If everything goes smoothly, China will launch Tiangong-1 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at the end of 2010, said Zhang Jianqi, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of China’s Manned Space Engineering Program. Space.com reports that China is openly acknowledging that the new Tiangong outpost will involve military space operations and technology development. Tiangong-1, weighing about 8.5 tons, …
A 49 page pdf from January 2009 shows the vision of Masdar City. A city that will put together, gather real data on a collection of technologies for a more environmentally friendly and efficient city of the future. It will be more efficient with energy. It will be 100,000 people only using personal rapid transit, …
Reconstituting ribosomes: Shown here is a parts list for creating a synthetic, self-replicating ribosome. Proteins are shown in purple, RNA in red, and DNA in blue. The list includes 54 ribosomal proteins, as well as RNA-based enzymes involved in protein production, and other molecules that interact with ribosomes. Credit: George Church and Mike Jewett Church …
Caustic Graphics Inc. (San Francisco, Calif.) is a startup company that claims to have made a breakthrough in the hardware acceleration of ray-traced graphics. Caustic claims a 20 times speedup for better graphics algorithms hardcoded into silicon now and 200 times faster for next generation in 2010. Caustic said it’s first-generation technology will deliver an …
Previously this site has discussed nanotechnology progress: Significant recent developments with nanotechnology. Self Assembly and directed assembly could take over from lithography for the next stage of computer miniturization to reach 1-2 nanometer features. The self assembly of 10-100 terabit per square inch magnetic memory. They have self assembled several square centimeters and the process …
A new method has been developed which prepares the body to use new stem cells to replace defective cells and tissue in the body. H/T Futurepundit.com The world-first procedure has been successfully used to regrow muscles in a mouse model, but it could be applied to all tissue-based illnesses in humans such as in the …
University of Cincinnati researchers have taken 25-micron carbon nanotube thread and created a dipole antenna using double-sided transparent tape and silver paste. They were immediately successful in transmitting radio signals. “It transmitted almost as well as the copper did, but at about one ten-thousandth of the weight,” says. They transmitted both AM and FM in …
Here is a list of the top ten political risks of 2009 by the Eurasia Group Risk consultancy. The risks1 Congress – The current financial crisis has created an unprecedented space for government interference in economic affairs within developed states. Risk of wasteful and not useful over-regulation like Sarbanes Oxley. Sarbanes Oxley was implemented to …
George Church, a genetics professor at Harvard Medical School and member of Harvard’s Origins of Life Initiative, reported the creation of billions of synthetic ribosomes that readily create a long, complex protein called firefly luciferase. “The reason it is a step toward artificial life is that the key component of all living systems is the …
Wolfram and his team have built what he calls a “computational knowledge engine” for the Web. Wolfram Alpha competes more with Wikipedia, Metaweb’s Freebase, True Knowledge, and any natural language search engines (such as Microsoft’s upcoming search engine, based perhaps in part on Powerset’s technology among others), and other services that are trying to build …
Kazuhiro Taniguchi of Osaka University has invented the “Mimi Switch” or “Ear Switch”. It connects to a micro-computer that can control electronic devices, essentially making it a hands-free remote control for anything. “You will be able to turn on room lights or swing your washing machine into action with a quick twitch of your mouth,” …