material

transforming desert sand into the cheapest and most durable road material in Africa

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Honda is experiencing one of its most complicated moments. On the one hand, it has canceled several launches of its electric cars in North America, has paralyzed the development of Afeela which it developed in collaboration with Sony and has announced losses of around $15.7 billion. Now they are in a moment of restructuring to get out of the slump, but they have not left aside some of their most experimental projects. One of them is PathAhead, a startup that emerged from its internal incubator that has presented a construction material made of desert sand with which it intends to pave roads in Africa. The problem they want to solve. Only about 20% of African roads are paved, according to data from Honda itself. This figure has a direct impact on the region’s economy, since in the end a place where transportation access is difficult makes logistics more expensive, limits access to markets and slows down development. Furthermore, according to the firm, conventional materials for road construction (natural sand and crushed stone) present variations in resistance depending on their geological origin, which makes it difficult to guarantee uniform quality. The solution: desert sand turned into arid. As we have mentioned before, the company behind this project is called PathAhead, and it has developed a material that it calls Rising Sand. The company describes it as the world’s first artificial aggregate made from desert sand. The process consists of agglomerating fine grains of sand (about 100 micrometers in diameter) into larger, more uniform particles using heat and pressure, increasing their resistance. Image: Nikkei Asia The result, according to the company, is roads with a useful life of more than 20 years, double that of those built with conventional materials, and a life cycle cost that is 60% lower, according to its estimates. The deployment plan. PathAhead plans to begin demonstration trials in Kenya in 2027, followed by Tanzania and South Africa. If the results are positive, mass production will begin in 2028 in its own factory in that country. The startup’s financial goal is to reach revenue of $270 million by 2034. The company has so far raised about 136 million yen (approximately $850,000), with Honda as one of its investors. Where PathAhead comes from. The startup was born within the Ignition program, which Honda launched in 2017 to encourage the creation of new businesses among its employees. Masayuki Iga, its founder and CEO, worked for years at Honda’s research center developing automotive materials. “I created PathAhead with the desire to apply the technologies and knowledge accumulated in that experience to directly address the challenges of our society,” declared Iga during the presentation in Tokyo. Why it draws attention now. Sling has increased its spending on R&D by 55% in the last five years, to exceed one trillion yen in the recently closed fiscal year. That the company maintains and even expands its commitment to internal innovation while undergoing a profound restructuring of its core business is, at the very least, a sign that it does not want to reduce its long-term bets. If PathAhead can prove that its material works on an industrial scale, it could become more than just an experimental project. We’ll see if it ends up having a place in the industry. Cover image | Sling In Xataka | The car industry has condemned the manual gear shift to extinction. A company wants to avoid it: BMW

Europe has found a hole that has been sending sensitive material to Russia for years: a “Mercadona” from Germany

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More than 400 billion packages circulate around the world every year, and the international postal system is designed to move them as quickly as possible. To achieve this, many shipments cross borders with simplified controls and risk-based reviews, not full inspections. That logistical efficiency, designed to speed up commerce and everyday correspondence, sometimes generates unexpected cracks in much larger systems. An unexpected hole. Since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the European Union has lifted one of the sanctions regimes wider of its history with the aim of economically isolating Russia and hindering access to technology that can feed his military machine. Advanced electronics, sensitive components or certain industrial equipment are theoretically blocked to prevent them from reinforcing the Kremlin’s war economy. However, the practical application of these restrictions faces a constant problem: the more complex the sanctions system, the more ingenious They become the routes to avoid it. And in this case the weak point has appeared in a place so everyday that it is difficult to believe. A clandestine channel in the supermarket. The story was told in a report in Politico. Apparently, in several Russian chain supermarkets throughout Germany, among shelves of sweets or freezers, advertisements have appeared that promote a logistics service specialized in sending packages from Germany directly to Russia. What at first glance seems like a postal service for the Russian diaspora has become an unexpected crack within the European sanctions system. Customers may drop off boxes that supposedly contain clothing, books or small personal items. No one inspects the contents and, for a few euros per kilo, the package begins a journey that ends in Moscow or St. Petersburg. In this apparently innocent flow, even sensitive electronic components whose export is prohibited. The inherited logistics network. The middle counted that behind this circuit is LS Logistics Solution GmbH, a German company created by former employees by RusPostthe subsidiary that the Russian state postal service had established in Germany before sanctions forced it to close. After the invasion of Ukraine, that structure did not completely disappear. It was reorganized under a new namekept part of its staff and continued to operate from Germany with a similar system. The result is a kind of parallel postal network that collects packages throughout Europe and concentrates them in a warehouse near the Berlin airport, from where shipments to Russia are organized. The seal trick. The key to the system is an apparently bureaucratic detail. The packages do not have labels from the Russian Post, but from the state postal service of uzbekistan. Since that country is not subject to European sanctions, the shipment can take advantage of special rules that protect international postal traffic. In practice, this means that packets move with lighter controls than traditional commercial shipments. This administrative difference, designed to facilitate mail between citizens, becomes a back door for sensitive goods to cross borders without raising too many suspicions. A kilometer trip through Europe. The route of the packages illustrates chow it works the system. After being picked up from supermarkets or delivery points, they spend a day or two in Germany before moving to a large logistics warehouse near Berlin airport. From there they are loaded onto trucks that cross Poland on the A2 highway and continue to Belarus. Even though this country is also sanctioned for its support to Moscow, the packages continue to advance thanks to your status international postal mail. After traveling more than 2,000 km, they end up arriving at addresses in Moscow or Saint Petersburg. The problem of sanctions. Plus: the episode also reflects a challenge that those who design economic sanctions are well aware of. Officially blocking trade is relatively simple, but preventing alternative routes appear It is much more complicated, and that is already we have told it in the drone war in Ukraine. Each new restriction forces the creation of more complex control systems, while those who try to circumvent them constantly search new legal cracks or logistics. The result is an endless game of adaptation in which authorities try to close holes just as new ones begin to appear. Always one step behind. They finished the report explaining that European authorities are already reviewing the case and have strengthened the rules to pursue sanctions violations. Be that as it may, the discovery of the network itself demonstrates to what extent the system can make fun. As governments design increasingly strict legal frameworks, makeshift logistics networks continue to find ways to move sensitive goods across of unexpected routes. And in this case, the blind spot that allowed this channel to Russia to be kept open was not in an industrial port or a large cargo terminal, but in something as everyday as the check-in counter. a supermarket. Image | flowcomm, RawPixel In Xataka | In 2022, the war in Ukraine sent supermarket prices soaring. Iran threatens to make it child’s play In Xataka | The EU has a perfect plan to suffocate Russia. The problem is that now it needs its oil to survive

also material for the Eurofighter

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In Spain there are more than one hundreds of aircraft military and support that depend daily on a highly specialized supply chain, one where each part, each support and each auxiliary structure must meet millimetric technical standards. In this context, public contracts not only they move millions of eurosbut rather they support an industrial architecture designed to leave no room for error. Against all logic. They told the story this week in Moncloa. In essence, someone is going to have to explain themselves at the Ministry of Defense after reviewing the contracting records. The reason? A motorcycle shop in Spain was supplying material for the Eurofighter and the CL-215T and CL-415after winning a case at the Albacete Air Base against an industrial manufacturer specialized in aeronautical structures by just 1,405 euros difference, 3.8% less. Apparently, the contract was neither minor nor trivial, it involved mobile ladders with a platform designed to adjust millimeters to the fuselage of fighters and firefighting aircraft, manufactured with high resistance alloys and floors prepared to withstand corrosive hydraulic liquids. We are talking about equipment that is part of the critical technical ecosystem of an air base and that hardly fits with the known capacity of a micro-enterprise dedicated until recently to the sale of motorcycle accessories. The file under suspicion. They said in the media that the award managed by the Head of the Economic-Administrative Section 23 It is not only surprising due to the profile of the successful bidder, but also due to the context in which it occurred, with other bidders excluded due to “severe technical failures” while the documentation presented by the store was impeccable. Precisely, this combination has raised suspicions about “possible reckless casualties”, privileged information or even a document that was formally fulfilled but not necessarily in the structural quality required in a military environment, opening all kinds of questions and doubts about how a company with no known manufacturing capacity could compete on price. with an industrial plant specialized in composite materials and fiber. La Maestranza in the focus. Furthermore, the irregularities indicated are not limited to a specific contract. The complaints indicate that the Albacete Air Training it would have been used for work allegedly linked to private interestsincluding the development of firefighting aircraft for a foreign firm with public resources, civilian personnel working during business hours for third parties, and the use of state workshops and tools for purposes unrelated to the service. Added to this are reports on the transfer of parts manufactured in official facilities to private tents in private vehicles, which, if this is the case, paints a scenario of possible internal lack of control and diversion of public assets. A pattern that compromises security. Finally, the media added that the second file under scrutiny, the one relating to the supply of plane supports for the CL215T and CL415, reinforces the feeling of pattern having also been awarded to the same company for 26,922 euros in an open procedure that was attended only by… one offer. Once again, we are talking about very sensitive ground support material whose reliability directly affects flight safety, and whose total absence of competition in such a specific sector raises at least questions about the transparency and fairness of the process. Beyond the anecdote, the case questions control mechanisms in Defense contracting and leaves a clearly inevitable conclusion: when the critical supply for military aircraft ends up in the hands of a motorcycle shop, it seems that not only the logic of the market is at stake, but the very credibility and security of the system in Spain. Image | Air and Space Army Ministry of Defense Spain In Xataka | The US threatened to take the Rota base to Morocco. Spain has buried it with an unbeatable offer: more territory In Xataka | Spain’s main problem is not weapons, fighters or drones: it is the number of hands it lacks to use them

We have been dreaming of infinite “solar gasoline” for decades. A new material inspired by plants has just proven that it is possible

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Nature has been keeping a secret in broad daylight for millions of years: photosynthesis. For decades, science has pursued the dream of replicating this process to create clean, sustainable fuels, but “artificial photosynthesis” has always run into walls of inefficiency and technical complexity. Until now. In short. A team of Chinese researchers has developed a method that mimics the natural process of transforming carbon dioxide (CO2) and water into the basic components of gasoline. We are no longer talking about abstract theory; It is a system capable of creating “solar fuel” without depending on expensive chemical additives, bringing us closer to the holy grail of renewable energy. The advance, recently published in the magazine Nature Communicationscomes from a joint team of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Researchers have designed a new composite material: tungsten trioxide modified with silver atoms (Ag/WO3). The end of chemical “tricks”. The truly revolutionary thing about this “magic dust” is not only its composition, but what it manages to avoid. To date, most attempts at artificial photosynthesis cheated: they used “sacrificial agents”, organic chemical additives (such as triethanolamine) that facilitated the reaction but were irreversibly consumed in the process, making it unsustainable and expensive on a large scale. This new system breaks that barrier. According to the scientific studythe catalyst achieves the light-driven conversion using only pure water (H2O) as an electron donor. No additives, no tricks. The result of this reaction is the efficient production of carbon monoxide (CO). Although it sounds like a harmful substance on its own, in the chemical industry this molecule is pure gold: it is a key intermediate that, mixed with hydrogen, forms the “synthesis gas” necessary to manufacture complex hydrocarbons such as methanol or synthetic gasoline. Air fuel. We are at the gateway to “solar fuels.” The importance of this finding lies in its ability to decarbonize sectors that electric batteries cannot easily cover, such as commercial aviation or heavy shipping. Furthermore, the researchers stand out in their paper who have come up with a “universal strategy”. Its material (Ag/WO3) is not an isolated invention, but a versatile “charger” that can be coupled to various types of catalysts (such as cobalt phthalocyanine, C3N4 or Cu2O) and improve their performance drastically. In fact, by combining this material with cobalt (CoPc), they achieved an efficiency 100 times higher than that of the catalyst acting on its own, equaling the performance of old systems that used polluting additives. It is a pure circular economy: capturing the gas that warms the planet (CO2) and turning it into a valuable resource. The secret is to imitate the leaves. To understand how they have achieved this, you have to look at a tree leaf. In natural photosynthesis, the processes of breaking down water and fixing CO2 are separate. Plants use a molecule called plastoquinone (PQ) to temporarily transport and “store” electrons excited by the sun before using them, acting as an energy buffer. Without this buffer, the electrons would be lost before they could be used. Chinese scientists asked themselves: “Can we build an artificial plastoquinone?” And the answer was tungsten. The developed material works as a bioinspired cargo reservoir: The battery: Under sunlight, tungsten changes its chemical structure (a valence swing from W6+ to W5+), temporarily trapping electrons as if it were a micro-battery. The bridge: When the system needs energy to convert CO2, the silver (Ag) atoms act as a bridge, releasing those stored electrons just at the right moment to recombine with the “gaps” of the catalyst. This solves the big problem of artificial photosynthesis: time and load management. While the water oxidizes, the system “saves” the solar energy to have it ready when the CO2 enters. From the laboratory to the real world. The best thing about this research is that it has not remained a theoretical simulation under perfect lamps. The team built an experimental device equipped with a Fresnel lens (to concentrate light) and took it outside to test it under natural sunlight. The data from the outdoor experiment are revealing: Solar rhythm: The system began to produce detectable gas from 9:00 a.m., reaching its peak production between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m., faithfully following the intensity of the sun. Durability: The system demonstrated enviable robustness, maintaining its effectiveness over 72-hour test cycles without showing significant downtime. A bridge to the future. As reported by the South China Morning Postthis advancement builds a critical bridge between renewable energy and high-demand industrial applications. The study authors conclude that their work not only eliminates the need for unsustainable sacrificial agents, but provides a versatile design principle for building autonomous photocatalytic systems. Although there is still a way to go to see solar gas stations, the basic science—the mechanism for storing the sun’s energy in a chemical powder—is no longer a theory. Image | freepik Xataka | Germany has had a crazy idea to solve one of the problems of renewables: covering a lake with solar panels

Testing the first light bulb in 1879, Edison came across a material that would be discovered 125 years later: the prodigious graphene.

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Edison has been one of the most prolific inventors of history. In fact, while he was looking for a way to make the light bulb, he carried out an exhaustive materials science experiment: tried more than 6,000 organic materials before decant by the carbonized bamboo filament. eye to the old patent no. 223,898 because it has all the necessary ingredients for the recipe. Tremendous Edison spoiler. He had, without knowing it, set up a primitive nanotechnological reactor to obtain graphene. That same graphene on which Philip Russell Wallace would theorize 20 years after the inventor’s death and 125 years before Konstantin Novoselov and Andre Geim won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics for isolating it with the duct tape method. Or so he has discovered a recent study from Rice University. The prodigious graphene. Graphene is an allotrope of carbon that has a two-dimensional structure of atoms woven into a hexagonal network. Beyond this curiosity, graphene is an amazing material: it is 200 times stronger than steel but much lighter (airbrush, even lighter than air). It conducts electricity and heat better than any known metal. If we also take into account that it is almost transparent and very flexible, we have a prodigious material for technology. Without going any further, for semiconductors. It could also be used to improve roads or for responsive robotic tissues. And there’s a trick: when its layers are somewhat disordered and not stuck together like a block, they are much easier to separate. This is what Edison achieved unintentionally. Edison’s recipe. He turbostratic graphene can be produced by applying a voltage to a carbon-based material until it reaches a temperature of 2,000 to 3,000 °C, known as Joule heating instant. But what Edison had in his power was to light one of his newly patented light bulbs. Unlike the current ones, theirs had carbon-based filaments, more specifically bamboo. When you flipped the switch, the filament heated up and produced… light and maybe graphene. Account Lucas Eddy, the paper’s lead author, was looking for ways to mass-produce graphene with accessible, affordable materials and tried everything from arc welders to trees that had been struck by lightning. Then he remembered the light bulb. Edison’s patent It was a magnificent scheme to reproduce the experiment. Of course, it was difficult for him to find Edison-style light bulbs with carbon filaments and not tugsten. Then he only had to apply power to 110 volts and turn on the switch for 20 seconds. If you go too far, graphite can form instead of graphene. Why is it important. To begin with, because until now we thought that to obtain this prodigious material we had to resort to 21st century technology, but no: there were conditions to do so in the 19th century. On the other hand, it validates Joule heating as an efficient and scalable way to generate high-quality graphene from cheap carbon sources. And why not, because it opens the doors to reviewing other scientific experiments in history: who knows if other nanomaterials have not been synthesized by chance? under the microscope. Using the lens of an optical microscope, the research team was able to see that the carbon filament had gone from dark gray to a shiny silver. A visual change that predicted the suspicions that I ended up certifying with the Raman spectroscopywhich uses lasers to identify substances through their atoms with high precision: it was turbostratic graphene. While Edison experimented to create a light bulb for everyday use he was able to produce the wonderful material of the future (of today’s future). Obviously there is no way to know for sure what happened in their Menlo Park laboratories because even if the original light bulb were available for analysis, any graphene produced would probably have converted to graphite within a few hours. In Xataka | Electrocute elephants to win a war or how anything went in the fight between Tesla and Edison In Xataka | Don’t call it graphene, call it “goldeno”: this is the new material that is achieved using a peculiar Japanese forging technique Cover | Image of Thomas Edison, ca. 1918–1919. Source: National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), United States and HY ART

There is a material on which the future of the iPhone and AI depends. And almost everything is manufactured by the same Japanese company.

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More than 100 years ago two Japanese textile companies called Fukushima Boseki Co., Ltd., and Katakura Seishi Iwashiro Bosekisho they joined forces to become Nitto Boseki Co. Ltd, also known as Nittobo. A century later we have encountered a giant on which a critical material for the future of our chips depends: glass fabric. Technological glass artisans. The Japanese company was the first in industrially producing carbon fiber. They did it in 1938, almost right at the same time as Owens Corning Fiber Glass in the US. Later, in 1969, they developed the “crystal fabric” or “glass cloth” (glass cloth), a material that began to be used in printed circuits Hello, T-glass. That material evolved and in 1984 they launched their T-glass, an even more specialized glass fabric that began to be used as a substrate in chips of all types. This material is different from the common fiberglass like that used in surfboards or in insulation solutions. Thus, it has a very low coefficient of thermal expansion, which ensures its good performance even when the chips are operating at maximum performance. Japan, we have a problem. As indicated on Nikkeiexperts warn that the lack of this material has become a major obstacle to chip manufacturing and the advancement of AI in 2026. Nittobo is practically the only company in the world capable of manufacturing this glass with the necessary quality. Its glass fabric is extremely thin, bubble-free and heat-resistant, which has made it a fundamental part of chips such as those used in iPhones. Apple, in fact, was one of the first major technology companies to reach an agreement with Nittobo to use this material. Everyone loves Nittobo. The good performance of this material has now made companies like NVIDIA, Google or Amazon also demand T-glass for their chips, and that has generated a worrying competition due to inventory that is quickly depleted and it is not clear that it can cope with demand. Apple asks for help. The situation is so tense that Apple has sent some managers to Japan and has even asked the Japanese government to intervene to ensure supplies from Nittobo. Once again the objective is to guarantee the launch of its key products, and at Nikkei they point directly to the expected foldable iPhone. The fiberglass fabric is a critical layer on the chip substrate and ensures that everything works perfectly even under heavy workloads. Source: Nikkei. Capacity will grow, but not immediately. At Nittobo they know very well what the situation is like, but they can’t do anything to remedy it, at least in the short term. A company executive quoted in Nikkei indicates that “if we do not have additional capacity, it means that we do not have additional capacity no matter how much pressure is put on Nittobo. The way I see it, the situation will only improve significantly when Nittobo’s production increase becomes a reality in the second half of 2027.” Looking for alternatives. Apple and Qualcomm are looking for plans B, and their initiatives to find new suppliers in China or Taiwan are already underway. However, the demand for the quality of this type of material is very high: an error in the quality of the glass of the chip substrate cannot be repaired, and would ruin entire batches of components. AI causes chaos again. We already saw it with memories: the AI ​​industry needs immense quantities of DRAM and NAND memory chips, and that has now meant that the rest of the world is suffering from a huge rise in prices. The same thing is happening with this glass fabric: AI chip manufacturers have an exaggerated demand for this material, which harms the rest of the “traditional” chip manufacturers and, therefore, the users. bad business. And as happens with memories, in the end the material is sold to the highest bidder, which are usually companies like NVIDIA that have exceptional profit margins. That leaves consumer electronics manufacturers in a vulnerable position and with declining sales forecasts. Nittobo does not want to saturate the market. And as happened with the memory market, Nittobo does not want to oversize its business in the face of this demand and prefers to be cautious. Japanese suppliers already suffered losses from overstocks in 2022, so they are now reluctant to expand their factories aggressively. It is precisely the same speech that Micron made, which already suffered from excess inventory after the pandemic: although they could now manufacture more memory chips, for them that means risking history repeating itself. In Xataka | A thousand-year-old mystery allowed us to put nanotechnology into modern screens. Today the discovery has a Nobel Prize

This new biodegradable material is much more than a simple substitute for plastic

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He used oil that we generate in the kitchen it seems that has no more life than end up discarded, but the reality is very different. The Holy Grail, right now of modern materials science, is to get rid of the oil dependencebut also solve the problem of the waste we already generate. And this is something that has become evident with fryer oil, which now has a new function: being an adhesive. A progress. A team from the University of South Carolina has killed two birds with one stone with a surprising solution: transform the fryer oil into a material that imitates polyethylenebut it is biodegradable and adhesive. But this adhesive is so strong that it has even managed to tow a car using only two steel plates joined with this material. The oil problem. The plastic we use in our daily lives is polyethylene, which is cheap, flexible and resistant. But it has a serious problem: it is of fossil origin and with how difficult its degradation is makes it contribute to global pollution. On the other hand, we have used cooking oil. It is estimated that we generate about 3.8 billion liters per year worldwideand although it is used to produce biodiesel or lubricant, converting it into high-performance thermoplastics was a barely explored field due to the complexity of its chemical composition. Breaking down the fat. What the team led by Chuanbing Tang and Olga Kuksenok has achieved It is not simply “recycling” the oilbut to deconstruct it and reassemble it at the molecular level. And this is something fundamental, since you can take advantage of both the fatty acids and the glycerol that are part of this fat. By polymerizing these components, they created aliphatic polyesters that almost perfectly imitate the mechanical properties of low-density polyethylene (LDPE), the plastic we commonly use in bags and packaging. A new material. The surprise came when the result of this experiment did not generate a traditional polyethylene that is inert, but rather this new material derived from oil has chemical groups that can act as molecular ‘hooks’. That is, it can stick like glue. The research wanted to demonstrate its adhesive capacity on different surfaces such as stainless steel, copper, wood or cardboard. And the results were surprising, since in cut resistance tests it surpassed other renowned commercial adhesives, and could even be used as a silicone gun to seal boxes. Moving a car. Without a doubt this is the litmus test that wanted to demonstrate that used oil has great strength behind it. To do this, they joined two steel plates with this polymer and used them to pull a four-door sedan uphill. The union in this case held without any problem. The importance. This is a big step towards the circular economy. We are not just talking about making a “less bad” plastic, but about creating new materials with high added value, such as their ability to glue the waste we have in the kitchen. And in many things it can be difficult to recycle. Imagine a future where the oil from today’s French fries becomes the bumper on your car or the sticker on your next Amazon package, only to be processed again without ending up in a landfill. This is precisely what science is trying to achieve to increase recycling strategies and dependence on fossil resources. Images | Zoshua Colah Scott Sanker In Xataka | We have been thinking for decades that plastic recycling was worth something. Maybe we were wrong

NASA needed to get to the Moon and had a problem with an insulating material. So it was put in the hands of the surfers

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Now that we are immersed in the space race to reach Mars, it is worth looking back to see one of the most surprising anecdotes of the other race with which the United States achieved taking man to the Moon for the first time. And to achieve this they did not hesitate to use all available resources, from their best scientists to their best… surfers? Although it may seem like a joke, it took surfers to perfect the Saturn Vthe space rocket with which the Apollo missions took off between 1967 and 1973. The POT He had created a honeycomb-shaped insulator for his rocket, and needed specialists in the use of honeycomb-shaped materials… like that of the surfboards of the time. This story It was kept secret for years. But even though it ended up coming to light after a NASA engineer told it in an interview, it remains one of the most curious and unknown anecdotes of the space race. There are also references to it in documentaries such as one of the chapters of ‘Moon Machines’, available at YouTube. Surfers at NASA The second stage of the Saturn V, the S-II, was built by National American Aviation (NAA) in Seal Beach, California. It was composed almost exclusively of two tanks of oxygen and liquid hydrogen that, for logistical reasons, had to be placed almost close together and separated only by a thin layer of aluminum. But there was a problem, that the liquid hydrogen had to be kept at a temperature of about 20º above absolute zero, so They had to create a new insulator to cover your tank. They created one in the shape of a honeycomb, since the hexagonal design is the strongest and lightest in nature and we have been using it for thousands of years, but they could not get the insulating layer to stay stuck to the aluminum. Fortunately for the NAA their facilities were in one of the surfing capitals on the west coast, and their engineers realized that the surfers They also used honeycomb-shaped materials in their boards. They were therefore more experienced experts than any scientist when it came to dealing with these types of insulators, which is why they hired a few to design an effective way to apply it to the tanks. The surfers recommended applying the insulation with sprays with a foam that solidified forming hexagonal cells. The idea worked, the NAA finished the S-II, which was assembled with the rest of the parts of the Saturn V. The rocket took 24 astronauts to the Moon without any loss of useful shell, having only engine problems with Apollo 6 and Apollo 13. Image | POT In Xataka | How many times have we gone to the Moon and why have only 11 military aviators and one geologist set foot on it in all of history? In Xataka | The far side of the Moon hid an icy secret. We finally know why it is so different from what we see

Spanish scientists have created a material that swallows 99.5% of light. And it is great news for renewables

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At first glance they look like invisible needles, thin to the extreme and tiny like a thousandth of a human hair. A group of Spanish researchers has created ultra-black nanoneedles that absorb up to 99.5% of the solar radiation they receive, a record figure that not only sets an optical record, but will increase the efficiency of solar thermal plants. Made in Euskadi. The discovery comes from the Thermophysical Properties of Materials group at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). There, the researchers have designed a surface composed of copper cobaltate nanoneedles—a mixed oxide of copper and cobalt—with exceptional optical properties. Its ultra-black tone and its resistance to humidity and high temperatures make it ideal for solar tower receivers. According to tests, the material achieves an absorption of 99.5% of sunlight, surpassing black silicon (95%) and carbon nanotubes (99%). “We are looking for ultra-black materials for more efficient solar towers,” noted researcher Íñigo González de Arrieta. A change for solar energy. In concentrating solar thermal power plants (CSP), hundreds of mirrors reflect and concentrate sunlight towards a central tower. There, heat is used to melt salts that retain thermal energy and allow electricity to be generated even when the sun has already set.The key is to take advantage of each photon: if the receiver material reflects part of the light, that energy is lost. And this is where the new nanoneedles come into play. Until now, the most used material was black silicon, with an absorption level of 95%. The new nanoneedles, on the other hand, could raise that figure significantly and, with it, make solar thermal energy, one of the most promising clean sources in countries like Spain, more competitive and profitable. Beyond the blackest black. Carbon nanotubes seemed unbeatable: dark as a vacuum, capable of trapping almost all light. But they had an invisible enemy: the heat and humidity deteriorated them quickly. The copper cobaltate nanoneedles, developed by the Basque team, endure what their predecessors could not. They withstand temperatures above 700 degrees without losing effectiveness and, in addition, they are more stable. In solar towers, that difference can translate into more energy and less maintenance. A real impact. Dr. Renkun Chen, from the University of California, San Diego, is collaborating with the Basque team and the United States Department of Energy to study the feasibility of applying nanoneedles to industrial solar plants. “We observed that these nanoneedles performed better than the carbon nanotubes used until now, and that their performance increased when coated with zinc oxide,” Chen explained.. However, González de Arrieta himself clarifies that there is still some way to go: the next pilot-scale tests will determine if the process is economically viable and if the material can be produced industrially without losing its optical properties. Darker, brighter. Ultrablack nanoneedles are an example of how nanotechnology applied to energy can have a direct impact on global sustainability. The UPV/EHU team plans to continue developing new compounds with better thermal and optical conductivity, designed to withstand the challenges of future solar towers. Promoting this renewable energy offers many advantages: it is totally clean and can also be used when the sun does not shine,” recalled González de Arrieta. And if everything goes as expected, the future of solar energy could be, paradoxically, darker than ever. Image | Flickr Xataka | In the midst of a trade war, there is a battle that China has already won: that the world depends on its new energy

In China they have created a material for their fighters that opens a new technological direction: it aims directly at radars

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From the early days of World War II to the stealth fighters of the 21st century, the goal of remaining unnoticed by the enemy has been a constant obsession in military aviation. Aerial “invisibility”, more than a myth, It is a technological challenge that has marked decades of innovation in materials and design. A team from Chinese universities describes a flexible and ultra-thin coating capable of absorbing radar waves without losing thermal resistance, collects SCMP. If its effectiveness is confirmed in flight, it could change the conversation about modern aerial stealth. The development was detailed on October 14 in Advanced Materials. The study, signed by Cui Guang, Liu ZhongfanHuihui Wang and Maoyuan Li, among others, presents a graphene-on-silica-fabric (G@SF) metasurface that combines flexibility, low weight and thermal resistance of up to 1,000 degrees Celsius. According to its authors, the direct integration of the material into the insulating layer of an aircraft would allow the reflected radar signal to be reduced to −42 dB, without compromising the structure or weight of the aircraft. A surface that wants to defy the radar The material is based on a silica textile base on which the researchers deposited graphene using a chemical vapor deposition process. On that layer they applied a laser “erasing” technique, which allowed them to create a precise pattern on the surface and adjust your electrical impedance. In this way, they claim, they managed to make the coating effectively absorb electromagnetic waves without needing to increase its thickness or weight. The result is a flexible, ultralight metasurface with an adjustable sheet resistance between 50 and 5,000 ohms per square. {“videoId”:”x9ri2iu”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”How China, the biggest polluter on the planet, has also become the complete opposite”, “tag”:”webedia-prod”, “duration”:”740″} Laboratory tests showed that the material maintains stable performance even under extreme conditions. After five minutes of exposure to 600 degrees Celsius in air, it retained its absorption capacity, and also withstood prolonged heating to 1,000 degrees in a vacuum without degrading. In tests with air currents of up to 200 meters per second, its loss of efficiency was less than 1%, and neither the surface pattern nor the resistance of the sheet were altered. These properties make it an ideal candidate for high-speed aircraft exposed to intense heat and friction. Withstood prolonged heating to 1,000 degrees in vacuum without degrading The material described in the study poses a possible alternative to conventional coatings, although it has yet to be demonstrated whether its advantages are sustainable outside the laboratory. US stealth fighters, such as the F-22 and F-35they use absorbent compounds They offer good initial performance, but require constant and expensive maintenance. In China, the J-20 has been seen with a coating apparently more stable, although those impressions come from displays and not verifiable technical data. The difference, for now, is in the discourse rather than the evidence. The new coating is still far from becoming a technology in real use, but it illustrates the direction of Chinese research in stealth materials. The challenge is not only to achieve high performance in the laboratory, but to keep it in flight and under extreme conditions. Chinese scientists aim to solve one of the most persistent limitations of modern fighters: the fragility of absorbent coatings. If the material achieves this stability, it could open a different stage in aircraft protection. In Xataka We believed that the F-16s were Ukraine’s great achievement: it has just taken the first step to receive up to 150 European Gripen fighters Beijing has set 2035 as the horizon to complete the modernization of its armed forces. In this context, the development of new compounds, sensors and materials responds to a broader policy aimed at strengthening its technological and military industry. Each advance in the field of stealth materials is interpreted not only as a technical improvement, but also as a step towards greater strategic independence. Images | Wikimedia Commons | Arthur Wang In Xataka | The Chinese ambition to lead each and every area of ​​the planet has found its next adversary: ​​Jaén (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); } })(); – The news In China they have created a material for their fighters that opens a new technological direction: it aims directly at radars was originally published in Xataka by Javier Marquez .

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