Lifeboat Foundation

Materials chemists have been trying for years to make a new type of battery that can store solar or other light-sourced energy in chemical bonds rather than electrons, one that will release the energy on demand as heat instead of electricity — addressing the need for long-term, stable, efficient storage of solar power.

Now a group of materials chemists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst led by Dhandapani Venkataraman, with Ph.D. student and first author Seung Pyo Jeong, Ph.D. students Larry Renna, Connor Boyle and others, report that they have solved one of the major hurdles in the field by developing a polymer-based system. It can yield energy storage density — the amount of energy stored — more than two times higher than previous polymer systems. Details appear in the current issue of Scientific Reports.

Venkataraman and Boyle say that previous high energy storage density achieved in a polymeric system was in the range of 200 Joules per gram, while their new system is able to reach an average of 510 Joules per gram, with a maximum of 690. Venkataraman says, “Theory says that we should be able to achieve 800 Joules per gram, but nobody could do it. This paper reports that we’ve reached one of the highest energy densities stored per gram in a polymeric system, and how we did it.”

Continue reading “Paving the way for a non-electric battery to store solar energy” »

2018 announces Program and Speakers!

This conference is focused on the cellular and molecular repair of age-related damage as the basis of therapies to bring aging under full medical control, It will mirror the structure of SENS, with sessions devoted to each strand and to the enabling technologies that multiple strands will rely upon. Sessions will cover a wide range of topics across the damage-repair spectrum.

Further details are given below:

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The 2017 Project for Awesome (P4A) has ended, and what a weekend it has been! We have had a significant number of videos created in support of our work, and the encouragement from the community has been superb. It is very inspiring to hear what people have to say about the importance of our work and why they appreciate the work we do. Today, we wanted to have a look at some of the great videos created by the LEAF team and our awesome community.

LEAF President Keith Comito led the charge during P4A and talks about our motivations and our vision for a world without age-related diseases. Science is making huge leaps in progress, and we no longer have to accept age-related diseases as inevitable.

We were recently visited by a traveler from outside our solar system. This is the first time we’ve ever seen an object that came to us from interstellar space. It’s name is ‘Oumuamua. Check out http://curiositystream.com/spacetime

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Continue reading “The Origin of Our First Interstellar Visitor” »

Although solar panels might appear bright and shiny, in desert environments, where they are most frequently installed, layers of dust and other particles can quickly coat their surface. These coatings can affect the panels’ ability to absorb sunlight and drastically reduce the conversion of the sun’s rays into energy, making it necessary to periodically wash the panels with water. But often, in areas like Nevada, water resources are scarce.

Consequently, NEXUS scientists have turned their attention toward developing technologies for waterless cleaning. NASA has already been using such techniques to wash panels in the lunar and Mars missions, but their developed methodologies prove too expensive for widespread public application. NEXUS scientist Biswajit Das of UNLV and his team are aiming to develop a water-free cleaning technology that will be cost-effective for large-scale photovoltaic generation, whereby they look to nanotechnology, rather than water, to clean the panels. “Our mission is to develop a waterless, or at least a less-water cleaning technique to address the effect of dust on solar panels,” Das says. “Once developed, this method will significantly reduce water use for the future PV generation.”

Continue reading “Using Nanotechnology, not Water, to Clean Solar Panels” »

Artificial Intelligence has come a long way in a short time. So at what point will it be able to emulate the great artists and writers of our time?

The first clinical trials are slated to begin in the U.S. and Europe while others are stalled.

Just three years ago, the idea of wiping out disease-causing mosquitoes using gene drives seemed a distant theoretical possibility. Now it’s in reach.