More than 50 new small and medium size reactor designs were developed and are being considered by research groups around the world in 2006. There are a number of small and medium nuclear reactors that are in funded development. Toshiba has designs for a micro nuclear reactor that generates 200 kw for 40 years The …
Hoping to get into the peacekeeping business, the private Blackwater security firm is acquiring a fleet of aircraft, ships and ground vehicles. Blackwater has bomb-proof Grizzly APC (armored personnel carriers). In March 2006, Cofer Black, vice chairman of Blackwater USA, allegedly suggested at an international conference in Amman, Jordan, that the company was ready to …
The Energy bill has passed both the Senate and House of representatives with veto proof margins and will increase the CAFE to 35 mpg Separately, Congress reached a tentative agreement on a major energy package that it plans to enact outside the energy bill. The agreement, to be included in a broad government spending bill, …
Peter Jackson will direct the Hobbit in two movie parts. The Hobbit movies should come out in 2010 and 2011. UPDATE:Rumors are that the second film will cover the 60-70 years between the Hobbit and the beginning of the Lord of the Rings (LOTR). The timeline of the third age between the Hobbit and LOTR …
UK chemists have used cuttlefish bones to template the growth of new superconductors that have almost 100 times higher current density. The weight of 1 cm**3 of superconducting cuttlebone replica is 0.06 g, compared to 6.38 g in the case of an equivalent sized monolith of pure Y123. With an overall decrease in mass of …
For Hollywood, the effort for any accuracy in the science of plagues and pandemics is only to make a more believable zombie or horror movie. I will list some of the movies related to the current number one box office movie “I am Legend”. I will discuss some of the real science and statistics for …
Pulse detonation engines (PDE) can achieve a maximum of 50% efficiency verus 30% for conventional jet engines Pratt & Whitney and General Electric now have active PDE research programs in an attempt to commercialize the designs with high pulse rates of 50-100 times per second to allow for less vibration. Some of the top scientists …
NASA hypersonics expert Dr Isaiah Blankson believes that MHD energy-conversion in the intakes can take 30-40% of the energy, letting a turbine engine run at up to Mach 7. Past the MHD the air would slow from Mach 7 to Mach 3. This was the speed of the air going into engines of the Blackbird …
The World Bank has updated 1986 pricing data for China to 2005 pricing data and reduced by 40% the purchasing power parity size of China’s economy. Under the old calculation, China had a GDP of $8.8 trillion, about 15% of global GDP of $59 trillion. According to the new calculation, China’s economy shrank by 40% …
From the synthetic biology FAQ: Current synthesis costs are about $1 per base pair. Current synthesis times for a 1,500 bp gene are of order 4 weeks. We need a ~3-fold reduction in cost ($0.33 for 3 base pairs) and a ~10-fold reduction in turn-around time (3 days), from where we are today for commercial …
The new book from CRC Press features a chapter written by Zyvex founder Jim Von Ehr: “Zyvex Corporation: Providing Nanotechnology Solutions today.” The chapter discusses Zyvex’s Instruments and Materials product lines, our partners, processes, and corporate focus. It also contains a section on Zyvex’s vision for atomically precise manufacturing and the 2001 NIST-ATP grant for …