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Leiden chemists Marc Koper and Ian McCrum have discovered that the degree to which a metal binds to the oxygen atom of water is decisive for how well the chemical conversion of water to molecular hydrogen takes place. This insight helps to develop better catalysts for the production of sustainable hydrogen, an important raw material for the chemical industry and the fuel needed for environmentally friendly hydrogen cars. Publication in Nature Energy.

For years there has been a heated debate in the literature: how to speed up the electrochemical production of on platinum electrodes in an alkaline environment? Chemist Ian McCrum watched from the sidelines and concluded that part of the debate was caused by the fact that the debaters were looking at slightly different electrodes, making the results incomparable. Time to change that, McCrum thought, who was a LEaDing Fellow postdoc in the group of Professor Marc Koper at the time.

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Astronomers at the University of Iowa have determined our galaxy is surrounded by a clumpy halo of hot gases that is continually being supplied with material ejected by birthing or dying stars. The halo also may be where matter unaccounted for since the birth of the universe may reside. Photo courtesy of Christien Nielsen/Unsplash.

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Our Interstellar Boundary Explorer launched to space 12 years ago today!

IBEX studies our solar system’s boundary to interstellar space by measuring particles that rocket back towards Earth from the edge of the heliosphere, the vast bubble generated by the Sun’s magnetic field that envelops all the planets. Scientists recently used an entire solar cycle’s worth of data to explore how this boundary changes throughout the Sun’s activity cycles. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/nasa-ibex-charts-1…sphere-sun

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On this day in 1899, Robert Goddard first considered the concept of space flight, which his work would later help make a reality.

On this particular fall afternoon at age 17, he was sent to prune a cherry tree in his backyard. While he worked, he found himself imagining, as he later wrote in his diary, “how wonderful it would be to make some device which had even the possibility of ascending to Mars, and how it would look on a small scale, if sent up from the meadow at my feet.”

It was at that moment that Robert Goddard dedicated himself to making space flight a reality. As he was to recall later, “I was a different boy when I descended the tree from when I ascended for existence at last seemed very purposive.”

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University of Rochester researcher receives $1 million grant to study quantum thermodynamics.

It’s still more science fiction than science fact, but perfect energy efficiency may be one step closer due to new research at the University of Rochester.

In order to make a car run, a car’s engine burns gasoline and converts the energy from the heat of the combusting gasoline into mechanical work. In the process, however, energy is wasted; a typical car only converts around 25 percent of the energy in gasoline into useful energy to make it run.

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The third-order term Fpot(ρ)[ρq] Fpot(ρ)[ρq] above corresponds to the third-order energy in the structural expansion for electron systems. This energy plays an important role in the structural stability of metallic hydrogen 16 (Z= 1). This is because the kernel (10) has a strong wave-vector dependence, which cannot properly be treated in the square-gradient type theory. This brings a special stability of the structure in which as many equilateral triangles with q=3kF appear in the reciprocal lattice. It requires an anisotropic structure or a periodic modulation of the lattice for an atomic phase of hydrogen. Another possibility is to form a crystal with two ions in a unit cell (molecular phase). In any case, the atomic phase of bcc structure would not be realized just under the melting line as log as the third order term in Fc[ρq] does not suppress the effect. We shall investigate this problem numerically in the near future.

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That’s one way to rock the vote.

An asteroid with a diameter the size of a refrigerator could strike the Earth the day before the November election, according to celebrity scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson — but it’s not large enough to do any serious damage.

The famed astrophysicist said the space rock, known as 2018VP1, is hurtling towards Earth at a speed of 25,000 miles per hour and may clip the planet on Nov. 2.

“It may buzz-cut Earth on Nov. 2, the day before the Presidential Election,” he wrote on Instagram.

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Pfizer has already made “several hundred thousand doses” of a potential coronavirus vaccine as it prepares to seek emergency use in the US by November.

The drugmaker told the Mail on Sunday that scientists in its main British lab have also unearthed drugs that could provide a potential complete cure for COVID-19, as opposed to merely a preventative vaccine.

The firm’s UK boss, Ben Osborn, said the company is manufacturing the huge stockpile of its current vaccine candidate in Belgium “at risk and at scale,” calling it “tremendously exciting.”

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