material

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 .

single material solar panels

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At a time when renewable energy is beginning to gain a lot of strength, achieving solar panels light, efficient and cheap It is undoubtedly the “Holy Grail” of current scientific research. Now some researchers from the University of Cambridge They just unlocked a quantum secret buried for more than a centurywith results capable of completely transforming how we capture and convert sunlight into electricity. Unexpected. The advance arises from a observed quantum phenomenon in an organic material called P3TTM, a spin radical moleculethat is, it has a solitary and unpaired electron from the rest, which we can say is “antisocial.” This material is typically used in organic light-emitting technologies (such as LEDs) for its intense luminosity and chemical stability. What is surprising in this case is that when many of these molecules are grouped together in a thin film, their unpaired electrons interact with each other in a very particular way. And instead of ignoring each other, they align in an alternating pattern (up-down), a quantum behavior known as that of a Mott-Hubbard insulatorsomething that until now was mainly associated with inorganic metal oxides. Biwen Li, the principal investigator of the Cavendish Laboratory, describes it as “true magic.” Upon absorbing light, one of these electrons jumps to a neighboring molecule, instantly creating a positive and a negative charge. Those separate charges are, in essence, electricity ready to be harvested. The revolution. Most of today’s organic solar panels work like a sandwich. They need two different materials: one that “gives” electrons when light hits it and another that “accepts” them. This union, or heterojunction, is essential, but it is also a source of inefficiency since it greatly complicates the manufacturing of the equipment. The Cambridge discovery changes everything. The P3TTM performs the entire process itself. He doesn’t need a partner. Charge separation occurs between identical molecules, a process called “homojunction,” which opens the door to that efficiency that was the goal of much energy research. How it works. If we look at the technical part, we can know that P3TTM films are manufactured using thermal evaporation techniques and are encapsulated for protection. Timed spectroscopic analyzes show two emitters: one at 645 nm due to the exciton of the radical, and another with late emission and red shifted (~800 nm), attributed to the recombination of separated charge pairs after the charge transfer process. The collection efficiency under reverse polarization reaches 100%, indicating that practically every photon is converted into an electron usable to generate current, something never before achieved in organics. The test. To test it, the team built a solar cell with a thin layer of P3TTM and, by illuminating it, achieved a charge collection efficiency close to 100%. This means that almost every photon of light that hit the material was converted into useful electrical current. The story. The theory on which this discovery is based, which is the Mott-Hubbard theory of insulators, was developed by Sir Nevill Mott, a giant of condensed matter physics. Now this Cambridge work is published just on the 120th anniversary of Mott’s birth, paying tribute to the legacy of the man who laid the foundations for understanding the electronic phenomena in semiconductors that we will now be able to use. The future. This is not just a small advance. It’s a paradigm shift. “We are not simply improving old designs,” says Professor Bronstein. “We are writing a new chapter in textbooks, demonstrating that organic materials can generate charges on their own,” he points out. The implications we will see now could be enormous. We could be witnessing the birth of a new generation of solar technology: panels made of a single, low-cost, light and flexible material that could be integrated into any surface, from windows to clothing. There is still a way to go to reach a commercial product, but the quantum secret that they have revealed in Cambridge has just illuminated a much brighter and simpler energy future. Images | American Public Power Dynamic Wang In Xataka | Clean energy has made the electricity market cheaper. But what we pay for is no longer energy: it is stability

We are running out of a key material to build roads and homes. And the guilt has the war in Ukraine

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In the middle of the month of May a photo seemed to have sneaked between the “normality” of some remote roads from Teruel. The constant coming and going of loaded trucks up to clay He had the answer to thousands of kilometers, in the epicenter of the war in Ukraine. The shortage of the material because of the conflict had found a solution in southern Europe. But now it is, perhaps, more dangerous. We are running out of TNT. From the boom to the agency. I told it a few hours ago The New York Times. For more than a century, Trinitrotoluene (TNT) was a pillar of the American military and civil industry, with millions of tons produced for The two world wars and the second half of the twentieth century. Cheap and abundant (it cost just 50 cents per pound), it became key input for projectiles, pumps and the construction of roads, infrastructure and homes. The problem? That its production generated highly toxic waste, which led to the closing of the last national plant In the eighties. Since then, Washington became dependent on foreign suppliers, mainly in China, Russia, Poland and Ukraine, which assumed the environmental costs of their manufacture. The impact of war. The Russian invasion in 2022 transformed that scheme. The United States stopped recycling explosives of obsolete arsenals, by deciding allocate your production to kyiv. At the same time, Russia and China They cut Exports to the West, leaving the American industry without access to its usual sources. Thus, the European conflict triggered a World TNT scarcity with direct consequences for arms production and, very important, also for civil sectors such as mining and construction. Effects. The lack of TNT Threat with slowing down Infrastructure projects, from roads and bridges to the supply of cement and basic materials. He underlined the Times that the usual procedure in quarries (where minimal loads of TNT detonate ammonium nitrate mixtures with other compounds) has been affected by the reduction of supplies. The use of drones, 3D scanners and digital calculations allows more precise and safe explosions, capable of moving More than 100,000 tons of rock in a single shot, but without TNT the processes lose efficacy, which raises costs and threatens the availability of raw materials. The United States response. Given the shortage, Congress approved the construction of a new TNT plant in Kentucky, with a Budget of 435 million of dollars. It is planned to start operating in 2028, but, and very important, it will only produce for military use, without supplying the civil sector. No doubt, this reflects a clear priority: ensure the autonomy of the military-industrial complex against external dependence, although leaving without immediate solution the problem of extractive and construction industries. In parallel, the pentagon works in Diversify suppliers and increase the internal production of other explosives and propellant. Alternatives and scenarios. At present, the industry seeks substitutes such as The Petn (Tetranitrate Pentaeritritol), which is already manufactured in three US facilities, although its capacity is limited and it is not clear if it can be climbed quickly. Meanwhile, the country’s army has given signs of having assured Additional TNT sources out of Poland, although Without revealing details. In any case, the situation raises a strategic dilemma: the dependence on obsolete material but irreplaceable in many processes, whose absence threatens both the war capacity and the stability of basic sectors of the economy. TNT’s scarcity exposes, one more timehow a distant war can disrupt critical supply chains and force industrial powers to rethink their energy, technological and military security. Image | Operational Command “West” In Xataka | Ukraine has entered a phase so deranged with the drones that his drones are knocking themselves to themselves In Xataka | Someone has taken a look at Russia’s satellite images and has discovered something: it is running out of tanks

The good news is that there is a material that works well on the walls of fusion reactors. The bad: it is lithium

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We know how the sun works. Another thing is to imitate it. If we got Build a nuclear fusion reactorwe would have clean, safe and practically unlimited energy. But doing so involves incredibly complex engineering challenges. The wall problem. One of the more colossal challenges In nuclear fusion is to build a container that supports a hottest plasma than the sun’s core. For years, scientists have been experiencing with various materials, from graphite to high resistance metals such as tungsten. A recent researchthe result of an international collaboration of nine institutions, confirms that we have a star candidate that works spectacularly well for the wall of the reactors: lithium. A self -refrasinal shield. To understand why lithium is so attractive, you must first visualize the hell that is unleashed inside a tokamak, the most common fusion reactor design. A hydrogen gas, mainly its deuterium and tritium isotopesmore than 100 million degrees Celsius is heated to become a plasma. Magnetic fields potently confine it so that it does not touch anything, but it is impossible to prevent some particles from escaping and violently shocking against the interior walls of the reactor. This is where lithium shines because it can be used in a liquid state. Instead of eroding and degrading with each impact, it flows and heals himself instantly. This self -referential liquid layer would protect the solid components behind. Moreover, if the reactor walls are hot enough, the lithium can form a steam shield that absorbs much of the impact before it reaches the solid surface. Goodbye to graphite? Research shows that lithium is not only a passive shield, but an active plasma conditioner. Instead of reflecting the fuel particles that escape, cooling the edge of plasma and destabilizing it, lithium absorbs them. This helps keep heat where it has to be and, therefore, to stabilize the fusion reaction and improve the confinement of plasma. According to researchers, lithium is a promising candidate to replace graphite, which has a much higher erosion rate. Applied in tungsten walls, it allows to operate the fusion to greater power densities, opening the door to more compact and efficient reactors. Two ways to apply it. The researchers tested, on the one hand, to cover the lithium walls before lighting the plasma and, on the other, to inject lithium powder directly on the plasma during the reactor operation. The injection was much more effective when creating a uniform and stable temperature profile, one of the sacred conditions for commercial fusion. All tests were carried out at the Tokamak Diii-D of General Atomics with financing from the United States Department of Energy. The authors of the study, published in the Materials and Energy nuclear magazine, are researchers of the Princeton plasma physics laboratory and his collaborators. Bad news. In addition to exercising even more pressure on the already tensioning lithium market (Although it does not scarce, it is not extracted to the rhythm that grows its demand), there is a more alarming problem. The lithium is too much Well at work. Catch the tritium with a very high efficiency, preventing it from returning to plasma to be used as fuel. If the tritio is stuck to the walls, the reactor ends up running out of fuel and the cycle breaks. The accumulation of radioactive tritium in cold areas and difficult to access the reactor also greatly complicates its maintenance and is a safety risk. To top it off, the retention is more significant if the lithium is injected with the reactor in operation, the most efficient application method. A possible solution. The key is that these experiments were carried out with lithium in solid state, at temperatures below its melting point. In a real reactor, with liquid lithium, The solution could be a “dialysis” system: Instead of bathing the walls by a lithium river and leaving it there, it would be continuously extracted from the reactor, taken to a processing plant to separate the tritium trapped, and pumped back, clean and ready to continue working. The reactor design would have to adapt to this new proposal. It would be necessary to avoid the cold areas where lithium and tritio could accumulate and stay stagnant, keep the walls at higher and more controlled temperatures, and include the circuit to extract, processes and continuously introduce lithium. A material that solves multiple problems in our mission of simulating the sun, but in return introduces new and also complex. Image | General Atomics In Xataka | There is an alternative to nuclear fusion. It is already underway and is extraordinarily promising

The idea of ​​writing with luxury material

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Even the simplest and most traditional shops are susceptible to finding a gourmet version. Bakeries, coffee shops or ice cream shops in special and exquisite mode is understood, after all we talk about food. But … And the stationery? Are the catalog of the stationery stores, economical, accessible and massive by definition, gourmetizables? There are shops who think so, and the success of stationery stores like Panda Bohéme in Vigo is a good test. Everything is gourmet. Or, at least, everything can be gourmet. It is a phenomenon that already dates from some years, linked to premiumization and specialization of traditional shops, where everyday products are transformed into objects of desire through design, quality, customization and purchase experience. It is the answer we have to the advancement of digitalization and mass standardization, looking for exclusivity, individuality and sensory pleasure in daily life and everyday life. Examples? Gourmet bakeries and pastries, Specialty coffee shops, Artisanal ice cream shopscheese and selected charcations, design florists and, of course, and linked to gourmet stationery stores, independent libraries. And stationery. This, applied to the stationery stores, runs in the same direction: the type of products that are in a traditional trade in the sector, but with the focus on the exclusive, the artisanal and creative inspiration. A lot of material for crafts, calligraphy, drawing and accent in the premium product: notebooks, pens, folders, all of good quality and with somewhat higher prices than usual. And also import products, especially Japan, where there is a whole Cultural obsession with stationery products. German origins. A pioneer example in Europe from this type of shops is Divine Designfounded on Germany in 2003and that from its origin it was distinguished by its commitment, unheard of in the times prior to the global massification of the Internet, for ecological materials and the high standards of quality of its products. As of the 2010, The phenomenon began to expand through Europe and Asiadriven by the rise of Japanese, Korean and American brands. The return to the world in a thousand stationery. According to the trend he has expanded around the world, each country has welcomed it to its aesthetic and cultural preferences. For example, in Japan there are Material brands for this type of shops like Kokuyo, Tombow, Zebra, Pilot, Uni-Ball, Sun-Star or Midori, and stand out for how they combine functionality, aesthetics and pleasure of use. The deep roots of Japanese culture with the paper industry is remarkable, both for its millenary tradition with material and his conception of writing and calligraphy as an act of emotional root, as with the adoption of recent aesthetic currents, such as The Kawaii. In Korea, aesthetics is even more accentuated, with brands such as Iconic, Monami or Livework, with the accent placed on the design and soft colors. On the other hand in the United States, it is committed to the functional and the resistant, although there are also minimalist designs and veteran brands, where names such as Cloth & Paper or Smythson stand out. And in Spain? The phenomenon has been settling in Spain for a few years, with certain common elements: the essential presence of Japanese and Korean material and the importance of social networks and the Internet in the business. For example, one of the most prominent gourmet stationery stores is Panda Bohèmeof Vigo, with a physical store of more than 250 m² where it organizes events and workshops, such as Pop-ups of import marks. Significantly, your Instagram account has almost 40,000 followers due to the care with which they show and teach their catalog. Other important stores are Likely.es, Bomagui either Ikigai. Paper philosophy. This flowering of libraries has a lot to do with the movements of Digital detoxification who advocate a Return to physical experiences. The pleasure of writing on paper, although it seems unchanging in these times of total digitalization, has some connection with ancestral traditions that in high -end stationery stores have been in charge of modernizing and providing meaning again. New times for activities as old as humanity itself. Header | Panda Bohème In Xataka | This has not been written by a human hand: how the Deepfakes manage to imitate (and create) impossible calligraphies

The great promise of obtaining a stronger material than steel

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Inventwood, a company that emerged at Maryland University, The Superwood Commercial Manufacture will begin After seven years of development. The material, invented by the scientist Liangbing Hu In 2018, it has 50% more tensile strength than steel and a ten-times higher resistance ratio. Why is it important. The construction industry generates high CO2 emissions: producing a ton of steel emits almost two tons of carbon dioxide. This supermadera not only eliminates these emissions, but carbon capture when manufactured with sustainable farm wood. In addition, it offers natural resistance to fire, humidity, termites and fungi without chemical additives. The context. What began as an academic discovery documented in Nature In 2018 It has evolved to become a technology that promises to be commercially viable. The company has managed to reduce the manufacturing time of weeks to hours and has raised $ 15 million to build its first plant in Maryland. In detail. The process requires two main steps: First, lignin is partially dissolved – the polymer that hardens wood – using food degree chemicals. Then, the wood is compressed at 65 ° C, collapsing its cellular structure in a dense matrix. The result is a material five times thinner than the original, but twelve times more resistant and ten times harder. The figures: The first installation will produce a million square meters per year from this summer. A second phase in autumn of 2025 will introduce outdoor panels. The initial price will be “Premium” but competitive with tropical high-end wood: between 12.50 and $ 25 per pound (between 27.5 and 55 per kilo), compared to the $ 1-2 of steel (2-4 per kilo). Yes, but. Although the supermadera is initially more expensive than steel by weight, its upper resistance-peso ratio means that a 5 kilos beam could match the load capacity of a 45 kilos steel beam. This reduces its effective cost to 2.75-5.5 dollars per kilo when we adjust for yield. Much more interesting and less far from steel. The panoramic. Inventwood A second installation already plans of more than 30 million square meters for infrastructure and large developments. Contractors can cut, pierce and hold this overmaster with standard carpentry tools, which should facilitate its adoption. The material could also be extended to other sectors such as vehicles, aircraft or furniture, but for now the company is focusing on construction, where steel and concrete suppose 90% of the carbon impact of buildings. Outstanding image | Inventwood In Xataka | China was for decades the largest CO2 issuer on the planet. Renewables are correcting what seemed impossible

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