On May 12th, SpaceX released an online simulator that allows internet users to try to dock the company’s newly developed Crew Dragon with the International Space Station.
In the movie “Transformers,” cars morph into robots, jets or a variety of machinery. A similar concept inspired a group of researchers to combine gas foaming, which is a blend of chemicals that induces gas bubbling, and 3D molding technologies to quickly transform electrospun membranes into complex 3D shapes for biomedical applications.
In Applied Physics Reviews, the group reports on its new approach that demonstrates significant improvements in speed and quality compared with other methods. The work is also the first successful demonstration of formation of 3D neural tissue constructs with an ordered structure through differentiation of human neural progenitor/stem cells on these transformed 3D nanofiber scaffolds.
“Electrospinning is a technology to produce nanofiber membranes,” said co-author Jingwei Xie, at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. “The physics principle behind it involves applying an electrical force to overcome the surface tension of a solution to elongate a solution jet into continuous and ultrafine fibers after solvent evaporation.”
Some days I feel like I’m living under a rock. How did I miss the development of a superfast nanobot that is controlled by exterior electric fields? This is an extraordinary development.
Piecework at the nano assembly line.
Woodward effect
Posted in energy, innovation
Circa 1990 to current o.o
The Woodward effect, also referred to as a Mach effect, is part of a hypothesis proposed by James F. Woodward in 1990.[1] The hypothesis states that transient mass fluctuations arise in any object that absorbs internal energy while undergoing a proper acceleration. Harnessing this effect could generate a reactionless thrust, which Woodward and others claim to measure in various experiments.[2][3]
Hypothetically, the Woodward effect would allow for field propulsion spacecraft engines that would not have to expel matter. Such a proposed engine is sometimes called a Mach effect thruster (MET) or a Mach Effect Gravitation al Assist (MEGA) drive.[4][5] So far, experimental results have not strongly supported this hypothesis,[6] but experimental research on this effect, and its potential applications, continues.[7]
The Space Studies Institute was selected as part of NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program as a Phase I proposal in April 2017 for Mach Effect research.[8][9][10][11] The year after, NASA awarded a NIAC Phase II grant to the SSI to further develop these propellantless thrusters.[12][13].
Circa 2017
Rapid improvement in micro drone technology is providing defence interests with new nimble capabilities.
Making wings that flap is very difficult, but it has real advantages as some are finding out.
Circa 2015
Most animals eventually get old and die. But a few lucky species don’t seem to feel the weight of time, and just keep going and going.
Circa 2017
Injecting DNA into injured horse tendons and ligaments can cure lameness, new research involving scientists at Kazan Federal University, Moscow State Academy and The University of Nottingham has found.
The gene therapy technology was used in horses that had gone lame due to injury and within two to three weeks the horses were able to walk and trot. Within just two months they were back to full health, galloping and competing.
The study has big implications not just for the veterinary world but the future of human medicine — injuries like these are common in people as well as animals, not just in lameness but in other illnesses and diseases from the legs and arms through to the back and hips.
A study of nearly 1,400 patients with moderate to severe COVID-19 disease at a single New York hospital found that patients who received the drug fared no better than patients who did not receive the drug.
Quantum technology is currently one of the most active fields of research worldwide. It takes advantage of the special properties of quantum mechanical states of atoms, light, or nanostructures to develop, for example, novel sensors for medicine and navigation, networks for information processing and powerful simulators for materials sciences. Generating these quantum states normally requires a strong interaction between the systems involved, such as between several atoms or nanostructures.
Until now, however, sufficiently strong interactions were limited to short distances. Typically, two systems had to be placed close to each other on the same chip at low temperatures or in the same vacuum chamber, where they interact via electrostatic or magnetostatic forces. Coupling them across larger distances, however, is required for many applications such as quantum networks or certain types of sensors.
A team of physicists, led by Professor Philipp Treutlein from the Department of Physics at the University of Basel and the Swiss Nanoscience Institute (SNI), has now succeeded for the first time in creating strong coupling between two systems over a greater distance across a room temperature environment. In their experiment, the researchers used laser light to couple the vibrations of a 100 nanometer thin membrane to the motion of the spin of atoms over a distance of one meter. As a result, each vibration of the membrane sets the spin of the atoms in motion and vice versa.