New "Room Temperature" Super Conductor Discovered.

A team of physicists in New York has discovered a material that conducts electricity with perfect efficiency at room temperature—a long-sought scientific milestone. The hydrogen, carbon, and sulfur compound operates as a superconductor at up to 59 degrees Fahrenheit, the team reported in Nature. That’s more than 50 degrees higher than the previous high-temperature superconductivity record, set last year.

Yet while researchers celebrate the achievement, they stress that the newfound compound—created by a team led by Ranga Dias of the University of Rochester—will never find its way into lossless power lines, frictionless high-speed trains, or any of the revolutionary technologies that could become ubiquitous if the fragile quantum effect underlying superconductivity could be maintained in truly ambient conditions. That’s because the substance superconducts at room temperature only while being crushed between a pair of diamonds to pressures roughly 75 percent as extreme as those found in the Earth’s core.

“People have talked about room-temperature superconductivity forever,” Pickard said. “They may not have quite appreciated that when we did it, we were going to do it at such high pressures.” Materials scientists now face the challenge of discovering a superconductor that operates not only at normal temperatures but under everyday pressures, too. Certain features of the new compound raise hopes that the right blend of atoms could someday be found.

 

Credits:

https://www.wired.com/story/scientists-discover-the-first-room-temperature-superconductor/

NASA Collects Rocks from an Asteroid to Return

NASA's Osiris-Rex spacecraft briefly touched down on a large asteroid Tuesday to swipe some rocks and dust from its surface to be returned to Earth for study. The event marks a major first for NASA and a potential boon for science, space exploration and our understanding of the solar system. The touch-and-go, or TAG, sample collection of asteroid 101955 Bennu was deemed a success at around 3:12 p.m. PT. Bennu is what's called a "rubble pile" asteroid, meaning it was formed in the deep cosmic past when gravity slowly forced together remnants of an ancient collision. The result is a body shaped something like a spinning top with a diameter of around a third of a mile (500 meters) and a surface strewn with large rocks and boulders.

The touch-and-go sampling procedure is a complex, high-stakes task that's been building to a key climactic moment for years. If it succeeds, it will play a role in history and our future in space. The basic plan is that Osiris-Rex will touch down on Bennu at a rocky landing site dubbed Nightingale. The van-size spacecraft will need to negotiate building-size boulders around the landing area to touch down on a relatively clear space that's only as large as a few parking spaces. However, a robotic sampling arm will be the only part of Osiris-Rex to actually set down on the surface. One of three pressurized nitrogen canisters will fire to stir up a sample of dust and small rocks that can then be caught in the arm's collector head for safe keeping and return to Earth.

Credits:
https://www.cnet.com/news/nasa-just-landed-on-asteroid-bennu-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-mission/

Nokia Wins NASA Contract to Create Cell Service ... ON THE MOON

Soon, astronauts on moon missions won't have any excuse for not answering their texts. NASA has awarded Nokia of America $14.1 million to deploy a cellular network on the moon. The freaking moon. "The system could support lunar surface communications at greater distances, increased speeds, and provide more reliability than current standards," the announcement also reads. Nokia's plan is to build a 4G/LTE network, and eventually transition to 5G (just like the rest of us). It will be "the first LTE/4G communications system in space," according to NASA's announcement.

According to UPI, NASA said in a live broadcast of the announcement that the network would extend to spacecraft, and help develop technology fit for the moon. While there aren't details about the timeline of this project becoming a reality, it's all in support of NASA's goal of having a lunar base on the moon by 2028, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in the broadcast. After all, how else would the astronauts be able to Instagram their moon walks. The network is built to be compact and efficient, as well as "specially designed to withstand the extreme temperature, radiation and vacuum conditions of space."

Credits:

https://mashable.com/article/nokia-cellular-network-on-the-moon/?utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=trueanthem&utm_source=facebook

AR Contact Lenses Giv Wearers More Data

A glance to the left. A flick to the right. As my eyes flitted around the room, I moved through a virtual interface only visible to me—scrolling through a calendar, looking up commute times home, and even controlling music playback. It's all I theoretically need to do to use Mojo Lens, a smart contact lens coming from a company called Mojo Vision. The California-based company, which has been quiet about what it's been working on for five years, has finally shared its plan for the world's "first true smart contact lens." But let's be clear: This is not a product you'll see on store shelves next autumn. It's in the research and development phase—a few years away from becoming a real product. 

If you're looking straight ahead while wearing the lens, you won't see anything visually disrupting. But peek to a corner in any direction and you'll see icons pop up, ranging from a calendar, weather, notifications, music playback, and more. Stare at the arrow next to these icons to expand them even further to see more details—like a three-day forecast, for example—or all your calendar events for the day. It took me about a minute to figure out how to navigate the interface; it could all change at any moment, but it's promising to see just how simple it is to use. One of my favorite demo apps is Speech. Using only my eyes, I opened a prewritten speech, scrolled through it, and read it aloud. This app alone opens up a myriad of possibilities. Imagine sitting in a taped interview but, instead of looking at notes, you can pull up your next question with a flick of your eye without having to look down. Or if you're filming a video, you may not need to shoot multiple takes because the script is in the dead center of your eye. Who needs teleprompters?

Click here for video.

Credits: 

https://www.wired.com/story/mojo-vision-smart-contact-lens