Show Notes December 1, 2023
Story 1 : NASA and Japan to launch world’s 1st wooden satellite as soon as 2024
Source: LiveScience Story by Ben Turner
- More than 9,300 tons (8,440 metric tons) of space objects — including space junk such as inoperative satellites and chunks of spent rocket stages — currently orbit Earth. But the shiny metals they are made from, such as lightweight titanium and aluminum, increase the overall brightness of the night sky by more than 10% over large parts of the planet, creating ambient light pollution that makes distant space phenomena harder to detect.
- Spacecraft made from metal are also expensive and pose a threat to the International Space Station, other spacecraft carrying humans and — and if they’re big enough to survive reentry — people on Earth too.
- With this problem in mind, NASA, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are planning to launch the world’s first wooden satellite into space in a bid to make spaceflight more sustainable.
- LignoSat, a coffee mug-size satellite made from magnolia wood, is set to launch into Earth’s orbit by summer 2024, according to the space agencies.
- Side note – “ligno” refers to wood. For example, “lignocellulose”
- Wood doesn’t burn or rot in the lifeless vacuum of space, but it will incinerate into a fine ash upon reentry into Earth’s atmosphere — making it a surprisingly useful and biodegradable material for future satellites.
- After successfully testing their wood samples aboard the International Space Station earlier this year, the scientists believe the test satellite is fit for launch.
- The researchers noted, “Three wood specimens were tested and showed no deformation after space exposure. Despite the extreme environment of outer space involving significant temperature changes and exposure to intense cosmic rays and dangerous solar particles for ten months, tests confirmed no decomposition or deformations, such as cracking, warping, peeling, or surface damage.”
- To decide which wood to use, the scientists sent three wood samples — magnolia, cherry, and birch — to the International Space Station to be kept in a module that was exposed to space. The researchers settled upon magnolia because it is less likely to split or break during manufacture.
Story 2: Micromotors purify wastewater and create green energy
Source: Interesting Engineering Story by Loukia Papadopoulos
- Tiny self-propelled devices called micromotors can be designed to move through wastewater, targeting specific contaminants. They have the unique ability to carry functional materials or coatings that can adsorb or react with pollutants, helping to remove them from the water.
- Researchers at the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia in Spain have created autonomous micromotors that move around efficiently cleaning wastewater as they go and producing ammonia that could be used as a renewable energy source.
- The motors will now be tuned using an AI technique created at the University of Gothenburg to optimize their outcomes making them super-efficient cleaning and energy-generating machines.
- The devices consist of a silicon and manganese dioxide tube with a bubble release mechanism [to propel the device] at one end that functions due to chemical interactions. The tube moves in the water with the aid of these bubbles which operate as a motor.
- The chemical component laccase, which coats the micromotors, expedites the transformation of urea, which is present in contaminated water, into ammonia upon immediate contact with the device. The ammonia can then be converted into hydrogen, a green and clean energy source.
- What is laccase? Laccases are the versatile enzymes which catalyze oxidation reactions coupled to four-electron reduction of molecular oxygen to water. They are multicopper enzymes which are widely distributed in higher plants and fungi.
- What is urea? a colorless crystalline compound which is the main nitrogen containing breakdown product of protein metabolism in mammals and is excreted in urine.
- My comment – so, in a nutshell, these tiny devices could swim around in wastewater turning the urea into ammonia that can then be converted into hydrogen.
- For the tubes to effectively cleanse the water, the scientists must now improve their design. To do this, they need to observe how these components move and how long they function when submerged. This, however, is challenging to do under a microscope since the bubbles generated by the devices obstruct the view.
- Luckily, it is now feasible to approximate the movements of the micromotors thanks to an artificial intelligence technique created by Gothenburg University researchers. Machine learning algorithms make it possible to monitor multiple motors swimming around in liquid at the same time.
- Since micromotors can travel and carry out specified activities on a microscale independently, they have become a promising tool for environmental remediation.
- Reality check – the scientists do not know when they will be able to unleash their devices on a large scale. For the time being, they continue to work on this important innovation with hopes of making it universally viable in the coming years.
- To learn more, check out the study published in the journal Nanoscale.
Story 3: How smart trailers could give trucking a clean, electrified boost
Source: Popular Science Story by Rob Verger
- One of the most ubiquitous sights on the road is an 18-wheel truck. These large, loud vehicles are a prolific presence on America’s interstates, and are made up of two big components: the tractor, which does the pulling and is where the driver is, and the trailer, where cargo goes.
- In an effort to clean up the relatively large emissions that come from this part of the transportation sector, some companies are working on electric tractors that can pull trailers: Freightliner has a model called the eCascadia, Tesla has its Semi, Volvo its VNR, and others are working on it, too.
- But a relatively new company called Range Energy is focusing on the trailer itself, equipping it with batteries, a motor, and other intelligence. The trailer can be paired with a tractor burning diesel, or an electric one.
- Range Energy is led by Ali Javidan, an early Tesla employee and veteran of Google and Zoox, the autonomous car company now owned by Amazon.
- Range’s RA-01 product looks like a regular trailer—typically a big, boxy, and boring presence on the road—but has some key changes.
- There’s a motor that turns one of the axles at the back of the trailer. That motor gets the power it needs from an onboard battery pack, which isn’t inside the trailer (where it would interfere with cargo space) but is below it.
- There’s also what Javidan refers to as a “smart kingpin.” A kingpin on a big 18-wheel truck is the point where the trailer connects to the tractor. What makes the Range Energy kingpin different from a regular kingpin is that it senses what the tractor is doing. “It’s a real-time measurement of how hard the tractor is pulling,” Javidan says.
- Because the smart kingpin gathers this information, the trailer can be “kind of like an obedient dog on a leash,” Javidan says, with the goal of making the trailer feel “essentially weightless” for the tractor. The trailer wouldn’t ever push the tractor, though.
- The result, according to Range, is that if this trailer is paired with a diesel-burning tractor, that tractor could get around 35 to 40 percent better fuel efficiency. And if it were paired with an electric tractor, it could add about 100 miles of range or more.
- Javidan says that they’ll start beta testing next year, with deliveries to customers planned for 2025. “You will start seeing these trailers on the roads in real volumes starting in 2026,” he predicts.
Story 4: New AI system achieves 98.5% accuracy in autism diagnosis of children
Source: News Medical Life Sciences
- According to the CDC’s 2023 Community Report on Autism, fewer than half of children with autism spectrum disorder received a developmental evaluation by three years of age, and 30% of children who met the criteria for autism spectrum disorder did not receive a formal diagnosis by 8 years of age.
- A newly developed artificial intelligence system that analyzes specialized MRIs of the brain accurately diagnosed children between the ages of 24 and 48 months with autism at a 98.5% accuracy rate, according to research presented at the recent annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
- The AI system involves isolating brain tissue images from the DT-MRI scans and extracting imaging markers that indicate the level of connectivity between brain regions. A machine learning algorithm compares the marker patterns in the brains of children with autism to those of the normally developed brains.
- What is DT-MRI? Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) method that analyzes the anatomy of nerve cells and the complex neuronal network of the brain. It is most commonly used to provide imaging of the brain.
- “Autism is primarily a disease of improper connections within the brain,” said co-author Gregory N. Barnes, M.D., Ph.D., professor of neurology and director of the Norton Children’s Autism Center in Louisville. “DT-MRI captures these abnormal connections that lead to the symptoms that children with autism often have, such as impaired social communication and repetitive behaviors.”
- The researchers applied their methodology to the DT-MRI brain scans of 226 children between the ages of 24 and 48 months from the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange-II.
- The dataset included scans of 126 children affected by autism and 100 normally developing children.
- The technology demonstrated 97% sensitivity, 98% specificity, and an overall accuracy of 98.5% in identifying the children with autism.
- The AI system produces a report detailing which neural pathways are affected, the anticipated impact on brain functionality, and a severity grade that can be used to guide early therapeutic intervention.
- The researchers are working toward commercializing and obtaining FDA clearance for their AI software.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Story: AI enables rapid and reliable solar cell production in Australia
Source: Interesting Engineering Story by Rizwan Choudhury
- A team of Australian researchers has used artificial intelligence (AI) to create solar cells from a mineral called perovskite in a matter of weeks, saving years of human effort and trial and error.
- The study’s lead author, Dr Nastaran Meftahi from RMIT University’s School of Science, said perovskite cells were cheaper and more efficient than traditional silicon cells and had recently become stable enough for long-term use.
- “Making perovskite cells has been more like magic than science – some people have achieved amazing results, but no one knows how to repeat them,” she said.
- “We have developed a method that can quickly and reliably make and test new solar cells, where each generation learns from and improves on the previous one.”
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Story: Construction robot builds massive stone walls on its own
Source: New Scientist Stopry by Jeremy Hsu
- An autonomous robot with a large gripper can transform a pile of boulders into huge stone walls without mortar – learning on its own how to place each irregularly-shaped stone as the next building block.
- The robotic excavator has built a stone wall 6 metres high and 65 metres long through a public park on the outskirts of Zurich, Switzerland. It also used a large shovel to autonomously landscape the park’s terrain into terraces.
- “This is the first work to apply such a robotic excavator for the large-scale construction of permanent dry stone walls,” says Ryan Luke Johns at ETH Zürich in Switzerland.
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Story: Solar-powered Japanese tiny van ‘PUZZLE’ unveiled ahead of North American sales
Source: Electrek Story by Micha Toll
Link: https://electrek.co/2023/11/20/solar-powered-japanese-tiny-van-puzzle-unveiled/
- You may have heard of the Japanese phenomenon of “kei cars”, which are pint-sized vehicles designed to fit into a local regulatory window that allows for much smaller, lighter cars and trucks to operate legally on roads. For decades, the result of those regulations has helped spawn some of the most interesting and often cutest miniature vehicles in the world. Now, one Japanese automaker plans to bring its own kei car to the US. Meet the PUZZLE from HW ELECTRO.
- Less of a kei car and more of a kei van, the PUZZLE builds on much of Japan’s tiny car legacy.
- The small electric van just celebrated its US unveiling at an event during the week of November 13 signifying the brand’s plans to enter the US market. According to HW ELECTRO, commercial sales of the PUZZLE are expected to begin in 2025. In other words, we’ve got some time to wait.