New Scientist reports on research into dangerous DNA The theory is that some DNA sequences may be lethal. Hampikian’s team is deliberately searching for the shortest absent sequences in order to minimise the possibility that absent sequences are missing simply due to chance. So far they have found 86 sequences of 11 nucleotides long that …
In regards to transhumanism and certain future technology and applications. I think certain things will happen because I try to analyze in detail what the existing technological situation and infrastructure is and the economic and social advantages of adopters and developers of particular technologies, methods and strategies. All though this site I try to focus …
India will start building a 300MW thorium based advanced heavy water nuclear reactor this year IT will take about five to six years to complete. Another article talks about the advantages for India in using a Thorium fuel cycle India’s president Kalam talks about developing 50% efficient solar cells, Thorium reactors and biofuels to make …
MIT technology review discusses prospects for advanced coal energy plants in China Pollution is the leading cause of death in China, killing more than a million people a year. And the primary cause of pollution is also the source of the energy propelling Shanghai’s magnetically levitating train: coal. China’s is building on average one coal-fired …
Better optical films which could lead to better solar cells and optical chips are reported at eetimes.com Chromophores have been prime candidates for organic dye-sensitized solar cells, since they emit electrons when light is shone on them. But the new chromophore molecular configuration incorporates quantum confinement into each cell, greatly increasing chromophore efficiency. The current …
An article discussing evidence for and against ice on the moon I agree that we should continue with sending the robotic probes necessary to be absolutely certain about what ice is or is not there and what can be used. An article that discusses getting energy from space or deflecting sunlight to counter global warming. …
Futurehype by Bob Seidensticker is an interesting book and there are excerpts at his website He does point out some problems that make technology and societal predictions hard. However, I believe it is possible to be quite accurate. I agree with him that understanding the past and the past of technology matters.I agree with him …
The Super 3G (third generation) service will only require upgrades to the existing network, keeping down necessary investment to between 100 billion and 200 billion yen (840 million to 1.68 billion dollars), the Nikkei newspaper reported. With a speed of roughly 100 megabits per second, Super 3G will be some 260 times faster as the …
Rocky Rawstern has been investigating carbon nanotubes and interviewing researchers…The visionary closed our conversation with “We can’t talk publicly about what we are doing yet but, yes, 2007 will be an interesting year.” When their news hits the streets, expect big, bold headlines. This makes sense since there has been a lot of news about …
Mostafa Ronaghi, one of the inventors of this sequencing chemistry, group at Stanford is working on an inexpensive superscaler pyrosequencer. It would use $10 CMOS imaging instead of $100,000 CCDs. The objective is to run 400 million sequencing reactions in parallel that can produce between 60 and 100 gigabases of data per run with 200-base …
The World Future Society makes forecasts which show that the forecasters do not seem to really understand some of the technology that they are forecasting. Forecast #2: The era of the Cyborg is at hand. Researchers in Israel have fashioned a “bio-computer” using the DNA of living cells instead of silicon chips. This development may …