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Oct 2, 2020

With to-do list checked off, U.S. physicists ask, ‘What’s next?’

Posted by in category: particle physics

So next week, as U.S. particle physicists start to drum up new ideas for the next decade in a yearlong Snowmass process—named for the Colorado ski resort where such planning exercises once took place—they have no single big project to push for (or against). And in some subfields, the next steps seem far less obvious than they were 10 years ago. “We have to be much more open minded about what particle physics and fundamental physics are,” says Young-Kee Kim of the University of Chicago and chair of the American Physical Society’s division of particles and fields, which is sponsoring the planning exercise.


Giant neutrino experiment is the only sure thing for the field.

Oct 2, 2020

EV West develops Tesla crate motor that fits LS, small-block mounts

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

EV West, a company that sells electric car components such as motors, controllers, batteries has a Tesla crate motor that fits Chevy LS, small-block mounts.

Oct 2, 2020

Live coverage: SpaceX aborts launch of GPS satellite

Posted by in category: satellites

Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida with the U.S. Air Force’s GPS 3 SV04 navigation satellite. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter.

Read our full story.

Oct 2, 2020

Definitely not Windows 95: What operating systems keep things running in space?

Posted by in categories: computing, space

The updates don’t come every spring and fall, but space operating systems keep evolving.

Oct 2, 2020

‘Young’ microbiota can reverse ageing of the immune system and boost vaccines

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

Every human being is home to trillions of microbes that are collectively known as the microbiota. Recent research into how these microbes affect the immune system may explain why older people are more vulnerable to disease and suggest ways to tackle that vulnerability.

Scientists at The University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute, led by Professor Neil Mabbott, discovered that as mice get older they showed a marked decrease in the number of M cells found in the lining of the gut. These are specialised cells that look out for infections and trigger the early stages of the immune response. Fewer M cells means a weaker immune system. At the same time, the researchers found that the older mice had depleted microbiota compared to younger mice. The microbiota were less diverse and certain species known to decrease inflammation of the gut in humans were missing.

Oct 2, 2020

Huge Machine Captures Energy From Ocean Waves

Posted by in category: energy

Turbulent Past

Several companies and teams of scientists have tried to make wave energy a reality in the past, but as Greentech notes, many of their projects fell apart or ran out of money. But with renewed interest — and funding — in the industry, more companies are starting to test out their devices.

“We’re in that valley of death, climbing out of there at the moment,” naval architect Christopher Ridgewell, CEO of AW-Energy, a Finnish company working on a wave energy device called the WaveRoller, told Greentech.

Oct 2, 2020

Scientists Reveal First Direct Image of an Exoplanet Only 63 Light-Years Away

Posted by in category: space

Most of the exoplanets we’ve confirmed to date have never actually been seen directly. We confirm their presence by indirect means, such as the effect they have on their host star. But now, astronomers have revealed images of an indirectly found exoplanet.

It’s not just an impressive feat of skills and technology. The combination of methods has given us a superb toolkit for measuring an exoplanet. For the first time, astronomers have measured both the brightness and the mass of an exoplanet — which has given us a new probe into how planets form.

The exoplanet is Beta Pictoris c (β Pic c), a gas giant orbiting the star — you guessed it — Beta Pictoris, just 63 light-years away. It’s a very young, very bright star, around 23 million years old; as such, it’s still surrounded by a lot of dusty debris, and its exoplanets — we’ve confirmed two to date — are just babies, around 18.5 million years old.

Oct 2, 2020

Physicists build circuit that generates clean, limitless power from graphene

Posted by in categories: computing, particle physics

A team of University of Arkansas physicists has successfully developed a circuit capable of capturing graphene’s thermal motion and converting it into an electrical current.

“An energy-harvesting circuit based on could be incorporated into a chip to provide clean, limitless, low-voltage power for small devices or sensors,” said Paul Thibado, professor of physics and lead researcher in the discovery.

Continue reading “Physicists build circuit that generates clean, limitless power from graphene” »

Oct 2, 2020

New nanotechology design provides hope for personalized vaccination for treating cancer

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, nanotechnology

One of the key challenges in developing effective, targeted cancer treatments is the heterogeneity of the cancer cells themselves. This variation makes it difficult for the immune system to recognize, respond to and actively fight against tumors. Now, however, new advances in nanotechnology are making it possible to deliver targeted, personalized “vaccines” to treat cancer.

A new study, published on October 2, 2020 in Science Advances, demonstrates the use of charged nanoscale metal-organic frameworks for generating free radicals using X-rays within tumor tissue to kill directly. Furthermore, the same frameworks can be used for delivering immune signaling molecules known as PAMPs to activate the immune response against . By combining these two approaches into one easily administered “vaccine,” this new technology may provide the key to better local and systemic treatment of difficult-to-treat cancers.

In a collaboration between the Lin Group in the University of Chicago Department of Chemistry and the Weichselbaum Lab at University of Chicago Medicine, the research team combined expertise from inorganic chemistry and to tackle the challenging problem of properly targeting and activating an innate immune response against . This work leveraged the unique properties of nanoscale metal-organic frameworks, or nMOFs —nanoscale structures built of repeating units in a lattice formation that are capable of infiltrating tumors.

Oct 2, 2020

US Space Force plans to launch astronauts someday

Posted by in categories: military, space

But not anytime soon.


The nation’s newest military branch doesn’t currently launch anyone to the final frontier. But that will change someday, if all goes according to plan.