In preliminary studies, carbon nanotubes that were engineered into the architecture of semiconductor solar cells (composed of cadmium sulfide, zinc oxide and titanium dioxide) resulted in a doubling of the cells’ photoconversion efficiencies (converting light into energy). In some cases, the efficiency of solar cells jumped from 5 percent to 10 percent in the presence …
A pdf about eight demographic groups in america with different lifespans. Asian americans live the longest (over 5 years more than average). It is not just money and race. Something very geographic is going on. Something happening locally for lifestyles is a big part. Less alcohol? smoking? How people make a living? Shared ancestry? Brian …
Samsung has new 32-gigabit NAND flash chips that are the first made with circuit elements 40 nanometers wide. These new, smaller chips can be used to make a 64GB card capable of holding 40 DVD-quality movies or 16,000 typical-size MP3 songs. The chip design described on Monday incorporates a new technology called Charge Trap Flash, …
I wrote an essay about nanotechnology and future militaries. This is an update with some new links (online impact A series of facts were combined.The facts: 1. Big rocks in space are hard to see. We are still finding things bigger than Pluto. 2. There are a lot of rocks in our solar system. Over …
Nanotubes help adult stem cells morph into neurons in brain-damaged rats. When used alone, adult stem cells migrated to healthy areas of the brain. But when combined with nanotubes, adult stem cells not only remained in the brain-damaged regions, they began to differentiate into functioning neurons. The finding could have important implications for the treatment …
Physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have devised a potentially groundbreaking theory demonstrating how to control the spin of particles without using superconducting magnets — a development that could advance the field of spintronics and bring scientists a step closer to quantum computing. The physicists theorize that spin can be induced …
More details on the IBM Roadrunner supercomputer, which will be a hybrid of Cell processors and AMD Opteron chips The system will have 16000 of each chip and have a peak performance of 1.6 petaflops. Brian WangBrian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His …
Currently it costs about $1,000,000 to sequence the genome.A target is to sequence the genome for $1000 by 2014 (and $10,000 by 2009). In 2005, Jay Shendure used off-the-shelf parts to determine the order of all the DNA bases in a bacterial genome, at 20 times the speed and one-ninth the cost of traditional DNA …
The EM drive engine takes microwave radiation produced by a magnetron and feeds it into a specially shaped resonant cavity. The waves push against the end wall. Because of the difference in wave velocity, being higher at one end that the other, there is a momentum transfer. The result is a measurable net force from …
It is called a plasmonic laser antenna, the design consists of a metallic nanostructure, known as an optical antenna, integrated onto the facet of a commercial semiconductor laser. “The optical antenna collects light from the laser and concentrates it to an intense spot measuring tens of nanometers, or about one-thousandth the width of a single …
700 IEEE Fellows surveyed in a joint study by the Institute for the Future (IFTF) and IEEE Spectrum tried to get the IEEE Fellows to predict science and technology over next 10 to 50 years. One of the questions and responses was:Will a quantum computer reach the market?Unlikely 42.7%Equal chances 25.1%Likely 22.1% This is addressed …