How to survive through a company ( off niche post)

Every company has a board of directors — but few founders and entrepreneurs give the matter of board composition much thought.
Samer has been on five startup boards and has founded and served on the boards of two of his own companies; Adam is a corporate partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, a technology and startup law firm. We’d like to offer some advice to founders and CEOs seeking to learn more about their boards, as well as to people who have been invited to sit on a board.

The basics

Do I have to have a board of directors?
Yes. Every company is required by law to have a board of directors. The board doesn’t need to be elaborate, or even more than one person, but every company must have a board in place.
When do I need to start a board?
A board must be put in place when you start a company. Interestingly, it is ok for the company to have only one board member, and it may be you. You must have a board to handle corporate matters like issuing stock, setting up a stock option plan, authorizing a fundraising or getting loans. In most startups, the founder will typically appoint himself or herself to the board. From there, others get added to the board as the company grows.
What should I do when starting a board?
To create a board, you should hire a lawyer experienced in board setup. There are many other factors to consider, so we’ve included other resources at the end of this article.
Who else is on the board and why does it matter?
The board will ultimately be responsible for making the critical decisions for the company, like whether to raise money, whether to be acquired, whether to enter into important strategic transactions and whether to hire or fire senior management. So make no mistake — who sits on the board is critical. It’s important to ensure these major decisions are made by smart people who are knowledgeable about the company and the industry in which it operates.
While the composition of the board can and likely will evolve over time, and certainly will vary from company to company, standard approaches for startups do exist, depending on the stage of the company.

If you have a board where votes are frequently divided and contentious, then ultimately you have a serious problem at the company itself.

While it isn’t necessary, many companies choose to have an odd number of directors. This reduces the risk of a tie vote, which equals a “no” vote in the board room.
After your initial seed round, you’ll usually have to allocate a board seat to the firm or person who led that seed round. To ensure that the founding team still remains in control of the board, a fairly typical setup at this stage would be for the common stockholders (i.e. the founders) to retain two board seats and your new investor to have one seat.
It is common to allocate a new board seat for the lead investor for each new round of investment. Keep in mind that when you accept an investor, you also typically will be bringing on a new board member. Some investors will attach a board seat to their terms of investment. If you do not want a certain person on your board, you may have to turn down that person’s investment. If you need the money, welcome your new board member.
After the second round of financing, it is fairly common to also designate one seat as an “independent” seat. This person is typically not an investor or a founder or an employee of the company, but should have industry knowledge and valuable contacts. By appointing an independent after the second round, the composition of the board would be the two founders, the two investors and the independent. Hence, the independent potentially serves another important role — tiebreaker.
While each “series” of investors typically get to appoint a board member, it’s important to know that the representative of that series represents all investors — not just that series.
At some point, if the board is getting too big or if the investment size doesn’t merit a board seat, instead of giving out more board seats, the company might allow investors to act as “observers.” That is, they can come to and participate in the board meetings, but they do not get a formal vote.  Sometimes the later investors become the observers, and sometimes earlier investors will become observers. (More about observers later.)
What does a board do?
The board is responsible for the overall direction of the company and for making major decisions, such as hiring and firing senior management, approving a budget and keeping the company financed through equity investments and debt financing. Key hires will need to be approved by the board, along with salary and other compensation, like stock. This last one includes your salary as CEO.
Finally, board members provide connections with other helpful companies, individuals and resources, as well as offer overall advice and guidance.
I don’t understand where the loyalties of board members lie.
Board members are “fiduciaries” because they are entrusted with managing the business that is owned by different people — stockholders. Hence, they have what are called “fiduciary duties” to the company’s stockholders. In short, fiduciary duties are the obligations that the board has to act responsibly and in the best interests of stockholders. It’s a common misconception that the official role of board members is to protect the value of their own or their firm’s investment. In fact, the fiduciary duty of board members is to maximize value for all stockholders.
The board can get sued by stockholders if board members do not satisfy their fiduciary duties, resulting in time-consuming and expensive litigation, potentially major damages and otherwise disturbing the business. To comply with fiduciary obligations, directors must satisfy what is called the duty of care and the duty of loyalty.

The duty of loyalty states that the director must act in the best interests of the company and stockholders and not in his or her own self interests.

The duty of care says that directors must be informed about what is going on and make decisions armed with the relevant facts. In other words, pay attention and don’t just show up for the quarterly meetings and do the crossword puzzle. Keep involved between meetings and stay abreast of what is going on with the company. The duty of loyalty states that the director must act in the best interests of the company and stockholders and not in his or her own self interests. If the director has a conflict of interest — for example, the company wants to sign a major contract with another company owned by one of its directors — the conflict must be disclosed to the other board members and the conflicted board member should recuse him/herself from the discussion and approval process.
How often do boards meet?
How often a board meets depends on the stage of the company, the needs of management and other factors. It is fairly typical for startup boards to meet in person once a quarter, toward the beginning of the quarter to review the prior quarter’s results. Early-stage companies might also hold more frequent informal board meetings, either in person or by phone. The more frequent, informal board meeting can be beneficial because the strategy at early-stage startups changes more often (such as the pivot Zeel undertook in fall 2012, culminating in a new launch in April 2013).
During particularly intense times, such as crisis situations or when the company is being acquired or is acquiring another company, the board can meet much more frequently, possibly every day or multiple times per day.
A typical, regular quarterly board meeting lasts about three hours, but some go much longer.
Do I pay board members?
Compensation for board members varies by stage and by the identity of the board member (e.g. a renowned chairman); it also varies between companies. Normally, board members who are representatives of funds that invest in the company do not get compensated to serve on the board. However, it is typical for independent board members to get compensated for their time and services. Usually, the independent board members get equity for their services. For early-stage companies, a typical director might get somewhere between 0.5 percent and 2.0 percent equity. This percentage should drop as the company grows. In some cases, cash compensation is included.
Companies will almost always reimburse the directors for out-of-pocket expenses, like travel expenses. Also, the company will usually indemnify directors from any liabilities they incur in their capacity as a director, like if they get sued by stockholders. Directors should also require the company to maintain a minimum of $1 million of directors and officers (D&O) insurance (and more as the company grows).

Problems and issues

My board is trying to get rid of me!

You never forget the pain, so try to avoid it Ten Tips On How To Work With Your Board Of Directors

As companies grow, it is fairly common for founding CEOs to move to different roles — or even get fired from the company. In such a case, the founder may find himself or herself removed from the board of the company he or she founded if that founder does not control the common stock vote.  In such a case, the founder may find he or she does not have a voice in the direction of the company. When creating a board, assuming that you want to remain involved, try creating a permanent role for the founder separate from the CEO. That way, even if you, as the founding CEO, are removed from your position as CEO, you can remain on the board. This position is often a hotly contested point in a financing.

My board members disagree
Board members should work cooperatively and have vigorous discussions prior to any vote. Ideally, however, consensus will be reached before any vote.
If you have a board where votes are frequently divided and contentious, then ultimately you have a serious problem at the company itself.
That said, the issue may sit with one particular board member, in which case you should address that member’s issues separately, and not as part of a group meeting.

Some of my investors want to be observers. Do I let them into board meetings?
Often angels or other investors have invested a substantial amount, but not enough to merit a board seat. If these investors are nonetheless demanding a board seat, or otherwise to attend board meetings, you might want to compromise and make them board observers.
True to their name, observers attend board meetings but do not have a formal board vote. There are other major differences between observers and board members — for example, directors are bound by confidentiality requirements and have fiduciary duties and are covered by attorney/client privilege, while observers are not. So make sure you have counsel involved to put the proper agreements in place for observers in order to protect the company properly.

Synthesize Speech In Any Voice,New Software that can can cause controversy

 

Good luck ever trusting a recording again. as it is right now, records done and presented in court as evidence will hardly have any value. 
A low quality video has emerged from the Adobe conference MAX showing a demo for a prototype of a new software, called Project VoCo, that appears to be a Photoshop for audio.The program is shown synthesizing a man's voice to read different sentences based on the software's analysis of a real clip of him speaking. Just copy and paste to change it from "I kissed my dog and my wife" to "I kissed my wife and my wife." Or even insert entirely new words—they still sound eerily authentic.In case you were confused about what the software's intended purpose is, Adobe issued a statement:

When recording voiceovers, dialog, and narration, people would often like to change or insert a word or a few words due to either a mistake they made or simply because they would like to change part of the narrative. We have developed a technology called Project VoCo in which you can simply type in the word or words that you would like to change or insert into the voiceover. The algorithm does the rest and makes it sound like the original speaker said those words.

The crowd laughs and cheers uproariously as the program is demod, seemingly unaware of the disturbing implications for a program like this especially in the context of an election cycle where distortions in truth are commonplace. Being able to synthesize —or claim that real audio was synthesized—would only muddy waters even further.

Somehow the clip also involves the comedian Jordan Peele, present at the conference, whose shocked expression is the only indication that anyone there is thinking about how this software will be used out in the real world.

Blind woman seeing spots of light give scientists more enthusiasm to pursue vision technology

A person is able to perceive and localize individual phosphenes or spots of light...well, big deal. Meaning, no big deal for those who see.

However, for the blind wishing for a discovering or rediscovering of the gift of sight, this could be an encouraging experience. Second Sight is a group that is in the news with a relevant announcement. The Daily Mail as well as a number of other sites discussed their work.
Late last month, Second Sight announced its visual cortical stimulator was successfully implanted and activated in its first human subject. This is a "visual cortical prosthesis," as the company described it.

Second Sight develops, makes and markets implantable visual prosthetics.
The patient, 30 years old, according to the company announcement, "was able to perceive and localize individual phosphenes or spots of light with no significant adverse side effects."
The device was developed as part of the Orion 1 program by Second Sight. The Daily Mail said a chip bypasses the eyes and sends wireless signals directly to the brain.
This patient experience, note, is an encouraging step forward but the technology did not include a camera.
"This implant was performed as part of a proof of concept clinical trial whose purpose is to demonstrate initial safety and feasibility of human visual cortex stimulation. The initial success of this study, coupled with the significant additional pre-clinical work gathered to-date readies Second Sight to submit an application to the FDA in early 2017 to gain approval for conducting an initial clinical trial of the complete Orion I system, including the camera and glasses. Assuming positive initial results in patients and discussions with regulators, an expanded pivotal clinical trial for global market approvals is then planned."

 

Significance? Second Sight's Dr. Robert Greenberg, chairman of the board, said, "By bypassing the optic nerve and directly stimulating the visual cortex, the Orion I has the potential to restore useful vision to patients completely blinded due to virtually any reason, including glaucoma, cancer, diabetic retinopathy, or trauma." For those who look in vain for available therapy today, the Orion I could offer hope to increase their independence.

Dr. Nader Pouratian is a UCLA neurosurgeon who performed the surgery. The procedure was performed as part of a proof-of-concept trial at UCLA, said MassDevice. "The trial looks to show initial safety and feasibility for human visual cortex stimulation."
What's next: "When the team receives approval from the US Food and Drug Administration, which they hope will be early next year, they will try sending video signals from a system called the Orion I," said Daily Mail, "which captures images in front of the eyes using a camera on the bridge of a pair of glasses."
RT similarly discussed the company's next-step, in connecting the implant to a camera on a pair of glasses.
The Daily Mail said that during the six weeks of testing, the patient consistently saw "the exact signals the scientists sent to her visual cortex, the section of the brain which usually receives images from the optic nerve."
U.S. company headquarters are in Sylmar, California and European headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Stars and gas produces dazzling eye-shaped feature in galaxy

Dazzling eyelid-like features bursting with stars in galaxy IC 2163 formed from a tsunami of stars and gas triggered by a glancing collision with galaxy NGC 2207 (a portion of its spiral arm is shown on right side of image). ALMA image of carbon monoxide (orange), which revealed motion of the gas in these features, is shown on top of Hubble image (blue) of the galaxy. Credit: M. Kaufman; B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF); ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO); NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope 

 

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered a tsunami of stars and gas that is crashing midway through the disk of a spiral galaxy known as IC 2163. This colossal wave of material - which was triggered when IC 2163 recently sideswiped another spiral galaxy dubbed NGC 2207 - produced dazzling arcs of intense star formation that resemble a pair of eyelids.

"Although galaxy collisions of this type are not uncommon, only a few galaxies with eye-like, or ocular, structures are known to exist," said Michele Kaufman, an astronomer formerly with The Ohio State University in Columbus and lead author on a paper published today in the Astrophysical Journal.
Kaufman and her colleagues note that the paucity of similar features in the observable universe is likely due to their ephemeral nature. "Galactic eyelids last only a few tens of millions of years, which is incredibly brief in the lifespan of a galaxy. Finding one in such a newly formed state gives us an exceptional opportunity to study what happens when one galaxy grazes another," said Kaufman.
The interacting pair of galaxies resides approximately 114 million light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Canis Major. These galaxies brushed past each other - scraping the edges of their outer spiral arms - in what is likely the first encounter of an eventual merger.
Using ALMA's remarkable sensitivity and resolution, the astronomers made the most detailed measurements ever of the motion of carbon monoxide gas in the galaxy's narrow eyelid features. Carbon monoxide is a tracer of molecular gas, which is the fuel for star formation.

Annotated image showing dazzling eyelid-like features bursting with stars in galaxy IC 2163 formed from a tsunami of stars and gas triggered by a glancing collision with galaxy NGC 2207 (a portion of its spiral arm is shown on right side of image). ALMA image of carbon monoxide (orange), which revealed motion of the gas in these features, is shown on top of Hubble image (blue) of the galaxy. Credit: M. Kaufman; B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF); ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO); NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope

The data reveal that the gas in the outer portion of IC 2163's eyelids is racing inward at speeds in excess of 100 kilometers a second. This gas, however, quickly decelerates and its motion becomes more chaotic, eventually changing trajectory and aligning itself with the rotation of the galaxy rather than continuing its pell-mell rush toward the center.
"What we observe in this galaxy is very much like a massive ocean wave barreling toward shore until it interacts with the shallows, causing it to lose momentum and dump all of its water and sand on the beach," said Bruce Elmegreen, a scientist with IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, and co-author on the paper.

"Not only do we find a rapid deceleration of the gas as it moves from the outer to the inner edge of the eyelids, but we also measure that the more rapidly it decelerates, the denser the molecular gas becomes," said Kaufman. "This direct measurement of compression shows how the encounter between the two galaxies drives gas to pile up, spawn new star clusters and form these dazzling eyelid features."
Computer models predict that such eyelid-like features could evolve if galaxies interacted in a very specific manner. "This evidence for a strong shock in the eyelids is terrific. It's all very well to have a theory and simulations suggesting it should be true, but real observational evidence is great," said Curtis Struck, a professor of astrophysics at Iowa State University in Ames and co-author on the paper.

Galaxies IC 2163 (left) and NGC 2207 (right) recently grazed past each other, triggering a tsunami of stars and gas in IC 2163 and producing the dazzling eyelid-like features there. ALMA image of carbon monoxide (orange), which revealed motion of the gas in these features, is shown on top of Hubble image (blue) of the galaxy pair. Credit: M. Kaufman; B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF); ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO); NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope

"ALMA showed us that the velocities of the molecular gas in the eyelids are on the right track with the predictions we get from computer models," said Kaufman. "This critical test of encounter simulations was not possible before."
Astronomers believe that such collisions between galaxies were common in the early universe when galaxies were closer together. At that time, however, galactic disks were generally clumpy and irregular, so other processes likely overwhelmed the formation of similar eyelid features.
The authors continue to study this galaxy pair and currently are comparing the properties (e.g., locations, ages, and masses) of the star clusters previously observed with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope with the properties of the molecular clouds observed with ALMA. They hope to better understand the differences between molecular clouds and star clusters in the eyelids and those elsewhere in the galaxy pair.

200-mile electric Chevrolet Bolt, GM product

A battery is lifted into place for installation in the Chevrolet Bolt EV at the General Motors Orion Assembly plant Friday, Nov. 4, 2016, in Orion Township, Mich. The Chevrolet Bolt can go more than 200 miles on battery power and will cost less than the average new vehicle in the U.S. But it's unclear whether the car can do much to shift America from gasoline to electricity in an era of $2 prices at the pump. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson) 

 

It can go more than 200 miles on battery power and it costs less than the average new vehicle in the U.S. But in an era of $2 per gallon gasoline, the Chevrolet Bolt probably won't do a whole lot to shift America from gasoline to electricity.

General Motors has started making Bolt hatchbacks on a slow assembly line at a factory in Orion Township, Michigan, north of Detroit.
The cars, starting at $37,495 before a $7,500 federal tax credit, will go on sale in California and Oregon before the end of the year, and will spread to the rest of the country next year. The average sales price of a new vehicle in the U.S. is about $34,000, according to Kelley Blue Book.
Analysts say the Bolt's 238-mile range on a single charge, plus a net price of around $30,000, should make it an attractive alternative to cars with internal-combustion engines. While they expect the Bolt to incrementally add to the number of electric cars now on the road, they don't expect a seismic shift to electricity yet.
The Bolt's range more than covers the average daily round-trip commute of about 40 miles in the U.S., and that should give comfort to those who fear running out of power, said Stephanie Brinley, an auto industry analyst for IHS Markit. But there's always the late night at work and the early meeting the next morning without enough charging time, or the night you forget to plug the car in. Those are tough adjustments for Americans, she said.
"We're trained to believe that wherever we go, we get can get the fuel that we need. With electricity you need to plan that out a little bit more," Brinley said.
IHS predicts that GM will sell just under 30,000 Bolts in the first year, which won't add much to the roughly 235,000 electrics now on U.S. roads. Brinley says there will be small growth as more companies such as Tesla Motors roll out affordable electric vehicles with range over 200 miles. Last year about 100,000 EVs were sold in the U.S., and IHS predicts 300,000 annual sales by 2020 and 400,000 by 2025.

Yves Dontigny, plant launch manager at the General Motors Orion Assembly plant, points out a feature on the drive train before its installation into the Chevrolet Bolt EV, Friday, Nov. 4, 2016, in Orion Township, Mich. The Chevrolet Bolt can go more than 200 miles on battery power and will cost less than the average new vehicle in the U.S. But it's unclear whether the car can do much to shift America from gasoline to electricity in an era of $2 prices at the pump. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson)

Still, Chevrolet believes the Bolt is a game-changer. "It becomes just a mainstream vehicle choice," said Darin Gesse, the Bolt's product manager.
GM, he said, set out to make the range about equal to a half-tank of fuel in a gas-powered car. With a half-tank of gas, most people don't worry that they have to refuel for a while and are comfortable driving, he said.

In a quick drive Friday on roads near GM's technical center north of Detroit, the car accelerated quickly when compared to a gas car. GM says it goes from zero to 60 mph in about 6.5 seconds, which is faster than many muscle cars from the '70s and '80s. The handling was tight with very little body roll, yet the ride was smooth and quiet.
GM beat rival Tesla to market with a long-range affordable electric car by at least a year. Tesla plans to start delivering its 200-mile, $35,000 (before tax credits) Model 3 in the second half of next year, and it had 373,000 deposits as of May.
The carmaker hasn't revealed exactly when the first customer will get a Bolt. Chevrolet didn't take advance reservations but says there's been strong interest at its dealerships.
Not all of GM's 3,000 dealers nationwide will be certified to sell and service the Bolt, although the company isn't sure how many yet. Around 2,000 can service the Bolt's plug-in cousin, the Volt.
GM says that should be a big advantage over Tesla, which doesn't have service centers in every state.

China high-speed maglev train with 373 mph capability

Credit: crrcgc.cc 

 

China has a magnetic levitating train on its mind with amazing numbers. It is, yes, no keyboard error, 373 mph, meant as a commercial rail system.

Xinhua said in October that "A Chinese firm will start researching and developing a magnetic levitation (maglev) train that can run 600 km per hour, which would be faster than any other maglev train currently in operation."
SmartRail World said this is far faster than anything else in operation today.
Max Prince in The Drive earlier this week reported that the China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation has in mind a maglev train with 373 mph capability. He said the train would go over a three-mile stretch of track that would be utilized for testing.
Prince added that the CRCC is also developing a second grade of maglev system, and its targeted top speed is 124 mph.
SmartRail World said the Beijing based company is the world's largest rolling stock manufacturer.
Prince described the magnetic levitation technology, as one where "traditional wheel/track is replaced by electromagnets, which both pushes from the rear and pulls from the nose, all on an air cushion."
TNW's Bryan Clark said "The US Air Force currently holds the record for maglev speeds at 633 mph after a rocket-powered sled traveled the distance of seven football fields in all of two seconds." (Andrew Hawkins, who covers transportation for The Verge, said that "Its unclear how long this current record will stand, though, as the 846th Test Squadron say its engineers are already back to the drawing board looking for ways to go even faster.")
SmartRail World noted that maglev technology was initially created by English inventor Eric Laithwaite. Japan is another place showing interest in the technology.
Hawkins said, "Last year, a maglev train in Japan reached a speed of 366 mph, breaking a world record that had stood for 12 years. But the train won't be ready for commercial use until 2027, due to the concerns about the infrastructure and costs to build the long tracks."
Then if the costs of construction are far more than traditional diesel-powered trains, why bother showing interest in maglev? Hawkins commented that "maglev is more sustainable and faster, which is why China is so bullish."
Commented Price, "if any nation can create a massive, nationwide maglev network, it's China. The Shanghai-Hangzou high-speed electromagnetic rail link, completed in 2010, was the second-largest public works project in history, after the U.S. Interstate Highway."
A CRCC subsidiary has a role in China's maglev development.
China.org.cn (published under auspices of the State Council Information Office and China International Publishing Group in Beijing) earlier this week reported that the CRCC subsidiary is China Railway Maglev Transportation Investment & Construction Co., in Wuhan, Hubei Province.
The latter carries out research on maglev technology for passenger and cargo transportation, along with planning, managing, building and investing in maglev projects.
The report talked about maglev plans. "Lei Jiamin, president of CRMT, said that more than 10 cities in China are currently planning maglev railways. These cities include Changsha, home to China's first maglev line, Qingdao and Beijing."
China.org.cn added that "According to CRMT, future low-speed maglev projects will primarily aim to link large cities with their satellite cities, as well as suburbs to downtown areas. They will also be used in second- and third-tier Chinese cities as a substitute for subways."
This is significant considering, according to that report, that "Currently, China has 142 cities with more than 1 million residents, but only around 30 cities have subways."

Study finds female scientists collaborate differently

Succeeding in the male-dominated science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines can be very challenging for female faculty. Now, a Northwestern University study of the collaboration patterns of STEM faculty publishing 4 November in the open-access journal PLOS Biology has found that the playing fields in some disciplines are not as level as they first appear.

"Our findings in molecular biology, particularly genomics, are what surprised us the most," said Luís Amaral, a professor of chemical and biological engineering in the McCormick School of Engineering. "There is a lot of research money in this high-profile area, and women are not represented proportionally. This raises all sorts of questions as to what kind of cultural environment has been created in the field."
Knowing that collaboration is critical to the scientific enterprise, Amaral and Teresa K. Woodruff, a Northwestern Medicine reproductive biologist, focused on this factor in their study of the underrepresented group of female faculty in STEM. The data analysis of the complete publication records of nearly 4,000 faculty members in six STEM disciplines at top research universities across the USA produced a number of findings.
The researchers found that, broadly speaking, female faculty (for the six different disciplines in the study) have as many collaborators, or co-authors, as male faculty and that female faculty tend to return to the same collaborators a little less than males. Previous research by Amaral had shown that novel collaborations have a greater likelihood of producing work of higher impact.
However, those aggregate patterns have to be interpreted with care, Amaral cautioned, because the situation can change within subdisciplines. By digging deeper, the researchers found that females are underrepresented in large teams in genomics (a subdiscipline of molecular biology). This could be an indication of a negative cultural milieu in this particular subfield, the researchers said.
"We want to understand ways in which males and females live different experiences in STEM disciplines, so that a level playing field can be created where needed," Woodruff said.
"Much more progress needs to be made for underrepresented groups to feel welcomed in STEM disciplines," Amaral said. "In fact, the degree of progress is not even uniform within a single discipline, so one needs to make sure females are not being excluded from specific subdisciplines."
In an accompanying Primer, "Rosalind's Ghost: Biology, Collaboration, and the Female," also publishing 4 November, Caroline Wagner of Ohio State University, who was not involved in the study, sets this work in context. "One factor remains fairly constant: women are underrepresented in terms of authorships, including first and/or last authorships (whichever is more prestigious), coauthorships, and in the granting of scientific prizes," she writes.
"Overall, the more elite the scientist, the more likely they are to work at the international level; however, female collaborators are less likely to be working internationally and are more likely to collaborate locally. This means that they are also less likely to coauthor with top scholars." Wagner notes that previous studies and the new findings from Amaral's group serve to remind us that the legacy of Rosalind Franklin, whose crucial work on the structure of the DNA double helix over 60 years ago was notoriously underappreciated at the time, lives on.

God Of War 4 News Updates And All You Need To Know Inside

Kratos Is Back!

Sony's bearded hero is about to be unleashed.

Santa Monica Studio, the creator of God of War series, provided us a major revelation during the E3 event. The God of War series started last 2005 and it's getting bigger and better every year. God of War is based on greek mythology hero named Kratos, a spartan warrior who was betrayed by his former master Ares, the God of War. Now, Kratos' seek to free himself from the influence of the gods and starts its quest for revenge against Ares.
"Santa Monica always delivers some of the generation's best-looking games, and looks set to continue to do so, with even the brief glimpse we saw at E3 blowing everything that's come before out of the water." Brett Phipps said.
God Of War is an action adventure game who received high praise on all of its series. Gameplay, graphics and audio, you name it. God Of War eclipses all the expectation from fans, gamers and critics alike.
With God of War 4 on the horizon, here's some of the things you need to know.
When is the release date of God Of War 4?
No release date provided. However at the E3 2016 convention, it was announced that God of War is "currently in development". PS4 Pro features will be supported, that's a guarantee.
Is the gameplay the same with its predecessors?

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There's a slight difference when it comes to gameplay basing on the trailer that we've seen. Kratos' seems to be more relax and his brutal ways of killing was not emphasize on the trailer. But don't worry, there are still large,mystic and mythic creatures that you can kill using your favorite weapon.
Will it adapt the same story?
Kratos' will still be Kratos. But at this time, he has to mentor, guide and protect his son. Our bearded hero finds himself in the world of Norse Mythology.

Physicists demonstrate existence of new subatomic structure

James Vary, right, and coauthor Andrey Shirokov with an illustration of a tetraneutron. Credit: Christopher Gannon/Iowa State University

Iowa State University researchers have helped demonstrate the existence of a subatomic structure once thought unlikely to exist.

James Vary, a professor of physics and astronomy, and Andrey Shirokov, a visiting scientist, together with an international team, used sophisticated supercomputer simulations to show the quasi-stable existence of a tetraneutron, a structure comprised of four neutrons (subatomic particles with no charge).
The new finding was published in Physical Review Letters, a publication of the American Physical Society, on October 28.
On their own, neutrons are very unstable and will convert into protons—positively charged subatomic particles—after ten minutes. Groups of two or three neutrons do not form a stable structure, but the new simulations in this research demonstrate that four neutrons together can form a resonance, a structure stable for a period of time before decaying.
For the tetraneutron, this lifetime is only 5×10^(-22) seconds (a tiny fraction of a billionth of a nanosecond). Though this time seems very short, it is long enough to study, and provides a new avenue for exploring the strong forces between neutrons.
"This opens up a whole new line of research," Vary said. "Studying the tetraneutron will help us understand interneutron forces including previously unexplored features of the unstable two-neutron and three-neutron systems."
The advanced simulations demonstrating the tetraneutron corroborate the first observational evidence of the tetraneutron earlier this year in an experiment performed at the RIKEN Radioactive Ion Beam Factory (RIBF), in Saitama, Japan. The tetraneutron structure has been sought for 40 years with little evidence supporting its existence, until now. The properties predicted by the calculations in the simulations were consistent with the observed properties from the experiment in Japan.
The research in Japan used a beam of Helium-8, Helium with 4 extra neutrons, colliding with a regular Helium-4 atom. The collision breaks up the Helium-8 into another Helium-4 and a tetraneutron in its brief resonance state, before it, too, breaks apart, forming four lone neutrons.
"We know that additional experiments with state-of-the-art facilities are in preparation with the goal to get precise characteristics of the tetraneutron," Vary said. "We are providing our state-of-the-art predictions to help guide these experiments."
The existence of the tetraneutron, once confirmed and refined, will add an interesting new entry and gap to the chart of nuclides, a graph representing all known nuclei and their isotopes, or nuclei with a different number of neutrons. Similar to the periodic table, which organizes the chemical behavior of elements, the nuclide chart represents the radioactive behavior of elements and their isotopes. While most nuclei add or subtract neutrons one at a time, this research shows that a neutron itself will have a gap between a single neutron and a tetraneutron.
The only other known neutron structure is a neutron star, small but dense stars thought to be made almost entirely of neutrons. These stars may be only about seven miles in radius but have a mass similar to that of our sun. Neutron stars have neutrons on the order 10^57. Further research may explore if there are other numbers of neutrons that form a stable resonance along the path to reaching the size of a neutron star.

key protein for spinal cord repair

A freshwater zebrafish costs less than two bucks at the pet store, but it can do something priceless: Its spinal cord can heal completely after being severed, a paralyzing and often fatal injury for humans.

While watching these fish repair their own spinal cord injuries, Duke University scientists have found a particular protein important for the process. Their study, published Nov. 4 in the journal Science, could generate new leads into tissue repair in humans.
"This is one of nature's most remarkable feats of regeneration," said the study's senior investigator Kenneth Poss, professor of cell biology and director of the Regeneration Next initiative at Duke. "Given the limited number of successful therapies available today for repairing lost tissues, we need to look to animals like zebrafish for new clues about how to stimulate regeneration."
When the zebrafish's severed spinal cord undergoes regeneration, a bridge forms, literally. The first cells extend projections into a distance tens of times their own length and connect across a wide gulf of the injury. Nerve cells follow. By 8 weeks, new nerve tissue has filled the gap and the animals have fully reversed their severe paralysis.
To understand what molecules were potentially responsible for this remarkable process, the scientists conducted a molecular fishing expedition of sorts, searching for all of the genes whose activity abruptly changed after spinal cord injury.

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-11-scientists-key-protein-spinal-cord.html

Of dozens of genes strongly activated by injury, seven coded for proteins that are secreted from cells. One of these, called CTGF or connective tissue growth factor, was intriguing because its levels rose in the supporting cells, or glia, that formed the bridge in the first two weeks following injury.
"We were surprised that it was expressed in only a fraction of glial cells after the injury. We thought that these glial cells and this gene must be important," said lead author Mayssa Mokalled, a postdoctoral fellow in Poss's group. Indeed, when they tried deleting CTGF genetically, those fish failed to regenerate.
Humans and zebrafish share most protein-coding genes, and CTGF is no exception. The human CTGF protein is nearly 90% similar in its amino acid building blocks to the zebrafish form. When the team added the human version of CTGF to the injury site in fish, it boosted regeneration and the fish swam better by two weeks after the injury.

"The fish go from paralyzed to swimming in the tank. The effect of the protein is striking," Mokalled said.
The second half of the CTGF protein seems to be the key to the healing, the group found. It's a large protein, made of four smaller parts, and it has more than one function. That might make it easier to deliver and more specific as a therapy for spinal injuries.

Poss said that unfortunately, CTGF is probably not sufficient on its own for people to regenerate their own spinal cords. Healing is more complex in mammals, in part because scar tissue forms around the injury. Poss's group expects studies of CTGF to move into mammals like mice.
"Mouse experiments could be key," Mokalled said. "When do they express CTGF, and in what cell types?"
These experiments may reveal some answers to why zebrafish can regenerate whereas mammals cannot. It may be a matter of how the protein is controlled rather than its make-up, Poss said.
The group also plans to follow up on other proteins secreted after injury that were identified in their initial search, which may provide additional hints into the zebrafish's secrets of regeneration.
"I don't think CTGF is the complete answer, but it's a great thing to have in hand to inform new ways to think about the real challenge of trying to improve regeneration," Poss said.
Other scientists involved in the study were Amy Dickson and Toyokazu Endo, also at Duke University, and Chinmoy Patra and Didier Stainier at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research.

more efficient plane manufacturing and flight enabled by 'Morphing' wing

When the Wright brothers accomplished their first powered flight more than a century ago, they controlled the motion of their Flyer 1 aircraft using wires and pulleys that bent and twisted the wood-and-canvas wings. This system was quite different than the separate, hinged flaps and ailerons that have performed those functions on most aircraft ever since. But now, thanks to some high-tech wizardry developed by engineers at MIT and NASA, some aircraft may be returning to their roots, with a new kind of bendable, "morphing" wing.

The new wing architecture, which could greatly simplify the manufacturing process and reduce fuel consumption by improving the wing's aerodynamics, as well as improving its agility, is based on a system of tiny, lightweight subunits that could be assembled by a team of small specialized robots, and ultimately could be used to build the entire airframe. The wing would be covered by a "skin" made of overlapping pieces that might resemble scales or feathers.
The new concept is described in the journal Soft Robotics, in a paper by Neil Gershenfeld, director of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA); Benjamin Jenett, a CBA graduate student; Kenneth Cheung PhD '12, a CBA alumnus and NASA research scientist; and four others.
Researchers have been trying for many years to achieve a reliable way of deforming wings as a substitute for the conventional, separate, moving surfaces, but all those efforts "have had little practical impact," Gershenfeld says. The biggest problem was that most of these attempts relied on deforming the wing through the use of mechanical control structures within the wing, but these structures tended to be so heavy that they canceled out any efficiency advantages produced by the smoother aerodynamic surfaces. They also added complexity and reliability issues.
By contrast, Gershenfeld says, "We make the whole wing the mechanism. It's not something we put into the wing." In the team's new approach, the whole shape of the wing can be changed, and twisted uniformly along its length, by activating two small motors that apply a twisting pressure to each wingtip.
This approach to the manufacture of aircraft, and potentially other technologies, is such a new idea that "I think we can say it is a philosophical revolution, opening the gate to disruptive innovation," says Vincent Loubiere, a lead technologist for emerging technologies and concepts at Airbus, who was not directly involved in this research. He adds that "the perspectives and fields this approach opens are thrilling."

In the team’s new approach, the whole shape of the wing can be changed, and twisted uniformly along its length, by activating two small motors that apply a twisting pressure to each wingtip. Credit: Kenneth Cheung/NASA 

 

Like building with blocks
The basic principle behind the new concept is the use of an array of tiny, lightweight structural pieces, which Gershenfeld calls "digital materials," that can be assembled into a virtually infinite variety of shapes, much like assembling a structure from Lego blocks. The assembly, performed by hand for this initial experiment, could be done by simple miniature robots that would crawl along or inside the structure as it took shape. The team has already developed prototypes of such robots.

The individual pieces are strong and stiff, but the exact choice of the dimensions and materials used for the pieces, and the geometry of how they are assembled, allow for a precise tuning of the flexibility of the final shape. For the initial test structure, the goal was to allow the wing to twist in a precise way that would substitute for the motion of separate structural pieces (such as the small ailerons at the trailing edges of conventional wings), while providing a single, smooth aerodynamic surface.
Building up a large and complex structure from an array of small, identical building blocks, which have an exceptional combination of strength, light weight, and flexibility, greatly simplifies the manufacturing process, Gershenfeld explains. While the construction of light composite wings for today's aircraft requires large, specialized equipment for layering and hardening the material, the new modular structures could be rapidly manufactured in mass quantities and then assembled robotically in place.
Gershenfeld and his team have been pursuing this approach to building complex structures for years, with many potential applications for robotic devices of various kinds. For example, this method could lead to robotic arms and legs whose shapes could bend continuously along their entire length, rather than just having a fixed number of joints.
This research, says Cheung, "presents a general strategy for increasing the performance of highly compliant —that is, 'soft'—robots and mechanisms," by replacing conventional flexible materials with new cellular materials "that are much lower weight, more tunable, and can be made to dissipate energy at much lower rates" while having equivalent stiffness.

The basic principle behind the new concept is the use of an array of tiny, lightweight structural pieces, which Neil Gershenfeld, director of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA), calls “digital materials,” that can be assembled into a …more

Saving fuel, cutting emissions
While exploring possible applications of this nascent technology, Gershenfeld and his team consulted with NASA engineers and others seeking ways to improve the efficiency of aircraft manufacturing and flight. They learned that "the idea that you could continuously deform a wing shape to do pure lift and roll has been a holy grail in the field, for both efficiency and agility," he says. Given the importance of fuel costs in both the economics of the airline industry and that sector's contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, even small improvements in fuel efficiency could have a significant impact.
Wind-tunnel tests of this structure showed that it at least matches the aerodynamic properties of a conventional wing, at about one-tenth the weight.
The "skin" of the wing also enhances the structure's performance. It's made from overlapping strips of flexible material, layered somewhat like feathers or fish scales, allowing for the pieces to move across each other as the wing flexes, while still providing a smooth outer surface.
The modular structure also provides greater ease of both assembly and disassembly: One of this system's big advantages, in principle, Gershenfeld says, is that when it's no longer needed, the whole structure can be taken apart into its component parts, which can then be reassembled into something completely different. Similarly, repairs could be made by simply replacing an area of damaged subunits.
"An inspection robot could just find where the broken part is and replace it, and keep the aircraft 100 percent healthy at all times," says Jenett.

A test version of the deformable wing designed by the MIT and NASA researchers is shown undergoing its twisting motions, which could replace the need for separate, hinged panels for controlling a plane's motion. Credit: Kenneth Cheung/NASA 

 

Following up on the successful wind tunnel tests, the team is now extending the work to tests of a flyable unpiloted aircraft, and initial tests have shown great promise, Jenett says. "The first tests were done by a certified test pilot, and he found it so responsive that he decided to do some aerobatics."
Some of the first uses of the technology may be to make small, robotic aircraft—"super-efficient long-range drones," Gershenfeld says, that could be used in developing countries as a way of delivering medicines to remote areas.
"Ultralight, tunable, aeroelastic structures and flight controls open up whole new frontiers for flight," says Gonzalo Rey, chief technology officer for Moog Inc., a precision aircraft motion-controls company, who was not directly involved in this work, though he has collaborated with the team. "Digital materials and fabrication are a fundamentally new way to make things and enable the conventionally impossible. The digital morphing wing article demonstrates the ability to resolve in depth the engineering challenges necessary to apply the concept."
Rey adds that "The broader potential in this concept extends directly to skyscrapers, bridges, and space structures, providing not only improved performance and survivability but also a more sustainable approach by achieving the same strength while using, and reusing, substantially less raw material."
And Loubiere, from Airbus, suggests that many other technologies could also benefit from this method, including wind turbines: "Simply enabling the assembly of the windmill blades on the spot, instead of using complex and fuel-consuming transport, would enhance greatly the cost and overall performance," he says.

Supercomputer comes up with a profile of dark matter

Simulated distribution of dark matter approximately three billion years after the Big Bang (illustration not from this work). Credit: The Virgo Consortium/Alexandre Amblard/ESA

In the search for the mysterious dark matter, physicists have used elaborate computer calculations to come up with an outline of the particles of this unknown form of matter. To do this, the scientists extended the successful Standard Model of particle physics which allowed them, among other things, to predict the mass of so-called axions, promising candidates for dark matter. The German-Hungarian team of researchers led by Professor Zoltán Fodor of the University of Wuppertal, Eötvös University in Budapest and Forschungszentrum Jülich carried out its calculations on Jülich's supercomputer JUQUEEN (BlueGene/Q) and presents its results in the journal Nature.

"Dark matter is an invisible form of matter which until now has only revealed itself through its gravitational effects. What it consists of remains a complete mystery," explains co-author Dr Andreas Ringwald, who is based at DESY and who proposed the current research. Evidence for the existence of this form of matter comes, among other things, from the astrophysical observation of galaxies, which rotate far too rapidly to be held together only by the gravitational pull of the visible matter. High-precision measurements using the European satellite "Planck" show that almost 85 percent of the entire mass of the universe consists of dark matter. All the stars, planets, nebulae and other objects in space that are made of conventional matter account for no more than 15 percent of the mass of the universe.
"The adjective 'dark' does not simply mean that it does not emit visible light," says Ringwald. "It does not appear to give off any other wavelengths either - its interaction with photons must be very weak indeed." For decades, physicists have been searching for particles of this new type of matter. What is clear is that these particles must lie beyond the Standard Model of particle physics, and while that model is extremely successful, it currently only describes the conventional 15 percent of all matter in the cosmos. From theoretically possible extensions to the Standard Model physicists not only expect a deeper understanding of the universe, but also concrete clues in what energy range it is particularly worthwhile looking for dark-matter candidates.
The unknown form of matter can either consist of comparatively few, but very heavy particles, or of a large number of light ones. The direct searches for heavy dark-matter candidates using large detectors in underground laboratories and the indirect search for them using large particle accelerators are still going on, but have not turned up any dark matter particles so far. A range of physical considerations make extremely light particles, dubbed axions, very promising candidates. Using clever experimental setups, it might even be possible to detect direct evidence of them. "However, to find this kind of evidence it would be extremely helpful to know what kind of mass we are looking for," emphasises theoretical physicist Ringwald. "Otherwise the search could take decades, because one would have to scan far too large a range."

The existence of axions is predicted by an extension to quantum chromodynamics (QCD), the quantum theory that governs the strong interaction, responsible for the nuclear force. The strong interaction is one of the four fundamental forces of nature alongside gravitation, electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force, which is responsible for radioactivity. "Theoretical considerations indicate that there are so-called topological quantum fluctuations in quantum chromodynamics, which ought to result in an observable violation of time reversal symmetry," explains Ringwald. This means that certain processes should differ depending on whether they are running forwards or backwards. However, no experiment has so far managed to demonstrate this effect.
The extension to quantum chromodynamics (QCD) restores the invariance of time reversals, but at the same time it predicts the existence of a very weakly interacting particle, the axion, whose properties, in particular its mass, depend on the strength of the topological quantum fluctuations. However, it takes modern supercomputers like Jülich's JUQUEEN to calculate the latter in the temperature range that is relevant in predicting the relative contribution of axions to the matter making up the universe. "On top of this, we had to develop new methods of analysis in order to achieve the required temperature range," notes Fodor who led the research.
The results show, among other things, that if axions do make up the bulk of dark matter, they should have a mass of 50 to 1500 micro-electronvolts, expressed in the customary units of particle physics, and thus be up to ten billion times lighter than electrons. This would require every cubic centimetre of the universe to contain on average ten million such ultra-lightweight particles. Dark matter is not spread out evenly in the universe, however, but forms clumps and branches of a weblike network. Because of this, our local region of the Milky Way should contain about one trillion axions per cubic centimetre.
Thanks to the Jülich supercomputer, the calculations now provide physicists with a concrete range in which their search for axions is likely to be most promising. "The results we are presenting will probably lead to a race to discover these particles," says Fodor. Their discovery would not only solve the problem of dark matter in the universe, but at the same time answer the question why the strong interaction is so surprisingly symmetrical with respect to time reversal. The scientists expect that it will be possible within the next few years to either confirm or rule out the existence of axions experimentally.
The Institute for Nuclear Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Debrecen, the Lendület Lattice Gauge Theory Research Group at the Eötvös University, the University of Zaragoza in Spain, and the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Munich were also involved in the research.

To use electricity to track water, ID potential problems in concrete

Photograph of one of the cracked samples tested in this work. Image at the background shows the flow of water in crack. Credit: Julie Williams Dixon 

 

Researchers from North Carolina State University and the University of Eastern Finland have developed a new technique for tracking water in concrete structures - allowing engineers to identify potential issues before they become big problems.

"When we think about construction - from bridges and skyscrapers to nuclear plants and dams - they all rely on concrete," says Mohammad Pour-Ghaz, an assistant professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering at North Carolina State University and lead investigator on the project. Tracking concrete degradation is essential to public safety, and the culprit behind concrete degradation is water. Water contributes to the degradation by itself, or it can carry other chemicals - like the road salt used on bridges - that can expedite corrosion of both concrete and its underlying steel reinforcement structure.
"We have developed a technology that allows us to identify and track water movement in concrete using a small current of electricity that is faster, safer and less expensive than existing technologies - and is also more accurate when monitoring large samples, such as structures," Pour-Ghaz says. "The technology can not only determine where and whether water is infiltrating concrete, but how fast it is moving, how much water there is, and how existing cracks or damage are influencing the movement of the water."
Previous technologies for assessing water in concrete relied on X-rays or neutron radiation, but both have significant limitations. X-rays offer only limited penetration into concrete, making it impossible to use with large samples or on structures. Neutron radiation is more accurate, but also has limited penetration, is expensive, and poses health and safety risks.
"Our electrical imaging approach is something that you could use in the field to examine buildings or bridges, which would be difficult or impossible to do with previous technologies," Pour-Ghaz says.
For their electrical imaging technique, researchers apply electrodes around the perimeter of a structure. A computer program then runs a small current between two of the electrodes at a time, cycling through a number of possible electrode combinations.

Quantitative imaging of moisture flow in concrete after 1, 2, 4, and 22 hours of water ingress. Actual specimen is shown in far left. Credit: Danny Smyl

Every time the current runs between two electrodes, a computer monitors and records the electrical potential at all of the electrodes on the structure. The researchers then use their own customized software to compute the changes in conductivity and produce a three-dimensional image of the water in the concrete.

"By rapidly repeating this process - and we can do it even more than once per second - we can also capture the rate, and therefore the volume, of the water flow," Pour-Ghaz says.
The researchers have already created and tested a prototype of the system in a lab, accurately capturing images of water flow in concrete samples that are too large to be analyzed using X-rays or neutron radiation. The researchers have also been able to monitor water flow through cracks in concrete, which is more difficult and time-consuming when older technologies are used.
"Our electrical imaging technology is ready to be packaged and commercialized for laboratory use, and we'd also be willing to work with the private sector to scale this up for use as an on-site tool to assess the integrity of structures," Pour-Ghaz says.
The work is described in three papers. Lead author on all three papers is Danny Smyl, a Ph.D. student at NC State. All three papers were co-authored by Aku Seppänen, of the University of Eastern Finland, and Pour-Ghaz. "Can Electrical Impedance Tomography be used for imaging unsaturated moisture flow in cement-based materials with discrete cracks?" is published in the journal Cement and Concrete Research, and was co-authored by Reza Rashetnia, a Ph.D. student at NC State.
"Quantitative electrical imaging of three-dimensional moisture flow in cement-based materials" was published in International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer. "Three-Dimensional Electrical Impedance Tomography to Monitor Unsaturated Moisture Ingress in Cement-Based Materials" was published in the journal Transport in Porous Media. Both papers were co-authored by Milad Hallaji, a former Ph.D. student at NC State.

high-performance batteries from junkyard scraps

A prototype high-performance battery made from scrap metal and common household chemicals. Credit: Daniel Dubois, Vanderbilt University

Take some metal scraps from the junkyard; put them in a glass jar with a common household chemical; and, voilà, you have a high-performance battery.

"Imagine that the tons of metal waste discarded every year could be used to provide energy storage for the renewable energy grid of the future, instead of becoming a burden for waste processing plants and the environment," said Cary Pint, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Vanderbilt University.
To make such a future possible, Pint headed a research team that used scraps of steel and brass - two of the most commonly discarded materials - to create the world's first steel-brass battery that can store energy at levels comparable to lead-acid batteries while charging and discharging at rates comparable to ultra-fast charging supercapacitors.
The research team, which consists of graduates and undergraduates in Vanderbilt's interdisciplinary materials science program and department of mechanical engineering, describe this achievement in a paper titled "From the Junkyard to the Power Grid: Ambient Processing of Scrap Metals into Nanostructured Electrodes for Ultrafast Rechargeable Batteries" published online this week in the journal ACS Energy Letters.
The secret to unlocking this performance is anodization, a common chemical treatment used to give aluminum a durable and decorative finish. When scraps of steel and brass are anodized using a common household chemical and residential electrical current, the researchers found that the metal surfaces are restructured into nanometer-sized networks of metal oxide that can store and release energy when reacting with a water-based liquid electrolyte.
The team determined that these nanometer domains explain the fast charging behavior that they observed, as well as the battery's exceptional stability. They tested it for 5,000 consecutive charging cycles - the equivalent of over 13 years of daily charging and discharging - and found that it retained more than 90 percent of its capacity.
Unlike the recent bout of exploding lithium-ion cell phone batteries, the steel-brass batteries use non-flammable water electrolytes that contain potassium hydroxide, an inexpensive salt used in laundry detergent.
"When our aim was to produce the materials used in batteries from household supplies in a manner so cheaply that large-scale manufacturing facilities don't make any sense, we had to approach this differently than we normally would in the research lab," Pint said.
The research team is particularly excited about what this breakthrough could mean for how batteries are made in the future.
"We're seeing the start of a movement in contemporary society leading to a 'maker culture' where large-scale product development and manufacturing is being decentralized and scaled down to individuals or communities. So far, batteries have remained outside of this culture, but I believe we will see the day when residents will disconnect from the grid and produce their own batteries. That's the scale where battery technology began, and I think we will return there," Pint said.
The Vanderbilt team drew inspiration from the "Baghdad Battery," a simple device dating back to the first century BC, which some believe is the world's oldest battery. It consisted of a ceramic terracotta pot, a copper sheet and an iron rod, which were found along with traces of electrolyte. Although this interpretation of the artifacts is controversial, the simple way they were constructed influenced the research team's design.
The team's next step is to build a full-scale prototype battery suitable for use in energy-efficient smart homes.
"We're forging new ground with this project, where a positive outcome is not commercialization, but instead a clear set of instructions that can be addressed to the general public. It's a completely new way of thinking about battery research, and it could bypass the barriers holding back innovation in grid scale energy storage," Pint said.