Category: Engineering

ENG: Researchers at Osaka Metropolitan University have developed a more stable and lower-cost artificial photosynthesis system that produces formic acid from carbon dioxide and water. The system uses sunlight to convert CO₂ and water into a storable solar fuel, similar to natural photosynthesis. In conventional systems, an electrolyzer works together with solar cells to transform electrical energy into chemical energy, but maintaining efficient operation under changing sunlight usually requires batteries or electronic control systems such as Maximum Power Point Tracking.

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ENG: Research on color perception is helping clarify a century-old model developed by Erwin Schrödinger. A team led by Los Alamos scientist Roxana Bujack used geometry to mathematically define how people perceive hue, saturation, and lightness. Their work shows that these qualities do not depend mainly on external factors such as culture or learned experience, but are intrinsic properties of the color metric itself. This metric describes perceived color distance, meaning how different two colors appear to an observer. By formalizing these perceptual attributes, the researchers complete an important part of Schrödinger’s goal: a closed model of color based on geometric similarity.

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ENG: NASA’s High Performance Spaceflight Computing processor is a next-generation space chip designed to give spacecraft much stronger onboard computing abilities. Unlike ordinary processors, it is radiation-hardened, meaning it is built to resist damage from high-energy particles coming from the Sun and from deep space. It is also designed to tolerate extreme temperature changes, shocks, and other difficult spaceflight conditions. NASA expects it to provide up to 100 times the computational capacity of current spaceflight computers, while early testing indicates performance as high as 500 times faster than radiation-hardened chips now in use.

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ENG: Engineers at the University of California San Diego have designed a new chip that could improve the energy efficiency of data centers by changing the way power is delivered to GPUs. The chip addresses a central problem in modern computing systems: converting the 48 volts commonly distributed in data centers into the much lower voltages needed by GPUs, usually between 1 and 5 volts. Since data centers consume large amounts of electricity, improving this conversion process can help reduce energy loss, lower heat production, and support more compact computing hardware.

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