Lifeboat Foundation

New discoveries about Jupiter could lead to a better understanding of Earth’s own space environment and influence a long-running scientific debate about the solar system’s largest planet. “By exploring a larger space such as Jupiter, we can better understand the fundamental physics governing Earth’s magnetosphere and thereby improve our space weather forecasting,” said Peter Delamere, a professor at the UAF Geophysical Institute and the UAF College of Natural Science and Mathematics.

“We are one big space weather event from losing communication satellites, our power grid assets, or both,” he said.

Space weather refers to disturbances in the Earth’s magnetosphere caused by interactions between the solar wind and the Earth’s magnetic field. These are generally associated with solar storms and the sun’s coronal mass ejections, which can lead to magnetic fluctuations and disruptions in power grids, pipelines and communication systems.

A global team of researchers and industry collaborators led by RMIT University has invented recyclable ‘water batteries’ that won’t catch fire or explode.

Lithium-ion energy storage dominates the market due to its technological maturity, but its suitability for large-scale grid energy storage is limited by safety concerns with the volatile materials inside.

Continue reading “New water batteries stay cool under pressure” »

“Batteries are the crux of many of the most important emerging technologies in both the civilian world and, important to our profession, on the battlefield,” said United States Military Academy Cadet Michael Williams. “More energy dense batteries allow, for instance, greater range on electric vehicles, longer battery lives for radios, and longer flight times for drones. Our work helps make manufacturing these batteries easier.”

Cadets Michael Williams, Avery Patel, and Nancy Astable have been working on a long-term project with their faculty mentors Dr. Enoch Nagelli, Dr. Simuck Yuk, and Army Col. John Burpo to develop new ways to maximize energy storage and generation for the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Armaments Center. In collaboration with Cornell University, the team at USMA’s Department of Chemistry and Life Sciences is pursuing innovative approaches to increasing the quality and use of batteries and fuel cells.

The value of conducting scientific research to solve real-world problems is clear to the cadets.

A recent report out of South Korea states that Hyundai Motor Group is beginning development of a new hydrogen fuel cell EV supercar based on its N Vision 74 concept from a couple of years ago. The Korean automaker is working on a development mule ahead of planned production in 2026.

In recent years, global environmental concerns have prompted a shift toward eco-friendly manufacturing in the field of organic synthetic chemistry. In this regard, research into photoredox catalytic reactions, which use light to initiate redox or reduction-oxidation reactions via a photoredox catalyst, has gained significant attention. This approach reduces the reliance on harsh and toxic reagents and uses visible light, a clean energy source.

Physicists call the dark energy that drives the universe “the cosmological constant.” Now the largest map of the cosmos to date hints that this mysterious energy has been changing over billions of years.

Tesla has officially broken ground on its new Megafactory project to build Megapacks for energy storage in China.

The Megafactory in Lathrop, California, was Tesla’s first dedicated factory to produce Megapacks, which were previously produced at Gigafactory Nevada.

It is still ramping up to its full capacity of 40 GWh worth of Megapacks, a battery pack for utility-scale energy storage projects, but it has already helped Tesla break new records of energy storage deployment almost every quarter.

The Low Power Double Data Rate 6 (LPDDR6) memory may be introduced with data rates starting from 10.667 Gbps and bandwidth of 32 Gbps. This is the new information coming from the JEDEC presentation, as revealed by Synopsys and published Darkmont. The presentation touches on several topics, including LPDDR, DDR and CAMM standards.

The LPDDR5 standard is already 5 years old, it is time for an update. The mid-product update from Samsung and SK Hynix in a form of LPDDR5X and LPDDR5T are not good enough anymore and in 1–2 years demand for higher bandwidth will unquestionable. Especially given the progress in integrated graphics solutions, which heavily rely on fast system memory.

Can the very locations that fossil fuels are mined also be used to extract rare earth elements (REEs) for renewable energies? This is what a recent study published in Frontiers of Earth Science hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated how coal mines could be exploited for REEs whose metals could be used for technology applications and renewable energies throughout the world. This study holds the potential to help scientists, miners, and conservationists better understand previously unknown avenues for pursuing REEs within the United States, as REEs are traditionally imported from other countries.

“The model is if you’re already moving rock, could you move a little more rock for resources towards energy transition?” said Dr. Lauren Birgenheier, who is an associate professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Utah and a co-author on the study. “In those areas, we’re finding that the rare earth elements are concentrated in fine-grain shale units, the muddy shales that are above and below the coal seams.”