🚀 Student smashes 20-year-old world record, Google Chrome faces DOJ hammer, NYU scientists create crystals to extract water from air

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A student-built suborbital rocket has shattered the world record for the highest altitude reached by a non-governmental and non-commercial rocket.

Students at the University of Southern California’s Rocket Propulsion Lab (USCRPL) designed and built the rocket named Aftershock II.

The launch occurred on October 20th from the Black Rock Desert, Nevada, US. Dive deeper into this Must-Read.

🔥Today’s job of the day as featured on jobs.interestingengineering.com:

> Staff Software Engineer - .NET
> Senior DevOps Engineer (Copado)

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🚀 Student rocket hits 470,000 feet altitude, smashes 20-year-old world record 

It soared to an incredible height of over 470,000 feet (143,256 meters) above Earth’s surface. Aftershock II is said to be the “world’s first civilian-built rocket” to reach such a high altitude.

Interestingly, it surpassed the previous record of amateur rocketry by 90,000 ft (27, 432 meters). Aftershock II broke the 20-year-old altitude record of 380,000 feet (115, 824 meters) made by the Civilian Space Exploration Team in 2004.

“This achievement represents several engineering firsts,” said Ryan Kraemer, executive engineer of USCRPL and an undergraduate student majoring in mechanical engineering.

⚖️ Monopoly meltdown: Google Chrome faces DOJ hammer to end search power play 

In a big setback to one of the world’s biggest tech companies, the Department of Justice (DOJ) in the United States is likely going to ask a judge to pressurize Google into selling its Chrome internet browser, according to media reports.

US DOJ officials will also urge the judge to take measures related to Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) and Android operating system for smartphones.

It should be noted that the proposal will be presented to the same judge who ruled in August that the company had monopolized the search market illegally.

💎 NYU scientists create crystals to extract water from air without using energy

A team of researchers from Jilin University, NYU Abu Dhabi’s Smart Materials Lab, and the Center for Smart Engineering Materials, led by Professor of Chemistry Pance Naumov, has developed a new crystalline material that can harvest water from fog without any energy input.

This innovative type of smart crystal, Janus crystals, is inspired by desert plants and animals that thrive in arid conditions.

For instance, desert beetles and lizards have evolved surface structures with hydrophilic (water-attracting) and hydrophobic (water-repelling) areas, effectively capturing moisture from the air.

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