Tuesday 26 August 2014

To bolster lithium battery life, add a little salt

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Cornell chemical engineers have achieved a breakthrough in the race for  safer, longer-lasting batteries to power the world’s automobiles, cell phones, computers and autonomous robots. Adding certain halide salts to liquid electrolytes spontaneously creates nanostructured surface coatings on a lithium battery anode that hinder the development of detrimental dendritic structures that grow within the battery cell. The discovery opens the way potentially to extend the daily cycle life of a rechargeable lithium battery by up to a factor of 10. The so-called dendrite problem has been troubling lithium battery technology for years. Over several charge/discharge cycles, microscopic particles called dendrites form on the electrode surface and spread, causing short circuits and rapid overheating. “We had conflicting insight from two theories under development in the group and by theorists in the Cornell physics department, which suggested that a nanostructured metal halide coating on the anode could help a little – or a lot – in controlling the formation of dendrites. As it turns out, they work spectacularly well in solving what is widely considered a grand-challenge problem in the field,” said Lynden Archer, the William C. Hooey Director and Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Archer is senior author on the

The post To bolster lithium battery life, add a little salt has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Eta Carinae: Our Neighboring Superstars

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(Phys.org) —The Eta Carinae star system does not lack for superlatives. Not only does it contain one of the biggest and brightest stars in our galaxy, weighing at least 90 times the mass of the Sun, it is also extremely volatile and is expected to have at least one supernova explosion in the future.



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Do we live in a 2-D hologram? Experiment will test the nature of the universe

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A unique experiment called the Holometer has started collecting data that will answer some mind-bending questions about our universe -- including whether we live in a hologram.

via Science Daily

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Best view yet of merging galaxies in distant universe

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Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, and other telescopes, an international team of astronomers has obtained the best view yet of a collision that took place between two galaxies when the Universe was half its current age. They enlisted the help of a galaxy-sized magnifying glass to reveal otherwise invisible detail. These studies of the galaxy H-ATLAS J142935.3-002836 have shown that this complex distant object looks like the local galaxy collision, the Antennae Galaxies.



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5 delightful science experiments from 100 years ago

Science Focus

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In 1892, the dubiously named Mr. Tom Tit published a book of at-home activities for children called Magical Experiments: or, Science in Play. He made sure each scientific exploration could double as a parlor trick; something exciting and strange to impress as well as instruct.

Some of his experiments are all but impossible to do today (even if you can find spermaceti candles, you really shouldn't use them), and some of his once common ingredients haven't been available at drug stores for decades. But that doesn't mean you can't do them. If the product still exists, you can find it online. This...

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 » see original post http://theweek.com/article/index/265916/5-delightful-science-experiments-from-100-years-ago
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VIDEO: Tech activity 'overtakes sleeping'

Science Focus

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Britons spend more time online and using media devices than they do sleeping according to an annual Ofcom report. 
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 » see original post http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28685572#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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This German hospital is ready for an Ebola outbreak

Science Focus

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The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has claimed more than 1,000 lives since it first appeared in March, making it one of the worst in history. Because it is the first major outbreak in the region, health care workers were ill prepared to contain the virus and protect themselves and others, allowing the disease to spread quickly.

But hospitals all over the world are stepping up their game in preparation, should the virus jump continents. The Charité hospital in Berlin has the largest isolation unit in Germany and can handle up to 20 patients suffering from highly infectious diseases.

Recently...

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 » see original post http://theweek.com/article/index/266274/this-german-hospital-is-ready-for-an-ebola-outbreak
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Flying Past Neptune's Moon Triton

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Of Metal Heads and Imaging: Unique Molecular Probes for the Study of Metals in the Brain

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You don’t have to listen to heavy-metal music to be a metal head. The human brain harbors far more copper, iron and zinc than anywhere else in the body. Abnormally high levels of these metals can lead to disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Chris Chang, a faculty chemist with Berkeley Lab’s Chemical Sciences Division, has spent the past several years developing new probes and techniques for imaging the molecular activity of these metals in the brain. Speaking at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in San Francisco, he discussed challenges and recent achievements in this area of research. “Brain physiology relies on unique inorganic chemistry not found elsewhere in the body,” Chang said. “Although it accounts for only two-percent of total body mass, it is the body’s most oxidatively active organ, consuming more than 20 percent of the oxygen we breathe. This high oxygen intake combined with the brain’s high content of copper and iron can lead to oxidative damage and subsequent neuronal death when levels of these redox-active metals rise and become misregulated.” Chang, who also holds faculty appointments with the University of California (UC) Berkeley’s Chemistry Department and is an investigator with the

The post Of Metal Heads and Imaging: Unique Molecular Probes for the Study of Metals in the Brain has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Water droplets - beaded star formation

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Water droplets - beaded star formation
Just like fractals form the same patterns at every scale, so the laws of physics do the same.
Big fleas have little fleas, upon their backs to bite 'em and little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum

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attached video

 » see original post https://plus.google.com/116000959328274308893/posts/GF2smE3ptFo
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World's first ZigBee-based inter-satellite comms system

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Engineers have successfully piloted the world's first ZigBee-based inter-satellite communication system. Designed to evaluate the performance of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in space, the experiment marks a breakthrough in aeronautical engineering.

via Science Daily

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