Новости за 13.03.2024

Boston MA (SPX) Mar 05, 2024 - In the predawn hours of Sept. 5, 2021, engineers achieved a major milestone in the labs of MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC), when a new type of magnet, made from high-temperature superconducting material, achieved a world-record magnetic field strength of 20 tesla for a large-scale magnet. That's the intensity needed to build a fusion power plant that is expected to produce a net output of power and potentially usher in an era of virtually limitless power production. Читать дальше...

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 11, 2024 - Drawing inspiration from the Japanese art of Kintsugi, scientists are pioneering a novel strategy to enhance plasma stability in fusion reactors. A recent study published in Nature Communications details this groundbreaking approach, which turns magnetic field imperfections into a tool for improving plasma performance, a critical component in developing fusion energy.

Joseph Snipes, Deputy Head of the Tokamak Experimental Science Department at the U.S. Department... Читать дальше...

Boston MA (SPX) Mar 12, 2024 - To help curb climate change, the United States is working to reduce carbon emissions from all sectors of the energy economy. Much of the current effort involves electrification - switching to electric cars for transportation, electric heat pumps for home heating, and so on. But in the United States, the electric power sector already generates about a quarter of all carbon emissions. "Unless we decarbonize our electric power grids, we'll just be shifting carbon emissions... Читать дальше...

Houston (AFP) March 7, 2024
A US power company admitted Thursday that its equipment may have sparked the largest wildfire in Texas' history. Xcel - the parent of Southwest Public Service Company, which provides electricity to part of the state - said it was working with officials investigating the cause of the blaze that charred more than a million acres (over 400,000 hectares). "Based on currently available info

Rome (AFP) March 7, 2024
Italian prosecutors are investigating two company officials over pollution emitted by a giant steelworks in Taranto when it was majority-owned by ArcelorMittal, media reports said Thursday. The former Ilva plant in the southern city, dogged by decades of environmental and health scandals, was placed under state supervision last month, removing control from operator Acciaierie d'Italia. A

New York (AFP) Mar 11, 2024
Reddit plans to raise some $500 million with its initial public offering of shares , using the money to improve the platform and its money-making power, according to a regulatory filing on Monday. The New York Stock Exchange debut of the platform that bills itself as "the front page of the Internet" when it comes to hot news will be a test of an IPO market that has been idling since the midd

Beijing (AFP) Mar 12, 2024
Moody's has downgraded one of China's largest housing developers' credit rating, as woes in the country's property sector show no sign of abating. China's real estate market is grappling with unprecedented challenges, with some developers on the verge of bankruptcy and lower property prices deterring consumers from making investments. Vanke - long considered to be financially stable -

Brussels, Belgium (AFP) Mar 10, 2024
The EU's Green Deal - once a core Brussels mission - is looking increasingly under threat in the bloc's upcoming elections as resistance grows to its costs and consequences. Farmers' protests, consumer cost-of-living worries and some countries' hesitation are already undercutting the ambitious plan to make the European Union carbon-neutral by 2050. "The European Green Deal is our new g

Charlottesville VA (SPX) Mar 11, 2024
Even before Archimedes proposed that all observable phenomena could be explained using a set of basic rules, human beings have imagined the possibility of a theory of everything. And in the last hundred years, physicists have come closer to solving the problem. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity offers a reliable framework for understanding the universe on a grand scale, and quantum

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Mar 12, 2024
The riddle of the "Hubble Tension"-the discrepancy between the observed expansion rate of the universe and the rate predicted by cosmological models-has been further scrutinized by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope. Despite consistent observations indicating a faster-than-expected expansion, the source of this variance remains elusive, raising questions about poten

Berkeley CA (SPX) Mar 12, 2024
The particle accelerators that enable high energy physics and serve many fields of science, such as materials, medical, and fusion research, are driven by superconducting magnets that are, to put it simply, quite finicky. Superconductors are a special class of materials which, when cooled below a certain temperature, carry large electrical currents without resistance. If you arrange the ma

Paris, France (SPX) Mar 12, 2024
The European Space Agency (ESA), representing the European Commission, has finalized a E12 million agreement with Leonardo S.p.A (Italy) and the Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica for the inception and development of cutting-edge atomic clock technology to enhance the Galileo satellite navigation system. This initiative underscores the critical role of ultra-precise and reliable ato

Plainsboro NJ (SPX) Mar 11, 2024
Fashioned from the same element found in sand and covered by intricate patterns, microchips power smartphones, augment appliances and aid the operation of cars and airplanes. Now, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) are developing computer simulation codes that will outperform current simulation techniques and aid the production of micro

Ishikawa, Japan (SPX) Mar 11, 2024
As global efforts to combat climate change intensify, advancements in solar energy technology have become crucial. Silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells are at the forefront of these developments, promising high energy conversion efficiencies. The performance of these cells largely relies on the quality of the passivation layer-a thin film that plays a pivotal role in preventing the recombina

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 11, 2024
Researchers at the University of Florida have developed a groundbreaking method for creating semiconductor-based processors. This new technology is designed to significantly boost the efficiency of global data transmission. Highlighted in the latest issue of Nature Electronics, this advancement is expected to revolutionize wireless communication, particularly as AI-driven demands surge. Th

Zurich, Switzerland (SPX) Mar 11, 2024
In a bold move to combat climate change, Switzerland has committed to reducing its net carbon emissions to zero by 2050, a target that aligns with the global urgency to address the escalating crisis. This ambitious goal necessitates a dramatic decrease in greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors, with a particular focus on mitigating emissions from agriculture and industry-areas where reducti