Lifeboat Foundation

A desalination membrane acts as a filter for salty water: push the water through the membrane, get clean water suitable for agriculture, energy production and even drinking. The process seems simple enough, but it contains complex intricacies that have baffled scientists for decades—until now.

Researchers from Penn State, The University of Texas at Austin, Iowa State University, Dow Chemical Company and DuPont Water Solutions published a key finding in understanding how membranes actually filter minerals from water, online today (Dec. 31) in Science. The article will be featured on the print edition’s cover, to be issued tomorrow (Jan. 1).

“Despite their use for many years, there is much we don’t know about how water filtration membranes work,” said Enrique Gomez, professor of chemical engineering and materials science and engineering at Penn State, who led the research. “We found that how you control the density distribution of the membrane itself at the nanoscale is really important for water-production performance.”

🎆 To celebrate another successful trip around our central star 🌞, we would like to invite you to a 🚀SpAsiaXtraordinary Party🎉

If you are interested in 🛰️space (or, even if not and just want to hang out with strangers online), then join this party tomorrow (January 2, at any time from 4:00pm to 12:00am GMT+8) at bit.ly/SpAsiaXtraordinary21

You can just show up or feel free to do more:

Continue reading “Happy New Year everyone!” »

Researchers recently resolved a long-standing question in quantum physics, about how long it takes a single atom to tunnel through a barrier.

The firm did not say what type of code was accessed and said no changes to the code were made.

😃

It seems Hyundai Austria put some information up a tad too early.

We’re getting a lot of these aren’t we? 😃

Before that, this year’s final asteroid, 2020 YB4, measuring just 36 meters in diameter or roughly half the wingspan of a 747, passed by the Earth shortly after 6am UTC at a distance of 6.1 million kilometers. That means, in terms of the threat posed by space rocks at least, the planet made it out of 2020 somewhat intact.

Continue reading “Rocky start: 2021 will begin with unwelcome, 220-meter wide asteroid visitor, NASA warns” »

Scientists are edging closer to making a super-secure, super-fast quantum internet possible: they’ve now been able to ‘teleport’ high-fidelity quantum information over a total distance of 44 kilometres (27 miles).

Both data fidelity and transfer distance are crucial when it comes to building a real, working quantum internet, and making progress in either of these areas is cause for celebration for those building our next-generation communications network.

Continue reading “Quantum Teleportation Was Just Achieved With 90% Accuracy Over a 44km Distance” »

Microsoft revealed that hackers behind the SolarWinds supply chain attack were able to access some of its source code.

While many institutions are developing quantum computers, making a quantum internet requires a way to transfer the information between computers. This is accomplished by a phenomenon called quantum teleportation, in which two atoms separated by large distances are made to act as if they are identical.

Don Lincoln writes about recent research that has brought us closer to actualizing the goal of a quantum internet, giving us both hope and fear about what it could mean for the future.