New prototype miniaturized solar-power generator developed in Israel will be sent by NASA to the International Space Station in its first launches of 2020. The new generator was designed by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev’s professor emeritus Jeffrey Gordon – funded through a research grant by the Science, Technology and Space Ministry – and by his US colleagues from Pennsylvania State University, University of Illinois, George Washington University, US Naval Research Laboratory, HNU Systems and Northwestern University. Its design and verification were published in the journal Optics Express.
I M Pei, the architect behind buildings including the glass pyramid outside the Louvre in Paris, has died aged 102. Tributes have been pouring in, remembering him for a lifetime of designing iconic structures worldwide. Pei's designs are renowned for their emphasis on precision geometry, plain surfaces and natural light. He carried on working well into old age, creating one of his most famous masterpieces - the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar - in his 80s.
Since the dawn of commercial aviation in the 1920s, the popularity of air travel has grown at an insatiable rate. Today, more 3.5 billion passengers travel by plane each year - equivalent to half of our planet’s population. With technology, design and enhanced fuel efficiency now allowing commercial aircraft to fly faster and cheaper than at any point before, the ever-increasing demand for air travel shows little sign of relenting.
Architects created ambitious spaces with an eye toward the sensory in a series of museums, memorials and public places such as the the Museum at the Gateway Arch, St. Louis seen above. If there are themes connecting the best architecture of 2018, one of them is certainly the eagerness of architects to give shape to complex and varied experiences, the more sensory the better. This is architecture that offers a sequence of events revealed gradually with constantly shifting perspectives, as opposed to classic modernism’s tightly controlled image of architecture as geometric tableau.
Developing new medicines isn’t for the faint of heart. On average, it takes about a decade of research — and an expenditure of $2.6 billion — to shepherd an experimental drug from lab to market. And because of concerns over safety and effectiveness, only about 5 percent of experimental drugs make it to market at all. But drug makers and tech companies are investing billions of dollars in artificial intelligence with the hope that AI will make the drug discovery process faster and cheaper.