300 million in funding. Bloomberg reports its valuation tops $1 billion, putting it into unicorn territory. But Misfits Market wasn’t an obvious success. In fact, it was just one of many businesses started by its 29-year-old founder Abhi Ramesh.

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Chinese space agency releases new high-resolution image of Martian surface.

The study found that children following vegan diets were on average 3 cm (1.2 inches) shorter, had 4–6% lower bone mineral content and were more than three times more likely to be deficient in vitamin B-12 than the omnivores.

Children on vegan diets have a healthier cardiovascular profile and less body fat than their omnivore peers, but the diets may affect growth, bone mineral content and micronutrient status, according to researchers from UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health and the Children’s Memorial Health Institute in Warsaw, Poland.

The peer-reviewed study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, also found that children following vegetarian diets had a lower risk of nutritional deficiencies compared to the omnivores, but a less healthy cardiovascular profile.

Continue reading “Vegan diets in children may bring heart benefits but pose growth risks” »