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"And according to his calculations, improvements in short-pulse laser systems could make this form of thruster more than 40 times as efficient as even the best of today's ionic propulsion systems that push spacecraft around. "

Dejan please have a look at this also ...

while the nuclear reaction seems to be sound at first view, I am not so sure how this would work: "Electromagnetic forces push the target and the alpha particles in the opposite directions, and the particles exit the spacecraft through a nozzle, providing the vehicle's thrust. "

Sounds quite ACT-ish...

Royal College of Art's Innovation Design Engineering course in collaboration with Tufts University silk lab. Not as good as it sounds as it does not fully mimic the photosynthesis equation (spare C, H atoms)

Interesting stuff and I guess it does not need to fully mimic photosynthesis in the end. As long as oxygen can be produced from CO2 and water that would be great enough. Though the carbon has to be deposited somewhere (in some form) and I wonder how one could extract this efficiently. Maybe it can even serve some purpose (as the sugars are doing for the plant)

Their accuracy is orders of magnitude better than what is currently being used, however at the moment, it sounds like quite a large setup -> they're working on getting it down to 1m^3 :o, still any gravity mapping instruments could benefit from these in the future.

Actually GPS is much more accurate, but as it doesnt work under water, the only alternative (without building an underwater GPS equivalent using probes) is to use cumulative accelerometer data. But as this is prone to drifting over time, quantum systems like this can help improving the accuracy significantly.

Very true :). I was thinking though when you want to remove 'noise' from any gravity mapping experiment, highly accurate accelerometers are required, like those used in GOCE.

Apparently it's time for retirement of the Le Grand K, if all goes well until the middle of next year...

"One method (...) involves counting the atoms in two silicon-28 spheres that each weigh the same as the reference kilogram." Sounds like a lengthy task, but someone must keep those physics PhD students busy, I guess...

Sounds like an interesting building material. Unlike concrete, after use it can simply be molten down (at seemingly reasonable temperatures) and used again to build different parts. Crack in the wall? Just iron it out (literally)! A group at Northwestern University wants to solve an engineering challenge now to prepare for the future: it's turning Mars-like soil into concrete. And, in turn, that concrete requires very little (if any) water. It's just the thing we may need to make life on Mars sustainable.

How many people to we actually need put on that ship?

We should invite these people to the AF special issue

sounds really interesting. their simulations don't account for biological issues (mutation, migration, selection, drift, founder effect) though, so the numbers are very low. this paper (https://ac.els-cdn.com/S0094576513004669/1-s2.0-S0094576513004669-main.pdf?_tid=6bec2a5c-f05f-4024-b4de-af78ab06fd42&acdnat=1531827379_d4f0be1b193873890d6e5b4574e82f2e) takes those effects and their implications on genetic composition of populations into account, but the numbers are enormous. do you have an idea why they (marin and beluffi) wouldn't put those effects into the simulations?

uups :)

Well, I wouldn't expect a reply: "all our past emails have been downloaded and sold to NASA" even if that was the case.

Of course Marek is right... What matters is the theatre of security, not security itself. Just like in airports :)

A new class of exotic materials could find its way into next-generation technologies that efficiently convert waste heat into electrical current according to new research. Both the exotic materials and the means by which they generate electricity rely on a hybrid of advanced concepts-including string theory combined with black holes combined with cutting-edge condensed matter physics.

Sounds spooky

Collecting space rocks.

if a geologist hears you calling them rocks they will curse you collectively. I am in a workshop where some of those are present and I constantly remind myself to call them "minerals".

minerals sound much better indeed ... but what is wrong with rocks ? :-)

Couldn't find more details on this but sounds interesting.

interesting indeed as a concept and to explore how far one can go to overcome some of the natural deficiencies of wood. regarding the main purpose of debris avoidance, it's typically not the structure that survives re-entry and one would have to see the environmental effect of what would be released in the atmosphere when burning.

Now this sounds pretty useful