Category: Science

The European Union has recently adopted measures to boost its domestic production and supply of green technologies and critical raw materials, in an attempt to catch up with the global leaders in the clean energy race. However, the EU faces many challenges and uncertainties in achieving its goals, as it competes with the massive investments and subsidies of the U.S. and China. EU sets targets for green tech and raw…

The proposal to boost green electricity in the south of England The energy regulator Ofgem has proposed a plan to turn farmland equivalent to 40,000 football pitches into industrial-scale solar parks and wind farms across southern England. The plan aims to boost green electricity generation close to London, where demand is highest and supply is lowest. According to Ofgem, the plan could help cut consumer bills by £51 billion over…

Kraken Technology Group, a global leader in network-optimized remote operations, has announced an official collaboration with L3Harris Technologies, a leading provider of autonomous vessel technology, to advance the integration of control systems within the K40 MANTA prototype. The K40 MANTA is an uncrewed surface-subsurface (USSV) platform that uses foils for rapid surface transit before submerging for clandestine maneuvering. This collaboration marks a step in the technical evolution of Kraken’s K40…

What is niobobaotite? Niobobaotite is a new type of ore that contains the rare earth metal niobium, along with barium, titanium, iron and chloride. It was discovered by scientists in China in the Bayan Obo ore deposit in Inner Mongolia on Oct. 3, 2023. The ore has received official approval from the International Mineralogical Association’s classification committee. Niobium is a light-gray metal that has a high melting point and excellent…

Katalin Karikó’s journey from mRNA researcher to Nobel laureate On Monday, October 8, 2023, Katalin Karikó won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for her groundbreaking work on mRNA, the genetic messenger that sends DNA instructions to make specific proteins. Her research with Drew Weissman, with whom she shares the prize, laid the foundation for the Covid-19 vaccines developed by BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna. Karikó’s career serves as a lesson…

MBARI partners with Saab to license LRAUV technology The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) has announced a new commercial licensing agreement with Saab, Inc. to make its long-range autonomous underwater vehicle (LRAUV) technology available for the first time to a global market. The LRAUV is an innovative robot that can explore, map, and monitor the ocean for weeks at a time, covering distances of more than 1,000 kilometers (620…

A unique role in science popularization and education China’s modern science and technology museum system has attracted over 1 billion offline visits since 2012, playing a unique role in promoting fair and inclusive science popularization and improving scientific literacy in the country, according to the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST). The CAST started to build a modern sci-tech museum system in 2012. After more than a decade, the…

Tokyo Tech students from the Society for the Study of Robotics, an official student club, have won the Best Performance Award at the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) Marine Robots Night Festival. The event was held at Nippon Maru Memorial Park in Yokohama City on July 12, 2023, as part of the IFAC World Congress 2023, a public forum that took place at the Pacifico Yokohama convention complex from…

India’s first solar mission, Aditya-L1, has made a remarkable discovery of sulphur on the Moon’s south pole, according to a report by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The mission, which was launched in February 2023, has been observing the Sun and its influence on the Earth and the solar system. Aditya-L1: India’s Eye on the Sun Aditya-L1 is a 400 kg satellite that carries seven payloads to study various…

India becomes the first nation to land on the moon’s south pole India achieved a historic feat on Wednesday evening, when it successfully landed a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole, making it the first country to do so. The Vikram lander, part of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, touched down on the lunar surface at 7:31 pm IST, after a tense descent that lasted about 15 minutes. The lander carried a…