Lifeboat Foundation

High-temperature cuprate superconductors are a broad class of materials that exhibit some unique characteristics. Due to their distinctive properties, these materials exhibit the highest superconducting temperatures reported to date under ambient pressure.

Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other institutes in China recently carried out a study aimed at better understanding the processes underpinning the high superconducting critical temperatures (T_c) observed in trilayer cuprates, a class of materials with three layers based on compounds containing copper. Their paper, published in Nature Physics, unveiled the electronic origin of the high T_c exhibited by these three-layered materials.

“Our group has been trying to understand the high temperature superconductivity mechanism in cuprate superconductors for many years,” Xingjiang Zhou, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told Phys.org.

The search is on worldwide to find ways to extract carbon dioxide from the air or from power plant exhaust and then make it into something useful. One of the more promising ideas is to make it into a stable fuel that can replace fossil fuels in some applications. But most such conversion processes have had problems with low carbon efficiency, or they produce fuels that can be hard to handle, toxic, or flammable.

Now, researchers at MIT and Harvard University have developed an efficient process that can convert carbon dioxide into formate, a liquid or solid material that can be used like hydrogen or methanol to power a fuel cell and generate electricity. Potassium or sodium formate, already produced at industrial scales and commonly used as a de-icer for roads and sidewalks, is nontoxic, nonflammable, easy to store and transport, and can remain stable in ordinary steel tanks to be used months, or even years, after its production.

The newly developed material resisted temperatures up to 7,343 degrees Fahrenheit without melting or losing shape during tests when applied to encase the surface of a waverider aircraft.

China’s scientists have claimed a major breakthrough: a successful test of a new surface material for hypersonic jets, which was considered impossible to make earlier.

The development means that the Asian powerhouse has surpassed far ahead of the United States in the hypersonic race, according to a report by the South China Morning Post (SCMP) on Monday.

A team of engineers from The University of Manchester has created and flown the world’s largest drone, made from a lightweight and eco-friendly material.

The Giant Foamboard Quadcopter (GFQ) is unlike any other drone worldwide thanks to its innovative design. It is made from foamboard, a cardboard type with a foam core and a paper skin.

A team of engineers from The University of Manchester.

Continue reading “World’s largest quadcopter drone made from foamboard takes flight” »

Scientists manipulated light to behave as if influenced by gravity using distorted photonic crystals, opening avenues for optics advancements and 6G communication.

Manipulating Light’s Behavior With Pseudogravity

A collaborative group of researchers has manipulated the behavior of light as if it were under the influence of gravity. The findings, which were published in the journal Physical Review A on September 28, 2023, have far-reaching implications for the world of optics and materials science, and bear significance for the development of 6G communications.

NASA has revealed that it has already processed 70.3 grams of rocks and dust collected by the OSIRIS-REx mission from asteroid Bennu. That means the mission has way exceeded its goal of bringing 60 grams of asteroid samples back to Earth — especially since NASA scientists have yet to open the primary sample container that made its way back to our planet in September. Apparently, they’re struggling to open the mission’s Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) and could not remove two of its 35 fasteners using the tools currently available to them.

The scientists are processing the samples inside a specialized glovebox (pictured above) with a flow of nitrogen in order to keep them from being exposed to our atmosphere and any contaminants. They can’t just use any implement to break the container’s fasteners open either: The tool must fit inside the glovebox, and it also must not compromise the samples’ integrity. NASA has sealed the primary container sample for now, while it’s developing the procedure to be able to open it over the next few weeks.

If you’re wondering where the 70.3 grams of rocks and dust came from, well, NASA collected part of it from the external sample receptacle but outside TAGSAM itself. It also includes a small portion of the samples inside TAGSAM, taken by holding down its mylar flap and reaching inside with tweezers or a scoop. NASA’s initial analysis of the material published earlier this month said it showed evidence of high carbon content and water, and further studies could help us understand how life on Earth began. The agency plans to continue analyzing and “characterizing” the rocks and dust it has already taken from the sample container, so we may hear more details about the samples even while TAGSAM remains sealed.

“An exciting feature of these materials is their inherent simplicity—they need no electronics, no external power source,” said study senior author Shengqiang Cai, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. “We demonstrate how we can harness the power of nature to directly convert mechanical stimuli into light emission.”

Alginate, a polymer made from seaweed, was added to the dinoflagellates as the main components of the bioluminescent materials. These substances were combined to generate a solution, which was then processed by a 3D printer to produce an assortment of shapes.

During tests, the substances lit up when the scientists applied pressure and made patterns on their surface. The materials were so sensitive that even the weight of a foam ball moving across their surface caused them to glow.

A team of researchers led by the University of California San Diego has developed soft yet durable materials that glow in response to mechanical stress, such as compression, stretching or twisting. The materials derive their luminescence from single-celled algae known as dinoflagellates.

The work, inspired by the bioluminescent waves observed during red tide events at San Diego’s beaches, was published Oct. 20 in Science Advances.

“An exciting feature of these materials is their inherent simplicity—they need no electronics, no external power source,” said study senior author Shengqiang Cai, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. “We demonstrate how we can harness the power of nature to directly convert mechanical stimuli into light emission.”

Researchers have developed a potentially revolutionary superlens technique that once seemed impossible to see things four times smaller than even the most modern microscopes have seen before. Known as the ‘diffraction limit’ because the diffraction of light waves at the tiniest levels has prevented microscopes from seeing things smaller than those waves, this barrier once seemed unbreakable.

Many have tried to peer below this optical barrier using a technique that researchers in the field term ‘superlensing, including making customized lenses out of novel materials. But all have gathered too much light. Now, a team of physicists from the University of Sydney says they have discovered a viable path that peeks beyond the diffraction limit by a factor of four times, allowing researchers to see things smaller than ever seen before. And the way they did, it is like nothing anyone else has tried.

Breaking the Diffraction Limit by ‘Superlensing’ without a Superlens.