Author: Daily Upsider

A team from MIT has developed a chemical reaction that could allow ships and submarines to generate zero-emissions hydrogen power using aluminum pellets and seawater.

By making a few adjustments, the researchers managed to produce a significant amount of hydrogen gas, a potential alternative to fossil fuels for heavy machinery like construction equipment, trains, and planes. One of the key modifications involved adding coffee grounds, which made the process more sustainable by using aluminum from old soda cans. Hydrogen is being tested in various applications as it has zero carbon emissions, with water as the only byproduct.

However, concerns exist about the safety of transporting large quantities of hydrogen gas due to its volatile nature. Aly Kombargi, a Ph.D. student in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, and his team proposed using seawater as the hydrogen source and aluminum pellets as the onboard fuel, similar to how coal was once used in steamships.

“This is particularly useful for maritime applications like boats or underwater vehicles, as seawater is readily available,” said Kombargi, the lead author of the paper detailing the experiment.

The reaction involves dropping pure aluminum into water, which generates hydrogen gas. To reduce costs, aluminum soda cans can be used, but they must be pretreated with a rare alloy called gallium indium. This is necessary because the non-pure aluminum in soda cans forms a protective oxide layer that prevents the reaction. The alloy can be recovered if protected by a barrier of ions, which seawater naturally provides.

Initially, the process took about 2 hours, but by experimenting with different substances, the team discovered that coffee grounds, specifically the imidazole found in caffeine, reduced the reaction time to just 5 minutes.

With this approach, the researchers estimate that 1 gram of pre-treated aluminum pellets can generate 1.3 liters of hydrogen in just 5 minutes. According to MIT, the team plans to test the system in marine and underwater vehicles, and they have calculated that a reactor holding about 40 pounds of aluminum pellets could power a small underwater glider for approximately 30 days using seawater to generate hydrogen to power a motor.

Humans are pretty smart, and we come up with a lot of great ideas. Sadly, sometimes those great ideas are forgotten even thought they could still be very useful.

Often, past technologies are replaced by better technologies. However, the original solutions can address issues with the newer techs. And using them in conjunction can often give you the best of both worlds.

So here is this fascinating video explaining why you should consider using this “obsolete” tech on your home.

A new blood test that detects sepsis in under ten minutes could be available in up to 11 US states by the end of the year. The test identifies sepsis by analyzing changes in the shape of white blood cells.

This test, developed by Cytovale, works by passing a small blood sample through a tube to observe if white blood cells become elongated and flattened, a sign of sepsis. Traditional methods for detecting sepsis through cell shape have taken up to two days and often resulted in incorrect diagnoses.

The IntelliSep test uses an ultra-high-speed camera to capture over 500,000 frames per second, which are then analyzed by an AI-powered computer. This process provides results in minutes with an accuracy rate of 97%.

Cytovale, the Silicon Valley company behind the IntelliSep, has received FDA approval for the test, and it is currently in use at a hospital in Louisiana. It will be rolled out to ten more hospitals by the end of 2024. Professor Michael Atar, a leading expert on sepsis, describes the test as a major advancement in medical diagnostics, capable of saving millions of lives.

Sepsis is currently the third most common cause of death in U.S. hospitals and affects 1.7 million people nationwide each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Nuclear-powered spacecraft have the potential to significantly reduce travel times to Mars and beyond.

Last year, NASA and DARPA awarded Lockheed Martin a $499 million contract to develop the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO). This project employs several innovations to navigate regulations related to nuclear testing and aims to help the US maintain its lead over China’s rapidly advancing space sector.

The DRACO rocket, designed to be approximately 49 feet long and 17.7 feet in diameter, will be launched using the United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket, which had its maiden flight in January this year.

Nuclear rockets could drastically cut travel times to Mars, potentially reducing the journey from six or seven months to around three months. Shorter travel times would benefit astronaut health by reducing exposure to harmful cosmic radiation and enabling quicker return trips, aligning with the optimal Mars-Earth windows.

A New Fuel
The concept of nuclear thermal rockets dates back to the US Air Force’s Rover program in the mid-1950s, which remained experimental.

Instead of weapons-grade uranium, which poses significant risks in the event of a launch failure, DRACO will utilize high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU). HALEU, enriched to less than 20 percent, meets stringent security requirements for on-ground testing, as reported by Ars Technica.

If successful, NASA and DARPA could soon have a nuclear rocket, vastly expanding humanity’s capacity to explore the Solar System.