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Apr 11, 2021

Norway’s huge oil-backed wealth fund invests in an offshore wind farm

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund has agreed to pay around 1.375 billion euros ($1.63 billion) for a 50% stake in one of the world’s biggest offshore wind farms, Orsted’s 752 megawatt (MW) Borssele 1 & 2 facility.

Managed by Norges Bank Investment Management, the fund — whose wealth stems from Norway’s vast North Sea oil and gas reserves — is the world’s largest and worth more than $1.3 trillion. In an announcement Wednesday, NBIM described the deal as its “first investment in renewable energy infrastructure.”

The transaction is set to complete in the second or third quarter of 2021. Under the terms of the deal, Orsted will retain its position as co-owner of the wind farm and handle operations and maintenance.

Apr 11, 2021

Glutathione Restoration Improves Hallmarks Of Aging in Older Adults

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

Papers referenced int the video:

Deficient synthesis of glutathione underlies oxidative stress in aging and.
can be corrected by dietary cysteine and glycine supplementation:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21795440/

Continue reading “Glutathione Restoration Improves Hallmarks Of Aging in Older Adults” »

Apr 11, 2021

NASA delays Mars helicopter flight after a crucial rotor-blade-spinning test ended abruptly

Posted by in categories: drones, space

NASA has delayed the first flight of its Ingenuity Mars helicopter after a crucial test-spin of the drone’s rotor blades abruptly stopped.

This was the last major test to make sure the helicopter would be ready for its first flight, which was originally scheduled for early Monday. Now NASA has delayed the historic liftoff — which would mark the first powered, controlled flight on another planet — to Wednesday.

For the test on Friday, Ingenuity was supposed to spin its blades at full speed while on the ground. The two pairs of blades should have spun in opposite directions at more than 2500 rotations per minute — about eight times faster than an Earth helicopter. On flight day, they’ll need that speed to lift the 4-pound drone into the thin Martian atmosphere. That air has just 1% the density of Earth’s atmosphere, making Ingenuity’s task the equivalent of flying three times higher than the peak of Mount Everest.

Apr 11, 2021

NASA’s Mars Helicopter Ingenuity is ‘go’ for historic 1st flight on Sunday

Posted by in category: space

Humanity’s first helicopter on Mars has been cleared for a historic takeoff.

Ingenuity will take to the skies above Jezero Crater Sunday (April 11) on a 40-second flight — roughly four times longer than the Wright brothers’ first flight on Earth over 117 years ago. The first data, successful or not, should flow back to Earth on Monday (April 12) around 3:30 a.m. EDT (0830 GMT).

Apr 11, 2021

Diamond-Based Quantum Accelerator Puts Qubits in a Server Rack

Posted by in categories: quantum physics, robotics/AI, satellites

Diamond-Based Quantum Accelerator Puts #Qubits in a Server Rack.

The startup Quantum Brilliance recently announced that they have developed a market-ready, diam… See More.


Its makers envision this device growing to 50+ qubits and fitting aboard satellites, autonomous vehicles.

Continue reading “Diamond-Based Quantum Accelerator Puts Qubits in a Server Rack” »

Apr 10, 2021

A guide to Plan S: the open-access initiative shaking up science publishing

Posted by in category: science

As the first papers under these mandates are published, Plan S supporters say it’s the start of a journey towards open science. But most research funders haven’t signed up yet, and negotiations over the plan have produced a complex landscape of options to avoid paywalls. Here’s what the initiative means for scientists and journals — and some of the controversies that will play out in 2021 and beyond.


The push to remove journal paywalls officially started this year. Here’s how it works.

Apr 10, 2021

Satellite technology puts into orbit swarms of spacecraft no bigger than a loaf of bread

Posted by in categories: climatology, mobile phones, robotics/AI, satellites, sustainability

As they researched why the avalanche occurred with such force, researchers studying climate change pored over images taken in the days and weeks before and saw that ominous cracks had begun to form in the ice and snow. Then, scanning photos of a nearby glacier, they noticed similar crevasses forming, touching off a scramble to warn local authorities that it was also about to come crashing down.

The images of the glaciers came from a constellation of satellites no bigger than a shoebox, in orbit 280 miles up. Operated by San Francisco-based company Planet, the satellites, called Doves, weigh just over 10 pounds each and fly in “flocks” that today include 175 satellites. If one fails, the company replaces it, and as better batteries, solar arrays and cameras become available, the company updates its satellites the way Apple unveils a new iPhone.

The revolution in technology that transformed personal computing, put smart speakers in homes and gave rise to the age of artificial intelligence and machine learning is also transforming space. While rockets and human exploration get most of the attention, a quiet and often overlooked transformation has taken place in the way satellites are manufactured and operated. The result is an explosion of data and imagery from orbit.

Apr 10, 2021

Wireless power from 5G networks could replace batteries

Posted by in categories: energy, internet, surveillance

A new way to harvest power from 5G networks could make many of the batteries that power our devices a thing of the past, researchers say.


An ATHENA group member holds an inkjet-printed prototype of a mm-wave harvester. The researchers envision a future where IoT devices will be powered wirelessly over 5G networks. (Credit: Christopher Moore/Georgia Tech)

Continue reading “Wireless power from 5G networks could replace batteries” »

Apr 10, 2021

This wild-looking house is made out of dirt by a giant 3D printer

Posted by in categories: habitats, sustainability

These 645-square-foot domed buildings were printed in Italy over the course of 200 hours.

Apr 10, 2021

The Near-Magical Mystery of Quasiparticles

Posted by in categories: computing, physics

Using intuition, educated guesswork and computer simulations, condensed matter physicists have become better at figuring out which quasiparticles are theoretically possible. Meanwhile in the lab, as physicists push novel materials to new extremes, the quasiparticle zoo has grown quickly and become more and more exotic. “It really is a towering intellectual achievement,” said Natelson.

Recent discoveries include pi-tons, immovable fractons and warped wrinklons. “We now think about quasiparticles with properties that we never really dreamt of before,” said Steve Simon, a theoretical condensed matter physicist at the University of Oxford.

Here are a few of the most curious and potentially useful quasiparticles.