Giant solar energy balloons floating high in the air may be a cheap way to provide electricity to areas lacking the land and infrastructure needed for traditional power systems. Solar balloons, designed by a team from the Technion Institute of Technology, could be used to harness the sun’s energy in those remote areas. However, the …
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of the frequency-tunable planar metamaterial. An individual unit cell (a. above), and periodically patterned square array (b. below). All dimensions are shown in microns and materials are indicated in the images. The polarization of the incident linearly-polarized THz radiation is also indicated in b. (Credit: Image courtesy of Nature Photonics) …
Saudi Arabia has seen its project deadlines slip because of the equipment bottlenecks that have plagued the industry. Its Khursaniyah field was due to be completed in the last quarter of 2007 but will only be ready to pump 300,000 barrels a day within a month, Saudi Aramco said. Saudi Arabia has been one of …
Life often modifies its genetic material without changing the letters of the genetic code. One of the main ways this is done is through the addition of a chemical unit called a methyl group to a gene. Joseph Ecker of the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California and colleagues have used a new method to …
There is news related to my articles on industry progress towards meat produced by stem cells in factories with a goal of ground meat products for supermarkets within 5 years. UPDATE: H/T to Onsingularity.com The PETA prize is meaningless because the winner has to be selling their invitro grown meat in 10 states and it …
Italian researchers study the problem of thermoelectricity and propose a simple microscopic mechanism for the increase of thermoelectric efficiency. Basically their theory is that thermoelectric conversion of heat into electricity can reach the Carnot limit and have some new computational modeling to guide development toward that goal and to model materials in a way that …
Microphysiometer using multiwall carbon nanotubes is a major step toward developing the ability to assess the health of the body’s insulin-producing cells in real time. Among other potential applications, this method could be used to improve the efficacy of a new procedure for treating Type 1 (juvenile) diabetes that has demonstrated the ability to free …
The technique involves inserting nanomagnets into monocytes – a type of white blood cell used to carry gene therapy – and injecting the cells into the bloodstream. The researchers then placed a small magnet over the tumour to create a magnetic field and found that this attracted many more monocytes into the tumour. This new …
A new computer simulation has revealed a self-healing behavior in a common ceramic that may lead to development of radiation-resistant materials for nuclear power plants and waste storage. The materials could make nuclear plants that need less maintenance and which last longer which improves the economics of power generation. Researchers at the Department of Energy’s …
Another family of superconducting materials has been found by researchers in Japan and China. The iron-and-arsenic compounds are being hailed as a great advance. Some researchers hope the new materials will help solve the mystery of cuprate high temperature superconductors (discovered in 1986) “It’s possible that these materials will provide a cleaner system to work …
The Journal Science has a paper “Chaotic Dirac Billiard in Graphene Quantum Dots” which describes the smallest transistor ever made was created using graphene. Researchers have carved graphene to create the world’s smallest transistor, one atom thick and ten atoms wide. the New Scientist magazine also has coverage Applying a magnetic field to the smallest …