Lifeboat Foundation

Cambodia has razed a US-funded defence facility on its southern coast, the deputy prime minister confirmed Sunday, the latest move in the ongoing controversial expansion of a strategically crucial naval base being developed with Chinese aid.

The Wall Street Journal reported last year on a secret draft deal allowing China to dock warships at the Ream naval base near the kingdom’s coastal city of Sihanoukville.

But Cambodia — awash in recent years with Chinese investments — has strenuously denied the report, although strongman premier Hun Sen has said aid from Beijing will fund the naval base’s development.

Applying a temperature gradient and a charge current to an electrical conductor leads to the release and absorbtion of heat. This is called the Thomson effect. In a first, NIMS and AIST have directly observing the magneto-Thomson effect, which is the magnetic-field-induced modulation of the Thomson effect. This success may contribute to the development of new functions and technologies for thermal energy management and to advances in fundamental physics and materials science on magneto-thermoelectric conversion.

The Seebeck effect and the Peltier effect have been extensively investigated for their application to thermoelectric conversion technologies. Along with these effects, the Thomson effect has long been known as a fundamental thermoelectric effect in metals and semiconductors. Although the influence of magnetic fields and magnetism on the Seebeck and Peltier effects has been well understood as a result of many years of research, the influence on the Thomson effect has not been clarified because it is difficult to measure and evaluate.

This NIMS-led research team observed heat release and absorption induced in an electrical conductor by simultaneously creating a temperature gradient across it, passing a charge current through the gradient, and applying a magnetic field. The team precisely measured temperature changes in the conductor associated with the heat release and absorption using a heat detection technique called lock-in thermography. As a result, the amount of heat released and absorbed was found to be proportional to both the magnitude of the temperature gradient and charge current. In addition, the team observed strong enhancement of the resultant temperature change when a magnetic field was applied to the conductor. The systematic measurements performed in this study demonstrated that the heat release and absorption signals detected under a magnetic field were indeed generated by the magneto-Thomson effect.

Keeping Wildlife in the Wild.

Ira Pastor, ideaXme life sciences ambassador, interviews Will Travers OBE, President of the Born Free Foundation, Born Free USA and Species Survival Network.

Continue reading “Born Free Foundation’s Campaign to Keep Wildlife Wild!” »

In search for a planet better than Earth: 24 top contenders from more than 4000 exoplanets.

Do we need to change our search parameters when looking for extraterrestrial life?

Paris, 4 October 2020. – A New York court has confirmed OneWeb’s rescue plan and put it back on track to launch its services in 2021, the London-based LEO operator announced.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York confirmed OneWeb’s Chapter 11 reorganization plan, ensuring that the company remains on target to resume business operations and deploy the initial 650 LEO satellite constellation under its new ownership, OneWeb said.

“The transactions outlined in the Plan will be implemented following receipt of customary regulatory approvals, which are expected by the end of 2020. In the meantime, OneWeb is resuming operations and readying its commercial services which are planned to start next year.”

At 5:32 a.m. EDT today Chris Cassidy captured Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo craft as Ivan Vagner of Roscosmos monitored monitored the approach and rendezvous. Read more… go.nasa.gov/3nibn6m.

With increasingly sophisticated Russian submarines prowling the Atlantic, the U.S. Navy is working harder to keep track of what’s happening off the U.S. coast.

The Navy’s focus on anti-submarine warfare waned during the Middle East wars, but attention is shifting, underscored by Exercise Black Widow 2020 in the North Atlantic between September 12 and 18.

The deterioration of Russia’s navy in the decade after the Cold War “allowed a lot of folks to think that the homeland is a sanctuary from Russian forces,” Vice Adm. Daryl L. Caudle, commander of Naval Submarine Forces, told reporters on September 16.

Continue reading “The Navy is training to meet a new kind of challenge from Russia in the Atlantic” »

Mars, our second closest cosmic cousin, has been in our collective imagination for decades. Between fantasies of martian visits and the promise of water under its icy surface, Mars doesn’t need to do much to be in our collective good books.

But very soon, Mars is not just going to be close to our hearts, but also nearest to our actual planet — a mere 62.1 million kilometres (38.6 million miles) away from Earth.

Continue reading “This Week, Mars Is The Closest to Earth It’ll Be For Another 15 Years” »

Even the most optimistic estimates of neutron star collision frequency can’t account for the sheer abundance of gold and other elements in the Universe. This was a surprise. It looks like spinning supernovae with strong magnetic fields could be the real source of the majority of these elements.” ates of neutron star collision frequency can’t account for the sheer abundance of gold and other elements in the Universe. This was a surprise. It looks like spinning supernovae with strong magnetic fields could be the real source of the majority of these elements.” ates of neutron star collision frequency simply can’t account for the sheer abundance of gold and other elements in the Universe.