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Aug 1, 2020

How to Build a $1000 Fusion Reactor in Your Basement

Posted by in category: nuclear energy

face_with_colon_three circa 2010.


Admittedly, the project is a little dangerous—not because of a few little fusion reactions but because of the very flammable gas and voltages high enough to instantly kill you.

Aug 1, 2020

European atlas of natural radiation

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food

Do you know what natural ionising radiation is? Where can you find natural resources of radiation? What are the levels of natural sources of radiation in Europe? Do you know the pathways of ionising radiation? Natural radionuclides, both terrestrial and cosmogenic, migrate in the environment through different pathways: air, water, rock, soil and the food chain. Radionuclides may then enter the.

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Human body through ingestion (food and drinking water) and inhalation giving, so-called, internal exposure. External exposure is due to cosmic radiation and radiation from terrestrial radionuclides present in soil, rock and building materials. The first ever ‘European atlas of natural radiation’ uses informative texts, stunning photographs and striking maps to answer and explain these and other questions.

Aug 1, 2020

Measurement of magnetic field and relativistic electrons along a solar flare current sheet

Posted by in category: futurism

Observations of the X8.2 solar flare, which happened on 2017 September 10, could spatially resolve the distribution of the energetic electrons along the reconnection current sheet. More than 99% of them are concentrated at the bottom of the current sheet, not at the reconnection X point.

Aug 1, 2020

Transparent and luminescent glasses of gold thiolate coordination polymers

Posted by in category: futurism

Obtaining transparent glasses made of functional coordination polymers (CPs) represents a tremendous opportunity for optical applications. In this context, the first transparent and red-emissive glasses of gold thiolate CPs have been obtained by simply applying mechanical pressure to amorphous powders of CPs.

Aug 1, 2020

Power of halometry

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

Statistical studies of the motions of millions of stars may reveal the subtle imprint of dark matter.

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Aug 1, 2020

Non-cuttable material created through local resonance and strain rate effects

Posted by in categories: energy, materials

We have created a new architected material, which is both highly deformable and ultra‐resistant to dynamic point loads. The bio-inspired metallic cellular structure (with an internal grid of large ceramic segments) is non-cuttable by an angle grinder and a power drill, and it has only 15% steel density. Our architecture derives its extreme hardness from the local resonance between the embedded ceramics in a flexible cellular matrix and the attacking tool, which produces high-frequency vibrations at the interface. The incomplete consolidation of the ceramic grains during the manufacturing also promoted fragmentation of the ceramic spheres into micron-size particulate matter, which provided an abrasive interface with increasing resistance at higher loading rates. The contrast between the ceramic segments and cellular material was also effective against a waterjet cutter because the convex geometry of the ceramic spheres widened the waterjet and reduced its velocity by two orders of magnitude. Shifting the design paradigm from static resistance to dynamic interactions between the material phases and the applied load could inspire novel, metamorphic materials with pre-programmed mechanisms across different length scales.

Aug 1, 2020

Sharing a secret… the quantum way

Posted by in category: quantum physics

Researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, have demonstrated a record setting quantum protocol for sharing a secret amongst many parties. The team created an 11-dimensional quantum state and used it to share a secret amongst 10 parties. By using quantum tricks, the secret can only be unlocked if the parties trust one another. The work sets a new record for the dimension of the state (which impacts on how big the secret can be) and the number of parties with whom it is shared, and is an important step towards distributing information securely across many nodes in a quantum network.

Laser & Photonics Reviews published online the research by the Wits team led by Professor Andrew Forbes from the School of Physics at Wits University. In their paper titled: Experimental Demonstration of 11-Dimensional 10-Party Quantum Secret Sharing, the Wits team beat all prior records to share a quantum secret.

“In traditional secure quantum , information is sent securely from one party to another, often named Alice and Bob. In the language of networks, this would be considered peer-to-peer communication and by definition has only the two nodes: sender and receiver,” says Forbes.

Aug 1, 2020

Researchers enhance electron spin longevity

Posted by in category: particle physics

The electron is an elementary particle, a building block on which other systems evolve. With specific properties such as , or , that can be manipulated to carry , electrons are primed to advance modern information technology. An international collaboration of researchers has now developed a way to extend and stabilize the lifetime of the electron’s spin to more effectively carry information.

Aug 1, 2020

Evidence of exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in cats and dogs from households in Italy

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

SARS-CoV-2 originated in animals and is now easily transmitted between people. Sporadic detection of natural cases in animals alongside successful experimental infections of pets, such as cats, ferrets and dogs, raises questions about the susceptibility of animals under natural conditions of pet ownership. Here we report a large-scale study to assess SARS-CoV-2 infection in 817 companion animals living in northern Italy, sampled at a time of frequent human infection. No animals tested PCR positive. However, 3.4% of dogs and 3.9% of cats had measurable SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody titers, with dogs from COVID-19 positive households being significantly more likely to test positive than those from COVID-19 negative households. Understanding risk factors associated with this and their potential to infect other species requires urgent investigation.

One Sentence Summary SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in pets from Italy.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in late December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei province, China , possibly as a spillover from bats to humans , and rapidly spread worldwide becoming a pandemic. Although the virus is believed to spread almost exclusively by human-to-human transmission, there are concerns that some animal species may contribute to the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic epidemiology. To date, sporadic cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection have been reported in dogs and cats. These include detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in respiratory and/or fecal specimens of dogs and cats with or without clinical signs (5−7), as well as of specific antibodies in sera from pets from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) affected areas (7,8).

Aug 1, 2020

New printing process advances 3D capabilities

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, biotech/medical, cyborgs, drones

More durable prosthetics and medical devices for patients and stronger parts for airplanes and automobiles are just some of the products that could be created through a new 3D printing technology invented by a UMass Lowell researcher.

Substances such as plastics, metals and wax are used in 3D printers to make products and parts for larger items, as the practice has disrupted the prototyping and manufacturing fields. Products created through the 3D printing of plastics include everything from toys to drones. While the for 3D plastics printers is estimated at $4 billion and growing, challenges remain in ensuring the printers create objects that are produced quickly, retain their strength and accurately reflect the shape desired, according to UMass Lowell’s David Kazmer, a plastics engineering professor who led the research project.

Called injection printing, the technology Kazmer pioneered is featured in the Additive Manufacturing posted online last week.