Welcome to our latest bi-weekly science and technology news roundup. We've picked our favourite stories from the news this week to share with you.
This week, we round up a busy but successful month for Goodfellow across news, products and innovative talks, an impressive jump in the mobility potential in soft robots, a Swiss start-up combines solar panels and railway tracks in an eco-innovation first, a first-of-its-kind structural paint is the lightest paint in the world with a rainbow of potential benefits, a new development is in the air for solid-state batteries, and from the pages and screens of Sci-Fi, could an epic quest to build a permanent moon base become reality, and soon? And a bonus article, because the headline intrigued us and thought it might intrigue you too.
March: A successful month for Goodfellow
March has been a busy month for Goodfellow. The secret is out about Goodfellow on page 14 of M&MT magazine, our newest product Customised Alloy Powders coated the news over the last couple of weeks and Goodfellow’s Andrew Watson, CFO, discussed the impact of the capital allowance changes in UK government’s new budget. Our head of Technical, Dr Aphrodite Tomou, rounded out the month in style by delivering leading-edge insights into ‘Miniaturisation - Challenge or Opportunity’, how partnering with Goodfellow and the use of our materials (HEA powders, graphene and micro wires) helped our customers with their miniaturisation journeys at Engineering Solutions Live (UK).
A grasshopper-like soft material can jump 200 times above its thickness
Experiments into the shape changing abilities of liquid crystal elastomers (special materials composed of cross-linked polymer networks) led researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder, to observe the unexpected grasshopper-like jumping behaviour in response to external stimuli. Discovered by chance and inspired by nature, this new technology gives a jump start to potent mobility in soft robots
Solar panels could be installed in the spaces between railway tracks in world first
A Swiss start-up is making solar-panel-lined-tracks with their eco-innovation in a bid to speed up Europe’s transition to clean energy in the midst of the climate crisis. There is hope, following their pilot project, the technology could be rolled out across the entire country, even transnationally.
This is the lightest paint in the world
Like a caterpillar transforming into butterfly, an accidental and completely frustrating disruption while trying to create a continuous aluminium mirror has morphed into the lightest paint in the world. This first-of-its-kind structural colour paint is so lightweight it has the potential to cut fuel usage, it doesn't trap heat, is less toxic than pigment paints and its nanoislands can recreate all the colours in a rainbow - so is this development the pot of gold at the end of it?
US scientists make a breakthrough for long-range EV batteries
A breath of fresh air? This development certainly uses it. The US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory has designed a lithium-air battery with a solid electrolyte, which not only holds the potential to increase range in EV batteries, but also addresses safety issues that surround liquid electrolytes used in Li-ion batteries.
The epic quest to build a permanent moon base
Neil Armstrong’s “that’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” takes on new meaning as the possibility of a settlement on the moon could launch into reality in the near future. I wonder if this scenario from the pages of The Usbourne Book of The Future and numerous Sci-Fi films and series could be the “giant leap for mankind” Armstrong had in mind. What do you think?
BONUS: This distant galaxy is all alone because it ate its friends
