Next Big Future October 11, 2023 The Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors (CRANE) program aims to design, build, and flight test a novel X-plane that incorporates Active Flow Control (AFC) as a primary design consideration. The X-65 has no external moving parts. No flaps. No rotors. No elevators, rudders, stabilators. The flight can be improved while also reducing costs, and wear and tear on the aircraft. The smoother surface should help improve the X-65s stealth characteristics. Crane seeks to optimize the benefits of active flow control by maturing technologies and design tools, and incorporating them early in the […]
Tag Archives: S&T USA
Hydrogen battery: Storing hydrogen in coal may help power clean energy economy
Science Daily May 26, 2023 Researchers at the State University of Pennsylvania found that coal may represent a potential way to store hydrogen gas. They analyzed eight types of coals from coalfields across the United States to better understand their sorption and diffusion potential, or how much hydrogen they can hold. All eight coals showed considerable sorption properties, with low-volatile bituminous coal from eastern Virginia and anthracite coal from eastern Pennsylvania performing the best in tests. Depleted coalbed methane reservoirs’ seams contain unconventional natural gas like methane and have become an important source of fossil fuel energy over the last […]
Researchers call for a new approach to studying academic progress
Phys.org May 2, 2023 The scientific study of higher education has not yet matured to adequately model the complexity of the task of developing, and producing the next generation of scientists, artists, political leaders, and informed citizens. How universities structure their curriculums, and how students make progress through them, differ across fields of study, educational institutions, and nation-states. To this day, a “pipeline” metaphor shapes analyses and discourse of academic progress, especially in STEM, even though it is an inaccurate representation. A team of researchers in the US (Cornell University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, Texas A&M University, UC […]
Billion-dollar US health agency gets new chief — but its direction remains in limbo
Nature September 13, 2022 President Joe Biden has selected Renee Wegrzyn, a biologist and former government scientist, as the inaugural director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). Launched in March with a US$1-billion budget, ARPA-H aims to shake up the conventional model of funding biomedical research by funding high-risk, high-reward research in the life sciences. The Biden administration intends the agency to emulate the DARPA. Researchers applaud Biden’s choice, but say Wegrzyn will have her work cut out for her — there are many details about the agency that are still in limbo…read more.
Chinese and U.S. University Rankings
Center for Security and Emerging Technology January 28, 2022 In a CSET Report researchers at Georgetown University assess the quality of universities in China and the United States based on their performance in two well-regarded rankings of global universities. They found Chinese universities have steadily moved up the rankings over time, driven largely by increases in research productivity and a series of state-sponsored higher education initiatives. Between 2010 and 2020, the number of U.S. universities that appeared in the top 500 on at least one global ranking dropped from 160 to 137, while the number that appeared on both rankings […]
Seventy-Five Years After Trinity
Inside Science July 15, 2020 The Manhattan Project’s massive effort to build the first atomic bomb led to the Trinity test on July 16, 1945. The project had consumed huge amounts of resources in building weapons of unprecedented potency, gave godlike power to flawed humans. It also inspired innovations and actions that continue to cascade through science and culture in ways both predictable and surprising. The stories, videos and graphics collected here commemorate the 75th anniversary of Trinity and present a snapshot of how deeply the influence of the Manhattan Project has permeated science and culture. While we cannot possibly […]
Innovators Under 35, 2020
MIT Technology Review June 24, 2020 Every year the magazine highlights the projects young innovators are working on to show at least some of the possible directions that technology will take in the coming decade. This contest generates more than 500 nominations each year. The editors then face the task of picking 100 semifinalists to put in front of our 25 judges who have expertise in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, software, energy, materials, and so on. With the invaluable help of these rankings, the editors pick the final list of 35…read more.
Light may unlock a new quantum dance for electrons in graphene
Physorg January 15, 2018 In flat materials held at very low temperatures and subjected to extremely strong magnets electrons zipping around start to get locked into tight circular orbits of particular sizes and energies. A team of researchers in the US (City University of New York, NIST, University of Maryland) proposes using laser light to prod electrons into jumping between orbits of different energies. As a result, the interactions between the electrons change and lead to a different dance pattern. The intensity and frequency of the light alter the number of electrons in specific orbits, providing an easy way to […]
New exotic phenomena seen in photonic crystals
MIT News January 11, 2018 A team of researchers in the US (MIT, Yale University) used a method that made these open systems accessible and found two specific kinds of effects that are distinctive topological signatures of non-Hermitian systems. One of these is a kind of band feature they refer to as a bulk Fermi arc, and the other is an unusual kind of changing polarization emitted by the photonic crystal used for the study. Most of the potential real-world applications for photonic crystals involve open systems, so the new observations made by this team could open new areas of […]
FAU to develop novel real-time undersea wireless communications and surveillance technology
Eurekalert January 11, 2018 The current state-of-the-art approaches for undersea localization and tracking are expensive and power-intensive. Under an NSF grant, researchers at Florida Atlantic University will develop novel optimal algorithms for oceanic-scale 3D acoustic underwater localization and tracking, software and hardware technology to create and maintain a programmable software-defined undersea acoustic testbed comprising of four nodes. The new technology is expected to resolve interoperability issues in heterogeneous network deployments that include real-time interaction between undersea, water-surface, aerial, and satellite communication nodes… read more.