Show Notes 25 March 2022
Story 1: New all-electric locomotive recharges itself using the force of gravity
Source: UK’s Daily Mail Story by Sam Tonkin
- A few weeks ago, we talked about Union Pacific’s purchase of all-electric locomotives. But, like our electric cars, they must be recharged. But what if you never had to recharge?
- A team of scientists working for Australia’s Fortescue Future Industries and UK-based battery maker Williams Advanced Engineering are developing the world’s first all-electric locomotive with a battery that will be recharged by harnessing gravitational energy on downhill sections of a track.
- The friction of braking to slow the train will re-generate electricity and theoretically mean the locomotive could run indefinitely without having to go out of service to recharge.
- And the team expects the new locomotive to be available later this decade.
- Fortescue Future Industries announced their “infinity” train project following its acquisition of UK-based battery firm Williams Advanced Engineering.
- Together, the two companies will work to accelerate the transition to green energy and help the industry cut carbon emissions to zero by the end of the decade.
- Sci-Fi gets real! This announcement means that the 2013 post-apocalyptic science fiction movie Snowpiercer, where the Earth has frozen and a train carrying survivors must stay in perpetual motion circling the globe could someday be a reality.
Story 2: Scientists create a new fabric that can hear and emit sounds
Source: MIT News Story by Jennifer Chu
Link: https://news.mit.edu/2022/fabric-acoustic-microphone-0316
- Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and collaborators at the Rhode Island School of Design have created a fabric that works like a microphone, converting sound first into mechanical vibrations, then into electrical signals.
- All fabrics vibrate in response to audible sounds, but these vibrations are far too weak to be heard or sensed.
- To capture these imperceptible vibrations, the MIT researchers created a flexible “piezoelectric” fiber they then wove into an experimental fabric.
- Piezoelectricity is the electric charge that accumulates in certain materials when mechanical force or stress is applied to them. It is used in a number of different engineering, manufacturing, telecommunication, and computer systems that capture mechanically induced energy and transform it into electric power.
- The piezoelectric material created by the MIT team, produces an electrical signal when vibrated.
- As a result, their new experimental fabric can convert faint sound vibrations hitting the fabric into electrical signals.
- Okay, cool experiment, but what’s the benefit?
- According to the MIT team this experimental fabric can imperceptibly interface with human skin.
- This means, for example [and this is my speculation], you could have a T shirt made with this new fabric linked to a smartphone that could monitor heart and respiratory conditions in a comfortable, continuous, real-time manner.
- And the fibers can also be made to generate sound, such as a recording of spoken words. The possibilities here are amazing!
Story 3: New research shows ants can sniff out cancer in humans
Source: UK’s Daily Mail Story by Ryan Morrison
- When it comes to using animals to sniff out cancer, dogs have been a “go to” animal to date. But, training them to do so can take up to a year.
- Researchers from the French National Centre for Scientific Research have discovered a much less expensive and faster alternative – ants!
- In specific, a species of ant with a super sense of smell called Formica Fusca – which are found in Europe, Southern Asia, and Africa.
- In the French team’s experiments, the ants were able to differentiate cancerous cells from healthy cells in humans.
- First, the researchers exposed the ants to the smell of cancerous human cells. This odor was then associated with a reward of sugar solution.
- Okay, this is just like Pavlov’s dog experiments.
- During the 1890s, Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov discovered that any object or event which the dogs learned to associate with food (such as the lab assistant) would trigger the same response, he realized that he had made an important scientific discovery.
- Back to our French experiments with ants — In a second step, the researchers exposed the ants to two different odors. One was a new smell and the second was the smell of cancerous cells.
- After a series of successful training sessions, the researchers exposed the ants to a variety of cancerous cells.
- The scientists found that these Formica Fusca ants can discriminate between cancerous and healthy cells and even between two cancerous lines.
- Reality Check: The research team noted that more clinical tests using humans with and without cancer must be carried out before the ants could be used in clinical settings like a hospital.
Story 4: Scientists Discover Promising New Electrolyte for Solid-State Lithium-Ion Batteries
Source: SciTechDaily Story by Argonne National Laboratory news release
Source: University of Waterloo
Link: https://uwaterloo.ca/science/news/linda-nazar-discovers-new-electrolyte-solid-state-lithium
- First, let’s set the stage for this.
- In the quest for the perfect battery, scientists have two primary goals: create a device that can store a great deal of energy and do it safely.
- Most lithium-ion batteries today use a semi-liquid paste as the electrolyte that transports electrons back and forth between the anode and the cathode – meaning between the positive and negative electrodes in a battery.
- The problem with conventional lithium-ion batteries is that the semi-liquid paste electrolyte can catch fire if it gets too hot.
- In response, the world’s scientists are racing to develop solid-state lithium-ion batteries that will offer a combination of higher safety and increased energy storage capacity.
- And to achieve this goal using something other than a semi-liquid flammable paste electrolyte.
- Recently a very encouraging step forward was announced by scientists at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
- The University’s new all-solid-state battery uses an innovative alternative electrolyte composed of lithium, scandium, indium, and chlorine.
- The chloride nature of the electrolyte is key to its stability at operating conditions above 4 volts — meaning it is suitable for typical cathode materials that form the mainstay of today’s lithium-ion cells.
- The big takeaway: And this new electrolyte in their experimental solid-state lithium-ion battery is not only much safer it also works without significantly losing storage capacity for over a hundred cycles at high voltage and thousands of cycles at intermediate voltage.