Free Republic

Silicon, the standard semiconducting material used in a host of applications—computer central processing units (CPUs), semiconductor chips, detectors, and solar cells—is an abundant, naturally occurring material. However, it is expensive to mine and to purify. Perovskites—a family of materials nicknamed for their crystalline structure—have shown extraordinary promise in recent years as a far less expensive, equally efficient replacement for silicon in solar cells and detectors. Now, a study led by Chunlei Guo, a professor of optics at the University of Rochester, suggests that perovskites may become far more efficient. Researchers typically synthesize perovskites in a wet lab, and then apply...

Explanation: Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, O'er volumes of astronomy and forgotten lore, I stumbled upon this snapshot, cosmic and eerie, A sight that filled my heart with awe and more. Two stars, like sentinels, anchored the foreground, Of our Milky Way galaxy, a sight to behold, Beyond them, a cluster of Hydra, galaxies abound, 100 million light-years away, a story to be told. Three large galaxies, ellipticals and a spiral blue, Dominant and grand, each 150,000 light-years wide, But it was the overlapping pair that caught my view, Cataloged as NGC 3314, a...

Biden Administration Rejects Ohio’s Request for Emergency Aid to Deal with Ecological DisasterThe Biden administration is rejecting a request for federal disaster assistance from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine in the aftermath of the train derailment and ecological disaster that has devastated the area around East Palestine, Ohio. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) told Ohio’s state government that it was not eligible for disaster assistance, a spokesperson for DeWine told Fox News Digital on Thursday. The Dewine spokeseman explained that FEMA believed the incident qualified as a traditional disaster, such as a tornado or hurricane, for which it usually provides...

An assailant who brutally attacked a Jewish man on a New York City subway in July 2022 has finally been arrested nearly seven months later, according to Jewish activist Dov Hikind. The man allegedly punched the victim in the face for being Jewish, leaving him with blood pouring down his shirt. “I’ve just been informed that the violent hate criminal who viciously attacked the man pictured below has just been found and arrested!” Hikind, the founder of Americans Against Antisemitism, posted to Twitter. “I’m thankful the NYPD followed through and secured the arrest. Let’s hope the DA will seek justice...

U.S. Congressional Representative Angie Craig from Minnesota was recently assaulted. This is what she said after her assaulter was arrested:“I got attacked by someone who the District of Columbia has not prosecuted fully over the course of almost a decade, over the course of 12 assaults before mine that morning… And so I think we have to think about how in the world can we make sure that we’re not just letting criminals out… I mean, it wasn’t even in every instance that he got 10 days or 30 days. Many times, the charges were completely dropped before any justice...

Liberal billionaire influencer George Soros today predicted that Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will beat former President Donald Trump in the 2024 GOP primaries [cut] In a wide-ranging speech, Soros ripped Trump’s presidency and complemented elements of DeSantis’s style.

Bruce’s wife Emma, ex-wife Demi, and daughters Rumer, Scout, Tallulah, Mabel and Evelyn released a statement through the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration on Feb. 16. “Since we announced Bruce’s diagnosis of aphasia in spring 2022, Bruce’s condition has progressed and we now have a more specific diagnosis: frontotemporal dementia (known as FTD). Unfortunately, challenges with communication are just one symptom of the disease Bruce faces. While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis,” the statement read. “FTD is a cruel disease that many of us have never heard of and can strike anyone. For...

A very strange conversation with the chatbot built into Microsoft’s search engine led to it declaring its love for me. Last week, after testing the new, A.I.-powered Bing search engine from Microsoft, I wrote that, much to my shock, it had replaced Google as my favorite search engine. But a week later, I’ve changed my mind. I’m still fascinated and impressed by the new Bing, and the artificial intelligence technology (created by OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT) that powers it. But I’m also deeply unsettled, even frightened, by this A.I.’s emergent abilities. It’s now clear to me that in its...

Endless alphabet soup humor

A Los Angeles-based artist nearly lost her hand in a freak accident involving one of the tools of her trade. Carla Negron has already undergone two emergency surgeries to repair damage to her left hand after impaling it on one of her paintbrushes... ...Negron was working in her LA studio earlier this week when she fell and a paintbrush ended up puncturing her hand. The wound became infected, causing the hand to swell up and requiring urgent surgical intervention.

Joe Biden on Thursday delivered remarks on the three objects shot down by US fighter pilots last week. Three objects were shot down last week – one over the Yukon in Canadian airspace and two over US airspace. Biden on Thursday said the three objects shot down by $400,000 sidewinders were likely weather balloons. “We don’t yet know exactly what these three objects were. But nothing right now suggests they are related to the China spy balloon program or that they were surveillance vehicles from anything other country,” Biden said. “The Intelligence Community’s current assessment is that these three objects...

A carbon capture company is hoping to install a 1,300 mile pipeline across the Midwest, with injection points in Central Illinois. The Heartland Greenway Project, created by the company Navigator CO2, hopes to stop 15 million tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere each year. "Which is equivalent of removing the greenhouse gas emissions of 3.2 million vehicles driven annually," Danielle Anderson, Public Affairs Manager for Navigator CO2, said during a virtual town hall Wednesday night. The company plans to take CO2 from more than 20 ethanol and fertilizer plants across the midwest, pressurize it into a liquid, and...

Another day, and yet more worrying news from the frontline: Ukrainian troops are firing as many as 6,000 artillery shells a day to try and beat back Russia’s new offensive. It is an expenditure rate the West is struggling to feed; so high that Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has said that Ukraine’s forces could run out of ammunition unless they use it more sparingly. His comments remind us of an essential truth: that brute force and, critically, the ability to sustain and replenish it over an extended period, is historically what wins wars in the end.This rule counters the orthodox...

A Brazilian man has passed away from injuries he received last month when a concealed handgun he was wearing discharged near an operating MRI machine, shooting him in the abdomen. The 40-year-old lawyer and vocal supporter of gun ownership is reported to have retained the weapon in spite of verbal and written requests to remove all metal objects prior to accompanying his mother into the scanning room. Leandro Mathias de Novaes took his mother to the Laboratorio Cura in São Paulo, Brazil, for an MRI ( magnetic resonance imaging) scan on January 16. Clinical staff are reported to have instructed...

Scientists will begin testing the first vaccines for birds in years as the spread of avian influenza has killed about 58 million birds, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. While the outbreak has devastated both wild and commercial bird flocks, many of the dead animals are commercially raised poultry. Shots have been licensed in past outbreaks and poultry are already vaccinated for disease like infectious bronchitis. USDA spokesman Mike Stepien said the process to license vaccines may be able to be accelerated for emergencies. Whether vaccines would work against the current strain of...

Last Tuesday, State Sen. Celina Villanueva, D-Ill, 11th Dist., introduced legislation to allow illegal aliens to register to vote in Illinois school board elections. The proposed legislation reads: "The State Board of Education shall create a voter registration affidavit that shall be the exclusive means by which a noncitizen of the United States may register to vote in school board elections."

Josh Duggar has been placed in solitary confinement for allegedly possessing a cell phone in prison, according to multiple reports. The disgraced 19 Kids and Counting alum, 34, was moved to the Special Housing Unit (SHU) at the Federal Correctional Institute (FCI) Seagoville in Texas, where he is currently serving a 12.5-year sentence on child pornography charges. The conditions of the facility’s solitary confinement area are notoriously “bad,” per multiple reports. The latest update about the Arkansas native comes just days before Josh’s legal team is set to appeal his conviction. The father of seven was found guilty of receiving...

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman on Wednesday checked himself into a Washington hospital "to receive treatment for clinical depression," his chief of staff said on Thursday. "While John has experienced depression off and on throughout his life, it only became severe in recent weeks," Adam Jentleson said in a statement. Jentleson said that Fetterman was evaluated on Monday by Congress' attending physician, Dr. Brian P. Monahan, who "recommended inpatient care" at Walter Reed hospital. "John agreed, and he is receiving treatment on a voluntary basis." "After examining John, the doctors at Walter Reed told us that John is getting the care...

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ administration has begun removing pornographic books from school libraries, flagging material that contains drawings of children engaged in sex acts. Almost a year ago now, signed the Parental Rights in Education Act into law prohibiting classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation from kindergarten through third grade. The bill was falsely labelled the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by the left. Earlier this week, DeSantis officials tweeted out examples of the kind of material that is being flagged and taken out of schools. While leftists have complained that DeSantis is banning books in some sort of...