Lifeboat Foundation

Physicists have spent more than a century measuring and making sense of the strange ways that photons, electrons, and other subatomic particles interact at extremely small scales. Engineers have spent decades figuring out how to take advantage of these phenomena to create new technologies.

In one such phenomenon, called quantum entanglement, pairs of photons become interconnected in such a way that the state of one photon instantly changes to match the state of its paired photon, no matter how far apart they are.

Nearly 80 years ago, Albert Einstein referred to this phenomenon as “spooky action at a distance.” Today, entanglement is the subject of research programs across the world—and it’s becoming a favored way to implement the most fundamental form of quantum information, the qubit.

Even once researchers can reliably get more power out of a fusion reaction than they put in, they’ll still need to overcome engineering challenges to scale up fusion energy.

In a significant step toward creating a sustainable and circular economy, Rice University researchers have published a study in the journal Carbon demonstrating that carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers can be fully recycled without any loss in their structure or properties. This discovery positions CNT fibers as a sustainable alternative to traditional materials like metals, polymers and the much larger carbon fibers, which are notoriously difficult to recycle.

“Recycling has long been a challenge in the materials industry—metals recycling is often inefficient and energy-intensive, polymers tend to lose their properties after reprocessing and carbon fibers cannot be recycled at all, only downcycled by chopping them up into short pieces,” said corresponding author Matteo Pasquali, director of Rice’s Carbon Hub and the A.J. Hartsook Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Materials Science and NanoEngineering and Chemistry.

Continue reading “Fully recyclable carbon nanotube fibers have far-reaching implications for manufacturing across sectors” »

A research team from Yokohama National University has developed a novel approach to investigate how the orientation and behavior of electrons in titanium affect its physical properties. Their findings, published in Communications Physics on December 18, 2024, offer valuable insights that could lead to the creation of more advanced and efficient titanium alloys.

Titanium is highly prized for its exceptional resistance to chemical corrosion, lightweight nature, and impressive strength-to-weight ratio. Its biocompatibility makes it an ideal material for medical applications such as implants, prosthetics, and artificial bones, while its strength and durability make it indispensable in aerospace engineering and precision manufacturing.

One such company is JetZero, which, in partnership with engineering giants Siemens and Northrop Grumman, is developing a revolutionary passenger jet design that seamlessly blends the wings into the fuselage.

Bimetallic particles, made from a combination of a noble metal and a base metal, have unique catalytic properties that make them highly effective for selective heterogeneous hydrogenation reactions. These properties arise from their distinctive geometric and electronic structures. For hydrogenation to be both effective and selective, it requires specific interactions at the molecular level, where the active atoms on the catalyst precisely target the functional group in the substrate for transformation.

Nanoscale Engineering and Electronic Structure Tuning

Scaling these particles down to nanoscale atomic clusters or single-atom alloys further enhances their catalytic performance. This reduction in size increases surface dispersion and optimizes the use of noble metal atoms. Additionally, these nanoscale changes alter the electronic structure of the active sites, which can significantly influence the activity and selectivity of the reaction. By carefully adjusting the bonding between noble metal single atoms and the base metal host, researchers can create flexible environments that fine-tune the electronic properties needed to activate specific functional groups. Despite these advances, achieving atomically precise fabrication of such active sites remains a significant challenge.

Students from the Toms River School District in New Jersey will have the chance to connect with NASA astronauts Don Pettit and Butch Wilmore as they answer prerecorded science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) related questions from aboard the International Space Station.

Watch the 20-minute space-to-Earth call in collaboration with Science Friday at 10 a.m. EST on Tuesday, Jan. 14, on NASA+ and learn how to watch NASA content on various platforms, including social media.

Science Friday is a nonprofit dedicated to sharing science with the public through storytelling, educational programs, and connections with audiences. Middle school students will use their knowledge from the educational downlink to address environmental problems in their communities.

Innovative integration of flexible electronics with a lightweight, self-deployable boom offers multifunctionality for space applications. This ultrathin composite structure, designed to withstand harsh space conditions, enhances satellite capabilities. The Virginia Tech CubeSat, featuring this technology, is set for a 2025 launch.

Being lightweight is essential for space structures, particularly for tools used on already small, lightweight satellites. The ability to perform multiple functions is a bonus. To address these characteristics in a new way, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign successfully integrated flexible electronics with a three-ply, self-deployable boom that weighs only about 20 grams.

The study, “Multifunctional bistable ultrathin composite booms with flexible electronics,” by Yao Yao and Xin Ning from Illinois, Juan Fernandez from NASA Langley Research Center and Sven Bilén at Penn State, is published in Extreme Mechanics Letters.

Continue reading “Flexible electronics integrated with paper-thin structure for use in space” »

Scientists at Penn Engineering have developed a quantum sensing method that detects signals from individual atoms.