Blog

Archive for the ‘energy’ category: Page 255

Sep 18, 2019

S.H.I.E.L.D. Introduces Captain America’s Energy Shield

Posted by in categories: energy, singularity

On Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., w hen Leo Fitz gave Director Coulson a new cybernetic hand to replace the one he left with Grant Ward’s corpse on the alien planet in “Maveth,” he teased the hand had a few surprises hidden inside. It turns out one of those surprises is a very cool artifact from the Marvel Comics Universe, which we saw in the episode “The Singularity.”

In the episode, Coulson and Agent May went looking for Daisy Johnson and Hive at the home of James, an Inhuman who formerly resided at Afterlife. By the time Coulson’s crew arrived, Hive and his growing Inhuman army had already fled the scene, but they left some explosives behind in the house. The quick thinking S.H.I.E.L.D. director pulled May down into a hole in the floor, where Daisy had unearthed an ancient Kree artifact, and shielded himself and May from the blast with…well, a shield.

The energy shield was formed by his cybernetic hand, with a S.H.I.E.L.D. logo on the center. Coulson tells May that he thought it would cool for the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. to actually have a shield, but it may be some of Coulson’s Captain America hero worship coming to the forefront.

Sep 15, 2019

The Super Power IssueThe Antigravity Underground

Posted by in categories: energy, time travel

The fantastic floating device called a lifter has no moving parts, no onboard fuel, and no shortage of wide-eyed admirers. Even inside NASA.

The super power issue being invisible the antigravity underground A user’s guide to time travel 8 super powers.

Sep 14, 2019

MIT Breakthrough: New Aerogel Creates Passive Heat From Sunlight

Posted by in categories: energy, innovation

Life.


MIT has created this new aerogel which can produce large amounts of heat just from sunlight and could heat buildings free of electricity and fossil fuels.

Sep 13, 2019

Slime: How Algae Created Us, Plague Us, and Just Might Save Us

Posted by in categories: energy, food

“No organisms are more important to life as we know it than algae. In Slime, Ruth Kassinger gives this under-appreciated group its due. The result is engaging, occasionally icky, and deeply informative.”

Elizabeth Kolbert, New York Times-bestselling author of the Pulitzer Prize-winner The Sixth Extinction

“A book full of delights and surprises. Algae are the hidden rulers of our world, giving us oxygen, food, and energy. This is a beautiful evocation of the many ways that our past and future are entangled in their emerald strands.”

Sep 13, 2019

Under Armour Fat Tire GTX

Posted by in categories: energy, transportation

The Under Armour Fat Tire GTX uses cutting-edge technology to help you tackle any trail. Taking design inspiration from off-road fat tire bikes, these boots are built on a Michelin outsole with a Wild Gripper rubber compound for excellent traction on a wide variety of terrain. A breathable GORE-TEX membrane provides total waterproof protection, and the UA Charged foam cushioning system delivers ultimate energy return and impact protection. The BOA speed closure system uses a unique click and turn dial and stainless steel laces to lock your feet in place faster than regular laces. These boots also feature a Cupron copper-infused sockliner that wipes out odor-causing bacteria to keep feet fresh. Built with composite textile and foam construction, these comfortable boots won’t let anything stand in your way on the trail.

Sep 13, 2019

Mysterious waves have been pulsing across Oklahoma

Posted by in category: energy

A buzz that rocked the state all summer sent geologists on a labyrinthine chase—and unearthed new mysteries about how energy moves through land and air.

Sep 12, 2019

Dynamic charge density fluctuations pervading the phase diagram of a Cu-based high-Tc superconductor

Posted by in categories: energy, nanotechnology, quantum physics

Charge density fluctuations are observed in all families of high-critical temperature (Tc) superconducting cuprates. Although constantly found in the underdoped region of the phase diagram at relatively low temperatures, physicists are unclear how the substrates influence unusual properties of these systems. In a new study now published on Science, R. Arpaia and co-workers in the departments of microtechnology and nanoscience, the European Synchrotron, and quantum device physics in Italy, Sweden and France used resonant X-ray scattering to carefully determine the charge density modulations in Yttrium Barium Copper Oxide (YBa2Cu3O7– ẟ) and Neodymium Barium Copper Oxide (Nd1+x Ba2–x Cu3O7–ẟ) for several doping levels. The research team isolated short-range dynamic charge density fluctuations (CDFs) in addition to the previously known quasi-critical charge density waves (CDW). The results persisted well above the pseudo-gap temperature T*, which they characterized by a few milli-electron volts (meV) to spread across a large area of the phase diagram.

Cuprate high temperature superconductors (HTS) are different from the Landau Fermi liquid paradigm due to quasi-two dimensionality (2-D) of their layered structure and large electron-electron repulsion. During optimal doping and the pseudo gap state (states at which less than optimal current carrier concentrations result in anomalous electronic properties), short to medium-range charge density wave order can emerge to weakly compete with superconductivity. Physicists first developed theoretical proposals of CDW and low energy charge fluctuations after first discovering HTS. Subsequently, they developed experimental evidence in selective materials and in all cuprate families. Researchers had observed long-range tridimensional CDW (3D CDW) order inside the superconductivity dome within high magnetic fields that weaken superconductivity or in epitaxially grown (deposition of a crystalline layer on a crystalline substrate) samples.

Sep 9, 2019

New high-mass gamma-ray binary discovered

Posted by in categories: energy, space

An international team of astronomers has detected a new high-mass gamma-ray binary (HMGB) in the Milky Way galaxy. The newly found HMGB, designated 4FGL J1405.1–6119, is one of only a handful of such objects discovered to date. The discovery was announced in a paper published August 28 on the arXiv pre-print repository.

HMGBs consist of an OB star in orbit with a compact object. In these systems, interactions between the two objects result in an emission with spectral energy distribution (SED) peaks above 1.0 MeV. They are assumed to be precursors to high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs).

HMGBs are very rare objects. Astronomers estimate that there are about 100 still undetected HMGBs residing in our home galaxy. Moreover, many known sources of as-yet unknown nature, could potentially be high-mass gamma-ray binaries.

Sep 7, 2019

Tesla patents new battery cell for faster charge, better longevity, and lower cost

Posted by in categories: chemistry, energy, sustainability

Tesla’s battery research group led by Jeff Dahn in Halifax has applied for a patent that describes a new battery cell chemistry that would result in faster charging and discharging, better longevity, and even lower cost.

Jeff Dahn is considered a pioneer in Li-ion battery cells. He has been working on the Li-ion batteries pretty much since they were invented. He is credited for helping increase the life cycle of the cells, which helped their commercialization. His work now focuses mainly on a potential increase in energy density and durability.

Continue reading “Tesla patents new battery cell for faster charge, better longevity, and lower cost” »

Sep 7, 2019

SECURITY: Report reveals play-by-play of first U.S. grid cyberattack — Friday, September 6, 2019 -.net

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, energy

A first-of-its-kind cyberattack on the U.S. grid created blind spots at a grid control center and several small power generation sites in the western United States, according to a document posted yesterday from the North American Electric Reliability Corp.

The unprecedented cyber disruption this spring did not cause any blackouts, and none of the signal outages at the “low-impact” control center lasted for longer than five minutes, NERC said in the “Lesson Learned” document posted to the grid regulator’s website.

But the March 5 event was significant enough to spur the victim utility to report it to the Department of Energy, marking the first disruptive “cyber event” on record for the U.S. power grid (Energywire, April 30).