TT01 – New class of materials may make for Lithium Ion batteries that can charge in minutes, rather than hours. Like how you can fill up your gas tank in minutes, rather than hours. Unless you are at the Costco gas station on a Saturday.
TT02 – Another day, another new way to make better batteries, and another bit about 3D printing. But wow, that is a seriously small print head.
TT03 – Another day, another new way to use graphene and lasers to improve a battery (Sodium Ion, this time). Who remembers the good old days when the big news in batteries was Ni-Cad rechargeables?
TT04 – OK, this makes a ridiculous amount of sense. UPS is testing out electric delivery trucks. The kind of delivery work that UPS, FedEx, etc. do is perfect for electric vehicles. Gas and Diesel engines just do not like have to restart over and over again (OK, it’s not as hard on a warm engine, and we’ve gotten a lot better at that part of the design, which is why cars now come with idle shut down features, but it’s still hard on the engine). Electric motors just don’t care. Obviously this will be just for urban and suburban deliveries, as it just won’t have the range for getting out to the boonies, but then the boonies aren’t as concerned with the pollution and noise of idling vehicles.
TT05 – Growing Alzheimer’s in a dish to look for treatments.
TT06 – I am not even going to pretend I understand what they are doing here, but it’s a novel approach to optical computing and deep learning, so I’m putting it up.
TT07 – Aaron W. brought this to my attention, but the link he sent me went to a page that was so loaded with ads and videos that by the time it finally loaded, I had to shave my head again. However, it was interesting, so I poked around a bit and here are some less than annoying links about Positron/Electron Antimatter Reaction Engines. Yes, NASA is aware of it and interested.
TT08 – Astronomers detect a noisy rogue brown dwarf. This is not the back cover description of a pulp scifi/fantasy novel.
TT09 – The famous wrestling move meets cancer treatment.
TT10 – Honestly, this should always have been the first GMO modification worked on.
TT11 – Yeah, this was just a matter of time…
TT12 – Anti-aging drugs?
TT13 – A new spin on a re-entry heat shield.
TT14 – A wearable gill, for when your city is partially submerged by rising sea levels.
TT15 – NASA’s ‘Tipping Point’ technologies, and the six companies who are getting awards to move those technologies forward.
TT16 – Robotic skin that makes your skin look numb in comparison.
TT17 – Keeping things cold without letting them freeze.
TT00 – Urban overlay maps showing the past and the present of major US cities.
TT000 – JPL releases plans for an open source, erector set Mars rover.
Another treasure trove of great tech links. Thanks!
There is so much happening in development for space exploration now. I don’t know how much will come to fruition, but as with the original space program there are bound to be any number of unexpected spin-offs that change our world.
Also, I am giving the Mars rover link to my robotics inclined son. He should have fun with that.Report
TT000 – Why can’t we send an erector-set-building robot to Mars with all the pieces it’d need to create different rovers as needed? What about a 3-D printer?Report
That’s a longer term goal, but neither the robotics nor 3D printing tech is quite there yet.
Easier to send a base unit with a small legion of turnkey drones than the have a base unit with th complexity to assemble the drones on site.
And 3D printers need material to print, which it has to bring with or source on site.
Either way, the probe would be massive (relatively so) and hard to get into orbit, much less send to Mars. Now if we had a very low cost way to put everything we need in orbit and assemble it up there…Report
“So there’s something coming out of the spacecraft, it looks like, yes, yes it’s turnkey drones!
Oh-oh, something’s wrong, they’re falling out of orbit and smashing to the ground! People are running around in panic!
Oh, the humanity!”
—-
“As God is my witness, I thought turnkeys could fly.”Report
superb….Report
Bravo!Report
I just know that somewhere in this there’s a practical application.Report
Preloading.Report
Good news. (Like, said non-sarcastically.)
The FDA has approved the first generic version of the EpiPen.
(We argued about this sort of thing way back when.)Report