SpaceX provides clear photos of the Falcon Heavy on the launch pad. More photos of Falcon Heavy on the launch pad → https://t.co/095WHX44BX pic.twitter.com/Z5aE1BUFSt — SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 3, 2018 Brian WangBrian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 …
A Reddit contributor has a graphic showing several major achievements that SpaceX could complete in 2018. The crewed mission could be delayed into 2019 and the two tourists going round the moon will be in 2019 or later. The Boca Chica launch site will probably not be completed until 2020. The Big Falcon Spaceship would …
Japan Tsubame, Super Low Altitude Test Satellite, is a JAXA satellite intended to demonstrate operations in very low Earth orbit (below 200 km), using ion engines to cancel out aerodynamic drag and equipped with sensors to determine atomic oxygen density, an exposure facility to measure material degradation in the 200 km orbit, and a small …
Using two types of “designer” quantum dots, researchers are creating double-pane solar windows that generate electricity with greater efficiency and create shading and insulation for good measure. It’s all made possible by a new window architecture which utilizes two different layers of low-cost quantum dots tuned to absorb different parts of the solar spectrum. Above …
The hunt for high temperature superconductivity has been reinvigorated by the experimental discovery that compressed H2S exhibits a Tc of up to 203K at megabar pressures (1Mbar=100GPa). A collaboration between the University of Cambridge and Jilin University has published the results of a computational search for materials that might superconduct at even higher temperatures. An …
The drop in poverty from the 1980s to present was mainly driven by just two countries: China and India. The statistics for China are especially mind-blowing: In 1981, a staggering 88 percent of Chinese were extremely poor, but by 2013 that figure had dropped, incredibly, to just 2 percent. India’s figures, though not as drastic, …
US Army researchers are using fillers to bridge the gap in damaged bones, hoping to figuratively bridge the gap between current regenerative techniques and the ideal: people regrowing lost limbs. Stephanie Shiels with the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, talked about her research to develop a synthetic bone gap filler …
The birthplace of the photonics revolution may well be named after lithium niobate. While, Lithium Niobate Valley doesn’t have the same ring as Silicon Valley, this material could be for optics what silicon was for electronics. Lithium niobate is already one of the most widely used optical materials, well-known for its electro-optic properties, meaning it …
The Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) has developed the first single lens that can focus the entire visible spectrum of light — including white light — in the same spot and in high resolution. This has only ever been achieved in conventional lenses by stacking multiple lenses. * Metalenses are thin, easy …
A new Tel Aviv University study pinpoints the inverse correlation between a known oncogene — a gene that promotes the development of cancer — and the expression of an oncosuppressor microRNA as the reason for extended pancreatic cancer survival. The study may serve as a basis for the development of an effective cocktail of drugs …
Russia’s latest nuclear power reactor, Rostov 4, reached criticality and minimum controlled power on 29 December, 2017. It is Russia’s 36th reactor in a fleet that meets about 18% of the country’s electricity demand. Four 1000 MWe VVER pressurized water reactors have been planned at the Rostov site since the early 1980s. Construction of units …