LIFE, an acronym for Laser Inertial Fusion-Fission Energy, is an advanced energy concept under development at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). Conceptual design for a LIFE engine and power plant based on National Ignition Facility (NIF)-like fusion targets and a NIF-like laser operating at an energy of 1.4 megajoules (MJ) at a wavelength of 350 …
1. Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) will start site work next year for 12 indigenously-developed reactors, including eight pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs) of 700 MWe each, three 500 MWe fast breeder reactors (FBRs) and one 300 MWe advanced heavy water reactor (AHWR). This week he said that “India is now focusing on …
Space Disco converted thirty entries into a video carnival This includes this sites contribution of an article on Winterberg’s concept for fusion propulsion and power. Centauri Dreams wonders if the Earth could survive the sun turning into a red giant. Check out the carnival at Space Disco for a lot more. Brian WangBrian Wang is …
Nassim Taleb popularized the theory and wrote “the Black Swan”. He has written about the limits of Statistics and in particular limits in the Fourth Quadrant. Applying his advice to avoid optimization, love redundancy applied to Lifeboat Foundation class threats or beneficial high impact technologies. Do not try to optimize only one technology project – …
Intel has a record breaking silicon-based “Avalanche Photodetector” with a gain-bandwidth product of 340GHz. This is the first time a silicon photonic device beats its equivalent made from traditional optoelectronic materials. [From Intel Teleconference Dec 4, 2008 given by Mario Paniccia.] Avalanche Photodetectors detect light and additionally amplify signals by multiplying electrons. The amplification provided …
The technological and other developments to watch is expanding to four parts:1. Computers, robots, electronics and communication2. Energy and transportation3. DNA/biotech/synthetic biology, nanotechnology4. Medicine, life extension, space, manufacturing and anything else that was not covered Dwave has a 128 qubit quantum computer chip at the end of 2008. In early 2009, this chip will continue …
Researchers have solved one of the significant remaining challenges with photonic “metamaterials,” discovering a way to prevent the loss of light as it passes through these materials, and opening the door to many important new optical, electronic and communication technologies. Photonic metamaterials are engineered composite materials with unique electromagnetic properties, and have attracted significant research …
Eric Drexler, the visionary of molecular nanotechnology and mechanosynthesis, has started a new blog Metamodern: The Trajectory of Technology. Metamodern isn’t intended to be “a blog about nanotechnology”; its scope includes broader issues involving technologies with world-changing potential. For example, looking well downstream in technology development, I will sketch the requirements for large-scale systems able …
Canada has an interesting attempt at a political coup. Three disparate opposition parties—the centrist Liberals, the socialist New Democrats (NDP) and the separatist Bloc Québécois—have ganged up in order to oust the minority Conservative government and replace them with a centre-left coalition. On Thursday December 4th Prime Minister Harper asked Michaëlle Jean, who as governor-general …
Micro-fusion work of Friedwardt Winterberg from the 1950’s-1970s was recently declassified. Winterberg had several ideas for using micro-fusion without fission bomb triggers to generate nuclear energy or power spacecraft. Winterberg was proposing pure deuterium micro-explosions. H/T Crowlspace and J Friedlander. Wikipedia entry for Friedwardt Winterberg. Friedwardt Winterberg (born June 12, 1929) is a German-American theoretical …
On Christmas eve 2007, this site published 10 technologies and projects to watch and one added development. Here is a review of those items:1. Dwave systems’ adiabatic quantum computers (AQC) will come up short of the projected 512 to 1000 qubits and likely end the year at 128 qubits. 128 qubits is still the most …