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Greater Resilience Through Nature-Inspired Power Grids
Researchers are looking to nature to build better power grids that are more resistant to various potential disturbances like natural disasters or cyberattacks.
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AI Is Not All Killer Robots. It Is Far More Dangerous
Whatever Hollywood might say, AI is not all about killer robots in a far-off future. It is more mundane, more everyday - and much more ubiquitous. And thinking it just belongs in a sci-fi film is dangerous, since this leads to a sense it is not relevant or that it is even unreal.
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Airborne Optical Energy Relays to Create Revolutionary Power Distribution Network
DARPA’s program aims to design and demonstrate airborne optical energy relays. These relays are a critical component necessary to allow ground-sourced lasers to be coupled with high-altitude, efficient long-range transmission.
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“Shock-Darkened” Meteorites Offer Clues for Hazardous Asteroid Deflection
Planetary scientists identified a potential source of a special kind of meteorite. Its characteristics could explain certain discrepancies in how near-Earth asteroids are classified.
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Solar Harvesting System May Generate Solar Power 24/7
With all the research, history and science behind it, there are limits to how much solar power can be harvested and used – as its generation is restricted only to the daytime. A new type of solar energy harvesting system that breaks the efficiency record of all existing technologies. And no less important, it clears the way to use solar power 24/7.
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China’s Extensive Use of Genetic Information Sounds a Warning
As China increasingly relies on biometric data collection for public and national security purposes, it is time for democracies to address its role in their systems.
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Laser Takes Aim at Cockroaches
Cockroaches are a creepy pest found all around the world. They are famously resilient —- for years people believed they could even survive a nuclear bomb. What they can’t survive is the new laser and artificial intelligence system designed to kill them dead.
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U.S. Nuclear Testing Moratorium Launched a Supercomputing Revolution
On 23 September 1992 the U.S. conducted its 1,054th – and last — nuclear weapons test. After the test, and with the Soviet Union gone, the U.S. government issued what was meant to be a short-term moratorium on testing, but the moratorium has lasted to this day. This moratorium came with an unexpected benefit: no longer testing nuclear weapons ushered in a revolution in high-performance computing.
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Scientific Discovery for Stockpile Stewardship
Following the U.S. last nuclear test in September 1992, the Department of Energy’s national labs convened to develop a strategy and map out an R&D effort that would come to be known as the Stockpile Stewardship Program (SSP). Its mission was ensuring the readiness of the nation’s nuclear deterrent force without nuclear tests.
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Propelling Wind Energy Innovation
Motivated by the need to eliminate expensive rare-earth magnets in utility-scale direct-drive wind turbines, Sandia National Laboratories researchers developed a fundamentally new type of rotary electrical contact. The novel rotary electrical contact eliminates reliance on rare-earth magnets for large-scale wind turbines.
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Charging Cars at Home at Night Is Not the Way to Go: Study
The move to electric vehicles will result in large costs for generating, transmitting, and storing more power. Shifting current EV charging from home to work and night to day could cut costs and help the grid, according to a new Stanford study.
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Cobalt-Free Cathode for Lithium-Ion Batteries
Researchers have devised a way to make lithium-ion battery cathodes without using cobalt, a mineral plagued by price volatility and geopolitical complications. The innovation could lead to safer, longer-lasting power storage for electric vehicles and devices.
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Lithium-Ion Battery Material Improves Charging Speed, Storage Capacity
Researchers discovered a key material needed for fast-charging lithium-ion batteries. The commercially relevant approach opens a potential pathway to improve charging speeds for electric vehicles.
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To Out-Innovate Global Competitors, the United States Should Embrace Immigrant Talent
Immigration barriers for entrepreneurs and U.S.-educated STEM graduates hurt American innovation.
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Simple Process Extracts Valuable Magnesium Salt from Seawater
Magnesium has emerging sustainability-related applications, including in carbon capture, low-carbon cement, and potential next-generation batteries. These applications are bringing renewed attention to domestic magnesium production. A new flow-based method harvests a magnesium salt from Sequim seawater.
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The long view
A Machine Learning-Based Solution May Help Firefighters Avoid Deadly Backdrafts
A lack of oxygen can reduce even the most furious flame to smoldering ash. But when fresh air rushes in, say after a firefighter opens a window or door to a room, the blaze may be suddenly and violently resurrected. Researchers have devised a plan for informing firefighters of what dangers lie behind closed doors.
A Drone Wing That Could Learn How to Sense Danger Faster
The small domes that you press on your soda’s to-go cup lid may one day save a winged drone from a nosedive. Patterns of these invertible domes on a drone’s wings would give it a way to remember in microseconds what dangerous conditions feel like and react quickly.
Battery Tech Breakthrough Paves Way for Mass Adoption of Affordable Electric Car
If new car sales are going to shift to battery-powered electric vehicles (EVs), they’ll need to overcome two major drawbacks: they are too slow to recharge and too large to be efficient and affordable. Researchers develop new technique that charges EV battery in just ten minutes.
Method for Decoding Asteroid Interiors Could Help Aim Asteroid-Deflecting Missions
Knowing how the density is distributed inside an asteroid could help scientists plan the most effective defense. For instance, if an asteroid were made of relatively light and uniform matter, a DART-like spacecraft could be aimed differently than if it were deflecting an asteroid with a denser, less balanced interior. Astronomers have found a way to determine an asteroid’s interior structure based on how its spin changes during a close encounter with Earth.
Why Not Use Space Mirrors for Reflecting Sunlight to Cool the Planet?
Given the potential consequences of climate change and a danger of reaching irreversible “tipping points,” there is an argument to be made that all options should be carefully considered. Sending giant mirrors into space to reflect solar radiation away from the Earth is one such option. The problem is that the many such geoengineering approaches have been so taboo that there is not enough information from researchers to definitively decide what options are still viable.