Japan has made a $26,290,780,000 discovery that'll keep its economy topped up for the next decade
Published 14:15 18 Nov 2024 GMT
Japan has made a $26,290,780,000 discovery that'll keep its economy topped up for the next decade
Some 230 million tons of rare Earth minerals were found
Ellie Kemp
Ellie Kemp
Scientists in Japan discovered $26,290,780,000 worth of Earth minerals which will keep its economy going for at least the next decade.
A survey by The Nippon Foundation and the University of Tokyo found a field of dense manganese nodules on the seabed of Minami-Tori-shima island - some 1,200 miles from Japan's bustling capital.
The nodules, 5,700 meters below sea level, contained millions of metric tons of cobalt and nickel.
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They were thought to have formed over millions of years as metals transported in the ocean attached themselves to fish bones and stuck to the seabed, according to Nikkei Asia.
Cobalt and nickel are two of the crucial components needed to create electric vehicle (EV) batteries and are also used to make jet engines, gas turbines and in chemical processing.
The manganese nodules found on the sea bed (The Nippon Foundation)
The manganese nodules found on the sea bed (The Nippon Foundation)
The survey found around 610,000 metric tons of cobalt and 740,000 metric tons of nickel, which equates to a staggering amount of money.
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At the time of writing, one metric ton of cobalt is worth $24,300 while nickel is worth $15,497, according to market figures from Trading Economics.
Doing some simple maths, it means the 610,000 metric tons of cobalt found was worth $14,823,000,000 while the 740,000 tones of nickel comes in at $11,467,780,000.
That gives us an eye-watering total of $26,290,780,000.
Of course, like any commodity, the markets can fluctuate meaning at times the minerals could be worth even more - or less.
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Prices can also change based on demand pressures from the EV and energy storage industries.
The deposits also contain copper (The Nippon Foundation)
The deposits also contain copper (The Nippon Foundation)
But between April and May this year, some 230 million tons of the rare minerals were discovered after a team surveyed 100 seabed sites using remotely operated underwater vehicles.
Moreover, the deposits are thought to contain copper - another valuable element.
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Interestingly, these manganese nodules were initially discovered in a 2016 survey and experts claimed that multiple had formed around teeth belonging to prehistoric shark, the Megalodon.
Following the most recent survey, Yasuhiro Kato, a professor specializing in resource geology at the University of Tokyo, said that excavators now plan to lift ‘three million tons annually’ from the deposits.
The discovery could keep Japan's economy topped up for the next decade (The Nippon Foundation)
The discovery could keep Japan's economy topped up for the next decade (The Nippon Foundation)
He claimed that this procedure would allow development to continue while ‘minimizing the impact on the marine environment’.
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The team will therefore utilise overseas mining vessels to lift several thousand tons of nodules daily from 2025.
By utilising the cobalt and nickel from the ocean, the country will be able to decrease its dependency on other countries and satiate the internal demand for EV batteries, according to Interesting Engineering.
“Ultimately, we expect that our research outcomes will help boost Japan’s growth by establishing a domestic supply chain stretching from ‘resource-mining’ to ‘manufacturing’, and make Japan a science-technology, and ocean-oriented nation in a true sense of word,” read a press release from the University of Tokyo.
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StarlitMilk
7h ago
The post was about rare earth minerals... So where are they? Nickel and Cobalt are transition metals, not anything like rare earth... Did the author just see a phrase they liked and run with it?
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Mill
4h ago
No the author used AI to generate the report but forgot to proofread it!
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Kiyoshi Furuya
10h ago
Money is money is money...but at what cost?
I think that we should vote as a nation. We let kids above elementary 1st grade vote, too.
Explain the details. Money now, but we could end up destroying the habitat balance of the Pacific marine e...
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AnonymousCoward
4h ago
I am slightly reticent about letting children vote. Not because they don't deserve a voice - but because I don't believe they are at a stage where they can make an informed choice.
Instead, I'd argue to lower the age of majority for voting...
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Rn
4h ago
But then kids would want to vote for Pikachu and Santa 😂
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This is Yuge
10h ago
These modules oxygenate the planet in a way that is not yet fully understood. By removing them we could be further destroying our remaining life support system after the rainforest is gone.
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1 reply
Simon
9h ago
Sea mining of any sort is detrimental to ocean habitats. But that's not going to stop them as it's billions in money. 😡
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1 reply
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Featured Image Credit: The Nippon Foundation/James Leynse/Corbis via Getty Images
Topics: Science, Technology, World News, Japan
Ellie Kemp
Ellie Kemp
Apple has reportedly been secretly working on 'home robots' as its next big venture
Updated 07:39 4 Apr 2024 GMT+1
Published 07:30 4 Apr 2024 GMT+1
Apple has reportedly been secretly working on 'home robots' as its next big venture
The tech giant is reportedly exploring the development of 'home robots' as its latest project
Kit Roberts
Kit Roberts
Apple is reportedly exploring the development of 'home robots' as its next big venture.
According to Business Insider, tech giant Apple is shifting its focus towards a new area of development.
The pivot comes after a difficult period for Apple, with the company scrapping its plans to develop a self-driving car, which it had been working on for years.
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Apple has also been hit by an antitrust lawsuit from the Department of Justice.
The lawsuit from the DOJ includes allegations that the company took measures which would limit user functionality outside of its platforms, effectively compelling users to purchase Apple products.
That's not it either, with the company also seeing a drop in iPhone sales in China, and a $1.8 billion fine from the EU for breaking rules over music streaming.
Now, the company is looking to move in a new direction and explore new ideas.
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Apple is in search of something new.
Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images
This has included shifting its focus to AI development as its competitors at Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI all forge ahead in the field.
But another possibility is looking into robotics, which it reportedly started investigating back in 2019.
Doug Field, who is now an executive at Ford, led the project which was exploring things like quiet drones which could be used indoors.
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Following Field's departure from the company in 2021, Apple's robotics division concentrated more on domestic products, according to Bloomberg.
To be clear, however, this is still in a largely theoretical stage of development and it's not clear whether any domestic devices produced by Apple will make it as far consumer markets.
Nonetheless there are signs that the company is pivoting towards this.
Sources have claimed that the operating system for the would-be self-driving car, namely SafetyOS, may be repurposed for robots.
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Could robotics be Apple's next big thing?
Jason marz / Getty
Bloomberg has also reported that at least one engineer who previously worked on the ill-fated car project has been redeployed to the robotics division.
As for home robotics themselves, they are not a new area of development.
Look to things like the automatic hoover the Roomba for example.
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It's not clear exactly what Apple's home robotics developments might turn out. One source told Bloomberg that one project involves a 'mobile robot', which follows users round their homes.
Another rumour is of an advanced tabletop device which can use robotics to move a display.
Whatever it is, Apple is driven by pursuit of the 'next big thing' ever since the creation of the iPhone, though matching the success and influence of the iPhone will be no mean feat.
UNILAD has reached out to Apple for comment.
Featured Image Credit: Getty stock/Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Topics: Apple, News, Technology, US News, Business, Artificial Intelligence
Kit Roberts
Kit Roberts
Scientists have captured the world's first ever X-ray of a single atom in remarkable discovery
Published 20:06 22 Apr 2024 GMT+1
Scientists have captured the world's first ever X-ray of a single atom in remarkable discovery
Scientists discovery of an X-ray technique that will 'transform the world'
Poppy Bilderbeck
Poppy Bilderbeck
Scientists have been able to use X-rays to study a singular atom properly for the first time.
If you've ever broken a limb, you'll likely have gone for an X-ray and gone through the process of passing through some electromagnetic radiation to then see an image of your bodily structures and tissue. Or else when you've gone through the airport and had to empty your pockets before going through security. However, while X-rays can pick up many things, until now, scientists haven't been able to characterize a single atom using X-rays.
A team of scientists was led by Ohio University Professor of Physics and Argonne National Laboratory scientist, Saw Wai Hla.
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In a project funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, the team set about finding a way to get a singular atom picked up and able to be charactized using X-rays - the smallest amount to date being 10,000 atoms or more, as per a news release by Ohio University on Eurek Alert.
But why is picking up a singular atom on an X-ray so important?
Until now, the smallest number of atoms X-rays could pick up was 10,000 (Jonathan Kitchen/ Getty Stock Images)
Until now, the smallest number of atoms X-rays could pick up was 10,000 (Jonathan Kitchen/ Getty Stock Images)
Why
Well, Hla explains without X-rays there's no way of telling what an atom is 'made of'.
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An X-ray of a single atom has been compared to being like the image of a fingerprint and way of identifying not just its physical but chemical properties too.
Until the project, atoms could be 'routinely imaged with scanning probe microscopes' but scientists couldn't detect the exact 'type of a particular atom, one atom-at-a-time' alongside measuring its chemical state.
The technique the team used to successfully got an X-ray image of a singular atom (Saw-Wai Hla/ Ohio University)
The technique the team used to successfully got an X-ray image of a singular atom (Saw-Wai Hla/ Ohio University)
How
With the help of a purpose-built synchrotron X-ray instrument, the scientists set about testing the device on an iron atom and a terbium atom in Argonne National Laboratory at the Center for Nanoscale Materials.
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The team inserted each individual atom into 'respective molecular hosts'. To detect the X-ray signal of one atom, the team supplemented 'conventional detectors in X-rays with a specialized detectors made of a sharp metal tip positioned at extreme proximity to the sample to collect X-ray excited electrons'.
The technique is known as synchrotron X-ray scanning tunneling microscopy (SX-STM) and the team 'broke new ground in X-ray science and nanoscale studies' using it according to first author of the paper Tolilope Michael Ajayi.
And what's more, the team achieved their goal - detecting a single atom X-ray signature, alongside detecting the chemical states of the individual atoms as well, finding that the terbium atom is 'rather isolated and does not change its chemical state while the iron atom strongly interacts with its surroundings'.
The X-ray technique revealed six rubidium atoms and an iron atom (Ajayi et al., Nature)
The X-ray technique revealed six rubidium atoms and an iron atom (Ajayi et al., Nature)
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The study's paper - titled Characterization of just one atom using synchrotron rays and. published in Nature - states: "Our work connects synchrotron X-rays with a quantum tunnelling process and opens future X-rays experiments for simultaneous characterizations of elemental and chemical properties of materials at the ultimate single-atom limit.
Hla resolved: "Once we are able to do that, we can trace the materials down to ultimate limit of just one atom. This will have a great impact on environmental and medical sciences and maybe even find a cure that can have a huge impact for humankind. This discovery will transform the world."
Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock Images
Topics: Science, Technology, World News
Poppy Bilderbeck
Poppy Bilderbeck
Man whose wife was lost in tsunami spent more than a decade diving every week in hopes of finding her remains
Published 16:20 3 Jun 2024 GMT+1
Man whose wife was lost in tsunami spent more than a decade diving every week in hopes of finding her remains
Yasuo Takamatsu has been searching for his wife for over 10 years
Niamh Spence
Niamh Spence
A man whose wife is thought to have died in the Japanese tsunami in 2011 has spent over a decade searching for her body.
Yasuo Takamatsu has spent more than ten years looking for his wife Yuko's remains in order to lay her to rest.
The search began after the Japan tsunami in 2011 which affected the area of Fukushima. Now in the years since, Takamatsu dives weekly and has done for over a decade to see if he can find her body.
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Fukushima was devastated by the tsunami in March 2011. (Aeon)
Fukushima was devastated by the tsunami in March 2011. (Aeon)
The tsunami that hit Japan on March 11 2011 had a magnitude of 9.1 and was the worst to ever hit the country and the fourth most devastating in human history.
The event left 450,000 people homeless as a result, alongside 18,000 dead. More than 2,500 people are still 'missing' after the tsunami, with their bodies never found.
For Takamatsu, his wife was one of the many who was washed away after the tsunami hit while she was at work in a bank. Takamatsu, who had been with his mother-in-law at a hospital in the next town at the time, was not allowed to return the wrecked town after the tsunami hit.
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Months after the tsunami hit, he found his wife's phone in the parking lot of the bank where she worked but has not found anything else since.
Since 2011 Takamatsu has been searching for his wife Yuko, and he began diving in 2013. (Aeon)
Since 2011 Takamatsu has been searching for his wife Yuko, and he began diving in 2013. (Aeon)
The phone contained both Yuko's last message to her husband, as well as an unsent one. Her last message read: "Are you okay? I want to go home."
In her unsent message she tried to tell her husband about the devastation of the tsunami as she wrote out: "The tsunami is disastrous."
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Despite various searches, there has been little other clue of where Yuko's body could be but Takamatsu holds out hope.
After searching on land for two and a half years, the then-56-year-old started taking diving lessons in September 2013. While he didn't find learning to dive easy, the devoted husband has explained that he's motivated by wanting to find her body.
Takamatsu worries that the "ocean is way too vast" and he may never find her. (Aeon)
Takamatsu worries that the "ocean is way too vast" and he may never find her. (Aeon)
In an interview for short film 'The Diver', Takamatsu explained: "I do want to find her, but I also feel that she may never be discovered as the ocean is way too vast - but I have to keep looking."
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Takamatsu dives alongside the help of a diving instructor, Masayoshi Takahashi. Takahashi leads volunteer dives to look for missing tsunami victims and has been helping Takamatsu as he continues the search for his wife's body.
Featured Image Credit: Aeon
Topics: World News, Sex and Relationships, Japan
Niamh Spence
Niamh Spence
Man who was 'locked in his body' for more than a decade woke up to tell a remarkable story
Published 16:17 3 Feb 2024 GMT
Man who was 'locked in his body' for more than a decade woke up to tell a remarkable story
Martin has shared his incredible story
Lucy Devine
Lucy Devine
A man who spent over 10 years 'locked' in his own body has finally been able to tell his remarkable story.
Martin Pistorius, from South Africa, is now in his late 40s, but when he was aged just 12, he came down with an illness that doctor's initially assumed to be flu.
Martin was given the usual treatment, but his condition worsened and he ended up in hospital.
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Martin Pistorius in hospital.
Supplied
It turns out that Martin had both cryptococcal meningitis and tuberculosis of the brain, and was treated for both.
But in spite of the treatments, his body weakened and he lost the ability to speak, and to control his movements.
Martin's parents, Joan and Rodney, weren't given a conclusive reason why his body shut down, but they weren't ready to give up on their son.
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Martin was moved to a care centre, and could 'hear, see and understand everything' around him, but he was unable to communicate.
"For me, that feeling of complete and utter powerlessness is probably the worst feeling I have ever experienced, and I hope I never have to experience again," he told LADbible.
"It is like you don't exist, every single thing in your life is decided by someone else.
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"Everything, from what you wear, to what you eat and drink, even if you eat or drink, to where you will be tomorrow, or next week, and there is nothing you can do about it."
Those around Martin had no idea he was aware of what was happening - including the fact that TV show Barney was playing on repeat.
“I cannot even express to you how much I hated Barney,” he declared in an interview with NPR.
Martin's mom Joan admitted she struggled to come to terms with her son’s condition, and in his book Ghost Boy he recalled sitting in his wheelchair one day when his mom said to him: "I hope you die."
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Martin Pistorius and his wife Joanna.
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The comment affected him and made him feel ‘very sad and upset’, though Martin said he ‘understood where that was coming from’.
Martin remained in the vegetative state for more than a decade, but in 2001, everything changed.
A relief carer at the day centre encouraged his parents to take him to the Centre For Augmentative And Alternative Communication at the University Of Pretoria.
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There, a researcher held up a sheet of paper with symbols on it, and Martin was asked to locate a ball with his eyes. After finding the shape, he was asked to find the dog.
After that, Martin's parents invested in a computer which was preloaded with communication software, similar to the technology used by Stephen Hawking, which allowed him to select letters, words or symbols on the device using a band attached to his head - which would act like a mouse.
Twenty years on, Martin is working as a computer scientist and web developer, and is a father to son, Sebastian Albert Pistorius.
Featured Image Credit: Supplied
Topics: Health, World News
Lucy Devine
Lucy Devine
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