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Boston startup Form Energy has secured $200 million Series D funding for the development of what is being called a breakthrough in energy storage. #solarenergy #solarpv #solar

Solar and wind power have variability in their productive hours, as multi-day weather events can impact output. Therefore, multi-day storage that is cost effective is important in grid reliability.

Boston startup Form Energy developed technology to address this need, revealing recently the chemistry behind their iron-air batteries. The company said its iron-air batteries can deliver renewables-sourced electricity for 100 hours at system costs competitive with conventional power plants. At full-scale production, Form Energy said the modules would deliver electricity at tenth the cost of lithium-ion batteries.

The iron-air battery is composed of cells filled with thousands of iron pellets that are exposed to air and create rust. The oxygen is then removed, reverting the rust to iron. Controlling this process allows the battery to be charged and discharged.

Continue reading “Multi-day iron-air batteries reach commercialization… at one tenth of the cost of lithium” | >

Good day to you all.

Sirtuins are once again, making headlines. From a longer lifespan, again, through to helping old and dormant hair follicles to grow new hair, and of course a discourse between certain personalities on twitter, they continue to stimulate the interest and promise so much…

So I have decided to follow up my last sirtuins video with this one, Sirtuins revisited.

Here I look at them all from 1 to 7, to see what is being claimed for each one, and then I look at all the ways we can try to bring them all up to optimum so that we can live long, healthy lives, free from the maladies of old age.

Continue reading “Sirtuins Anti Aging. Revisited. What they are. Why you should care. How you can benefit” | >

On July 20th, 2021 NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover transmitted new images from Red Planet trying to collect first sample. Rover currently studying geological features of “Crater Floor Fractured Rough” area. While the rocks located in this geologic unit are not great time capsules for organics, NASA’s scientists believe they have been around since the formation of Jezero Crater and incredibly valuable to fill gaps in our geologic understanding of this region – things we’ll desperately need to know if we find life once existed on Mars. Photo of tube located in Mars rock was taken by Perseverance Rover on Sol 148.

Credit: nasa.gov, NASA/JPL-Caltech, NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

Source for NASA’s Perseverance Mars mission: https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/

#mars #perseverance #rover

Continue reading “Perseverance Rover left this in Mars rock trying to get first sample on Red Planet” | >

The University of Surrey has built an artificial intelligence (AI) model that identifies chemical compounds that promote healthy aging — paving the way towards pharmaceutical innovations that extend a person’s lifespan.

In a paper published by Nature Communication’s Scientific Reports, a team of chemists from Surrey built a machine learning model based on the information from the DrugAge database to predict whether a compound can extend the life of Caenorhabditis elegans — a translucent worm that shares a similar metabolism to humans. The worm’s shorter lifespan gave the researchers the opportunity to see the impact of the chemical compounds.

The AI singled out three compounds that have an 80 percent chance of increasing the lifespan of elegans:

Read more | >

Amazing.

While Venice may be home to the first 3D-printed concrete footbridge to be constructed entirely sans reinforcement or mortar, the similarly canal laced city of Amsterdam, not to be outdone, has unveiled the world’s first 3D-printed steel pedestrian bridge. The long-awaited project, first announced in 2015, was dedicated on the Oudezijds Achterburgwal canal in the city’s Red Light District on July 15. The ceremony was attended by Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands, Máxima, who was assisted by a ribbon-cutting robot during the festivities.

Spanning nearly 40 feet across the canal, the curving 6-ton stainless steel structure was constructed by Amsterdam-based 3D metal printing technology company MX3D using a wire arc additive manufacturing process that marries advanced robotics with welding. With the aid of four robots, the entire printing process took just six months. The completed bridge, designed by Joris Laarman Lab with Arup serving as lead engineer, was first unveiled in October 2018 during Dutch Design Week. Several load-testing rounds followed, the last of which was carried out in the fall of 2019 with plans to install the structure in early 2020. However, ongoing site prep work at the canal delayed the factory-produced bridge’s installation to just last week.

As reported by the Associated Press, the stainless steel structure, dubbed the MX3D Smart Bridge, will remain in place for at least two years while the footbridge that previously spanned the canal undergoes renovation.

Continue reading “World’s first 3D-printed steel bridge debuts in Amsterdam’s Red Light District” | >

Google’s parent Alphabet unveiled a new “moonshot” project to develop software for robotics which could be used in a wide range of industries.

The new unit, dubbed Intrinsic, will “become an independent Alphabet company,” and seek industrial partners to advance their work helping to make everything from to cars, the new unit’s chief, Wendy Tan-White, said in a blog post.

“Intrinsic is working to unlock the creative and economic potential of industrial robotics for millions more businesses, entrepreneurs, and developers,” she said.

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The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) began in December 2019 and rapidly spread to other provinces in China as well as other countries. In this study, 262 patients diagnosed with moderate to severe SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia in Wuhan, China, were analyzed. Data were compared between survivors and nonsurvivors. Of all the 262 patients, 23 (8.8%) patients died and 239 (91.2%) were discharged. The median age was 63.5 years and 46.9% of patients were male. The main complaints were fever (83.6%), cough (63.4%), and fatigue (49.2%) in the surviving group, while there were more complaints of dyspnea (39.1%) and shortness of breath (56.5%) in the nonsurviving group. The main comorbidities were hypertension (35.5%), diabetes mellitus (16.4%), and coronary artery disease (9.9%). Morbidity is higher in elderly patients with more comorbidities. Patients were mainly treated with nasal cannula (93.9%), while the nonsurviving group received more invasive mechanical ventilation (39.1%). Arbidol (80.9%), ribavirin (36.6%), oseltamivir (38.9%), interferon (16.4%), and ganciclovir (14.5%) were used for the antiviral treatment. In the nonsurviving group, the number of white blood cells (WBC) was significantly increased and lymphocytes were decreased, and lymphopenia was more common. The levels of aspartate transaminase (AST), brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), creatine kinase isoenzyme MB (CK-MB), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and C-reactive protein (CRP) were also significantly increased in the nonsurviving group. The adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for association of known variables for all-cause mortality due to the coronavirus disease 2019 were 2.467 (95% confidence interval[CI], 1.007−6.044; p = 0.048) for shortness of breath and 1.025 (95% CI, 1.001−1.049; p = 0.042) for AST. Elderly patients with more comorbidities and complaints of dyspnea and shortness of breath had increased risk of death. Patients with lymphopenia and high levels of WBC, AST, BNP, CK-MB, LDH, and CRP may be more likely to deteriorate.

Human Gene Therapy.

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