If a drop of creamer falls from a spoon into a swirling cup of coffee, the whirlpool drags the drop into rotation. But what would happen if the coffee had no friction—no way to pull the drop into a synchronized spin?
Circa 2015
Physicists have created a wormhole device that can tunnel a magnetic field through space. It sounds like Star Trek, but we won’t be zapping humans across the universe anytime soon. Still, the breakthrough could revolutionize certain magnet-based technologies, including MRIs.
The existence of a planet the size of Earth around the closest star to the Sun, Proxima Centauri, has been confirmed by an international team of scientists including researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE). The results, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, reveal that the planet in question, Proxima b, has a mass of 1.17 Earth masses and is located in the habitable zone of its star, which it orbits in 11.2 days.
This breakthrough was possible thanks to radial velocity measurements of unprecedented precision using ESPRESSO, the Swiss-manufactured spectrograph, the most accurate currently in operation, which is installed on the Very Large Telescope in Chile. Proxima b was first detected four years ago by means of an older spectrograph, HARPS, also developed by the Geneva-based team, which measured a low disturbance in the star’s speed, suggesting the presence of a companion.
The ESPRESSO spectrograph has performed radial velocity measurements on the star Proxima Centauri, which is only 4.2 light-years from the sun, with an accuracy of 30 centimetres a second (cm/s), about three times more precision than that obtained with HARPS, the same type of instrument but from the previous generation.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=PkEGoBe-EdA
“Pavegen creates high engagement with citizens by converting their footsteps into energy, data and rewards.
As pedestrians walk across the Pavegen system, the weight from their footsteps compresses electromagnetic generators below, producing 2 to 4 watt seconds of off-grid electrical energy per step.”
Continue reading “Global leader in harvesting energy and data from footfall” »
A team at Harvard has identified molecules that restore protective caps on the tips of our chromosomes that regulate cells ageing.
Israeli entrepreneurs and researchers have introduced facemask and face shield inventions we want to tell you about.
Let’s begin with an update on that first article highlighting washable masks from Sonovia and from Argaman. Each uses its own proprietary technology to embed microbe-killing metallic particles into textiles.
Continue reading “7 Israeli mask and face shield solutions for coronavirus” »
Paris (AFP) — An antibody from a patient who recovered from SARS has been shown to block COVID-19 infection in a laboratory setting, researchers said Monday in another potential breakthrough in the search for coronavirus treatment.
Scientists based in Switzerland and the United States previously isolated the antibodies from the patient in 2003, following the SARS outbreak that killed 774 people.
They experimented with 25 different types of antibodies — which target specific protein spikes on viruses — to see if they could prevent cells becoming infected with COVID-19.
Nanotechnology is on the cutting edge of new modern technology; However, one question remains, as it’s not clear if it’ll change the world or be potential harm for humans.
Autonomous driving has been one of the fundamental pillars of Tesla’s push to electrify transport, and by all accounts, the California company is leading the pack in production deployments of autonomous driving technology.
The team of engineers at Tesla working on AI are some of the brightest minds in the space and continue to roll out new, innovative ways of not only processing and interpreting computer vision, but in developing new methods to train its AI. It’s the digital equivalent of building the machine that builds the machine, the virtual equivalent to taking a step up the chain from designing automobiles to designing the manufacturing machines, processes, and systems that build them.
Therapeutics company Sorrento has made what it believes could be a breakthrough in potential treatment of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that leads to COVID-19. The company released details of its preclinical research on Friday, announcing that it has found an antibody that provides “100% inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 virus infection of healthy cells after four days incubation.” The results are from a preclinical study that still has to undergo peer review. It was an in vitro laboratory study (meaning not in an actual human being), but it’s still a promising development as the company continues to work on production of an antibody “cocktail” that could provide protection against SARS-CoV-2 even in case of mutations in the virus.
Sorrento says it believes this antibody, which is labelled STI-1499, stood out among billions of candidates it has been screening from its extensive human antibody library for its ability to completely block the interaction of the SARS-CoV-2’s spike protein with a human cell target receptor. That means it prevents the virus from attaching to the host’s healthy cell, which is what leads to incubation and infection.
The nature of the antibody’s efficacy means that Sorrento currently believes it will be the first antibody to be included in the cocktail it is developing, which will be made up of a large number of different antibodies that show efficacy in blocking the attachment of the spike protein, in order to provide multiple avenues of protection that are designed to remain effective even if the virus mutates in transmission from person to person, or within the same individual. One of the big outstanding questions that researchers are working on answering currently is just how mutagenic SARS-CoV-2 actually is, as many coronaviruses like the common cold show a tendency to mutate pretty quickly, rendering long-lasting cures and treatments difficult to develop.
