This week’s Top 5 engineering technology articles go from the bottom of the ocean to outer space and cover technologies as big as a rocket and smaller than a strand of human hair.
- Underwater Balloons Could Give Us A New Way Of Storing Renewable Energy
- Diamond Nanothreads Could Support Space Elevator
- No Lens? No Problem For FlatCam
- Reusable Rockets Are Here. Thanks, Blue Origin
- Li-Fi Has Just Been Tested In The Real World, And It’s 100 Times Faster Than Wi-Fi
Underwater Balloons Could Give Us A New Way Of Storing Renewable Energy
Science Alert
Energy sources not born of fossil fuels have been kind of the holy grail of an ever growing number of scientists. The large number of hurdles to have these fuels become a viable source for large metropolitan areas have been growing ever smaller with research, discoveries, and breakthroughs around the globe.
The latest breakthrough comes courtesy of a Canadian startup that has found a way to harness the energy collected and store it within balloons at the bottom of a lake, river, or ocean. This method can store the energy for twice the amount of time than the best set of batteries can currently accommodate.
These balloons are similar to the setup used to raise a sunken ship. Compressed air is the key to making the system work efficiently. Hydrostor’s current model will aid in the G20’s assertion to remove the globe from fossil fuels completely by 2050. If that isn’t a breakthrough in engineering technology, I’m not sure what would be.
Diamond Nanothreads Could Support Space Elevator
Space.com
An elevator to space is one of those notions that would seem pretty cool in theory, but incredibly hard to pull off in reality. What kind of material would you use that could withstand the torque, the atmospheric pressure, and all of the other variables between the ground and outer space? How about a girl’s best friend? Or at least a variation anyway. Researchers at Penn State University have theorized that diamond nanothreads could be exactly the material needed to build a space elevator from the earth to the moon.
These rings of carbon atoms are 20,000 times smaller than a strand of human hair, but could potentially be the strongest material ever made. It would be this material that could be used for a potential space elevator. This would certainly give new meaning to the term penthouse in the sky.
No Lens? No Problem For FlatCam
Phys.org
One of my colleagues is quite the accomplished photographer. He’s been published in a number of places and spends lots of nights and weekends loading his car with all sorts of camera gear and taking pictures in all sorts of cool and unique locations.
One of his complaints about these locations is the amount of gear he totes around from place to place in order to get that perfect picture. Now imagine if he had the FlatCam invented by Rice Labs. The FlatCam uses chip technology to essentially replace the lenses in a traditional camera.
The design that they have, smaller than a quarter, would mean a camera could be curved or built into features within the home for additional security measures. Truthfully, with an application like a camera integrated into a package that small, the possibilities truly are endless.
Reusable Rockets Are Here. Thanks, Blue Origin
How Stuff Works Now
Elon Musk has been chasing the reusable rocket for quite a while now. It looks as though Jeff Bezos and his company Blue Origin have grabbed the top slot for at least the immediate future. Blue Origin had a rocket lift off, reach suborbital altitudes and then land safely back onto the pad.
Though not to the scale that SpaceX is attempting (there is a large difference between suborbital and orbital) it was a successful test of a reusable rocket scenario. Building on that success will be key to having viable commercial space travel.
Li-Fi Has Just Been Tested In The Real World, And It’s 100 Times Faster Than Wi-Fi
Science Alert
These days when someone says they are leaving Wi-Fi behind, they may not be stepping off the grid for a life off the internet. They might be signaling that they are ready to make the jump to light speed, or rather Li-Fi. Li-Fi uses visible light communication to achieve speeds of 224 gigabits a second.
Scientists are quick to point out that while Li-Fi will likely not overtake Wi-Fi anytime soon, the two could work in conjunction to make most homes more efficient by taking out some of the device interference currently experienced with Wi-Fi alone.
Harald Hass, the inventor of Li-Fi, has a great TED talk that goes into the specifics of the technology.
Well, that’s it for me this week. Until next time I’ll be watching the skies, the web, and maybe even my LED bulbs to see what new surprises in engineering technology await me.
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