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Les Johnson — Infinite Frontiers Consulting, LLC — Visions of Humanity’s Future In Space

Visions of humanity’s future in space — les johnson — infinite frontiers consulting, LLC.

Les Johnson is a physicist, author, and space technologist (https://www.lesjohnsonauthor.com/) who most recently served as the Chief Technologist at NASA’s George C. Marshall Space Flight Center.

Les is also the Founder of Infinite Frontiers Consulting (https://www.lesjohnsonauthor.com/infi… an aerospace consulting firm dedicated to helping turn innovative space ventures into reality. After decades leading of missions at NASA and collaborating across the industry, Les is excited to work with clients and partners who are pushing boundaries and advancing cutting-edge space technologies.

Over a distinguished career with NASA, Les played a central role in developing advanced space propulsion systems and pioneering technologies designed to expand humanity’s reach beyond Earth orbit. He has led and contributed to multiple interplanetary technology demonstration missions, including work on solar sails, in-space propulsion, and deep-space exploration architectures.

In addition to his NASA career, Les is an accomplished science fiction author and popular science writer, known for making complex space science accessible to broad audiences. His books—both fiction and nonfiction—explore the scientific and philosophical dimensions of humanity’s future in space (https://www.amazon.com/stores/Les-Joh?tag=lifeboatfound-20…).

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Dual-mode design boosts MEMS accelerometer accuracy, study reveals

A research team led by Prof. Zou Xudong from the Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (AIRCAS) has proposed a new solution to address two longstanding challenges in Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) resonant accelerometers: temperature drift and measurement dead zones.

By implementing a dual-mode operating scheme that effectively decouples the operating frequencies of the device’s differential beams, the team has achieved improvements in the sensor’s accuracy and performance. Their findings were recently published in Microsystems & Nanoengineering.

The study revealed that driving one in its first resonant mode while operating the other in its second resonant mode can enhance temperature compensation and mitigate the modal localization effect that typically causes measurement dead zones. The dual-mode design also preserves the geometrical symmetry of the beams, which is critical for minimizing temperature-induced errors and maintaining stable sensor performance.

Unprecedented Perlmutter Simulation Details Quantum Chip

Designing quantum chips incorporates traditional microwave engineering in addition to advanced low-temperature physics. This makes a classical electromagnetic modeling tool like ARTEMIS, which was developed as part of the DOE’s Exascale Computing Project initiative, a natural choice for this type of modeling.

A large simulation for a tiny chip

Not every quantum chip simulation calls for so much computing capacity, but modeling the miniscule details of this tiny, extremely complex chip required nearly all of Perlmutter’s power. The researchers used almost all of its 7,168 NVIDIA GPUs over a period of 24 hours to capture the structure and function of a multi-layered chip measuring just 10 millimeters square and 0.3 millimeters thick, with etchings just one micron wide.

Nanoparticle–stem cell hybrids open a new horizon in bone regeneration

A research team in South Korea has successfully developed a novel technology that combines nanoparticles with stem cells to significantly improve 3D bone tissue regeneration. This advancement marks a step forward in the treatment of bone fractures and injuries, as well as in next-generation regenerative medicine.

The research is published in the journal ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering.

Dr. Ki Young Kim and her team at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), in collaboration with Professor Laura Ha at Sunmoon University, have engineered a nanoparticle-stem cell hybrid, termed a nanobiohybrid by integrating mesoporous silica nanoparticles (mSiO₂ NPs) with human adipose-derived mesenchymal (hADMSCs). The resulting hybrid cells demonstrated markedly enhanced osteogenic (bone-forming) capability.

Low-grade heat from renewable sources could be used to desalinate water

A McGill University-led research team has demonstrated the feasibility of a sustainable and cost-effective way to desalinate seawater. The method—thermally driven reverse osmosis (TDRO)—uses a piston-based system powered by low-grade heat from solar thermal, geothermal heat and other sources of renewable energy to produce fresh water.

Though previous research showed promise, this study is the first to analyze TDRO’s thermodynamic limits. The results have brought researchers closer to realizing the technology which could improve access to water and increase the sustainability of infrastructure.

“Most desalination is done by , which uses electricity to drive water through a membrane,” said Jonathan Maisonneuve, study co-author and Associate Professor of Bioresource Engineering.

New lightweight polymer film can prevent corrosion

MIT researchers have developed a lightweight polymer film that is nearly impenetrable to gas molecules, raising the possibility that it could be used as a protective coating to prevent solar cells and other infrastructure from corrosion, and to slow the aging of packaged food and medicines.

The polymer, which can be applied as a film mere nanometers thick, completely repels nitrogen and other gases, as far as can be detected by laboratory equipment, the researchers found. That degree of impermeability has never been seen before in any polymer, and rivals the impermeability of molecularly-thin crystalline materials such as graphene.

“Our polymer is quite unusual. It’s obviously produced from a solution-phase polymerization reaction, but the product behaves like graphene, which is gas-impermeable because it’s a perfect crystal. However, when you examine this material, one would never confuse it with a perfect crystal,” says Michael Strano, the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT.

Superconducting qubit that lasts for over 1 millisecond is primed for industrial scaling

In a major step toward practical quantum computers, Princeton engineers have built a superconducting qubit that lasts three times longer than today’s best versions.

“The real challenge, the thing that stops us from having useful quantum computers today, is that you build a qubit and the information just doesn’t last very long,” said Andrew Houck, Princeton’s dean of engineering and co-principal investigator. “This is the next big jump forward.”

In an article in the journal Nature, the Princeton team report that their new qubit lasts for over 1 millisecond. This is three times longer than the best ever reported in a lab setting, and nearly 15 times longer than the industry standard for large-scale processors.

Quantifying the intensity of emotional response to sound, images and touch through skin conductance

When we listen to a moving piece of music or feel the gentle pulse of a haptic vibration, our bodies react before we consciously register the feeling. The heart may quicken and palms may sweat, resulting in subtle electrical resistance variations in the skin. These changes, though often imperceptible, reflect the brain’s engagement with the world.

A recent study by researchers at NYU Tandon and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published in PLOS Mental Health explores how such physiological signals can reveal cognitive arousal—the level of mental alertness and emotional activation—without the need for subjective reporting.

The researchers, led by Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering Rose Faghih at NYU Tandon, focused on skin conductance, a well-established indicator of autonomic nervous system activity. When are stimulated, even minutely, the skin’s ability to conduct electricity changes.

Physicists unveil system to solve long-standing barrier to new generation of supercomputers

The dream of creating game-changing quantum computers—supermachines that encode information in single atoms rather than conventional bits—has been hampered by the formidable challenge known as quantum error correction.

In a paper published Monday in Nature, Harvard researchers demonstrated a new system capable of detecting and removing errors below a key performance threshold, potentially providing a workable solution to the problem.

“For the first time, we combined all essential elements for a scalable, error-corrected quantum computation in an integrated architecture,” said Mikhail Lukin, co-director of the Quantum Science and Engineering Initiative, Joshua and Beth Friedman University Professor, and senior author of the new paper. “These experiments—by several measures the most advanced that have been done on any quantum platform to date—create the scientific foundation for practical large-scale quantum computation.”

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