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Master communicator Neil DeGrasse Tyson is at his inimitable self in this new episode. We discuss everything from why space aliens might have a whole other set of senses than we humans and why moving to Mars might never work. Please have a listen.

Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City, discusses everything from pond scum to space aliens in this off-the-wall and very engaging episode. It’s vintage Tyson. We also touch on his latest book written with George Mason University physicist James Trefil — “Cosmic Queries: StarTalk’s Guide To Who We Are, How We Got Here, And Where We’re Going.”

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Continue reading “Episode 42 — Neil DeGrasse Tyson Talks About His New Book “Cosmic Queries”” | >

A fundamental decision on a new station would be made by the end of this year, he said.

Rogozin said that current negotiations with NASA on the future of the ISS were “shallow”. He speculated that ISS’s life cycle would be repeatedly prolonged not by several years, but by one year. Also, he said it might be possible to extend the service life not of the whole station, but of its individual modules.

“On the sidelines of the April 9 launch we plan to hold technical consultations with NASA,” Rogozin said, adding there was a possibility of configuring the Lunar orbital platform Gateway for its possible docking with Russia’s new generation spacecraft Oryol.

Continue reading “Roscosmos is more interested in creating a national orbital station, says CEO” | >

Hungarian mathematician László Lovász and Israeli computer scientist Avi Wigderson will share the prize, worth 7.5 million Norwegian kroner (US$886000), “for their foundational contributions to theoretical computer science and discrete mathematics, and their leading role in shaping them into central fields of modern mathematics”, the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters announced on 17 March.

The work of winners László Lovász and Avi Wigderson underpins applications from Internet security to the study of networks.

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Restructuring the way perovskite solar cells are designed can boost their efficiency and increase their deployment in buildings and beyond, according to researchers with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

Perovskite photovoltaic (PV) cells are made of layers of materials sandwiched together, with the top and bottom layers key to converting sunlight to electricity. The new for the cells increases the area exposed to the sun by putting the metal contact layers side-by-side on the back of the cell.

“Taking the materials on top away means you are going to have a higher theoretical efficiency because your perovskite is absorbing more of the sun,” said Lance Wheeler, a NREL scientist and lead author of a new paper, “Complementary interface formation toward high-efficiency all-back-contact .”

Continue reading “New perovskite design shows path to higher efficiency” | >