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Construction starts at the world’s largest hydrogen pilot plant

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An EU-funded flagship project, the H2FUTURE project consortium, has officially given the go-ahead for construction of the world’s largest pilot plant for the production of “green” hydrogen at the Voestalpine site in Linz, Austria.

With a capacity of 6 megawatts, this is the most effective and advanced plant of its type. It is scheduled to be fully operational by spring 2019.

The partners,  consisting of Voestalpine, Siemens, Verbund, and Austrian Power Grid, together with the research partners K1-MET and ECN, will use this facility to research into future breakthrough technologies which are needed for a CO2-reduced energy future and the decarbonization of steel production to meet global climate goals over the long-term.

[Read more…] about Construction starts at the world’s largest hydrogen pilot plant

Swiss students through to finals of Elon Musk’s Hyperloop competition

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ETH Zurich students are through to the next round of US entrepreneur Elon Musk’s SpaceX Hyperloop competition in Summer 2018 with their ‘Swissloop’ concept, against thousands of other teams.

Hyperloop is about moving pods through a vacuumed-sealed tube, transferring the tubular mail idea to passenger transport as a precursor to fast travel, and the competition is to design the best system.

The Hyperloop concept is based on vacuum technology: the vacuum tunnel massively reduces air resistance and thus enables smooth driving at speeds of up to 1,000 kilometers per hour.

[Read more…] about Swiss students through to finals of Elon Musk’s Hyperloop competition

Energy-harvesting power cells set to solve IoT sensor battery problem

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A solution could be at hand for a technology barrier that experts say has been the primary problem limiting the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT): the need to provide batteries for IoT sensors.

The solution is a patented energy-harvesting technology – the Evercell power cell – that is capable of powering wireless IoT sensors without batteries.

BRIDG, an industry-led public-private partnership for advanced technologies and manufacturing processes, is collaborating with Face International Corporation in the development and integration of the power cell.

[Read more…] about Energy-harvesting power cells set to solve IoT sensor battery problem

Microsoft and partners lay superfast subsea cable across Atlantic

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There’s not many things more fascinating in today’s high-tech world than subsea cables.

In and of themselves, in principle, they’re just cables. But also in and of themselves they are highly sophisticated and powerful pieces of equipment.

And the sheer magnitude of the engineering involved in laying them undersea across oceans and connecting continents is arguably a wonder of the modern world.  [Read more…] about Microsoft and partners lay superfast subsea cable across Atlantic

Sugar’s ‘tipping point’ link to Alzheimer’s disease revealed

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sugar cubes

For the first time a “tipping point” molecular link between the blood sugar glucose and Alzheimer’s disease has been established by scientists, who have shown that excess glucose damages a vital enzyme involved with inflammation response to the early stages of Alzheimer’s.

Abnormally high blood sugar levels, or hyperglycaemia, is well-known as a characteristic of diabetes and obesity, but its link to Alzheimer’s disease is less familiar.

Diabetes patients have an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease compared to healthy individuals. In Alzheimer’s disease abnormal proteins aggregate to form plaques and tangles in the brain which progressively damage the brain and lead to severe cognitive decline. [Read more…] about Sugar’s ‘tipping point’ link to Alzheimer’s disease revealed

New findings highlight promise of chimeric organisms for science and medicine

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cell

Rapid advances in the ability to grow cells, tissues and organs of one species within an organism of a different species offer an unprecedented opportunity for tackling longstanding scientific mysteries and addressing pressing human health problems, particularly the need for transplantable organs and tissues.

In a tour de force paper published in the January 26, 2017, issue of the journal Cell, scientists at the Salk Institute report breakthroughs on multiple fronts in the race to integrate stem cells from one species into the early-stage development of another. [Read more…] about New findings highlight promise of chimeric organisms for science and medicine

Breakthrough by Exeter cell biologists

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organelles

Scientists have made a breakthrough in understanding how different compartments (or organelles) of human cells interact.

Organelles are the functional units of a cell. Like organs in a body, they perform specialised functions. To allow survival of the cell, organelles have to interact and cooperate. How this is mediated and regulated in the cell is an important and challenging question in cell biology. [Read more…] about Breakthrough by Exeter cell biologists

New model predicts once-mysterious chemical reactions

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radiation from hydrogen

A team of researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory and Curtin University in Australia developed a theoretical model to forecast the fundamental chemical reactions involving molecular hydrogen (H2), which after many decades and attempts by scientists had remained largely unpredicted and unsolved

“Chemical reactions are the basis of life so predicting what happens during these reactions is of great importance to science and has major implications in innovation, industry and medicine,” said Mark Zammit, a post-doctorate fellow in the Physics and Chemistry of Materials group at Los Alamos National Laboratory. “Our model is the first to very accurately calculate the probability of fundamental electron-molecular hydrogen reactions.” [Read more…] about New model predicts once-mysterious chemical reactions

Scientists develop genetic path to tastier tomatoes

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tomatoes
Picture credit: UF/IFAS

Some consumers crave tastier tomatoes than those available at the supermarket.

Now, scientists at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) and their partners have found a way to get tomatoes to produce the compounds that make them more flavorful.

Their findings were published today in the journal Science. [Read more…] about Scientists develop genetic path to tastier tomatoes

Metallic hydrogen, once theory, becomes reality: Harvard physicists succeed in creating ‘the holy grail of high-pressure physics’

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metallic hydrogen

The material – atomic metallic hydrogen – was created by Thomas D. Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences Isaac Silvera and post-doctoral fellow Ranga Dias. In addition to helping scientists answer fundamental questions about the nature of matter, the material is theorized to have a wide range of applications, including as a room-temperature superconductor. The creation of the rare material is described in a January 26 paper published in Science.

“This is the holy grail of high-pressure physics,” Silvera said. “It’s the first-ever sample of metallic hydrogen on Earth, so when you’re looking at it, you’re looking at something that’s never existed before.” [Read more…] about Metallic hydrogen, once theory, becomes reality: Harvard physicists succeed in creating ‘the holy grail of high-pressure physics’