Lifeboat Foundation

DARPA recently performed a critical design review (CDR) in mid-October of the design’s General Electric engine. The GE engine will enable the drone to fly both vertically and horizontally. GE are rarely far from 3D printing news, not just for developing their 3D printing portfolio but also for repairing 3D printed engines with 3D printing. Naturally, the details of TERN’s engine have not been made public by DARPA but it may be fair to speculate that GE would have looked to use their latest developments with 3D printing in the project, especially given the value of 3D printing for making low volume or one-off complex components.

On Monday, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced its new artificial intelligence. Based on a photograph alone, it can predict what’ll happen next, then generate a one-and-a-half second video clip depicting that possible future.

Co-founder Andrew Pelling has already grown human ear cells on top of apples.

You could mistake ELENA for a miniature accelerator. But, unlike most accelerators, it’s housed in a hangar and you can take it all in in just a single glance. The biggest difference though, is that it doesn’t accelerate particles, but decelerates them.

CERN’s brand-new machine measures just 30 metres in circumference and has just begun its first tests with beam.

The ELENA (Extra Low ENergy Antiproton) deceleration ring will be connected to the Antiproton Decelerator (AD), which has been in service since 2000. The AD is a unique facility that enables the study of antimatter.

Continue reading “A new ring to slow down antimatter” »

The new SENS Research Newsletter is out!

SENS Research Foundation email newsletter from 28th November 2016.

In Brief

• Scientist have developed an ingenious means of converting nuclear power plant waste (76,430 metric tons in the US alone) into sustainable diamond batteries.
• These long-lasting batteries could be a clean and safe way to power spacecraft, satellites, and even medical devices.

Illustration representing the novel design of a hybrid supercapacitor, showing bundles of nanowires (blue) coated with 2D energy-storage materials (yellow) (credit: University of Central Florida)

University of Central Florida researchers have developed a radical new supercapacitor design that could one day replace lithium-ion batteries, allowing users to charge a mobile phone in a few seconds and with a charge that lasts a week, according to the researchers. The new battery would be flexible and a fraction of the size of a lithium-ion battery.

The proof-of-concept design is based on a hybrid supercapacitor composed of a core with millions of highly conductive nanowires coated with shells of two-dimensional materials. It combines fast charging and discharging (high power density) and high storage capacity (high energy density).

Continue reading “Battery breakthrough charges in seconds, lasts for a week” »

The pioneering and world-leading research conducted at the University of Exeter’s state-of-the-art Living Systems Institute (LSI) will form the basis of the latest high-profile Global Conversation event.

The iconic new research facility, located on the University’s Streatham Campus, will host 100 specially-invited guests at the prominent event, held on Monday, 28 November.

The event, the first Global Conversation to be held on campus, gives the distinguished guests an exclusive opportunity to preview the new £52 million LSI facility, which brings together world-leading scientists and researchers from diverse discipline backgrounds.

With wireless optogenetic tools, neuroscientists steer mice around their cages.