Memristor new basic circuit element, old elements were resistor, capacitor and inductor

In 1971, Professor Leon Chua described and named the memristor, arguing that it should be included along with the resistor, capacitor and inductor as the fourth fundamental circuit element. The memristor has properties that cannot be duplicated by any combination of the other three elements. It is would help replace DRAM and for the human …

Read more

Solar power breakthroughs SUNRGI 7 cents per kwh 2009 and Israel Solar Power 100 times lower cost

SUNRGI’s “concentrated photovoltaic” system relies on lenses to magnify sunlight 2,000 times, letting it produce as much electricity as standard panels with a far smaller system. They say they’ll start producing solar panels by mid-2009 that will generate electricity for about 7 cents a kilowatt hour, including installation. Update: Very cool: Dilbert blog [Scott Adams] …

Read more

Future Lithography : or is Moore’s Law still the law? Yes it is

Intel Corp. (Santa Clara, Calif.) has decided that extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography will not be production-worthy by 2011 when Intel plans to begin manufacturing 22 nm microprocessors, said Mark Bohr, director of process architecture and integration at Intel’s logic technology development group. Intel plans to do 22 nm in 2011. EUV will not be ready …

Read more

GNA: Glycerol nucleic acid, synthetic version of DNA a new nanotechnology building block

The first self-assembled nanostructures composed entirely of glycerol nucleic acid (GNA, —a synthetic analog of DNA)have been made by Biodesign Institute scientist John Chaput and his research team. The only chemical difference between DNA and a synthetic cousin, GNA, is in the sugar molecule. GNA uses a three-carbon sugar called glycerol rather than the five-carbon …

Read more

Nanodiamonds 100 times cheaper, track cells in the body and deliver drugs and genes

Taiwanese scientists have found a way to slash the cost of making the diamond chips by around 100 times. Nanodiamond’s fluorescent properties could be used to track cells moving through the body. And, last year, researchers showed they could safely deliver chemotherapy drugs. Cheaper alternatives to nanodiamonds, such as fluorescent dyes or small chunks of …

Read more

Vasimr 200KW almost flight ready in 2008 and the solar electric sail like a Dandelion seed

I will look at two near term space systems the Vasimr and the solar electric sail. Both could provide a significant increase in the performance of various space missions. Both have their advantages and would be welcome improvements in the capabilities of space systems. Vasimr can go up to higher power levels that are limited …

Read more

Realtime integrated MEMS, scanning electron microscope nanoprobe assembly system by September 2008

Design of an on-chip microscale nanoassembly system has been published by Jason Gorman of the Intelligent Systems Division at the US government’s National Institute of Standards and Technology. They are currently fabricating a somewhat revised micro-scale nanoassembly system that we believe will be capable of manipulating nanoparticles by the end of the summer, 2008. Where …

Read more

Saskatchewan’s portion of the Bakken oilfield, US plus Canada Bakken producton 131,000 bopd end of 2007

When Crescent Point first acquired Bakken lands and production in the Viewfield area near Stoughton in 2006, the initial estimate was 500 million to one billion barrels of oil in place. Saskatchwen Bakken production is at least 56,000 barrels of oil per day (Just adding recent Crescent Point, Petrobank and Tristar numbers at the end …

Read more

Like a wine cork, buckypaper gets wider when stretched

Specially designed carbon nanotube sheets, dubbed “buckypaper,” can increase in width when stretched. The buckypaper can also increase in both length and width when uniformly compressed. Illustration of the oppositely directed lateral bending on forming a nanotube sheet strip into a ring, when the Poisson’s ratio is positive (left) or negative (right). No lateral bending …

Read more

President Bush’s shameful and unlawful covert attempt to undermine court rulings, the Clean air act and block 18 states from higher fuel standards

Recently the Secretary of the Department of transportation put a proposal to mildly accelerate fuel standards from 3% per year to 4.5% per year up to 2015. However this was a ploy to put circumvent the Clean Air act and block California and several other states from adopting more aggressive car and truck fuel standards. …

Read more