Some call Feed in Tariffs justified to make up for unpaid externalities from other energy sources like coal and natural gas but the incremental Feed in tariff payment is support. Even Ren21 of France calls it support. Feed in tariffs are paying a subsidy for 20 years on renewable capacity that is installed. 5.3 billion …
Da Vinci surgical robots, which sell for nearly $1.4 million and weigh half a ton are seeing sales growth of 60% per year Intuitive said the 78 units sold in the fourth quarter of 2007 lifted the worldwide installed base to 795. Beyond prostate surgeries, the robots are now being employed for hysterectomies, fibroid removal …
Picture is the 16 qubit prototype. There was a 28 qubit prototype as well. A new announcement seems to imply 2000-4000 qubits by the end of 2008. “low thousands of qubits by the end of the year [2008]”. The die has room for a million qubits. A research paper has results that compare the time …
Carnival of space week 41 is up at the New Frontiers Blog. It is the largest carnival of space ever with 2 articles. My contribution was my article on the magnetic catapult a launch device concept that is superior to railguns and an improved superconducting coilgun. Hobbyspace discusses the spread of luxury goods to the …
Xiang Zhang (on of the makers of the UV light hyperlens: Theoretically, the biggest obstacle [to progress on visible light hyperlens] is the inevitable loss in the metamaterials. This means that — to obtain reasonable transmission — the hyperlens can’t be very bulky; this will limit the magnification and imaging area …. Low loss metals …
Ma Ying-jeou will be elected president of Taiwan on March 22, 2008 Tensions will then ease further. Look for 2011-2012 (start of talks) or 2013-2016 (second term possible completion): talks on peace treaties and unification between Taiwan and China. Those who are Still predicting war between the US and China over Taiwan are behind the …
Researchers at McGill University have discovered a way to boost an organism’s natural anti-virus defences, effectively making its cells immune to influenza and other viruses. Drugs could be produced for humans that would generate the same effect of kicking the bodies anti-virus mechanisms into overdrive. As a drug the immunity boost would stop when the …
In the picture, cells infected with the new virus have been stained using antibodies. After several other identification techniques failed, the new sequencing approach was used to discover a never-before-seen virus that was likely responsible for the deaths of three transplant patients who received organs from the same donor. As many as 40 percent of …
Click on the picture to get a larger view. New Nuclear Plant OrdersA new nuclear technology competes with other fossil-fired and renewable technologies as new generating capacity is needed to meet increasing demand, or replace retiring capacity, throughout the forecast period. The cost assumptions for new nuclear units are based on an analysis of recent …
Cell Traffix, using a microtube device coated with the protein P-selectin, has isolated and collected adult stem cells residing in human bone marrow to eight times greater purity than can be obtained through traditional centrifugation. The device, a length of plastic tubing coated with proteins, could lead to better bone-marrow transplants and stem-cell therapies, and …
Harvard has a new protein array lab on a chip. The system could produce any desired protein from synthesized DNA placed on the chip. It is another step in making protein production and engineering and biotechnology in general faster and cheaper. Schematic representation of screening protein-protein interactions with NAPPA. (A) On each spot, a target …