This month seems to be an astronomical season with our New Scientist magazine (and my SkyMap phone app) announcing a planetary lineup in the evening. Above the horizon at dusk in the Southwest sky has been the crescent moon highest in the sky, lined up with a visible Jupiter below it and a very bright Venus near the horizon (until February 28). Then by March 2, Jupiter and Venus will be changing places in the sky (see EarthSky.org), which is a pretty dynamic solar system performance for planets so far away. On this theme, Bloomberg News has just featured an article about Asteroid-Mining Startup AstroForge which will launch its first Space Missions this year, going after platinum and other precious metals hidden in asteroids. Maybe they will wave to the newly arriving Martian settlers on their way back to the earth from strip-mining an asteroid!

Also, we just completed a Statement for Scientists, Science Students, Physicists, Climatologists, or any other Academics on a carbon removal solution to climate change. Please read our one-page Statement and if you agree, you can add your name and affiliation to show your support.

Our Story #1 is quite a renewable energy transformation for those who like to go out on the water in their yachts. Instead of spending lots of cash on burning fuel just to go boating, we can now celebrate the Sunreef Yachts Company for their solar-powered yachting innovation. With the roof covered by flexible solar panels and a battery bank inside, Sunreef is now selling electric-powered super catamarans. Their YouTube videos are also quite inspiring, with the story of the owner’s journey toward environmental solutions.

Story #2 could have been our IRI lead story since it is a breakthrough confirmation for our institute’s Bioenergy products. The 2011 NASA 4-year collaborative study which Dr. Glen Gordon based his original small Empulse invention focused on “the most effective electromagnetic fields (EMFs) for enhancing growth and repair in mammalian tissues.” (An excerpt of this study is reprinted in the EM Pulser 78 Manual.) The pulsed EMFs (PEMF), which were found to be the most effective for that wide range of electrotherapy back then, were “square waves with a rapid rate of change (dB/dt)” and have now been rediscovered or reinvented by NASA for cartilage repair and regrowth even for cases of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. The NASA Tech Briefs article linked below is a good summary detailing the technology with “high rising and falling slew rates.” This wave shape is the same as their 2011 study and Dr. Gordon’s “nanosecond rise time” in our IRI PEMF square wave at his preferred earth resonance pulse rate of 7.8 Hz. IRI has evolved into using this very effective regenerative PEMF design in several products, including our OsteoPad, MaxiMat, and MiniMat, besides our popular, portable EM Pulser 78 that also has a 4”x 6” PulsePad attachment. The question can be asked, “Did NASA really discover something new this time around?”

Story #3 is a fascinating wireless transmission story that resembles Marconi’s telegraph experiment. Explaining it in terms of hot and cold electrons is interesting and of course, the grounding wire is a source of electrons. However, the real secret seems to be the use and interruption of the ambient, random radio frequency (RF) waves called “Johnson noise,” also related to zero point energy which is all around us. It was significant enough for the University of Texas to get a publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Nov. 2022) though not sufficient for high-speed communication as of yet.

Story #5 is an endearing human interest story focused on solar power for kids. At only 12 years old, the inventor Vinisha designed a cart to power a steam iron for portable clothes pressing service using solar energy. She was subsequently invited to give an inspiring short talk at the UN’s climate COP26 which now is a 5-minute video on YouTube.  

While you wouldn't list yachting as one of the most environmentally sensitive industries, that doesn't mean things can't change. With the era of electrification, many industries are turning their faces to the most obvious option that is glaring at us from above: Solar power.

NASA Johnson Space Center Innovators researching time-variance magnetic field (TVMF) therapies have developed a pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) device that can alleviate cartilage degradation in synovial joints by promoting the growth of new cartilage. Joint disorders result in intense pain, and Non-invasive and painless regeneration of a patient's tissue offers fewer side effects than surgical joint replacement or tissue engineering procedures. The PEMF device could be wrapped around synovial joints where cartilage-degrading inflammation is located.

The Conversation, February 2023

A new ultra-low-power method of communication at first glance seems to violate the laws of physics. It is possible to wirelessly transmit information simply by opening and closing a switch that connects a resistor to an antenna. No need to send power to the antenna. Our system, combined with techniques for harvesting energy from the environment, could lead to all manner of devices that transmit data, including tiny sensors and implanted medical devices, without needing batteries or other power sources. These include sensors for smart agriculture, electronics implanted in the body that never need battery changes, better contactless credit cards and maybe even new ways for satellites to communicate.

South Morning China Post February 2023

The device travels at nine times the speed of sound without the expense or explosion risk of burning hydrogen, according to paper.

Several successful ground experiments for the oblique detonation engine, which generates thrust through a burst of explosions, were carried out at the JF-12 hypersonic shock tunnel in Beijing earlier this year, according to the researchers.

The team led by Liu Yunfeng, a senior engineer with the Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, revealed technical details of the kerosene-powered engine in a paper published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Experiments in Fluid Mechanics on November 11.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3208795/chinese-scientists-build-hypersonic-generator-power-hungry-weapons-future

Vinisha Umashankar came up with an idea. Instead of using charcoal to heat up the irons, the vendors could use something abundantly available in India: the power of the sun. Over the span of six months in 2019, when she was just 12 years old, she designed a cart that had solar panels to power a steam iron. She pored over college-level physics textbooks to get an understanding of how solar panels work. Then, she submitted her concept to the National Innovation Foundation, run by the Indian government. Engineers there helped her build the full-scale working prototype and apply for a patent.

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