The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
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Mercedes-Benz says it will follow its supply chains all the way back to the mines, if that is what it takes to ensure that the lithium and cobalt going into its rapidly expanding line of electric vehicles is produced with high environmental and human rights standards. "Our aspiration is very clear – we want our products to contain only raw materials that have been mined and produced without human rights violations," said Renata Jungo Brüngger, a board member of both Me...
4 was a year many will not forget, from the onset of COVID-19 in the spring, to the subsequent economic instability left in its wake. A silver lining to this challenging year, however, may be the innovations and inventions developed to combat the contagion and bring certainty back into people's lives. Turning to relatively unexplored technologies and chemistries, companies sought the natural antimicrobial powers of "medical" metals and minerals such as the natural...
South Korean scientists have developed a liquid metal silicone composite material that can be stretched to a thickness of less than 50 microns when pulled really slow, snapped in half without stretching when pulled really fast, and can copy a print of the comics from a newspaper. That's right, gallium Silly Putty is now a thing. Commercial silicone putty, better known as Crayola's trademarked Silly Putty, is one of four different materials used to create pastes and putties...
5 is shaping up to be a watershed year for Nouveau Monde Graphite Inc.'s mission to be a carbon-neutral supplier of the graphite needed in the anodes of lithium-ion batteries. "This year will be an exciting year, as we produce our first anode materials and further the execution of our business strategy, which is set to build a company which is one of the world's largest high quality anode material producers," said Nouveau Monde Graphite President and CEO Eric Desaulniers....
Industrial Age iron mines in the eastern Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York may find new life as domestic sources of the rare earth elements needed in today's Information Age. Mined heavily for iron in the 1800s and early 1900s, the eastern Adirondack Mountains played an important role in industrialization prior to and during World War II. The deposits that helped to build America's transformation from horse powered to horsepower also happened to host significant...
Graphene has emerged as a powerful antimicrobial that can prevent the spread of bacteria and viruses when added to masks, paints, sports gear, and other products. Now, initial tests by a leading infectious disease specialist in Canada indicate that a graphene-based compound may be able to treat a broad spectrum of pathogens that make it past the first lines of defense and into the human body. This graphene-based antibiotic, antiviral, and antifungal compound developed by...
University researchers working in tandem with the European Space Agency, have tested the use of a new, smokeless, carbon-free energy by burning iron powder. And what better way to assess the potential of this new type of fuel than by brewing beer with all the flavor and less carbon emissions than traditional brews? First tested in microgravity aboard European Space Agency sounding rockets, a team at McGill University in Canada and Eindhoven University of Technology in the...
President-elect Joe Biden's plans to spend $2 trillion on infrastructure and move the world's biggest economy toward greener policies is brightening the outlook for base metals, including tougher-than-nails tungsten. Many countries, including the United States, have designated tungsten as a critical metal after China, which accounts for 80% of annual global tungsten production of 85,000 metric tons, have placed restrictions on its exports of the metal. Tungsten is often...
The $740.5 billion National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 passed by Congress last week instructs the Pentagon to secure domestic and allied sources of strategic minerals and metals. "The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the striking vulnerabilities and gaps in our domestic supply chains, and the need to invest in critical mineral manufacturing and processing has taken on a new urgency," said Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, who authored two amendments addressing...
BMW Group has gotten behind the wheel of the quickly emerging 3D printing technology to hasten vehicle parts development and production to maximize manufacturing capabilities for its automobile industry. The Germany-based automotive powerhouse has wasted no effort in shifting the direction of its manufacturing with a systematic integration of additive manufacturing scaled up to industrial levels and to firmly establish it in various areas – primarily vehicle development and pr...
A fresh coat of Copper Armor, an antimicrobial paint developed by Corning Inc. and PPG, could transform surfaces at high-risk for the spread of COVID-19 into self-sanitizing areas that are deadly to bacteria and viruses. Leveraging the glass and ceramic expertise that makes its kitchenware a staple in homes around the globe, Corning has developed a copper infused glass matrix that is a highly effective and continuous killer of germs, including the virus that causes COVID-19....
VanadiumCorp Resource Inc. has acquired full rights to a unique, low-carbon emitting means of extracting vanadium, another key to its goal of unlocking the potential of vanadium redox flow batteries as a sustainable renewable energy storage solution. "We have achieved another critical step in our strategic plan to rapidly advance VanadiumCorp's sustainable assets," said VanadiumCorp Resource CEO Adriaan Bakker. These assets are found along the entire vanadium redox flow...
Syrah Resources Ltd. has taken another major step toward scaling up production of natural graphite anode material at its facility in Vidalia, Louisiana to help meet the demands of rapidly expanding lithium-ion battery production in the United States. In order to power electric vehicles and store renewable energy, annual lithium-ion battery production capacity in the U.S. is expected to climb to at least 226 gigawatt-hours by 2030. This production output, however, could top...
Continuing its initiative to bring copper to the frontlines in the urgent fight against the spread of bacteria and viruses such as COVID-19, Teck Resources Ltd. announced the expansion of its Copper and Health program to Chile, partnering with leading national health professionals and academics on a pilot project at the Iquique Hospital. Research has shown that copper alloy surfaces are naturally antimicrobial and are imbued with self-sanitizing properties, with up to 99.9%...
A recent scientific breakthrough in the metals used for transistors may change the face of all conventional electronics, providing new circuitry and electronics with the simply named quantum dot. Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory in collaboration with the University of California, Irvine have managed to create functional logic circuits with the electronic building blocks known as quantum dots. This innovation could promise a cheaper and production-friendly...
In the name of science, a team of Dutch researchers has 3D-printed a platinum-hulled, microscopic rendition of the Star Trek USS Voyager. The creation of this Intrepid-class starship that measures roughly 15 microns, or about one-fifth the width of an average human hair, is part of a study of how complex shapes affect the motion of microswimmers. While biological microswimmers such as bacteria have complex shapes that allow them to propel through blood and other viscous...
VanadiumCorp Resource Inc. has confirmed that its Lac Doré project in Quebec hosts one of the most significant undeveloped vanadium deposits on the planet, furthering the company's mission of developing exceptional vanadium resources and technology to reduce the cost and carbon footprint of energy storage. According to an updated calculation reported by the company on Oct. 29, Lac Doré hosts 214.93 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources with the potential to p...
From coronavirus killing facemasks, to ultra-fast charging superbatteries and high-performance headphones with "stunning" sound quality, graphene has emerged as a miracle material with qualities that are likely to change life on Earth. Now, researchers believe this high strength 2D material could unlock mankind's ability to travel to other solar systems. Liquid fuel rockets can get humans to the most popular destinations across our home solar system in a reasonable amount of...
Working with General Motors, researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have discovered that a tiny bit of graphene can increase the conductivity of copper wire by 5%. "That may seem like a small amount, but it can make a big difference in motor efficiency," the Washington state lab penned in an article on the findings. "Higher conductivity also means that less copper is needed for the same efficiency, which can reduce the weight and volume of various components...
Diamonds are well known as the hardest minerals on earth. The sparkling gemstones also are exceptional thermal conductors and electrical insulators. Now, an international team of researchers says diamonds have yet another distinction – they can exhibit the properties of metals. The discovery, first reported Oct. 5 in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences," could write a new chapter in the saga of diamonds used in sophisticated technological and industrial a...
Canada-based Zinc8 Energy Solutions Inc. has formed a partnership that could see its patented zinc-air energy storage system installed at renewable energy facilities in Australia, a country at the forefront of low-carbon electrical power generation. In recent years, Australia and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency have invested A$1.58 billion (US$1.12 billion) to support 543 greenhouse gas-reducing energy projects as the country seeks to achieve more aggressive renewable...
Skeleton Technologies, a global leader in graphene-based ultracapacitor energy storage, Oct. 19 announced a deal with Northern Ireland-based Wrightbus to supply its next generation high-energy ultracapacitor modules to hydrogen fuel cell buses in the United Kingdom. "Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are of high strategic importance to lower CO2 emissions and fight against climate change, said Skeleton Technologies CEO Taavi Madiberk. "Skeleton's ultracapacitors are one of the key...
A week after President Donald Trump declared America's heavy reliance on adversarial nations for critical minerals a national emergency, U.S. International Development Finance Corporation invested US$25 million towards development of the Piauí nickel-cobalt mine project in northeastern Brazil. This investment is expected to fund further developments that will help create jobs in one of the poorest regions of Brazil while providing a new source of battery metals vital to...
The future of rechargeable batteries and the technologies they will power just got a lot more flexible, thanks to a recent breakthrough in screen-printable, high-capacity silver-zinc batteries by a research team from University of California, San Diego and ZPower, a California-based company formed in 1996 to build a better battery. Typical flexible batteries have a limited life cycle and low capacity, which limits their use to low-power, disposable electronics. These...
In recent years, Teck Resources Ltd. has been working with healthcare officials around the world to bring copper to the frontlines in the urgent fight against bacteria and viruses harmful to the human body. Now Teck, one of the world's top copper producers, has joined the battle underway to curb the spread of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic by moving outside the healthcare field with a new pilot project in Vancouver that is using the red metal's formidable antimicrobial...
