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Space & Physics

Why Space Weather Is Still Not a Priority Despite Growing Risks

While governments are becoming more aware of solar storms, space weather still remains a low priority

Karthik Vinod

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The Aurora Australis as seen from the Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-39. Image credit: NASA

In May 2024, media was rife with reports in different parts of the world of red aurorae. They had even appeared in places at lower latitudes where they are not a common sight at all. The Dark Night Sky Reserve in Hanle, Ladakh, reported a dull red aurora shimmer in the sky overnight, on May 10th. Similar sights were spotted in October as well. The culprit were active sunspots, depressive features on the sun, that fire charged particles out into space. If one of these plumes of charged particles interact with the earth’s magnetic field, they could trigger magnetic storms in our atmosphere.

The events in 2024, were unprecedented in strength, mirroring the 2003 storm that caused a temporary radio blackout in Sweden. Though we had evaded any communications blackout of any kind, these solar onslaughts are early indicators of what is about to come. These events typically occur when the sun has reached the peak of its 11-year solar cycle, that sees the magnetic poles flip 180 degrees. Sunspots bubble on the sun’s surface in large numbers during which its magnetic poles flip 180 degrees. This was what happened in 2024. But the sun has not come off its peak completely yet, and it’ll likely take more than a year, which means 2025 is bound to throw up surprise someway or the other. As we come to grasp with these storms’ nature, and their severity and impact, we are reminded that this hazard is rather human-induced.

Adaptation and improving resilience are a vital key in a functioning early warning system, and the calls out from within the policy community is to firmly establish priorities.

In 1859, a super-magnetic storm shut down power supply in several parts of North America and Europe. A similar event today could pose worse damage upon our society, that is reliant upon electricity in every way possible. So far, there are a litany of papers, with a recent one where astronomers analysed distant stars to observe for similar stellar flare and ejections, concluding that our sun could spout out a solar storm more powerful and intense that dwarves the Carrington-event, once in 100 years.

Solar space missions, like India’s Aditya-L1 occupies a vantage point in between the sun and the earth, to observe and intercept CMEs, utilizing an opportunity to gather data, shedding light upon these mammoths. There’s news already about the US’ Parker probe, that has gotten closer to the sun than any orbiter mission so far. It flew closes to the sun’s corona, some 4 million km from the surface, surviving a 1,000-degree Celsius environment, thanks to its carbon foam exterior. Though governments are increasingly aware on these solar storms, but space weather hasn’t been a priority. Brian Cavanaugh, who advised on resilience policy for the recent US president administration, authored an opinion piece in Space News, saying this is the case indeed in the US. Gone amiss rather are the insights into the impacts pace weather can have on our infrastructure resilience.

Adaptation and improving resilience are a vital key in a functioning early warning system, and the calls out from within the policy community is to firmly establish priorities.

Space & Physics

MIT unveils an ultra-efficient 5G receiver that may supercharge future smart devices

A key innovation lies in the chip’s clever use of a phenomenon called the Miller effect, which allows small capacitors to perform like larger ones

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Image credit: Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

A team of MIT researchers has developed a groundbreaking wireless receiver that could transform the future of Internet of Things (IoT) devices by dramatically improving energy efficiency and resilience to signal interference.

Designed for use in compact, battery-powered smart gadgets—like health monitors, environmental sensors, and industrial trackers—the new chip consumes less than a milliwatt of power and is roughly 30 times more resistant to certain types of interference than conventional receivers.

“This receiver could help expand the capabilities of IoT gadgets,” said Soroush Araei, an electrical engineering graduate student at MIT and lead author of the study, in a media statement. “Devices could become smaller, last longer on a battery, and work more reliably in crowded wireless environments like factory floors or smart cities.”

The chip, recently unveiled at the IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Symposium, stands out for its novel use of passive filtering and ultra-small capacitors controlled by tiny switches. These switches require far less power than those typically found in existing IoT receivers.

A key innovation lies in the chip’s clever use of a phenomenon called the Miller effect, which allows small capacitors to perform like larger ones. This means the receiver achieves necessary filtering without relying on bulky components, keeping the circuit size under 0.05 square millimeters.

Credit: Courtesy of the researchers/MIT News

Traditional IoT receivers rely on fixed-frequency filters to block interference, but next-generation 5G-compatible devices need to operate across wider frequency ranges. The MIT design meets this demand using an innovative on-chip switch-capacitor network that blocks unwanted harmonic interference early in the signal chain—before it gets amplified and digitized.

Another critical breakthrough is a technique called bootstrap clocking, which ensures the miniature switches operate correctly even at a low power supply of just 0.6 volts. This helps maintain reliability without adding complex circuitry or draining battery life.

The chip’s minimalist design—using fewer and smaller components—also reduces signal leakage and manufacturing costs, making it well-suited for mass production.

Looking ahead, the MIT team is exploring ways to run the receiver without any dedicated power source—possibly by harvesting ambient energy from nearby Wi-Fi or Bluetooth signals.

The research was conducted by Araei alongside Mohammad Barzgari, Haibo Yang, and senior author Professor Negar Reiskarimian of MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratories.

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Society

Ahmedabad Plane Crash: The Science Behind Aircraft Take-Off -Understanding the Physics of Flight

Take-off is one of the most critical phases of flight, relying on the precise orchestration of aerodynamics, propulsion, and control systems. Here’s how it works:

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On June 12, 2025, a tragic aviation accident struck Ahmedabad, India when a regional passenger aircraft, Air India flight A1-171, crashed during take-off at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. According to preliminary reports, the incident resulted in over 200 confirmed casualties, including both passengers and crew members, and several others are critically injured. The aviation community and scientific world now turn their eyes not just toward the cause but also toward understanding the complex science behind what should have been a routine take-off.

How Do Aircraft Take Off?

Take-off is one of the most critical phases of flight, relying on the precise orchestration of aerodynamics, propulsion, and control systems. Here’s how it works:

1. Lift and Thrust

To leave the ground, an aircraft must generate lift, a force that counters gravity. This is achieved through the unique shape of the wing, called an airfoil, which creates a pressure difference — higher pressure under the wing and lower pressure above — according to Bernoulli’s Principle and Newton’s Third Law.

Simultaneously, engines provide thrust, propelling the aircraft forward. Most commercial jets use turbofan engines, which accelerate air through turbines to generate power.

2. Critical Speeds

Before takeoff, pilots calculate critical speeds:

  • V1 (Decision Speed): The last moment a takeoff can be safely aborted.
  • Vr (Rotation Speed): The speed at which the pilot begins to lift the nose.
  • V2 (Takeoff Safety Speed): The speed needed to climb safely even if one engine fails.

If anything disrupts this process — like bird strikes, engine failure, or runway obstructions — the results can be catastrophic.

Environmental and Mechanical Challenges

Factors like wind shear, runway surface condition, mechanical integrity, or pilot error can interfere with safe take-off. Investigators will be analyzing these very aspects in the Ahmedabad case.

The Bigger Picture

Take-off accounts for a small fraction of total flight time but is disproportionately associated with accidents — approximately 14% of all aviation accidents occur during take-off or initial climb.

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Space & Physics

MIT claims breakthrough in simulating physics of squishy, elastic materials

In a series of experiments, the new solver demonstrated its ability to simulate a diverse array of elastic behaviors, ranging from bouncing geometric shapes to soft, squishy characters

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Image credit: Courtesy of researchers

Researchers at MIT claim to have unveiled a novel physics-based simulation method that significantly improves stability and accuracy when modeling elastic materials — a key development for industries spanning animation, engineering, and digital fabrication.

In a series of experiments, the new solver demonstrated its ability to simulate a diverse array of elastic behaviors, ranging from bouncing geometric shapes to soft, squishy characters. Crucially, it maintained important physical properties and remained stable over long periods of time — an area where many existing methods falter.

Other simulation techniques frequently struggled in tests: some became unstable and caused erratic behavior, while others introduced excessive damping that distorted the motion. In contrast, the new method preserved elasticity without compromising reliability.

“Because our method demonstrates more stability, it can give animators more reliability and confidence when simulating anything elastic, whether it’s something from the real world or even something completely imaginary,” Leticia Mattos Da Silva, a graduate student at MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, said in a media statement.

Their study, though not yet peer-reviewed or published, will be presented at the August proceedings of the SIGGRAPH conference in Vancouver, Canada.

While the solver does not prioritize speed as aggressively as some tools, it avoids the accuracy and robustness trade-offs often associated with faster methods. It also sidesteps the complexity of nonlinear solvers, which are commonly used in physics-based approaches but are often sensitive and prone to failure.

Looking ahead, the research team aims to reduce computational costs and broaden the solver’s applications. One promising direction is in engineering and fabrication, where accurate elastic simulations could enhance the design of real-world products such as garments, medical devices, and toys.

“We were able to revive an old class of integrators in our work. My guess is there are other examples where researchers can revisit a problem to find a hidden convexity structure that could offer a lot of advantages,” Mattos Da Silva added.

The study opens new possibilities not only for digital content creation but also for practical design fields that rely on predictive simulations of flexible materials.

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