In The News: College of Sciences
Rechargeable batteries have become the lifeblood of electronics, enabling the mobile revolution. Unfortunately, today's rechargeable batteries incorporate flammable liquid cores. That could change soon, however by switching to rechargeable batteries that have solid cores with nothing to spill, nothing to catch on fire, nothing to potentially explode.
Cobalt is a mineral that is essential in a wide variety of industrial applications from batteries to jet engines. However, most ore comes from mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a country that has been exploited for over 100 years. Due to the inherent risks and ethical issues of dealing with the country, finding sources from outside the region is a top US priority. However, high concentration cobalt sources are relatively rare, and most production comes as a byproduct from other mines (nickel, iron, etc).
Even though you can't see them, your home is full of microscopic germs that can make your family or visitors sick. "Even the cleanest home has bacteria and viruses," says Ernesto Abel-Santos, a professor of biochemistry at the ҳ| 鶹ýӳ. "In fact, most have benefits for us."
The harshest arctic winters have got nothing on the chill from deep space. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) continues to provide gifts for scientists and space enthusiasts with its latest discovery: ice found within the deepest reaches of an interstellar molecular cloud. As reported in the journal Nature Astronomy, the JWST measured the frozen molecules at minus 440 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 263 degrees Celsius).
A Jan. 22 Instagram post shows a person holding a shiny rock that appears to produce electricity and illuminate a small light connected to it by wires. "Electrically charged stones discovered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo," reads text in the post.
Experts say that while minerals within rocks can conduct electricity, rocks cannot store it or function as batteries on their own.
A minuscule bit of material in you car's exhaust system is attracting thieves, causing big headaches and costing victims thousands in repair bills.
As proof, social media users shared a video showing several people inspecting a small, shiny rock. One of the individuals connects two ends of what appears to be a wire to the rock, which activates a light on the wire. “Electrically charged stones discovered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” one Twitter user who shared the video wrote Saturday. The tweet was shared over 27,000 times.
Prompted by video last week of a coyote pack trotting merrily along a Henderson street — to say nothing of mountain lion sightings in edge-of-town neighborhoods — we talked to an expert in the human-wildlife interface.
Our modern lives depend on rare earth elements, and someday soon we may not have enough to meet growing demand. Because of their special properties, these 17 metallic elements are crucial ingredients in computer screens, cell phones and other electronics, compact fluorescent lamps, medical imaging machines, lasers, fiber optics, pigments, polishing powders, industrial catalysts – the list goes on and on. Notably rare earths are an essential part of the high-powered magnets and rechargeable batteries in the electric vehicles and renewable energy technologies needed to get the world to a low- or zero-carbon future.
NASA’s long in-development ARTEMIS lunar space missions completed its first phase last month. The idea is to land someone on the moon in two years. Then from there, head to Mars. And the ҳ| 鶹ýӳ is helping out.
NASA’s long in-development ARTEMIS lunar space missions completed its first phase last month. The idea is to land someone on the moon in two years. Then from there, head to Mars. And the ҳ| 鶹ýӳ is helping out.