Mini Generator Cheaply Converts Heat Into Electricity

 The laws of thermodynamics don’t allow us to urge something out of nothing. Whenever you spend energy, you have got waste, more often than not as heat. Trying to “recycle” a number of that heat has been a goal for a protracted time. Now researchers have developed a brand new approach that may use for tiny devices like remote sensors or wearable tech. the event is reported in Nature.

Researchers from the University of Tokyo have designed a skinny iron-based thermoelectric generator that converts heat into electricity and may power a tool with low-energy demands. The newly announced generator employs iron and either aluminum or gallium. this can be advantageous for 3 reasons: the metals are non-toxic, the fabric is molded into many alternative shapes, and therefore the elements are quite common, making its products affordable.

"So far, all the study on thermoelectric generation has focused on the established but limited Seebeck effect," senior author Professor Satoru Nakatsuji said in a very statement. "In contrast, we focused on a comparatively less familiar phenomenon called the anomalous Nernst effect (ANE)."

The ANE allowed the team to come up with a current perpendicular to the gradient, instead of parallel. this can be advantageous joined can shape the mini generators in ways in which make them ideal for wearable tech. In both ANE and Seebeck effect scenarios, the generator is placed between a hot and a chilly body, but there's a key difference. Just imagine the generator on your skin for example: When your body radiates heat out, this produces a current. within the Seebeck setup, this generated goes within the same direction because of the heat (it's pointing out), that the device must be of a particular thickness to form it worth its while. within the ANE setup, the present goes perpendicular to the warmth and moves parallel to the skin, which allows for the development of much thinner generators. Previous attempts to use ANE required toxic and/or expensive material, which is why it's not been a serious focus up to now.

Thermoelectric devices supported the anomalous Nernst effect (left) and therefore the Seebeck effect (right). (V) represents the direction of current, (T) the gradient, and (M) the magnetic flux. 2020 Sakai et al

"We made a fabric that's 75 percent iron and 25 percent aluminum (Fe3Al) or gallium (Fe3Ga) by a process called doping," lead author Dr. Akito Sakai explained. "This significantly boosted ANE. We saw a twentyfold jump in voltage compared to undoped samples, which was exciting to determine."

Designing new materials to require advantage of some quirky physical law is usually a laborious process of trial and error. Repeated iterations are necessary and often use materials initially too expensive and time-consuming to form on an outsized scale. The team took advantage of the newest powerful computer simulations for the design, allowing them to seek out the correct materials to check.

"Numerical calculations contributed greatly to our discovery; for instance, high-speed automatic calculations helped us find suitable materials to check," said Nakatsuji. "And first-principles calculations supported quantum physics shortcut the method of analyzing electronic structures we call nodal webs which are crucial for our experiments."

Physicists have discovered the ultimate speed limit of sound

 The universal regulation of any reasonably wave – be it electromagnetic or gravitational – travelling through a vacuum has been known since physicist developed his theory of Einstein's special theory of relativity in 1905. But the most speed of sound moving through a solid or a liquid has just been calculated for the primary time. it's about 36 kilometres per second, over 8000 times not up to the speed of sunshine during a vacuum.

To make this calculation, Kostya Trachenko at the Queen Mary University of London and his colleagues started with two well-known physical constants: the ratio of proton mass to the electron mass, and also the spectrum line constant, which characterises the strength of interactions between charged particles.

Trachenko says we've a fairly good idea of those values because if they were changed even touch, the universe wouldn’t observe all prefer it does. “If you modify these constants by some per cent, then the proton may not be stable anymore, and you would possibly not even have the processes in stars leading to the synthesis of heavy elements, so there would be no carbon, no life,” he says.

The sound may be a wave that propagates by making neighbouring particles interact with each other, so its speed depends on the density of cloth and the way the atoms within it are bound together. Atoms can only move so quickly, and also the speed of sound is restricted by that movement.

Trachenko and his colleagues used that fact together with the proton-electron mass ratio and therefore the spectrum line constant to calculate the most speed at which sound could theoretically travel in any liquid or solid: about 36 kilometres per second.

“The common wisdom was that diamond has the best speed of sound, because it's the toughest material, but we didn’t know whether there was a theoretical fundamental limit to that,” says Trachenko. The theoretical bound is about twice the speed of sound in a very diamond.

The speed of sound is additionally enthusiastic about the mass of the atoms within the material, therefore the researchers predicted that solid metallic hydrogen – a fabric that theoretically exists at the centre of giant planets, except for which laboratory evidence has been hotly contested – should have the best speed of sound. They calculated that it should be near the theoretical limit. They also checked out experimental data for 133 materials and located that none of them broke the limit.

However, Graeme Ackland at the University of Edinburgh within the UK says that it isn’t clear the calculations produce an ordinance. “You can use these fundamental constants to urge something with units of velocity, but I can’t quite see an honest fundamental reason for why it abounds. I’m not completely convinced.” He says that more work is critical to search out exactly how it applies to sound moving through heavier elements.

The Direct Fusion Drive That Could Get Us to Saturn in Just 2 Years

 Experts say the correct quite system could carry spacecraft to Saturn in barely two years. The direct fusion drive (DFD), an idea being developed by Princeton physical science Laboratory, would make extremely fast work of the nearly billion miles between Earth and Saturn.

Researchers there say the Princeton field reversed configuration-2 (PFRC-2) drive can be the key to feasible travel within our scheme.

The research team chose Saturn’s moon Titan as a perfect, well, moonshot. The #1 moon in our scheme encompasses a tidy sum of scientific interest due to its surface liquids, and also the undeniable fact that they’re hydrocarbons means Titan could even become a refueling waystation in some far-future space transportation.

Universe Today reports:

“[T]he engine itself exploits many of the benefits of aneutronic fusion, most notably a particularly high power-to-weight ratio,” a release reads. “The fuel for a DFD drive can vary slightly in mass and contains deuterium and a helium-3 isotope. Essentially, the DFD takes the wonderful specific impulse of electrical propulsion systems and combines it with the wonderful thrust of chemical rockets, for a mix that melds the simplest of both flight systems.”

In a way, this is often plenty like how hybrid consumer vehicles are designed. There are times when electricity provides the most effective, best push, and there are times when fossil fuels are still the foremost logical choice.

The PPPL direct fusion drive is being studied in two modes: one where it thrusts the complete time, and another where, sort of a Prius, it thrusts to induce up to hurry at the start only. The trip to Titan changes from about 2 years to about 2.5 reckonings on the mode.

the reactor itself is comparatively small because even a bigger spacecraft for our current imagination is way smaller than family homes or businesses on the bottom.

“DFD employs a singular plasma heating to provide fusion engines within the range of 1 to 10 MW, ideal for human solar-system exploration, robotic solar-system missions, and interstellar missions,” PPPL researchers wrote in 2019.

 The plasma inside is heated to performance temperatures by radio waves, and like other rocket engines broadly, the look is open on one end so as to get thrust as energy pushes out extremely rapidly.

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For now, this design, as Universe Today jokes about all of the nuclear fusion reaction, is about 30 years away. That’s because the subsequent good window to travel Saturn’s satellites is in 2046, giving scientists at PPPL a concrete timeframe additionally as a particular goal to figure toward.

And their DFD design has another major advantage: it may also power the ship’s internal systems.

That means propulsion and steering yet life support and research aboard the ship will all run on the identical energy-efficient drive.

It will still be decades before anyone travels to the moons of Saturn. But after they do, the achievement is going to be . . . Titanic.

Asteroid travelling at 40,000KM per hour to fly past Earth THIS WEEKEND

 

The space rock referred to as 2020 TK3 is functioning its way towards Earth's orbit. The asteroid will zoom past our planet on Saturday, October 17, coming almost as near Earth because the Moon is. in keeping with NASA, the asteroid will come within 1.3 lunar distances of Earth.

One lunar distance is that the space between our planet and also the Moon.

The asteroid will safely swing by Earth, before it makes its thanks to the orbits of the closer planets to the Sun - Mercury and Venus - before flying back out behind Earth so Mars.

Observations revealed that the asteroid is travelling at a staggering 11.1 kilometers per second.

This translates to almost 40,000 kilometers per hour, meaning it could get around Earth in almost exactly an hour.

However, the space rock could be a mere 11 meters in size which suggests that it doesn't pose a threat to Earth.

If it were to air a collision course with out planet - which it's not - it'd simply spend within the atmosphere, appearing as a fireball or a meteor.

Nonetheless, its close approach to our planet means NASA has designated 2020 TK3 as a near Earth object (NEO).

NASA has said: “NEOs are comets and asteroids that are nudged by the attraction of nearby planets into orbits that allow them to enter the Earth’s neighbourhood.

“The scientific interest in comets and asteroids is due largely to their status because the relatively unchanged remnant debris from the system formation process some 4.6 billion years ago.

“The giant outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) formed from an agglomeration of billions of comets and also the left over bits and pieces from this formation process are the comets we see today.

"Likewise, today’s asteroids are the bits and pieces left over from the initial agglomeration of the inner planets that include Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.

"As the primitive, leftover building blocks of the scheme formation process, comets and asteroids offer clues to the chemical mixture from which the planets formed some 4.6 billion years ago.

"If we wish to understand the composition of the primordial mixture from which the planets formed, then we must determine the chemical constituents of the leftover debris from this formation process - the comets and asteroids."

Quantum Tunneling Is So Quick It Could Be Instantaneous And Could Be Breaking The Speed Of Light

Among the strange features of quantum physics is that the phenomenon called quantum tunneling, where a particle overcomes a barrier that may be impassable in other types of physics. Generations of physics students are taught this phenomenon with analogies like objects passing through solid walls, but the time this process takes has always been a mystery. a brand new study has set an edge on the time it takes, one so short the method could also be instantaneous, during which case these particles would be exceeding the speed of sunshine.

Tunneling certainly happens so quickly it's hard to live. Recent efforts have used heavier atoms, necessitating indirect measurements. Dr. Igor Litvinyuk of Griffith University told IFLScience the Australian Attosecond Science Facility is that the only place within the world with all three kinds of equipment required to live the time it takes electrons to tunnel from the grip of hydrogen atoms.

Litvinyuk helped put that combination to use, reporting in Nature that the method takes no quite 1.8 attoseconds. An attosecond is 10-18 or a billionth of a second. “It’s hard to understand how short that's, but it takes an electron a couple of hundred attoseconds to orbit a nucleus in an atom,” said co-author Professor Robert Sang in an exceeding statement. 

Tunneling time sets a limit on how briskly transistors could theoretically switch, so having such a brief time makes ultra-fast computers more realistic.

rearealistic. 

Physicist: Universe May Be a “Strange Loop” of Self-Simulating Consciousness

 When it involves cosmology, astronomy, and physics, there's no shortage of off-the-wall arguments and hypotheses. While new discoveries from the first moments of the large Bang and quantum and high-energy physics still amaze us and fill within the gaps of our mysterious universe, there remains a shocking number of questions we still can’t answer.

The most fundamental of those questions revolve around “why anything” and “why consciousness.” Why is there anything here at all? What primal state of existence could have possibly birthed all that matter, energy, and time, all that everything? and the way did consciousness arise—is it some fundamental proto-state of the universe itself, or an emergent phenomenon that's purely neurochemical and material in nature?

A new physics hypothesis attempts to answer both questions at an identical time with a brand new spin on panpsychism that weds aspects of Nick Bostrom’s Simulation Argument with something called “timeless emergentism.” The hypothesis, outlined during a new paper by a team of researchers at the Quantum Gravity Research institute, is termed the “panpsychism self-simulation model,” and while the authors certainly aren’t earning any points for intellectual modesty, their idea could be capable of peacefully mapping a number of the universe’s most wild conundrums.

The first pieces of this puzzle you'll have already heard of: the Simulation Argument could be a pop-culture staple now, most famously popularized when Elon Musk claimed it’s way more likely that we live in an exceeding simulation created by a complicated intelligence. Then there's the age-old belief in panpsychism, which posits that the whole universe could be a form of plan conscious entity in which even ordinary matter is imbued with proto-consciousness.

The new argument gets to eliminate the middleman and suggests that pain consciousness itself is generating the simulations, not advanced aliens, which the universe is one giant “mental self-stimulation.”

The paper, titled “The Self-Simulation Hypothesis Interpretation of quantum physics,” says the physical universe may be a “strange loop” that may self-generate new sub-realities in an almost infinite hierarchy of tiers in-laid with simulated realities of conscious experience, quite a sort of a psychic Matryoshka doll.

You’re still left with the mystery of the physical origins of this self-generating consciousness, to which the researchers reply that the solution is truly non-material. The paper argues that universal consciousness “self-actualizes” employing a natural algorithm called “the principle of efficient language.”

In other words, the universe is creating itself through thought, willing itself into existence on a perpetual loop that efficiently uses all mathematics and fundamental particles at its disposal.

The universe, they say, was always here (timeless emergentism) and is like one grand thought that makes mini thoughts, called “code-steps or actions”, again sort of a Matryoshka doll.

Quantum Gravity physicist David Chester broke down some recent findings they feel bolster the argument: “While many scientists presume materialism to be true, we believe that quantum physics may provide hints that our reality could be a mental construct. Recent advances in quantum gravity, like seeing spacetime emergent via a hologram, is also a touch that spacetime isn't fundamental. this can be also compatible with ancient Hermetic and Indian philosophy. In a sense, the mental construct of reality creates spacetime to efficiently understand itself by creating a network of subconscious entities that may interact and explore the totality of possibilities.”

 The paper also suggests that the aim of this single looping, self-generating consciousness is to explore and develop meaning through information. They also discuss future prospects, like studying lucid dreams to raised understand simulations and also the idea of developing consciousness that doesn't require matter in any respect.

Voyager Spacecraft Detect an Increase in The Density of Space Outside The Solar System

 

In November 2018, after an epic, 41-year voyage, Voyager 2 finally crossed the boundary that marked the limit of the Sun's influence and entered the region. But the small probe's mission isn't done yet - it's now sending home information about the space beyond the system.

And it's revealing something surprising. As Voyager 2 moves farther and farther from the Sun, the density of space is increasing.

It's not the primary time this density increase has been detected. Voyager 1, which entered the region in 2012, detected an identical density gradient at a separate location.

Voyager 2's new data show that not only was Voyager 1's detection legit but that the rise in density is also a large-scale feature of the very local interstellar space (VLIM).

The Solar System's edge will be defined by some different boundaries, but the one crossed by the Voyager probes is thought because of the heliopause, and it's defined by the solar radiation.

This is a continuing supersonic wind of ionized plasma that streams out from the Sun altogether directions, and therefore the heliopause is that the point at which the outward pressure of that wind is not any longer strong enough to push into the wind from the part.

(NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The space inside the heliopause is that the heliosphere, and therefore the space outside it's the VLIM. But the heliosphere isn't a round sphere. It's more like an oval, with the system at one end, and a streaming tail behind; the "nose" is pointed within the direction of the Solar System's orbit within the extragalactic nebula.

Both Voyagers crossed the heliopause at the nose, but with a difference of 67 degrees in heliographic latitude and 43 degrees difference longitude.

Space is usually thought of as a vacuum, but it's not, not completely. The density of matter is extremely low, but it still exists. within the scheme, the solar radiation has a mean proton and electron density of three to 10 particles per ml, but it grows slower the farther out you go from the Sun.

The mean electron density of the interstellar space within the Milky Way System, out among the celebs, has been calculated to be around 0.037 particles per metric capacity unit. and therefore the plasma density within the outer heliosphere is around 0.002 electrons per cc.

As the Voyager probes crossed beyond the heliopause, their Plasma Wave Science instruments detected the electron density of the plasma through plasma oscillations.

Voyager 1 crossed the heliopause on 25 August 2012, at a distance of 121.6 astronomical units from Earth (that's 121.6 times the space between the planet and Sun, so roughly 18.1 billion km).

When it first measured the plasma oscillations after crossing the heliopause on 23 October 2013 at a distance of 122.6 astronomical units (18.3 billion km), Voyager 1 detected a plasma density of 0.055 electrons per cubic centimeters.

Voyager 2, which took the great distance around, flying by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, crossed the heliopause on 5 November 2018 at a distance of 119 astronomical units (17.8 billion km). It measured the plasma oscillations on 30 January 2019 at a distance of 119.7 astronomical units (17.9 billion), finding a plasma density of 0.039 electrons per milliliter, very near the Voyager 1 measurement.

And both instruments reported a rise in density. After traveling another 20 astronomical units (2.9 billion km) through space, Voyager 1 reported a rise to about 0.13 electrons per metric capacity unit.

But detections made by Voyager 2 in June 2019 showed a way sharper increase in density to about 0.12 electrons per milliliter, at a distance of 124.2 astronomical units (18.5 billion units).

Given that plasma at Earth's air pressure has an electron density of 10^13 per metric capacity unit, those amounts could appear tiny, but they're significant enough to warrant our interest - especially since it isn't clear what causes them.

One theory is that the interstellar field of force lines become stronger as they drape over the heliopause. this might generate an electromagnetic ion cyclotron instability that depletes the plasma from the draping region. Voyager 2 did detect a stronger flux than expected when it crossed the heliopause.

Another theory is that material blown by the interstellar wind should slow because it reaches the heliopause, causing a form of hold up. This has possibly been detected by outer system probe New Horizons, which in 2018 picked up the faint ultraviolet glow resulting from a buildup of neutral hydrogen at the heliopause.

It's also possible that both explanations play a job. Future measurements taken by both Voyager probes as they continue their journey out into part could help figure it out. But that may be a protracted bet to require.

"It isn't certain," the researchers wrote in their paper, "whether the Voyagers are going to be able to operate far enough to tell apart between these two classes of models."

We believe you, space probes!