Science And Technology News And Views Magazine
We take a look ahead in our SCIENCE OF THE FUTURE issue
What is SATNAV? SATNAV is the student-led bi-annual science magazine at the University of Birmingham. If you have an interest in scientific writing then this is a great opportunity to get some experience and practice. We cater to a wide range of scientific tastes from Psychology to Quantum Physics! The committee provide editors and feedback aiming to create an informative, factual and interesting magazine, with an issue published at the end of the Autumn and Spring Terms.
How can I get involved? Enjoy writing about your favourite science topics? Want to give it a go? We want to hear from you! Get in touch with us at satnav@guild.bham.ac.uk or alternatively, any of the committee members. Join our Facebook group: S.A.T.N.A.V Magazine Follow us on twitter: @Satnavmag See our previous issues: http://issuu.com/satnavmag
Cover Competition At SATNAV, we encourage creativity in expressing our interests in science. As well as accepting written submissions to the magazine, we also accept artwork submissions! We have also organised a scientific art exhibition on the theme of this issue: Science of the Future. The front and back covers of this issue are designed by the winners of the SCIENCE OF THE FUTURE competition organised jointly with Artsoc. Front Cover: Freya Leontas Back Cover: Beth Andrews
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Chair Siddharth Trivedi SVT272@student.bham.ac.uk Vice Chair Alina-Ioana Suiu AXS355@student.bham.ac.uk Treasurer Cecilia Caffrey CXC347@student.bham.ac.uk Secretary Arthur Zophiel Lee ATL280@student.bham.ac.uk Layout Editors Marion Cromb MXC414@student.bham.ac.uk Agnieszka Rześniowiecka AAR313@student.bham.ac.uk Life Sciences Editor Hannah Richards HLR368@student.bham.ac.uk Physical Sciences Editor Sara Jebril SMJ472@student.bham.ac.uk Technology and Review Editor and Publicity Officer William Richardson WXR369@student.bham.ac.uk Copy Editor Alex Deam AJD253@student.bham.ac.uk Website Manager Duncan Carter DAC241@student.bham.ac.uk
Stem Cells Hannah Richards looks at advances in research
Thorium Power Marion Cromb ponders the possible nuclear fuel of the future Mind Reading Sophie Dixon investigates the science behind the superpower Blockchain Marion Cromb asks Arifa Khan about the future of finance Virtual Reality William Richardson visualises the future of this technology Bye Bye Plastic? Kit BĂŠhard on tomorrow's materials today
Star Wars Siddharth Trivedi considers our galactic future
Forget Keyboard and Mouse, What About Drones? William Richardson The Future of Affordable Drugs Melissa Jack Boeing Announce 'Lightest Metal Ever' Ashlee Stephen Printing the Earth Rosalind Lockley
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BITDRONES
Forget keyboard and mouse, what about drones? Chances are that today you’ve scrolled through Facebook on your phone or typed on your laptop. How we interact with computers isn’t something we really consider. However, it seems that the researchers at The Human Media Lab in Canada think a little differently. By using a small fleet of tiny flying drones, the researchers have forged a new way to interact with computers. Working together, the drones aim to make working more fluid than traditional computing. The system uses three drone types: Pixel
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drones that have a single LED; Shape drones that can be moved together to create 3D structures and Display drones that have a mini touchscreen interface. The user can drag drones to new locations, and use familiar gestures such as pinching and rotating. The creators of the technology predict many possible uses, including 3D modelling, gaming, medical imaging and robotics. Their practical vision is to create hundreds of smaller versions working together around the user to create a fully immersive 3D workspace. Now, isn’t that better than a keyboard and mouse! William Richardson
The Future of Affordable Drugs Imprimis Pharmaceuticals is striving to provide affordable, safe generic drugs in the US, starting with a cheaper alternative to Daraprim for treating infections in HIV-positive individuals. The manufacturing rights to Daraprim were purchased by Turing Pharmaceuticals in September, with prices rising from $13 to $750 overnight, provoking outrage from politicians and HIV/AIDS charities alike. The alternative drug will cost $1 per pill, with discounts for those who can’t afford it, and contains a very similar formulation to Daraprim, using the same generic compound as the active ingredient, pyrimethamine. This generic drug is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US, but may be sold with a doctor’s prescription there. Melissa Jack
BITDRONES (2015): RESIZING A GROUP OF SHAPEDRONES WITH A PINCH GESTURE.
SMITHSONIAN DIGITIZATION PROGRAM OFFICE
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Printing the Earth 3D printing is fast becoming one of the most exciting technical advances for geological science. The ability to incorporate this into research and industry could have a vast effect on the future of Earth science. For students, 3D prints of types of fossils or topographic models could support understanding without risking valuable resources. The X3D Project
Boeing announce ‘lightest metal ever’ On 6 October, Boeing announced its development of a new metal named Microlattice, a material composed of 99.99% air, making it over a hundred times lighter than Styrofoam. Microlattice is a 3D open-cellular polymer structure which, according to Boeing, was modelled on that of bones lightweight yet able to withstand large forces without breaking. While the outer layer remains rigid, the inside is composed of interconnected hollow tubes, each with walls nearing 100 nm thick, around a thousand times thinner than a
hopes to make The Smithsonian Institution’s irreplaceable collections available to anyone and everyone around the world. Fragile, rare fossils could be printed for use in classrooms globally, whilst printing of crystal forms would visually aid teaching. Famous geological outcrops could even be printed, giving access to some of the most remote but important sites that may not be possible to visit in person. Furthermore, rather than assuming results via calculations, researchers human hair. This unique structure results in Microlattice being an excellent energy absorber, through controlled compression. In fact Sofia Yang, Research Scientist of Architected Materials at HRL Labs (co-workers with Boeing), claims that an egg surrounded by Microlattice, when dropped from a 25storey building, would survive without any damage - an image hard to imagine. Naturally, Boeing aims to utilise the Microlattice structure in aeronautical engineering.
could have a tangible copy of their models to simulate in the “real world”. Printing out internal scans of rocks can support oil and mining industries when looking for economic deposits. Mass-produced technology mounted with 3D printers could reduce the loss of profit by preventing disasters, remotely fixing pipe blockages without disturbing production. The future of geology, not only on our own planet, could soon be in our hands… literally. Rosalind Lockley
Replacing some more weighty components would ultimately result in lighter, and more energy efficient, aircraft. Although this breakthrough yields a significant achievement, bear in mind that it was only two years previously that aerogel surfaced as the ‘lightest material ever’, so keep an eye out, as soon, we may indeed have an even lighter material on the horizon. Ashlee Stephen
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This extraordinary bubble, glowing like the ghost of a star in the haunting darkness of space, may appear supernatural and mysterious, but it is a familiar astronomical object: a planetary nebula, the remnants of a dying star. This is the best view of the little-known object ESO 378-1 yet obtained and was captured by ESO’s Very Large Telescope in northern Chile. Credit: ESO
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The Future of Stem Cell Research
Hannah Richards dives into the depths of stem cell research and explores the latest developments both in the lab and in the clinic.
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n the last few years, the explosion in stem cell research amongst scientific and medical groups has sparked interest within political, pharmaceutical and ethical communities. Stem cells offer great potential to treat diseases that cannot be cured with current medicines; however there is much debate surrounding this controversial research. The concern lies in the use of embryonic stem cells, as it involves the destruction of human embryos with the potential to develop into human life. Embryonic stem cell research has truly divided the European Union, with Germany, Italy and Austria keeping this research illegal. On the other hand, Sweden, Britain, Greece, Finland and the Netherlands permit embryonic stem cell use with strict guide lines. At the core of the debate is the question: is this destruction of life for the greater good?
What are stem cells?
Stem cells are a class of undifferentiated cells that are able to differentiate into specialised cell types in the right conditions. Stem cells are
able to self-renew; they can multiply whilst maintaining their ability to differentiate into other cell types. Stem cells can become cells of the blood, bones, heart, skin, muscles and brain. There are two main sources of stem cells – embryonic stem cells, taken from the inner cell mass of a blastocyst, and adult stem cells, found in various tissues including bone marrow.
What are they used for?
There are many uses for stems cells, with organ and tissue regeneration being the most important due to the demand for organs exceeding the donor supply. Stem cells could actually be used to grow a certain type of tissue or organ when directed to differentiate in a particular way. For example, stems cells have been used to engineer new skin tissue that can be grafted onto burn victims. Recently, scientists in Australia have succeeded in growing “organoids” which are comparable to the developmental stages of a baby’s kidney, with collecting ducts and filtering units. There have been breakthroughs in treating infertility, Parkinson’s and heart disease, and even
in curing blindness. In September 2011, a patient in California was treated with embryonic stem cells in an approved clinical trial for patients with a spinal cord injury.
What potential do they have for the future of medicine? There have been so many recent
advances involving stem cells, so what does the future hold for stem cell research? We will see some exciting new drugs come into play; these drugs may achieve the same remarkable feats but without having to remove stem cells from the body. For example, these drugs may activate cells in an individual’s
"Stem cells have been used to engineer new skin tissue that can be grafted onto burn victims" bone marrow and encourage migration to parts of the body where repair is needed. Researchers have discussed ways to combine 3D-printing with the promising future of stem cells. This idea could be used in the future to successfully yield uniform “building blocks” of stem cells to build larger tissues and organs.
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Thorium: The Nuclear Fuel of the Future? Thorium is described by its proponents as a “superfuel”. Marion Cromb asks what makes it better than what we have now?
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urrently, nuclear reactors use enriched uranium as fuel. It is 96% uranium isotope U-238, and just 4% fissile U-235. Fissile isotopes split when hit by a neutron, and are the only isotopes capable of sustaining a nuclear chain reaction. While uranium power is a thousand times more efficient than fossil fuels, reactors utilise less than 1% of their fuel and generate plutonium waste that is dangerously radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years.
So what is thorium?
It is an element found in sand deposits - more common than tin and three times more abundant than uranium. Thorium only has one natural isotope (Th-232) so does not require enrichment before being used as fuel. Technically thorium is not a nuclear “fuel”, because it is not fissile. Instead Th-232 is fertile, which means upon absorbing a neutron it decays to become a fissile isotope, in this case uranium-233. Whether the fissile isotope is U-233 or U-235 makes a difference! Next generation molten salt reactors (MSRs) using thorium are 200 times
more efficient than current uranium reactors. A lifetime supply of thorium is just 650g and can be safely held in the palm of one hand. By recycling fuel, thorium reactors produce a smaller amount of radioactive waste and can even burn up the waste from uranium plants. These reactors are also inherently safer than current water reactors. There is no risk of pressure explosions or dangerous meltdowns because MSRs operate at atmospheric pressure and with liquid fuel. If the reactor overheats, the freeze plug at the bottom of the core melts and the fuel safely drains away.
If thorium power is so good, where is it?
In the past, thorium has largely been ignored in favour of
uranium with its sideline in nuclear weapons. The uranium industry is well established and uranium reactors are proven technology. Even if uranium starts to run out and the price rises, raw fuel is just 5% of the cost of nuclear plants, so thorium research is yet to be justified by market conditions.
"A lifetime supply of thorium can be held in the palm of one hand" Nevertheless, some countries are investing in thorium. India has one third of the world’s thorium reserves and has had a long-term thorium power plan since the 1950s. China entered the field with a £223 million program in 2011, and aims to have a functioning MSR by 2024. China believes its native thorium could sustain its energy needs for 20,000 years. Yet there is little motivation to switch for countries that have to import nuclear fuel and worldwide use of thorium power may not be for decades, until the reactors are proven commercially. However, with fossil fuels running out and climate change a current worry, it seems likely that research into thorium will continue as people look for alternative energy sources. Who knows, in 100 years’ time we may look back on uranium-235 power as a costly, wasteful diversion.
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Mind Reading: The Science Behind the Superpower Will it be possible to read minds in the future? Sophie Dixon examines the current research and future possibilities of mind reading.
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ind reading, the phenomena that has for so long been considered a fantasy, is becoming a more realistic possibility. While mind reading devices for casual communication are still a long way off, the ability to translate a person’s brain activity into written text, a process known as neurotelepathy, has already been achieved. The ‘brain-totext’ system developed by German and U.S. researchers uses electrocorticography to record the neural activity in specific locations in the brain. Research participants were instructed to read sample text aloud while having this neural activity recorded; this data then could be accurately decoded into the text that had been read. The ability to translate brain activity into text is a pretty mindblowing concept, and today this may have life-changing consequences for patients suffering from conditions such
as locked-in syndrome. However, in the future we may consider these to be the first few steps towards conquering the popular sci-fi fantasy of mind reading. Meanwhile, Professor Marvin Chun at Yale University has succeeded in extracting images from the brains of participants looking at pictures while inside fMRI scanners. Volunteers looked at a picture of a face whilst inside the brain imaging machine, and researchers were able to create digital
"Reconstructed images have been found to be more accurate than PhotoFit" reconstructions of the face by decoding the electrical activity patterns of the brain. Neurotelepathy is possible because of our knowledge of the different specialised regions of the brain. Whilst one area may be active when we view faces, another will be active when we view a car, and in
general these specialised regions are the same across the population. Of course there are some individual differences, and this could mean an image triggers slightly different neurons in one person’s brain compared to another’s, perhaps because of different experiences and emotions associated with the image. Scientists, however, are able to combat this by creating a database big enough to account for these differences, and allowing a kind of neural signature to be developed for different stimuli. The results of this research have already pointed towards some potential future applications. For example, the reconstructed images have been found to be more accurate than other facial reconstruction technologies used in the investigation of crime, such as PhotoFit. As the technology improves and our understanding of the human brain advances, it is a very real possibility that such methods may one day aid the criminal justice system, in ways we never imagined would be possible.
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Blockchain: A Public Ledger for a Global World Marion Cromb interviews Arifa Khan, an advocate for Blockchain, a pioneering new way to bank, buy and transfer property.
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rifa Khan is t he Managing Director of Genius Incubator, which raises investment funding for businesses, and is t he founder of Fintech Storm, a mont hly series of talks on innovations in t he financial technology sector. She has 15 years’ experience in t he financial and investment banking industry, and has an MBA and a B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering.
Thank you for talking to me. What I’d like from you is the basics of what blockchain is and how that fits in with your field of finance.
YUNQING FU/BLOCKCHAIN@BIRMINGHAM
An analogy to blockchain technology is the iPhone. Since the advent of the iPhone our lives have changed irreversibly, and it has had a farreaching impact not only for the developed world, but also the emerging world. The iPhone has made unimagined developments possible, for example IoT [Internet of Things], and using the gadget for monitoring your health, and managing your finances. This has liberated the entire world, in that the workforce is not chained to their desks or offices anymore. Very rarely, we come across technologies that have this humungous impact on every
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aspect of our lives. One emerging consensus is that blockchain is one of them. Blockchain is a very simple thing - it’s not a very sophisticated technology - it's just a database network protocol. The world has come to believe that for a transaction to occur, two parties need to trust each other; or we bring in an intermediary, for example a bank or trust, or an external mechanism, where we ask the counterparty to put down a deposit in case they fail in delivering their promise. The entire financial services industry is based on this premise of an intermediary which is a substitute for direct trust between party A and party B. So now this premise is being broken down with the blockchain, because the blockchain makes it possible for parties to interact directly without this substitute of trust. So is it like an alternative to a deposit, but hard-coded?
No deposit exchanges hands, it's just an advanced mathematical algorithm which can make sure that A happens, and B happens, and it's as simple as that: entirely mathematical and therefore eliminating the need for an intermediary and deposit. If you deliver a product to me, then the
mechanism automatically charges me what is owed. So for example, Amazon can deliver you goods first and then receive cash on delivery. Such a thing can be done by Blockchain without having an intermediary or deposit. The deposit is just one example. In securities industries there are hundreds of such instruments which use alternatives to deposits - call it collateral, call it settlement and clearing - where we have three days for a transaction to settle; all this requires locking up of capital for a period of time, which is unnecessary. If the ecosystem is perfect and there were no risks of fraud or failure, you wouldn't need clearing time. Blockchain eliminates the time and the capital that is required to be put aside, it reduces risk. Can you expand on the wider implications of this concept?
Basically it changes the dynamics of entire industries, and can be applied to non-financial cases. For example in recording and monitoring ownership, if homes were registered on a blockchain, instead of having to go to the Land Registry and getting a certificate and clearance, if you want to look up whether I am the bona-fide owner of my house, before you buy my house, you can just verify that on the blockchain, in fact popular adoption could make lawyers redundant. But doesn't that require everyone to take part in the blockchain?
Yes, you need to have mass adoption before it can have a relevance. But even before everybody is on blockchain you
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can still have some parties who are on blockchain; of course they will be able to attract only those other parties who also believe in blockchain, but you can still use it. The way the world has been working to date is one way - if you wanted money, you had to sit in a shop and sell goods. Now you don't have to, you can put it on Etsy, and you get the money by PayPal, and if you have a PayPal card you can immediately take the card and buy goods, without exchanging anything at all. You're just sitting here, you haven't even met the customer, and already money is in your account and you can use it also, instantly. This is not the way things were done earlier, industries have to re-invent the way to do business. Not just in the financial services industry, but everywhere. Wherever there is a transfer of value, whether it is asset, cash or currency, that transaction is going to be transformed, and that industry is going to be affected. How does that fit in with legal frameworks, and taxation?
That is one bit of a grey area, where a lot of countries have foreign exchange regulations, where some countries have acknowledged bitcoin as a digital asset, and some countries - for example Japan - have not. So it depends from country to country, but because it is not a currency - one way to completely avoid transaction costs of foreign currency exchange or payments can be completely avoided by transacting in bitcoin. So if I am here, and I want to buy a sari in India, and I pay in bitcoin, I not only can avoid the costs associated with sending a transfer, but also the person who gets the money from me can keep the bitcoin and can use the bitcoin to pay for goods, without having to worry about the movement of the currency as well. So are there big businesses using bitcoin to avoid these costs?
Yes, yes, already.
And are governments getting angry about this?
Not really, some governments have exchange controls but some governments are okay with it. Even if they get angry about it, there is nothing they can do. Because this is a globalised world, a digital world, we are already doing e-commerce, we are just doing it without local currency so if there is PayPal money, for example, I am here [in the UK] but I can earn PayPal dollars and no-one is preventing me from using those Paypal dollars to pay anywhere in the world. But Paypal has various fees.
So bitcoin will also have fees, but the fees are likely to be a lot less. PayPal charges fees because it was the first one to popularize the digital money concept. If there were a lot of players it would have been a competitive landscape and their fees would have been lower. PayPal was the only one, and all the incumbent banks - and Visa, MasterCard - they just let PayPal grow as they didn't take Paypal seriously. In bitcoin world, there's a lot of competition already. Do you think cryptocurrency represents a democratisation of money, or does it just lead to more unregulated practices?
Unregulated practices happened before people really discovered the nature of cryptocurrency. It's anonymous, but it's verifiable until the last track. So let's say you did something - your identity was anonymous to start with, but somebody wants to track down who did it, they can track it down. Whereas in cash, you can't track down who gave you the cash and who received it; but cryptocurrencies, it’s a digital trail you leave forever. It's not even like you delete emails and it goes away, It cannot be tampered with, forever. So if you steal or you do unregulated practices, it's like doing it in broad daylight, only wearing a mask.
A blockchain is a decentralised public ledger of online events, the cryptocurrency bitcoin being the most well-known example. However, blockchains can have many other applications, especially where verification and ownership of assets is needed. Potential applications include land registry, voting data and contracts. This ledger is shared among the users of the network. Using advanced cryptography, transactions are encoded to contain information about all preceding transactions. All changes to the ledger are permanent. This record means that the status of the system is always known, and it makes fraud virtually impossible. The blockchain has security built intrinsically into it. It uses a system of public and private keys. An analogy to the encoded transactions can be thought of as sending messages between people in locked boxes. If A wants something in secret from B, then A can send B an open padlock (a public key), to which only A has the key (private key). B can then send a box with the object in it locked with that padlock, just by clicking it shut. B then sends the locked box back to A, who can then open it with their key. If the box is intercepted, it cannot be opened without A’s key. (In the digital world, these padlocks cannot be broken or picked, as the cipher algorithms make decoding the messages an extremely time consuming task). If the padlock is intercepted, if used, only A will be able to open it, not the interceptor. Keys are able to verify ownership, acting as a digital signature. If A encodes something with their private key, only A’s public key can open it, and thus if a receiver can open something with A’s public key, they know that it is from A and has not been tampered with.
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Visualising the Future with Virtual Reality Virtual Reality has become an exciting new piece of technology and is quickly evolving. William Richardson looks into how virtual reality may change how we work and live in the future.
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irtual reality (VR), following the trend in most technology, is likely to become integrated into our lives, whether that be on the commute to work, in the home or professionally. But what applications will VR have in the future and how will it change how we work and live? A London-based company, Hammerhead VR, has trialled a couple of potential innovations. One of their most ambitious projects being an advanced research tool designed to help scientists analyse significant amounts of genomic data. Funded by the Wellcome Trust to create a VR solution to big medical data, the project aims to integrate information from scientific studies into a fully interactive virtual display. A 360° video capture was created as a mock-up of the system and is available on YouTube [1]. Continuing with YouTube, Google has been supporting the rise of VR on there by adding VR support for mobile devices, using the gyrometer to assess the movement of the user and output the resulting perspective. This raises a great question: how will VR change entertainment? Film, TV and games have fantastic potential to be integrated with VR to create immersive narratives and environments. Google’s main [1] https://youtu.be/sUvDAieci1s
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focus appears to be adapting mobile devices to fit the VR trend by using simple cardboard frames to hold a phone, thus limiting consumer expense. Earlier this year, Oculus Rift, a company specialising in VR, created a short film called Henry, a cartoon movie concerning the exploits of a rather loveable, yet lonely, hedgehog. However, it represents a fantastic proof of concept, showing that future movies could be entirely VR-based and truly immersive. With respect to gaming, the future possibilities are also significant. Developers are working to create games that capture
the imagination, and the prototypes already available are a reflection of that goal. The developers of Crysis are set to release a game called Robinson: The Journey. The game is set to be released in 2016 and involves the protagonist trekking through the ecosystem of a mysterious alien world. The user can utilise haptic feedback gloves to interact with the rich detail of the surroundings. With more VR games expected to be released in the coming years the industry may not even be recognisable. Another surprising use of this technology is the potential to
"Future movies could be entirely VR-based and truly immersive" rehabilitate injured people. Some research into this is happening here, in Birmingham, in which a new technique called Neurorehabilitation is being trialled. In the UK, over 450,000 people are affected by strokes which can compromise their balance and situational judgment. Using a sophisticated simulator, patients can relearn handling everyday tasks and help themselves live better lives. This joins other potential future applications such as treatments for PTSD, surgical training and even pain management. With companies competing to find innovative uses for VR, we will probably be seeing it become more integrated into society.
Materials For a Greener Tomorrow! Kit Béhard finds that nanofoams, Stanene and Shrilk may be the keys to a sustainable future. Goodbye Plastic?
Plastics are arguably the most important material of the 20th century. Since the invention of the first synthetic plastic in 1907 they’ve been used in everything from toys and packaging, to electronics and transportation. The reason for the versatility and wide use of plastics is that they are flexible, strong and cheap. However, an average plastic bottle will take 450 years to decompose! It’s time for Shrilk to step in. Made from chitin, the second most abundant organic polymer, and fibroin, a protein found in spider silk, Shrilk is flexible, tough and able to decompose within weeks ! However, it currently requires funding to reduce its cost.
The World’s Lightest Solid
In 1930, Samuel Kistler invented “aerogel” by removing the liquid from a silica gel. The resultant solid consisted of a fine skeleton; the other 99% was air. Recently, the environmental potential for similar nanofoams (materials with this skeletal structure) has been
discovered. For example, beryllium nanofoams can store hydrogen and would be an effective fuel store for hydrogen-powered cars. There are also signs that copper nanofoams could be used for sucking carbon dioxide out of the air!
Step Aside Superconductors!
Superconductivity, the property of having no resistance when conducting electricity, was first observed in 1911. Unfortunately it seemed to only occur in superconductors at temperatures close to absolute zero. A century later and the most recent breakthrough has seen superconductors work at -70 degrees Celsius . However, there is hope of observing superconductivity at room temperature, but in a new class of material called topological insulators. These materials allow electrons to move freely on their surfaces and due to a quantum interaction known as spinorbit coupling they are unable to tunnel deeper into the material or perform a U-turn. They are forced to fly
up one side of the material and back down the other. Stanene, a 2D sheet of tin, takes this one step further. Since it is only one atom thick, it restricts the electrons’ movements, forcing them to speed up and down the edges - even at room temperature! Currently Stanene is purely theoretical, but its synthesis is expected shortly.
"Copper nanofoams could be used for sucking carbon dioxide out of the air" In my opinion, these materials, and others like them, have properties that have been long-awaited and are becoming increasingly necessary. Shrilk could be a key factor in ending the expansion of landfills. Metallic nanofoams may be an important solution to the problem of hydrogen storage, leading to decreased dependence on petrol. And materials like Stanene are sure to cause exciting developments in the world of electronics. I think it’s highly likely that the next jump in technology will stem from the synthesis of some new and peculiar material, perhaps one of those mentioned in this article.
@
our future?
US invested heavily in boosting their offensive capabilities in space, only for both to independently drop their programs. The likelihood that a conflict could cripple the entire civilisation’s space-based infrastructure, resulting in a “Judgement Day”, was far too great.
Technology as it stands
Is space the final frontier of warfare? Siddharth Trivedi explores whether the offensive capabilities of space infrastructure will be needed one day.
T
he Star Wars franchise is close to the hearts of many around the world for depicting adventurous stories of love and loss throughout a fictional galaxy. The iconic series has continued to wow audiences since the release of A New Hope (1977) in its portrayal of epic space battles, featuring dogfights between the futuristic X-Wing and the sleek TIE Fighters. With the highly anticipated upcoming release of the seventh chapter in the epic saga, The Force Awakens promises similarly breathtaking, intense space battles. But this makes one wonder: did the Death Star only exist “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away”, or is it coming very soon near Earth? Are space battles in our near future?
Why not go to war?
In fiction, there are many reasons as to why space battles take place. In Star Wars, battles over key planets like Endor, were instrumental in overthrowing a galactic dictatorship, whilst Ender’s Game explores a defensive war against invading aliens. But what about in reality? Whilst an
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alien invasion may not be a likely threat, the depletion of resources is. Allegedly, many current wars are centred on securing resources like food and oil. And what is currently the most valuable resource? Information. Information warfare is an upcoming field and is widely predicted to be the main cause of future wars in space. Roughly 1300 satellites orbit the Earth, responsible for communication, GPS and planetary surveillance. The majority of the information gathered by satellites is used in modern warfare, providing important intel for strategic advantage in various military operations. The use of spy satellites has been common for many years now, with the US currently superior in terms of the sheer number of satellites.
"The majority of the information gathered by satellites is used in modern warfare" Clearly satellites are of high importance, not only to a country’s safety, but also to the global communications infrastructure. During the Cold War, the USSR and
Over the next five years, the US will be spending $5 billion on offensive and defensive capabilities in space. Though technology is far from X-wing standard, the US is investing heavily into Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) satellites and X-37B robotic space planes. Whilst their current objectives are to monitor all space-based infrastructure, they can easily be reprogramed with offensive capabilities. Satellites can be downed in many ways: missiles can be used to destroy them completely, lasers can permanently disable sensors, orbits can be manually destabilised, and transmissions can be hijacked using radio waves. Recently, the US Navy has developed the cheap and efficient Laser Weapons System (LaWS) that can shoot down drones and boats within a mile. The chance of enhancing LaWS to space does not appear to be a tall task. So maybe we will see some space battles, Star Wars style! Watching Star Wars, and the extraordinary depiction of fictional space battles, may not be too far away from today's reality with the existence of LaWS and the imminent threat of information war. Though, in exchange for the pretty visuals, do be prepared to leave all forms of modern communication behind!