Webb’s first deep space exploration
NASA recently released the first full-color images and spectrograms of the universe taken by the Webb Space Telescope. These include: “Webb’s First Deep Space” – a full-color deep-sky image of the SMACS 0723 galaxy cluster 4.6 billion light-years away, which contains thousands of galaxies and the faintest objects ever observed in infrared; Spectral map of the exoplanet WASP-96b in the Milky Way. The planet is located in the constellation Phoenix in the southern sky, about 1150 light-years away from the earth. The spectrogram shows for the first time that the planet has features such as water, haze and clouds; it is about 2000 light-years away from the earth. The Southern Ring Nebula in 2009, which shows the planetary nebula in its entirety; Stephen’s Quintet in Pegasus, which reveals the velocity and composition of gas near the galaxy’s supermassive black hole; and the Carina Nebula, which shows its The earliest, rapidly forming stage; Jupiter, its moons, and the Great Red Spot as seen with a micron filter. The release of the first images and spectrograms marks the beginning of the Webb Space Telescope’s scientific mission, where astronomers around the world will have the opportunity to use the instrument they carry to observe objects in the solar system and in the early universe.
New Materials and New Processes for Making Artificial Muscles
Among many materials for artificial muscle manufacturing, lightweight dielectric elastomers (DE) with high elasticity have attracted much attention due to their excellent flexibility. Most DEs are made of acrylic or silicone. Traditional acrylic DEs can achieve high driving strains, but require pre-stretching and lack flexibility; silicones are easier to fabricate, but they cannot withstand high stresses. Using commercially available chemicals and using a UV light curing process, the US research team has created an improved acrylic-based material that is more flexible, tunable, and more easily expandable without losing its strength and durability. The researchers also tuned the crosslinks between the polymer chains to make the elastomer softer and more flexible. The resulting thin, processable, high-performance dielectric elastomer film (PHDE) was then sandwiched between two electrodes to convert the electrical energy into the kinetic energy of the actuator. Each PHDE film is about 35 microns thick, about the diameter of a hair, and when multiple layers are stacked together, they become a tiny motor that acts like muscle tissue and generates enough energy to power a robot or The motion of the sensor provides the power.
Bone density scans help reveal Alzheimer’s risk
An international team of researchers found that the degree of abdominal aortic calcification can reveal the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, and the assessment of abdominal aortic calcification can be achieved by a common bone density scan. The study involved 958 older women aged 70 and older. The researchers assessed their abdominal aortic calcification based on their lateral spine bone mineral density test data, and divided them into 3 groups of “low”, “moderate” and “severe” according to the degree of calcification. Health-tracking results that lasted more than 10 years showed that the “moderate” and “severe” groups had twice the risk of dying from dementia as the “low” group. The health of the abdominal aorta, the largest artery in the body responsible for transporting oxygenated blood from the heart to the abdominal organs and lower extremities, has been an important factor in assessing cardiovascular disease risk. The new study shows that the degree of abdominal aortic calcification can also be used to reveal the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Determining the degree of abdominal aortic calcification is as simple as adding a lateral spine scan to a routine bone density test.
