Science - Fusion - Sustained for 24 hours

An entirely different approach to fusion. No containing a ball of fusion in a magnetic field, just create fusion explosions that produce a net energy gain using projectiles to cause massive explosions on a recurring basis. they seemed convinced the physics are very straightforward. currently using gunpowder to accelerate projectile but working on electronic means to propel projectiles at velocities required to trigger a fusion explosion on impact.

Gigantic, 70-Foot Nuclear Fusion Gun Could Change the World (msn.com)

Through all the years of studying tokamak technology, the principal issue is how the plasma loses energy. Scientists have found that energy within the plasma tends to bleed across the intense magnetic field lines involved in the reaction, causing the reaction to fizzle out. As such, no one has managed to achieve net energy gain—more energy generated than energy required to run the machine—with a tokamak.

"Net energy gain has been demonstrated with inertial fusion, but the driver, instead of being a laser, was an underground weapons test," Hawker said. "So there is that empirical proof there that you can get to high energy gain with inertial fusion.
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Hawker expects the First Light Fusion reactor to be generating usable electricity in the 2030s and for power to be on the grid by the following decade. So what would a giant gun reactor look like?

"I like to say that magnetic fusion is like a furnace," Hawker said. "It's an always-on hot process because the particles are going around the donut. Whereas inertial fusion is more like an internal combustion engine. It's a pulsed process where you have a repetition rate and the energy per event multiplied by the frequency gives you the power."

 

this should help with the electric/gas consumption once widely deployed. advanced computing being used to create new materials...

Scientists use quantum computing to create glass that cuts the need for AC by a third (msn.com)

Two researchers at the University of Notre Dame in collaboration with South Korea's Kyung Hee University recently utilized quantum computing to help develop a new transparent window coating capable of blocking solar heat. In findings published in ACS Energy Levels, Tengfei Luo, Notre Dame's Dorini Family Professor of Energy Studies, and postdoctoral associate, Seongmin Kim, worked together to devise their transparent radiative cooler (TRC) layer, which only permits external visible light that doesn't raise indoor temperatures, thus cutting buildings' cooling costs by as much as a third of current rates. According to the International Energy Agency, air conditioning and electric fans comprise 20 percent of buildings' energy costs around the world—roughly 10 percent of human electricity consumption.

To determine the absolute best materials configuration, the team relied on machine learning and the promising field of quantum computing for a solution. Although in its relatively early phases of development, quantum computing offers immense potential due to its ability to far surpass traditional computing methods. Currently, even the most advanced of classical supercomputers rely on a binary state—representing information as 1's and 0's—to do all their calculations, meaning that there are limits to what they can and can't achieve. Quantum computing, in contrast, can represent information as either 1, 0, or even a combination of the two. This hypothetically gives scientists a massive advantage in numerous fields, such as natural science simulations and nuclear fusion research.
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The result is a 1.2 micron-thick layering of silica, alumina, and titanium oxide upon a glass base that is then coated with the same polymer used in contact lenses. The new combination subsequently outperformed ever other heat-reduction glass coating currently available. "I think the quantum computing strategy is as important as the material itself," Luo said in a press release from the University of Notre Dame yesterday. "Using this approach, we were able to find the best-in-class material, design a radiative cooler and experimentally prove its cooling effect."

 

Missed this. In early December, scientists created a wormhole using quantum computing and sent data through the wormhole which came out unscrambled on the receiving end.

Did physicists create a wormhole in a quantum computer? (nature.com)

Physicists have used a quantum computer to perform a new kind of quantum teleportation, the ability to transport quantum states between distant places, as though information could travel instantly. Although teleportation is an established technique in quantum technology, the purpose of the latest experiment was to simulate the behaviour of a passage called a wormhole through a virtual universe.
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Tunnels in space-time
Physicists Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen proposed the idea of wormholes — passages through space-time that could connect the centres of black holes — in 1935. They calculated that, in principle, wormholes were allowed by Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which explains gravity as an effect of the curvature of space-time. (Physicists soon realized that even if wormholes exist, they are unlikely to allow anything like the interstellar travel that features in science fiction.)

Because the latest teleportation experiment used an exotic toy universe, it didn’t simulate anything resembling the kind of wormhole that could conceivably exist in our Universe, as envisioned by Einstein and Rosen. But it can be interpreted as analogous to a wormhole in the researchers’ virtual system — quantum information fed into one side of the ‘wormhole’ reappeared on the other side.

“The surprise is not that the message made it across in some form, but that it made it across unscrambled,” write the authors of an accompanying News and Views article. “However, this is easily understood from the gravitational description: the message arrives unscrambled on the other side because it has traversed the wormhole.”

 

Next gen commercial aircraft. 30% fuel reduction in the models so they are going to build it

NASA unveils futuristic plane we'd love to fly — someday - The Points Guy

 

hopefully this proves to be the real deal. being able to break down and digest plastics within 24 hours would be an amazing advance to help clean up the great plastic patch in the pacific ocean as well as changing the way we handle solid waste at landfills

Scientists discover plastic-gobbling enzyme that can break down trash in 24 hours: The revolutionary possibilities ‘are endless’ (msn.com)


Researchers at The University of Texas in Austin discovered an enzyme that eats plastic fast, and scientists think it could revolutionize how we deal with waste. The team used artificial intelligence, chemical engineering, and synthetic biology to turn a natural enzyme called PETase into a plastic-eating machine.

To deconstruct PET plastic even more quickly and at low temperatures, researchers adjusted PETase to create a new enzyme, called FAST-PETase, which gives bacteria the ability to recycle waste plastic efficiently. Plastic that would last almost 500 years in a landfill can be broken down in a day by bacteria armed with FAST-PETase and turned into base units that can be reused.

Hal Alper, a professor of Chemical Engineering at UT Austin, told UT News that the possibilities of this discovery “are endless.”

“Beyond the obvious waste management industry, this also provides corporations from every sector the opportunity to take a lead in recycling their products,” he said. “We can begin to envision a true circular plastics economy.”

 

this, combined with AI and shape shifting robots is getting eerie

Scientists Accidentally Discovered New Material That Can ‘Remember' Like a Brain (msn.com)

The discovery of this material has significant implications for developing new types of computing systems and artificial intelligence2. The material’s ability to remember past events could be used to create more advanced and efficient memory systems for computers, making it possible for computers to store and retrieve information more like the human brain does.

In addition, the material could also be used to create new types of sensors and other electronic devices that can more accurately mimic the behavior of biological systems. This could lead to the development of more advanced prosthetics and other medical devices that can more closely integrate with the human body.

According to the team, the discovery was made when they were studying phase transitions from vanadium dioxide. They noticed that the material exhibited unexpected behaviour when the current was switched off, leading them to investigate further and discover its memory-like properties.

The accidental discovery of this new material is a significant breakthrough in the development of advanced computing and artificial intelligence systems. The material’s ability to remember past events is a crucial characteristic for developing systems that can learn and adapt like the human brain.

 

two stories related to batteries

China proceeding with their gravity batteries. Big building with motors that can be reversed to be generators. Solar lifts heavy block up high (1o stories) during the day, gravity pulls it down to ground generating electricity when the sun isn't shining or the wind isn't blowing

Hundreds of These 24-Ton Bricks Could Change How We Use Renewable Energy (msn.com)

Now imagine the building's control system lowering those hundreds of bricks one by one, spinning electrical power generators in the process. They drop down every evening just as demand for power peaks but solar panel output fades away.

In effect, the brick-filled building is a giant battery that stores energy with gravity instead of chemistry.

Gravity batteries are a potentially important solution to a critical problem with the green energy revolution: making sure electricity is available when we need it, not just during the times when sun and wind supply it.

And it isn't just an idea. With two sites under construction — one in Rudong, China, just north of Shanghai, and the other in Snyder, Texas, about 250 miles west of Dallas — startup Energy Vault will begin seriously testing the viability of the gravity storage technology. An earlier pilot generated 5 megawatts of power, but these two facilities and expected successors will show whether gravity storage is economical and efficient enough to work at large scale.

 

second story...battery recycling

if true, they have reached 95% recovery level for critical materials used in batteries

Tesla’s co-founder just made a game-changing announcement about the future of EV batteries (msn.com)

Great news for anyone hoping to buy an electric car in the future and for anyone who cares about our planet: A company that recycles lithium-ion batteries just announced that after a yearlong pilot program, it was able to recover important metals from used batteries at an incredible rate of more than 95%.
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For the past year, Redwood Materials has been collecting old EV battery packs from automakers such as Volvo, Ford, and Audi. In total, it collected 1,268 battery packs and recovered the lithium, cobalt, nickel, and copper contained within at a whopping rate of above 95% efficiency.

 

this is noteworthy

new electrolyte chemistry that makes a zinc battery as good or better than a lithium-ion battery but they don't catch on fire and zinc is common and cheaper to produce. new battery bank tech like this will help advance the transition. the depth of discharge is impressive.

I still believe that materials advances will be the next great revolution unless personalized drugs gets there first. We still haven't figured out how to use graphene yet but I suspect that AI will

Scientists just made a massive breakthrough on an alternative to lithium-ion batteries: ‘These batteries are essential’ (msn.com)

Ji’s team has created a new electrolyte formula that almost eliminates these unwanted reactions, Tech Xplore reports. It forms a protective
coating on the zinc component of the battery that prevents that type of energy loss. A similar protective coating is what allows lithium-ion batteries to release more than 99% of the charging energy. The new zinc battery releases 99.95% of the energy it is charged with on each cycle.

Not only is the zinc battery efficient, but it’s also safer than a lithium-ion battery, according to Tech Xplore. The new electrolyte isn’t flammable, while the ones used in lithium-ion batteries often are combustible. Both zinc and the components of the electrolyte are also cheaper and more common than the materials used in lithium-ion batteries.

“The breakthrough represents a significant advancement toward making zinc metal batteries more accessible to consumers,” Ji told OSU News and Research Communications. “These batteries are essential for the installation of additional solar and wind farms. In addition, they offer a secure and efficient solution for home energy storage, as well as energy storage modules for communities that are vulnerable to natural disasters.”