Parkinson’s Disease, a brain condition affecting 10 million people worldwide that degrades mental function and causes tremors and rigid muscles, normally affects people aged 60 or older, according to the Parkinson’s Foundation. However, over the last five years, the rate of increase among people aged 30 to 64 has risen by 50 percent, a spike...
Category: TRENDS IN HI-TECH SCIENCE
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BATTERY BREAKTHROUGH FOR GRID STORAGE?
The void between today’s electric grid and one delivering renewable energy day after day is the space where an effective storage battery should be—specifically, a cost-effective battery that can hold energy for more than a few hours at a time without it ebbing away. Form Energy, a Massachusetts start-up, claims to have a battery that...
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A.I. BEATS DOCTORS IN SPOTTING CARDIAC RISKS
An artificial intelligence program (AI) outperformed doctors in spotting subtle signs in the hearts of COVID-19 patients that placed the patients at higher risk of suffering long-term complications or death. Physicians measure a heart’s strength by running a cardiac ultrasound test that gauges the volume of blood a heart is pumping from its left ventricle....
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UPDATE: CHINA READY TO LAUNCH NEW NUCLEAR POWER INDUSTRY
In the next few months, China will finish building a new nuclear reactor in a desert near the city of Wuwei. Nuclear power plants aren’t new but the technology running China’s plant is: it runs on thorium, not uranium as the world’s other nuke plants do. Actually, molten salt nuclear reactors using thorium as fuel...
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RECYCLING EV BATTERIES WITH BUGS
By 2035, 145 million electric vehicles will be plying the world’s roads, according to the International Energy Agency. That’s a lot of batteries eating up cobalt, lithium, manganese, and other metals—and a lot of irreplaceable minerals headed for the dump when those batteries are spent. But, speaking of eating, those minerals can be reclaimed: they...
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CONCRETE THAT SEALS ITS OWN CRACKS DEVELOPED AT PNNL
Concrete is the world’s most common building material. We use three tons each year for every human on Earth, according to the journal Engineering Failure Analysis. But it doesn’t last; patching cracked and broken concrete costs businesses and public agencies $12 billion annually in the U.S. alone, the journal says. That yearly tab could drop...
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CHINA REVEALS COMMERCIAL MAGLEV TRAIN
After 20 years of tinkering and testing, China has unveiled its first passenger-ready magnetically levitated, or “maglev,” locomotive. The engine is capable of a ground speed of 600 kpm, or more than 350 mph, according to CRRC, China’s national railroad company, making it the world’s fastest ground vehicle made to carry passengers. A train traveling...
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A RETINAL PATCH TO RESTORE VISION
A main cause of blindness is the death of the photoreceptor cells that carpet the retina that lines the eyeball’s interior. Scientists have found a way to grow new photoreceptor cells from stem cells. The problem: how to distribute the receptor cells evenly along the retina instead of having them scatter randomly or just clump....
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QUANTUM COMPUTING MAKES A QUANTUM LEAP
In theory, quantum computers will quickly solve problems so complex that today’s best supercomputers would need years to figure out. In practice, quantum computers haven’t lived up to their promise. Why? They’re short of qubits. Conventional computers process bits of information sequentially – one at a time – as a series of digital ones and...
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U.S. ARMY TESTS ANTI-AGING PILL
In the next few months, the U.S. Army’s Special Operations Command will begin human trials on its own soldiers of oxidized nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+). NAD occurs naturally in the body but declines with age. It’s essential in generating energy and taking it as a supplement can improve athletic performance and speed recovery from physical...
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