There are advances being made almost daily in the disciplines required to make space and its contents accessible. This blog brings together a lot of that info, as it is reported, tracking the small steps into space that will make it just another place we carry out normal human economic, leisure and living activities.
Wednesday, 3 February 2016
App Smart: An Expanding Universe of Space Apps
While becoming an astronaut is out of reach for most of us, there are plenty of apps that can take your mind on a journey to the final frontier.
via New York Times
Helping turn waste heat into electricity
At the atomic level, bismuth displays a number of quirky physical phenomena. A new study reveals a novel mechanism for controlling the energy transfer between electrons and the bismuth crystal lattice. Mastering this effect could, ultimately, help convert waste heat back into electricity, for example to improve the overall efficiency of solar cells.
via Science Daily
New study challenges Jupiter's role as planetary shield, protecting Earth from comet impacts
Not only is the 'Jupiter as shield' concept, implying that the planet shields Earth from comet impacts, not true, but perhaps Jupiter's most important role in fostering the development of life on Earth was just the opposite -- delivering the volatile materials from the outer Solar System needed for life to form. This new simulation study, and the previously underestimated role that Saturn may have also played in the evolution of life on Earth.
via Science Daily
Zazzle Space Exploration market place
Galactic center's gamma rays unlikely to originate from dark matter, evidence shows
Studies by two independent groups from the US and the Netherlands have found that gamma ray signals from the inner galaxy come from a new source rather than from the collision of dark matter particles. The new source is likely to be rapidly rotating pulsars, rather than the as-yet undetected invisible dark matter particles thought to make up 85 percent of the mass in the Universe.
via Science Daily
Zazzle Space Exploration market place
Jeehwan Kim joins Graphenea Scientific Advisory Board
Graphenea is proud to announce Prof. Jeehwan Kim as a new member of the Scientific Advisory Board. Professor Kim will offer his expertise on graphene growth and transfer.
Since 2015 Assistant Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Kim was a research staff member at IBM for eight years prior to that. At MIT he was engaged in growth of thin films, including graphene, and their various applications in optoelectronics. In the graphene community, he is most famous for his growth and transfer of GaN films on graphene for LED applications and first demonstration of wafer-scale single-crystalline graphene. Kim received IBM’s “Master Inventor” award in 2012. He was awarded 40 times in total at IBM for his inventions and patents.
Photo: Professor Kim.
With interest in nanoscale thin film flexible electronics, graphene-based layer transfer, and advanced photovoltaics and optoelectronics, Prof. Kim will advise our staff on these advanced, high-technology applications of graphene. We welcome Prof. Kim on board!
via Graphenea