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Laser-Induced Graphene Shows Promise in the Development of Flexible Electronics SPONSOR – ZEN Graphene Solutions $ZEN.ca $LLG.ca $FMS.ca

Posted by AGORACOM at 11:37 AM on Thursday, February 20th, 2020

SPONSOR: ZEN Graphene Solutions: An emerging advanced materials and graphene development company with a focus on new solutions using pure graphene and other two-dimensional materials. Our competitive advantage relies on the unique qualities of our multi-decade supply of precursor materials in the Albany Graphite Deposit. Independent labs in Japan, UK, Israel, USA and Canada confirm this. Click here for more information

Scientists at Rice University have made laser-induced graphene using a low-power laser mounted in a scanning electron microscope.

The team at Rice University, in conjunction with Philip Rack, a Tennessee/ORNL materials scientist, have pioneered a process to create laser-induced graphene (LIG). LIG has features that are 60% smaller than the macro version of the material and almost 10 times smaller than what can be typically achieved using an infrared laser. 

The LIG Process

LIG is a multifunctional graphene foam that is direct-written with an infrared laser into a carbon-based precursor material. In the Rice team’s research, this was achieved using a visible 405 nm laser that directly converts polyimide into LIG, enabling the formation of LIG with a spatial resolution of 12 µm and a thickness of < 5 µm. This spatial resolution, enabled by the smaller-focused spot size of the 405 nm laser, represents a 60% reduction in previously reported LIG feature sizes. 

These smaller 405 nm lasers use light in the blue-violet part of the spectrum. They are much less powerful than the industrial lasers that are currently being used to burn graphene into materials. 

“A key for electronics applications is to make smaller structures so that one could have a higher density, or more devices per unit area,” James Tour of Rice University said in a statement. “This method allows us to make structures that are 10 times denser than we formerly made.”

A scanning electron microscope shows two tracers of LIG on a polyimide film.
A scanning electron microscope shows two tracers of LIG on a polyimide film. Image used courtesy of James Tour of Rice University

A New Path Toward Writing Electronic Circuits 

To prove the viability of their concept, the researchers made tiny flexible humidity sensors directly fabricated on polyimide. These devices were then able to sense human breath in 250 milliseconds. 

“This is much faster than the sampling rate for most commercial humidity sensors and enables the monitoring of rapid local humidity changes that can be caused by breathing,” said Rice postdoctoral researcher Michael Stanford, lead author of the research team’s paper. 

The 405 nm laser is mounted on a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and burns the top five microns of the polymer. This writes graphene features as small as 12 microns. 

The Rice team believes that this new LIG process could offer a new path toward writing electronic circuits into flexible materials such as clothing. 

“The LIG process will allow graphene to be directly synthesized for precise electronics applications on surfaces,” added Stanford. With growing interest in the LIG process for use in flexible electronics and sensors, further refinement of this process will expand its utility and potentially see it being used in a range of flexible electronics across all industries.

SOURCE: https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/news/laser-induced-graphene-shows-promise-in-the-development-of-flexible-electronics/

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BEYOND THE DECK: $HPQ.ca Silicon Shares Its PowerPoint Presentation With Investors $FSLR $SPWR $CSIQ $PYR.ca $XMG.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 9:21 AM on Thursday, February 20th, 2020

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$LMR.ca The Media Is Waking Up to EVs and Battery Materials – Lomiko Metals $CJC.ca $SRG.ca $NGC.ca $LLG.ca $GPH.ca $NOU.ca

Posted by AGORACOM at 5:20 PM on Wednesday, February 19th, 2020

SPONSOR: Lomiko Metals is focused on the exploration and development of minerals for the new green economy such as lithium and graphite. Lomiko owns 80% of the high-grade La Loutre graphite Property, Lac Des Iles Graphite Property and the 100% owned Quatre Milles Graphite Property. Lomiko is uniquely poised to supply the growing EV battery market. Click Here For More Information

A. Paul Gill, CEO Lomiko Metals Inc. VP Business Development, appears on Michael Campbell’s MoneyTalks podcast, A financial show syndicated Canada-wide on the radio.

Money Talks – February 15 Complete Show: move forward to minute 14:22

https://omny.fm/shows/money-talks-with-michael-campbell/money-talks-february-15-complete-show

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The Rise of Deepfakes SPONSOR: Datametrex AI Limited $DM.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 2:45 PM on Wednesday, February 19th, 2020

SPONSOR: Datametrex AI Limited (TSX-V: DM) A revenue generating small cap A.I. company that NATO and Canadian Defence are using to fight fake news & social media threats. The company announced three $1M contacts in Q3-2019. Click here for more info.

The Rise of Deepfakes

  • Deepfakes are synthetic media in which a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else’s likeness
  • In recent months videos of influential celebrities and politicians have surfaced displaying a false and augmented reality of one’s believes or gestures

JMSCORY

Deepfakes leverage powerful techniques from machine learning and artificial intelligence to manipulate and generate visual and audio content with a high potential to deceive. The purpose of this article is to enhance and promote efforts into research and development and not to promote or aid in the creation of nefarious content.

Introduction

Deepfakes are synthetic media in which a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else’s likeness. In recent months videos of influential celebrities and politicians have surfaced displaying a false and augmented reality of one’s believes or gestures.

Whilst deep learning has been successfully applied to solve various complex problems ranging from big data analytics to that of computer vision the need to control the content generated is crucial alongside that of it’s availability to the public.

Within recent months, a number of mitigation mechanisms have been proposed and cited with the use of Neural Networks and Artificial Intelligence being at the heart of them. From this, we can distinguish that a proposal for technologies that can automatically detect and assess the integrity of visual media is therefore indispensable and in great need if we wish to fight back against adversarial attacks. (Nguyen, 2019)

Early 2017

Deepfakes as we know them first started to gain attention in December 2017, after Vice’s Samantha Cole published an article on Motherboard.

The article talks about the manipulation of celebrity faces to recreate famous scenes and how this technology can be misused for blackmail and illicit purposes.

The videos were significant because they marked the first notable instance of a single person who was able to easily and quickly create high-quality and convincing deepfakes.

Cole goes on to highlight the juxtaposition in society as these tools are made free by corporations for students to gain sufficient knowledge and key skills to enhance their general studies at University and school.

Open-source machine learning tools like TensorFlow, which Google makes freely available to researchers, graduate students, and anyone with an interest in machine learning. — Samantha Cole

Whilst deepfakes have the potential to differ in general quality from previous efforts of superimposing faces onto other bodies. A good deepfake, created by Artificial Intelligence that has been trained on hours of high-quality footage creates such extremely high-quality content humans struggle to understand whether it is real or not. In turn, researches have shown interest in developing neural networks to help understand the accuracy of such videos. From this, they are able to then distinguish them as fake.

In general, a good deepfake can be found where the insertions around the mouth are seamless alongside having smooth head movements and appropriate coloration to surroundings. Gone have the days of simply superimposing a head onto a body and animating it by hand as the erroneous is still noticeable leading to dead context and mismatches.

Early 2018

In January 2018, a proprietary desktop application called FakeApp was launched. This app allows users to easily create and share videos with their faces swapped with each other. As of 2019, FakeApp has been superseded by open-source alternatives such as Faceswap and the command line-based DeepFaceLab. (Nguyen, 2019)

With the availability of this technology being so high, websites such as GitHub have sprung to life in offering new mythologies of combatting such attacks. Within the paper ‘Using Capsule Networks To Detect Forged Images and Videos’ Huy goes on to talk about the ability to use forged images and videos to bypass facial authentication systems in secure environments.

The quality of manipulated images and videos has seen significant improvement with the development of advanced network architectures and the use of large amounts of training data that previously wasn’t available.

Later 2018

Platforms such as Reddit start to ban deepfakes after fake news and videos that started circling from specific communities on their site. Reddit took it on themself to delete these communities in a stride to protect their own.

A few days later BuzzFeed publishes a frighteningly realistic video that went viral. The video showed Barack Obama in a deepfake. Unlike the University of Washington video, Obama was made to say words that weren’t his own, in turn helping to raise light to this technology.

Below is a video BuzzFeed created with Jordan Peele as part of a campaign to raise awareness of this software.

Early 2019

In the last year, several manipulated videos of politicians and other high-profile individuals have gone viral, highlighting the continued dangers of deepfakes, and forcing large platforms to take a position.

Following BuzzFeed’s disturbingly realistic Obama deepfake, instances of manipulated videos of other high-profile subjects began to go viral, and seemingly fool millions of people online.

Despite most of the videos being even more crude than deepfakes — using rudimentary film editing rather than AI — the videos sparked sustained concern about the power of deepfakes and other forms of video manipulation while forcing technology companies to take a stance on what to do with such content. (Business Insider, 2019).

Source: https://medium.com/swlh/the-rise-of-deepfakes-19972498487a

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#Palladium Surges to Record Despite Slowdown Concerns in China SPONSOR: New Age Metals $NAM.ca $WG.ca $XTM.ca $WM.ca $PDL.ca $GLEN

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 2:23 PM on Wednesday, February 19th, 2020

SPONSOR: New Age Metals Inc. The company owns one of North America’s largest primary platinum group metals deposit in Sudbury, Canada. Updated NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate 2,867,000 PdEq Measured and Indicated Ounces, with an additional 1,059,000 PdEq Ounces Inferred. Learn More.

Palladium Surges to Record Despite Slowdown Concerns in China

  • Palladium prices have surged on high demand from automakers seeking to meet stricter emission standards as world governments look to combat climate change and growing pollution levels.

By Max Chen

The palladium ETF rallied Tuesday, with palladium prices hitting record highs, even as the coronavirus outbreak threatens to shutdown carmakers and delay industrial plants in China, the world’s biggest consumer of the precious metal.

The Aberdeen Standard Physical Palladium Shares ETF (NYSEArca: PALL), which seeks to reflect the performance of the price of physical palladium, advanced 6.1% Tuesday while the palladium spot price rose 2.9% to $2,593.8 per ounce.

Palladium prices have surged on high demand from automakers seeking to meet stricter emission standards as world governments look to combat climate change and growing pollution levels.

Meanwhile, the coronavirus outbreak has disrupted normal car production in China as factors were forced to stop operations to curtail the spread of the contagion, the Wall Street Journal reports. For example, Germany’s Volkswagen AG postponed production at some of its Chinese-operated plants until next week as the quarantine of nearly 60 million people limits transportation of both parts and workers.

While the work has diminished short-term demand, palladium prices still jumped to record highs on ongoing supply constraints, with miners producing less of the precious metal.

“It’s the most dysfunctional market I’ve ever seen in my life,” Michael Widmer, an analyst at Bank of America, told the WSJ, adding that car manufacturers could be forced to electrify their vehicle fleets faster than previously planned if palladium keeps getting more expensive.

Palladium demand has surged in recent years as the European Union and China implemented stricter car emission standards, amid concerns over the impact of certain pollutants on public health. Consequently, palladium, which applied to catalytic converters that are fitted to gasoline-driven cars, is in high demand as a highly effective way to convert toxic gases like carbon monoxide into substances that are less toxic to inhale.

Almost all gasoline cars manufactured in China this year will be held to the new emissions standards, or up from two-thirds in 2019. Consequently, U.K.’s Johnson Matthey calculated that this will increase the average amount of palladium required in each catalyst and could lift global demand for the precious metal in the auto sector above 10 million ounces.

On the other hand, supply has not been as quick to meet the rise in demand. Palladium is typically produced as a byproduct of palladium, and miners don’t want to inundate the weak platinum market with even more supply.

Consequently, Anglo American Platinum Ltd projected that global demand for palladium will exceed production by 1.9 million ounces in 2020.

Source: https://www.etftrends.com/alternatives-channel/palladium-etf-surges-to-record-despite-slowdown-concerns-in-china/

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North Bud Farms $NBUD.ca Announces Name Change and Provides U.S. Update $CGC $ACB $APH $CRON.ca $OGI.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 9:39 AM on Wednesday, February 19th, 2020
  • Harvested approximately 400 lbs of various grades and strains of cannabis
  • Received a California state processing licence in addition to the existing five cultivation, extraction and distribution licenses it acquired from the Qlora Group in 2019
  • Harvested 40 lbs of high-grade cannabis testing at approximately 20% THC in Reno

TORONTO, Feb. 19, 2020 — North Bud Farms Inc. (CSE: NBUD) (OTCQB: NOBDF) (“NORTHBUD” or the “Company“) is pleased to provide shareholders with an update on our U.S. operations, Bonfire Brands USA (“Bonfire”).

Salinas, California

To date, the Company has harvested approximately 400 lbs of various grades and strains of cannabis. As anticipated, the winter season yields were moderate with large flowers testing at approximately 19% THC. The Company has sold approximately 50% of the harvest in wholesale quantities. The Company expects its next harvest in 60 days and is looking for an incremental increase in quality and yield. The Company will provide revenue updates at the end of the quarter.

Licensing

The Company is pleased to announce it has received a California state processing licence in addition to the existing five cultivation, extraction and distribution licenses it acquired from the Qlora Group in 2019. This new licence will allow the Company to process, package and distribute cannabis and cannabis products acquired from other licensed producers in the state on a pay per use basis.

“Maximizing revenue streams in California where established and highly regulated retail and distribution models exist has required new entrants to operate within all verticals,” said Justin Braune, President, Bonfire Brands USA. “This strategy requires significant capital expenditures and has historically proven very difficult to execute. By leveraging our strategic infrastructure into agreements with established operators, Bonfire expects to increase revenue streams and achieve profitability quicker with lower capital expenditure risks.”

“I am very pleased by the significant progress made by our California team in their short time since we completed the acquisition of the Qlora Group,” said Sean Homuth, CEO of NORTHBUD. “In an industry that has seen companies struggle to manage high infrastructure costs while navigating ever evolving distribution landscapes, the anticipated revenue from this model will be very crucial for the Company as we move towards achieving EBITDA positive operations.”
   
Reno, Nevada

To date, the Company has harvested 40 lbs of high-grade cannabis testing at approximately 20% THC. This product is being sold under the NORTHBUD brand to select retailers in Reno and Las Vegas and represents the first revenue in Nevada for Bonfire Brands.  The Company will update the market further at the end of the quarter.

The Company has begun construction of two additional cultivation and processing rooms which will increase annual revenue capacity by 40%. With recent cost cutting measures implemented post acquisition, the Company believes it is on track to bring the Nevada operation to cash flow positive in the first quarter of 2020.     

The Company has entered into a third-party service agreement with LTH Logistics (“LTH”), a licensed third-party distribution and delivery company. As per the terms of the agreement, LTH will provide these third-party services under the distribution licence of Nevada Botanical Sciences with revenue generated being split 60/40 in favor of Bonfire Brands USA.

“Similar to California, many Nevada licensees have been operating across all verticals,” said Justin Braune, President, Bonfire Brands USA. “Bonfire has chosen to reduce execution risk and minimize capital expenditures by working with established operators who seek to benefit from our strategic infrastructure, which will allow the company will expedite its progression towards EBITDA positive operations.”  

Corporate Name Change

As approved at our recent annual shareholder meeting, the Company will officially change its name to Bonfire Holdings Inc. The Company has reserved and will begin trading under the ticker symbol BURN in the near future. The Company believes this better represents the vision and structure of the Company moving forward.  The Company owns brands such as NORTHBUD, California Bud Co., Live For The Day (LFTD) and Trichomic and manufactures and distributes Happiest Hour beverages in the state of Nevada.  

About North Bud Farms Inc.

North Bud Farms Inc., through its U.S. subsidiary Bonfire Brands USA, has acquired cannabis production facilities in California and in Nevada. The Salinas, California 11-acre farm is actively cultivating cannabis in its 60,000 sq. ft. of licensed greenhouse production space. The Reno, Nevada property is located on 3.2 acres of land which was acquired through the acquisition of Nevada Botanical Science, Inc. a world class cannabis production, research and development facility with 5,000 sq. ft. of indoor cultivation which holds medical and adult use licenses for cultivation, extraction and distribution. Through its wholly owned Canadian subsidiary, GrowPros MMP Inc., the Company is pursuing a licence under The Cannabis Act, to cultivate in its state-of-the-art purpose-built cannabis production facility located on 135 acres of Agricultural Land in Low, Quebec, Canada.

For more information visit: www.northbud.com

Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-looking statements
Certain statements included in this press release constitute forward-looking information or statements (collectively, “forward-looking statements”), including but not limited to those identified by the expressions “anticipate”, “believe”, “plan”, “estimate”, “expect”, “intend”, “may”, “should” and similar expressions to the extent they relate to the Company or its management. Forward-looking statements are not historical facts but reflect current expectations regarding future results or events. This press release contains forward-looking statements that include, but are not limited to, statements relating to the Company’s California, Nevada operations and its corporate name change to Bonfire Holdings Inc. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and various estimates, factors and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, the risk factors included in the Company’s final long form prospectus dated August 21, 2018, which is available under the Company’s SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. 

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
North Bud Farms Inc.
Edward Miller
VP, IR & Communications
Office: (855) 628-3420 ext. 3
[email protected]

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‘Wake up, Zuck’: Protesters gather outside of Facebook founder’s home, demand regulation of political ads SPONSOR: Datametrex AI Limited $DM.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 5:05 PM on Tuesday, February 18th, 2020

SPONSOR: Datametrex AI Limited (TSX-V: DM) A revenue generating small cap A.I. company that NATO and Canadian Defence are using to fight fake news & social media threats. The company announced three $1M contacts in Q3-2019. Click here for more info.

‘Wake up, Zuck’: Protesters gather outside of Facebook founder’s home, demand regulation of political ads

By Loi Almeron and Julian Mark

On Monday morning around 10 a.m., around 50 protesters gathered outside of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s home in the Mission District in protest of the social media giant’s use of personal data and refusal to regulate misleading political advertisements.

“We’re sick and tired of waiting for the government to regulate Facebook,” said Tracy Rosenberg, the executive director of Media Alliance and one of the protest’s organizers. “You’re profiting off of us — you’re selling our information.”

The protesters chanted “Wake up Zuck!” and “fake news, real hate” and carried signs that said “Stop the Lies, Protect our democracy” and “break up Facebook.” In colorful chalk on the sidewalk in  front of the house, demonstrators wrote phrases like: “Facebook is a Russian asset”; “don’t sell my private data”; and “history will write your epitaph as the man who broke democracy.”

In November, Twitter outright banned political ads, and Google said it would limit the targeting of political ads on its search engine and on its video streaming platform YouTube. Facebook has resisted such changes in policy in the face of criticism.

Zuckerberg in December told CBS This Morning that, “in a democracy,” people should “make their own judgments” about what politicians say. “I don’t think a private company should be censoring politicians or news,” he said.

But protesters say that very mindset is destroying democracy, rather than upholding its values.

“We like many others and the organizations that put this rally together feel that Facebook is a dramatic threat to our democratic systems around the world,” said Ted Lewis, an activist with Global Exchange, an organization that advocates for human rights and alternatives to capitalism. “Facebook needs to take responsibility for what they’re doing — they need to get the lies off of their platform.”

Lewis said, specifically, Facebook’s hands-off policy around political advertising is especially troubling. “Political advertising could contain the most blatant falsehood and they refuse to do anything about it,” Lewis said.

Zuckerberg is likely not spending his President’s Day holiday inside of his Mission District manse — as he has some 10 places to call “home” and mainly resides in Palo Alto.

Other protesters bemoaned Facebook’s laissez-faire approach to the spread of misinformation, especially as the 2020 presidential election nears. “You can say anything you want,” said Erin Fisher, an activist with Campaign to Regulate and Break Up Big Tech. “Facebook is the most important. They’re monetizing propaganda.”

“This is one of the pillars of the fight in 2020,” Fisher said, referring to the upcoming November election.

By around 11 a.m. protesters largely dispersed and a few police officers supervised the scene.

Photo by Loi Almeron

Tracy Rosenberg (left), the executive director of Media Alliance, holds a bullhorn.

Source: https://missionlocal.org/2020/02/wake-up-zuck-protesters-gather-outside-of-facebook-founders-home-demand-regulation-

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INDUSTRY BULLETIN: David Jensen: As #Palladium Continues To Soar, Is #Platinum Next… SPONSOR: New Age Metals $NAM.ca $WG.ca $XTM.ca $WM.ca $PDL.ca $GLEN

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 4:51 PM on Tuesday, February 18th, 2020

SPONSOR: New Age Metals Inc. The company owns one of North America’s largest primary platinum group metals deposit in Sudbury, Canada. Updated NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate 2,867,000 PdEq Measured and Indicated Ounces, with an additional 1,059,000 PdEq Ounces Inferred. Learn More.

David Jensen: As Palladium Continues To Soar, Is Platinum Next…

Chris Marcus, Arcadia Economics

Most in the Wall Street mainstream have yet to notice that the price of palladium has more than doubled in the past 2 years. As the market continues to show signs of a shortage, with no easy resolution in sight. Which David Jensen of Jensen Strategic has been far ahead of the markets in forecasting.

So I was fortunate to have David join me on the show and explain what’s happening. Explain how the imbalance is going to have to be resolved. And share what he’s now seeing in the platinum market, where the lease rate indicates a similar pattern might soon be underway.

Of course this does have the potential to filter over to the other precious metals markets like gold and silver. So to find out what’s happening from the man who forecast it over a year in advance, click to watch the interview now!

Source: David Jensen: As Palladium Continues To Soar, Is Platinum Next…

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Graphene – Meet The Material of The Future That’s 200 Times Stronger Than Steel SPONSOR – ZEN Graphene Solutions $ZEN.ca $LLG.ca $FMS.ca $NGC.ca $CVE.ca $DNI.ca

Posted by AGORACOM at 6:40 PM on Friday, February 14th, 2020

SPONSOR: ZEN Graphene Solutions: An emerging advanced materials and graphene development company with a focus on new solutions using pure graphene and other two-dimensional materials. Our competitive advantage relies on the unique qualities of our multi-decade supply of precursor materials in the Albany Graphite Deposit. Independent labs in Japan, UK, Israel, USA and Canada confirm this. Click here for more information

Graphene has been dubbed the material of the future for its unbelievable strength and the myriad of potential applications it offers and European researchers have just released the first-ever manual on how to produce it.

The manual was released by the Graphene Flagship consortium composed of universities and companies. Founded in 2013, it is one of the three big EU-funded science projects with a budget of over €1 billion until 2023.

The consortium hopes the manual will boost the uptake of the material which has the potential to revolutionise whole industries.

Graphene is a layer of carbon atoms obtained from graphite, which we can find, for example, in the tip of a pencil.

Arranged in a honeycomb-like pattern, it is 200 times stronger than steel, harder than diamond, and carries both heat and electricity better than any other material including gold or copper. And it’s also a million times smaller than a strand of hair.

Seventy researchers participated in the elaboration of the free, 500-pages manual.

“It’s a big book that encompasses the description of many of the most important methods to produce graphene and other two dimensional materials,” Mar García Hernández, from Graphene Flagship told Euronews.

Researchers from Graphene Flagship have shown that at least 1,800 different layered materials exit but so far, only a few have truly been investigated.

“For any application of graphene or related materials, you need first to be able to make it. For this reason, a book or a paper that gives you precise details on how to make these materials, how to characterise them, how to transfer them from the good substrate to the final substrate is going to be very useful,” Andrea Ferrari, Graphene Flagship’s Science and Technology Officer told Euronews.

The material’s flexibility and resilience mean it can be used in a variety of industries such as aeronautics, space exploration, medicine, energy or electronics.

Last December, Graphene Flagship partnered with some of Europe’s biggest companies including Airbus, Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles, Lufthansa Technik, Siemens and ABB among others to take graphene-enabled prototypes to commercial applications.

One of the projects will develop state-of-the-art vision sensors, which could be critical for the safe functioning of self-driving cars while another will use graphene-based filters to remove contaminants such as pesticides and dangerous pathogens from drinking water.

SOURCE: https://www.euronews.com/2020/02/13/graphene-meet-the-material-of-the-future-that-s-200-times-stronger-than-steel

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Tesla’s Advantage With Its Battery Technology — Low Cost SPONSOR: Lomiko Metals $LMR.ca $CJC.ca $SRG.ca $NGC.ca $LLG.ca $GPH.ca $NOU.ca

Posted by AGORACOM at 3:26 PM on Friday, February 14th, 2020

SPONSOR: Lomiko Metals is focused on the exploration and development of minerals for the new green economy such as lithium and graphite. Lomiko owns 80% of the high-grade La Loutre graphite Property, Lac Des Iles Graphite Property and the 100% owned Quatre Milles Graphite Property. Lomiko is uniquely poised to supply the growing EV battery market. Click Here For More Information

  • Tesla’s cost per kWh for battery packs was approaching $150/kWh last year while others were at a price of $200/kWh

It appears Tesla has an advantage over its rivals, such as GM and Porsche, when it comes to the new battery technology that it is developing. Tesla has long been a leader on EV batteries, for years seeming to have a significantly lower cost (cost per kWh of capacity) for batteries than others. A big part of that is because Tesla in-houses the work. It appears Tesla is making significant progress on this again with new developments.

The managing director of Cairn Energy Research Advisors, Sam Jaffe, recently noted that Tesla’s cost per kWh for battery packs was approaching $150/kWh last year while others were at a price of $200/kWh. Jaffe also tells CNBC that “Tesla has really revolutionized that part of the battery pack and made it much more sophisticated, and it gives them a competitive advantage.” Indeed. We definitely have a lot to look forward to on Tesla’s Battery Day.

Ten or so years ago, the idea of owning an EV seemed rather absurd. EVs were known to be super expensive due to the battery costs, and since they were new, everyday Americans weren’t willing to spend the money to beta test them.

Fast forward ten years. Tesla has advanced the auto industry tremendously with EVs, and a big part of that was through a core component of EVs — the battery. By taking on the most challenging problems and creating solutions for them, Tesla is doing what it does so well — moving the world forward.

In 2019, Elon Musk spoke of a “1 million-mile battery pack” and that it would be in production “next year.” He’s also announced that Battery Day will be in April, and has said that Tesla’s April company talk would be at the Gigafactory in Buffalo, where Tesla makes Solarglass Roofs. Perhaps this is where Battery Day will be held as well? There is much anticipation regarding Tesla battery developments following relatively recent acquisitions and promoted specs of coming models. What exactly is coming on the battery front from Tesla?

SOURCE: https://cleantechnica.com/2020/02/12/teslas-advantage-with-its-battery-technology-low-cost/

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