Design Of A Spacecraft To Alpha Centauri

Engineers have designed a spacecraft that could take up to 2,400 people on a one-way trip to Alpha Centauri, the star system closest to Earth. The craft, called Chrysalis, could make the 25 trillion mile (40 trillion kilometer) journey in around 400 years, the engineers say in their project brief, meaning many of its potential passengers would only know life on the craft.

Chrysalis is designed to house several generations of people until it enters the star system, where it could shuttle them to the surface of the planet Proxima Centuri b — an Earth-size exoplanet that is thought to be potentially habitable.

The project won first place in the Project Hyperion Design Competition, a challenge that requires teams to design hypothetical multigenerational ships for interstellar travel.

Before boarding the ship, the Chrysalis project would require initial generations of ship inhabitants to live in and adapt to an isolated environment in Antarctica for 70 to 80 years to ensure psychological wellbeing. The ship could theoretically be constructed in 20 to 25 years and retains gravity through constant rotation.

The vessel, which would measure 36 miles (58 km) in length, would be constructed like a Russian nesting doll, with several layers encompassing each other around a central core. The layers include communal spaces, farms, gardens, homes, warehouses and other shared facilities, each powered by nuclear fusion reactors.

The core in the center of the vehicle hosts the shuttles that could bring people to Proxima Centuri b, as well as all of Chrysalis' communication equipment.

The layer closest to Chrysalis' core is dedicated to food production, nurturing plants, fungi, microbes, insects and livestock in controlled environments. To preserve biodiversity, different environments including tropical and boreal forests would be maintained.

The second level from the center provides communal spaces, like parks, schools, hospitals and libraries, for the ship’s inhabitants. The next shell would then hold dwellings for individual households, equipped with air circulation and heat exchangers.

Work happens on the next level up, where there are facilities for industries ranging from recycling to pharmaceuticals to structural manufacturing. The fifth and outermost shell would serve as a warehouse for varied types of resources, materials, equipment and machinery. The Chrysalis' designers suggest that robots could run this level, reducing the need for human physical labor.

Births would be planned in Chrysalis to ensure the population stays at a sustainable level, which the research team determined to be about 1,500 people — 900 people less than the ship's total capacity.

Those responsible for the ship's governance would collaborate with artificial intelligence, "allowing for resilience of the whole social system, better knowledge transfer between the different generations of inhabitants and a deeper vision of the overall dynamics of the Chrysalis spaceship complex," the project engineers wrote in their pitch.

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Da Vinci's Heart Finally Solved

It took nearly 500 years for researchers to finally understand the anatomical function of a heart feature first described by Leonardo da Vinci. To find the answer, scientists used fractal theory, MRIs, and a lot of computational elbow grease to shed light on structures called trabeculae. They found this branching, snowflaky muscle layer plays a part in the risk of heart disease.

"The inner surfaces of the human heart are covered by a complex network of muscular strands that is thought to be a remnant of embryonic development," the researchers explain in a paper in Nature. "The function of these trabeculae in adults and their genetic architecture are unknown. Here we investigate trabeculae using the fractal analysis in 18,096 participants of the UK Biobank."

Leonardo drew pictures of the fine, lacy, snowflake-like trabeculae after examining a heart up close and dissecting it. The artist likely noticed the tree root-like branching structure, and he theorized that the trabeculae were like the systems we use now to keep sidewalks and roads from freezing: a network for blood, in this case, that was kept warm by circulating in small vessels around the warm and vibrant heart.

In studying the trabeculae, scientists were able to identify common features across different patient imagery and to begin to draw conclusions about what the structural trabeculae are doing.

"Using biomechanical simulations and observational data from human participants, we demonstrate that trabecular morphology is an important determinant of cardiac performance," for example, meaning certain trabecular structures meant an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

"We identified 16 significant loci that contain genes associated with haemodynamic phenotypes and regulation of cytoskeletal arborization," the researchers explain.

By studying the genome as well as trabeculae of their tens of thousands of subjects, they began to pinpoint places in the genome that spoke to how trabeculae are able to form and function—with implications about the way other body cells form and behave as well. (Arborization is just what it sounds like: the technical term for branching, like a tree.)

Fractal analysis colors everything from mapmaking to botany to telecomms: anytime a major “trunk” branches into smaller and smaller areas until it has photographed the whole country, like Google Maps, or covered the entire Earth landmass with high-speed internet. In this case, the trabeculae branch into smaller and smaller threads, and the nature of the fractal network is where many of the clues lie.

"Only the combination of genetics, clinical research, and bioengineering led us to discover the unexpected role of myocardial trabeculae in the function of the adult heart," researcher Hannah Meyer said in a statement. The researchers say this is also just a first step toward a more complex understanding of the trabeculae.

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'Super Steel' Developed For Fusion Energy

The biggest unknown in fusion energy is not the physics powering gargantuan reactors known as tokamaks.

Scientists are confident that if a reactor contains a superheated plasma, fueled by heavy hydrogen isotopes of deuterium and tritium, at temperatures approaching 100 million degrees Celsius, you will produce a self-sustaining reaction, generating near endless amounts of clean energy. Tokamaks around the world—not to the National Ignition Facility’s successful fusion ignition in 2022—have proven this out time and again.

The real problem is the materials needed to build the thing.

"You need a material solution. Give me the materials that can hold this thing together, at temperature, to be efficient," Phil Ferguson, Ph.D., Director of the Material Plasma Exposure eXperiment (MPEX) Project at Oak Ridge National Laboratory told Popular Mechanics in 2024. "We are still lacking a breakthrough in materials."

Not only does a fusion reactor need parts, such as the divertor, to handle the plasma’s extreme heat, other parts of the very same machine need to withstand and operate at temperatures approaching absolute zero.

One of these parts is the very heart of the reactor, called the central solenoid, which is responsible for a majority of the magnetic flux to generate the plasma and is powered by ultracold cable-in-conduit superconductors. The shield, or jacket, for the central solenoid needs to be a steel material that can retain superior mechanical and thermal properties at cryogenic temperatures while also withstanding intense magnetic fields.

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), the world’s most advanced tokamak that’s due for first plasma by 2034, uses a material known as 316LN stainless steel designed to operate at a maximum of 11.8 Tesla.

Now, a new report from the state-run South China Morning Post (SCMP) suggests that Chinese scientists have come up with a new material that has even ITER’s steel jacket of choice beat. This super steel, called China high-strength low-temperature steel No. 1, or CHSN01, can withstand up to 20 Tesla and 1,500-megapascal (MPa) of stress. Scientists detailed the 12-year process to create this particular steel jacket in the journal Applied Sciences this past May.

"While ITER’s maximum 11.8 Tesla field design is enough for itself, future higher-field magnets will require advanced materials," said Li Laifeng, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ (CAS), reports SCMP. "Developing next-gen cryogenic steel isn’t optional – it’s essential for the success of China’s compact fusion energy experimental devices."

CHSN01 will be in the central Solenoid of China’s Burning Plasma Experiment Superconducting Tokamak (BEST), an intermediary reactor between the country’s first-generation fusion reactors and the Chinese Fusion Engineering Test Reactor—the country’s first fusion plant demonstrator. Scientists aim for the BEST reactor to achieve first plasma in late 2027.

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Abundance Of Life At 31K Feet Below The Ocean

Who would have thought that at 31,000 feet below the Ocean, life is amazing. It’s survived everything from asteroid impacts to ice ages to continental drift and simply continued chugging along. It even manages to exist—and flourish—in the deepest part of the world’s oceans, devoid of any sunlight.

Recently, a manned submersible (not a robot, but one with actual people inside) brought this truth into sharp focus by diving over 31,000 feet into the world’s deepest ocean trenches.

The mission—which, over its duration, saw a total of 17 scientists dive down in the sub—ended up finding what might be the largest chemosynthesis-based community on Earth, and uncovered thousands of new species of microorganisms. The results of the study were published in the journal Nature.

To really get a sense of what was down there, the team of researchers took the manned submersible Fendouzhe—the world’s only human-occupied vehicle (HOV) capable of the sampling and research achieved in this study—to depths as extreme as 31,200 feet, in such locations as the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench and the western Aleutian Trench. All in all, they managed to identify 7,564 species of prokaryotic microorganism, over 89 percent of which had never been seen before.

The hadal zone contains some of Earth’s least explored and understood environments. These communities of extreme deep water life forms are sustained not by sunlight—which can’t even begin to penetrate water to hadal-zone depths—but by hydrogen sulfide- and methane-rich fluids found along faults that carve their way through the deep sediment layers found in the trenches.

"Given geological similarities with other hadal trenches, such chemosynthesis-based communities might be more widespread than previously anticipated," the authors wrote. "These findings challenge current models of life at extreme limits and carbon cycling in the deep ocean."

But evidently, even at these extremes, life will win out. The diversity in the trenches is thought to equal that of the rest of the known marine world.

The first humans to descend to some of the deepest points in a variety of trenches were in awe of the experience. And the scientific potential.

"Diving in the submersible was an extraordinary experience—like traveling through time," Mengran Du, a study author and researcher at the Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told Vox. "Each descent transported me to a new deep-sea realm. As a diving scientist, nothing compares to the thrill of gazing through the observation window with my own eyes."

"The presence of these chemosynthetic ecosystems," Du continued, "challenges long-standing assumptions about life’s potential at extreme depths."

Xiao Xiang, convening scientist of the Mariana Trench Environment and Ecology Research and professor at the School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, told China Daily that these deep-sea organisms could be a massive boon for science. "Our research showed the hadal zone microbes exhibit extraordinary novelty and diversity, demonstrating the immense resource potential of the hadal microorganisms in terms of new genes, new structures, and new functions."

"Such resources," Xiang continued, "may provide a new option to solve the dilemma of global depletion of biological resources and also open up prospects for innovative application in the areas of biotechnology, medicine, and energy, among others."

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Chinese Scientists Made Breakthrough With Bendable Battery

Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences recently completed a study outlining their design and development of a hydrogel electrolyte that uses urea and zinc acetate to enable zinc-ion batteries to bend without losing voltage.

The study, published in the international edition of Angewandte Chemie, sought an alternative to conventional means of improving flexibility.

Quasi-solid-state electrolytes, for instance, encounter limitations in terms of cost, durability, and environmental impact — limitations overcome by the inexpensive, eco-friendly zinc acetate compound.

That's not to say the researchers faced zero obstacles along the way.

Zinc acetate's poor solubility, according to a summary published on Tech Xplore, interferes with performance, meaning the researchers needed to cultivate a "salting out" strategy — that is, removing hydration shells around polymer chains — in order to strengthen the electrolyte's durability.

"This approach overcomes the usual limits of the low-cost [zinc acetate] salt, making it much better at resisting wear and tear," noted researcher Li Zhaoqian. "It allows the material to withstand repeated processes of zinc plating and stripping, as well as other physical stress, improving its overall durability."

Zinc-ion batteries are used in a range of applications, from smart technology to electric vehicles and renewable power storage, serving as a much more sustainable alternative to lithium-ion batteries, which tend to be expensive to source and contain hazardous pollutants.

As carbon pollution continues to push our planet to overheat, threatening the stability of our weather, our resources, and our public health, finding ways to improve our current clean energy techniques becomes increasingly essential.

In particular, increasing the physical flexibility of batteries "highlights its potential for application in portable and wearable electronic devices," according to Li, which are becoming more popular these days in the form of watches, rings, and even clothing.

As it stands, zinc-ion batteries are less common than lithium-ion batteries because of their aforementioned limitations, despite their longevity and cost-effectiveness. However, innovations such as the product of this latest research are sure to underscore the benefits and offset the costs, facilitating their integration into various sectors.

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New Status Discovered In Easter Island

Just when experts thought they knew every moai on Rapa Nui, otherwise known as Easter Island, a dried-up lakebed kept them on their toes. These statues—largely made of a stone formed from volcanic ash and dust called tuff—pepper the island, with more than 1,000 already found and logged.

Finding another one came as a surprise. And a bit of a mystery.

"We think we know all the moai, but then a new one turns up, a new discovery, and in this case, in the lake, at the statue quarry," Terry Hunt, professor of archeology at the University of Arizona, told Good Morning America. "There have been no moai found in the dry bed or in what was previously a lake, so this is a first."

And it may not be the last.

As the area undergoes drying, the lakebed in question has given up its moai. And this opportunity may occur again. "Under the dry conditions that we have now, we may find more," Hunt said. "They’ve been hidden by the tall reeds that grow in the lakebed and prospecting with something that can detect what’s under the ground surface may tell us that there are in fact more moai in the lakebed sediments. When there’s one moai in the lake, there’s probably more."

The newly discovered moai is also one of the smallest found, leading experts to believe that hidden within these reeds is the potential for a bounty of new moai.

Created by the Rapu Nui people, moai have a mythical legend attached to them and have gained worldwide renown for their appearances. Some believe these moai were given special powers to walk across land and end up in their resting place. Whether or not the legend has legs, there are many theories regarding how these statues moved from building sites to various locations.

While the largest of the statues weighs 86 tons and rises 32 feet tall, most of the moai average about half that size. About 95 percent are carved from the volcanic tuff, but a few are made from basalt. Each one is unique, created by carvers to represent the characteristics of the person it resembled, often a chieftain or key leader.

The finishing touch on moai was the inclusion of special stones for the eyes, not carved or placed until the statue found its home.

Even though experts thought they knew the locations of all of these moai homes, finding this new, small one in the lakebed proves some had remained a complete mystery.

"It’s here in the lake and nobody knows this exists," Salvador Atan Hito, vice president of Ma’u Henua, the group that oversees the island’s national park, told Good Morning America, "even the ancestors, our grandparents don’t know [about] that one."

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The Potential Of The Eighth Continent Of Zealandia

Once there were seven. Now, the eighth continent of Zealandia doesn't want to be silent and shows everyone why it has so much promise. Well, it did—until about 95 percent of the mass sunk under the ocean.

While the majority of Zealandia may never host inhabitants — at least, not land-based ones — the would-be continent is now no longer simply lost. Researchers have finished mapping out the northern two-thirds of Zealandia, wrapping up the documentation of the nearly two million square miles of the submerged land mass.

In a study published in Tectonics, researchers from GNS Science of New Zealand document their process of dredging rock samples from the Fairway Ridge to the Coral Sea in order to analyze the rock geochemical and understand the underwater makeup of Zealandia.

Zealandia’s history is quite closely tied to the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana, which broke up hundreds of millions of years ago. Zealandia followed suit — roughly 80 million years ago, according to the latest theory. But unlike neighboring Australia or much of Antarctica, Zealandia largely sunk, leaving only a small portion of what many geologists believe should still be dubbed the eighth continent.

New Zealand makes up the most recognizable above-water portion of Zealandia, although a few other islands in the vicinity are also part of the maybe-continent in question.

This research, led by Nick Mortimer, dredged the northern two-thirds of the submerged area, pulling up pebbly and cobbley sandstone, fine-grain sandstone, mudstone, bioclastic limestone, and basaltic lava from a variety of time periods. By dating the rocks and interpreting magnetic anomalies, the researchers wrote, they were able to map the major geological units across North Zealandia.

"This work completes offshore reconnaissance geological mapping of the entire Zealandia continent," they said.

The researchers found the sandstone roughly 95 million years old from the Late Cretaceous period and a mix of granite and volcanic pebbles from up to 130 million years old during the Early Cretaceous period. The basalts are newer — they’re about 40 million years old and from the Eocene period.

Along with the mapping, the paper says that the internal deformation of both Zealandia and West Antarctica show that stretching led to the subduction-style cracking of the plates that welcomed ocean water to form the Tasman Sea. Then, a few million years later, further Antarctica break-away continued to stretch the crust of Zealandia until it thinned enough to break apart and seal the largely underwater fate of Zealandia. This goes against the prevailing theory of a strike-slip breakup.

The team believes, according to Science Alert, that the stretching direction varied by up to 65 degrees, which may have allowed the extensive thinning of the continental crust.

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