#Charge your smartphone in SIX minutes:''Yolk and shell'battery technology could end long waits while devices power up It is a problem almost everyone with a smartphone has faced at some point their device is almost out of battery
and there is not enough time to charge it before heading out for the evening. But a new type of battery made with tiny capsules filled with aluminium could soon mean smartphone users will be able to fully charge their device within six minutes of plugging it in.
The battery also has four times the capacity of current lithium ion batteries and degrades less over time.
This'yolk and shell'overcomes previous problems experienced with using aluminium in rechargeable lithium ion batteries in the past.
While current lithium ion batteries use graphite a form of carbon it has limited a storage capacity. Metals like lithium can store 10 times as much energy
but are unstable and can often catch fire or short circuit. Aluminium has been known to be another high capacity material
but it can double in volume and shrink again as it is charged and discharged. This repeated shedding and reforming of the'skin'layer consumes lithium
and reduces the battery's capacity over time. By encasing the aluminium yolk inside a shell,
however, researchers at the Massachusetts institute of technology and Tsinghua University, Beijing, found the aluminium could expand and shrink freely.
Professor Ju Li, a materials scientist at MIT who led the work, said:''We made a titanium oxide shell that separates the aluminum from the liquid electrolyte.'
'We came up with the method seredipitiously, it was a chance discovery.''Writing about their results in the journal Nature Communications,
the researchers explained the shell can keep the aluminium protected from the electrolyte in the battery
while also allowing it to expand and contract. Measuring just 50 nanometres across, the aluminium yolk is surrounded by a shell of titanium dioxide of just three or four nanometres thick.
When these nanoparticles are used as the anode in a lithium ion battery, the researchers found it had a storage capacity of 1. 2 ampere-hours per gram.
A lithium ion battery using graphite has a storage capacity of 0. 35 ampere-hours per gram. The researchers also found they could achieve very fast charging times with the'yolk and shell'battery
with a full charge in just six minutes. However, this reduces the capacity of the battery by half to 0. 66 ampere-hours per gram, still tice that of graphite batteries.
Professor Li said:''It's probably the best anode material available. i
#Perseids meteor shower will show hundreds of shooting stars across Europe Stargazers across Britain were treated to a stunning lightshow overnight as hundreds of shooting stars filled the sky as the annual Perseids meteor shower neared its peak.
Striking images emerged from the Midlands and the north of England as limited cloud cover allowed the hotly-anticipated meteor shower to light up the sky.
The dazzling display will continue tonight and tomorrow, with the Perseids offering one of the greatest displays of the past seven years as the meteor shower coincides with a new moon for the first time since 2007.
Tonight's show will also be enhanced by the International space station which orbits earth every 90 minutes and will be visible for four minutes from 10. 28pm.
Scroll down for videolast night's dazzling display was just the beginning of this year's Perseids meteor shower,
with experts eagerly awaiting further stunning offerings tonight. Occurring yearly between July 17 and August 24, the Perseids reach their peak tonight with more than 100 meteors an hour expected to be produced.
A similar show will occur on Thursday. Professor Mark Bailey, director of Armagh Observatory in Northern ireland, called the Perseids the'best and most reliable meteor shower of the year'.
'Mr Bailey added that the Perseids may produce an outburst of activity around 7. 40pm tonight
which comes slightly earlier in the evening than usual. Although it is still daylight at that time in the UK and Ireland,
it is just possible that enhanced rates may persist for a few hours around this time
and so be observable soon after dark, he said. The Met Office said cloud cover is expected to be minimal in the Midlands and the north of England,
The best way to catch a glimpse of the light show is away from bright lights and big cities to minimise light pollution,
The Perseids make an August appearance each year as the Earth passes through debris shed by the comet Swift-Tuttle.
'so that preferential traits are passed down from one generation to the next-similar to how natural selection works in animals.
Scroll down for video The robots were built by engineers from the University of Cambridge lead by Dr Fumiya Iida.
and without any further human intervention or computer simulation, the robot built'children'made of between one and five plastic cubes with a small motor inside.
and diversification of the species.'For each robot child, there is a unique'genome'made up of a combination of between one and five different genes,
As in nature, evolution in robots takes place through'mutation, 'where components of one gene are modified
and'crossover',where a new genome is formed by merging genes from two individuals. In order for the'mother'to determine which'children'were the fittest
while mutation and crossover were introduced in the less successful children. The researchers found that design variations emerged
'One of the big questions in biology is how intelligence came about-we're using robotics to explore this mystery,
'In nature, organisms are able to adapt their physical characteristics to their environment over time.
These adaptations allow biological organisms to survive in a wide variety of different environments-allowing animals to make the move from living in the water to living on land, for instance.
whether changing their shape would make them more adaptable to changing environments. Evolutionary robotics is a growing field
Most work in this field is done using computer simulation. Although computer simulations allow researchers to test thousands or even millions of possible solutions
this often results in a'reality gap'-a mismatch between simulated and real-world behaviour. Iida's research looks at how robotics can be improved by taking inspiration from nature,
whether that's learning about intelligence, or finding ways to improve robotic locomotion. A robot requires between ten and 100 times more energy than an animal to do the same thing.
Iida's lab is filled with a wide array of hopping robots, which may take their inspiration from grasshoppers, humans or even dinosaurs.'
'But what we do have are a lot of enabling technologies that will help us import some aspects of biology to the engineering world.'
Space elevator in a tower 12 miles high could one day give astronauts a leg-up into the cosmos
Canadian space firm Thoth has outlined plans for an elevator to space, potentially saving huge amounts of fuel and money that form part of the vast cost of launching rockets into orbit.
The company has been granted a US patent to build a freestanding tower reaching 12 miles (20 km) above the planet's surface.
The space tower would be more than 20 times the height of Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world.
'As well as tourism, the elevator could also be used for wind energy generation and communications. The mastermind behind the project is inventor Dr Brendan Quine.
'Astronauts would ascent to 12 miles (20km) by electrical elevator.''From the top of the tower, space planes will launch in a single stage to orbit,
returning to the top of the tower for refuelling and reflight.''While other designs for space elevators have involved complex designs using graphene or carbon nanotubes,
the Thoth design reportedly uses inflatable sections and flywheels to provide dynamic stability. This is not the first time a space elevator has been proposed,
with many engineers considering it as a possibility since it was suggested first by Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in 1895.
Engineer Peter Debney last year proposed a theory that borrows the methods by which cathedrals control their centre of gravity-by tapering at the top
-and applied it to the concept of an elevator that takes humans into space. When building any tall structure-from gothic cathedrals to skyscrapers
and eventually a space elevator-the sturdiness and balance comes from its centre of gravity. By creating strong, far-reaching foundations deep into the Earth,
Breakthrough could lead to better treatment for brain disorders Scientists have created super-intelligent mice by altering a single gene.
but it also meant the they were less likely to feel anxiety or recall fear, researchers found.
They hope the discovery may help the search for treatments for disorders such as Alzheimer's, schizophrenia and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD.
'Our work using mice has identified phosphodiesterase-4b as a promising target for potential new treatments,
'said Steve Clapcote, a lecturer in pharmacology at Leeds University, who led the study. He said his team is now working on developing drugs that will specifically inhibit PDE4B.
The'brainy'mice were better at recognising a mouse they had seen the previous day, the researchers said.
Researchers claim that giving mouse pups a type of immature human brain cell, known as glial cells, caused their brains to grow differently so they became more humanlike.
The experiments also showed that PDE4B-inhibited mice suffered less anxiety, choosing to spend more time in open, brightly lit spaces than normal mice,
'This study highlights a potentially important role for the PDE4B gene in learning and memory in mice,
whether the findings could have implications for Alzheimer's disease or other dementias.''We'd need to see how this gene could influence memory
'There is currently a lack of effective treatments for dementia and understanding the effect of genes can be a key early step on the road to developing new drugs.'
'With so many people affected by dementia, it is important that there is research into a wide array of treatment approaches to have the best chance of helping people sooner
The discovery was made by analysing data sent back from Nasa Lunar Atmosphere and Dust environment Explorer,
Maryland and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. e were pleased very to not only finally confirm its presence,
trapped, frozen or absorbed in some material-from the surface that is triggered by tidal stress on the moon.
It being produced at a rate equivalent to about seven litres per second at standard atmospheric pressure. he data collected by the NMS addresses the longstanding questions related to the sources
and began gathering science data two months later. The spacecraft entered its science orbit around the moon's equator in Mid-november
and fibres will prove to be a valuable research tool for non-animal testing of new drugs and investigating brain disorders such as Alzheimer's.
'Lead researcher Professor Rene Anand, from Ohio State university in the US, said:''It not only looks like the developing brain,
'We've struggled for a long time trying to solve complex brain disease problems that cause tremendous pain and suffering.'
and develop therapeutics other than rodents.''To build the replica brain, the team transformed adult skin cells into induced pluripotent stem (ips) cells by altering their genes.'
'He spoke about the work at the 2015 military health system research symposium, run by the US department of defence, in Fort lauderdale, Florida, US.
Already the scientists have gone on to create brain organoid models of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, and autism, in a dish.
With the addition of a blood circulation, which is currently lacking, they also hope to use the model to study stroke therapies.
Military applications include research on Gulf war syndrome, traumatic brain injury, and posttraumatic stress disorder. r
#Royal Navy could soon be using remote-controlled warships with'see-through'hulls Sleek and stealthy, it resembles something from Star wars. In fact,
this is what British warships could look like in as little as 35 years. With RAF jets already being replaced by drones piloted by men sitting at computer screens many miles away,
the Royal Navy is now investigating how technology will change the fleet. The answer, it seems,
could be a generation of largely remote-controlled seafaring beasts with peed of light weaponsand a hull that can make them invisible to the naked eye.
The Dreadnought 2050 seen here is a concept ship that could be controlled by only five sailors sitting at screens
much like games consoles. And the entire ship company could be as little as 50, which compares to the 200 needed for current vessels of this size.
Concept images of the ship have been released by a group of leading British electronic systems companies working with naval defence experts Startpoint.
The design includes a new-style operations room allowing commanders to focus on specific locations and threats thousands of miles away,
from the deep ocean to deep space, using 3d holographics. The ship is fitted with speed of light weapons, while the ultra-strong acrylic hull,
coated in a form of carbon called graphene, could be made see-through. The triple hull design would allow the Dreadnought to cut through the waves at high speed,
while the sleek lines above the surface, where there are no obvious gun emplacements, also increase the speed.
There would be an electromagnetic gun at the bow, capable of firing projectiles the same distance as today long-range cruise missiles.
extendable flight deck and hangar for remotely piloted drones, many equipped with weapons, which could target the enemy without putting the crew in harm way.
And along the ship sides would be missile tubes for defensive hypersonic missiles directed energy weapons to stop small enemy craft loaded with explosives.
The outrigger hulls would contain tubes to fire special torpedoes which travel through water in a near frictionless air bubble that allows speeds of more than 345mph.
and operated with less manpower than anything at sea today in the world leading navies
#Robotic Landing gear could help pilots land on rocky mountains and moving boats Helicopters may be able to move in any direction in the air,
but rigid landing gear means they are only able to land and takeoff on stable, flat surfaces.
Each leg has built a sensor into it, enabling the craft to'feel'its way onto a surface.
and uses a sensor to determine in real-time the appropriate angle to assume to ensure that the helicopter stays level without risking the rotor touching the landing area,
irregular and moving surfaces would greatly expand the effectiveness of helicopters across many military and rescue missions, where stable,
Reduced risk of damage during hard landings, by as much as a factor of five, compared to conventional landing gear Stable landing and takeoff on sloping terrain of up to 20 degrees, more than twice current limits and on craggy,
Darpa is developing swarms of reusable drone aircraft that can work together to perform a mission,
The idea is to replace the expensive and increasingly vulnerable multi-function combat aircraft which currently perform a range of different missions.
relatable operations with multiple air-launched unmanned drones'.'Dan Patt, program manager at Darpa, said:'
'Darpa said the Gremlin drones would have a lifetime of around 20 uses, fitting somewhere between missiles and conventional aircraft.
The agency is hoping to build on its automated mid-air refuelling technology alongside the sea based platforms for capturing drones as they come into land.
Mr Patt said:''We wouldn't be discarding the entire airframe, engine, avionics and payload with every mission,
as is done with missiles.''But we also wouldn't have to carry the maintainability and operational cost burdens of today's reusable systems,
which are meant to stay in service for decades.''Darpa is now inviting military engineers and academics to suggest solutions that will allow the drones to be launched
and recovered mid-flight along with navigation and flight control systems s
#The airbag for a BULLET: Ping pong ball-style cushion can be attached to any gun to slow down shots
and prevent fatal injuries Fatal shootings by police and other law enforcement agencies could soon be avoided thanks to a device that acts like an'airbag'for a bullet.'
'The Alternative'device looks like a metal ping pong ball and can be attached to the barrel of any gun.
The idea is that the ball breaks off when a bullet is fired and melds with the shot,
effectively slowing it down to result in less injury. Scroll down for video It is hoped the'airbag for a bullet'could reduce the number of civilians killed by police officers in potentially lethal situations.
The device, designed by Alternative Ballistics in San diego, California, takes the form of a metal ball
or'bullet capture device'fitted over the barrel of a gun. Once the gun is fired
the bullet embeds itself inside the device without a chance of it escaping. The bullet's energy is transferred simultaneously to the alloy ball,
propelling it towards the target.''The Alternative'works like an'airbag for a bullet',slowing it down to one fifth of its intended speed.
When the device with the bullet inside hits a targeted person, it still causes serious pain,
but less injury to a body than a conventional bullet. In this way, it is'less lethal'than a regular bullet
and is designed to incapacitate a target without piercing the skin. If the gun is fired again,
a regular bullet will be fired. The company said the technology represents a critical'missing link'between lethal force and less-lethal force.'
'By utilising our bullet capture technology in appropriate situations, police are likely to prevent loss of life in a way that was until now not possible,
'the firm said. Alternative Ballistics CEO Christian Ellis told San diego ABC 10 News:''Just like an airbag, a certain amount of people will die
when they get into an impact and the air bag hits their chest.''There is a chance they could die with this
but it does mitigate the risk of death tremendously.''Alternative Ballistics'technology has not yet been trialled on humans,
but it has succesfully been tested on foam, gel and leather. Mailonline has asked Alternative Ballistics for more information. a
#Luke Skywalker's prosthetic arm is REAL: Robotic limb allows patients to feel what it touches through a microchip in his brain Scientists working with Darpa have developed a robotic arm that can'feel'It allowed a 28-year-old paralysed man'feel'for the first time in a decade A tiny array of electrodes were implanted into the sensory part of his brain Force
sensors in the prosthesis send tiny electric signals to the electrodes A prosthetic arm that can not only restore movement
but also a person's sense of touch has been developed by the US military. The robotic arm has allowed already a 28-year-old paralysed man to feel someone touching his'hand'for the first time in more than a decade.
The technology mirrors that seen in the Star wars film The empire strikes back where Luke Skywalker is given a robotic prosthetic arm that restores his ability to feel.
It works by using a tiny array of electrodes that have been implanted into the sensory cortex of the man who has only been identified as Nathan.
Force sensors in the robotic hand provide feedback that is converted into a tiny electrical signal
and transmitted into Nathan's brain. The electrodes can also detect electrical signals from his brain.
This allows him to not only control the hand's movements but to feel what the mechanical fingers are touching.
The technology has been developed by scientists at the University of Miami and the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
or Darpa. Dr Justin Sanchez, who has been leading the project, unveiled the'feeling prosthetic hand'at Darpa's Wait What?
conference in St louis, Missouri. He said'Using advanced technologies that translate the forces applied to the fingertips of the robotic hand into electrical signals that could be used to directly stimulate the sensory neurons in the brain,
Nathan was able to sense and feel what the robotic hand was touching using only his brain.'
'Through neurotechnology we're opening up entirely new worlds of experience and independence.''Neural technologies are being developed by Darpa under its Revolutionising Prosthetics program that aims to help people who have lost limbs
or are paralysed. It uses microarrays of electrodes that can be implanted into the brains of volunteers to pick up tiny electrical pulses from the neurons.
Tests with Nathan have shown that he can identify which fingers of the robot are being touched by researchers even
#Scientists brew cannabis chemical THC for better drugs for cancer sufferers An active ingredient typically found in cannabis has been engineered genetically in the lab for the first time.
They believe the breakthrough will lead to more effective and easier-to-manufacture cancer and HIV drugs
THE BENEFITS OF THC There's already evidence to suggest certain compounds in marijuana might be helpful for certain medical conditions.
Scientists said the real challenge is to devise a method that works better than cannabis plants themselves.
It's often used to treat nausea associated with HIV or cancer therapies but this new process could offer a less expensive,
easier way to create this cannabis component from scratch. Ordinarily, the chemicals are stripped from the plants themselves,
Researchers at the Technical University of Dortmund in Germany and firm Hyasynth Bio have now found a way to genetically engineer a strain of this bacteria to produce THC.
Although a significant breakthrough, this still means that cannabis plants are by far the best producer of the psychoactive molecule.'
but also help them understand how the compounds work. There's already evidence to suggest certain compounds in marijuana might be helpful for certain medical conditions.
For example, cannabidivarin (one of those many compounds) has been shown to help control seizures when tested in animals.
Scientists said the real challenge is to devise a method that works better than cannabis plants themselves.
The experts have been working on this process for a while. Progress was made recently when the scientists were able to take advantage of a recent decoding
It's often used to treat nausea associated with HIV or cancer therapies, but this new process could offer a less expensive,
easier way to create this cannabis component from scratch, Ordinarily, the chemicals are stripped from the plants themselves,
#British scientists set to genetically modify embryos for the first time Genetic modification of human IVF embryos could be carried out for the first time in British history,
The geneticists have applied for a unique licence from the Government fertility watchdog to carry out the procedure using a gene manipulation technique called Crispr/Cas9.
If granted, it will be only the second occasion where the chromosome of human embryos have been modified.
Editing genetic codes to remove inherited disease has already been shown to work on mice. However most geneticists believe the procedure is not ready to be carried out on human embryos-after the Chinese research led to unwanted mutations in DNA.
The application for a licence to perform enome editingon human embryos has been made by Dr Kathy Niakan, of the Francis Crick Institute, London.
She emphasised that there would be o GM babiesbecause the team simply wants to understand the genetics of early embryonic development.
to provide disease resistance, or even to introduce novel traits that are not found in humans.'
In 2008 the UK laws on IVF was changed to allow genetic manipulation of embryos that are less than two weeks old for research purposes,
of chromosomes passed on to future generations. But it continues to attract controversy as critics fear DNA alterations could create unforeseen health problems that would be passed down from generation to generation of the population.
Dr Niakan said the work she is proposing is in keeping with the HFE Act 2008.
The knowledge acquired from the research could help scientists understand how a healthy human embryo develops
the team hope to start work as soon as possible although they will need to obtain sufficient embryos.
The team from Sun yat-sen University in Guangzhou, south China, were aiming to modify the gene responsible for beta thalassaemia-a potentially fatal inherited blood disorder.
which involved the injection of enzymes, and attempted to edit the DNA in 86 on-viablehuman embryos from local fertility clinics.
Nonviable embryos are those which cannot result in a live birth. The genes only changed in 28 cases,
but even among those there were numerous mutations which were intended not by the scientists. Many experts said the ultimate failure of the procedure underlines the case for caution with the technique.
There was also deep concern that the scientists had gone too far. After the Chinese research, the American government imposed a moratorium a legal prohibition of the activity on such research
Professor Bruce Whitelaw of the University of Edinburgh, said:''The goal of this research, to increase our understanding of how the early human embryo develops,
is precisely the type of knowledge medicine needs if we are to improve IVF methods.
However, critics raised concerns over the possibility it could open the door for'GM babies'.
'Dr David King, director of Human genetics Alert, a campaign group which opposes genetically-modified babies,
'Genome editing of embryos for use in treatment is illegal.''It has been permissible in research since 2009,
It could also help doctors understand how infections spread. But in the short-term, the thought that we are enveloped each in millions of bugs is likely to terrify hygiene obsessives.
Dr Meadow asked 11 men and women to sit in a small, sterile room, one at a time, for up to four hours.
Dr Meadow, of the University of Oregon, said that each of us releases million and millions of bugs into the air each day.
but we were surprised to find that we could identify most of the occupants just by sampling their microbial cloud. ur data make clear that an occupied space is microbially distinct from an unoccupied one,
But British experts said the idea of police using a acterial fingerprintto ID suspects shouldn be ruled out.
Professor Tim Spector of King College London, told New Scientist magazine: don think it crazy to think that in the future we could be recognising people by their bacterial mist. y
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