Lifeboat Foundation

A group of researchers working with data from the Borexino detector at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy, has shown that it is possible to measure solar neutrinos with both directional and energy sensitivity. Two teams within the group have written papers describing the work by the group—one of them has published their work in Physical Review D, the other in Physical Review Letters.

The Borexino detector was first proposed back in 1986 and its structure was completed in 2004. In May of 2007, it began providing researchers with data. Its purpose has been to measure neutrino fluxes in proton-proton chains. The detector, which is currently being dismantled, was made using 280 metric tons of radio-pure liquid scintillator which was shielded by a layer of water. Detections were made as solar neutrinos scattered off electrons in the scintillator—the light that was emitted was picked up by sensors lining the tank.

For most of its existence, data from the Borexino detector was an excellent source of high-resolution sensitivity data down to low energy thresholds, but it offered little in the way of directional trajectories. In this new effort, the researchers found a way to use the data from the detector with data from another detector to provide trajectory information.

HB11 is approaching nuclear fusion from an entirely new angle, using high power, high precision lasers instead of hundred-million-degree temperatures to start the reaction. Its first demo has produced 10 times more fusion reactions than expected, and the company says it’s now “the only commercial entity to achieve fusion so far,” making it “the global frontrunner in the race to commercialize the holy grail of clean energy.”

We’ve covered Australian company HB11’s hydrogen-boron laser fusion innovations before in detail, but it’s worth briefly summarizing what makes this company so different from the rest of the field. In order to smash atoms together hard enough to make them fuse together and form a new element, you need to overcome the incredibly strong repulsive forces that push two positively-charged nuclei apart. It’s like throwing powerful magnets at each other in space, hoping to smash two north poles together instead of having them just dance out of each other’s way.

The Sun accomplishes this by having a huge amount of hydrogen atoms packed into a plasma that’s superheated to tens of millions of degrees at its core. Heat is a measure of kinetic energy – how fast a group of atoms or molecules are moving or vibrating. At these temperatures, the hydrogen atoms are moving so fast that they smack into each other and fuse, releasing the energy that warms our planet.

In biology, symmetry is typically the rule rather than the exception. Our bodies have left and right halves, starfish radiate from a central point and even trees, though not largely symmetrical, still produce symmetrical flowers. In fact, asymmetry in biology seems quite rare by comparison.

Does this mean that evolution has a preference for symmetry? In a new study, an international group of researchers, led by Iain Johnston, a professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Bergen in Norway, says it does.

On top of the environmental concerns, Japan has an added motivation for this push towards automation —its aging population and concurrent low birth rates mean its workforce is rapidly shrinking, and the implications for the country’s economy aren’t good.

Thus it behooves the Japanese to automate as many job functions as they can (and the rest of the world likely won’t be far behind, though they won’t have quite the same impetus). According to the Nippon Foundation, more than half of Japanese ship crew members are over the age of 50.

In partnership with Misui OSK Lines Ltd., the foundation recently completed two tests of autonomous ships. The first was a 313-foot container ship called the Mikage, which sailed 161 nautical miles from Tsuruga Port, north of Kyoto, to Sakai Port near Osaka. Upon reaching its destination port the ship was even able to steer itself into its designated bay, with drones dropping its mooring line.