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Mar 27, 2019

Making a Desktop Fusion Reactor

Posted by in category: nuclear energy

So this was a fun project to try, fusion is the gold standard of energy and I wanted to try making a reactor of my very own.

The design is loosely based on a Farnsworth Fusor — powered off a 10KV transformer, stepped up to 70KV with a voltage multiplier.

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Mar 27, 2019

This Superfluid Is Alive, And It Could Power Machines of the Future

Posted by in categories: physics, solar power, sustainability

Fluids with zero viscosity seemingly defy the laws of physics and they have endless applications. But they’ve been hard to make, until now. The secret? Bacteria!

Scientists’ Crazy Plan to Power Solar Panels With E. Coli — https://youtu.be/_XZGrZ3DeLg

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Mar 27, 2019

Spintronics: Electronics with a spin and “the ultimate potential of graphene”

Posted by in categories: materials, particle physics

SciTech Europa explores some of the research taking place in the exciting field of spintronics, from spin-orbit coupling to practical spintronic devices.

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Mar 27, 2019

I Am Groot: Is a Walking, Talking Plant-Person Possible?

Posted by in categories: biological, space

Groot, the walking, talking tree from ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ seems bizarre. But real-life biology shows how plant and animal traits can blend.

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Mar 27, 2019

Physicists measure quantum tunneling time to be near-instantaneous

Posted by in categories: particle physics, quantum physics

If you throw a ball at a wall, it’s going to bounce back at you – that’s classical physics at work. But of course, the world of quantum physics is much spookier, so if you did the same with a particle, there’s a chance that it will suddenly appear on the other side. This is thanks to a phenomenon known as quantum tunneling, and now a team of physicists has measured just how long that process takes.

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Mar 27, 2019

Higgs Boson in Plain English, and Why it’s So Important

Posted by in category: particle physics

Scientists at CERN have today announced that they’re 99.99% sure that they’ve found a new sub-atomic particle, and that it is likely to be the elusive Higgs boson – often referred to as the “God Particle”. That’s all well and good, but what does it all mean? Let’s break it down…

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Mar 27, 2019

Solar-Powered Moisture Harvester Produces Clean Water From The Air

Posted by in category: sustainability

In what may be the most exciting news of the week, University of Texas at Austin researchers have engineered a solar-powered device that absorbs moisture from the air and turns it into clean water.

SEE ALSO: 5 WELL ENGINEERED WATER PURIFICATION SYSTEMS COMBATING THE GLOBAL WATER CRISIS

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Mar 27, 2019

NASA Wants to Place Calls to Deep Space With X-Rays

Posted by in category: space

The U.S. space program is developing gigabit-per-second deep-space comms. China is on the hunt too.

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Mar 27, 2019

Organisms Survived on the Outside of the Space Station

Posted by in categories: biological, space

Outer space is a tough environment for living organisms: no atmosphere, no oxygen, no gravity, a ton of radiation, and extreme temperatures.

But the German Aerospace Center just made a bombshell discovery: as part of a project called the Biology and Mars Experiment, they found that samples of organisms including bacteria, algae, lichens and fungi survived on the exterior of the International Space Station for 533 days.

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Mar 27, 2019

This 3D Quantum Gas Clock Could Redefine Time

Posted by in categories: cosmology, particle physics, quantum physics

Time may be a human construct but that hasn’t stopped physicists from perfecting it.

JILA’s 3D Quantum Gas Atomic Clock Offers New Dimensions in Measurement
https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2017/10/jilas-3-D-quan…easurement
“JILA physicists have created an entirely new design for an atomic clock, in which strontium atoms are packed into a tiny three-dimensional (3D) cube at 1,000 times the density of previous one-dimensional (1-D) clocks. In doing so, they are the first to harness the ultra-controlled behavior of a so-called “quantum gas” to make a practical measurement device.”

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