NASA has again delayed the multi-billion dollar James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), this time citing communications issues.
The space telescope was due to launch on December 22, 2021, from the European Spaceport in Korou, French Guiana.
The space agency is now saying “no earlier than” December 24, 2021.
For the first time ever, a manmade object has entered the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, which inexplicably is thousands of times hotter than our star’s surface (or photosphere).
Researchers led by a team at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor were able to predict where the Sun’s upper atmosphere began, and the probe was able to penetrate it for roughly five hours. The Parker probe was not only able to fly through the Sun’s atmosphere but was also able to sample particles and magnetic fields there, says NASA.
“Flying so close to the Sun, Parker Solar Probe now senses conditions in the magnetically dominated layer of the solar atmosphere — the corona — that we never could before,” Nour Raouafi, the Parker project scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, said in a statement. “We can actually see the spacecraft flying through coronal structures that can be observed during a total solar eclipse.”
Continue reading “NASA’S Parker Solar Probe Touches The Sun’s Searing Upper Atmosphere” »
And it could work in wearables and light aircraft.
Researchers at Stanford University are developing an efficient new solar panel material that is fifteen times thinner than paper, a press statement reveals.
Made using transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), the materials have the potential to absorb a higher level of sunlight than other solar materials at the same time as providing an incredibly lightweight alternative to silicon-based solar panels.
Continue reading “A New Flexible Solar Panel Material Is 15 Times Thinner Than Paper” »
And it’s likely to meet its 2024 deadline.
United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), a subsidiary of Rostec, the Russian state corporation that supports military manufacturing, has unveiled the first flight prototype of its S-70 Okhotnik combat drone, Tass reported. The unveiling that took place on Tuesday was attended by Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister, Alexey Krivoruchko.
Continue reading “Russia’s Heavy Stealth Drone ‘Hunter’ is Ready for Its First Flight” »
They could be “critical in the fight against climate change.”
A California-based startup called H2 Clipper wants to resurrect the hydrogen-filled airship as a form of mass transport. The key difference is that it won’t be transporting people, it will be transporting cargo, a press statement reveals.
The company aims to kickstart a green global cargo network by leveraging the world’s renewed willingness to try alternative forms of transport following the IPCC’s dire climate change report for 2021.
Continue reading “Hydrogen Airships Promise Zero Emissions at Quarter the Price of Plane Cargo” »
What if your brain at 77 were as plastic as it was at 7? What if you could learn Mandarin with the ease of a toddler or play Rachmaninoff without breaking a sweat? A growing understanding of neuroplasticity suggests these fantasies could one day become reality. Neuroplasticity may also be the key to solving diseases like Alzheimer’s, depression, and autism. In this program, leading neuroscientists discuss their most recent findings and both the tantalizing possibilities and pitfalls for our future cognitive selves.
PARTICIPANTS: alvaro pascual-leone, nim tottenham, carla shatz.
Continue reading “The Nuts and Bolts of Better Brains: Harnessing the Power of Neuroplasticity” »
Greenspot lodges development application for Wallerawang battery, and it hopes to have the first stage in operation in just two years.
Privately owned NSW development company Greenspot says it has lodged a development application for a huge 500MW, 1000MWh big battery at the site of the closed Wallerawang coal fired power station near Lithgow, and hopes to bring it into service within two years.
The development application to the state government comes just weeks after the last chimney stacks of the closed coal generator were brought down. The battery will be called the “Wallerawang 9 Battery,” to acknowledge the legacy of units 7 and 8, which were the last coal fired units at the power station.
Continue reading “Greenspot submits application for 1,000MWh big battery at former coal plant” »
An injectable gel helped mice with spinal cord injuries walk. The scientists are headed “straight to the FDA” to begin human trials.
The HB1 has a 30m range from the ground but is potentially unlimited if the tether can be supplied from the roof. The robot can be equipped with different attachments such as a brush, robot arm, airless spray, concrete surveying equipment.
To ensure that the robot itself doesn’t fall, it had to undergo extensive electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) testing to make sure that fans, which essentially attach it to the surface, are functioning correctly.
Continue reading “Wall-climbing HB1 robot can reduce workplace accidents” »
A look at methods and concerns for augmenting the human mind.
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Today we will be looking at Mind Augmentation, the basic concepts, methods, ethical concerns, and possible pitfalls entailed.
