Month: February 2023

Enlarge / In this depiction Blue Alchemist is shown constructing solar cells on the lunar surface. (credit: Blue Origin)

For decades scientists and engineers have talked about using the dusty lunar surface to manufacture solar panels. All of the key ingredients for solar cells are present in this rocky and dusty regolith on the surface of the Moon—silicon, iron, magnesium, aluminum, and more.

The abundance of these ingredients has led to hundreds of research papers exploring this idea since lunar soil was returned to Earth during the Apollo program but relatively little engineering development. In other words, we don't know whether covering the Moon with solar panels is simply a great science fiction idea, or if it would actually work.

But now, we may have an answer to the question. On Friday, in a blog post not even promoted by the company's Twitter account or a news release, Blue Origin quietly said its "Blue Alchemist" program has been working on this very topic for the last two years. The company, founded by Jeff Bezos, has made both solar cells and electricity transmission wires from simulated lunar soil—a material that is chemically and mineralogically equivalent to lunar regolith.

(credit: Toyota)

Toyota's RAV4 Prime is one of the better plug-in hybrids we've tested. Its 18.1 kWh lithium-ion battery gives it a solid electric-only range of about 40 miles, and its highly efficient Atkinson cycle engine means more than 40 mpg even when the battery is tapped out. But owners of model-year 2021 RAV4 Primes have a trip to the dealership in their future.

Toyota is recalling 16,680 2021 RAV4 Primes in order to fix a software bug that could cause that lithium-ion traction battery to discharge too much, shutting down the hybrid system in the process.

To be more specific, the problem can occur in cold weather. If the RAV4 Prime has been driven continuously in "EV mode," (just using the plug-in hybrid battery, not the internal combustion engine) and the accelerator pedal is then press rapidly to accelerate the vehicle, it's possible for the battery to drop below a specified threshold. "If this occurs, the vehicle will display a warning message and the hybrid system will shut down, resulting in a loss of motive power," according to the recall report.

Enlarge / According to Werner Heisenberg and Niels Bohr, when it comes to the subatomic world, we’re just goldfish. (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)

Quantum mechanics is simultaneously beautiful and frustrating.

Its explanatory power is unmatched. Armed with the machinery of quantum theory, we have unlocked the secrets of atomic power, divined the inner workings of chemistry, built sophisticated electronics, discovered the power of entanglement, and so much more. According to some estimates, roughly a quarter of our world’s GDP relies on quantum mechanics.

Yet despite its overwhelming success as a framework for understanding what nature does, quantum mechanics tells us very little about how nature works. Quantum mechanics provides a powerful set of tools for successfully making predictions about what subatomic particles will do, but the theory itself is relatively silent about how those subatomic particles actually go about their lives.