Next Big Future July 21, 2020 China plans to build at least six aircraft battle groups by 2035, two aircraft carrier groups for each area (Yellow Sea, East and South China seas). They developed the insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) chip which enables high-efficiency electric energy conversion systems for electromagnetic aircraft launchers. China is expected to launch its next-generation aircraft carrier within a year and construction on a sister ship for the new giant vessel has been hastened. They are not nuclear powered and should be roughly equal to the UK Queen Elizabeth 2 aircraft carriers. Their fifth aircraft carrier should […]
Geoengineering is just a partial solution to fight climate change
Science Daily July 20, 2020 In theory, spraying sulfur dioxide into the upper atmosphere at different locations, to form sulfuric acid clouds that block some solar radiation, could be adjusted every year to keep global warming at levels set in the Paris goals. According to a team of researchers in the US (UC Davis, UC Berkeley) no single technology to combat climate change will fully address the growing crisis, and we need to stop burning fossil fuels and aggressively harness wind and solar energy to power society ASAP. The regional impacts of geoengineering, including on precipitation and the Antarctic ozone […]
Nature provides inspiration for researchers developing selective membranes
Nanowerk July 23, 2020 According to a team of researchers in the US (Yale University, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, UC Merced) in the future membranes may be engineered with the ability to select which substances they allow through, even to the point of distinguishing between very similar ions such as potassium and sodium. They introduce the challenges of state-of-the-art membranes with subnanometre pores to achieve high selectivity between solutes, analyse experimental and theoretical literature to discuss the molecular-level mechanisms that contribute to energy barriers for solute transport through subnanometre pores. They conclude by providing principles and guidelines for designing next-generation […]
New $25-million center to advance quantum science and engineering
EurekAlert July 21, 2020 A team of researchers (Harvard University, MIT, Stanford University, University of Delaware, University of Oregon, University of New Mexico, NIST, Los Alamos National Laboratory, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory) led by the Colorado University is launching a new quantum science and engineering research center under a grant from NSF. Quantum Systems through Entangled Science and Engineering (Q-SEnSE) will explore several “grand challenges” including quantum phenomena, such as quantum entanglement, will advance new frontiers in measurement science; how quantum sensing can help researchers to discover new fundamental physics; and how researchers can turn those advancements into […]
New material can generate hydrogen from salt and polluted water
EurekAlert July 21, 2020 Researchers in Czech Republic developed a three-layer structure with a lower layer made of a thin film of gold, the second one made of 10-nanometer platinum, and the third a film of metal-organic frameworks of chromium compounds and organic molecules. The total thickness is 1-micrometer. The material was watered and sealed in a container. Infrared light caused the excitation of plasmon resonance on the sample surface. Hot electrons generated on the gold film were transferred to the platinum layer. They initiated the reduction of protons at the interface with the organic layer. Periodic gas samples were […]
A new species of darkling beetle larvae that degrade plastic
Science Daily July 20, 2020 Researchers in South Korea found that the larvae of a darkling beetle P. davidis indigenous to East Asia, including the Korean peninsula, can consume polystyrene and reduce both its mass and molecular weight. They confirmed that the proportion of Serratia bacillus in the intestinal tract of P. davidis larvae was responsible for six-fold increase in biodegradation. It was found that the gut flora of this larvae consisted of a very simple group of bacterial species unlike the gut flora of other conventional polystyrene-degrading insects. According to the researchers if we replicate the simple gut floral […]
Physicists develop technology to transform information from microwaves to optical light
Phys.org July 23, 2020 Researchers in Canada have developed a new technology that can translate data from microwaves to optical light. It works by introducing a strong interaction between microwave radiation and atomic gas. The microwaves are then modulated with an audio signal, encoding information into the microwave. This modulation is passed through the gas atoms, which are then probed with optical light to encode the signal into the light. The transfer of information from the microwave domain to the optical domain is the key result. The wavelengths of these two carrier signals differ by a factor of 50,000. It […]
Plato was right: Earth is made, on average, of cubes
Science Daily July 20, 2020 The question an international team of researchers (Hungary, USA- University of Pennsylvania) answered is what shapes are created when rocks break into pieces. Remarkably, they found that the core mathematical conjecture unites geological processes not only on Earth but around the solar system as well. Part of this understanding is that the components that break out of a formerly solid object must fit together without any gaps. As it turns out, the only one of the so-called platonic forms — polyhedra with sides of equal length — that fit together without gaps are cubes. To […]
Principles to enhance research integrity and avoid ‘publish or perish’ in academia
Science Daily July 16, 2020 An international team of researchers (Canada, the Netherlands, UK, Australia, China, Austria) has developed the Hong Kong Principles (HKPs) as part of the 6th World Conference on Research Integrity with specific focus on the need to drive research improvement through ensuring that researchers are explicitly recognized and rewarded for behaviors that strengthen research integrity. They present five principles: responsible research practices; transparent reporting; open science (open research); valuing a diversity of types of research; and recognizing all contributions to research and scholarly activity. For each principle, they provide a rationale for its inclusion and provide […]
Researchers diffract a beam of organic molecules
Phys.org July 22, 2020 Physicists theorize that wave-particle duality is a fundamental feature of the universe. This suggests that all matter should have wave-like phenomena, that is, it should be able to behave similar to light and electrons. An international team of researchers (Austria, Germany) created a Bragg grating using standing light waves generated by retroreflecting a green laser from a mirror. In two separate experiments, they sent beams of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin and the dye phthalocyanine through this grating. Both experiments produced diffraction patterns with two peaks, corresponding to groups of molecules with a large momentum difference between them. […]