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Jan 25, 2022

Harvesting wild algae to make paper

Posted by in category: education

Circa 2019


Annually for three years, The Lemelson Foundation will give $100 awards to outstanding inventors in up to 270 Society Affiliate Fairs with middle school participants around the country. The prize was specially created to reward young people whose projects exemplify the ideals of inventive thinking by identifying a challenge in their community and creating solutions that will improve lives.

Invasive algae are often found in bodies of water such as lakes and ponds, but can it be used as paper? Seventh-graders, Wyatt Vick and Charley Clyne, from Zane Trace Middle School in Chillicothe, Ohio, set out to answer that question with their project, “Algae Paper,” eventually earning them the Lemelson Early Inventor Prize.

Continue reading “Harvesting wild algae to make paper” »

Jan 25, 2022

Astronomers Find the Biggest Structure in the Milky Way: Filament of Hydrogen 3,900 Light-Years Long

Posted by in categories: evolution, particle physics, space

Roughly 13.8 billion years ago, our Universe was born in a massive explosion that gave rise to the first subatomic particles and the laws of physics as we know them. About 370,000 years later, hydrogen had formed, the building block of stars, which fuse hydrogen and helium in their interiors to create all the heavier elements. While hydrogen remains the most pervasive element in the Universe, it can be difficult to detect individual clouds of hydrogen gas in the interstellar medium (ISM).

This makes it difficult to research the early phases of star formation, which would offer clues about the evolution of galaxies and the cosmos. An international team led by astronomers from the Max Planck Institute of Astronomy (MPIA) recently noticed a massive filament of atomic hydrogen gas in our galaxy. This structure, named “Maggie,” is located about 55,000 light-years away (on the other side of the Milky Way) and is one of the longest structures ever observed in our galaxy.

Continue reading “Astronomers Find the Biggest Structure in the Milky Way: Filament of Hydrogen 3,900 Light-Years Long” »

Jan 25, 2022

Manufacturers have less than five days’ supply of some computer chips, Commerce Department says

Posted by in category: computing

A new Commerce Department report highlighted the severity of a global shortage that has hobbled manufacturing and fueled inflation for more than a year, and that defies easy solutions.

Jan 25, 2022

Tesla appears to be finally adding a regular horn to its yoke steering wheel

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

Tesla appears to have finally agreed to walk back one feature of its controversial yoke steering wheel, as it will now provide a regular horn.

When Tesla unveiled the new Model S with the “yoke” butterfly steering wheel, it was controversial. Some were worried about the actual shape of the wheel being problematic, while others were concerned about the lack of drive stalk to choose the drive mode.

As for the former, we thought that the automaker wouldn’t risk bringing the controversial yoke steering wheel to market without a nonlinear steering curve enabled by a steer-by-wire system – especially knowing that Tesla has been developing a steer-by-wire system.

Jan 25, 2022

Diesel-Killing Electric Delivery Vans To Help Clean Up Noisy, Smelly E-Commerce Mess

Posted by in categories: energy, transportation

“Penske Truck Leasing and National Grid are among the first companies adding preproduction E-Transit vans to their fleets for a variety of uses, including testing the BlueOval™ Charge Network, America’s largest public charging network, plus depot fleet charging tools that monitor and help manage energy usage,” Ford explained.

Maybe The US Postal Service Will Electrify After All

That brings us to the US Postal Service, owner of a fleet of 231,541 vehicles of various types. USPS expects to roll up to 165,000 new vehicles into the fleet under a 10-year contract signed last spring with the firm Oshkosh Defense, a subsidiary of Oshkosh Corporation.

Jan 25, 2022

Concrete walls frame desert views in remote Chihuahua home

Posted by in categories: habitats, materials

The earthen tone of this off-grid holiday home in Northern Mexico was selected to match the rock formations of the nearby Cumbres de Majalca National Park, which is known for its dramatic landscapes.

OAX Arquitectos completed this remote home as a vacation getaway for a large family. It is located within a national park in Mexico’s Chihuahua State, just south of the American border.

“As part of the development of the park, a section was reserved to house cottages, but because of its remote location lacks services,” said OAX Arquitectos, which is based in Monterey.

Jan 25, 2022

IBM forges entanglement to double quantum simulations

Posted by in categories: military, quantum physics

“Entanglement forging essentially enables you to cut up a larger circuit into smaller circuits that we can execute on smaller hardware,” IBM Quantum platform lead Blake Johnson said in a statement.

“Smaller circuits aren’t just easier to execute. They’re also able to tolerate a lot more noise just by virtue of being smaller.”

Meanwhile, progress continues on enlarging quantum systems. IBM’s 27-qubit Falcon processor dates from 2019, and has since been surpassed by larger systems, including IBM’s own 127-qubit Eagle last year. As detailed at the time, IBM intends to use that design to scale to a 433-qubit processor called Osprey this year, and a 1,121-qubit processed called Condor in 2023.

Jan 25, 2022

Japan expands quasi-state of emergency

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, government

Japan’s government is expanding a quasi-state of emergency aimed at containing the coronavirus. Infections are surging nationwide at an unprecedented pace, largely fueled by the Omicron variant.

Officials confirmed more than 60,000 new cases on Tuesday. The figure is a record high. A total of 444 people are in serious condition, up five from the day before.

More than half of Japan’s 47 prefectures reported record case counts, including Tokyo.

Jan 25, 2022

Physicists detect an Aharonov-Bohm effect for gravity

Posted by in categories: particle physics, quantum physics

Yakir Aharonov and David Bohm proposed the effect that now bears their name in 1959, arguing that while classical potentials have no physical reality apart from the fields they represent, the same is not true in the quantum world. To make their case, the pair proposed a thought experiment in which an electron beam in a superposition of two wave packets is exposed to a time-varying electrical potential (but no field) when passing through a pair of metal tubes. They argued that the potential would introduce a phase difference between the wave packets and therefore lead to a measurable physical effect – a set of interference fringes – when the wave packets are recombined.

Seeking a gravitational counterpart

In the latest research, Mark Kasevich and colleagues at Stanford University show that the same effect also holds true for gravity. The platform for their experiment is an atom interferometer, which uses a series of laser pulses to split, guide and recombine atomic wave packets. The interference from these wave packets then reveals any change in the relative phase experienced along the two arms.

Jan 25, 2022

California Vineyards Use Owls Instead of Pesticides

Posted by in category: futurism

Winemakers must pay close attention to their soil, the rain, the heat, and the sunlight. But rodents like gophers and mice can wreak havoc on a vineyard. Rather than turning to rodenticides to deter pests, graduate students at Humboldt State University in California are testing a more natural approach by using owls.

The experiment is part of a long-term research study under the direction of professor Matt Johnson of the university’s Department of Wildlife. The current cohort, including students Laura Echávez, Samantha Chavez, and Jaime Carlino, has placed around 300 owl nest boxes sporadically through vineyards in Napa Valley. They are documenting the impact of relying on owls to deter and remove pests rather than rodenticides.

The researchers have surveyed 75 wineries in Napa Valley, and four-fifths now use the owl nest boxes and notice a difference in rodent control. The barn owls have a four-month nesting season, during which they spend about one-third of their time hunting in the fields. A family of barn owls may eat as many as 1,000 rodents during the nesting season or around 3,400 in a single year.