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Jan 27, 2022

Habitat for Humanity Is Using 3D Printing to Build Affordable Houses

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, biotech/medical, habitats

Over the last year home prices have skyrocketed (along with prices of almost everything else), leaving millions of people unable to afford to move or to change their housing situation. Mortgage lender Freddie Mac estimated last year that the US has a housing supply shortage of 3.8 million homes. It’s partly Covid-related; construction has slowed due to labor shortages, high raw material costs, and supply chain issues—but the problem predates the pandemic, as demand for homes was already outpacing supply in 2019.

Middle-and low-income families have been hit hardest by the housing shortage. In an effort to assist those in need, Habitat for Humanity launched an initiative last year to incorporate 3D printing into its construction process to cut costs. The first home was completed last month, and a family moved in just before Christmas.

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Jan 27, 2022

A Mystery Object in Space Flashed Brilliantly for 3 Months—Then Disappeared

Posted by in categories: physics, space travel

The amazing thing about radio transients is that if you have enough frequency coverage, you can work out how far away they are. This is because lower radio frequencies arrive slightly later than higher ones depending on how much space they’ve traveled through.

Our new discovery lies about 4,000 light years away—very distant, but still in our galactic backyard.

We also found the radio pulses were almost completely polarized. In astrophysics this usually means their source is a strong magnetic field. The pulses were also changing shape in just half a second, so the source has to be less than half a light second across, much smaller than our sun.

Jan 27, 2022

Scientists regrow frog’s missing leg

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, wearables

For millions of patients who have lost limbs – for reasons ranging from diabetes to trauma – the possibility of regaining function through natural regeneration remains out of reach. The regrowth of legs and arms remains limited to animals such as salamanders and the realm of science fiction.

However, a new study published in the journal Science Advances, by scientists at Tufts University and Harvard University’s Wyss Institute, has brought us a step closer to the goal of regenerating human limbs.

On adult frogs, which are naturally unable to regenerate limbs, a research team succeeded in triggering regrowth of a lost leg using a five-drug cocktail applied in a silicone wearable bioreactor dome that seals over the stump for just 24 hours. That brief treatment sets in motion an 18-month period of regrowth that eventually restores a functional leg.

Jan 27, 2022

China overtakes UK as world’s largest offshore wind power provider

Posted by in category: sustainability

Royal BAM announces ‘world’s first’ fully electric asphalt road paver with dual electric motors and a pair of massive 270 kWh batteries!

Jan 27, 2022

Royal BAM announces ‘world’s first’ fully electric road paver and massive 270 kWh batteries

Posted by in category: engineering

Royal BAM announces ‘world’s first’ fully electric asphalt road paver with dual electric motors and a pair of massive 270 kWh batteries!


Dutch civil engineering company Royal BAM has announced a fully-electric asphalt spreading road paver, which will save more than 93,000 kilograms of CO₂ and 115,000 grams of nitrous oxide emissions compared to its bio-diesel counterparts.

Working together with partners at Wirtgen and New Electric, BAM has replaced the vegetable-oil sourced, bio-diesel powered Volvo Penta Stage V engines with an electric drive, consisting of two “smartly switched electric motors” that pull electrons from a massive 270 kWh battery. For those you keeping score, that’s more than twice as big as the battery used in the 500-mile range Lucid Air electric sedan. (!)

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Jan 27, 2022

Unprecedented New Telescope Image Reveals Nearly 1,000 Mysterious Strands in Milky Way’s Center

Posted by in category: space

‘A watershed in furthering our understanding of these structures,’ researcher says.

An unprecedented new telescope image of the Milky Way galaxy’s turbulent center has revealed nearly 1,000 mysterious strands, inexplicably dangling in space.

Stretching up to 150 light years long, the one-dimensional strands (or filaments) are found in pairs and clusters, often stacked equally spaced, side by side like strings on a harp. Using observations at radio wavelengths, Northwestern University ’s Farhad Yusef-Zadeh discovered the highly organized, magnetic filaments in the early 1980s. The mystifying filaments, he found, comprise cosmic ray electrons gyrating the magnetic field at close to the speed of light. But their origin has remained an unsolved mystery ever since.

Jan 27, 2022

NASA’s First Test to Lower the Sound of Sonic Booms Was Successful

Posted by in categories: nuclear energy, physics, transportation

The Concorde’s successor might be quieter.

NASA has completed the first test of the works on lowering the volume of supersonic flights in an effort to lift the ban on commercial supersonic flights, NASA’s Glenn Research Center announced.

The sonic booms happen when the merge of shock waves, created by breaking the sound barrier at the speed of 767 mph (1,235 kph). The huge amount of sound energy, approximately 110 decibels, generated by sonic booms sounds like thunderclaps or explosions and can be heard from 30 miles (48 km) away, which is why supersonic commercial flights are banned by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). physicists confirm that they have achieved a stage in nuclear fusion called “burning plasma”.

Jan 27, 2022

Fusion Scientists Make ‘Burning Plasma’ Breakthrough With 129-Laser Experiment

Posted by in categories: innovation, physics

Jan 27, 2022

Tesla Shows How Bioweapon Defense Mode Cleans the Cabin Air

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, military

A standard feature on its Model S, Model X, and Model Ys since 2016.

As Tesla explains in the description accompanying the video, it uses highly efficient particulate air (HEPA) filters in its car models S, X, and Y. The air filtration system removes more than 99 percent of particulates and is something we also saw in some other EV concepts last year.

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Jan 27, 2022

Tesla Cybertruck delayed until at least next year, Elon Musk confirms

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, sustainability, transportation