Conventional water electrolysis for the production of hydrogen faces technological challenges to improve the efficiency of the water-splitting reaction for the sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Noble metal-based ruthenium oxide (RuO2) and iridium oxide (IrO2) are used to enhance the oxygen generation rate. However, these noble metal catalysts are very expensive and show poor stability under long-term operation.
Florida’s Undefined Technologies claims it has managed to increase the thrust levels of ion propulsion systems to “unprecedented levels” with its “Air Tantrum” technology, enabling near-silent drones with no moving parts, that look like flying pallets.
All aircraft propulsion systems provide thrust by moving air or another propellant, and for the vast majority of drones that means some kind of fan or propeller spinning angled blades to push air through and create thrust in the opposite direction. Ionic propulsion, on the other hand, is entirely electromagnetic.
The process uses a high-voltage electric field to ionize the nitrogen and oxygen molecules in the air, liberating electrons to create, primarily, a lot of positively-charged nitrogen molecules. These are drawn toward a negatively-charged electrode, usually in the form of a flat screen grid, and as they accelerate, they bang into other air molecules and bump them in the same direction to create an ionic wind.
The president and CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) blasted new lockdown measures ordered by Ontario in Toronto and Peel Region, saying it’s unfair that smaller businesses must limit sales to delivery and curbside pickup while big box retailers remain open to the public.
“I’m absolutely shocked that the Ford government would go down this road,” Dan Kelly said in an interview on Friday. “To allow big box stores and even department stores like The Bay to remain open while shutting down every single little independent retailer in Toronto and Peel – I can’t imagine on what planet that’s fair.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced on Friday that the two hot spots will be entering lockdown, effective Monday.
SpaceX is deploying a constellation of internet-beaming Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit where they will beam broadband service globally. Starlink customers will be supporting SpaceX’s ultimate goal to make life multi-planetary. The network could one day provide additional funding to develop a fleet of Starships that will enable astronauts to colonize Mars. To date, SpaceX has deployed nearly 900 satellites out of over 4,400 it plans to launch. The company rolled out a beta service of the network for select customers living in the northern United States and southern Canada. To receive service from the satellites in space, users mount a phased-array antenna dish and connect via a Wi-Fi router device.
On Friday, SpaceX engineers shared details about the Starlink network via a Reddit ‘Ask Me Anything’ discussion. Currently, SpaceX sends invitations to potential customers living within range of the satellites in orbit, a Reddit user asked when SpaceX will offer Starlink service to the public. —“Steadily increasing network access overtime to bring in as many people as possible,” the SpaceX engineer responded, “Notably we’re planning to move from a limited beta to a wider beta in late January, should give more users an opportunity to participate.” To potentially become a Beta tester of the Starlink network you can sign up via Starlink.com.
SpaceX engineers also shared that as of today, SpaceX’s broadband service does not have data caps. “So we really don’t want to implement restrictive data caps like people have encountered with satellite internet in the past. Right now we’re still trying to figure a lot of stuff out—we might have to do something in the future to prevent abuse and just ensure that everyone else gets quality service,” they stated.
As an open-source developer, the question I hear the most is “why would you want to give that away for free.?”
In the field of AI, there are many reasons why opensource is key. First, the code for building models does not give away any competitive advantage because the value comes from models+your own data. Second, it lets the whole world help you find and correct mistakes. Imagine building a house where every architect in the world can contribute one tiny idea. But more importantly, AI is a really hard problem to solve.
The problems in the field cannot be solved by any one individual or group.
Are brain-computer interfaces the next way we will communicate with machines and even with one another? Here are 10 companies working on decoding our thoughts.
Posted in economics
Dan Lovy
Holograms have been around for decades now, but more as a novelty than a crucial technology that everyone uses. PORTL thinks it can change that.
