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    Scientists Convert Waste Paper into Battery Parts for Smartphones and Electric Vehicles

    November 25, 2022, Categories  Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    Scientists convert waste paper into battery parts for smartphones and electric vehicles
    Graphical abstract. Credit: Additive Manufacturing (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.addma.2022.102992

    Scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed a technique to convert waste paper, from single-use packaging and bags, and cardboard boxes, into a crucial component of lithium-ion batteries.

    Through a process called carbonization which converts paper into pure carbon, the NTU researchers turned the paper’s fibers into electrodes, which can be made into rechargeable batteries that power mobile phones, medical equipment, and electric vehicles.

    To carbonize the paper, the team exposed the paper to high temperatures, which reduces it to pure carbon, water vapor and oils that can be used for biofuel...

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    NASA’s IXPE helps Solve Black Hole Jet mystery

    November 25, 2022, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This illustration shows NASA’s IXPE spacecraft, at right, observing blazar Markarian 501, at left. A blazar is a black hole surrounded by a disk of gas and dust with a bright jet of high-energy particles pointed toward Earth. The inset illustration shows high-energy particles in the jet (blue). When the particles hit the shock wave, depicted as a white bar, the particles become energized and emit X-rays as they accelerate. Moving away from the shock, they emit lower-energy light: first visible, then infrared, and radio waves. Farther from the shock, the magnetic field lines are more chaotic, causing more turbulence in the particle stream.
    Credits: NASA/Pablo Garcia

    Some of the brightest objects in the sky are called blazars...

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    Drug Triggers Immune Cells to Attack Prostate Cancer

    November 25, 2022, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    A drug compound stimulates immune cells to attack prostate tumors, according to new research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Shown is a human prostate cancer organoid, a small 3D structure that serves as a model of prostate tumors. When the organoid is grown with prostate cancer patients’ immune cells, which have been treated with the drug, the immune cells attack the cancer. Red shows dead cells. Blue shows DNA.

    A single drug compound simultaneously attacks hard-to-treat prostate cancer on several fronts, according to a new study in mice and human cells...

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    Teaching Photonic Chips to ‘Learn’

    November 24, 2022, Categories  Physics

    CHIP used in research
    Silicon Photonic Architecture for Training Deep Neural Networks with Direct Feedback Alignment, OPTICA

    A multi-institution research team has developed an optical chip that can train machine learning hardware.

    Machine learning applications skyrocketed to $165B annually, according to a recent report from McKinsey. But, before a machine can perform intelligence tasks such as recognizing the details of an image, it must be trained. Training of modern-day artificial intelligence (AI) systems like Tesla’s autopilot costs several million dollars in electric power consumption and requires supercomputer-like infrastructure. This surging AI “appetite” leaves an ever-widening gap between computer hardware and demand for AI...

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