China is home to 60 of the world’s 100 tallest buildings now under construction. But the skyward aspirations of Changsha, the capital of Hunan province, have inspired incredulity tinged with hostility. Broad Group, a manufacturer based here in Changsha, has been planning to erect the world’s tallest building here this winter, and in record time. …
The Chinese have launched their fifth crewed space mission on Tuesday via the Shenzhou-10 mission. The launch of the Long March 2F/G rocket was on schedule at 09:38 UTC, taking place from Pad 921 at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center’s LC43 Launch Complex. This new space chapter for the Chinese represents the final occupation of the …
Carnival of Space 301 is up at the Venus Transit The Meridiani Journal – Humans 2 Mars conference discusses manned NASA mission by 2030 Dark Lightning “Lights Up” the Sky Scientists have recently discovered the phenomenon they call “dark lightning.” This burst of high-energy gamma rays happens just before the flash of ordinary lightning. And …
The USGS says that the oil resources in shale formations of North Dakota, Montana and nearby states are 7.4 billion barrels which is double an estimate for the region made five years ago. The agency for the first time studied the Three Forks formation, which is estimated to include 3.73 billion barrels, exceeding the recoverable …
Motorists in 2020 will have a widening choice of super-efficient gas and diesel cars, hybrids (which switch between batteries and an internal-combustion engine) and models that run on natural gas or hydrogen. There will be some electric cars (more than now) but they will remain a relatively small segment. The Road to Driverless Cars A …
Crude oil production increased by 790,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) between 2011 and 2012, the largest increase in annual output since the beginning ofU.S. commercial crude oil production in 1859. The U.S.Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects U.S. crude oil production to continue rising over the next two years represented in the Short‐Term Energy Outlook (STEO). …
Robin Sachs was most well known as an actor for his science fiction and fantasy work. He was in Babylon 5 as a guest star six TV episodes and the TV movie In the Beginning. He played Minbari Warrior Caste members of the Grey Council and two Narns. He also played the main villain in …
A real-world bionic man has been built. It has a frame of state-of-the-art prosthetic limbs and a functional heart-lung system, complete with artificial blood pumping through a network of pulsating modified-polymer arteries. It has a bionic spleen to clean the blood, and an artificial pancreas to keep his blood sugar on the level. Behind the …
[Forbes] The driverless car has broad implications for society, for the economy and for individual businesses. Just in the U.S., the car puts up for grab some $2 trillion a year in revenue and even more market cap. Driverless car technology has the very real potential to save millions from death and injury and eliminate …
Sinopec and PetroChina quietly have been beefing up efforts to start producing syngas from coal in the last two years. Coal-to-gas production could potentially outstrip both shale gas and coalbed methane by the end of the current five-year economic plan in 2015, as well as by 2020, according to some estimates. Bernstein is predicting synthetic …
China’s High Speed Rail Morgan Stanley has a 64 page analysis of high speed rail in China. China’s complete national coverage for its HSR network makes the economic case different than one off HSR lines in California. HSR is about half the cost of a comparable air ticket. There are environmental benefits. China does have …