Lifeboat Foundation

The fashion world is buzzing about a new material that’s changing the game: mushroom leather. Made from mycelium, this innovative textile is taking the industry by storm, offering a sustainable and stylish alternative to traditional leather.

But it’s not just about looking good — this fungal fashion movement is about embracing a more eco-conscious and cruelty-free approach to clothing production.

What makes mushroom leather so remarkable? It all starts with mycelium, the thread-like, dense cellular structure that forms the vegetative part of a fungus.

A team of researchers from Jilin University, NYU Abu Dhabi’s Smart Materials Lab, and the Center for Smart Engineering Materials, led by Professor of Chemistry Pance Naumov, has developed a new crystalline material that can harvest water from fog without any energy input.

The design of the novel type of smart crystals, which the researchers named Janus crystals, is inspired by desert plants and animals, which can survive in arid conditions. Desert beetles and lizards, for example, have evolved to develop surface structures that have both hydrophilic and hydrophobic areas and effectively capture moisture from the air. Water is attracted to the hydrophilic areas and droplets are accumulated and transported through the hydrophobic areas.

The findings are presented in the paper titled “Efficient Aerial Water Harvesting with Self-Sensing Dynamic Janus Crystals,” recently published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Researchers in Saudi Arabia have developed a solution to overheating solar panels that requires zero electricity. This development can also double as a method for atmospheric water collection, an important practice in dry regions, as relayed by SciTechDaily.

The research, led by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology professor Qiaoqiang Gan, is important because it addresses the problem of overheating solar panels in particularly hot and sunny regions, such as Saudi Arabia.

Continue reading “Scientists develop incredible gravity-powered system that could change the way we use solar panels: ‘It doesn’t consume any electricity’” »

🔬 Unlocking precision in pharmaceutical analysis! Discover how x-ray fluorescence is revolutionizing elemental analysis with its speed, accuracy, and sustainability.

Gwynne Shotwell discusses the transformative potential of SpaceX’s Starship program for space exploration and colonization, emphasizing its upcoming Flight 6, the importance of Starlink for revenue, and the integration of Tesla technologies for sustainable human habitats on Mars Questions to inspire discussion Launch.

Animals and plants also live and thrive on public squares. This creates opportunities for greater biodiversity and well-being for the human population. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have studied at 103 locations in Munich how various factors affect flora and fauna.

They advocate a close examination of local conditions and a more nature-focused approach to the design of public spaces. Their results are published in Nature Cities.

Biodiversity is the foundation of functional ecosystems: diverse ecosystems are more stable and have greater resiliency to the effects of climate change. However, humans also benefit directly from having a wide range of plant and animal life in their surroundings.

Uranus’s upper atmosphere has been cooling for decades—and now scientists have shown why. Observations from Earth have shown Uranus’ upper atmosphere has been cooling for decades, with no clear explanation.

Now, a team led by Imperial College London scientists has determined that unpredictable long-term changes in the solar wind —the stream of particles and energy coming from the sun—are behind the drop.

The team predict Uranus’ upper atmosphere should continue to get colder or reverse the trend and become hotter again depending on how the solar wind changes over the coming years.

All-electric aircraft developer BETA Technologies has shared another important milestone in bringing its first two vessels to market. Most recently, BETA’s founder, CEO, and test pilot Kyle Clark took the production version of its ALIA eCTOL up for its first flight, as seen in the video below.

BETA Technologies is a fully integrated electric aircraft and systems developer based in Vermont. Three years ago, it debuted its first electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, the ALIA–250. That BETA vessel has since been renamed the ALIA VTOL and completed a piloted test flight transitioning mid-air this past April.

In addition to the ALIA VTOL, BETA has also been developing an electric conventional takeoff and landing (eCTOL) plane called the ALIA CTOL. To date, it has flown tens of thousands of test miles en route to evaluation flights for FAA certification. That aircraft is targeting full approval for commercial operations by 2025.

“This paper shows a fun way to make carbon-neutral fuels and chemicals,” said Dr. Curtis P. Berlinguette. “We’ll need plastic on Mars one day, and this technology shows one way we can make it there.”

Can we use the planetary environment of Mars to help power a future colony on the Red Planet? This is what a recent study published in Device hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated how current thermoelectric generators—which can operate in a myriad of environments—on Mars could convert carbon dioxide (CO₂) into fuel and other chemicals that can be used for a future Mars colony. This study holds the potential to help scientists, engineers, and the public better understand how a future Mars colony could be managed and operated without constant need for resupply from Earth.

“This is a harsh environment where large temperature differences could be leveraged to not only generate power with thermoelectric generators, but to convert the abundant CO₂ in Mars’ atmosphere into useful products that could supply a colony,” said Dr. Abhishek Soni, who is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and lead author of the study.

Continue reading “Harnessing Earth’s and Mars’ Temperature Extremes for CO2 Conversion into Fuels” »