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  • This is a wireless underwater camera without batteries is created by engineers.

    This is a wireless underwater camera without batteries is created by engineers.

    This is a wireless underwater camera without batteries is created by engineers.
    Wireless camera

    wireless underwater camera are more than 95 percent of the oceans on Earth, according to scientists, have never been seen. As a result, we know less about the oceans on Earth than we do about the far side of the moon or the surface of Mars.

    Widespread undersea exploration is hindered by the costly cost of powering an underwater camera for an extended period of time, whether by tying it to a research vessel or sending a ship to recharge its batteries.

    By creating a battery-free, wireless underwater camera that is around 100,000 times more energy-efficient than other underwater cameras, MIT researchers have made a significant progress toward solving this issue. Even in low-light conditions underwater, the camera captures color images and wirelessly sends them.

    Sound provides the camera’s power. To power its image and communications technology, it transforms mechanical energy from sound waves moving through water into electrical energy. The camera employs sound waves to convey data to a receiver that reconstructs the image after the image has been captured and encoded.

    Scientists can examine remote areas of the ocean for new species because the camera doesn’t require a power source and can run for weeks on end until retrieval. Additionally, it might be used to take pictures of ocean pollution or track the wellbeing and development of fish bred in aquaculture facilities.

    “For me, the use of this camera in the context of climate monitoring is one of its most fascinating applications. Over 95% of the ocean’s data is missing from the climate models we are constructing. With the aid of this technology, we may be able to create climate models that are more precise and comprehend the effects of climate change on the ocean environment “explains Fadel Adib, senior author of the study and associate professor in the department of electrical engineering and computer science as well as the head of the Signal Kinetics group at the MIT Media Lab.

    Co-lead authors and research assistants from the Signal Kinetics group Sayed Saad Afzal, Waleed Akbar, and Osvy Rodriguez, research scientist Unsoo Ha, and former members of the group Mario Doumet and Reza Ghaffarivardavagh also collaborated on the article with Adib. The research article appears in Nature Communications.

    Eliminating batteries

    The researchers wanted a tool that could autonomously harvest energy underwater while using very little power in order to construct a camera that could run independently for extended periods.

    Transducers composed of piezoelectric materials are positioned all over the camera’s exterior to collect energy. When a mechanical force is applied to piezoelectric materials, an electric signal is generated. The transducers vibrate and change the mechanical energy of a sound wave passing through the water into electrical energy when it strikes them.

    The source of such sound waves could be anything, such as a passing ship or aquatic life. Until it has accumulated enough to operate the circuits that take photographs and transmit data, the camera retains the harvested energy.

    The researchers employed off-the-shelf, ultra-low-power image sensors to limit power usage to a minimum. These sensors, however, can only record grayscale images. They also needed to design a low-power flash because most underwater situations are dark.

    “We were attempting to decrease the hardware as much as possible, and this imposes new limitations on the way the system is constructed, information is sent, and image reconstruction is carried out. To figure out how to do this, it needed some inventiveness, “Adib claims.

    They used red, green, and blue LEDs to concurrently solve both issues. A red LED is shone by the camera while it takes a picture, which is then processed by image sensors. With green and blue LEDs, the same procedure is repeated.

    The red, green, and blue colored light are reflected in the white portion of each photograph, Akbar adds, despite the fact that the image seems to be black and white. The color image can be recreated by combining the image data during post-processing.

    “We were taught as children in painting classes that the three primary hues could be used to create any color. The same guidelines apply to color computer images. Red, Green, and Blue are the only three channels we require to create color visuals “He claims.

    This is a wireless underwater camera without batteries is created by engineers.
    This is a wireless underwater camera without batteries is created by engineers.

    Sound and data transmission

    Using a technique known as underwater backscatter, image data are encoded as bits (1s and 0s) and delivered to a receiver one bit at a time after being acquired. The camera serves as a mirror to reflect the sound waves that are transmitted by the receiver through the water. The camera either sends a wave back to the receiver by reflecting it or transforms its mirror into an absorber to prevent reflection.

    If a signal is reflected back from the camera, it is detected by a hydrophone close to the transmitter. It receives a bit-1 if there is a signal, and a bit-0 if there is no signal. This binary data is used by the system to reconstruct and edit the image.

    This entire process uses five orders of magnitude less power than standard underwater communications systems, according to Afzal, because it just calls only one switch to change the gadget from a nonreflective state to a reflective state.

    The camera was tested by the researchers in a variety of underwater settings. In one, they managed to photograph in color plastic bottles drifting in a pond in New Hampshire. Additionally, they were able to capture an African starfish in such exquisite detail that the small tubercles along its arms could be seen. Aponogeton ulvaceus, an underwater plant, was successfully imaged repeatedly over the course of a week in a dark environment to track its growth.

    The researchers intend to improve the device so it may be used in real-world circumstances now that they have shown a functioning prototype. They plan to enhance the camera’s memory so that it can take underwater videos, broadcast images, and take photos in real-time.

    They also seek to increase the camera’s field of view. Although they were able to transmit data 40 meters away from the receiver, extending the range would allow the camera to be employed in more underwater environments.

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    conclusion

    This is a wireless underwater camera develop by the scientist they did a great research. Drop you comment section.

  • Understanding erratic grids for power supply

    Understanding erratic grids for power supply
    Understanding erratic grids for power supply

    The development of power grids is necessary for a sustainable power supply. While it might seem that new transmission lines would make grids more stable, this is not always the case. The Braess paradox is the term used to describe this phenomenon.

    An worldwide group of scientists, including those from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), have now accurately modelled this phenomenon for electrical grids, proved it on a bigger scale, and created a prediction tool to aid grid operators in making decisions. The study’s findings are published in Nature Communications.

    In order to integrate renewable energy sources and move electricity over long distances, the grids must be expanded as part of the sustainable transformation of the energy system. The goal of this development, which would need significant investments, is to strengthen the grids. However, by modernizing current lines or laying down new ones, the grid might become less stable rather than more stable, leading to blackouts.

    “The Braess contradiction is then brought up. According to this phenomenon, adding more options results in a worsening rather than an improvement of the overall situation “says Dr. Benjamin Schäfer, director of the KIT Institute for Automation and Applied Informatics’ research group on Data-driven Analysis of Complex Systems (DRACOS).

    The phenomena is so called in honor of the German mathematician Dietrich Braess, who first brought it up in relation to road networks: Under specific circumstances, building a new road might lengthen travel times for all road users. This impact has been studied for biological systems and has been seen in traffic systems. It has only ever been theoretically predicted and briefly demonstrated for electricity networks.

    Researchers model proposed increases to the German electricity grid

    The phenomena has now been thoroughly simulated for power grids for the first time and shown on a bigger scale by researchers under the direction of Dr. Schäfer. They created a model of the German electrical system that included all anticipated upgrades and additions. The Braess paradox in an AC grid was demonstrated experimentally, and the researchers observed the phenomenon in simulation and in experiment, paying particular attention to circular flows.

    The latter are essential for comprehending the Braess paradox because, for instance, a power line can be made better by lowering its resistance, which allows it to carry more current. As a result of conservation principles, a new circular flow results, with more current flowing in certain lines and less in others, according to Schäfer. “This creates a problem when the line carrying the highest current is required to carry even more current, overloads, and ultimately needs to be shut down. As a result, the grid becomes more erratic and, in the worst situation, collapses.”

    Understanding erratic grids for power supply
    power supply

    Quick decisions are enabled by intuitive knowledge.

    The Braess paradox can generally be handled by most electricity networks thanks to their excess capacity. Grid operators consider all potential outcomes when constructing new lines and while they are in use. However, there isn’t always enough time to consider every possibility when decisions must be made quickly, like shutting down lines or changing the output of a power plant. For Schäfer, this means that in order to immediately determine when the Braess dilemma arises, one must have an intuitive grasp of circular flows.

    The scientist has consequently created a prediction tool to aid grid operators in considering the Braess paradox while making decisions, working with an international and interdisciplinary team. According to Schäfer, “the research’s findings have permitted a theoretical explanation of the Braess paradox and provided useful advice for prudently planning grid expansions and promoting grid stability.”

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    Conclusion

    This post is about how we generate energy this a great post . You can drop your comment on the comment section.

  • Laundry assistance might come from robots, that can sense the layers.

    Laundry assistance might come from robots, that can sense the layers.

    Robots that can feel cloth layers may one day help with laundry
    Robots that can feel cloth layers may one day help with laundry

    Laundry assistance Robots can now feel layers of clothing instead of just seeing them, thanks to new research from Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute. Robots could help people with household chores like folding clothes thanks to this work.

    Humans pick up objects with their hands by using their senses of sight and touch. Little thought is given to it because it is so normal. However, these activities are quite challenging for robots. Up until recently, it was difficult to replicate touch in robotics due to the difficulty in quantifying the quantity of data that is collected through the sense.

    According to David Held, an assistant professor in the School of Computer Science and the director of the Robots Perceiving and Doing (R-Pad) Lab, “Humans look at something, we reach for it, then we utilize touch to make sure that we’re in the appropriate position to grab it.” “Tactile perception is something that most people do naturally. We don’t give it much thought, so we are unaware of its importance.”

    “How can this be fixed?” asked Held. Perhaps tactile sensing is what we need.

    The best solution was ReSkin, which was created by Carnegie Mellon and Meta AI researchers. The free and open-source touch-sensing “skin” measures three-axis tactile impulses using a thin, elastic polymer that is embedded with magnetic particles. ReSkin was recently employed by researchers to enable a robot to feel layers of clothing rather than relying just on visual sensors to do so.

    Thomas Weng, a Ph.D. student in the R-Pad Lab, worked on the project alongside RI postdoc Daniel Seita and graduate student Sashank Tirumala. “We can achieve tactile sensing by measuring the changes in the magnetic fields from depressions or movement of the skin,” Weng said. 

    “By pinching with the sensor, we can use this tactile sensing to identify how many layers of material we’ve gathered up.”

    The challenge is made more challenging by the fact that cloth is “deformable,” meaning it changes when you touch it, in contrast to other studies that has used tactile sense to grasp stiff things. 

    The signals from the robot’s sensors fluctuate when its grasp on the fabric is modified.

    Weng stated, “We were able to execute this very tiny operation, placing it between textile layers, which we can’t do with other sensors, particularly optical-based sensors, because the profile of this sensor is so thin. 

    We used it to do tasks that were previously unachievable.

    But before we give the laundry basket over to a robot, there’s a lot of research to be done. 

    Smoothing a crinkled material, deciding how many layers to fold, and folding the cloth in the appropriate direction are the first phases in the process.

    Weng explained, “It’s basically an investigation of what we can accomplish with this new sensor. We’re investigating simple methods to control cloth that we’ll need for robots to ultimately be able to do our laundry, as well as how to have robots feel soft objects with this magnetic skin.

    The team will present its study, “Learning to Singulate Cloth Layers Using Tactile Feedback,” at the 2022 International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, which takes place in Kyoto, Japan, from October 23–27. Additionally, it won the Best Paper prize at the 2022 RoMaDO-SI workshop of the conference.

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    Conclusion

    Laundry assistance might come from robots in the future this is going to be exciting, it is going to be very useful for the laundry to make they work easy. you can drop your comment in the comment section.

  • This is a cooling system, use for cooling down solar cells, naturally.

    This is a cooling system, use for cooling down solar cells, naturally.

    This is a cooling system, use for cooling down solar cells, naturally.
    Solar cooling system

    This is a cooling system, can be used on a day that is bright, sunny, and cloudless, which may seem like the ideal environment for solar cells. However, excessive heat and sunlight can actually lower the effectiveness of photovoltaics.

    Traditional silicon-based solar cells will lose roughly 0.5% of their efficiency for every 1 degree Celsius increase in operating temperature. Energy losses can approach 12% in a typical solar facility when modules operate at temperatures up to 25 degrees Celsius above the surrounding air.

    For solar farms, this demands efficient cooling techniques. Researchers from Portland State University, the University of Utah, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory investigated how to take use of the geometry of solar farms to improve natural cooling mechanisms in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy.

    While some contemporary cooling techniques use materials with less heat sensitivity, others induce wind or water to interact with solar panel surfaces. However, the resources needed to use these strategies are substantial. In contrast, a solar farm with correctly oriented panels that are appropriately spaced might use the wind from the environment to cool itself through convection.

    This is a cooling system, use for cooling down solar cells, naturally.
    Cooling down solar cells, naturally1

    The group enhanced models that determine how much electricity a specific solar plant will produce based on elements like material, weather, and panel temperature. They concentrated particularly on the geometry of solar farms, or the degree of “gappy-ness” between the panels.

    According to author Sarah Smith of Portland State University, “our theory was that the most precise assessment of solar plant convection, and eventually output efficiency, must take the farm as a whole and all possible configuration variations.”

    Due to design, it is uncommon for two solar farms to be identical. Each is specially made to maximize solar irradiance and fit into its surroundings. Solar panels, for instance, fluctuate in tilt with latitude and height with vegetation. Row spacing is frequently influenced by the amount of available land.

    According to Smith, “this means that the wind flow that removes heat will also move differently throughout each solar plant dependent on its design, ultimately influencing how efficiently heat is removed from module surfaces.”

    To validate their model, the researchers ran wind tunnel tests, high-resolution simulations, and gathered empirical data. They studied the effects of module height, row spacing, angle, and wind on photovoltaic heating and cooling. Power output increased by 2% to 3% as solar cell height and panel row spacing were increased.

    As a result of their essentially distinctive configurations, solar farms can now be predicted to experience convective cooling, according to Smith. It provides the path for industry to develop cost and energy generation forecast models that are more precise.

    According to Sarah E. Smith, Brooke J. Stanislawski, Byron K. Eng, Naseem Ali, Timothy J. Silverman, Marc Calaf, and Ral Bayoán Cal, “Viewing convection as a solar farm phenomenon broadens modern power predictions for solar photovoltaics” will be published in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy on November 29, 2022.

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    Conclusion

    This post has introduce us to a cooling system, use for cooling down solar cells, naturally. this is a great post because is very useful for those using solar. you can drop your comment on comment section.

  • This is the more sophisticated sensor detects target gases

    This is the more sophisticated sensor detects target gases

    More sophisticated sensor detects target gases
    More sophisticated sensor

    More sophisticated sensor is an artificially intelligent chemical sensor has the capacity to learn how to selectively and sensitively detect specific chemicals in the atmosphere. The system, developed at KAUST, uses machine learning to distinguish the gases based on how they interact with the sensor, causing very tiny temperature changes.

    There is a high need for intelligent electronic sensors that can identify specific airborne molecules for use in a variety of applications, including medical diagnostics and the detection of hazardous industrial gas escapes. According to Usman Yaqoob, a postdoc in the labs of Mohammad Younis, who oversaw the research, the difficulty is correctly identifying the target gas amid the intricate mixture of molecules generally present in the air. Cross-sensitivity is still a problem for existing sensing technology, claims Yaqoob.

    smarter-sensor-sniffsa
    smarter-sensor-sniffsa

    The team is using machine learning to increase sensor selectivity rather than using unusual materials or specialized coatings. The microbeam resonator, a heated silicon strip, is the device’s brain on the hardware side. The frequency at which the microbeam resonates is particularly responsive to changes in temperature when the microbeam is clamped at both ends, almost to the point of buckling.

    The team then ran an artificial intelligence analysis on the information to find distinctive variations in resonance frequency associated with the various gases. In order to create a precise and specialized gas classification model, Yaqoob adds that “data processing and machine learning techniques are employed to establish unique signature markers for each tested gas.” The sensor’s response to helium, argon, and CO2 data were used to train the algorithm, which could subsequently detect these gases in an unknown dataset with 100% accuracy.

    According to Younis, “Unlike conventional gas sensors, our sensor does not require any special coating, improving the device’s chemical durability and enabling scalability.” Since the gadget requires a sizable surface area for the coating, scaling it down to the nano-regime won’t have any negative effects on its functionality, he claims.

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    Conclusion

    For so far we have be able to know more about sophisticated sensor detects target gases,
    drop your comment on the comment section to tell us what you think about the post.

  • 3D-printed metals can endure harsh environments with improved heat treatment.

    3D-printed metals can endure harsh environments with improved heat treatment.

    3D-printed metals can endure harsh environments with improved heat treatment.
    3D-printed metals can endure harsh environments with improved heat treatment.

    A novel heat treatment created by MIT alters the microscopic structure of 3D-printed metals, making the materials more durable and resistant to thermal shock. High-performance blades and vanes for jet engines and gas turbines might be 3D printed using the process, opening the door to novel designs with reduced fuel consumption and increased energy efficiency.

    Modern gas turbine blades are produced using traditional casting techniques, which include pouring molten metal into intricate molds and allowing it to solidify in a certain direction. As they are made to revolve at high speeds in extremely hot gas, extracting work to generate electricity in power plants and thrust in jet engines, these components are comprised of some of the most heat-resistant metal alloys on Earth.

    There is rising interest in producing turbine blades using 3D printing, which, in addition to its financial and environmental advantages, might let manufacturers create more complex, energy-efficient blade shapes more quickly. But a significant obstacle, called creep, still stands in the way of 3D printing turbine blades.

    In metallurgy, the term “creep” describes a metal’s propensity to irreversibly change shape when subjected to high temperatures and ongoing mechanical stress. While investigating the printing of turbine blades, researchers discovered that the printing technique results in fine grains with a size range of tens to hundreds of microns—a microstructure that is particularly prone to creep.

    According to Zachary Cordero, the Boeing Career Development Professor in Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, “in practice, this would mean a gas turbine would have a shorter life or worse fuel efficiency.” These are expensive and unwanted results.

    The small grains of the as-printed material are transformed into much bigger “columnar” grains, creating a more durable microstructure that should reduce the material’s potential for creep as the “columns” are aligned with the axis of greatest stress, according to Cordero and his colleagues. The approach, which the researchers describe in today’s issue of Additive Manufacturing, paves the path for the commercial 3D printing of gas turbine blades, they claim.

    “In the near future, we envision gas turbine manufacturers will print their blades and vanes at large-scale additive manufacturing plants, then post-process them using our heat treatment,” Cordero says. “3D-printing will enable new cooling architectures that can improve the thermal efficiency of a turbine, so that it produces the same amount of power while burning less fuel and ultimately emits less carbon dioxide.”

    Cordero’s co-authors on the study are lead author Dominic Peachey, Christopher Carter, and Andres Garcia-Jimenez at MIT, Anugrahaprada Mukundan and Marie-Agathe Charpagne of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Donovan Leonard of Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

    3D-printed metals can endure harsh environments with improved heat treatment.
    3D-printed

    Start of a transition

    The novel technique developed by the researchers is a type of directional recrystallization, a heat treatment in which a material is moved at a regulated speed through a hot zone to combine the material’s numerous small grains into larger, more stable crystals.

    More than 80 years ago, directional recrystallization was developed, and it has since been used on wrought materials. The MIT researchers modified directed recrystallization for 3D-printed superalloys in their latest study.

    The approach was tested using nickel-based superalloys that were 3D printed; these metals are generally cast and utilized in gas turbines. In a series of tests, the scientists positioned 3D-printed samples of rod-shaped superalloys beneath an induction coil in a room-temperature water bath. They drastically heated the rods to temperatures ranging from 1,200 to 1,245 degrees Celsius by carefully drawing each rod out of the water and through the coil at various rates.

    They discovered that moving the rods across a temperature range of 1,235 degrees Celsius at a precise pace of 2.5 millimeters per hour caused a sharp thermal gradient that changed the material’s printed, fine-grained microstructure.

    3D-printed metals
    3D-printed metals

    Leave quietly

    The printed microscopic grains of the material were replaced with “columnar” grains, or lengthy crystal-like regions, which were substantially larger than the original grains, the researchers discovered after cooling the heat-treated rods.

    The structure has undergone a total transformation, according to main author Dominic Peachey. We demonstrate that it is possible to massively increase the grain size to create columnar grains, which should, in theory, result in a significant improvement in the creep qualities.

    The scientists additionally demonstrated how they could control the temperature and draw speed of the rod samples to tune the material’s growing grains and produce sections with particular grain size and orientation. The ability to print turbine blades with site-specific microstructures that are resistant to particular operating circumstances, according to Cordero, is made possi

    Using 3D-printed shapes that more closely mimic turbine blades, Cordero intends to test the heat treatment. The team is also testing the creep resistance of heat-treated structures and looking into ways to accelerate the draw rate. Then, they think that the heat treatment would make it possible to use 3D printing in a practical way to create industrial-grade turbine blades with more intricate shapes and patterns.

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  • Breathless By David Quammem PDF Book Review

    Breathless, The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus PDF Book Summary

    Breathless, The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus

    Breathless, The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus  is the story of SARS-CoV-2 and its fierce journey through the human population, as seen by the scientists who study its origin, its ever-changing nature, and its capacity to kill us. David Quammen expertly shows how strange new viruses emerge from animals into humans as we disrupt wild ecosystems, and how those viruses adapt to their human hosts, sometimes causing global catastrophe. He explains why this coronavirus will probably be a “forever virus,” destined to circulate among humans and bedevil us endlessly, in one variant form or another. As scientists labor to catch it, comprehend it, and control it, with their high-tech tools and methods, the virus finds ways of escape.

    Based on interviews with nearly one hundred scientists, including leading virologists in China and around the world, Quammen explains that:
    -Infectious disease experts saw this pandemic coming
    -Some scientists, for more than two decades, warned that “the next big one” would be caused by a changeable new virus—very possibly a coronavirus—but such warnings were ignored for political or economic reasons
    -The precise origins of this virus may not be known for years, but some clues are compelling, and some suppositions can be dismissed
    -And much more.

    Breathless takes you inside the frantic international effort to understand and control SARS-CoV-2 as if we were peering over the shoulders of the brilliant scientists who led the chase.

    Breathless, The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus PDF Book Review

    Top Reviews (Amazon)

    There are few authors that can truthfully say they walked the walk with the people they write about. Quammen can, and his books are often harder to put down than your average thriller. Breathless is no exception, but different in an important. Instead of trekking through jungles and swamps with scientists putting their lives at risk to track down the source of a deadly disease, he gives us a technology-rich detective story. We are looking over the shoulders of scientist-investigators in different countries with different resources and skills, collaborating, not always in agreement but always with respect, in a race to get ahead of a formidable threat to all. To see the mystery, the discovery and the drama from so many viewpoints, expertly and empathetically presented by a master writer, will widen anyone’s understanding.-Alan G

    But one would certainly expect no less from this author. Even if I have other pressing readings on my desk (disk), this book fully engaged me until the very last word. I am a scientist and work on some aspects of SARS-CoV2 – and I too do not know everything – but still this book provided me with ample new facts and food for thought. Thanks for this magnificent achievement.-Rudi Podgornik

    David Quammen is a talented science journalist, and an excellent writer. So it is very disappointing to see his very biased and incomplete treatment of the debate over the origins of Covid-19, which—despite lots of gaslighting on the subject—is still very much unresolved. He defers way too much to researchers who have clear conflicts of interest in the outcome and leaves out huge amounts of information uncovered by journalists and other scientists that show the Wuhan lab was engaged in all kinds of experimentation with SARS-like viruses which it has tried to keep hidden. That’s why NIH has now cut funding to the lab, which no mainstream journalists have covered.-M. S. Balter

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    Watch Breathless, The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus PDF Book Summary Review

    About David Quammen the Author of Breathless, The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus Book

    Breathless, The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus

    David Quammen’s books include Breathless, The Tangled Tree, The Song of the Dodo, The Reluctant Mr. Darwin, and Spillover, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and recipient of the Premio Letterario Merck, in Rome. He has written for The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and Outside, among other magazines, and is a three-time winner of the National Magazine Award. Quammen shares a home in Bozeman, Montana, with his wife, Betsy Gaines Quammen, author of American Zion, and with two Russian wolfhounds, a cross-eyed cat, and a rescue python. Visit him at DavidQuammen.com.

    Breathless, The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus PDF Book, Paperback, Hardcover Book Information

    • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster (October 4, 2022)
    • Language ‏ : ‎ English
    • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
    • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1982164360
    • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1982164362
    • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.28 pounds
    • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.1 x 9 inches

    You can get a copy of Breathless, The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus PDF Book or Paperback from these online stores below.

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  • New “Smart Inverters” May be Vulnerable to Cyberattacks – Researchers Say

    New “Smart Inverters” May be Vulnerable to Cyberattacks – Researchers Say

    Smart inverters' vulnerability to cyberattacks needs to be identified and countered, according to researchers
    The new Smart inverters

    The rise of distributed energy resources (DERs), which are facilities owned by individuals or small businesses and capable of producing, storing, and returning power to energy grids, is revolutionizing how electricity is utilized worldwide.

    The technology is spreading as society explores alternate energy sources, but its quick development opens up a whole new set of weaknesses that are susceptible to hackers.

    Smart inverters are external pieces of equipment that allow DERs, such as residential solar panels and electric car chargers, to connect to power networks. According to a recent study by Concordia researchers, the use of digital information and communication technology by these devices makes them vulnerable to numerous attacks by bad actors, which could have detrimental effects on the general public.

    The study examines the state of smart inverter cybersecurity and analyzes attack tactics at the device and grid levels. It was published in IEEE: Transactions on Power Electronics. It also considers how to stop them, lessen their impact, and defend against them.

    The Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering associate professor and article co-author Jun Yan adds, “We are still in the first decade of trying to comprehend the problem and identifying the most obvious hazards.”

    “Threats will always exist. We have so many homeowners and other users of these devices that it is impossible to have a perfect line of protection. To begin, we need to examine our strategic priorities.”

    The paper’s principal author is Yuanling Li, a Concordia Ph.D. candidate and research assistant at Ericsson’s Global Artificial Intelligence Accelerator (GAIA).

    Grid-level and device-level risks

    The researchers explain the various ways that threats to individual devices or the entire grid might be used to attack smart inverters. Attacks on devices can interfere with communications with other devices or with the utility controlling energy flow, but attacks on hardware are also a possibility.

    They list potential attack tactics that could be used against communication links between the inverters and devices as reconnaissance, replay, DDoS, and man-in-the-middle. Hardware is the target of techniques like physical firmware attacks and hall spoofing, which manipulate the electromagnetic fields around a device.

    The researchers warn of the potential for assaults on distributed control systems and centralized control structures at the microgrid level. Many of these attacks are made to obstruct directives from the control to the devices or to insert misleading data into the communications stream between the device and the regulator.

    The capacity of the microgrid to distribute energy can be significantly hampered by these, which can result in oscillations of power, voltage, and frequency.

    A member of a world network

    The study was conducted as a part of the Mitacs-Ericsson GAIA multi-institutional research effort, which brings together a network of academics from Canada, the United States, India, and Europe. Li is one of 25 Concordia graduate students taking part in the effort, and she has been studying ethical hacking strategies to find weaknesses in crucial infrastructure.

    In order to assess the security of cyber-physical smart grids, he explains, “we deploy AI technology.” Deep reinforcement learning will be used to discover effective and automatic techniques to breach smart grids and have a detrimental physical impact.

    Yan argues that Concordia is ideally suited to take the initiative in the fight against this new threat because it is a key member of the National Cybersecurity Consortium.

    “This document will give us a good place to start.”

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    conclusion

    Do to the researchers we have be able to know more about the New “Smart Inverters”. Do you think this was helpful?, and you may need one of New “Smart Inverters” in your hom?. You can drop your comment on the comment section.

  • Researcher Develops New Method of Recycling Urine – They Realized that Current Toilet Technology Flushes Profits.

    Researcher Develops New Method of Recycling Urine – They Realized that Current Toilet Technology Flushes Profits.

    According to recent research from West Virginia University engineers, garbage flushed down toilets could be a valuable source of resources and profits while also being less harmful to the environment. They explained that new method of recycling urine can stop this wastage and even promote profit gains.

    new method of recycling urine
    Current toilet technology is flushing money down the drain

    Kevin Orner, an assistant professor in the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, is working on a technique that will allow urine to be treated locally rather than at a distant, central wastewater treatment facility. The system, which could be installed beneath a toilet, would speed up urine treatment and encourage the recovery of nitrogen, a nutrient that may be used to make fertilizer. The research by Orner, which was published in the journal Environmental Technology, increases the viability of urine recycling in terms of infrastructure integration and may lessen the quantity of nutrients that reach lakes and rivers. Aquatic ecosystems are at risk from excessive fertilizer discharge because it encourages the growth of algae that deplete the water’s dissolved oxygen.

    Researcher develops new method of recycling urine cause they Realizing that current toilet technology flushes profits.
    using current toilet means flushing away money

    The objective is to change waste collection and treatment from an expensive, environmentally damaging service to a profitable, profitable service. Orner explained, “You have a toilet in your home and a sewer that transports the trash to a treatment plant that may be miles away.” “Building the sewer line that connects to your home and processing the waste at the facility both produce greenhouse gas emissions. “The wastewater treatment plant typically uses energy-intensive electric blowers to convert the ammonium in wastewater to nitrate and to convert that nitrate into nitrogen gas in order to prevent the nutrients from being discharged to your local river.”

    Therefore, no beneficial product is produced, and nitrogen gas returns to the environment. Recycling waste is not a novel idea. Manure has long been used by farmers to improve the soil and urine to keep pests away. Industrial-scale feces-to-fertilizer conversion processes as well as infrastructure and initiatives for human urine recycling are already in place in cities like Nairobi, Kenya, and Brattleboro, Vermont.

    Kelvin Orner
    Kelvin Orner

    Orner imagines toilets that separate excrement and pee so that each waste product can be gathered, treated, and turned into a useful commercial product, most frequently used as fertilizer for plants. Orner’s work is significant because his team was able to significantly speed up treatment—reducing a process that could take weeks or months—by priming the collection and treatment reservoir with an inoculation of soil containing helpful microorganisms, adding carbon pellets to provide a growing surface for bacteria that are key to the treatment process, and using a fill-and-draw procedure whereby small amounts of treated urine are removed and fresh urine is incrementally added. Circular sanitation isn’t quite ready to take over as the new standard of living. High-end, urine-separating toilets can be pricey but look nearly comparable to contemporary toilets. Cheaper versions could smell or call for people to change their habits.

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    Conclusion

    Turning waste that was meant to go down the drain of the toilet to useful resources through the process of recycling is a huge feat and would definitely, mean raking a lot of profit gains in the process. The endeavor into this research is something that we expect to be commercialized into mass production soon.

  • How Engineers Have Improved Solar Cell Efficiency and Stability

    How Engineers Have Improved Solar Cell Efficiency and Stability

    Improved Solar Cell Efficiency
    Improved Solar Cell Efficiency Chemistry and equation

    Recently the researchers at Purdue University have developed innovative, multi-functional ligands that enhance the charge transfer efficiency, increase the power conversion efficiency, and promote long-term stability in perovskite solar cells; in other words; an improved solar cell efficiency.

    Perovskite is a material that can be formed from different elements to have a change of electrical, optical and physical characteristics. Perovskite can be formed as solar cells with simple techniques similar to printing newspapers; the techniques cost less and use less energy than those used to produce traditional silicon cells.

    Engineers improve solar cell efficiency, stability
    Engineers improve solar cell efficiency, stability

    According to Letian Dou, the Charles Davidson Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering in the Davidson School of Chemical Engineering, perovskite solar panels are more cost-effective due to their lighter weight and thinness, making them easier to transport and install. They also have the advantage of being lightweight and flexible, making them portable. However, there are traits of perovskite solar cells that hinder their performance.

    “These solar cells lack an effective charge transfer and are unstable and vulnerable under prolonged light exposure, which often leads to degradation,” Dou said. “Poor stability means a shorter product lifetime, and consumers will need to replace a panel more frequently. Perovskite may not be stable for 25 years like silicon, but at least 10 years is required for successful commercialization. Replacing the panels also adds to the labor cost.” Dou said.

    traditional solar cells require a critical interface between perovskite and the organic charge collection layer. He said a molecular “glue” is needed, but conventional molecules block the current flow. “Our conjugated ligands have a perfect fit into the perovskite crystal lattice and can help build a 2D-on-3D perovskite heterostructure, which further enhances the solar panel’s stability,” Dou said.

    Dou and his team have tested the innovative ligands in their laboratory.

    “We achieved near 25% power conversion efficiency with the ligands, compared to less than 20% without them,” Dou said. “We also improved the lifetime to more than 2,400 hours tested at 65 degrees Celsius, which is four times longer than without the ligands.“

    Dou and his team are taking additional steps to improve the ligands. “We are working on new ligands to further what we’ve already achieved: more than 25% power conversion efficiency and more than 10,000 hours of operational lifetime,” Dou said. “We also are working to apply the ligands in larger-area solar modules. We look to achieve these goals within a year or so.”

    Conclusion

    Dou disclosed the conjugated ligand innovation to the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization, which has applied for patent protection on the intellectual property.

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