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Oct 14, 2020

Solar-powered system extracts drinkable water from “dry” air

Posted by in categories: engineering, sustainability

Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have significantly boosted the output from a system that can extract drinkable water directly from the air even in dry regions, using heat from the sun or another source.

The system, which builds on a design initially developed three years ago at MIT by members of the same team, brings the process closer to something that could become a practical water source for remote regions with limited access to water and electricity. The findings are described today in the journal Joule, in a paper by Professor Evelyn Wang, who is head of MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering; graduate student Alina LaPotin; and six others at MIT and in Korea and Utah.

The earlier device demonstrated by Wang and her co-workers provided a proof of concept for the system, which harnesses a temperature difference within the device to allow an adsorbent material — which collects liquid on its surface — to draw in moisture from the air at night and release it the next day. When the material is heated by sunlight, the difference in temperature between the heated top and the shaded underside makes the water release back out of the adsorbent material. The water then gets condensed on a collection plate.

Oct 14, 2020

Newly-Discovered Tardigrade Glows Blue to Block Deadly Radiation

Posted by in category: futurism

The tardigrades went about daily life while scientists blasted them with UV radiation.

Oct 14, 2020

Disney World McDonald’s to be first net-zero fast food restaurant

Posted by in categories: food, solar power, sustainability

Sustainability comes to the happiest place on Earth! Solar power helps make this Disney World McDonald’s one of the first net-zero fast food restaurants.

Oct 14, 2020

How A.I. Is Changing Video Games

Posted by in categories: entertainment, robotics/AI

AI is revolutionizing the way we build video games.

Oct 14, 2020

Squeezing light inside memory devices could help improve performance

Posted by in categories: energy, nanotechnology

Researchers have developed a method to ‘squeeze’ visible light in order to see inside tiny memory devices. The technique will allow researchers to probe how these devices break down and how their performance can be improved for a range of applications.

The team, led by the University of Cambridge, used the technique to investigate the materials used in random access memories, while in operation. The results, reported in the journal Nature Electronics, will allow detailed study of these materials, which are used in devices.

The ability to understand how structural changes characterize the function of these materials, which are used for , ultra-responsive devices called memristors, is important to improve their performance. However, looking inside the 3D nanoscale devices is difficult using traditional techniques.

Oct 14, 2020

China Conducts Test Of Massive Suicide Drone Swarm Launched From A Box On A Truck

Posted by in category: drones

China shows off its ability to rapidly launch 48 weaponized drones from the back of a truck, as well as from helicopters.

Oct 14, 2020

SpaceX gets FCC approval to bid in $16 billion rural-broadband auction

Posted by in categories: internet, satellites

Nearly 400 ISPs qualify for auction, with SpaceX as the only LEO satellite ISP.

Oct 14, 2020

Improvements in Stroke Treatment Could Save More Lives

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Summary: Direct carotid puncture is a safe and effective alternative to thrombectomy for stroke patients.

Source: Yale

Yale researchers have found ways to treat stroke patients that may otherwise be untreatable.

Oct 14, 2020

Hubble Space Telescope Spots Free-Floating EGG

Posted by in category: space

EGGs have very long tails and are approximately 100 AU (astronomical units) across.

They are being photoevaporated more slowly than their lower density surroundings, and so are left behind as the gas around them is driven off.

J025157.5+600606 is a so-called free-floating evaporating gaseous globule (frEGG).

Oct 14, 2020

Exploring chemical space: Can AI take us where no human has gone before?

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, robotics/AI, solar power

Chemical space contains every possible chemical compound. It includes every drug and material we know and every one we’ll find in the future. It’s practically infinite and can be frustratingly complex. That’s why some chemists are turning to artificial intelligence: AI can explore chemical space faster than humans, and it might be able to find molecules that would elude even expert scientists. But as researchers work to build and refine these AI tools, many questions still remain about how AI can best help search chemical space and when AI will be able to assist the wider chemistry community.

Outer space isn’t the only frontier curious humans are investigating. Chemical space is the conceptual territory inhabited by all possible compounds. It’s where scientists have found every known medicine and material, and it’s where we’ll find the next treatment for cancer and the next light-absorbing substance for solar cells.

But searching chemical space is far from trivial. For one thing, it might as well be infinite. An upper estimate says it contains 10180 compounds, more than twice the magnitude of the number of atoms in the universe. To put that figure in context, the CAS database—one of the world’s largest—currently contains about 108 known organic and inorganic substances, and scientists have synthesized only a fraction of those in the lab. (CAS is a division of the American Chemical Society, which publishes C&EN.) So we’ve barely seen past our own front doorstep into chemical space.