discuss Science & Technology news & discussion

[CraigD]

Post and discuss interesting articles & videos about science and technology.

You don't need to be an expert - just interested in the wonders of modern science, technology, and the history of these fields.

Please keep it rational, and post articles from reputable sources.
Try not to editorialise headlines and keep the copy to just a paragraph with a link to the original source. When quoting excerpts from articles, I think the best method is to italicise the copy, and include a link to the source.

Have some fun with your comments and discussions... just keep the sources legitimate.

Other threads:
The Break Room has a number of other popular threads, so there is no need to post material here that is better suited to these other threads:

- Covid19-Coronavirus updates and news
- Conspiracy Thread Free For All
- The *religious* discussion thread

Please enjoy!

 

[Cal2]

Welsh University Makes Printable Perovskite Solar Cell​

Swansea University researchers have developed the world’s first fully roll-to-roll (R2R) printable perovskite solar cell, a major breakthrough towards their large-scale production and commercialization.
The team at the SPECIFIC Innovation and Knowledge Centre discovered a low-cost and scalable carbon ink formulation, which replaces the expensive and slow gold electrode evaporation process typically used in solar cell manufacturing. .......

“Perovskite solar cells show great promise in the drive towards cleaner, greener energy,” said Professor Trystan Watson, photovoltaic researcher at the university.

“The ability to produce a fully working device entirely in-line makes high-volume manufacturing easier and more economical and is a big step towards their commercialisation. It unlocks the idea of a manufacturing process where a solar ink is added to one end and a solar cell emerges from the other.”

The fully R2R coated device was printed onto a 20-meter-long flexible substrate, achieving a stabilized power conversion efficiency of 10.8%. This new generation of solar cells, developed by a collaborative team of chemists, materials scientists, and engineers, has brought the possibility of printing and installing millions of meters of solar cells around the world closer than ever.

https://3dprinting.com/news/welsh-university-makes-printable-perovskite-solar-cell/


If adding to those cells something like silver mirror was possible, to improve their efficiency...

Silver mirror triples efficiency of perovskite solar cells​

Perovskites are one of the most promising new materials for solar cell technology. Now engineers at the University of Rochester have developed a new way to more than triple the material’s efficiency by adding a layer of reflective silver underneath it.

For the better part of a century, silicon has been the go-to material for making solar cells, thanks to its abundance and efficiency in converting light to an electrical current. But in just the last decade, a new contender has rapidly risen through the ranks – perovskite, which is much cheaper and has already caught up to silicon in efficiency.

Now a new study has boosted perovskite’s efficiency by three and a half times, without even tweaking the material itself. Instead, the team found that adding a layer of a different material underneath it changed the interactions of the electrons in the perovskite, reducing an energy-sapping process.

https://newatlas.com/energy/perovskite-solar-cell-efficiency-boosted/?utm_source=New+Atlas+Subscribers&utm_campaign=bb9ec32a06-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_02_20_09_08&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-bb9ec32a06-[LIST_EMAIL_ID]

 

[Cal2]

Scientists Have Figured Out How to Create Wormholes For Transportation Across Space​

According to a report from Vice, researchers from the University of Bristol’s Quantum Engineering Technology Labs in the UK have “proposed a mind-blowing experiment that could potentially create the first-ever traversable wormhole.”

Hopping through the wormhole would allow people to effectively teleport from one side of space to another. But the team of researchers, led by Hatim Salih, a quantum physicist and honorary research fellow at the university, don’t call this method of travel “teleportation.” Instead, it’s known as “counterportation,” as Vice explains:

“The fundamental concept behind the new study is ‘counterportation,’ which is a portmanteau that Salih coined from the words ‘counterfactual’ and ‘transportation.’ While the transportation part is fairly straightforward, the counterfactual component is derived from a concept called counterfactual communication, which is a way to send messages between two points without exchanging any particles.
“By way of a simple real-world example, consider a dormant car engine light. It’s not emitting anything, but it still signals information: that your engine is fine. That’s counterfactual communication.”

Quantum computing holds the key to all this.


To transport information across space and time, the researchers would first send light through a quantum system. The light hits detectors and is then reconstructed at the other end of the system. This means the information is transmitted without any electricity or particles being sent from origin to destination. As Vice explains:

“In other words, it’s more like the kind of teleportation we are familiar with in science fiction, in which objects appear to vanish in one place and reappear in another, with no sign of any exchanged particles at all.”

According to Vice, Salih has been working on this way of transporting matter across space for a decade. So far, the research team has demonstrated its workings in a lab, and a team of scientists in China has also sent a bitmap image from one location to another without the exchange of particles.

The next step in advancing this means of data transfer will all come down to the next-generation quantum computers. These computers could then be used to “harness the power of counterportation to produce a traversable wormhole,” according to Vice. But if this could become a reality, don’t expect instant travel across space to happen right away, as Vice explains:

“Unlike fictional wormholes, the experimental version would not allow for instantaneously faster-than-light travel to distant locations, because counterportation crawls along much more slowly than the speed of light.”

That doesn’t mean such a technology is useless. Far from it: Researchers could use the means of traveling into a wormhole to send signals or objects through a real bridge across spacetime. It could even offer a first-person view inside a wormhole, which would be pretty damn cool.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/tech...1&cvid=949785d0f1a245799256377e0e8cb050&ei=22

 

[koolishman]

​

The “Stony Materials Initial Analysis Team” have published their first results from the initial analysis of the asteroid Ryugu sample returned by the Hayabusa2 mission in the international journal Science.


Show attachment 223703

Remnant magnetism was detected in micro-crystals of magnetite. These magnetic minerals act like many small magnets and behave like a natural hard disc, recording a magnetic field that the rock felt more than 4.6 billion years ago.

Trapped fluid inclusions were discovered in a large pyrrhotite (iron sulphide) crystal in one of the sample grains. The fluid was found to contain H2O and CO2, as well as sulphur species and organic molecules. The presence of water and CO2 indicates that Ryugu’s parent body formed far away from the Sun, where H2O and CO2 could freeze into solids that could be included in the asteroid.

RNA compound and vitamin B3 found in samples from near-Earth asteroid ​

Organic molecules have been detected in samples collected by Japan’s Hayabusa2 mission from the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu.


“When researchers analyzed the samples, collected from two different locations on the asteroid, they found uracil, one of the building blocks of RNA, as well as vitamin B3, or niacin (a key cofactor for metabolism in living organisms).
Uracil is a nucleobase, or a nitrogen-containing compound. It’s one of five nucleobases in DNA and RNA, the proteins and molecules that contain genetic information and instructions crucial for the cells of living organisms.

So basic compounds for life could well be distributed in universe. Long lost cousins may be looking for us too.

 

[J Sokol]

US puts Italy-sized chunk of Gulf of Mexico up for auction for oil drilling​

An enormous swathe of the Gulf of Mexico, spanning an area the size of Italy, was put up for auction on Wednesday for oil and gas drilling, in the latest blow to Joe Biden’s increasingly frayed reputation on dealing with the climate crisis.

The president’s Department of the Interior offered up a vast area of the central and western Gulf, including plunging deep water reaches, for drilling projects that will stretch out over decades, despite scientists’ urgent warnings that fossil fuels must be rapidly phased out if the world is to avoid disastrous global heating. The auctions also come despite Biden’s own pre-election promise to halt all drilling on federal lands and waters.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/29/gulf-of-mexico-oil-gas-drilling-joe-biden-auction

 

[J Sokol]

Panera to adopt palm-reading payment systems, sparking privacy fears​

The US bakery and cafe chain Panera will soon allow customers to pay with the swipe of a palm, marking the first restaurant chain to implement the new technology and raising alarm among privacy advocates.

The company announced last week it would roll out biometric readers in coming months that will allow customers to access credit card and loyalty account information by scanning their palms. Called Amazon One, the system was developed by Amazon and is in use at some airports, stadiums and Whole Foods grocery stores.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/mar/29/panera-bread-palm-reading-biometrics-amazon-one

 

[koolishman]

ChatGPT banned in Italy over privacy concerns​

Italy has become the first Western country to block advanced chatbot ChatGPT.

The Italian data-protection authority said there were privacy concerns relating to the model, which was created by US start-up OpenAI and is backed by Microsoft.

The regulator said it would ban and investigate OpenAI "with immediate effect".

 

[koolishman]

Plants aren’t silent. They make clicking sounds, a study finds ​

Plants make popping sounds that are undetectable to the human ear, according to recordings made in a new study — and they make more sounds when thirsty or under other kinds of stress.


The research shakes up what most botanists thought they knew about the plant kingdom, which had been considered largely silent, and suggests the world around us is a cacophony of plant sounds, said study coauthor Lilach Hadany.


https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(23)00262-3

 

[Cal2]

Plants aren’t silent. They make clicking sounds, a study finds ​

Plants make popping sounds that are undetectable to the human ear, according to recordings made in a new study — and they make more sounds when thirsty or under other kinds of stress.


The research shakes up what most botanists thought they knew about the plant kingdom, which had been considered largely silent, and suggests the world around us is a cacophony of plant sounds, said study coauthor Lilach Hadany.


https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(23)00262-3

This is a reason I don't like buying plants. I feel a responsibility to them that I don't care to have.

 

[koolishman]

This is a reason I don't like buying plants. I feel a responsibility to them that I don't care to have.

Pet Rock may be?

 

[Cal2]

Pet Rock may be?

That might work. : )

Any pets we've gotten (gotten pawned off on us) are too much responsibility for me to justify.

I like things, people, that are/can grow to become 'independent'. A favourite saying: I do > We do > You do.

 

[J Sokol]

Recycling rubble can help rebuild Syria faster, scientists show​

Concrete rubble from destroyed buildings in Syria can be safely recycled into new concrete, scientists have shown, which will make the rebuilding of the war-hit country faster, cheaper and greener.

Syria, which was also hit by a huge earthquake in February, has a vast amount of concrete rubble, estimated at 40m tonnes. The key barrier to recycling this waste is ensuring that the new concrete is as strong and safe as conventional concrete.

Scientists in Syria, the UK and Turkey have now demonstrated that using recycled concrete to replace half of the aggregate in new concrete does not significantly affect its building performance.

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...cling-rubble-rebuild-syria-war-quake-concrete

 

[Cal2]

Recycling rubble can help rebuild Syria faster, scientists show​

Concrete rubble from destroyed buildings in Syria can be safely recycled into new concrete, scientists have shown, which will make the rebuilding of the war-hit country faster, cheaper and greener.

Syria, which was also hit by a huge earthquake in February, has a vast amount of concrete rubble, estimated at 40m tonnes. The key barrier to recycling this waste is ensuring that the new concrete is as strong and safe as conventional concrete.

Scientists in Syria, the UK and Turkey have now demonstrated that using recycled concrete to replace half of the aggregate in new concrete does not significantly affect its building performance.

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...cling-rubble-rebuild-syria-war-quake-concrete

Some latest on concrete:

SpaceCrete

As SpaceCrete allows stacking pumped-concrete without forming, it opens up so many new ways to build with it. Your normal-delivered concrete can become 3D print material, with a very-low-dose of 3D-AdmixTM injected into the pump line. Or, you can vertically slip-form very rapidly, with pumpable concrete.

Only 0.25% of 3D-AdmixTM transforms normal concrete into SpaceCrete.

https://spacecrete.com/

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Shell Wall tech claimed to reduce weight of concrete walls by over 70%​

3D concrete printing (3DCP) technology is already known to offer a more efficient approach to constructing buildings. A new type of 3DCP, however, is said to be even better, resulting in walls that are a claimed 72% lighter than their conventional counterparts.

Small-scale tests indicated that as compared to same-size traditional walls built out of solid concrete, Shell Wall elements offer a 72% reduction in weight while providing the same structural strength. Full-scale tests of the technology at actual construction sites are now being planned.

https://newatlas.com/3d-printing/shell-wall-3d-printed-concrete-walls/?utm_source=New+Atlas+Subscribers&utm_campaign=f77cd0cdd8-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_04_04_08_04&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-f77cd0cdd8-[LIST_EMAIL_ID]

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This self-healing concrete automatically fills in cracks

Adding an enzyme found in your blood gives concrete regenerative powers.​

---

If they find they can combine some of these for even better building and rebuilding efficiencies....

 

[J Sokol]

California: stunning shift as parched reservoirs replenished by storms​

Water levels fell so low in key reservoirs during the depth of California’s drought that boat docks sat on dry, cracked land and cars drove into the center of what should have been Folsom lake.

Those scenes are no more after a series of powerful storms dumped record amounts of rain and snow across California, replenishing reservoirs and bringing an end – mostly – to the state’s three-year drought.

Now, 12 of California’s 17 major reservoirs are filled above their historical averages for the start of spring. That includes Folsom lake, which controls water flows along the American River, as well as Lake Oroville, the state’s second largest reservoir and home to the nation’s tallest dam.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...a-reservoirs-drought-storms-water-replenished

 

[Cal2]

"Inside-out Wankel" rotary engine delivers 5X the power of a diesel​

LiquidPiston says its new XTS-210 solves the efficiency, lubrication and fuel type issues of Wankel rotary engines. This supercharged, liquid-cooled two-stroke claims 5X the power of an equivalent size or weight diesel engine, and 3X the torque.
Targeted at military, commercial and aerospace applications, the XTS-210 is about the size of a basketball, weighs in at 19 kg (42 lb), and displaces 210 cc. It'll run on multiple fuels, including diesel and kerosene/jet fuel.

LiquidPiston has been working on these X-engines for nearly 20 years now, with numerous prototypes already tested in small planes (see above) and go-karts. Other prototypes have included naturally aspirated versions making up to 40 hp, and forced-induction engines up to 70 hp. They've run these things on diesel, gasoline, hydrogen and propane, and they're developing the XTS-210 at the moment on JP-8/Jet-A fuel due to its ubiquity in defense and aerospace.

https://newatlas.com/automotive/inside-out-wankel/?utm_source=New+Atlas+Subscribers&utm_campaign=8a82fb5cb5-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_04_05_09_20&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-8a82fb5cb5-[LIST_EMAIL_ID]

I'd like to get my hands on a couple of these. Would be fun to see what could be done with them.

 

[Cal2]

An Enzyme Can Use Air To Generate Electricity​

• Researchers just announced the discovery of an enzyme that can convert the hydrogen in the air directly into energy.
• The enzyme, called Huc, is both very stable and very efficient, leading to hopes it could be used as a clean source of energy
• The enzyme is not being produced at scales useful to humans yet, but researchers hope to eventually use Huc as the generator for entirely air-powered machines

We might soon be able to use the air around us as a generator. Not the wind—no turbines here. Just the still air.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/tech...1&cvid=750fff9a63984430a38710f7bc5eece8&ei=46

 

[Cannuck]

An Enzyme Can Use Air To Generate Electricity​

• Researchers just announced the discovery of an enzyme that can convert the hydrogen in the air directly into energy.
• The enzyme, called Huc, is both very stable and very efficient, leading to hopes it could be used as a clean source of energy
• The enzyme is not being produced at scales useful to humans yet, but researchers hope to eventually use Huc as the generator for entirely air-powered machines

We might soon be able to use the air around us as a generator. Not the wind—no turbines here. Just the still air.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/tech...1&cvid=750fff9a63984430a38710f7bc5eece8&ei=46

From that article, bacteria can also be used to generate energy from water, as in perspiration:

These Electricity-Producing Zombie Bacteria May Power Your Wearables in the Future​

 

[Cal2]

From that article, bacteria can also be used to generate energy from water, as in perspiration:

These Electricity-Producing Zombie Bacteria May Power Your Wearables in the Future​

Power creating bacteria

https://www.google.com/search?q=pow...gAM&bih=722&biw=1536&rlz=1C1CHBD_enCA897CA897

 

[koolishman]

This Slime Could Change The World | Planet Fix | BBC Earth Lab​

Grown for centuries by indigenous farmers in rural Mexico, this incredibly rare corn can self-fertilise. In episode three of 'Planet Fix', we explore how this wonder crop could help tackle world hunger, and even end farming's toxic reliance on chemical fertilisers for good!

 

[Cal2]

This startup places tiny turbines in canals to generate power​

Outside Denver, in a 9-mile-long canal that sends water to the local water treatment plant, small turbines spin as the water flows by. As they spin, they send energy to the water company so it can rely less on the electric grid.

This new iteration of hydropower looks nothing like a traditional dam. The company that makes the tech, called Emrgy, “wants to bring forth a solution that can be deployed just as quickly as solar,” says founder and CEO Emily Morris. Emrgy announced today that it raised $18.4 million in Series A funding led by Oval Park Capital. ......

While a system likely can’t supply all of the electricity each customer needs, a network of several turbines in a canal could make a difference. It could also be used in combination with floating solar panels in canals, providing a continuous source of power as the water flows.

https://www.fastcompany.com/9087932...EhvPdnv1i1SVRh_RkftikoQHhy8zxMgnLVWrPhpvDq9Dc

 

[Cal2]

New Zealander without college degree couldn’t talk his way into NASA and Boeing—so he built a $1.8 billion rocket company

Here, Beck discusses how he turned his disappointment into opportunity, the biggest challenges he faced, and whether he ever regrets his decision to create Rocket Lab.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/com...1&cvid=f88516757254422784dfa0f42a59415f&ei=75

I think Musk started SpaceX by reading textbooks and talking to knowledgeable people.

 

[koolishman]

China’s ‘artificial sun’ breaks record, marking latest milestone in quest for efficient thermonuclear fusion reactors​

​

China’s “artificial sun” set a world record on Wednesday night by generating and maintaining extremely hot, highly confined plasma for nearly seven minutes.

The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) in the city of Hefei in eastern China generated and sustained plasma for 403 seconds, breaking its previous record of 101 seconds in 2017 and marking another key step towards building high-efficiency, low-cost thermonuclear fusion reactors.

EAST, which began operating in 2006, represents one of the most promising paths towards controlled nuclear fusion. It conducted more than 120,000 experiments to reach the latest milestone.

 

[koolishman]

Never-before-seen 'crystal-like matter' hidden in a chunk of fossilized lightning is probably a brand new mineral​

"We have never seen this material occur naturally on Earth," Mathew Pasek (opens in new tab), a geoscientist at the University of South Florida, said in a statement (opens in new tab). "Minerals similar to it can be found in meteorites and space, but we've never seen this exact material anywhere."

The fossilized lightning chunk, or fulgurite, was created when lightning struck a tree near New Port Richey. Fulgurites form when powerful lightning bolts discharge through the ground, which melts and fuses any nearby soil, sand, rock and organic debris into a singular metallic-looking lump.

 

[koolishman]

Talking about the toughest animals on the planet:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/t/tardigrades-water-bears/

What is a tardigrade?

Tardigrades are microscopic eight-legged animals that have been to outer space and would likely survive the apocalypse. Bonus: They look like adorable miniature bears.

Tiny and tough

Tardigrades belong to an elite category of animals known as extremophiles, or critters that can survive environments that most others can't. For instance, tardigrades can go up to 30 years without food or water. They can also live at temperatures as cold as absolute zero or above boiling, at pressures six times that of the ocean’s deepest trenches, and in the vacuum of space.

Their resiliency is in part due to a unique protein in their bodies called Dsup—short for "damage suppressor"—that protects their DNA from being harmed by things like ionizing radiation, which is present in soil, water, and vegetation.

Tardigrades become first animals to survive vacuum of space

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/...ome-first-animals-to-survive-vacuum-of-space/

In September last year, a team of scientists launched a squad of tiny animals into space aboard a Russian satellite. Once in orbit, the creatures were shunted into ventilated containers that exposed them to the vacuum of space. In this final frontier, they had no air and they were subjected to extreme dehydration, freezing temperatures, weightlessness and lashings of both cosmic and solar radiation. It’s hard to imagine a more inhospitable environment for life but not only did the critters survive, they managed to reproduce on their return to Earth. Meet the planet’s toughest animals – the tardigrades.

Tardigrades: The Surprisingly Sexy Ambassadors Of The Microcosmos | Compilation​

 

[koolishman]

AI clones teen girl’s voice in $1M kidnapping scam: ‘I’ve got your daughter’ ​

Artificial intelligence has taken phone scams to a frightening new level.

An Arizona mom claims that scammers used AI to clone her daughter’s voice so they could demand a $1 million ransom from her as part of a terrifying new voice scheme.

“I never doubted for one second it was her,” distraught mother Jennifer DeStefano told WKYT while recalling the bone-chilling incident. “That’s the freaky part that really got me to my core.”

This bombshell comes amid a rise in “caller-ID spoofing” schemes, in which scammers claim they’ve taken the recipient’s relative hostage and will harm them if they aren’t paid a specified amount of money.

 

[koolishman]

Researchers populated a tiny virtual town with AI (and it was very wholesome)​

Scientists were inspired by life simulators like The Sims. Agents had the ability to draw conclusions about themselves, other agents, and their city by storing new information in memory. At the same time, the bots demonstrated “plausible” human behavior, for example, they coordinated plans, had meaningful conversations, and even “unwound” in the evenings at a bar.


However, the experiment was not without problems: sometimes the agents did not absorb important information and made non-standard choices, such as visiting closed stores or choosing an evening bar instead of a cafe for lunch. Researchers plan to improve the performance of AI bots with the more advanced GPT-4, which has already successfully passed US high school and law exams.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2304.03442.pdf

This paper has not been peer-reviewed yet.