Topics: Battery, Biofuels, Chemistry, Energy, Green Tech TARTU, Estonia, Oct 11 (Reuters) – Peat, plentiful in bogs in northern Europe, could be used to make sodium-ion batteries cheaply for use in electric vehicles, scientists at an Estonian university say. Sodium-ion batteries, which do not contain relatively costly lithium, cobalt, or nickel, are one of theContinue reading “Peat Batteries…”
Author Archives: reginaldgoodwin
Vapor Ragnarok…
Topics: Climate Change, Existentialism, Global Warming, Research More moisture in a warmer atmosphere is fueling intense hurricanes and flooding rains. The summer of 2021 was a glaring example of what disruptive weather will look like in a warming world. In mid-July, storms in western Germany and Belgium dropped up to eight inches of rain inContinue reading “Vapor Ragnarok…”
Vortex Beams…
Topics: Bose-Einstein Condensate, Nanotechnology, Particle Physics, Quantum Optics A wave-like property previously only seen in beams of light and electrons has been observed for the first time in atoms and molecules. By passing beams of helium and neon through a grid of specially shaped nanoslits, researchers led by Edvardas Narevicius of Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science succeededContinue reading “Vortex Beams…”
Big Bet on Small…
Topics: Futurism, Materials Science, Nanotechnology The National Nanotechnology Initiative promised a lot. It has delivered more. We’re now more than two decades out from the initial announcement of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), a federal program from President Bill Clinton founded in 2000 to support nanotechnology research and development in universities, government agencies, and industryContinue reading “Big Bet on Small…”
Gambit…
Topics: Civics, Civil Rights, Climate Change, Existentialism, Fascism, Human Rights Noun: a chess opening in which a player risks one or more pawns or a minor piece to gain an advantage in position Ninety percent of Fox Propaganda employees are fully vaccinated. The employees are required to disclose their vaccine status. The network tests theContinue reading “Gambit…”
Alvarez, and Apocalypse…
Topics: Dinosaurs, Nobel Prize, Research In the run-up to the announcement of the 2021 Nobel Prize for Physics on 5 October, we’re running a series of blog posts looking at previous recipients and what they did after their Nobel-prize-winning work. In this first instalment Laura Hiscott explores the wide-ranging research of Luis Walter Alvarez, who won theContinue reading “Alvarez, and Apocalypse…”
Cooling Teleportation…
Topics: CERN, Condensed Matter Physics, Entanglement, Lasers, Quantum Mechanics Much of modern experimental physics relies on a counterintuitive principle: Under the right circumstances, zapping matter with a laser doesn’t inject energy into the system; rather, it sucks energy out. By cooling the system to a fraction of a degree above absolute zero, one can observeContinue reading “Cooling Teleportation…”
LCE…
Topics: Materials Science, Mechanical Engineering, Nanotechnology, Robotics A new artificial fiber spun from a polymer called liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) using high-voltage electricity replicates the strength, responsiveness, and power density of human muscle fibers, scientists report. When powered by heat or near-infrared light, the fibers pulled upward and downward or oscillated back and forth. “OurContinue reading “LCE…”
Life As We Don’t Know It…
Topics: Astrobiology, Philosophy, SETI, Space Exploration In my freshman seminar at Harvard last semester, I mentioned that the nearest star to the sun, Proxima Centauri, emits mostly infrared radiation and has a planet, Proxima b, in the habitable zone around it. As a challenge to the students, I asked: “Suppose there are creatures crawling on the surfaceContinue reading “Life As We Don’t Know It…”
It Can Happen Here…
Topics: Civics, Civil Rights, Existentialism, Fascism, Human Rights The novel was published during the heyday of fascism in Europe, which was reported on by Dorothy Thompson, [Sinclair] Lewis’s wife.[3] The novel describes the rise of Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip, a demagogue who is elected President of the United States, after fomenting fear and promising drastic economic and social reforms whileContinue reading “It Can Happen Here…”
Physics and Nano 