Lifeboat Foundation

The University of Rochester research lab that recently used lasers to create unsinkable metallic structures has now demonstrated how the same technology could be used to create highly efficient solar power generators.

In a paper in Light: Science & Applications, the lab of Chunlei Guo, professor of optics also affiliated with Physics and the Material Sciences Program, describes using powerful femto-second laser pulses to etch metal surfaces with nanoscale structures that selectively absorb light only at the solar wavelengths, but not elsewhere.

Continue reading “Lasers etch a ‘perfect’ solar energy absorber” »

Spacecraft’s new moniker honors NASA’s retired Earth Science Division leader Michael Freilich.

An artist’s concept depicts the Sentinel-6A satellite, which NASA and several partners have renamed in honor of noted earth scientist Michael Freilich, who retired from the space agency but oversaw many missions from Vandenberg Air Force Base. Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich is set to launch this fall from the Central Coast. (NASA illustration)

3D printed catalysts and new propellant types are making rockets more environmentally-friendly.

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These supremely stable particles could explain dark matter.

It could be a welcome alternative to skin grafts for burn victims.

(Reuters) — Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc ( REGN.O ) is working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop a treatment for the coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 400 people in China, the HHS said on Tuesday.

The company will use the same technology that was used to develop an experimental drug to treat Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the agency said.

India’s largest commercial oil company, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., will partner with Lod-based energy start-up Phinergy to develop and produce innovative metal-air batteries, often regarded as the solution for long-distance electric-vehicle travel.

Indian Oil said it had bought a minority stake in Phinergy on Tuesday, which specializes in aluminum-air (Al-air) and zinc-air technologies. Unlike conventional lithium-ion batteries that carry oxygen within a heavy electrode, metal-air systems produce energy by combining aluminum, water and oxygen from the air.

The future incorporation of the long-pursued battery solution into electric vehicles, Phinergy said, will enable long-range driving, five-minute energy recharges and lowering the cost of electric vehicles.

Continue reading “Indian oil giant, Israeli start-up to develop metal-air batteries” »

Its design shines a light on technical skills that researchers didn’t think Neolithic people possessed.

Archaeologists have discovered a 7,000-year-old Neolithic well in eastern Europe, which they believe is the oldest wooden structure in the world.

The square well was built with oak by farmers around 5256 B.C., according to researchers who pinpointed its origin after analyzing the tree rings in the wood, which is the scientific method known as dendrochronology. The well’s age makes it the oldest dendrochronologically dated archaeological wooden construction worldwide, according to the researchers in the Czech Republic.

Continue reading “This 7,000-year-old well is the oldest wooden structure ever discovered, archaeologists say” »