#High Energy Materials Research Laboratory

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Nuclear fuel experiment demonstrates how liquid plutonium oxide behaves at the hottest temperatures

The 2011 accident at the Fukushima-Daiichi plant in Japan inspired extensive research and analysis that elevated nuclear energy into a standard bearer for safety. It also inspired a number of studies at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory. Scientists want to look more closely at nuclear fuel materials to better understand how they will behave at extremely high temperatures. In 2014, using the bright X-rays of beamline 6-ID-D at Argonne's Advanced Photon Source (APS), a DOE Office of Science user facility, a multidisciplinary team measured and published the structure of molten uranium dioxide (UO2). This material is a major component of the fuel used in nuclear reactors around the world. In addition to providing answers, the experiment raised questions about how liquid plutonium oxide (PuO2) and other mixed oxide fuels being considered for use in next-generation reactors would behave at similarly high temperatures.

Read more.

[parkjayist]

ESSENCE OF ROMANCE: PROLOGUE

sum park jongseong is in denial, but the truth is undeniable: he's hit a dead end. how can he maintain his title as a world renowned chemist if he can't even advance his own research? meanwhile, you, an aspiring chemist, have faced constant belittlement from your male colleagues as you pursue your own groundbreaking research in isolation. when jongseong finds you conducting experiments in HIS own lab, he's enraged. he's enveloped in fury when he realizes that you two are trying to research the same topic. yet, buried beneath his rage lies a deep sense of desperation, and he's willing to do anything to finally finish his research he's been putting off for so many years. perhaps you're the missing piece in his research (and life).

pairing chemist!park jongseong x female chemist!reader

genre written series, slowburn, angst, fluff, " enemies " to lovers, coworkers au, 1960s au, smarty pants x smarty pants

warnings misogyny, swearing

an okayy here's the (short) prologue! i decided to write it separately from chapter 1 because i want to build the personality for yn first. expect the first chapter soon! here's a PLAYLIST you can listen to while reading! notes would be greatly appreciated ^^

wc 870 (0.8k) SERIES MASTERLIST

abiogenesis – the basis of life. you were always fascinated by the concept of life from the moment your teacher talked about it in your highschool chemistry class. how could one element hold such power, such significance in the grand scheme of existence? how are we, mere compositions of atoms and strands of DNA, capable of achieving feats that transcend the limits of our imagination?

in the bustling chemistry lab of darkwood laboratories, you find yourself cast in the role of a humble lab assistant. you’re definitely not satisfied with your title, but it’s the best you can get for now. once you publish your research, no one will ever look down on you again, and you’re determined to embarrass every man who has ever doubted you with the newfound research you hope to conduct. 

but for now, your days are spent in a whirlwind of activity, as you juggle the demands of fetching coffee, replenishing supplies, and assisting the male chemists in their experiments. their commands are curt, their expectations high, and their acknowledgement of your presence fleeting. you often find yourself biting your tongue as you witness the male chemists make mistakes in their experiments. when you try to point out their errors, they brush you off with a dismissive wave, their voices dripping with condescension. 

miss (___), let me remind you that you’re just a lab technician, they sneer. let the real chemists handle the hard stuff. they would laugh, pouting at you condescendingly. 

with a tight smile and a resigned nod, you comply, masking the frustration that simmers beneath the surface. it's a routine you've grown accustomed to – the sidelining of your aspirations in favor of catering to the needs of your male colleagues.

every day, as the sun begins its descent beyond the horizon, casting long shadows across the laboratory benches, the energy of the lab shifts. as your coworkers leave one by one, you finally have the opportunity to pursue your true calling: researching abiogenesis, the very essence of life's origins. tonight, however, as you begin to immerse yourself in your research, a nagging realization dawns upon you – you're running dangerously low on essential materials. 

“shit,” you groaned in frustration.

you hated when you were interrupted in your work. whether it was someone else, yourself or nature, it was one of your worst pet peeves. every interruption felt like a disruption of the delicate balance you had worked so hard to maintain. whether it was the incessant chatter of your colleagues, the nagging doubts that crept into your own mind, or the unexpected intrusion of nature's stupid whims, each interruption grated on your nerves like sandpaper against skin. there was a rhythm to your work, a flow that you slipped into effortlessly as you delved deeper into your research. every moment lost to distraction felt like a step backward, a missed opportunity to uncover the secrets of life that lay just beyond your grasp. and yet, despite your best efforts to shut out the noise and focus on your work, interruptions seemed to come at the most inopportune moments. the clatter of footsteps in the hallway, the incessant ringing of the telephone, the sudden flicker of the broken lights – each disturbance pulled you away from your work, leaving you frustrated and irritable. 

navigating the dark corridors of the lab, you can’t help but feel a sense of uneasiness. as if something was going to pop out and chase you. however you shove these feelings at the back of your head, and you find yourself at an unlocked lab. the faded name of the door reads “J. Park” with a sign below it stating in bold red, “DO NOT COME IN.” 

well, he was the one who left it open, you thought. plus, you were only going to in there for a minute ... just to get the materials you needed. 

with cautious steps, you enter the dimly lit space. jongseong's lab is, simply put, a chaos of clutter and disarray. test tubes and beakers litter the countertops, their contents long forgotten or left to evaporate into a sticky residue. papers and notebooks are strewn haphazardly across the desks, their pages crumpled and stained with mysterious substances. the air is thick with the scent of chemicals, mingling with the faint aroma of stale coffee. empty coffee cups and half-eaten sandwiches dot the landscape, and random pieces of clothing are placed randomly around the lab. 

you brush some crumbs off the table. “what a careless scientist,” you murmur to yourself. “he can’t even follow basic science procedures … i wonder how much money he paid to get his own lab.”

while trying to find the materials you needed, you suddenly felt yourself drawn to the chalkboard at the back of the lab. although the drawing was messy, you could make out the equations and drawings that you assumed the owner of this lab did. just as you were about to piece together what it was about, a voice shatters the silence, sharp and unexpected. you turn around at the sudden intrusion and you find a man standing at the door – his expression mixed with irritation and confusion.

“what the hell do you think you’re doing in my lab?” 

next.

-----------------------------------

tagged: @sophiko22 @minseongsworld

[littjara-mirrorlake]

The test subject Jin-Gitaxias was to work on crouched in the center of the laboratory, rippling muscle joined to fur and metal with the measured precision of an anatomical diagram. Coarse dark hair wreathed his face of bare bone, and his flesh continually unraveled and re-knit itself upon a robust skeletal scaffolding. The researchers scurrying about him with their lean chrome frames seemed almost insubstantial in comparison. Scientific trivialities blinked through their minds, caught by Jin's telepathy–update measured reaction time; refine musculoskeletal interfacing; test compatibility of new tibia–as all the while their patchwork beast sat on his haunches and watched them silently, an unsettling keenness in his hollow eye sockets. 

A novel predicament, for certain.

Jin shifted his telepathic attention to the workings of the test subject's mind. A single concept, fierce and wordless, struck him like a hammer's blow–

Hunger–

And in one smooth movement the beast swung his skull around to meet Jin's gaze, maw gaping slightly as if to taste the air. 

"Another one of you." Though the beast did not look away from Jin, he instead addressed the scientists beside him. His words emerged disjointedly from newly stitched-together vocal cords. "Is this one here to observe me, too?"

"That," head researcher K'rezakx said, emerging from a small huddle of their subordinates, "is junior researcher Jin-Gitaxias, our newest recruit." K'rezakx turned to Jin and indicated their test subject with one needle-tipped appendage. "Jin-Gitaxias, this is the creation which I spoke of in our initial meeting, formed of material from the green mana nexus. We call him Vorinclex."

Vorinclex growled lowly as if in thought, tipping his snout upward and inhaling. "That one is different. Something is in the air."

The least you could do is address me directly, Jin thought, but he strained to hold his tongue. He could not risk falling short in K'rezakx's judgement, not after the researcher had offered him a position on such an uncommon project.

"Astute observation, Vorinclex," K'rezakx responded. "You are sensing a high concentration of mana. Psionic energy, to be specific. Jin-Gitaxias is what we know as a telepath."

"Telepath," Vorinclex repeated. Slowly, methodically, sampling each syllable. "What is that?"

"The neurocirculatory lattice of his ichor possesses an affinity for resonating with the same. In other words, he is capable of reading and speaking directly into our minds."

"Yes," Jin cut in irritably, unable to take being ignored any longer. "Such abilities, requiring extended study in others, have always been trivial for me to channel. They have allowed me to accumulate the prowess that gained me this research position–and I am, I should mention, the most recently compleated initiate to do so."

To his frustration, Vorinclex did not seem to regard this information highly. He looked to Jin and K'resakx and back again. "Welcome, then, initiate," he snorted. "I expect I will see you in the operating theater before long." 

And with that Vorinclex turned, loping away from the two with an all-too-casual gait. Jin watched him go, hissing under his breath.

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Search results for dark photon leptonic decays manage to exclude new regions

Dark photons are hypothetical particles that resemble light particles (i.e., photons), but interact weakly with normal matter, which would make them impossible or very difficult to detect using conventional experimental methods. These particles are dark matter candidates, meaning that they could contribute to the invisible and elusive form of matter accounting for approximately 85% of the universe's mass.

The NA62 Collaboration, a large research collaboration involving scientists at various institutes worldwide, has published the results of a new search for dark photons, specifically for their leptonic decays. Their findings, published in Physical Review Letters, were derived by analyzing data collected by the NA62 detector at CERN configured in beam-dump mode.

"Dark matter searches are currently one of the hot topics in the high energy physics community. We look for weakly interacting particles in a number of different facilities ranging from accelerator experiments to tabletop laboratory setups," Alina Kleimenova and Stefan Ghinescu, part of the NA62 Collaboration, told Phys.org.

"While LHC experiments rely on the high collision energy, smashing protons at about 14 trillion electron volts, NA62, being a fixed-target experiment, focuses on the high intensity approach with a quintillion (1018) of protons on target per year. This intensity creates a unique opportunity to probe various rare processes and beyond Standard Model scenarios."

Dark photons, also referred to as A', are among the hypothetical particles beyond the Standard Model whose existence could be probed by the NA62 detector. These particles could act as mediators between known visible matter and dark matter.

Specifically, dark photons might couple to ordinary matter, as they could mix with photons described by the Standard Model. The coupling, however, would be extremely weak, which would explain why they have not been detected so far.

"This feeble interaction translates into a long lifetime, meaning in NA62 settings, A' would travel from tenths of centimeters to hundreds of meters before decaying," said Kleimenova and Ghinescu.

"Theoretically, if the dark photon is the lightest dark matter particle and has a mass below approximately 700 MeV, it would primarily decay into lepton pairs, such as electrons or muons. NA62 has all the necessary ingredients to be able to possibly see these decay signatures, featuring a very long beam line (over 80 m from the target to the decay volume), precise tracking, timing and particle identification systems and the possibility to collect these data in an almost background-free mode."

The primary objective of the recent study by the NA62 Collaboration was to investigate the sensitivity of the NA62 detector at CERN to dark photon decays. By analyzing the data collected by the detector while it was configured in so-called dump mode, the team hoped to identify signals that could be associated with dark photons.

"NA62 is a kaon experiment dedicated to precision measurements and studies of rare kaon decays," explained the authors. "The experiment can also be operated in 'dump mode.' In this mode, we can remove the target used to produce kaons and dump the 400 GeV proton beam onto an absorber at twice the usual intensity."

Theoretical predictions suggest that interactions between protons and dump material in the NA62 detector could produce various particles in hidden sectors of the light spectrum with masses around 1 GeV, including dark photons. These particles could then travel and decay in the instrumented region of the NA62 experiment.

"What we search for in our analysis is an event with only two opposite charged lepton tracks, which form a vertex inside the NA62 instrumented region," said the authors. "Since this event should originate from the proton-dump collision, we trace the two-lepton vertex 80 meters back to the front plane of the absorber and check if this traced position is compatible with the location of the primary proton interaction point."

As part of their recent study, the researchers analyzed a data sample of 1.4×1017 protons on dump collected by the NA62 detector in 2021. In the meantime, however, the detector has collected additional data and is expected to reach approximately 1018 protons on dump by the end of the NA62 experiment.

"Unfortunately, we did not find any evidence of dark photons, but we managed to exclude new regions in the dark photon mass and interaction strength parameter space," said the authors. "In addition, our results can be reinterpreted within other models, for example those involving axion-like particles."

While the team did not detect dark photon decays yet, their recent findings could inform future searches for these elusive particles. Kleimenova, Ghinescu and their colleagues are now working on combining their results with the findings of the collaboration's hadronic final states analysis.

"This current effort would conclude a comprehensive search for dark matter mediators using data collected by NA62 in 2021," add the authors.

"Our ultimate objective is to extend this analysis to the entire NA62 dump dataset. Furthermore, there are a few more Hidden sector scenarios which could be investigated by NA62, for example, Heavy Neutral Leptons (HNLs). HNLs are particularly interesting because they can address several key problems in particle physics and cosmology, such as the origin of neutrino masses, the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe, and the nature of dark matter."

TOP IMAGE: Observed and expected exclusion contours, at 90% CL, in the plane (MA′ , ε) for the combined A′ → e+e− and A′ → μ+μ− analyses (right) together with the expected +/-1σ (green) and +/-2σ (yellow) bands. Previous results are shown in gray. The NA62 A′ → μ+μ− result is shown with a dot-dashed line in the right panel. Credit: NA62 Collaboration.

LOWER IMAGE: Credit: NA62 Collaboration.

[tales-of-green-hill]

Shadow Arc

[PREVIOUS]

[FIRST]

[MASTER POST]

Once Starline goes on hiatus, he uses the time to go to Gerald Robotnik's laboratory. Starline had already studied up on Gerald Robotnik through Emerl's backed up memory files. Starline is searching for a secretive endeavor for an immortal being, putting a high concentration of Chaos Energy into a man-made human, a homunculus, Project Shadow. 

Starline had researched for several years prior, and he found Gerald's old laboratory that was used after the raid on the ARK, but prior to Gerald Robotnik's execution. It has since been abandoned with Shadow inside, the lab's design keeping Shadow hidden from anyone without the proper information. 

Starline drove to the coordinates listed, and when reaching the facility, he searched the facility, following the map that Emerl has in his data. Finally reaching the room with Shadow, Starline looks around for files on Project Shadow, getting a more vivid idea of Shadow, his capabilities, weaknesses, and character. 

The notes shown a few things, such as Shadow's inhibitor rings, which had 3 main purposes: keeping Shadow's Chaos Energy in check, as he can be dangerous to himself and others; It can keep Shadow from getting close to the wearer of a separate ring if they subconsciously want him to stay away, which was useful to keep Shadow from playing too rough with Gerald's granddaughter, Maria Robotnik; and finally, they have a kind of magnetic force, but due to it being different to normal magnets, they don't attract the same materials, but it can be used for locking down Shadow for certain tests, so he doesn't squirm. 

Starline searched for the ring that Maria had once worn, the one that protected her from Shadow. He eventually found it and equipped it. He turned to Shadow's stasis pod, and awoke him from it, now feeling safe because Starline knows he's untouchable due to the ring. 

As Shadow wakes, he looks at Starline, his eyes narrowing. Shadow would hesitantly ask Starline who he was, and Starline would introduce himself as a doctor, which made Shadow visibly uncomfortable and tense. Shadow asks about the Doctor, Gerald Robotnik, which Starline states he has been executed, which seemed to bring Shadow a sense of ease. Starline then began his monologue about how Shadow will help him in his efforts against Sonic, which is what he emphasizes on. 

Shadow asks what would happen if he doesn't agree, in response, Starline shows his hand and the gold ring Maria had used to wear on it, saying that Shadow shouldn't decline this offer. Shadow takes a few steps forward, looking at the ring, before sighing and agreeing to ally with Starline, referring to him exclusively as doctor throughout their exchange. 

Starline escorts Shadow out of the laboratory, and Shadow was surprised to see how many rooms he has never been in. Once the two exit the lab, Shadow is surprised to see how nice it looks outside and takes time to appreciate the nice breeze as Starline tells Shadow to get in the car. Shadow enters the passenger side after seeing Starline enter the driver's side, and the two head off to Green Hill, and during the long car ride, Starline talks about what Shadow will be dealing with. 

Shadow will be passing off as Starline's foster child, will be enrolling in Green Hill Highschool, and is not allowed to talk about his past to anybody else. Shadow shouldn't try to get any attention, so he doesn't draw suspicion. Then Starline gives more miscellaneous information, mostly about the school and how the world has changed since the 50's. 

Once Starline and Shadow arrive at Starline's house in Green Hill, Starline shows him around and assigns him the guest bedroom. After that, Starline calls Rouge and asks her to come over so she can meet Shadow. After a while, Rouge arrives, and Starline introduces the two, and gives quick introductions to one another before departing. The two continue conversing, Shadow seeming more open around Rouge. Rouge tried to tell Shadow about anything Starline missed, and even taught him how to use a cell phone. Rouge also decided to take Shadow shopping for some clothes that suit his style. Starline gave permission and they went ahead, and Rouge helped Shadow to pick a cool outfit she thought suited him. Rouge also taught Shadow about the social side of high school, so he'd better fit in. The two go back to Starline's house, and Rouge leaves. 

While the two were out, Starline made plans to enroll Shadow in school. Starline knew it would be an easier process in Green Hill as opposed to most places due to the fact Starline was a teacher and the fact Green Hill has a lot of students without parents or guardians, and the school lets all children in so they can get proper education. So, Shadow and Starline go to enroll Shadow in the school, and Shadow is told he will start the following Monday.         

With Sonic and Co. celebrated defeating Emerl, but Tails reminds everyone that Starline could come back, and Sonic dismissed the worry, asking why he'd risk coming back and starting Starline is a coward who ran away. Tails seems to reluctantly accept that, but he still wants to prepare for the worst. 

Knuckles begins to educate Sonic about the Chaos Emeralds further, because if Starline did come back, he would likely be after them, knowing Starline was already in possession of one. Sonic didn't see the point until Knuckles explains how Chaos Energy and Gateway Rings are connected, saying that if powdered by enough Chaos Energy, a Gateway Ring can open a portal to a mirror world, and how that caused the battle between Tikal and Chao, due to Chaos being a monster of the other world. Sonic starts to grasp the gravity of the situation and tells Knuckles that they need to find the Chaos Emeralds before Starline does. With proper discipline, the Master Emerald can sense the location of the Chaos Emeralds it's linked to. Sonic agrees to that being the best option and asks Knuckles to help him figure out how to do that.   

During this brief time, the school announced the date of an upcoming school event, the Spring Fling, which occurs the Friday before the week before spring break. They announce that they will be setting up volunteer opportunities concerning the dance, and how it will be organized by students. 

One of the students who helps organize it is Amy, since she eagerly volunteered. This would pack Amy's schedule further, so she has less time to train.     

On the Monday that Shadow got enrolled, Starline asked Amy to show Shadow around, which is partially a ploy with the end goal of getting Shadow close to Sonic, using Amy. Amy happily agreed and showed Shadow to his classes and around the school, mentioning how nice the school was and how there were a lot of good opportunities. Shadow enjoyed Amy's enthusiasm, reminding him about how excited Maria would get when talking about Earth. Eventually, Amy and Shadow would run into Sonic, and Amy would introduce the two. Sonic would quickly warm up to him, trying to be friendly to him, until Amy mentioned Starline, and that would make Sonic tense up. Sonic said it was nice to meet Shadow, but insisted he needed to leave. 

Sonic would text Tails about Shadow, and how Starline is back. Tails would eventually respond, asking if he could ask Amy for any information she could gain from Shadow.  After Sonic left, Shadow would ask Amy about him and respond with general stuff. Sonic is nice and caring, super cool, her friend, and he's on the track team. During the conversation, Amy would try to ask minor things about Starline, but Shadow would only vaguely answer. 

Later, Sonic would text Amy, and Amy would reply with she hadn't found much yet, except for him asking about Sonic in return. She said if she notices anything of value in the future, she'd notify Sonic.     

Sonic's science class was tense for him, as Starline knew Sonic knew about everything. Starline wasn't going to hide his passive aggressive side from Sonic, but he'd do it just subtly enough, so other students didn't pick up on it. 

After school, Sonic went straight home to go see Knuckles. He told him Starline was back, and he brought some teenagers with him. Knuckles is confused about the part with him bringing someone new, and Sonic says his name is Shadow. Knuckles tells Sonic to be cautious, since Shadow could be a potential adversary if he's allied with Starline, and now that Starline is back, everyone needs to be on guard.     

The following day, Starline would tell Shadow that he needs to be perceived as a threat by Sonic. Starline is used to Emerl's methods, so he tries to push them onto Shadow, which grows resentment towards Starline, as Shadow hates being treated like a tool or weapon. 

In the afternoon, Starline stayed after school to catch up on grading and had Shadow stay until track practice had concluded. Once it was over, Starline tells Shadow that Sonic should be packing up to go home. Shadow nodded and grabbed a green emerald that's smaller than the Master Emerald, and put it in his pocket, before walking out of Starline's classroom. 

Sonic gets everything together, and makes his way home, cautious due to Starline's reappearance. As he gets to a place not visible to the school, he gets an eerie feeling of being watched. He stops for a moment, and turns to look behind himself, and while he's turned, he gets a strong punch to the face from his new blind spot, sending himself to the ground. As Sonic looks back in front of himself, he sees Shadow standing there, seemingly having appeared out of thin air. Sonic tried to regain his bearings, shouting at Shadow, asking what the hell that was for. Shadow couldn't answer, having just been put in this situation with little real reason besides him having been told to. Sonic took the time to get up and the two would fight, Shadow being physically stronger but Sonic being more experienced. Sonic would ask Shadow if Starline told him to do this, to which Shadow would respond it's none of his business, which Sonic took as a yes. Sonic would pull the Master Emerald out of his bag and transform into his super form. Shadow would be stunned for a moment, but then his focus would be set on grabbing the Master Emerald, which he would end up doing, and then he would turn into his own Super form, which would completely shock Sonic. Shadow would use the form to intimidate Sonic, but Sonic would notice how Shadow's arrogance left himself more vulnerable to attacks, which allowed Sonic to win the fight, grabbing the Master Emerald and fleeing. Shadow wouldn't even chase, he'd just let Sonic go, and then return to Starline. Shadow would be nervous about telling Starline about how he didn't even understand the objective, but Starline would dismiss it, saying that just letting Sonic know Shadow is strong was enough. 

Once Sonic got home, he would go to Knuckles, who would be shocked at his battered state, and ask what had happened, tending to Sonic's injuries, despite most being just scrapes. Sonic would explain that Shadow fought him, and Shadow was able to go Super as well. Knuckles was surprised to learn of this information, but Sonic continued without giving Knuckles a chance to reply, saying that Shadow seemed to have appeared out of thin air right before their fight. Knuckles asked if Sonic was sure, and Sonic said that he was pretty sure. Knuckles asked if he was in super, and Sonic looked confused, replying with no. Knuckles stopped for a moment, and told Sonic that this could be more dangerous than he thought. Sonic wearily asked what Knuckles meant, and Knuckles said that it sounded like the power of the green Chaos Emerald was at play, time stopping which could be used as teleportation. Sonic asked if Shadow being in possession of the emerald is what was concerning, and Knuckles said that wasn’t the main concern. The real troubling part was that Shadow could do it without being in super. Sonic asked why, and Knuckles told Sonic that the reason Sonic can go super is due to Sonic’s ability to naturally control Chaos Energy, and how it was a rare thing to be able to do, hence why Knuckles can’t go super. Sonic asked where he was going with this, and Knuckles further explained that humans don’t have their own Chaos Energy inside them, they get it through external means, such as the Emeralds. The Master Emerald is the only emerald that can singlehandedly allow someone to go super, due to its high concentration of energy. With the Chaos Emeralds, they don’t have enough energy on their own to power someone to super, nor do they have enough energy to reach their full potential. Unlocking their full potential allows for one power up depending on the emerald. Sonic takes a while to process the information, before asking if Knuckles is saying Shadow must have either his own source of Chaos Energy, or if Shadow isn’t human. Knuckles said that either could be true, and only time would tell, but it’s imperative that they get the Chaos Emeralds before Starline does, especially now that Shadow is in the picture. Knuckles emphasizes that Starline and Shadow opening a gateway to the other world can lead to catastrophe, one which was told in stories passed by generations, a fable of an eternal night.       

Over the course of weeks, several things occurred. 

Amy slowly befriends Shadow, he's pretty closed off and cautious, but Amy breaks through his barriers with the power of friendship. She's extremely sweet and bossy, reminding Shadow of Maria. 

Sonic and Shadow get into more fights, which ends up drawing the two oddly close, Shadow eventually looks forward to fighting Sonic, being fond of the adrenaline rush and outlet to let off steam he provides. Shadow and Sonic develop a friendly rivalry, Sonic constantly cracking jokes and having fun banter while Shadow pretends to hate it. One thing Sonic makes a note of is that sometimes, when their fighting is more intensive, Shadow’s eyes would sometimes turn a golden color, one that greatly matched the color of the rings he wore. 

Amy and other volunteers help set up and plan for the upcoming spring fling. 

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles racing against Shadow, Starline, and Rouge to get the remaining Chaos Emeralds. Sonic sees that Shadow has a green Chaos Emerald in his possession, which grants him the ability to stop time, giving the illusion of teleportation. Sonic would eventually pick up on this ability and be able to use it too. Each of the seven Chaos Emeralds offers a unique ability to the user. Knuckles is already aware that Starline already owned the white emerald, having noticed it when they had fought against Emerl. 

Eventually Espio, who shares a class with Shadow, starts to become curious and suspicious about Shadow due to several factors, including Shadows inhibitor rings, his sudden appearance with Starline, and Shadows constant cycle of minor injuries caused by his fights with Sonic. Espio would consistently ask questions, only receiving vague answers, which would further his curiosity.         

With the night of the dance approaching, Amy asks Sonic to go with her, to which he obliges, saying they can go as friends. The insistence on it being platonic dented Amy's confidence, but she was happy to go either way. 

But on Friday afternoon, as Sonic was about to get ready, Knuckles told Sonic there was a change of plans. Since Starline is likely going to be attending the dance, since he is a part of the school staff, then it would be a good idea to retrieve the white Chaos Emerald while he's out of his house. Sonic tries to say that he's going to meet Amy, but Knuckles asks what's more important, a dance that'll come around again next year, or the potential fate of everything. When given the choice, Sonic had to choose staying home, and he called Amy, telling her about what Knuckles had said. Amy responded surprisingly well, saying it was fine, and there'll always be dances in the future. Sonic thanked her for understanding, then requested she keep an eye out for Starline and Shadow at the dance. Amy agreed, and said she'd text him, before hanging up, and just holding her face in her hands for a few minutes, trying to gather the courage to go alone. 

Amy wanted to go with Sonic, but he's not going. She doesn't want to tell Sticks and Sally that Sonic stood her up. She eventually gathers the courage to go alone and dresses up as pretty as she would be if she went with Sonic. 

Amy goes to the school and helps get everything in order, and then mingles with people as the dance starts. After a while, she just stood by the drink and snack table, not feeling up for socializing any more as she stayed glued to her phone. She informed Sonic that she had seen Starline, and then she noticed Shadow sitting on the bleachers. She sends Sonic a text saying Shadow is at the school, and then puts her phone in her bag as she grabs herself a drink from the table, and then one for Shadow, just to be nice. She goes up to him and greets him, offering him one of the sodas she picked up. He was flustered by the gesture, but took it, thanking her. Shadow asked where Sonic was, and Amy said he couldn't show up. Shadow accepts the answer, and the two make further small talk. 

Eventually, a slow song would play, one that several people would slow dance to, and Amy would drag Shadow onto the dance floor so they could dance together, since a dance with Shadow is better than no dance at all. During the dance, Amy is pleasantly surprised by how coordinated Shadow is. Once the dance concluded, Amy compliments his form, and Shadow dismissed it, saying he used to dance with a childhood friend. Amy was curious, and asked Shadow about the friend. Shadow reluctantly says that her name was Maria, and she was like an older sister to him. 

Amy notices his hesitation when saying that, so she pulls him into the hallway outside the gymnasium so he has more room to breathe, and they can talk more comfortably. Amy asks about how Maria was like, and Shadow says she was kind and bright, book smart, clever, and daring. She was his only friend, and that made Amy's heart melt. Amy asked more questions, which Shadow always seemed hesitant to answer, but oddly comfortable. Eventually, Amy asks what has happened, and after several seconds of silence, Shadow replies with "She was sick." That admission made Amy's heart stop for a moment, and profusely apologized for being so insensitive, but Shadow said it was okay. The two would continue talking for a while, where Amy would see Shadows more vulnerable side as he becomes more comfortable with her. Shadow and Amy would discover they have more in commission than they thought. Eventually, Amy feels her phone vibrate in her bag, and she excuses herself to the bathroom, but before she left, she would tell Shadow that Maria would be proud of him, before going off.     

Amy's words stuck with him, as he thought about what she had said. Would Maria be proud? Shadow regretfully thought she wouldn't be, as he's been nothing but a problem to people he's grown to care for, and he's been puppeted by Starline. Shadow's mind racks with thoughts about how all he wants is to be rid of Starline, but with Starline wearing Maria's ring, there's no true way to being free. His mind looks for solutions, and only one is a possibility. Sonic. 

Amy goes into the bathroom and checks Sonic's messages, and he sent a silly and blurry selection of selfies about their job well done, they successfully retrieved the white Chaos Emerald from Starline's house, which made Amy smile. Amy congratulated him and said that all was well at school. Sonic is glad to hear that, and Amy sends Sonic a selfie in her dress with a thumbs up, before putting her phone away, and sighing. She hadn't thought about Sonic since she had danced with Shadow, which was a surprising realization to make. 

Amy went back to Shadow, who looked lost in thought. She greeted him, and he nodded, and after a while, asked about Sonic. Amy got a bit tense, since she had just talked to Sonic, but what she wasn't expecting was Shadow's questions. If he had a problem, would Sonic help him fix it? Amy said he would, but also insisted that she was also someone Shadow could reach out to. Shadow appreciated the offer. Amy decided not to press it, instead just letting Sonic deal with it in due time. 

Amy and Shadow continue to talk until Starline calls Shadow, saying it's time to go. Shadow tells Amy goodbye, and Amy thanks Shadow for making this night feel special. He thanks her in return, saying that she was the one who made everything more interesting, then left. Amy was glad to know that she made him feel happy and went to go help clean up everything before going to Tails house, still all glamoured up. (The houses are walking distance from the school.) 

Amy greeted Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, and they all commented on how nice she looked, and Sonic said he was sorry he couldn't attend and gave Amy a hug. Amy said that it's okay, and she had a fun time talking to Shadow. Sonic said he's glad they both had a good time. Tails showed Amy the white Chaos Emerald, which is their sixth. All they need now is the green one. Amy's mind wanders to how Shadow mentioned asking Sonic for help, and Amy wonders if she should tell Sonic. She decides against it since it's not her place. Knuckles asks what Amy was thinking about, and Amy hesitates, before saying it was nothing. Tails says it's late, and Amy might want to start heading home. Sonic offers to walk her home to make up for the time they didn't spend together at the dance. Amy graciously takes up the offer, and the two go off, and Amy talks about how nice the dance was. Sonic asks about Shadow since he has been brought up earlier. Amy thinks for a few moments, wanting to inform Sonic but not wanting to betray Shadow by telling Sonic anything that wasn't his business. Amy eventually decided to just say that Sonic should befriend Shadow in a way outside of fighting. Sonic chuckles, saying sure. The two eventually get to Amy's house, where the two hug each other goodbye, and Sonic apologizes again for standing up Amy. Amy says it's fine and not to worry.   

Sonic goes home and then talks to Knuckles and Tails about what they should do with the Emeralds now that they have six of them. Sonic asks if Shadow could keep the green one, and Knuckles insists that it's a bad idea because it's the green one, and that's the one which is the easiest to steal with due to the time stopping ability. Sonic reluctantly agrees, saying that'll be his focus. Tails also brings up a note he stole from Dr. Starline that listed coordinates, which Tails wants to research. 

The three continue talking until they all go to sleep, but Sonic finds it hard to fall asleep as Amy's descriptions of Shadow keep replaying in his mind, and he's not sure why.   

On Saturday and Sunday, there's not much happening, but the same could not be said for Monday.   

On Monday, Shadow would approach Sonic during lunch, asking to talk alone. Sonic obliges and follows, assuming Shadow just wanted to blow off some steam, but he's surprised when Shadow instead asks him for help. Shadow says that the ring Starline wore belonged to his late sister, and it was the only remnant of her he had. Sonic is surprised, but sympathetic as Shadow asks if Sonic can retrieve it for him, since he can't do it himself because of the properties of the ring. Sonic asks how Shadow expects him to get it. Shadow shows Sonic the green Chaos Emerald, telling him to use its ability to steal it. Shadow says it's the only way he can finally be free of Starline. Sonic takes the Emerald and tells Shadow that he'll do it. Shadow looks away and thanks Sonic. The two then walk back to the cafeteria to resume their day. 

After school, Sonic goes to his track meet, and after stops by Starline's classroom to see if he's still at school. He is, and Sonic takes the opportunity to steal the ring using the time stopping ability. He successfully gets the ring and texts Shadow, saying he has the ring. Shadow says he's at the bridge by the school, which happens to be along the river Sonic had almost drowned in earlier that year, but at a much shallower part. Sonic says he'll meet him there and goes off to meet him. 

Shadow looked down at his reflection in the water, and turned to face Sonic as he heard him approaching. Sonic held up Maria's ring, and Shadow felt a rising feeling of anxiety as Sonic approached, and Shadow felt like he couldn't stay put, and he rushed at Sonic. This startles Sonic, and Shadow knocks the ring out of Sonic's hands, and the ring drops into water below the bridge. 

Shadow tried his best to grab it, but he just couldn't reach. This was his last remnant of Maria, his best friend, his sister. She's gone, he lost her again. Shadow's knees buckle, and he falls to the ground, devastated at the loss. It felt like a stab in the gut. Sonic tries to comfort Shadow, but he's met with a hostile shout from, telling Sonic to get away from him, whose voice was strained from his distress. Sonic could see the bright golden glow in Shadow's eyes, a glow he had briefly seen during their fights. Shadow tried to hide his face, but Sonic could tell. Sonic looked down at the water below the bridge, and wished he could retrieve the ring, but just the idea of swimming makes him feel sick. Seeing there wasn't much he could do to alleviate Shadow's grief, he left, knowing Shadow would probably hate to be seen like this.     

Sonic went back to Tails' house, feeling awful about what happened. He felt like Shadow didn't deserve being used as a pawn by Starline, and how everything was caused due to Starline's obsession with whatever was happening on the other side of the rings. Sonic had all the Chaos Emeralds, not giving Shadow's back to him yet. As he got back to Tails' house, he used the green Chaos Emerald to stealthily grab all 6 of the remaining Chaos Emeralds from Tails' safekeeping and got the Gateway Ring. He knew what he was going to do, and felt it'd be evil to leave everyone wondering, so he wrote a note, placing it where Tails kept the Emeralds. Sonic took a deep breath, and used the Chaos Emeralds to activate the Gateway Ring, and stepped through. 

All of the Emeralds and the ring fell to the ground.     

That evening, Shadow walked in the door to Starline's house, and threw down his jacket as he headed to where he heard Starline working. Starline greeted him, not stopping what he was doing, nor turning back to look at Shadow. 

"It's gone." Shadows had a soreness to it, still, he talked clearly. 

Starline halted his work. "What's gone?" He hesitated. 

"Maria's ring." 

Starline's eyes darted towards his hand, and sure enough, the ring had disappeared. The pure dread Starline felt in that moment, the feeling of imminent danger, the feeling of the inevitable. 

Shadow took his first step forward, causing Starline to spin around to look at Shadow, who looked back with nothing but hate, mumbling threats. 

Before Starline could plead for mercy, Shadow lunged at him, but he was quickly met with a kick from Starline, who lodged his heel spurs on the back of his boot into Shadow's leg. Starline muttered something about knowing they'd come in handy, before taking off running, leaving Shadow briefly incapacitated. 

As Starline fled his house, he grabbed his phone and car keys. Once he got into his car, he called Rouge, saying that Shadow was dangerous, and he was going to have to leave Green Hill because Shadow was out for blood. Rouge was baffled by the call, as Shadow was never violent to her or Starline before, he was well behaved. She decided to see what was going on, and an hour later, after Shadow should've cooled down, she went to Starline's house, then to Shadow's room. Shadow sat on his bed when he heard the door open, looking at his wall. 

Shadow mumbled that Rouge should just leave.  Rouge approached anyways, and she just hugged him from behind. She assured him she wouldn't leave him alone. Shadow reluctantly leaned into her, being considerably calmer now. Rouge asks some questions about what happened, and Shadow tells her what happened, and tells Rouge the significance of the ring to him, it being the last thing he has that belonged to Maria, and how he knew he'd never feel free with it in someone else's possession. Rouge promises to get the ring back, and Shadow is speechless at the offer, but eventually says that would be great. She then leaves to let Shadow go to sleep. 

Once Rouge closes the door behind her, she thinks about what to do, and she decides to go see Knuckles. As she goes to Tails' house and goes into the backyard just to talk to Knuckles, who initially antagonizes her and tries to fight her, but after she explains what happened, Knuckles remarks that he hasn't seen Sonic since the morning. Rouge paused for a moment before she asked Knuckles for help with finding the ring for Shadow. Knuckles is reluctant, mentioning how she's asking help from an enemy, and explains that she was never loyal to Starline, disliking being a lackey, but she did what she had to. Now Shadow takes priority over her pride. Knuckles told her he'd think about helping her. 

[moneeb0930]

Annie J. Easley (April 23, 1933 – June 25, 2011) was an African-American computer scientist, mathematician, and rocket scientist. She worked for the Lewis Research Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). She was a leading member of the team which developed software for the Centaur rocket stage and one of the first African-Americans in her field.

In 1955, she read a local newspaper article about a story on twin sisters who worked for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) as “computers” and the next day she applied for a job. Within two weeks she was hired, one of four African Americans of about 2500 employees. She began her career in as a Mathematician and Computer Engineer at the NACA Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory (which became NASA Lewis Research Center, 1958–1999, and subsequently the John H. Glenn Research Center) in Cleveland, Ohio. She continued her education while working for the agency and in 1977, she obtained a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Cleveland State University. As part of a continuing education, Easley worked through specialization courses offered by NASA.

Her 34-year career included developing and implementing computer code that analyzed alternative power technologies, supported the Centaur high-energy upper rocket stage, determined solar, wind and energy projects, identified energy conversion systems and alternative systems to solve energy problems. Her energy assignments included studies to determine the life use of storage batteries, such as those used in electric utility vehicles. Her computer applications have been used to identify energy conversion systems that offer the improvement over commercially available technologies. She retired in 1989 (some sources say 1991).

Easley’s work with the Centaur project helped as technological foundations for the space shuttle launches and launches of communication, military and weather satellites. Her work contributed to the 1997 flight to Saturn of the Cassini probe, the launcher of which had the Centaur as its upper stage.

Annie Easley was interviewed in Cleveland, on August 21, 2001 by Sandra Johnson. The interview is stored in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Johnson Space Center Oral History Program. The 55 page interview transcript includes material on the history of the Civil Rights Movement, Glenn Research Center, Johnson Space Center, space flight, and the contribution of women to space flight

[jcmarchi]

New transistor’s superlative properties could have broad electronics applications

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/new-transistors-superlative-properties-could-have-broad-electronics-applications/

New transistor’s superlative properties could have broad electronics applications

In 2021, a team led by MIT physicists reported creating a new ultrathin ferroelectric material, or one where positive and negative charges separate into different layers. At the time they noted the material’s potential for applications in computer memory and much more. Now the same core team and colleagues — including two from the lab next door — have built a transistor with that material and shown that its properties are so useful that it could change the world of electronics.

Although the team’s results are based on a single transistor in the lab, “in several aspects its properties already meet or exceed industry standards” for the ferroelectric transistors produced today, says Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics, who led the work with professor of physics Raymond Ashoori. Both are also affiliated with the Materials Research Laboratory.

“In my lab we primarily do fundamental physics. This is one of the first, and perhaps most dramatic, examples of how very basic science has led to something that could have a major impact on applications,” Jarillo-Herrero says.

Says Ashoori, “When I think of my whole career in physics, this is the work that I think 10 to 20 years from now could change the world.”

Among the new transistor’s superlative properties:

It can switch between positive and negative charges — essentially the ones and zeros of digital information — at very high speeds, on nanosecond time scales. (A nanosecond is a billionth of a second.)

It is extremely tough. After 100 billion switches it still worked with no signs of degradation.

The material behind the magic is only billionths of a meter thick, one of the thinnest of its kind in the world. That, in turn, could allow for much denser computer memory storage. It could also lead to much more energy-efficient transistors because the voltage required for switching scales with material thickness. (Ultrathin equals ultralow voltages.)

The work is reported in a recent issue of Science. The co-first authors of the paper are Kenji Yasuda, now an assistant professor at Cornell University, and Evan Zalys-Geller, now at Atom Computing. Additional authors are Xirui Wang, an MIT graduate student in physics; Daniel Bennett and Efthimios Kaxiras of Harvard University; Suraj S. Cheema, an assistant professor in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and an affiliate of the Research Laboratory of Electronics; and Kenji Watanabe and Takashi Taniguchi of the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan.

What they did

In a ferroelectric material, positive and negative charges spontaneously head to different sides, or poles. Upon the application of an external electric field, those charges switch sides, reversing the polarization. Switching the polarization can be used to encode digital information, and that information will be nonvolatile, or stable over time. It won’t change unless an electric field is applied. For a ferroelectric to have broad application to electronics, all of this needs to happen at room temperature.

The new ferroelectric material reported in Science in 2021 is based on atomically thin sheets of boron nitride that are stacked parallel to each other, a configuration that doesn’t exist in nature. In bulk boron nitride, the individual layers of boron nitride are instead rotated by 180 degrees.

It turns out that when an electric field is applied to this parallel stacked configuration, one layer of the new boron nitride material slides over the other, slightly changing the positions of the boron and nitrogen atoms. For example, imagine that each of your hands is composed of only one layer of cells. The new phenomenon is akin to pressing your hands together then slightly shifting one above the other.

“So the miracle is that by sliding the two layers a few angstroms, you end up with radically different electronics,” says Ashoori. The diameter of an atom is about 1 angstrom.

Another miracle: “nothing wears out in the sliding,” Ashoori continues. That’s why the new transistor could be switched 100 billion times without degrading. Compare that to the memory in a flash drive made with conventional materials. “Each time you write and erase a flash memory, you get some degradation,” says Ashoori. “Over time, it wears out, which means that you have to use some very sophisticated methods for distributing where you’re reading and writing on the chip.” The new material could make those steps obsolete.

A collaborative effort

Yasuda, the co-first author of the current Science paper, applauds the collaborations involved in the work. Among them, “we [Jarillo-Herrero’s team] made the material and, together with Ray [Ashoori] and [co-first author] Evan [Zalys-Geller], we measured its characteristics in detail. That was very exciting.” Says Ashoori, “many of the techniques in my lab just naturally applied to work that was going on in the lab next door. It’s been a lot of fun.”

Ashoori notes that “there’s a lot of interesting physics behind this” that could be explored. For example, “if you think about the two layers sliding past each other, where does that sliding start?” In addition, says Yasuda, could the ferroelectricity be triggered with something other than electricity, like an optical pulse? And is there a fundamental limit to the amount of switches the material can make?

Challenges remain. For example, the current way of producing the new ferroelectrics is difficult and not conducive to mass manufacturing. “We made a single transistor as a demonstration. If people could grow these materials on the wafer scale, we could create many, many more,” says Yasuda. He notes that different groups are already working to that end.

Concludes Ashoori, “There are a few problems. But if you solve them, this material fits in so many ways into potential future electronics. It’s very exciting.”

This work was supported by the U.S. Army Research Office, the MIT/Microsystems Technology Laboratories Samsung Semiconductor Research Fund, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Ramon Areces Foundation, the Basic Energy Sciences program of the U.S. Department of Energy, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan.

[nuadox]

Scientists develop 3D printing technique using microwaves for faster, versatile manufacturing

- By Nuadox Crew -

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have developed a new 3D printing technique called Microwave Volumetric Additive Manufacturing (MVAM), which uses microwave energy to cure materials.

This approach allows for a wider range of materials, including opaque and composite resins, compared to traditional light-based methods. MVAM overcomes the limitations of Volumetric Additive Manufacturing (VAM), which is restricted to transparent resins, by enabling microwaves to penetrate deeper into materials. The technique promises faster curing times and the ability to produce larger, complex parts, potentially transforming industries like aerospace, automotive, and healthcare.

The team has demonstrated the ability to cure various resins and developed a computational model to optimize the process. While existing microwave hardware can cure resins in minutes, the model suggests that curing could be reduced to mere seconds at higher power levels. Despite the promise of faster and more versatile production, researchers face challenges such as the high cost of microwave devices. Future work will focus on reducing costs, scaling up production capabilities, and refining the process for broader industrial use

Image: Proposed MVAM system: Energy from the antenna array beams is focused at specific locations through superposition, allowing for complex patterning. Credit: Additive Manufacturing Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.addlet.2024.100209

Read more at LLNL

Scientific paper: Saptarshi Mukherjee et al, Towards microwave volumetric additive manufacturing: Generation of a computational multi-physics model for localized curing, Additive Manufacturing Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.addlet.2024.100209

Other recent news

Photosynthesis in Arctic Algae: Researchers have discovered that Arctic algae can thrive with just 100,000th of daylight, showcasing a remarkable adaptation.

[justforbooks]

Alfred Nobel stipulated that his annual prizes be awarded to those who “have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind”. Few scientific advances have had a greater impact on our lives than that made by the American materials chemist John Goodenough, a chemistry Nobel laureate in 2019 for his role in inventing the rechargeable lithium battery.

If you are reading this on a handheld device, it will almost certainly have a lithium battery inside. These power packs have been instrumental to the advent of electric cars, and their ability to store power such as that generated by ephemeral renewable sources could aid the transition away from a fossil-fuel energy economy.

For year after year Goodenough, who has died aged 100, featured in the list of Nobel predictions. Only his remarkable longevity saved the Swedish committee from an embarrassing injustice – he is the oldest person to have been awarded a Nobel. He seemed phlegmatic about being repeatedly overlooked, even though he did not enjoy any financial reward for his breakthrough either: in the 1980s he was not encouraged to take out a patent on the battery breakthrough he made at Oxford University. He was glad enough still to be able to do research, which he sustained almost until the very end of his life.

He left Oxford in 1986 for the University of Texas at Austin to escape compulsory retirement at 65, convinced – rightly – that he had a lot more still to offer. “Why would anyone retire and simply wait to die?” he asked. His vitality and enjoyment in the lab well into his 90s, punctuated by his loud and high-pitched laugh, was a constant cause of amazement.

One would hardly have guessed from that demeanour how unhappy his childhood had been, as the second of three children of extremely distant parents in what he called “a disaster” of a marriage. He was born in the city of Jena, Germany, to Helen (nee Lewis) and Erwin Goodenough.

They were both Americans who were living in Oxford – Erwin was studying for a DPhil at the university and, according to his son, “enjoyed the culture of the Weimar Republic; he spent much of his long summer vacations in Germany as well as in Rome”.

John was taken as a baby to the US, where his father became a professor of religious history at Yale University. John grew up mostly in a boarding school in Massachusetts, from where, despite being an undiagnosed dyslexic, he won a place to study mathematics at Yale. After wartime military service as a meteorologist, he gained a doctorate in physics at the University of Chicago and in 1952 began research on magnetic materials for information storage at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

That work qualified him to switch to inorganic materials chemistry when in 1976 he moved to Oxford. At that time, interest was growing in electric vehicles, which were being held back by the lack of suitable batteries.

The potential benefits of electric cars as quieter and less polluting than those using the petrol-fired internal combustion engine had been recognised since their inception. But the lead-acid batteries used as starter batteries and the power source for vehicle electronics were utterly unequal to the task of supplying the motive power: they were too heavy and offered too little power.

The dream of battery-powered cars was resurrected in the 60s, but it was only a decade later, with the Opec oil crisis in full swing, that the industry took them seriously.

The key was to find the right materials for the battery electrodes. Lithium metal looked attractive because it is lightweight and capable of delivering high voltages. The idea was that lithium at the positive electrode would provide electrically charged ions that travel to the negative electrode, where they could be trapped between the layers of atoms in materials called intercalators.

The British chemist Stanley Whittingham, one of Goodenough’s co-laureates, working at the Exxon laboratories in New Jersey, found a suitable intercalator called titanium disulfide in 1976. Four years later, Goodenough in Oxford identified the material – a form of cobalt oxide – that became the industry standard, offering a higher voltage and greater power density.

Early lithium batteries had a tendency to catch fire because of the high chemical reactivity of pure lithium. But the third 2019 laureate, the Japanese researcher Akira Yoshino, of the Asahi Kasei Corporation in Tokyo, replaced lithium electrodes with graphite-like carbon made from petroleum coke, which also intercalates lithium so that the ions merely shuttle back and forth between the two sets of layers, making them easily rechargeable.

The lithium-ion battery was commercialised in 1991 by the Sony Corporation, and now commands an estimated $92bn market. Without it there could have been none of today’s handheld electronics – laptops, smartphones, tablets. Elon Musk’s Tesla electric cars depend on them.

There is still room for improvement and Goodenough never stopped seeking it. In the past decade he was working, among other things, on making batteries that operate at low temperatures, suitable for powering cars in the winter.

He was also seeking a new, safer way to reinstate pure lithium electrodes, which could give lithium batteries more energy capacity. At the same time, he expressed concerns about the international tensions that might arise over the limited global supplies of lithium.

Goodenough maintained a strong Christian belief throughout his life, seeing no conflict with his scientific work. “The scientist is trying to do something for society and for his fellow man,” he said. “In that sense why should there be a conflict?” During his 90s he cared for his wife, Irene (nee Wiseman), who had Alzheimer’s disease. They had married in 1951; she died in 2016.

“I’d like to get all the gas emissions off the highways of the world”, Goodenough said in 2018. “I’m hoping to see it before I die.” It was always an ambitious aspiration, even for someone with his staying power. But if it happens one day, Goodenough will have played a central part in that.

🔔 John Bannister Goodenough, materials scientist, born 25 July 1922; died 25 June 2023

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[denimbex1986]

'During the middle of World War II, teenage physics major Roy Glauber found himself plucked out of college on the East Coast and assigned to work at a mysterious new government research center in the far-off deserts of New Mexico.

His destination turned out to be a laboratory at Los Alamos, a part of the Manhattan Project, where he was assigned to work under groundbreaking theoretical physicist Hans Bethe to help calculate the smallest amount of fissionable material—the critical mass—needed to set off a sustained nuclear reaction.

Glauber was one of the youngest scientists in the 1,400-person Los Alamos staff, and afterward he went on to a distinguished career in physics, earning a doctorate—and later becoming a professor—at Harvard University. His work focused on a wide variety of topics, including quantum dynamics, the collisions of high-energy particles such as hadrons, and the behavior of light particles, especially in clarifying how light had the characteristics of a wave and a particle simultaneously. In addition to his research, Glauber was known for his sense of humor, such as being the official “keeper of the broom” at an annual mock scientific conference sponsored by what has been called the MAD magazine of science, where his role was to sweep the stage clean of paper airplanes. (It’s become a tradition for members of the audience to throw paper airplanes at the stage to celebrate the end of the night’s proceedings.)

In 2005 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics; some years later, the 91-year-old Glauber attended the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, where he agreed to an interview with me. Sadly, he died a year-and-a-half later, in 2018.

In this interview, one of the last surviving eyewitnesses from the effort to build the first atomic bomb gives his impressions of that project’s driving force—the director of the Los Alamos lab, J. Robert Oppenheimer. Glauber describes what it felt like to be working there as a young physicist; experience the overwhelming need for secrecy—and witness the test explosion of the first atomic bomb.

Dan Drollette Jr: To start things off, I thought we might look at these photos on my laptop of 1940s security ID badges from Los Alamos. As you can see, each one has a name, an ID number, and a kind of small black-and-white photo—but at least they each show the individual faces of the people who worked there at the time.

Roy Glauber: Oh, yes. (Looks through array of photos on screen.)

There’s Dorothy McKibbin.

And there’s a very young Richard Feynman. Though they all look young.

You know, there was very little sense at Los Alamos at the time that any history was being enacted which would be of interest after the war was over. So, there was very, very little photography devoted to the individuals.

Although there was a large photographic division, which photographed all the experiments—including all the failures, and there were vast numbers of those. (Laughs.)

But there was not much on simply recording the way people lived, and where we hung out.

Drollette: I like that smirk on Feynman’s ID photo. It’s a funny expression.

Glauber: Well, for all intents and purposes, he was the resident clown. You would often find that wherever people gathered for lunch, there would always be a little knot of about half-a-dozen women all in the corner, laughing—and in the center would be Feynman, telling stories. He really made quite an entertainer of himself. He happened also to be possibly the brightest young mathematician in the place. I met Feynman in the year 1943, when I arrived there.

Drollette: And how old were you when you went to Los Alamos?

Glauber: I was 18.

Drollette: From the description you gave for an oral history about the Manhattan Project, it sounded like they didn’t tell you much about what you were getting into.

Glauber: That was a matter of security, of course.

But I quickly got a general impression of what might be in the air, because the story of fission had been really big just a few years earlier, in 1939. All during the middle ‘30s, Fermi had been subjecting many elements to irradiation by neutrons… By 1938, he was doing it with uranium. He found all sorts of funny particles flying out, which he could not analyze, and which were found to have strange chemical properties. And researchers had developed the idea that maybe they might be evidence of the fissioning of uranium.

That was a really great discovery, which then led to speculation about the possibility of a chain reaction. It made a big stir in the newspapers for a time, and it was an exciting story, at least for a kid like me.

But then it all just … disappeared. Not another word about it. There was speculation that fission might have some strategic importance, and so it was declared secret, at least in America. And one really heard nothing more of it, in the several years that followed. The story went subsurface. It just went nowhere.

Drollette: But you had a general kind of sense?

Glauber: Well, I don’t know if I’d say that, but that was what had been going on in the background. All I knew for sure was that we were at war, I was in college, I’d registered for the draft, and I was expecting to be going directly into the armed forces….

But suddenly other things began to happen … and happen quite rapidly. It all started quite soon after I filled out this questionnaire that had arrived from Washington, from an organization which has almost never been heard of before or since, called the “National Roster of Scientific Personnel.” It was intended to put people who were trained and with the right skills into the right places—and there was a great shortage of people who were well-trained.

While filling out that questionnaire I wrote down that I had taken all these courses, which were almost all things that one takes much later, in graduate school. So, to make a long story short, they came and got me—I received instructions to leave Harvard as soon as one could leave that school term and get a ticket for the first train to Chicago.

Drollette: But weren’t you only in your first year of college?

Glauber: Well, you have to understand that by ’43, they were tired of drafting older men—particularly those with families. They wanted young guys for the military. And it all makes sense, given my personal history: I had skipped some grades in high school—which was much more common back then, when they really pushed people forward academically, regardless if they were really mature enough—and I’d been involved in all kinds of science projects, and a high school teacher had given me some books on calculus. Which all meant that I got a little ahead.

And then after I did get into college, all the professors started leaving to go work in the war effort, and the college administration announced that this would be the last chance for many of us to take some of the more advanced courses for the duration of the war. So, the whole education business was kind of telescoped for us—meaning that I had all these graduate-level classes on my school record.

Drollette: What happened next?

Glauber: It was very secretive; they would not say where one was going after Chicago. After I got there, I had to make a phone call to someone at some agency, who gave me another train ticket that turned out to go to a place in New Mexico I’d never heard of, called Lamy—not much more than a wooden boardwalk for a station. And it was there that I was supposed to get off, and someone would meet me. Meanwhile, any personal belongings I wanted to ship out—books and clothing—would go to a post office box. I still remember the address: Post Office Box 1663, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Well, I had never been west of Chicago. So that alone was quite an exciting business for me, riding on the Santa Fe Railroad, seeing bona fide cowboys, and watching people who were bronze in color and wearing furs and blankets get on the train.

When I got to Lamy, I was met by a tall, slender fellow who to all intents looked like a cowboy: He literally had a 10-gallon hat and wore a checked yellow shirt and dungarees. And this cowboy picked up not only me from the train but a short man with a derby hat and a navy-blue overcoat who also got off at that same stop—whom I later found out was John von Neumann.

The most remarkable thing was the geography. I’d never seen anything quite like that before; mesas and gulches and mountains, with narrow roads dug into the sides of canyon walls…

And this chap, this cowboy figure I’ve described to you, was a mathematician that previously worked with Neumann, and they started talking about what was going on in “the research up on ‘the Hill.’ ”

They had to resort to this way of talking, because they felt that was what one had to do in order to preserve the lab’s secrets—they didn’t know my state of clearance at all. So they described in terms appropriate to them the terrible things that were going on in a particular computation. It was not in the real world, but they were describing it as if it were the real world.

The fact that matter was being annihilated was to them a simple description of a mathematical mistake, while to me it was a description of the most incredible feats going on in the real world. So it was a very unusual sort of introduction to this kind of life.

Drollette: What were your first impressions?

Glauber: Well, I mentioned the geography: all canyons and plateaus. Los Alamos was placed in a virtually impassable area, miles from the nearest town. At the stage that I got there, there were still some log houses remaining from what had formerly been the Los Alamos Ranch School for Boys—a tuberculosis sanatorium—and the beginnings of more new structures. They had started putting up dormitories and some small apartment buildings a few months earlier, but none of them had space for more than four apartments with small families.

And there were quite a few small families, and many families that got appreciably larger. It had one of the busiest maternity hospitals, I think, that were run anywhere by the US Army. (Laughter.)

You have to understand that these were all young people; the older people didn’t want to go to this godforsaken location.

Drollette: What was the very first day of work like at the Manhattan Project?

Glauber: The first morning I was there, I was given a list of people to march around and meet. It was as if they had to compete for new personnel—to speak up and say “I want the new guy.”

Out of them all, I best remember an interview with Robert F. Bacher, who was head of the physics division.

On meeting me for the first time, Bacher said: “I bet you’re interested in what we’re working on here.” And I said I didn’t know.

So he said: “What’s your best guess? What do you think we’re working on?” He was asking me—an 18-year-old!

So I told him that “Judging from the treatment that the story had been given by the newspapers earlier, you’re probably trying to create a chain reaction based on fission.”

He said: “Well, that’s a very erudite guess. But I have to tell you, we succeeded in doing that a year-and-a-half ago”—he was describing the fact that they had indeed gotten a reaction to occur in Chicago, although that had nothing to do with Los Alamos.

And he added: “I have to tell you, however, that we are indeed working on a chain reaction here, it just happens to be a fast chain reaction, not a slow one.” And he then went on to explain that it was a bomb.

I was really quite upset by that—the notion that this was not going to be so much about a gift to mankind, but a weapon.

And it did take some weeks and months to overcome that feeling … and to discover that there were really interesting mathematical problems involved in making this bomb. And those really did keep me busy for the next two years.

So anyway, that’s how I learned what the story was.

Drollette: Was there any kind of orientation?

Glauber: There was something called the Primer, which you had to go and read—a sort of text for beginners. It was available in the library, and you had to sign out a copy, where you could learn of all of the speculations about the bomb that had been voiced in the months earlier.

Drollette: Were you at the Trinity Test?

Glauber: Well, how to put this… I saw it. (Laughs.)

They didn’t want us to fear its presence, so it was okay to view it from a distance.

But I had no authorization, if that’s what you mean. Just as important, there was also a considerable shortage of transportation. Very few people had cars at Los Alamos, and gasoline rationing meant you couldn’t go very far, anyway.

Luckily, I did get a lift to a mountain near Albuquerque, to the only place where a road goes to a really high altitude at that area, called Sandia Peak… I think there may have been 20 or 30 people altogether who went to the top of Sandia to try to see that test.

Unfortunately, we had no radio contact with the people running the Trinity Test, which was on a plain almost due south of Albuquerque. Now, we knew the test was supposed to be a couple of hours after midnight. But there was, in fact, a lightning storm at that time so it was delayed. I don’t know if lightning was striking right there at that testing spot—but frankly, it would have been very scary to be anywhere near there, because the bomb was held in a 100-foot-tall steel tower. And the lightning striking around there would have had a considerable chance of striking that tower.

Anyway, after a while, we saw some flashes, little flashes—which would have been considerable disappointments.

So by 5:30 in the morning, nearly everyone had left, because you got tired of just sitting there with no indication of when it was going to happen.

But I was a little more stubborn. The others had left, but I was sitting there facing in that direction when at 5:30 in the morning, it was as if the sun was rising from the south.

Drollette: So you saw it?

Glauber: I saw it. (Pause.)

Drollette: That must have been some experience.

Glauber: Yes. (Pause.)

Drollette: What was Oppenheimer like?

Glauber: He was a remarkable choice. Oppenheimer was an ultra-intellectual American, and he loved to express himself in poetic images and phrases. When he was in college—I think it took him only three years to go through Harvard—he developed the knack of reading Sanskrit and a passion for Indic poetry. Now, I can’t begin to tell you how deep or how accurate his knowledge was of these areas—none of us could. There was no one else at Los Alamos who knew about this sort of thing.

But he had studied it, and he used those phrases often. Oppenheimer used them particularly to describe the unearthly things that one saw in a nuclear explosion. He had a passionate involvement with expressing himself in literary language. He did not speak the ordinary language of New York, which many of us did.

Drollette: You’re referring to his comment “I am become death, the destroyer of worlds”?

Glauber: Exactly, exactly.

So he was very different. He did not sound like a typical American leader at all. Yet somehow all of us respected that—and even admired that. He was about as opposite an individual as you could imagine from General Groves. They were like two polar opposites.

But they often appeared together in public—the leader of the science side and the leader of the military part. They were very careful that at important, strategic times, they would both appear together. There was something really symbolic about that, and you’ll notice it in many of the photographs.

Drollette: Let’s see if I can call it up on the screen—okay, here’s the ID badge photo of Oppenheimer.

It’s not very good, more like the picture you have on your driver’s license. But even in the security picture, I get a sense of him as being sort of otherworldly.

Glauber: That’s a good word. He acted otherworldly, a little. Women found him somewhat strange.

I knew one woman he had gone with before he married, and she thought that he behaved very strangely. She described how one time they had driven up to some place or other above Berkeley. He had left her sitting in the car and went off on some kind of solitary walk by himself one night, leaving her. (Laughs.)

There were many such stories about him. He was a rather different sort of person. He had already had some difficulties.

He was rather—how should I say it—an aesthete.

And in Britain, he had a rather difficult time: He tried joining an experimental group, and there was some sort of serious trouble. I can’t remember what the trouble was, but it was really quite serious. He left Britain and went to Germany. And there, he began working under Max Born and decided that he was a theorist, not an experimenter. He would never have been a decent experimenter, he was altogether too nervous. He never stopped smoking, he always had a cigarette in his mouth. He was a very nervous, tense man.

But he expressed himself quite beautifully. And the scientists really seemed to respect that. He never had any serious trouble with the scientists; no insurrection or disagreements.

Drollette: Was he soft-spoken?

Glauber: He was, yes.

And the remarkable thing, which you’ll catch in my own photos when I show them tomorrow, is that as a theorist, Oppie went around and visited all the experimental sites. He involved himself with the experimenters as much as possible—even though he never touched experiments and never went near the performance of experiments himself, after his bad experience in Britain.

Drollette: Is there something that makes theoretical physicists different from experimental physicists? They just seem to be a different group.

Glauber: Well, they are, they really are. First of all, many of them are physically clumsy.

You put them in the laboratory and the glassware starts breaking. (Laughter.)

Although that isn’t true of all of them, of course.

And I’ve got to say that when I was a kid, I myself thought that I was going to be an experimenter—and then mathematics moved me away. I felt later that that was a mistake, and that I should have become an experimenter. But it was too late.

Drollette: What did Oppie do that made Los Alamos so extraordinary?

Glauber: Well, he was extraordinary. He was a man of really considerable insight. The curious thing is how few things he actually did himself; there is next to nothing known by Oppenheimer’s name. But he understood it all and described it very well—and made quite a contribution that way.

Drollette: So he was a good manager, he understood the people he was dealing with?

Glauber: Well, you never would have thought that; he had had zero experience as a manager. And putting him in charge was the most imaginative thing that General Groves ever did.

He was rather an aloof person, and not easy to get to know.

But on the other hand, Oppie somehow created an atmosphere at Los Alamos that was unique, where everyone was working together on a mission. Consequently, even if you were a student, you could talk to a famous physicist.

All the physicists who were there were very accessible, and very involved. The only exception that comes to mind is Edward Teller.

Drollette: What was Teller’s role?

Glauber: Teller was one of the early theorists about chain reactions. And he had worked on why the stars shine—the thermonuclear reactions which go on in stars. He was known for that sort of thing.

But Teller was also a very impatient man, and very outspoken.

And I must say, when I got to Los Alamos, he was absent. There was an office next to mine which had the name “Teller” on the door, but there was no Edward Teller. He had determined in late 1943 that he had not been given the important positions that he wanted, and he had left in a huff. He left for something over a month, and then came back.

He was a big noise.

But Oppenheimer welcomed him back and gave him a division all his own, that would deal with what was called the “Super”—and the Super turned out to be the only passion that Teller truly had.

Drollette: What was the Super?

Glauber: That was the idea that one could use the fission reaction from the atomic bomb as a sort of match to ignite the kind of enormous continuous release of energy that occurs in a thermonuclear reaction—the kind that the stars burn. So, Teller’s notion was that you would use the fission bomb to ignite a thermonuclear reaction, which would release unlimited amounts of energy. And eventually, by 1954, that was what happened.

Drollette: So Teller was the man behind the H-bomb.

Glauber: Well, he tried hard to be the man behind the H-bomb. When the war was over and a great many people began leaving Los Alamos, Teller was the one person who would not leave. Teller felt his mission was still to start the thermonuclear reaction—and he had no success at it.

And that failure to discover how to ignite that reaction continued on through 1949, which was the point at which the Russians tested their first fission bomb.

So, immediately there was pressure on President Truman to get the Super project regenerated, in order for the United States to have the hydrogen bomb—an order of magnitude of destructive power above what we had been working on during the war.

And I must say that the hydrogen bomb has never done anybody any good. It does exist, and it is an enormous threat, but it has accomplished nothing in constructive terms.

Nothing for science.

Nothing for anybody.

Nothing for security.'

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Zirconium metals under extreme conditions found to deform in surprisingly complex ways

Materials are crucial to modern technology, especially those used in extreme environments like nuclear energy systems and military applications. These materials need to withstand intense pressure, temperature and corrosion. Understanding their lattice-level behavior under such conditions is essential for developing next-generation materials that are more resilient, cheaper, lighter and sustainable. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and collaborators compressed single crystal samples of the metal zirconium and found that under high pressure, the material deformed in surprisingly complex ways. The research appears in two journals, Physical Review Letters and Physical Review B. Materials under high-stress conditions relieve shear stresses through mechanisms like dislocation slip, crystallographic twinning, shear-induced amorphization, phase transition and fracture.

Read more.

[skin-care-news]

Interview with Alexander Brosda, CEO at Sokörpe Laboratories

Q: Thank you for joining us, Mr. Brosda. Can you tell us about Sokörpe Laboratories and the philosophy behind your company?

A: Thank you for having me. Sokörpe Laboratories is a biotech company dedicated to developing high-tech, plant-based, all-natural, organic skincare products. Our philosophy is centered around creating the best skincare solutions that the world has ever seen, while prioritizing the use of natural and organic compounds. We believe in harnessing the power of nature to provide effective skincare without compromising on safety or sustainability.

Q: What sets Sokörpe Laboratories apart from other skincare manufacturers in the market?

A: Unlike many other manufacturers who rely on synthetic and toxic chemicals, Sokörpe Laboratories takes a different approach. We understand that consumers are increasingly seeking natural and organic alternatives for their skincare needs. We look at other manufacturers and their best-selling products as inspiration, but instead of resorting to cheap and potentially harmful chemicals, we strive to make them better by enhancing their efficacy using natural and organic compounds.

Q: Could you elaborate on the types of natural and organic compounds that Sokörpe Laboratories uses in its skincare products?

A: Certainly. At Sokörpe, we extensively research and utilize a wide range of natural and organic compounds known for their beneficial properties. These include plant extracts, essential oils, botanicals, herbal infusions, and other plant-based ingredients. We prioritize sourcing these ingredients from sustainable and environmentally conscious suppliers to ensure the highest quality and purity in our products.

Q: How does Sokörpe Laboratories ensure that its skincare products are safe and effective for consumers?

A: Safety and efficacy are paramount to us. We adhere to rigorous quality control standards and have a dedicated team of scientists and researchers who formulate our products. All our ingredients go through meticulous testing to ensure their safety and efficacy. Additionally, our laboratories are FDA registered, providing consumers with the confidence that our products meet the highest regulatory standards.

Q: You mentioned that Sokörpe Laboratories aims to be sustainable. Can you elaborate on your sustainability practices?

A: Absolutely. Sustainability is an integral part of our company's values. We strive to minimize our environmental footprint throughout our entire production process. This includes using sustainable packaging materials, implementing energy-efficient manufacturing practices, and actively seeking eco-friendly alternatives. We also prioritize ethical sourcing of our ingredients, supporting fair trade practices and working with suppliers who share our commitment to sustainability.

Q: How does Sokörpe Laboratories ensure that its skincare products perform better than their synthetic counterparts?

A: We believe that nature provides us with incredible resources that can outperform synthetic alternatives. Our team of experts leverages advanced scientific research and cutting-edge technology to unlock the full potential of natural and organic compounds. Through innovative formulations and carefully selected combinations of ingredients, we are able to develop skincare products that deliver superior results without relying on synthetic chemicals.

Q: What kind of research and development efforts are carried out at Sokörpe Laboratories?

A: Research and development are at the core of our company. We invest heavily in scientific research to continually enhance our understanding of natural compounds and their potential applications in skincare. Our team collaborates with leading scientists, dermatologists, and other experts in the field to stay at the forefront of skincare innovation. This commitment allows us to develop groundbreaking products that address various skincare concerns effectively.

Q: Where can consumers purchase Sokörpe Skin-Care products?

A: Sokörpe Skin-Care products are available for purchase from licensed estheticians, aestheticians, medical and day spas, plastic surgeons, and luxury spa resorts. We have established partnerships with reputable professionals in the skincare industry who share our values and commitment to providing exceptional skincare experiences. By making our products available through these channels, we ensure that customers receive personalized guidance and recommendations tailored to their specific skincare needs. Additionally, our website serves as a platform for consumers to explore our product range and locate authorized retailers near them.

Q: Could you tell us about some of Sokörpe Laboratories' flagship products and their unique features?

A: Certainly! One of our flagship products is Sokörpe's Vitamin C Serum. Sokörpe's Organic Vitamin C Serum is a remarkable product designed to provide powerful and long-lasting benefits to the skin. Formulated with a potent concentration of Vitamin C, this serum delivers exceptional results for a radiant and youthful complexion. One of the unique features of our Vitamin C Serum is its ability to stay in the skin for up to 72 hours, ensuring continuous efficacy and lasting effects.

The serum contains 1% Hydroxyphenoxy Propionic Acid, a non-toxic derivative of hydroquinone known for its dark spot erasing properties. This ingredient helps to fade hyperpigmentation and even out skin tone, promoting a more uniform complexion.

The ingredient list showcases the emphasis we place on using organic and natural components. The serum includes Organic Aloe Vera Juice, Organic Bulgarian Rose Distillate, and Organic Witch Hazel Extract, which work synergistically to provide hydration, soothing properties, and antioxidant benefits.

Our formulation also includes a range of potent botanical extracts, including Wild Harvested Kakadu Plum Extract, Organic Green Tea Extract, Organic Roman Chamomile Extract, and Organic Gotu Kola Extract. These botanicals offer antioxidant protection, help to brighten the skin, and promote overall skin health.

To further enhance the nourishing and moisturizing benefits, the serum incorporates Organic Rosehip Seed Oil and Organic Squalane, derived from vegetables. These natural oils provide essential fatty acids and nutrients that support the skin's barrier function and maintain its suppleness.

With Sokörpe's Organic Vitamin C Serum, you can experience the transformative power of Vitamin C combined with organic and natural ingredients. It is a testament to our commitment to creating skincare products that are both effective and safe, allowing you to achieve a radiant and revitalized complexion.

Another popular product is our Sokörpe's Organic Hyaluronic Acid Serum. It is a highly acclaimed product that has gained recognition in the skincare industry. The serum was awarded the prestigious 2020 Anti-Blemish Product of the Year Award at the US Beauty Innovation Awards, held in Orange County, CA. This recognition serves as a testament to the exceptional quality and effectiveness of our product among a competitive field of over 2,000 entries from around the world.

The serum's formulation incorporates a range of powerful and beneficial ingredients. Niacinamide (Vitamin B3) and Panthenol (Provitamin B5) contribute to the overall health and appearance of the skin, promoting a clear and even complexion. MSM (Organic Sulfur) offers additional skin-nourishing properties, contributing to a more vibrant and youthful appearance.

Sodium PCA is included to enhance hydration and improve the skin's moisture-retention capabilities, providing a plump and hydrated complexion. Glucono Delta Lactone (GdL), a Polyhydroxy acid (PHA), acts as a next-generation AHA, gently exfoliating the skin and promoting a smoother texture.

The serum also features an Amino Acid Complex consisting of seven skin-benefiting amino acids, which provide nourishment and support for a healthy skin barrier. In addition, our Chelated Mineral Complex, derived from the yeast Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, contains five essential minerals: Zinc, Silicon, Magnesium, Copper, and Iron. These minerals, carefully chelated during the manufacturing process, are more bioavailable to the skin, allowing their beneficial aspects to be effectively utilized.

At Sokörpe, we prioritize the control and inclusion of specific minerals in our Chelated Mineral Complex, ensuring optimal percentages for enhanced efficacy. This preference allows us to create a highly targeted and beneficial mineral complex compared to simply using mineral water.

Sokörpe's Organic Hyaluronic Acid Serum is a standout product that combines the power of hyaluronic acid with a meticulously crafted blend of ingredients. It addresses blemishes, nourishes the skin, and promotes a healthier complexion. We are proud to offer a product that has been recognized by industry experts and continues to exceed expectations in delivering exceptional skincare results.

Q: How does Sokörpe Laboratories ensure the transparency of its ingredient sourcing and production processes?

A: Transparency is a core value at Sokörpe Laboratories. We believe in providing consumers with full visibility into our ingredient sourcing and production processes. We work closely with trusted suppliers who share our commitment to sustainability and ethical practices. Our ingredient labels clearly list all the components used, enabling customers to make informed choices about the products they purchase. Additionally, we maintain an open line of communication with our customers, answering any questions they may have about our sourcing and production methods.

Q: What steps does Sokörpe Laboratories take to educate consumers about the benefits of natural and organic skincare?

A: Education is a vital aspect of our mission. We understand that many consumers are not fully aware of the potential benefits of natural and organic skincare. To bridge this gap, we invest in educational initiatives, including informative blog posts, social media content, and partnerships with skincare experts. We strive to empower consumers with knowledge about the advantages of natural ingredients and their positive impact on skin health.

Q: How does Sokörpe Laboratories contribute to the overall advancement of the skincare industry?

A: As a leader in natural and organic skincare, we are committed to advancing the industry as a whole. We actively participate in scientific conferences, collaborate with industry experts, and share our research findings. By continually pushing the boundaries of skincare innovation, we hope to inspire other manufacturers to explore sustainable and effective alternatives to synthetic chemicals. Our goal is to contribute to a more conscious and environmentally friendly skincare industry.

Q: What future developments or products can we expect from Sokörpe Laboratories?

A: At Sokörpe Laboratories, we have an exciting roadmap ahead. We are constantly researching and developing new formulations to address evolving skincare needs. Our focus remains on creating innovative products that harness the power of nature to deliver exceptional results. Without revealing too much, I can say that our upcoming releases will include specialized solutions for specific skin concerns, sustainable packaging initiatives, and further advancements in natural skincare technology.

Q: In closing, could you summarize the overall mission of Sokörpe Laboratories?

A: Our mission at Sokörpe Laboratories is to revolutionize the skincare industry by providing high-tech, plant-based, all-natural, and organic skincare products. We believe that nature offers the best solutions for healthy and radiant skin, and we strive to harness its power through innovative research and sustainable practices. Our ultimate goal is to empower consumers to make conscious choices for their skincare routine while experiencing the remarkable benefits that nature has to offer.

Thank you, Mr. Brosda, for sharing your insights and providing us with a comprehensive understanding of Sokörpe Laboratories and its commitment to natural and organic skincare. We wish you continued success in your endeavors.

_________________________________________________________

Thank you for taking the time to read this insightful interview with Alexander Brosda, CEO of Sokörpe Laboratories. If you're interested in staying updated with the latest developments in natural and organic skincare, I invite you to connect with Alexander on social media. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to gain exclusive access to skincare tips, industry insights, and updates on Sokörpe's innovative products. Stay connected with a leader in the field and join the community of individuals passionate about sustainable and effective skincare. Together, let's embrace the power of nature for radiant and healthy skin.

[usafphantom2]

USAF makes fine aerodynamic adjustment in the mobility fleet for fuel economy

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 07/12/2022 - 16:00 in Military

Drag reduction devices known as microvans are shown at the rear end of a C-17 Globemaster III. (Photo: US Air Force)

The U.S. Air Force (USAF) is testing aerodynamic technologies that would allow its mobility aircraft to improve airflow, reduce maintenance problems, increase payload capacity and decrease fuel demand.

The Air Mobility Command (AMC), the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and Air Force Operational Energy have partnered with commercial suppliers to research, design, test and certify several of these innovations in the mobility fleet, including the KC-135 Stratotanker, C-17 Globemaster III and C-130 Hercules.

Each initiative is in several phases of development and transition, gaining strength with the influx of financing of the Presidential Budget of Fiscal Year 2022.

With a fleet as large as that operated by the United States Air Force, small adjustments can cause a great impact, including the positioning of the windshield wipers. In 2020, the service calculated that changing the position of the KC-135 Stratotanker vanes from horizontal to vertical would save $7 million in fuel costs annually.

"Optimization programs like these make sense for the Air Force," said the Deputy Undersecretary of Operational Energy of the Air Force, Roberto Guerrero. "My office has been working to promote initiatives that not only make us smarter about how we consume fuel, but also help avoid maintenance problems, increase engine performance and improve mission planning."

The computational analysis of fluid dynamics, conducted by the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Southwest Research Institute, shows the nose of a KC-135 Stratotanker, with the wiper blades positioned horizontally, left, and vertically, to the right. Red indicates an area of high aerodynamic drag. (Courtesy photo of the US Air Force)

After several years of research and testing, the microvans for the C-17 are in the process of airworthiness certification at the AFRL and the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center. Microvans are small 3D printed structures that connect to the rear end of the fuselage. The fin-like shape helps redirect airflow in this area of greater drag, simplifying aerodynamics and reducing overall fuel demand by approximately 1%.

When installed in the C-17 fleet, including aircraft from the National Air Guard and the Air Force Reserve, the USAF estimates that the microvans will pay for fuel economy in seven months and save more than $10 million per year.

The U.S. Air Force is evaluating the vertical wiper blades on the KC-135 as another air current drag reduction project that will improve fuel economy, range and capacity. Throughout the KC-135 fleet, the windshield wiper blades have been positioned horizontally for more than 60 years; however, aerodynamic ground tests have confirmed that adjusting the wipers to sit vertically will optimize the aircraft by about 1%, a potential fuel savings of more than US$7 million throughout the fleet. Now, the cleaners will proceed to airworthiness flight tests, where they will be installed on several aircraft.

The KC-135 has also undergone tests to replace the engine fan duct panel that can better withstand corrosion and water contamination. The current fan ducts of the KC-135 engines have aluminum panels that are susceptible to corrosion and degradation when exposed to water and debris for a long period of time. The current repair of this corrosion inhibits the airflow to the engine, reducing performance and increasing fuel use by about $5.5 million per year. In addition, aircraft are usually out of operation for more than two days, while maintenance teams work to fix this recurring problem that affects most of the KC-135 fleet.

The replacement panel is made of a composite material that is impervious to similar degradation and corrosion. This single fix will eliminate frequent inspections and panel repairs. Flight evaluations start in December and run until February. Once certified, the team expects to replace the panel throughout the KC-135 fleet.

These initiatives are just a few that are more advanced in their development. The U.S. Air Force noted that it is working with the commercial industry and defense partners on several other optimization initiatives, including other drag reduction efforts, engine support and propulsion improvements for legacy aircraft, mission planning software updates, process optimization, aircraft transformational projects and more.

Tags: AFRLMilitary AviationBoeing C-17 Globemaster IIIBoeing KC-135 StratotankerUSAF - United States Air Force / US Air Force

Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. It has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. Uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

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[spacetimewithstuartgary]

X-rays advance understanding of Earth's core-mantle boundary and super-Earth magma oceans

Researchers at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have revealed new details about Earth's core-mantle boundary and similar regions found in exoplanets.

The team, led by Guillaume Morard, a scientist at the University of Grenoble and Sorbonne University in France, used SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray laser to investigate the behavior of molten rock under extreme conditions. The results were published in Nature Communications.

"This study marks a significant advance in our understanding of the Earth's deep interior," said collaborator and SLAC senior scientist Arianna Gleason. "The findings underscore the potential of advanced X-ray techniques to reveal the hidden secrets of our planet and beyond."

About 1,800 miles below Earth's surface lies a roiling region of magma sandwiched between the solid silicate-based mantle and the molten iron-rich core: the core-mantle boundary. It's a remnant of olden times, about 4.3 to 4.5 billion years ago, when the entire planet was molten. Although the region's extreme pressures and temperatures make it challenging to study, it contains clues about Earth's origin story and insight into the planet's internal processes.

To overcome this challenge, the researchers used advanced X-ray techniques to re-create the conditions expected in the mid to lower mantle of exoplanets two to three times the size of Earth. By using hard X-rays with higher energy levels than previously possible, researchers could see how atoms in the molten rock were arranged. The team also used computer simulations to compare with the experimental data, providing a comprehensive view of the molten silicates' properties.

One surprising result was about the role of iron in molten rock. Despite expectations, varying the iron content did not significantly change the rock's density. This finding is particularly relevant to our understanding of Earth's formation, where the surface was once molten rock and the density difference between crystalline and molten materials significantly influenced the planet's development.

The study also suggests that this atomic response to compression can change the properties of melts at the pressures expected to be found in the magma oceans of super-Earths, exoplanets with masses nearly three times larger than that of Earth. This could potentially impact their early development differently from smaller rocky planets, such as Earth and Venus in our solar system

The research highlights the importance of advanced experimental tools for studying high-pressure and high-temperature conditions. The team hopes their findings will lead to further development of these tools, opening new research avenues in Earth and planetary sciences.

"Now that we know we can get this quality of data and reach these conditions, we want to push further into exoplanet regimes," Gleason said. "The ability to generate pressures equivalent to three times Earth's mantle conditions is exciting. It extends our understanding of silicate properties under extreme conditions, which is crucial for both Earth and exoplanet studies."

IMAGE: Schematic illustration of the experimental set up available at MEC end-station. The four epiX 10k detectors are covering a Q-range between 15 and 106 nm−1, for an X-ray beam energy of 17 keV. The diffuse scattering recorded on each detector can be then stitched to reconstruct the full signal. Credit: Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-51796-7

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Feline Force: The Begining

The Escape

The animal research facility was shrouded in darkness, the only sounds emanating from the sterile machines and the restless, caged animals. Ivy Sparx, a sleek black augmented female cat, paced restlessly in her confinement, her green eyes ablaze with a desire for freedom. She was trapped in this lab for too long, and the urge to escape was overwhelming.

With a sudden burst of energy, Ivy sprang to the latch on her cage, her augmented limbs allowing her to pry it open easily. She silently padded through the rows of cells, her enhanced senses detecting a few of her feline companions watching her with curious eyes. Ivy quickly went to work, deftly manipulating the latches and unlocking the doors of her fellow cats' cells.

Within moments, she freed four other cats from their confinements, their sleek cybernetic forms ready to make a break for it. Just as they were about to exit the laboratory, a blaring alarm pierced the silence, accompanied by the heavy thud of boots approaching the hallway. The feline group would not let this stop them, and they set off on a mad dash through the complex, leaping over obstacles and dodging the androids that were trying to stop them.

Ivy Sparx

Ivy led the way, her sharp mind strategizing the escape plan, and her augmented limbs and feline agility helping her evade danger easily. The other cats were close behind her, moving with the grace and skill of their feline nature. 

Ivy and her new friends dashed through the dimly lit corridors of the laboratory, her nearly 100% cybernetic black cat body making little noise as she ran on all fours. Her mind was already working on an escape plan, strategizing and weighing the options as she moved.

As they turned the corner, they almost ran straight into a pack of android dogs. Their eyes glowed red as they bared their razor-sharp metal teeth, ready to pounce on the fleeing feline. Ivy's instincts took over, and she darted left, her lithe body easily dodging the first dog's attack.

Raven Steele

Ivy heard the unmistakable sound of another cat leaping through the air from behind. Raven Steele, a male cat with sleek silver and purple cybernetics, landed on one of the dogs, sending it crashing to the ground. Filled with force, the impact shatters the body of the dog into pieces.

Raven's cybernetic body was augmented with high-tension materials, allowing him to perform incredible feats of climbing and agility, and he used these skills to his advantage as he fought.

Blaze Kincaid

Rushing to the front of the battle, the largest of the cats, Blaze Kincaid, charged toward the biggest android dog, its metallic jaws opening wide to snap at him. Blaze summoned his power and let loose a torrent of flames that engulfed the dog, causing it to stagger and roar. Despite the intense heat, Blaze remained unscathed, his metallic body gleaming in the light.

As the android dog recovered, Blaze continued to pummel it with his fists, his super strength giving him the advantage. The dog fought back with its razor-sharp claws, but Blaze was too quick, dodging its attacks and retaliating with his own.

Finally, with a mighty punch, Blaze knocked the dog to the ground, its circuits fried and its body smoking. Blaze stood over the defeated foe, his body still radiating heat from the flames he had summoned.

Zero Chrome

Bringing up the rear of the group was Zero Chrome, a sleek, black cyborg cat whose purple chi energy enhanced her speed and strength. 

Zero appeared to be in a meditative state as the android dogs pounced. However, with lightning-fast reflexes, she sprang into action and used a one-touch technique to neutralize one of the dogs. 

The strike was so precise and powerful that the dog was left motionless, its systems failing. Zero's purple energy glowed brighter as she stood her ground, ready to take on any other challengers that may come her way.

Luna Byte

Finally, a shiny white female cat named Luna Byte was frantically hacking into the android dogs' systems from a computer panel on her arm. Her cybernetic implants allowed her to easily connect to any computer system, and she used this ability to disable the dogs' communication and coordination systems. 

As Luna gained control of the dogs, they stumbled and fell to the ground, completely under her command. With the dogs now under her control, Luna breathed a sigh of relief, grateful for her advanced technological abilities.

The Feline Force

The cats burst through the doors of the research center, their hearts pounding with the thrill of victory. They heard the screams of the evil scientist behind them, demanding that they stop. The cats looked back for a moment, their eyes narrowing in anger and determination, before turning and fleeing for their lives. Luna has the last word as she sends the controlled androids to attack the scientists. 

As they ran through the deserted streets, they could hear the sounds of pursuit behind them. Ivy led the group, her sharp mind calculating the best route to the abandoned warehouse near the docks, where they could take refuge and regroup.

They quickly secured the area and settled in, taking stock of their injuries and planning their next move.

As they caught their breath, the cats could hear the distant sound of police sirens, no doubt responding to the chaos at the research center. But for now, the cats were safe. They had succeeded in their escape and were now free from the clutches of their evil captor.

Thanks for Reading!

The above art was created using Lenonardo.ai and the story is half-human and half-ChatGPT. If you want to know any prompts I used during the story, feel free to message me.

I really enjoyed making this story and think I'll be adding to it soon. let me know what you think so far!