By its own nature, the field of the engineering sciences is a constant well of new information and developments when it comes to the sciences. Experts and enthusiasts alike contribute to what appears to be an endless stream of new methods and devices that push the boundary of human engineering feats further and further out.
We here at Modern Sciences have touched upon some of these feats, all for your reading leisure. Here are five personal picks just for you:
Perseverance’s MOXIE Generates Oxygen on Mars
The amount of engineering research needed to enable even just the basic functions of the Perseverance rover is astounding; this goes double when you realize that there are scientific instruments placed onboard our mobile footprint as a species on an entirely different planet.
Here, experts on the Perseverance team describe MOXIE, their attempt at testing whether or not we can even create oxygen on Mars—surely a necessity for potential future manned missions to the Red Planet.
Roc On: Stratolaunch Plane Completes Second Test Flight
When we said these feats push the boundaries of engineering, we meant it: here’s a story earlier on about the giant “Roc” concept plane from Stratolaunch, with a wingspan of 117 m; the plane is being designed to carry payloads to space for “orbital launches” instead of those shooting off straight from the ground using rockets.
Light-Shrinking “Metamaterial” Allows Microscopes to See Finer Structures
Science students all around the world know the pains of using a school-supplied microscope all too well; those who choose to pursue a scientific track in college will no doubt be familiar with every nook and cranny of the tried and tested scientific tool.
As it turns out, however, there’s more room for improvement—and we might just need the help of experimental “metamaterials” to do it.
Newly-Engineered Transparent Electrodes Boost Solar Cell Efficiency
The mere concept of a transparent solar cell seems to boggle the mind; after all, the whole operating concept of a solar cell necessitates that the device can actually absorb light instead of just letting it through.
However, a team of experts is deadset on flipping the conventional concept of solar cells on its head by creating electrodes that are transparent, paving the way to several transparent technologies that go far beyond just solar cells.
Engineers Power Small Devices By Absorbing Wi-Fi
Wireless signals are all around us; no doubt some of you readers may be using it in order to read this article. However, it’s pretty much a given to engineers that a vast majority of the energy used to broadcast wireless signals, like Wi-Fi, is simply lost and left unused; after all, not all Wi-Fi signals are used by all mobile devices within a specific area.
This, too, may be set for an overhaul, as engineers just created a device that allows them to “recapture” Wi-Fi signals and convert even just a bit of it back into electrical energy, enabling their use for other devices down the line.
