Lifeboat Foundation

In a few picoseconds (trillionths of a second), a small, thin piece of copper momentarily becomes dense plasma, specifically a state called warm dense matter, warm being a relative term—the metal is nearly 200,000 degrees Fahrenheit. With the short duration of a high-powered laser pulse, copper shifts from a solid state to a plasma state in an instant before it explodes. Understanding the progression of heat in the copper is an exciting breakthrough in physics relevant to the interior of giant planets and laser fusion fuel cores.

Lithium-ion (or Li-ion) batteries are heavy hitters when it comes to the world of rechargeable batteries. As electric vehicles become more common in the world, a high-energy, low-cost battery utilizing the abundance of manganese (Mn) can be a sustainable option to become commercially available and utilized in the automobile industry.

Currently, batteries used for powering electric vehicles (EVs) are nickel (Ni) and cobalt (Co)-based, which can be expensive and unsustainable for a society with a growing desire for EVs.

By switching the positive electrode materials to a lithium/manganese-based material, researchers aim to maintain the high performance of Ni/Co-based materials but with a low-cost, sustainable twist.

The US has some impressive flywheel energy storage plants. The largest of these is the 20 MW Beacon Power flywheel station located in Stephentown, New York. Until recently, it was the world’s largest flywheel energy storage system (FESS), but not anymore.

China has developed a massive 30-megawatt (MW) FESS in Shanxi province called the Dinglun flywheel energy storage power station.

Continue reading “China connects world’s largest flywheel energy storage system to grid” »

An international team of researchers has found a surprisingly simple relationship between the rates of energy and information transmission across an interface connecting two quantum field theories. Their work was published in Physical Review Letters on August 30.

Scientists Create Matter from Pure Light, Demonstrating Einstein’s E=mc² Equation in Action.

Physicists at Brookhaven National Laboratory have achieved a groundbreaking experiment, creating matter from light by demonstrating the Breit-Wheeler process. Using the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, they accelerated heavy ions to generate nearly real photons, leading to the formation of electron-positron pairs. This experiment showcases Einstein’s E=mc² equation in action, aligning with predictions for transforming energy into matter. While these virtual photons act similarly to real ones, the experiment is a crucial step towards proving the process with real photons when technology advances to create gamma-ray lasers. Don’t forget to comment your thought about this!

Australia on Wednesday approved plans for a massive solar and battery farm that would export energy to Singapore, a project it calls the “largest solar precinct in the world”

Authorities announced environmental approvals for SunCable’s US$24 billion project in Australia’s remote north that is slated to power 3million homes.

The project, which will include an array of panels, batteries and, eventually, a cable linking Australia with Singapore, is backed by tech billionaire and green activist Mike Cannon-Brookes.

The effective central charge (denoted by c_eff) is a measure of entanglement through a conformal interface, while the transmission coefficient (encoded in the coefficient c_LR$ of the two-point function of the energy-momentum tensor across the interface) is a measure of energy transmission through the interface. It has been pointed out that these two are generally different. In this Letter, we propose the inequalities, $0lec_LRlec_efflemin(c_L,c_R). They have the simple but important implication that the amount of energy transmission can never exceed the amount of information transmission. We verify them using the AdS/CFT correspondence, using the perturbation method, and in examples beyond holography.

The Casimir Force is a well-known effect originating from the quantum fluctuation of electromagnetic fields in a vacuum. Now an international group of researchers have reported a counterpoint to that theory, adding to the understanding of energy fluctuations within fluids.

One of the drawbacks of fitness trackers and other wearable devices is that their batteries eventually run out of juice. But what if in the future, wearable technology could use body heat to power itself?

UW researchers have developed a flexible, durable electronic prototype that can harvest energy from body heat and turn it into electricity that can be used to power small electronics, such as batteries, sensors or LEDs. This device is also resilient — it still functions even after being pierced several times and then stretched 2,000 times.

Continue reading “Stretchable, wearable device lights up an LED using only the warmth of your skin” »