Inertial electrostatic confinement completes WB7 test, results are under review

The Bussard fusion design, also known as inertial electrostatic confinement or Polywell fusion, has completed the WB7 test which was a replication of the promising WB6 test which was showing a breakthrough in low-cost fusion power. The results of the first-phase test are now being reviewed by the funders and experts in the fusion energy …

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Progress to exaflop computers and specialized supercomputers

Wehner, Oliker, and Shalf estimate that a general-purpose exaflop machine using today’s technology would cost $1 billion to build and 200 megawatts to power—enough for a small city. By comparison, they estimate, a specialized exaflop machine would cost just $75 million and consume just 4 MW. Berkeley Labs and Tensilica are working together on a …

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Progress to exaflop computers and specialized supercomputers

Wehner, Oliker, and Shalf estimate that a general-purpose exaflop machine using today’s technology would cost $1 billion to build and 200 megawatts to power—enough for a small city. By comparison, they estimate, a specialized exaflop machine would cost just $75 million and consume just 4 MW. Berkeley Labs and Tensilica are working together on a …

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Melanie Swan : Human augmentation via bacterial biome

An excellent idea featured at Melanie Swan’s blog: there are 1,000 trillion bacteria that are part of each human (10x the number of human cells) could be an ideal augmentation substrate. There are at least three ways for achieving human-electronic interfaces; physical implants, wearables and a third as yet unconsidered possibility, exploiting the human bacterial …

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Melanie Swan : Human augmentation via bacterial biome

An excellent idea featured at Melanie Swan’s blog: there are 1,000 trillion bacteria that are part of each human (10x the number of human cells) could be an ideal augmentation substrate. There are at least three ways for achieving human-electronic interfaces; physical implants, wearables and a third as yet unconsidered possibility, exploiting the human bacterial …

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Caterpillar Inc. Funds Viterbi ‘Print-a-House’ Contour Crafting Technology

Caterpillar, the world’s largest manufacturer of construction equipment, is starting to support research on the “Contour Crafting” automated construction system that its creator believes will one day be able to build full-scale houses in hours. This is concrete-jet instead of inkjet printing technology. Printing buildings to speed up the economy is one of the key …

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Caterpillar Inc. Funds Viterbi ‘Print-a-House’ Contour Crafting Technology

Caterpillar, the world’s largest manufacturer of construction equipment, is starting to support research on the “Contour Crafting” automated construction system that its creator believes will one day be able to build full-scale houses in hours. This is concrete-jet instead of inkjet printing technology. Printing buildings to speed up the economy is one of the key …

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Quantum Computer Algorithm Review

Michele Mosca of the Institute for Quantum Computing and Dept. of Combinatorics & Optimization, University of Waterloo and St. Jerome’s University, and Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics reviews Quantum Algorithms. Aug, 2008 [71 pages] Some of the categories of algorithms: Factoring, Discrete Logarithms and the Abelian Hidden Subgroup Problem : like Shor’s algorithm. Quantum Walk …

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Quantum Computer Algorithm Review

Michele Mosca of the Institute for Quantum Computing and Dept. of Combinatorics & Optimization, University of Waterloo and St. Jerome’s University, and Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics reviews Quantum Algorithms. Aug, 2008 [71 pages] Some of the categories of algorithms: Factoring, Discrete Logarithms and the Abelian Hidden Subgroup Problem : like Shor’s algorithm. Quantum Walk …

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