Astronomers have detected water in the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system for the first time. The finding, to be detailed in an upcoming issue of Astrophysical Journal, confirms previous theories that say water vapor should be present in the atmospheres of nearly all the known extrasolar planets. HD209458b is a world well-known …
Rear Admiral Chris Parry, head of the MoD’s Development, Concepts & Doctrine Centre which drew up a 90 page report, which describes the assessments as “probability-based, rather than predictive”. Most of the predictions reported in the Guardian are to happen before 2035. True they will be before 2035 because several have already happened and others …
From MIT Technology Review, DNA synthesis is about to have major impact because of price breakthroughs and growing capabilities. “In the next few years, we’ll probably see people engineering cells to do drug delivery or creating cellular sensors,” says George Church, a professor of genetics at Harvard and one of Codon’s founders. “Maybe even cells …
From Nanowerjs, researchers at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Japan have newly designed and synthesized amphiphilic molecules, and have developed a technique for the synthesis of various organic nanotubes of 40-200 nm in inner diameter, 70-500 nm in outer diameter, and several to hundreds µm in length by self-assembling …
Improved cell by cell analysis is made possible as well as injecting drugs into active cells one at time. This development could be combined with improved versions of surgical microbots to achieve something very similar to the vision of nanobot cellular repair nanomedicine. Drexel University College of Engineering researchers have successfully developed carbon nanotube-tipped pipettes …
the supreme court ruling which is pro-carbon dioxide regulation will further boost nuclear power This is a good thing. Brian WangBrian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including …
Researchers at Livermore studied an isomer of Thorium-229. This isomer is unique in that its excitation energy is near optical energies, implying that one day scientists may be able to transition Th229 nuclei between the ground and isomeric states using a table-top laser. “This would then be the first time human control would be exerted …
According to a recent study, the uneven distribution of wealth in a society appears to be a universal law (Gibbs distribution for the poorer 90% and pareto distribution for the top 10%) that holds true for economies in many different societies, from ancient Egypt to modern Japan and the U.S. This distribution may reflect a …
MIT Technology Review Jason Pontin (JP) interviews Geordie Rose (GR) of Dwave Systems about the Quantum computer The interview gets more interesting around page 4. The first three screens review the old controversy, which will be irrelevant based on targets being hit in 2008. JP: The plan is to demonstrate a 1,024-qubit machine in 2008? …
An autonomous robotic flea has been developed that is capable of jumping nearly 30 times its height, thanks to what is arguably the world’s smallest rubber band. Tiny micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) motors stretch a diminutive nine-micron-thick, two-millimeter-long rubber band in order to allow a microbot to catapult itself through the air like a flea. …
About a year ago, Zhong Lin Wang of Georgia Tech in the US discovered that, when he disturbed zinc oxide nanowires, they gave off a tiny electrical current, a phenomenon called piezoelectricity. At the time, he had to use the tip of an atomic force microscope – a $250,000 instrument – to create about one-billionth …