The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld Ontdek de Fascinerende Wereld van UFO's en UAP's: Jouw Bron voor Onthullende Informatie!
Ben jij ook gefascineerd door het onbekende? Wil je meer weten over UFO's en UAP's, niet alleen in België, maar over de hele wereld? Dan ben je op de juiste plek!
België: Het Kloppend Hart van UFO-onderzoek
In België is BUFON (Belgisch UFO-Netwerk) dé autoriteit op het gebied van UFO-onderzoek. Voor betrouwbare en objectieve informatie over deze intrigerende fenomenen, bezoek je zeker onze Facebook-pagina en deze blog. Maar dat is nog niet alles! Ontdek ook het Belgisch UFO-meldpunt en Caelestia, twee organisaties die diepgaand onderzoek verrichten, al zijn ze soms kritisch of sceptisch.
Nederland: Een Schat aan Informatie
Voor onze Nederlandse buren is er de schitterende website www.ufowijzer.nl, beheerd door Paul Harmans. Deze site biedt een schat aan informatie en artikelen die je niet wilt missen!
Internationaal: MUFON - De Wereldwijde Autoriteit
Neem ook een kijkje bij MUFON (Mutual UFO Network Inc.), een gerenommeerde Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in de VS en wereldwijd. MUFON is toegewijd aan de wetenschappelijke en analytische studie van het UFO-fenomeen, en hun maandelijkse tijdschrift, The MUFON UFO-Journal, is een must-read voor elke UFO-enthousiasteling. Bezoek hun website op www.mufon.com voor meer informatie.
Samenwerking en Toekomstvisie
Sinds 1 februari 2020 is Pieter niet alleen ex-president van BUFON, maar ook de voormalige nationale directeur van MUFON in Vlaanderen en Nederland. Dit creëert een sterke samenwerking met de Franse MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP, wat ons in staat stelt om nog meer waardevolle inzichten te delen.
Let op: Nepprofielen en Nieuwe Groeperingen
Pas op voor een nieuwe groepering die zich ook BUFON noemt, maar geen enkele connectie heeft met onze gevestigde organisatie. Hoewel zij de naam geregistreerd hebben, kunnen ze het rijke verleden en de expertise van onze groep niet evenaren. We wensen hen veel succes, maar we blijven de autoriteit in UFO-onderzoek!
Blijf Op De Hoogte!
Wil jij de laatste nieuwtjes over UFO's, ruimtevaart, archeologie, en meer? Volg ons dan en duik samen met ons in de fascinerende wereld van het onbekende! Sluit je aan bij de gemeenschap van nieuwsgierige geesten die net als jij verlangen naar antwoorden en avonturen in de sterren!
Heb je vragen of wil je meer weten? Aarzel dan niet om contact met ons op te nemen! Samen ontrafelen we het mysterie van de lucht en daarbuiten.
04-05-2017
Spherical Drone Display Looks Like 360-Degree Flying Screen
Spherical Drone Display Looks Like 360-Degree Flying Screen
By Kacey Deamer, Staff Writer
The drone is surrounded by eight curved LED strips that spin rapidly during flight, creating the illusion of a spherical screen.
Credit: NTT DOCOMO
Forget plane-pulled banners ― there may be a new way to advertise in the sky.
The Japanese telecom company NTT DOCOMO recently revealed what it claims is the "world's first spherical drone display." Although it appears to be a solid, globe-shaped screen while in flight, the display is actually an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV, or drone) inside a spherical frame with curved LED strips. The LEDs spin rapidly during flight, creating the illusion of a spherical screen. The drone display was showcased April 29-30 during the Niconico Chokaigi conference, a festival of Japan's internet culture.
Though the technology is not yet ready for commercial use, the company said it should be available by March 2019. These flying screens could be used for advertisements during a sporting event, or to display information at a concert, according to DOCOMO. [Photos from Above: 8 Cool Camera-Carrying Drones]
"Going forward, the company will explore potential entertainment and messaging solutions for event venues, including stadiums and concert halls," company officials wrote in a statement. Previously, it was challenging to equip a drone with a spherical display because it interfered with the airflow of the drone's propellers, according to DOCOMO. In addition, the display's weight tended to drag down the aircraft. The telecom company solved these issues by using a mostly hollow display, which allows for better airflow and is lightweight.
The spherical frame surrounding the drone has a maximum diameter of about 35 inches (88 centimeters), and the display measures 144 pixels high by 136 pixels wide. The entire device, drone and display, weighs just 7.5 pounds (3.4 kilograms). Since it's relatively small and light, the drone display is highly maneuverable and, according to DOCOMO, could be operated virtually anywhere.
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29-04-2017
Scientists Can Now Create Glass Figurines with a 3D Printer
Scientists Can Now Create Glass Figurines with a 3D Printer
By Charles Q. Choi, Live Science Contributor
A three-dimensional glass castle that was created with a 3D printer.
Credit: NeptunLab/KIT
Intricate glass creations such as miniature castles and tiny pretzels can now be fabricated using 3D printing, according to a new study. The technique could one day be used to manufacture lenses for smartphone cameras as well as other key glass components, researchers said.
Archaeological research suggests humans have employed glassmaking for millennia. The process typically requires hot furnaces and harsh chemicals. Recently, scientists have investigated whether they could sidestep these drawbacks using 3D printing.
A 3D printer is a machine that creates items from a wide variety of materials: plastic, ceramic, metal and even more unusual ingredients, such as living cells. These devices work by depositing layers of material, just as ordinary printers lay down ink, except 3D printers can also deposit flat layers on top of each other to build objects in three dimensions. [The 10 Weirdest Things Created by 3D Printing]
Until now, the only methods for shaping glass using 3D printing also required using a laser or heating the materials to searing temperatures of about 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (1,000 degrees Celsius), the researchers in the new study said. In both cases, the end products were coarse, rough structures that were not suitable for many applications, the researchers added.
"People thought glass was too difficult to work with via 3D printing," said study senior author Bastian Rapp, a mechanical engineer at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany
This honeycomb structure printed in fused silica glass is exposed to a flame that is almost 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit (800 degrees Celsius).
Credit: NeptunLab/KIT
Now, scientists have developed a new technique to fabricate complex glass structures using a standard 3D printer. The secret, the researchers said, is something they call "liquid glass."
"What this work does is it closes an important gap in the palette of modern 3D printing," Rapp told Live Science.
The scientists began with particles made of silica, the same material used to make glass. These particles were only 40 nanometers, or billionths of a meter, wide, which is about 2,500 times thinner than the average strand of human hair.
These silica nanoparticles were dispersed in an acrylic solution. The researchers could then use a standard 3D printer to fabricate complex items using this "liquid glass," the study said. Ultraviolet light could harden these objects into a kind of plastic similar to acrylic glass.
When these pieces of plastic were exposed to temperatures of about 2,370 degrees F (1,300 degrees C), the plastic burned away while the silica nanoparticles fused together into smooth, transparent glass structures, the study said. With the aid of additives, this technique can print colored glasses, tinted green, blue or red, for example, the researchers said.
"Glass is one of the oldest materials that mankind has used, and it's still a high-performance material, and for many applications, the only choice of material," Rapp said. "What our research does is bridge a necessary gap between 21st-century manufacturing techniques and a material that's centuries old."
The commercial 3D printer the researchers used could print features as tiny as a few dozen microns. For comparison, the average human hair is 100 microns wide.
This new method does not require harsh chemicals, and it produces glass components smooth and clear enough for use as lenses and in other applications, the researchers said.
"You can think of creating tiny lenses for smartphone cameras," Rapp said. "You can think about creating chemically and thermally resistant micro reactors made from glass that chemical reactions can take place in."
This new technique could also help create optical and photonics components for high-speed data transmission, Rapp said. (Photonic devices manipulate light just as electronic circuits manipulate electricity.) "You can also think much bigger, with 3D curved pieces of glass for architecture," Rapp said.
"We are now spinning off a company to commercialize this technology," Rapp said. "We hope that in a few years' time, glass will be as convenient to 3D print as plastic is nowadays."
The scientists detailed their findings online April 19 in the journal Nature.
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28-04-2017
Another Google Co-Founder Is Building a Secret Aircraft
Another Google Co-Founder Is Building a Secret Aircraft
Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
The USS Macon entering Hangar One at the NASA Ames Research center in 1934.
Photographer: Smith Collection/Gado via Getty Images
IN BRIEF
Another Google founder apparently has plans of building an aircraft. According to sources, the vehicle closely resembles a zeppelin and is currently housed at NASA's Ames Research Center.
While Larry Page was busy bringing his “flying car” to reality, another Google co-founder, Sergey Brin, was apparently on a similar path, trying to create a vehicle that will take to the skies as well.
However, unlike Page’s land/air hybrid vehicle, the Kitty Hawk Flyer, which could be introduced into the market as early as this year, Brin’s project is a giant airship resembling a zeppelin that’s currently housed at the NASA Ames Research Center. According to a report by Bloomberg, the project was spurred after Brin saw old photos of the USS Macon, an old airship built by the US Navy.
This particular prototype could have been created as part of a potential business venture — which would be timely, given that we’re at the cusp of airborne vehicles and flying taxi fleets becoming a reality. Or, it could be simply a passion project for Brin, who apparently has a long-standing fascination with airships. We just don’t know yet.
News of this project has piqued the curiosity of many. New airship technology could potentially help cut delivery and transport costs, given that it can accommodate massive amounts of cargo and be more fuel efficient. But whatever his intentions are for this project, Brin certainly has a few experienced friends he can tap for advice.
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Another Google Co-Founder Is Building a Secret Aircraft
Another Google Co-Founder Is Building a Secret Aircraft
Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
The USS Macon entering Hangar One at the NASA Ames Research center in 1934.
Photographer: Smith Collection/Gado via Getty Images
IN BRIEF
Another Google founder apparently has plans of building an aircraft. According to sources, the vehicle closely resembles a zeppelin and is currently housed at NASA's Ames Research Center.
While Larry Page was busy bringing his “flying car” to reality, another Google co-founder, Sergey Brin, was apparently on a similar path, trying to create a vehicle that will take to the skies as well.
However, unlike Page’s land/air hybrid vehicle, the Kitty Hawk Flyer, which could be introduced into the market as early as this year, Brin’s project is a giant airship resembling a zeppelin that’s currently housed at the NASA Ames Research Center. According to a report by Bloomberg, the project was spurred after Brin saw old photos of the USS Macon, an old airship built by the US Navy.
This particular prototype could have been created as part of a potential business venture — which would be timely, given that we’re at the cusp of airborne vehicles and flying taxi fleets becoming a reality. Or, it could be simply a passion project for Brin, who apparently has a long-standing fascination with airships. We just don’t know yet.
News of this project has piqued the curiosity of many. New airship technology could potentially help cut delivery and transport costs, given that it can accommodate massive amounts of cargo and be more fuel efficient. But whatever his intentions are for this project, Brin certainly has a few experienced friends he can tap for advice.
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Impossible Physics: Meet NASA’s Design for a Warp Drive Ship
Impossible Physics: Meet NASA’s Design for a Warp Drive Ship
Mark Rademaker /
IN BRIEF
Warp drive would allow us to travel 10 times faster than the speed of light without actually breaking the speed of light – however, most scientists think that the technology will never actually work. Despite this, NASA has released designs for a faster-than-light ship that uses the hypothetical tech.
Before we jump into this, you should know that a number of scientists are currently researching the feasibility of warp drive (and EMdrive and a number of other modes of faster than light travel); however, most think that such forms of space travel simply aren’t viable, thanks to the fundamental physics of our universe.
So although part of this article is simply, “Oh my gosh, look at this amazing design,” that’s not the entire point. To that end, let’s take a moment to break this all down a bit so we have an understanding of what exactly is being proposed in relation to warp drive, and why it is met with such skepticism, before we get a bit too carried away…
Alcubierre warp drive via Anderson Institute
In 1994, physicist Miguel Alcubierre proposed a new kind of technology that would allow us to travel 10 times faster than the speed of light without actually breaking the speed of light. That seems a little contradictory, doesn’t it? After all, we’ve been told time and again that light is the universal speed limit – nothing in the cosmos can travel faster than it (much less 10 times faster).
And herein lies the key to the Alcubierre drive: When you use it, you aren’t actually moving through space.
This technology would not actually propel the ship to speeds exceeding light; instead, it uses the deformation of spacetime permitted by General Relativity to warp the universe around the vessel. Essentially, when the drive is activated the spacetime behind expands, while in the front it contracts. In this respect, the path taken becomes a time-like free-fall.
Alcubierre’s ideas have lead to a number of interesting thought experiments in quantum field theory; however, as mentioned above, most scientists think that the technology will never actually work. When you think about it, that kind of makes sense. Obviously, warping space requires a lot of mass and energy, and ensuring that the space where you are located isn’t warped is tricky business. Indeed, the proposition was mostly just a thought experiment when it was first proposed – not something Alcubierre thought was actually viable technology.
In short, it requires negative energy densities, which can’t be strictly disproven but are probably unrealistic; the total amount of energy is likely to be equivalent to the mass-energy of an astrophysical body; and the gravitational fields produced would likely rip any ship to shreds. My personal estimate of the likelihood we will ever be able to build a “warp drive” is much less than 1%. And the chances it will happen in the next hundred years I would put at less than 0.01%.
That said, scientists will likely be producing papers addressing these ideas for some time. We’ll continue to cover them as they come out (and though things may look painfully dismal for this technology, who knows what the future may hold).
But on to the design…
In 2010, NASA physicist Harold White revealed that he and a team were working on a design for this faster-than-light ship, and this is the most recent design of what such a ship might actually look like. As you can see in the image, the ship rests between two enormous rings, which create the warp bubble.
Image via Mark Rademaker
Artist Mark Rademaker worked on the project with White. In the release, Rademaker asserts that he spent over 1,600 hours working on the design. The ship is called the IXS Enterprise, and it is meant to fit the concept for a Faster Than Light ship. Mike Okuda also brought input, and designed the Ship’s insignia.
To give you some idea of just how awesome warp technology would be: A trip to the nearest star (Proxima Centauri), which rests some four light-years from Earth, would ordinarily take over 17,000 years. However, with the Alcubierre drive, it would take a little under five months. For those of us who have a mental breakdown on 10 hour plane flights, 5 months might still seem like quite a bit of travel time. But when we are talking about the vast cosmic distances between Earth and Proxima Centauri, a 5 month trip would be an achievement of monumental proportions (keep in mind, it took Curiosity 8 months just to reach Mars).
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25-04-2017
Ook deze vliegende boot kun je later dit jaar aanschaffen
Ook deze vliegende boot kun je later dit jaar aanschaffen
Caroline Kraaijvanger
Behalve de vliegende auto kun je ook de vliegende boot met een gerust hart aan je verlanglijstje voor Sinterklaas toevoegen. Beiden zijn namelijk nog dit jaar te bestellen!
Het bedrijf Kitty Hawk heeft aangekondigd nog dit jaar de Kitty Hawk Flyer op de markt te brengen. Hieronder zie je een prototype in actie.
Wat ‘ie gaat kosten? Dat blijft nog even in nevelen gehuld, maar het lijkt aannemelijk dat de meesten van ons er een klein hypotheekje voor af moeten gaan sluiten. Maar dan heb je ook wat. Wat precies? Een soort vliegende jetski. Om een beetje een beeld te geven van de mogelijkheden die dat biedt, heeft Kitty Hawk onderstaand filmpje vrijgegeven waarin een dame zichzelf uitnodigt voor een etentje en vervolgens – dankzij de Kitty Hawk Flyer – binnen twee minuten op de stoep staat. Fijn!
Geen vliegbrevet nodig Het prototype in het filmpje is ontworpen om boven water te vliegen en op water te landen. Het is voorzien van een elektrische aandrijving. Voor het ultralichte prototype heb je geen vliegbrevet nodig. En volgens Kitty Hawk heb je het besturen van de vliegende boot binnen enkele minuten onder de knie.
Iets ander uiterlijk Het vliegende gevaarte dat Kitty Hawk later dit jaar op de markt brengt, zal er iets anders uit gaan zien dan het prototype, zo laat het bedrijf weten. Maar verder geeft het weinig prijs. Wie meer wil weten, kan het bedrijf steunen door 100 dollar te doneren. In ruil daarvoor krijg je de laatste informatie over het object en 2000 dollar korting op de Kitty Hawk Flyer wanneer deze later dit jaar op de markt komt.
Vliegende auto De aankondiging van de Kitty Hawk Flyer komt amper een week na de aankondiging van de AeroMobil: een vliegende auto die eveneens nog dit jaar besteld kan worden. Wie ergens in een oude sok nog een geldbedrag met vijf nullen heeft slingeren, een rijbewijs en vliegbrevet bezit, kan de AeroMobil naar verwachting later dit jaar pre-orderen.
En Kitty Hawk en AeroMobil zijn lang niet de enige bedrijven die hun pijlen gericht hebben op het bouwen van vliegende consumentenvoertuigen. Veel andere bedrijven – waaronder Airbus – hebben het tot hun missie gemaakt om jouw door file geteisterde ritje naar het werk radicaal te veranderen. Of de vliegende voertuigen werkelijk op korte termijn voet aan de grond krijgen? Dat is zeer twijfelachtig. Veel mensen krijgen al de kriebels van drones en zullen zeker niet zitten te wachten op (veel lawaaiigere) auto’s in de lucht. En wie gaat het verkeer boven onze hoofden reguleren? En hoe houden we het veilig, ook wanneer zo’n vliegende auto pech krijgt? Genoeg om over na te denken alvorens je in jouw vliegende auto of boot stapt.
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New 'Kitty Hawk' flying car footage revealed
New 'Kitty Hawk' flying car footage revealed
The Kitty Hawk Flyer operates over water. Image Credit: YouTube / Kitty Hawk
The company behind the futuristic aerial vehicle was financially backed by Google founder Larry Page.
The video, which is the first to feature a working prototype of the Kitty Hawk Flyer, shows an enthusiastic aviator flying the vehicle over a lake to meet up with a group of friends in a boat.
Described as an "all-electric aircraft", the vehicle is only able to operate over water but doen't require a pilot's license to operate because it falls under the "ultralight" FAA category.
According to the company, a consumer version of the Kitty Hawk Flyer will be available to purchase before the end of the year however it remains unclear exactly how much it will cost.
Those particularly keen to get their hands on one though can sign up for a $100 membership that will net them priority placement on the waiting list and a $2,000 discount.
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24-04-2017
Off-grid UFO home is completely powered by wind, water and sun
Off-grid UFO home is completely powered by wind, water and sun
UFOs could soon be spotted floating on the ocean as cool sustainable homes. Italian boating company Jet Capsule designed what may be the most stylish way to live off the grid: an Unidentified Floating Object powered by renewable energy that provides a chance for people to travel and live on the sea.
‘UFOs’ surround the jet capsule, the machine’s predecessor
Founders Pierpaolo Lazzarini and Luca Solla said they designed the UFO home for those who desire to “live in a floating house and move slowly around the world.” With 322 square feet of space, the flying saucer-shaped home includes a main floor kitchen and living area, and lower level bathroom and bedroom. Large windows will offer stellar panoramic views – underwater.
Solar, wind, and water power propel the capsule so it functions entirely off the grid. A hydrojet on the bottom of the UFO draws power from rooftop solar panels to transport the home, while wind and water turbines provide additional power. A water generator provides drinking water via collected rain and even sea water. There’s also a vegetable garden on the rings surrounding the UFO, as well as a deck.
Maximum speed for the UFO is only four miles per hour, so the houseboat won’t win any races. At the same time, there’s little to fear from stormy weather or choppy waves; Jet Capsule designed the home with an elastic anchor system to ensure it remains stable in rough weather.
Not only is the home super sustainable, but it will likely be fairly affordable as well. The company is currently looking for investors so they can build their first prototype, and after that they hope to bring the UFOs to market with a price tag of only $200,000 – far less than your average houseboat.
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22-04-2017
Meet the Most Advanced Drone for VR Video Yet
Meet the Most Advanced Drone for VR Video Yet
The Flying Eye, an expensive $75,000 drone, is the first of its kind to shoot 360-degree video in 6K and live stream broadcast-quality video from a range of 5 miles.
One of the more interesting flying machines, as well as one of a kind, is the US Marine Corps Bell Boeing V22 Osprey. The V22 Osprey project started in 1982 as a joint venture between Bell and Boeing as part of the Advanced Vertical Lift Program. The original purpose of the V22 Osprey was to carry out special missions as a kind of assault transport plane/helicopter. During its development, there were a number of fatal accidents and an 18-month grounding in order to deal with safety issues.
The V22 Osprey has a transport aircraft style fuselage, carries up to 24 troops, has two swiveling helicopter-style rotor pods containing turbo shaft engines, and its wings are controlled by a flap and aileron system.
V22 Ospreys take off and land vertically just as a helicopter, but once aloft can fly like an airplane. The US Department of Defense has issued more than 450 contracts for the V22 Osprey for the Marine Corps, 50 for US Special Operations Command, and 48 for the Navy.
More History Behind the Osprey
According to Wikipedia, a tiltrotor aircraft was needed because of . . .
“The failure of Operation Eagle Claw during the Iran hostage crisis in 1980 underscored the requirement for a new long-range, high-speed, vertical-takeoff aircraft for the United States Department of Defense. In response, the Joint-service Vertical take-off/landing Experimental (JVX) aircraft program started in 1981. A partnership between Bell Helicopter and Boeing Helicopters was awarded a development contract in 1983 for the V-22 tiltrotor aircraft. The Bell Boeing team jointly produce the aircraft.[5] The V-22 first flew in 1989, and began flight testing and design alterations; the complexity and difficulties of being the first tiltrotor for military service led to many years of development.
The United States Marine Corps began crew training for the Osprey in 2000, and fielded it in 2007; it supplemented and then replaced their Boeing Vertol CH-46 Sea Knights. The Osprey’s other operator, the U.S. Air Force, fielded their version of the tiltrotor in 2009. Since entering service with the U.S. Marine Corps and Air Force, the Osprey has been deployed in transportation and medevac operations over Iraq.”
The following video shows the V22 Osprey starting up and taking off.
The New Osprey
In 2015, a project between Sikorsky and Boeing to create a new version of the vertical lift aircraft was announced. See “Sikorsky-Boeing Future Vertical Lift: The Way Forward” below.
David Russell Schilling
David enjoys research and writing about cutting edge technologies that hold the promise of improving conditions for all life on planet earth.
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17-04-2017
Hoverboard Daredevil Speeds Over Atlantic Ocean
Hoverboard Daredevil Speeds Over Atlantic Ocean
By Kacey Deamer, Staff Writer
The hoverboard flight was just under 7 minutes long and flew about 164 feet (50 meters) above the Atlantic Ocean.
Credit: Breitling
In a stunt straight out of a science-fiction film, a real-life, jet-powered hoverboard cruised over the Atlantic Ocean.
Franky Zapata, a hoverboard, took to the skies in a promotional video for the watch company Breitling. The Swiss watchmaker announced its partnership with the Flyboard Air project in December with an incredible video that shows Zapata flying on his hoverboard, reported The Telegraph. Zapata flew about 164 feet (50 meters) over the Atlantic Ocean for almost 7 minutes, The Telegraph said.
Breitling used the video to announce that it will be the main sponsor of Flyboard Air, with the partnership marking "a new chapter in conquering the skies." [Up She Goes! 8 of the Wackiest Early Flying Machines]
"By supporting the FlyboardAir project, Breitling's intention is once again to foster the spirit of daring and invention that has always characterized aviation since the time of the very first 'magnificent men in their flying machines' — that taste for adventure [and] that combination of daring and discipline, which consistently drive aeronautics to push the boundaries of feasibility," Breitling officials said in a statement.
Essentially a flying skateboard — like Marty McFly's famous ride in the 1989 classic movie "Back to the Future Part II" — several hoverboard prototypes have been developed in recent years. The Flyboard Air was invented by Zapata Racing and took four years of development, the company said. The Flyboard Air hoverboard is still a prototype and is not commercially available, the company said.
However, Zapata and his hoverboard have already set numerous world records. In April 2016, Zapata flew the Flyboard Air almost7,400 feet (over 2,200 meters) from a height of about 160 feet (50 m), setting a new world record for the longest hoverboard flight.
Unlike the company's original Flyboard, which connects to a watercraft turbine via a long hose, the Flyboard Air is hose-free. The system's "independent propulsion unit" allows the hoverboard to fly for up to 10 minutes, according to Zapata Racing, reaching a maximum speed of 93 mph (150 km/h) and an altitude of 10,000 feet (3,000 m).
"This has really been a life's work," Zapata said, according to The Telegraph. "Who has never dreamt of leaping out of the water and soaring through the air, free of all constraints? This is the dream that is at the origin of the products we create."
A study published this month in the journal Biomaterials has proven once again that spinach is basically the best superfood to ever exist. A team of scientists from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Arkansas State University-Jonesboro have successfully used spinach leaves to grow human heart tissue.
While 3D printing definitely has a future in the medical sciences, the technology is still too new and does not have the ability to generate the intricate vascular systems a human heart needs in order to pump blood effectively. In simple terms, 3D printers can give you sledgehammers when you need needle points. However, using existing biological material, such as a plant, does provide the intricate vein system required, but trying to grow human tissue inside a plant is basically impossible. The trick is keeping the veins, but getting rid of the plant.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
The authors of the paper wrote,
Plants and animals exploit fundamentally different approaches to transporting fluids, chemicals and macromolecules, yet there are surprising similarities in their vascular network structures… The development of decellularized plants for scaffolding opens up the potential for a new branch of science that investigates the mimicry between plant and animal.
So how did the research team keep the intricate vein system needed? Detergent. Using spinach leaves, the team bathed the leafy salad greens in chemical detergents to remove its plant cells, but maintain the cellulose, the fibrous building block of plants. More importantly, cellulose is biocompatible which means that animal cells can build upon it as effectively as plant cells can. Infact, many medical practices already use plant based cellulose in healing wounds and mending cartilage.
Once the leaf’s plant cells were completely removed, all that remained was the cellulose vein structure of the spinach. The team then immersed the ex-spinach into a bath of human cells, and allowed the cells to form around the veins, creating a sort of mini heart. Once the human cells latched onto and successfully grew around the veins of the spinach leaf, the team pumped fluid and microbeads through the vein system to simulate blood flow. As it turns out, the spinach veins handled the concoction perfectly.
While the team admits there is still plenty of work to be done, the use of plant based cellulose in the production of organs, such as hearts, is incredibly efficient, inexpensive, and has almost no environmental impact compared to creating synthetic organs from plastic or other human made materials. The team concludes by explaining that,
By exploiting the benign chemistry of plant tissue scaffolds, we could address the many limitations and high costs of synthetic, complex composite materials. Plants can be easily grown using good agricultural practices and under controlled environments. By combining environmentally friendly plant tissue with perfusion-based decellularization, we have shown that there can be a sustainable solution for pre-vascularized tissue engineering scaffolds.
In other words, your next heart could be a nice leafy green grown by good old Mother Nature. Until then, keep eating your veggies kids, they are better for you than you know.
This is the kind of news story that male writers wonder if they should bury in order to save future generations of men from extinction. A new study has identified a group…
Perhaps Wallace was on to something in “A Grand Day Out” … Gromit, that’s it! Cheese! We’ll go somewhere where there’s cheese! A power plant in the French Alps is generating energy…
Music has long been considered a sort of “universal language,” capable of conveying feeling and emotion within compositions that surpass barriers presented by verbal communication and culture. From the primitive tribal drumming…
{
31-03-2017 om 01:18
geschreven door peter
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23-03-2017
Watch Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Control a Giant Mech Robot
Watch Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Control a Giant Mech Robot
By Stephanie Pappas, Live Science Contributor
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos piloted a giant "mech" robot at the 2017 Machine Learning, Home Automation, Robotics and Space Exploration (MARS) conference.
Credit: Jeff Bezos/Twitter
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos got to live out every 6-year-old's fantasy when he got behind the controls of a giant "mech" robot.
The Verge reports that Bezos tried out the 13-foot-tall (4 meters) robot yesterday (March 19) at his company's private Machine Learning, Home Automation, Robotics and Space Exploration (MARS) conference. Video of the bot, developed by Hankook Mirae Technology in South Korea, first surfaced in December in promotional clips. Live Science was skeptical of the robot's existence and functionality at the time.
But the new video reveals that the robot does, indeed, exist. However, it's far from clear how much the mech (a term for piloted, humanoid robots) can really do. Bezos flails the arms around using controls in the robot's torso cockpit, but the robot does not take any steps and is tethered to the ceiling, presumably for safety reasons. [The 6 Strangest Robots Ever Created]
Giant mech
The robot does not pick anything up in the video, either, which is notable because its developers say that one of their goals is to create piloted robots for real-world jobs, like cleaning up the Fukushima nuclear power plant that was damaged in 2011 when a massive earthquake and tsunami struck Japan. So far, none of the footage of the mech has shown it manipulating objects. The massive bot also runs on external power, which means that, so far, it's unable to work untethered.
Such limitations could be overcome. Roboticists have already developed robots that can navigate uneven terrain, including Boston Dynamics' intimidating "Big Dog" and the bipedal "Atlas" humanoid robot. Atlas can open doors, lift boxes and even right itself when pushed, and operates with an internal power source. Those bots are much smaller than the giant mech Hankook Mirae is trying to develop, however, and don't present the same safety challenges as a piloted robot. According to Hankook Mirae's website, the mech robot, nicknamed Method 2, weighs a minimum of 1.6 tons.
Sci-fi fantasy
A designer affiliated with Hankook Mirae, Vitaly Bulgarov, told Live Science in December that the giant mech has been under development for several years and is a prototype made to show off particular technologies, like the human-machine interface that controls the arms.
In that case, the mech may never be used for more than demonstration purposes, while the individual technologies used to make it might be redirected to more practical designs.
Whatever the ultimate function of the robot, it certainly taps into human fantasies of what robots should be. Mechs like the Method 2 design appear in the 2009 film "Avatar" as well as in "Starship Troopers" (1997) and in "Pacific Rim" (2013). The character of Ripley (played by actress Sigourney Weaver) also uses one in the classic sci-fi film "Aliens" (1986), which Bezos referenced during his ride in Method 2.
"Why do I feel so much like Sigourney Weaver?" Bezos quipped.
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10-03-2017
Scientists discover how to ‘upload knowledge to your brain’
Scientists discover how to ‘upload knowledge to your brain’
Feeding knowledge directly into your brain, just like in sci-fi classic The Matrix, could soon take as much effort as falling asleep, scientists believe.
Researchers claim to have developed a simulator which can feed information directly into a person’s brain and teach them new skills in a shorter amount of time, comparing it to “life imitating art”.
They believe it could be the first steps in developing advanced software that will make Matrix-style instant learning a reality.
In the neo-noir sci-fi classic, protagonist Neo is able to learn kung fu in seconds after the martial art is ‘uploaded’ straight to his brain.
Researchers from HRL Laboratories, based in California, say they have found a way to amplify learning, only on a much smaller scale than seen in the Hollywood film.
They studied the electric signals in the brain of a trained pilot and then fed the data into novice subjects as they learned to pilot an aeroplane in a realistic flight simulator.
The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, found that subjects who received brain stimulation via electrode-embedded head caps improved their piloting abilities and learnt the task 33 per cent better than a placebo group.
“Our system is one of the first of its kind. It’s a brain stimulation system,” explained Dr Matthew Phillips.
“It sounds kind of sci-fi, but there’s large scientific basis for the development of our system.
“The specific task we were looking at was piloting an aircraft, which requires a synergy of both cognitive and motor performance.
“When you learn something, your brain physically changes. Connections are made and strengthened in a process called neuro-plasticity.
“It turns out that certain functions of the brain, like speech and memory, are located in very specific regions of the brain, about the size of your pinky.”
Dr Matthews believes that brain stimulation could eventually be implemented for tasks like learning to drive, exam preparation and language learning
“What our system does is it actually targets those changes to specific regions of the brain as you learn,” he added.
“The method itself is actually quite old. In fact, the ancient Egyptians 4000 years ago used electric fish to stimulate and reduce pain.
The Matrix-style learning could become a reality
“Even Ben Franklin applied currents to his head, but the rigorous, scientific investigation of these methods started in the early 2000s and we’re building on that research to target and personalise a stimulation in the most effective way possible.
“Your brain is going to be very different to my brain when we perform a task. What we found is … brain stimulation seems to be particularly effective at actually improving learning.”
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Scientists discover how to ‘upload knowledge to your brain’
Scientists discover how to ‘upload knowledge to your brain’
Feeding knowledge directly into your brain, just like in sci-fi classic The Matrix, could soon take as much effort as falling asleep, scientists believe.
Researchers claim to have developed a simulator which can feed information directly into a person’s brain and teach them new skills in a shorter amount of time, comparing it to “life imitating art”.
They believe it could be the first steps in developing advanced software that will make Matrix-style instant learning a reality.
In the neo-noir sci-fi classic, protagonist Neo is able to learn kung fu in seconds after the martial art is ‘uploaded’ straight to his brain.
Researchers from HRL Laboratories, based in California, say they have found a way to amplify learning, only on a much smaller scale than seen in the Hollywood film.
They studied the electric signals in the brain of a trained pilot and then fed the data into novice subjects as they learned to pilot an aeroplane in a realistic flight simulator.
The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, found that subjects who received brain stimulation via electrode-embedded head caps improved their piloting abilities and learnt the task 33 per cent better than a placebo group.
“Our system is one of the first of its kind. It’s a brain stimulation system,” explained Dr Matthew Phillips.
“It sounds kind of sci-fi, but there’s large scientific basis for the development of our system.
“The specific task we were looking at was piloting an aircraft, which requires a synergy of both cognitive and motor performance.
“When you learn something, your brain physically changes. Connections are made and strengthened in a process called neuro-plasticity.
“It turns out that certain functions of the brain, like speech and memory, are located in very specific regions of the brain, about the size of your pinky.”
Dr Matthews believes that brain stimulation could eventually be implemented for tasks like learning to drive, exam preparation and language learning
“What our system does is it actually targets those changes to specific regions of the brain as you learn,” he added.
“The method itself is actually quite old. In fact, the ancient Egyptians 4000 years ago used electric fish to stimulate and reduce pain.
The Matrix-style learning could become a reality
“Even Ben Franklin applied currents to his head, but the rigorous, scientific investigation of these methods started in the early 2000s and we’re building on that research to target and personalise a stimulation in the most effective way possible.
“Your brain is going to be very different to my brain when we perform a task. What we found is … brain stimulation seems to be particularly effective at actually improving learning.”
DNA computers can create more storage as-needed through self-replication, and their computing potential is almost unfathomable.
Scientists know how to code information into DNA, but it costs $12,500 to code a single megabyte of information.
DNA: THE BLUEPRINT OF COMPUTERS?
Computers have without a doubt revolutionized modern society. They’re everywhere: our offices and homes, our pockets — even in our kitchen appliances. As for the next place computer technology could be headed, you already have the basic component: your DNA. It sounds strange, but researchers at the University of Manchester are working on turning strands of DNA into the next basis for computing.
Scientists have actually created a DNA-based computing device that “grows as it computes.” While our current computers have a finite capacity for computations, DNA computers could be designed to self-replicate, making them able to create more storage as-needed. Computers today have gradually worked up to being able to hold a few terabytes — but DNA computing can work at 100 billion terabytes. To top it off, all of that storage is guaranteed with just one gram of DNA. While that’s impressive enough on its own, storage isn’t the only benefit a DNA computer can provide.
With a self-replicating computer, there’s also the advantage of instantaneous computing power. In an interview with Popular Mechanics, lead researcher Professor Ross D King illustrated a maze with two paths — one leading left and the other leading right. He explained that current “Electronic computers need to choose which path to follow first.” On the other hand, a DNA computer “doesn’t need to choose, for it can replicate itself and follow both paths at the same time, thus finding the answer faster.”
WHAT’S THE CATCH?
While there are pioneering companies and individuals working on perfecting the system, at the moment coding just 1 megabyte of information into DNA costs $12,500. Most information we own contains thousands of megabytes, making encoding information a particularly expensive endeavor to undertake.
Ready to fly, drive and take the train to work? Airbus and Italdesign have taken the wraps off an incredible pod design that combines all three into the last vehicle you could ever need. The Pop.up system is a concept that combines artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and Hyperloop into a futuristic machine designed to traverse cities at speed.
“Adding the third dimension to seamless multi-modal transportation networks will without a doubt improve the way we live and how we get from A to B,” said Mathias Thomsen, general manager for urban air mobility at Airbus, at the vehicle’s world premiere during the 87th Geneva International Motor Show on Tuesday.
At its core, the vehicle consists of a monocoque carbon-fiber pod with two seats, measuring 8.5 feet by 4.9 feet, standing 4.6 feet tall. The pod couples on the base with a four-wheel ground module for driving, but in certain situations, an air module will connect to the roof. The module, measuring 16.4 feet by 14.4 feet, has eight counter-rotating rotors that can propel it through the air at around 60 miles per hour. It can also drive at 60 miles per hour. Both the air module and the ground module take about 15 minutes to charge — the ground module has an 80-mile range, and the air module can go 60, without a payload. Airbus doesn’t state how far the air module can travel with passengers on board.
Passengers will use an app to call a ride, the system will choose the best module for the occasion, and the whole pod will work out the best way to drive itself. Artificial intelligence is used to make the experience as seamless as possible, for example by choosing the air module to avoid traffic congestion in major cities. An augmented reality overlay provides details about sights throughout the city, allowing users to give their opinion on city proposals and accept event invites. At the end of the trip, the components all return themselves to a charging station for the next user.
The batteries located inside the modules link up to the pod and share charge.
The modular system allows for integration with other forms of publicly-available transit, with Airbus naming Hyperloop as one example. Elon Musk’s design for a 700 mile per hour vacuum-sealed train has captured the imaginations of city and vehicle designers, and Pop.Up’s creators are no exception.
“[The] passenger pod concept envisaged by Hyperloop could intuitively integrate well with Pop.Up,” an Airbus spokesperson tells Inverse. “For instance, the last mile to and from Hyperloop stations could be transported with the Pop.Up air module.”
It’s not the first company to explore this idea. Hyperloop One, a company aiming to bring the train system to reality, has also described a system where self-driving cars can link up with the network, drive into the nearest Hyperloop portal and cut transit times dramatically. An Airbus spokesperson tells Inverse that the company does not yet have any direct contact with Hyperloop firms, but that it is open to exploring opportunities.
As for when you’ll be able to try one of these, Airbus has no current plans to bring the vehicle to market, but believes a vehicle similar to the concept could debut somewhere in the 2024 to 2027 range.
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This House Was 3D Printed in Less Than 24 Hours
This House Was 3D Printed in Less Than 24 Hours
By Kacey Deamer, Staff Writer
The first demonstration of the 3D printing technology is a cozy, 400-square-foot (37 square meters) home with an unusual, curved shape.
Credit: Apis Cor
A new house has been erected in a town outside Moscow, but this home was not built in the traditional sense — it was constructed with 3D printing.
The first 3D-printed residential home, engineered by the tech startup Apis Cor, took less than a day to construct and cost under $11,000 to complete. A mobile 3D printer created the building's concrete walls and partitions as a fully connected structure, rather than printing the building in panels at an off-site facility as is usually done, the company said. The portable machine was then removed from the building, and a group of contractors completed the home — adding the roof and windows, and finishing the interior.
"We want to help people around the world to improve their living conditions," Nikita Chen-yun-tai, Apis Cor's founder and inventor of the mobile printer, said on the company's website. "That's why the construction process needs to become fast, efficient and high-quality as well. For this to happen, we need to delegate all the hard work to smart machines."
The first example of this work is a cozy, 400-square-foot (37 square meters) home with an unusual, curved shape. The curved design of the home was chosen to demonstrate the 3D printer's ability to print the construction material in any shape, according to Apis Cor.
Inside, the 3D-printed home has all of the standard features of a traditionally built house. The studio-style dwelling has a hall, bathroom, living room and compact kitchen. Apis Cor partnered with Samsung on the demonstration house; the electronics giant provided the home's appliances, including a TV with the same curvature as the living-room wall.
Apis Cor estimated that the total cost of the demonstration house's construction was about $25 per square foot, or $275 per square meter. Of the total $10,134 it cost to build the home, the windows and doors were the most expensive components, the company said.
While the total construction savings of the demonstation house compared to a tranditional home are difficult to estimate, Apis Cor representatives said in a statement that savings from 3D printing the building walls are guaranteed.
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07-03-2017
What You Need To Know About Artificial Intelligence
What You Need To Know About Artificial Intelligence
“We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.” – Ray Amara
It’s hard to know what to think about Artificial Intelligence. Almost everyone in the industry believes it to be a revolution as deep and as fundamental as the industrial revolution or the birth of the computer. Yet the field seems divided over when we will get to general intelligence and what that will ultimately mean for us. Some believe it will be our greatest tool yet and others that it may lead to our doom.
The most important subset of AI is machine learning. A field which made big breakthroughs in the latter half of the 20th century but then lay dormant waiting for the processing power of computers to catch up with the demands that machine learning algorithms placed on them.
A key driver behind machine learning is the rise of big data. In 1992 we collectively produced 100 GB of data per day, by 2018 we will be producing 50,000 GB of data per second. Data is permeating into every aspect of life and there is too much out there for any person, or any group of people, to be able to parse. Machine learning is helping us organize and make sense of these mountains of data.
For an introduction to the nuts and bolts of machine learning watch this…
The People behind AI
With all the talk surrounding AI it can be easy to forget that this is still a human driven endeavor. People are behind all of the progress that has been made and are still (for now) doing all of the leg work. So to get some idea of where it is going it is probably best to listen to those driving it forward. Here are some of the most influential figures in the field and their takes on where machine learning will go.
Geoffrey Hinton
For a long time Geoffrey Hinton toiled away in relative obscurity developing his machine learning algorithms. His seminal papers on neural networks were scoffed at for decades, thought by many to never be able to work. Today his theories have become the framework upon which much of machine learning is based.
He was one of the first to apply the study of human cognition to machines believing that the only way we were going to recreate intelligence was by trying to mimic the only other intelligent machine we knew of, our brains. Now almost all machine learning experts have some background in cognitive science thanks in large parts to his pioneering approach.
He is also notable for some of the people that came out of his labs, the teams at Google and Microsoft and Baidu are filled with his former students. Two of his most notable disciples are Yann Lecun and Hugo Larochelle who have become world renowned machine learning experts in their own right.
Here he is explaining how neural networks do what they do…
Andrew Ng
Andrew Ng is a professor at Stanford and the chief scientist at Baidu. While he was getting his start in the field he supposedly was the one who convinced Larry Page that Google needed to start working on AI.
He has become equally important in his role as a public educator. He is a strong advocate for democratizing knowledge about machine learning and made his course at Stanford free and open to the public in an attempt to do so.
He believes AI to be the modern day equivalent of electricity. At first electricity was just used to power light bulbs but soon people realized they could apply it to other things and before long nearly everything was hooked up to an electric power source.
He extends the analogy to the internet and its widespread adoption. It changed the way we do business, became our primary method of communicating, and it has seeped into our personal lives as most people now view their social media as extensions of their identity.
Andrew’s contention is that the adoption of AI will be much faster, more pervasive and have a greater impact than either electricity or the internet.
Michael Jordan
Hard to believe but this Michael Jordan might actually go down in history as the more famous one. His biggest contribution was the popularization of Bayesian networks which are used in a wide variety of machine learning applications, most notably in medicine as it seems to be a particularly good method for matching symptoms to diseases.
He recently teamed with an AI firm developing Jibo, a cute helper robot designed to follow you around the house and actually initiate communication with the user rather than the current models that just wait for user commands.
But he believes there is far too much hype surrounding AI. This is due in large part to a lot of misinformation and poor metaphors we use when describing it. We have made incremental steps, but have only begun to climb the ladder. The next big hurdle will be in developing more adaptive systems that recognize context.
Ben Goertzel
Founder of multiple artificial intelligence companies and chairman of the artificial general intelligence society, Ben Goertzel has devoted his life to solving intelligence and bringing about artificial general intelligence. He believes we will have machines as intelligent as humans by 2025. For more on his work check out this tour of his lab in Hong Kong where his team is working to bring human looking robots to life…
Demis Hassabis
As head of arguably the most advanced artificial intelligence lab in the world, Google’s Deepmind, Demis may be closer than anyone else to achieving AGI. He is a strong believer in a machine learning technique called deep neural networks and uses it to drive his groundbreaking program AlphaGo.
Last year AlphaGo proved itself to be the world’s best Go player, a feat many in the field believed was still years away from being possible. The next step for AlphaGo is to become the world’s best Starcraft player. These feats may seem trivial at first but games are a key measure of intellectual ability.
Martin Ford
As his latest book title Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future implies, he is a staunch proponent of the idea that human labor is going to be replaced. He also predicted way back in 2009 that Artificial Intelligence would bring with it the end of the capitalist system as we know it and force us to adopt a form of universal basic income. However he points out that these forces would be largely beneficial for mankind as they would free us from much of the drudgery of daily life and allow us to pursue the things that truly make us happy.
Gary Marcus
One of the world’s leading neuroscientists and recent co-author of The Future of the Brain. He comes at the field from primarily a cognitive science background and is interested in it because it is essentially an exploration into the nature of consciousness and intelligence.
His belief is that narrow AI, in which a machine learns how to do one specific task very well, such as playing a game or driving a car, will continue to develop and expand into many aspects of life. However we are no where close to getting to the holy grail that is general purpose intelligence, an AI that can be applied to any problem.
Next steps for AI
The real breakthrough in AI will not be when it starts driving our cars or taking some of our jobs, those are already inevitable. The real barriers still to be crossed are…
1) Passing the Turing test. This will happen when in spoken or written conversation you can’t tell whether it is a human or a machine. We will know we are on the way when our machines start conversations with us rather than just responding to us.
2) It starts taking actions independently without any human input. This would eventually include setting its own goals which would in essence mean having an independent will.
3) It starts questioning its own existence and wondering if there aren’t better ways get things done.
This is the most important issue we will face in the 21st century. The people developing it are not going to stop to wait and see what we think about it. Rather than spending our time bickering about politics we should be planning how to bring AI along safely as it will change everything and redefine life on earth.
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06-03-2017
Scientists Have Turned Cooking Oil Into a Material 200 Times Stronger Than Steel
Scientists Have Turned Cooking Oil Into a Material 200 Times Stronger Than Steel
UCL Mathematical and Physical Sciences
IN BRIEF
Researchers have discovered a way to make soybean oil into the super-strong material graphene. The material has a wide variety of potential uses and can revolutionize electronics.
The material could be used to make cell phone batteries last 25 percent longer, make more effective solar cells, and even filter fuel out of air.
DEEP FRIED HIGH-TECH
Researchers have found a way to turn cheap, everyday cooking oil into the wonder material graphene – a technique that could greatly reduce the cost of making the much-touted nanomaterial.
Graphene is a single sheet of carbon atoms with incredible properties – it’s 200 times stronger than steel, harder than diamond, and incredibly flexible. Under certain conditions, it can even be turned into a superconductor that carries electricity with zero resistance.
That means the material has the potential to make better electronics, more effective solar cells, and could even be used in medicine.
But these applications have been limited by the fact that graphene usually has to be made in a vacuum at intense heat using purified ingredients, which makes it expensive to produce.
Until we can find a cost-effective way to mass produce the over-achieving material, it’s pretty much limited to labs.
But scientists in Australia have now managed to create graphene in normal air conditions, using cheap soybean cooking oil.
“This ambient-air process for graphene fabrication is fast, simple, safe, potentially scalable, and integration-friendly,” said one of the researchers, Zhao Jun Han from Australia’s CSIRO.
“Our unique technology is expected to reduce the cost of graphene production and improve the uptake in new applications.”
The team has called the new technique ‘GraphAir’ technology, and it involves heating soybean oil in a tube furnace for about 30 minutes, causing it to decompose into carbon building blocks.
This carbon is then rapidly cooled on a foil made of nickel, where it diffuses into a thin rectangle of graphene that’s just 1 nanometre thick (about 80,000 times thinner than a human hair).
Not only is this technique cheaper and easier than other methods, it’s also a lot quicker – to create graphene in a vacuum takes several hours.
Not only that, but it offers a more sustainable option for recycling waste cooking oil.
“We can now recycle waste oils that would have otherwise been discarded and transform them into something useful,” said one of the team, Dong Han Seo.
The question now is whether this new technique can be scaled up – finding a cheaper way to make graphene is awesome, but the graphene film produced so far was only 5 cm (1.9 inches) by 2 cm (0.8 inches) in size.
The team says that the largest film they can make using the technique right now is around the size of a credit card.
To really make graphene fit for commercial use, researchers will need to produce films that are a whole lot larger than that.
“The potential’s enormous,” David Officer, a graphene expert from the University of Wollongong in Australia, who wasn’t involved in the study, told the ABC.
“[But] the question will be whether you can economically scale a method like this, where they’ve sealed it inside a furnace tube, to create and handle metre-sized films.”
The team is now looking for commercial partners to pursue this goal.
But they’re not the only researchers working on it – last week, a team from Kansas State University patented a simple technique that creates graphene using only hydrocarbon gas, oxygen, and a spark plug. No vacuum required.
Time will tell if they can use it to effectively make large films of graphene in one go, but it’s nice to know that researchers around the world are working on finding a way to take this incredible material out of the lab and into our lives.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
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