Muhammad Ali, 'The Greatest Of All Time', Dies At 74

Former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, the most important, complex and polarizing athlete of our time, died Friday night at an Arizona hospital. He was 74. He had suffered for decades from Parkinson's disease, a progressive neurological disorder, and was being treated in the hospital in recent days for a respiratory issue. "After a 32-year battle with Parkinson's disease, Muhammad Ali has passed away. . . . The three-time World Heavyweight Champion boxer died this evening," Bob Gunnell, a family spokesman, told NBC News. Ali may not have been the world's greatest athlete, or even the best boxer of all time - though he is certainly in both discussions. What is indisputable, though, is he was the most beautiful athlete we had ever seen, and likely ever will again - beautiful not so much in the common sense of physical attraction, but in the classical sense, the platonic sense. He was beautiful in motion, the way he danced in the ring - the patented Ali Shuffle - as he circled another victim. And he was beautiful in complete stillness, as in the many iconic photographs of him: standing over Sonny Liston in 1965, his arm cocked in rage; leaning on the rope, glistening with sweat, during a break from training; delivering a devastating right hook to Joe Frazier; clowning with the Beatles; mugging for the camera.

Arsenal transfer news and rumours: Gunners eyeing THREE striker options?

PLUS: Jordan Lukaku, brother of Everton striker Romelu, believes his style of play would suit the Premier League - and has admitted to being an Arsenal fan. Arsenal could move for Batshuayi Arsenal are reportedly considering making a bid for Marseille forward Michy Batshuayi after Danny Welbeck was ruled out for nine months. The Daily Star say Arsenal have been watching the Belgian closely this season and will enquire as to his availability this summer. Batshuayi, 22, has scored 21 times in 48 appearances this season but L'OM endured a torrid campaign as a whole, finishing 13th in the table. Lukaku "a fan of Arsenal" Speaking to The Set Pieces, Lukaku said: “Do I see myself as a Premier League-bound? “I don’t know, but it’s a league that would suit me. I have always been a fan of Arsenal, but I am mad about every Premier League club as long as the club doesn’t have to fight against relegation.” The 21-year-old currently plays for Oostende in the Belgian Pro League. Arsenal could turn to Morata Danny Welbeck's devastating injury blow could force Arsenal to step up their pursuit of a new striker, writes MirrorFootball's John Cross. The England man has undergone surgery on his right knee after suffering a serious cartilage injury in Arsenal’s draw at Manchester City on Sunday. The heartbreaking news comes on top of Welbeck missing 10 months with an injury to his other knee and he had only just returned in February. It will also push the Gunners into the market this summer with Juventus striker Alvaro Morata their top target. Arsenal have also looked at Inter Milan striker Mauro Icardi but if Morata - Real Madrid have a buy-back option which may push through the deal - becomes available then he will be their number one. Gunners eye Guirassy Arsene Wenger is eyeing a move for little-known French striker Sehrou Guirassy, writes MirrorFootball's John Cross. Arsenal boss Wenger has been alerted to the 20-year-old Lille starlet, who has impressed while on loan at French second division club Auxerre. In much the way the Gunners signed Yaya Sanogo from Auxerre three years ago at the same age, Guirassy is seen as one for the future. Sanogo has started just two Premier League games and scored just a single goal for Arsenal, while being sent on loan to Crystal palace, Charlton and Dutch side Ajax.

Around U : 3. Li-ion battery

                                                     LITHIUM- ION   CELL

Li-ion cell is a rechargeable battery in which Li-ionoves between anode and cathode during charging and discharging.It is more popular than other batteries because of the various characteristics of lithium.Li has higher negative value for reduction potential and a lower atomic mass than any other metal.Only 6.94 g of Li is needed to provide one mole of electrons.
In typical litium ion  cell ,the positive electrode is made by using a crystalline mixed oxide Li2O.Co2O3 or LiCoO2.The crystal contains both Li+ ion and Co3+ ion occupying the voids of the oxide array.Such crystals are usually synthesised by hydrolysis of the respective salt under hydrothermal condition.The negative terminal is made of graphite .The electrolyte is a solution of Li salt ,in an organic solvent such as ether or a solid phase polymer electrolyte which can transport Li+ ion.
   Charging:-
            During charging the cell act as an electrolytic cell,the electrical energy is                            converted into chemical energy.
             At Anode (+) :
                    Some Li + ions get removed from the crystal lattice .and in the respective                             lattice site Co3+ ion get oxidized to Co4+ and electrical neutrality is                                         maintained in the lattice.
             At Cathode (-) :
                     The Li ion produced at the Anode get migrated through the electrolyte and                        get reduced to lithium atom at the graphite electrode.Li atoms are inserted                         between the layers of carbon atoms.This so called lithiated graphite                                     , containing no Li metal as such.
   Discharging
              During discharging ,the cell acts as electro chemical cell,the chemical energy is                  converted to electrical energy.When the cell act as electrochemical cell ,LiCoO2                  act as Cathode ,while the graphite act as anode.
Lithium ion cell is based on LiCoO2 has an EMF of 3.7 V.The cell is having high energy to weight ratio.They are used in cell phones,laptop computers,digital camera etc.The cell is not suitable for making large size of battery because of possibility of explosion.
Another type of Li-ion cell has been developed based on active materials like LiFePO4. The cell is having a potential of 3.3 v.The cell is suitable for making large size batteries suitable for automobile application.

Takeaway: does plasma have super powers?

Materials touched by plasma have their physics changed. Here we show a tissue before plasma treatment, the liquid is quickly absorbed. Then the tissue is passed through plasma, it gets a nanoscale chemical coating.

Amsterdam’s Fab City: urban solutions for tomorrow

Imagining tomorrow’s sustainable, self-sufficient city: that is the goal of Fab City, a global project which started in Barcelona two years ago and is currently being tested in Amsterdam. Located at the head of Java Island in the city’s Eastern Harbour District, it includes 50 innovative pavilions, where more than 400 students, professionals, artists and creatives are working on finding solutions to urban issues. Porta Palace is a tiny home on wheels recently completed by a Dutch art and design collective. Fixed on a trailer, this 18 square metre mobile home is built with eco-friendly materials. It is timber-framed and covered with a steel roof, and contains a small living area with a kitchen, a toilet, a shower, and a double bed located over the coffee table. “People are really surprised that there is so much space in such a small house,” says Woonpioners project manager Jelte Glas. “Also, (they are surprised) because we use a lot of glass and it is open and looks so open and interacts really with the environment.” The Porta Palace will set you back approximately 35,000 euros. Wikkelhouse is a module concept house mostly built out of cardboard. Different modules are created which can then be assembled according to the home-owners wishes and needs. Each module is made by gluing 24 layers of cardboard around a rotating house-shaped mould, using eco-friendly glue. The structure is then covered with wood frames to protect it from physical impact and UV rays from the sun. Its developers say the result is a robust sandwich structure with optimal insulation qualities. “This is already a little house that I could live in,” says Oep Schilling, the founder of Fiction Factory, the company behind Wikkelhouse, holding up one module. “But now I want a kitchen, and I want a toilet. So we make this element where it’s all in it: I put my kitchen in it, and I put one behind it (the original module), I put another one behind it and now I have a bedroom. So this is already like a house, which is built within a week.” The price per module is about 3,500 euros. If you add concrete foundations, additional construction elements, a pre-fabricated kitchen, toilet and bathroom, the end price of a home comes to around 70,000 euros. And what about equipping your sustainable home with equally sustainable 3D printed elements? That’s what Dutch company MX3D proposes. It has developed a six-axis industrial robot arm with an advanced welding machine controlled by software. The printer proposes a wide variety of objects made of metal or resin, without the need for support structures. The company’s founder says his 3D technology has a significant advantage over ordinary 3D printers, and wants to prove it by printing a pedestrian bridge made of steel in the centre of Amsterdam. “Normal 3D printers have to operate in a building volume like this (holds hands apart) and we can go meters big. So building a bridge is really a leap from where we are now with the current technique. This is our true innovation,” says Gijs van der Velden, the founder of MX3D. Amsterdam’s Fab City campus is open to the public until June 26.

Girl to be fitted with 3D printed ear in Australia

Two-year old Maia was born with only one ear due to a congenital deformity called microtia, and currently wears a headband that transmits sound to her brain using her skull as a bone conductor. But new 3D technology being developed at Queensland University of Technology in Australia means Maia could soon receive a prosthetic ear that would cost less than a pair of glasses. “She’s full of confidence. She’s full of love and life and I don’t want to take that away from her. It’s obviously going to be heartbreaking but the fact we can actually say no it’s okay, you will have an ear,” says Maia’s mother Chloe. This promising technology is far less expensive than common prosthetic solutions. The whole procedure could cost as little as two hundred dollars per child. If successful, its inventors hope to eventually use it to print other body parts. “Nobody’s ever 3D printed ear prosthetics before. I think the ability to 3D print an ear prosthetic will cost the public less than a pair of glasses,” says Mia Woodruff, Associate Professor at Queensland University of Technology. The project comes in two stages. The first is a short-term ‘cosmetic’ solution: a 3D prosthetic ear is made in medical silicone and attached magnetically or with surgical glue. The long-term stage is far more ambitious and revolves around a complex bioengineering solution. The goal is to develop a procedure for growing a 3D ear from the patient’s own cells using a special bioreactor. After a few weeks of growing, it could then be surgically implanted along with a custom bionic construction. Researchers believe that the 3D printed ears could be available within two years. Though the project is still in its infancy, Maia’s parents are hoping it could deeply change their daughter’s life.

Kiel students take Tetris to a whole new level

It is one of the most successful, and most played, video games of all time, a simple concept that has proved to be of near-universal appeal and which has grown beyond the wildest dreams of its inventor. And now Tetris is even bigger, not to say larger than life. Fans can now play the game on a 15- story building at the University of Kiel campus in northern Germany. Four students dedicated a year of their bachelor’s degrees to creating the display. Project coordinator Jonas Lutz, who initially came up with the idea, explains: “What we have done is we have this high-rise building with 392 windows. We put a light in each of the windows. They are all connected over a network and the internet to a computer that controls each light – making a 1,700 inch display. Then, when you have this display you have to decide what to do with it. We decided to start by playing Tetris, so that’s what we have done.” The LED panels are each 70 centimetres long. Each contains 144 LED lights, meaning that a total of 56,448 LED lights are used in the installation. According to the University, the games use 56.5 kilowatt-hours if played for four hours per night, at a cost of 11.25 euros. The total budget for the project, called “Project Lighthouse”, was 30,000 euros, and it was funded entirely by donations. Most of the budget went on the hardware, the LED light panels and the 196 network communication boxes that connect the lights to the software. Lutz, who is studying for a bachelor’s degree in Business Informatics, has worked unpaid for a year on the project, for five credits towards his studies. So, why did he do it? “Why? Well, mostly for fun. But I also wanted to see what me and the team can do. What have we learnt from our studies? And that is what we came up with,” he says. The resolution is not great compared to most smartphones, but it is certainly enough for Tetris. Two other games have been added; Snake and Pong, and the students are working on adding more. At the moment Lutz and his team just turn the game on for special occasions such as orientation days, university parties and when international guests come to visit.