We could soon be Getting Energy from Solar Power Harvested in Space

Artistic impression of the SPS-ALPHA concept: many small refractors, or heliostats, are visible, focusing light into the satellite.
Artistic impression of the SPS-ALPHA concept. NASA/John Mankins

The idea of space-based solar power (SBSP)—using satellites to collect energy from the sun and “beam” it to collection points on Earth—has been around since at least the late 1960s. Despite its huge potential, the concept has not gained sufficient traction due to cost and technological hurdles.

Can some of these problems now be solved? If so, SBSP could become a vital part of the world’s transition away from fossil fuels to green energy.

We already harvest energy from the sun. It’s collected directly through what we generally call solar power. This comprises different technologies such as photovoltaics (PV) and solar-thermal energy...

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Surprise COVID Discovery Helps Explain How Coronaviruses Jump Species

DNA-tethering and fusion of SARS-CoV-2 pseudoviruses and virus-like particles (VLP). The experiment design is schematized in panel (a), where DNA-functionalized viral particles are added to a microfluidic flow cell and allowed to bind to protein-free liposomes functionalized with complementary DNA. After unbound particles are washed away, fusion is initiated by addition of a soluble protease and monitored via lipid mixing, detected as fluorescence dequenching of Texas Red dye in the VLP or pseudoviral envelope. Representative images of a 10.1 × 9.6 μm sub-micrograph before and after lipid mixing are shown in panel (b) with a fusing particle outlined in magenta. The corresponding fluorescence intensity trace is plotted in panel (c).

Unexpected new insights into how COVID-19 infects ce...

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Scientists Discover Novel Way of Reading Data in Antiferromagnets, Unlocking their use as Computer Memory

A microscopic image of the tiny device containing antiferromagnetic manganese bismuth telluride (green) that the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore researchers did their experiments on. The lines (light yellow) radiating from the centre are electrodes from which current was passed through the manganese bismuth telluride. (Image: NTU Singapore)

Scientists led by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) investigators have made a significant advance in developing alternative materials for the high-speed memory chips that let computers access information quickly and that bypass the limitations of existing materials.

They have discovered a way that allows them to make sense of previously hard-to-read data stored in these alternative materials, known as antifer...

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Astronomers Confirm Maisie’s Galaxy is Among Earliest Ever Observed

Astronomers confirm Maisie's galaxy is among earliest ever observed
Spectroscopic observations reveal that Maisie’s galaxy, named after Steven Finkelstein’s daughter, was detected 390 million years after the Big Bang. That makes it one of the four earliest confirmed galaxies ever observed. Credit: NASA/STScI/CEERS/TACC/ University of Texas at Austin/S. Finkelstein/M. Bagley

Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers racing to find some of the earliest galaxies ever glimpsed have now confirmed that a galaxy first detected last summer is in fact among the earliest ever found. The findings are published in the journal Nature.

Follow-up observations since first detection of Maisie’s galaxy have revealed that it is from 390 million years after the Big Bang...

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