Lifeboat Foundation

The first Super Heavy prototype has entered assembly operations, with the forward barrel sleeved and the fuel stack section spotted. The LR1600/2 crane (aka Tankzilla) continued to grow, and Orbital Launch Pad construction continued with more concrete being pumped into the legs. Starships SN5 and 6 remain outside after having been moved out of the High Bay yesterday, and work continued around the site.

Video and Pictures from Mary (@BocaChicaGal). Edited by Brady Kenniston (@TheFavoritist).

Continue reading “SpaceX Boca Chica — Super Heavy Forward Dome Sleeved” »

Here at OVO we’re always keeping our eye out for the latest cutting-edge tech that might benefit the environment. That’s why we’re incredibly excited about the news that Julian Melchiorri, a design student at the Royal College of Art, has created the first man-made, biologically functional leaf. Christened ‘The Silk Leaf’, it’s the ultimate in ‘green’ technology in more ways than one.

The leaf contains chloroplasts taken from real plant cells, which are suspended in a silk protein material. When this comes into contact with carbon dioxide, water and light, it converts it into oxygen, just like a real plant.

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World hunger is a persistent problem despite all of humanity’s progress in recent years. However, I believe that we have a real shot at defeating world hunge…

Scientists are using high-energy pulses of electricity to turn any source of carbon into turbostratic graphene in an instant. The process promises environmental benefits by turning waste into valuable graphene that can then strengthen concrete and other composite materials.

The work has a wide range of applications for stronger materials.

Researchers have shown how to effectively transform one material into another using a finely shaped laser pulse.

All Hands

The new enzyme can make its way through plastic six times faster than the previous plastic-devouring enzyme developed by members of the same team, according to research published Monday in the journal PNAS.

“We were actually quite surprised it worked so well,” McGeehan told CNN, though he added that the enzyme is “still way too slow” to be helpful at any meaningful scale.

Researchers at Berkeley Lab in California have developed a new material that can close the loop on recycling plastics, keeping it out of the ocean and landfills.

Andy takes a closer look at one of his favourite demos from the 2012 Christmas Lectures, bringing together a levitating superconductor and a bewildering Möbius strip made from over 2,000 magnets.

We’d love it if you helped us translate this video: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_video?v=zPqEEZa2Gis

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The following is adapted from Lewis’ The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery, published by Simon & Schuster.

“It says, ‘No entrance,’ but you just enter,” physicist Andre Geim told me about the graphite mines in the mountains where he often hikes. His comment embodied the insouciance behind his Nobel Prize–winning physics experiment and his habit of experimenting deliberately outside of his area of expertise.

Continue reading “How One Irreverent Physicist Went From Levitating Frogs to Winning the Nobel Prize” »