Category archives: Technology

MI weekly selection #11

MI weekly selection #11

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

“Native” water once existed on the Moon A new analysis of lunar soil samples from NASA’s Apollo missions has found evidence that the moon in its early days may have contained “native” water. The findings, which were published in the journal Nature Geoscience, go against prevailing theories that the moon formed from the debris of […]

Rapidly Exploring Manifolds: when going from A to B ain’t easy

Rapidly Exploring Manifolds: when going from A to B ain’t easy

Robotics

By José Luis Blanco

We will address a recent article by Jaillet and Porta (Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial, IRI), which reveals new practical applications of highly-abstract mathematical entities. When it comes to robots, we can’t forget that their fundamental goal is always somehow related to moving stuff. Arm robots as those found in the automotive industries are […]

MI weekly selection #9

MI weekly selection #9

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Electronics on paper At the moment the costs are still too high for them to be used in things like business cards or package labels, but remarkable advances in materials science and simpler fabrication methods are setting the stage for a whole new breed of cheap, bendable, disposable, and perhaps even recyclable electronics. And some […]

MI weekly selection #7

MI weekly selection #7

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Could Earth be constantly crashing through dark matter? Scientists are looking to new techniques to search for evidence that the Earth is constantly breaking through walls of dark matter. Researchers are acting on a theory that dark matter, made up of weakly interacting massive particles, are tied up in domain walls, which they liken to […]

The comfort of modern trains

The comfort of modern trains

Mechanical Engineering

By Carlos Casanueva

High speed trains are the best example of vehicles that, although operating at somehow extreme conditions, are very comfortable. And by comfort I mean that the vibration level that passengers feel is relatively low. The components that allow this level of comfort are the pneumatic springs, torus-shaped rubber elements filled with pressured air. Their behaviour […]

MI weekly selection #6

MI weekly selection #6

Humanities & Social SciencesScienceTechnologyWeekly Selection

By César Tomé

Anyone can find an exoplanet A team of volunteer amateur astronomers has discovered evidence of 42 alien planets. The volunteers were sorting through NASA data as part of the Planet Hunters crowdsourcing program. Professional astronomers have yet to confirm the proposed planets. Space.com Planethunters.org Drought predictions in East Africa Variations in sea-surface temperatures of the […]