NASA engineers are working on a new family of space robots that can roll, climb, and use artificial intelligence to navigate around obstacles in rough terrains on other worlds. Meet the family, here. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/nasa-space-robots-lemur-ice-worm-robosimian…
Tag: liquid
Study unveils a new supersolid phase in dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates
Generally, matter exists in three distinct forms: as a solid, a liquid or a gas. Past physics research, however, has unveiled other curious states of matter, one of which is supersolidity. In a supersolid state, particles are arranged into a rigid crystal and can nonetheless flow through the solid without any friction. Although this may appear contradictory, this state is allowed…
Apparent Arson Attack Devastates Kyoto Animation Anime Studio With Dozens Confirmed Dead
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Several people have been killed after an apparent arson attack gutted a building at Kyoto Animation, one of Japan’s most renowned anime studios. NHK reports that 33 people are confirmed dead and many more have been injured. An explosion was heard around the studio at around 10.30AM local time. Police are questioning…
Weird new type of magnetic liquid could be used to control soft robots
A strange liquid magnet full of iron nanoparticles can change its shape in a magnetic field, and it may eventually be used to make wireless, moving soft robots Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2210405-weird-new-type-of-magnetic-liquid-could-be-used-to-control-soft-robots/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Permanent liquid magnets have now been created in the lab
Magnets that generate persistent magnetic fields are usually solid. But new little bar magnets have the mechanical properties of liquids. Source: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/permanent-liquid-magnets-have-now-been-created-lab4…
Cause of SpaceX Crew Dragon Explosion Revealed
On April 20, a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, designed to take humans to the ISS, exploded during a routine test fire at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The cause has now been identified as a leaky valve in a propellant pressurization system. Thelasko shares a report from CBS News: Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX vice president of build and reliability said: “We believe…
A layer of ‘aerogel’ could make Mars habitable and even enable life to develop there
Transforming the red planet to support life has long been a dream of science fiction. Mars is now too cold to support life. Its atmosphere is also too thin to protect any living organisms from harmful radiation. But a new study suggests that local conditions could be changed using an inch of “aerogel”—a synthetic and ultralight material made by taking a…
Physicists find first possible 3-D quantum spin liquid
There’s no known way to prove a three-dimensional “quantum spin liquid” exists, so Rice University physicists and their collaborators did the next best thing: They showed their single crystals of cerium zirconium pyrochlore had the right stuff to qualify as the first possible 3-D version of the long-sought state of matter. …
Dragonfly aims for Saturn’s moon Titan
Scheduled for launch in 2026, the Dragonfly mission will look for clues to the origins of life, and possibly even evidence of life itself, on Saturn’s alien yet remarkably Earth-like moon Titan. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/dragonfly-mission-saturn-moon-titan…
Today in 2015: New Horizons at Pluto
The small, fast-moving New Horizons spacecraft is likely to be the only Pluto mission in the lifetimes of many of us. It changed forever the way we on Earth perceive this outermost world and its moons. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/july-4-2015-new-horizons-at-pluto…