Lifeboat Foundation

Robotic automation has become a game-changer in addressing labor shortages. While traditional rigid grippers have effectively automated various routine tasks, boosting efficiency and productivity in industries that deal with objects of well-defined specifications, they fall short in sectors like the food industry, where delicate objects of varying sizes and shapes need to be handled. In these cases, a more specialized type of gripper is required.

“Bioinspired soft robotics seeks to develop technologies that draw inspiration from nature and leverage advanced materials and fabrication processes,” said Dr. Pablo Valdivia y Alvarado, Associate Professor at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD).

Soft grippers inspired by the natural dexterity and control of human hands are particularly well-suited to the food industry. They can adapt to objects of varying sizes and shapes while distributing forces more evenly, making them ideal for handling delicate items.

Australia can still reach its net-zero energy goal by 2050, according to BloombergNEF (BNEF), but there is no time to waste, with a need for significant investments in solar, wind, and energy storage to stay on track.

The Standard Model of particle physics is the mathematical description of the fundamental constituents and interactions of matter. While it is the accepted theory encapsulating our current state-of-the-art knowledge in particle physics, it is incomplete as it is unable to describe many glaring phenomena in nature.

Crivellin and Mellado’s article describes deviations in the decay of multi-lepton particles in the LHC, compared to how they should behave according to the Standard Model. These deviations, or anomalies, constitute excesses in the production of particles called electrons and its heavy cousin, the muon, on top of the predictions from the Standard Model.

“An anomaly is something that stands out as unusual or different from what is normal or expected. In this case, this is a deviation from the Standard Model of Particle physics. Anomalies can be important because they often signal that something unexpected or significant has happened,” says Crivellin.

Dr. Matt Lyon, MD: “We are not entirely sure what causes these issues with vision, but we suspect it has to do with a shift in cerebrospinal fluid in the optic nerve sheath. On Earth, gravity pushes that fluid down and it drains out, but in space, it floats up and presses against the optic nerve and retina.”

How does spaceflight affect vision loss in astronauts for both the short and long term? This is what a combined effort between the upcoming Polaris Dawn mission and the Medical College of Georgia (MCG) at Augusta University hopes to achieve as the four-person crew will be using a portable ultrasound machine to study changes in vision during spaceflight. This is especially prevalent since the four-person crew will be traveling in an elliptical orbit 870 miles above the Earth’s surface, exposing them to the Van Allen radiation belt, which is a highly radiated region of space between the Earth and the Moon.

For context, the International Space Station orbits approximately 250 miles above the Earth, and this research holds the potential to further explore the effects of space radiation on the human body, and specifically vision loss.

Continue reading “Mitigating Spaceflight Vision Risks: The Role of Portable Ultrasound in Polaris Dawn” »

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Nobel Prize winner Roger Penrose famously believes that the collapse of the wave-function in quantum mechanics causes consciousness. A group of physicists now tries to improve on Penroses idea in a new paper. I have some comments…

Continue reading “Can Quantum Physics Explain Consciousness After All?” »

In a paper published in Nature Chemistry, researchers from the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London and Queen Mary University of London have shown for the first time how different arrangements of molecules in organic solar cells can improve light absorption, leading the way to better and cheaper solar panels.

Organic solar cells use small organic molecules or organic polymers to absorb and transform sunlight into electricity. The molecules can be produced synthetically at high throughput, and the resulting cells are lightweight, flexible and inexpensive to make. This makes them potentially cheaper, sustainable and more flexible than traditional cells made of silicon.

When light hits an organic solar cell, it forces the molecules to transfer electrons, which generates an electrical current. The efficiency of the process depends on the arrangement of the molecules and how well they interact.

Researchers at the School of Engineering of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have developed an eco-friendly refrigeration device with record-breaking cooling performance, setting the stage for transforming industries reliant on cooling and reducing global energy use.

With a boost in efficiency of over 48%, the new elastocaloric cooling technology opens a promising avenue for accelerating the commercialization of this disruptive technology and addressing the environmental challenges associated with traditional cooling systems.

Traditional vapor compression refrigeration technology relies on refrigerants of high global warming potential. Solid-state elastocaloric refrigeration based on latent heat in the cyclic phase transition of shape memory alloys (SMAs) provides an environmentally friendly alternative, with its characteristics of greenhouse gas-free, 100% recyclable and energy-efficient SMA refrigerants.

American energy storage technology newcomer Form Energy says it has received funding to deploy a groundbreaking 85 MW/8.5 GWh iron-air multi-day battery, which will be capable of up to 100 hours of storage and will be the world’s biggest battery once built.

The US Department of Energy last week announced $US389 million ($A579 million) in funding for the Power Up New England project which seeks to unlock up to 4.8GW of additional offshore wind and innovative battery energy storage systems in the local grids to boost resilience and optimise the delivery of renewable energy.

Part of the Power Up New England project, and easily the most exciting, is the 85 MW/8,500 MWh iron-air battery system to be built on the site of a former paper mill in rural Maine.

According to a paper published by Nature Computational Science on Friday, the researchers developed a model that bridges the gap between big, externally complex AI networks and the small, internally complex workings of the brain.

Industry experts said the team’s findings could mark a pivotal shift in AI development, prompting further exploration of computing solutions that are not dependent on silicon chips.