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QuoteChina is building vanadium redox flow batteries to power its cities in the future, but what exactly are they and how do they work?

""One of the major problems with lithium-ion batteries is that lithium is not an abundant material, so it's just not sustainable" says Sri Narayan, professor of chemistry at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and a scientific co-director at the USC Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute. "In fact, if you look into the distant future, we could run out of lithium if we continue to consume it at the present rate. We need alternative materials that pack more energy in the same volume without much lithium.""

"An energy storage station backed by a 200MW/800MWh vanadium flow battery is in production in Dalian, China, as part of the government's effort to scale up its energy storage capacity. Rongke Power, a local battery maker, is developing the battery after the China National Energy Administration approved the project in 2016 to provide power during peak demand hours. The battery is expected to slice off about 8% of the Liaoning Province port city's expected load once it comes online in 2020, according to Electrek. "

"Flow batteries have emerged as prime candidates in the development of large-scale grid-connected energy storage systems because they offer very long cycle life, high energy efficiencies, as well as low costs for applications requiring high energy to power ratios. A number of different flow battery technologies have been under development over the past 30 years, but of these, only the vanadium redox flow battery that was pioneered at the University of New South Wales, Australia, and the zinc-bromine battery first developed by Exxon are currently under consideration for large-scale grid integration."

QuoteLoop quantum gravity aims to unify the theories of general relativity and quantum mechanics, as explained by Jim Baggott.

Quantum gravity is the holy grail for modern theoretical physicists - a single structure that brings together the two great theories of the 20th century: quantum mechanics and general relativity. One widely-known solution is string theory, which emerged from particle physics. In this talk, Jim Baggott will describe the other approach known as Loop Quantum Gravity. This theory starts from general relativity, borrows many ideas and techniques from quantum mechanics, and predicts that space itself is quantum in nature.

QuoteWhat's the difference between astronomy and astrology? Astronomy is a science. Astrology is not. Astronomy uses the movements of the planets and stars to experimentally determine the physics of the Universe. Astrology uses those same planetary movements to claim that they somehow affect the lives of humans down on Earth. Spoiler alert: THEY DON'T!

QuoteImagining the prospect of your own death is a frightening thing..
and until you experience it I'd wager many are convinced it will never fully happen. But what if there is something else after your biological death? What if you continue to exist, just in a different reality? The idea of Quantum Immortality is based on a variation of the Schrodinger's Cat thought experiment, which states that under a specific set of circumstances a cat in a box can be considered simultaneously alive and dead. What if the cat in the box is both dead and alive, just in different realities?  If Quantum Immortality applies to human consciousness then no matter what happens to you, whether you're struck by a car, burnt by fire or mauled to death by angry weasels, your consciousness will survive in another of many infinite universes. But how might this work?

QuoteSifting through centuries of mythmaking, Reza Aslan sheds new light on one of history's most influential and enigmatic figures by examining Jesus within the context of the times in which he lived: the age of zealotry. Balancing the Jesus of the Gospels against historical sources, Aslan describes a man of peace who exhorted his followers to arm themselves; an exorcist and faith healer who urged his disciples to keep his identity secret; and the seditious "King of the Jews," whose promise of liberation from Rome went unfulfilled in his lifetime. Aslan explores why the early Church preferred to promulgate an image of Jesus as a peaceful spiritual teacher rather than a politically conscious revolutionary and grapples with the riddle of how Jesus understood himself.

QuoteTwo years ago, researchers created an artificial womb for premature lamb fetuses. Now, that technology is getting better by creating a womb that can one day help extremely premature babies live from 21-24 weeks old.