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How electrons move together as a group inside cylindrical nanoparticles?

Scientists from the University of Exeter seems to find out the answer to this question. They even have made a breakthrough in the field of electromagnetism, with perspectives for metamaterials research.

In collaboration with the University of Strasbourg, scientists hypothesized how electrons move collectively in tiny metal nanoparticles shaped like cylinders.

THE FINANCE industry has had a long and profitable relationship with computing. It was an early adopter of everything from mainframe computers to artificial intelligence (see timeline). For most of the past decade more trades have been done at high frequency by complex algorithms than by humans. Now big banks have their eyes on quantum computing, another cutting-edge technology.


A fundamentally new kind of computing will shake up finance—the question is when.

Finance & economics Dec 19th 2020 edition.

Meet the Smellicopter is a tiny drone developed by scientists at the University of Washington, capable of detecting smells like gas leaks, explosives, or even the survivors of a natural disaster. This amazing, obstacle avoiding UAV doesn’t use a man-made sensor to smell: it uses a moth antenna to navigate towards an odor.

A research paper published in IOP Science describes Smellicopter as “A bio-hybrid odor-guided autonomous palm-sized air vehicle.” The advantages to such a vehicle are clear: the tiny drone can travel in places that humans cannot or should not: the rubble of buildings after a natural disaster; zones where chemical leaks or spills may have occurred; or conflict zones that may contain chemical or explosive weapons.

The truly unique aspect of this amazing little drone is the use of a moth antenna: tiny, delicate, and amazingly sensitive.

How do molecular catalysts—molecules which, like enzymes, can trigger or accelerate certain chemical reactions—function, and what effects do they have? A team of chemists at the University of Oldenburg has come closer to the answers using a model molecule that functions like a molecular nanobattery. It consists of several titanium centers linked to each other by a single layer of interconnected carbon and nitrogen atoms. The seven-member research team recently published its findings, which combine the results of three multi-year Ph.D. research projects, in ChemPhysChem. The physical chemistry and chemical physics journal featured the basic research from Oldenburg on its cover.

To gain a better understanding of how the molecule works, the researchers, headed by first authors Dr. Aleksandra Markovic and Luca Gerhards and corresponding author Prof. Dr. Gunther Wittstock, performed electrochemical and spectroscopic experiments and used the university’s high-performance computing cluster for their calculations. Wittstock sees the publication of the paper as a “success story” for both the Research Training Groups within which the Ph.D. projects were conducted and for the university’s computing cluster. “Without the high-performance computing infrastructure, we would not have been able to perform the extensive calculations required to decipher the behavior of the molecule,” says Wittstock. “This underlines the importance of such computing clusters for current research.”

In the paper, the authors present the results of their analysis of a molecular structure, the prototype for which was the result of an unexpected chemical reaction first reported by the University of Oldenburg’s Chemistry Department in 2006. It is a highly complex molecular structure in which three titanium centers (commonly referred to in high school lessons as titanium ions) are connected to each other by a bridging ligand consisting of carbon and nitrogen. Such a compound would be expected to be able to accept and release several electrons through the exchange of electrons between the metal centers among other reasons.

Drone services company DroneUp has been approved for an industry-first FAA Waiver for flight over people and moving vehicles to support drone delivery of COVID-19 test kits anywhere in the U.S.

Scaling drone delivery throughout the country will require flight over people and moving vehicles, something that U.S. drone regulations currently prohibit without a waiver. Now, DroneUp, LLC announces that it has been approved “for the Federal Aviation Administrations (FAA) Section 107.39 Operation Over People Waiver allowing the unrestricted flight over non-participating persons and moving vehicles to support the drone delivery of COVID-19 test kits,” according to a press release.

“DroneUp’s 107.39 waiver is the first to allow drone delivery operations over people anywhere in the United States without predefined operating areas, locations, or routes. The waiver is also a first to allow unrestricted delivery overflight of moving vehicles.”

Have you ever dreamed of building an actual house using your very own grown-up, sustainable version of LEGO? Meet Brikawood, the company making that dream a reality and transforming the modular home business.

Brikawood creates wooden bricks that interlock to create walls. This allows builders to assemble and disassemble an entire home without the use of glue, nails or screws. The wood-brick walls then get filled with wood shavings left over from the manufacturing of Brikawood bricks. These insulate both temperature and sound, which improve energy efficiency and peace of mind.

The company’s bricks are made out of wood harvested from quick-growing Douglas fir trees. The trees are sourced from sustainable forests and certified as eco-friendly. Since the wood shavings produced by the manufacturing of the bricks are used as insulation, the entire Brikawood production results in nearly zero waste.

DroneSeed will be allowed to operates drones beyond visual line of sight.


DroneSeed, a company that uses fleets of drones to reforest areas burned in wildfires, received approval in October from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for its heavy-lift drones to operate Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) and to expand its use of heavy-lift drone swarms to California, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico.

The FAA’s action allows DroneSeed to begin reforesting once a fire is contained and airspace is clear. Their aircraft drop seeds that are encapsulated in vessels consisting of four to six seeds, fertilizer, natural pest deterrents, and fibrous material which absorbs water and increases survivability.