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Oct 20, 2020

Etching a Simple Pattern on Solar Panels Boosts Light Absorption

Posted by in categories: solar power, sustainability

A simple way to improve efficiency…


Solar panels offer huge potential to move more people away from electricity generated from burning coal, and a new innovation devised by scientists stands to more than double the amount of light captured by conventional solar cells.

In a new study, a team of scientists from the UK, Portugal, and Brazil discovered that etching a shallow pattern of grating lines in a checkerboard design on solar cells can enhance the current generated by crystalline silicon (c-Si) by as much as 125 percent.

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Oct 20, 2020

New Research Claims That Consciousness Itself Is an Energy Field

Posted by in category: neuroscience

Dualism Reborn

McFadden’s hypothesis veers away from most neuroscientists, who generally see consciousness as a narrative that our brain constructs out of our senses, perceptions, and actions. Instead, McFadden returns to a more empirical version of dualism — the idea that consciousness stems from something other than our brain matter — in this case energy.

“How brain matter becomes aware and manages to think is a mystery that has been pondered by philosophers, theologians, mystics and ordinary people for millennia,” McFadden said in a press release. “I believe this mystery has now been solved, and that consciousness is the experience of nerves plugging into the brain’s self-generated electromagnetic field to drive what we call ‘free will’ and our voluntary actions.”

Oct 20, 2020

Expedition 63 Change of Command Ceremony

Posted by in category: space

NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy handed over station command today to Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov. Cassidy will return to Earth on Wednesday with two Expedition 63 crewmates. https://go.nasa.gov/2SWS3Ob.

Oct 20, 2020

Touchdown! NASA makes touchdown on asteroid Bennu to collect samples

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, space

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has made a historic touchdown on the asteroid Bennu, dodging boulders the size of buildings to collect samples from the surface for several seconds before safely backing away Tuesday evening.

The meticulous descent took 4.5 hours and by 6.12pm the spacecraft made touchdown where its 11-foot robotic arm acted like a pogo stick and bounced on the asteroid’s surface to collect dirt and dust before the craft launched back into space.

Continue reading “Touchdown! NASA makes touchdown on asteroid Bennu to collect samples” »

Oct 20, 2020

NASA DuAxel Rover

Posted by in category: space

Unveiled by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab this week, this is the brand new DuAxel Rover 🚀 🙌

NASA — National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Oct 20, 2020

Microsoft’s new data center in a box will use SpaceX Starlink broadband

Posted by in categories: computing, internet, satellites

Starlink and SES will bring satellite to modular data centers in remote areas.

Oct 20, 2020

Virgin Galactic test flight scheduled to launch this fall

Posted by in category: space travel

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The president of Virgin Galactic gave state lawmakers an update Monday on the company’s progress toward commercial spaceflight.

Virgin Galactic President Mike Moses said the first test space flight from Spaceport America will happen sometime this fall, which is the final step before taking paying customers into space.

Oct 20, 2020

U.S. space mining policies may trigger regulatory ‘race to the bottom,’

Posted by in categories: law, policy, space

In a newly published policy paper, a pair of Canadian scientists warn that the United States is angling to establish itself as the de facto gatekeeper of the moon and other celestial bodies.

Earlier this year, NASA published a new set of rules for lunar mining and other space activities, dubbing the voluntary guidelines the “Artemis Accords.”

Aaron Boley and Michael Byers, authors of the new Science paper, argue that the Artemis Accords are part of a concerted effort by the U.S. and NASA to set a legal precedent for space-based resource extraction.

Oct 20, 2020

Headless Box-Stacking Robot Ready to Be Enslaved for $250,000

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, transportation

Watch this video. You’ll want to remember where you were when the uprising truly began.

Oct 20, 2020

University Chancellor Predicts “Higher Forms of Life” on Europa

Posted by in category: alien life

Big Tentacle

Grady believes creatures could be living in glacial oceans underneath a hard shell of ice that’s up to 15 miles thick on Jupiter’s frigid moon.

Scientists have long suspected the existence of these deep subsurface oceans on Europa — and maybe even life. In fact, NASA announced in August that it’s completing the final designs for a Europa-bound spacecraft called Europa Clipper, which will look for signs of life.