Dec 5, 2022 09:24 PM
Mushroom-based substrates create flexible and sustainable electronics
https://physicsworld.com/a/mushroom-base...ectronics/
INTRO: Fungal mycelium skins can be used as substrates for electronic devices, physicists and materials scientists in Austria have shown. The team used the thin skins to create autonomous sensing devices consisting of mycelium batteries, a humidity and proximity sensor, and a Bluetooth communication module. As well as providing a flexible surface for electrical circuits to be patterned on, the skins are biodegradable and could help cut electronic waste.
The researchers produced the mycelium skins from the fungus Ganoderma lucidum, which grows on dead hardwood in mild temperate climates. To create electronic circuits, they used physical vapour deposition to place a thin layer of copper and gold on the skin. Metal was then removed from this surface layer via laser ablation, leaving behind conducting paths. The researchers named this novel approach to creating flexible and biodegradable electronics “MycelioTronics”, describing their work in Science Advances... (MORE - details)
Economics drives ray-gun resurgence
https://spectrum.ieee.org/ray-gun
INTRO: The technical challenge of missile defense has been compared with that of hitting a bullet with a bullet. Then there is the still tougher economic challenge of using an expensive interceptor to kill a cheaper target—like hitting a lead bullet with a golden one.
Maybe trouble and money could be saved by shooting down such targets with a laser. Once the system was designed, built, and paid for, the cost per shot would be low. Such considerations led planners at the Pentagon to seek a solution from Lockheed Martin, which has just delivered a 300-kilowatt laser to the U.S. Army. The new weapon combines the output of a large bundle of fiber lasers of varying frequencies to form a single beam of white light. This laser has been undergoing tests in the lab, and it should see its first field trials sometime in 2023. General Atomics, a military contractor in San Diego, is also developing a laser of this power for the Army based on what’s known as the distributed-gain design, which has a single aperture.
Both systems offer the prospect of being inexpensive to use. The electric bill itself would range “from US $5 to $10,” for a pulse lasting a few seconds, says Michael Perry, the vice president in charge of laser systems for General Atomics.
Why are we getting ray guns only now, more than a century after H.G. Wells imagined them in his sci-fi novel The War of the Worlds? Put it down partly to the rising demand for cheap antimissile defense, but it’s mainly the result of technical advances in high-energy lasers... (MORE - details)
https://physicsworld.com/a/mushroom-base...ectronics/
INTRO: Fungal mycelium skins can be used as substrates for electronic devices, physicists and materials scientists in Austria have shown. The team used the thin skins to create autonomous sensing devices consisting of mycelium batteries, a humidity and proximity sensor, and a Bluetooth communication module. As well as providing a flexible surface for electrical circuits to be patterned on, the skins are biodegradable and could help cut electronic waste.
The researchers produced the mycelium skins from the fungus Ganoderma lucidum, which grows on dead hardwood in mild temperate climates. To create electronic circuits, they used physical vapour deposition to place a thin layer of copper and gold on the skin. Metal was then removed from this surface layer via laser ablation, leaving behind conducting paths. The researchers named this novel approach to creating flexible and biodegradable electronics “MycelioTronics”, describing their work in Science Advances... (MORE - details)
Economics drives ray-gun resurgence
https://spectrum.ieee.org/ray-gun
INTRO: The technical challenge of missile defense has been compared with that of hitting a bullet with a bullet. Then there is the still tougher economic challenge of using an expensive interceptor to kill a cheaper target—like hitting a lead bullet with a golden one.
Maybe trouble and money could be saved by shooting down such targets with a laser. Once the system was designed, built, and paid for, the cost per shot would be low. Such considerations led planners at the Pentagon to seek a solution from Lockheed Martin, which has just delivered a 300-kilowatt laser to the U.S. Army. The new weapon combines the output of a large bundle of fiber lasers of varying frequencies to form a single beam of white light. This laser has been undergoing tests in the lab, and it should see its first field trials sometime in 2023. General Atomics, a military contractor in San Diego, is also developing a laser of this power for the Army based on what’s known as the distributed-gain design, which has a single aperture.
Both systems offer the prospect of being inexpensive to use. The electric bill itself would range “from US $5 to $10,” for a pulse lasting a few seconds, says Michael Perry, the vice president in charge of laser systems for General Atomics.
Why are we getting ray guns only now, more than a century after H.G. Wells imagined them in his sci-fi novel The War of the Worlds? Put it down partly to the rising demand for cheap antimissile defense, but it’s mainly the result of technical advances in high-energy lasers... (MORE - details)