We hear a lot about EV batteries, but not so much about the motors that give the cars such high performance. So today I’ll be talking about the 3-phase AC Induction motor, created by Nikola Tesla, and why it’s taking over the auto industry.
We’ve been talking about going to Mars since the end of the Apollo program. Now there’s a new wave of interest in traveling to the Red Planet – but the challenges that wait for those who take the trip are bigger than most think – and possibly unsurmountable.
The human body is adapted for living here on Earth and nowhere else in the universe. Just a few of the problems we’ll find going to Mars are:
The effects of weightlessness. Astronauts who have been on long-duration flights to the ISS have experienced vision problems, cardiovascular issues, bone loss, elevated CO2 levels, reduced cognition, and more.
All of these issues will be exacerbated on a Mars trip because the shortest trip to Mars would be far longer than the longest any human has ever been in space (Valeri Polyakov spent 14 months in space in 1995).
Radiation and cosmic rays will be an issue. Almost all of the time we’ve spent in space has been in low Earth orbit (LEO), which is under the Earth’s magnetic shield. The trip to Mars would expose the passengers to all the solar radiation and comic rays that our magnetic shield blocks, and studies have shown that the 24 Apollo astronauts that flew to the Moon showed a 5x greater incidence of cardiovascular disease later in life.
Immune system issues. Studies have shown that astronauts’ immune systems are reduced when weightless and bacteria become stronger at the same time. Outbreaks in the enclosed environment on Mars would be an issue.
The conditions of Mars. Mars only has 1% of the atmosphere of Earth and even that is carbon dioxide, which we can’t breathe. It also makes temperatures vary widely. Plus the soil is filled with perchlorate, which affects our endocrine system and can cause breathing problems.
With AI and automation already displacing jobs in the United States, and the problem only expected to get worse, the idea of a Universal Basic Income is being touted as a solution to save us. But is it all it’s cracked up to be?
We’ve all heard of an amazing coincidence, or maybe one’s even happened to you. Makes you wonder if there might be something out there pulling the strings.
But is it proof of something bigger? Or is it just normal probability?
Amnesia comes in many forms and is a common trope in movies and TV, but in real life, it poses many questions that challenge our understanding of consciousness and the self.
The Radium Girls, as they came to be known, were women who joined the United States war effort in World War 1, working in factories where they painted glow-in-the-dark paint on airplane instruments. It was considered a good job, until their bodies fell apart from radium poisoning.
Radium is a radioactive element discovered by Marie Curie in 1898, which initiated a bit of a radium craze until it was better understood to be very dangerous. Radium was used in the luminescent paint that the women handled every day in the factories, even ingesting the paint when they used their lips to contour the brushes.
Sadly, by the 1930s, most of the Radium Girls had died from cancers and bone degeneration, and their employer, the United States Radium Corporation, refused to take responsibility for their demise. This led to a rash of lawsuits that changed the way we treat workers, creating watchdog groups that have made workplaces safer all around the world.
Matter does strange things under extreme pressure. It can collapse atoms down to neutrons and squeeze quarks together into strange matter. And if any of that strange matter should reach Earth… Yeah, we’d be screwed.
Elon Musk made headlines last week when he announced the first product from his startup company, Neuralink. It’s a brain implant that will potentially allow quadriplegics to control phones, computers, and robotic arms. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Cold Fusion burst on the scene in 1989 with the announcement that researchers Fleischmann and Pons had created energy through a chemical process that induces fusion at room temperature.
When nobody else was able to replicate their findings, cold fusion went down as one of the biggest science fiascoes in decades. But some believe they were on the right track, and that their method could be the key to change the world.
EV batteries are expensive, and some would say wasteful. But there are second life applications for EV batteries that could keep them useful for a surprisingly long time.
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