An SEC filing reveals that General Fusion has sold US$9 million out of $13.75 million offering. H/T to Xconomy for the details on this fund raising. General Fusion had been award C$13.9 million from the Canadian government. General Fusion is using the MTF (Magnetized Target Fusion) approach but with a new, patent pending and cost-effective …
Illustration by D. Balcan, B. Goncalves, H. Hu and A. Vespignani, Credit: Indiana University This epidemic invasion tree identifies 3,200 separate population nodes worldwide linked to the H5N1 avian flu pandemic of 2003-04 that originated in Hanoi. Time ordering of the epidemic’s movement is displayed from the earliests paths in dark red, moving to light …
1. By studying gold nanoparticles with highly uniform sizes and shapes, scientists now understand how they lose energy, a key step towards producing nanoscale detectors for weighing any single atom. In this study, the team from the University of Melbourne, Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials in Illinois and the University of Chicago synthesized and studied …
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)’s introduction of a metal-organic heat carrier, or MOHC, in the biphasic fluid may help improve thermodynamic efficiency of the heat recovery process. This image represents the molecular makeup of one of several MOHCs. 1. PNNL developed a superior type of heat-extracting fluid that could dramatically improve the economics of producing …
1. Solar farming: A photobioreactor houses photosynthetic microorganisms that use the energy in sunlight to make fuel and other chemicals from carbon dioxide and water. Credit: Joule Biotechnologies Joule unveiled its revolutionary Helioculture system for producing SolarFuel™ energy products that will dramatically redefine how the world’s energy needs are met. The modular SolarConverter design is …
The New York Times reported on the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence 2008-2009 Presidential Panel on Long-Term AI Futures conference. Co-chairs: Eric Horvitz and Bart Selman Panel: Margaret Boden, Craig Boutilier, Greg Cooper, Tom Dean, Tom Dietterich, Oren Etzioni, Barbara Grosz, Eric Horvitz, Toru Ishida, Sarit Kraus, Alan Mackworth, David McAllester, Sheila McIlraith, …
25 minutes of Avatar was revealed at the recent comic-con The animated “Avatar” is set on a distant, lush planet called Pandora, a super-saturated world filled with 1,000-foot trees, exotic, near fluorescent forests, fearsome predators and an indigenous people known as the Na’vi — tall, blue humanoids who are peaceful until provoked. The story revolves …
Jupiter Impact picture taken by Hubble Carnival of space 113 is up at Dynamics of Cats This site provided the interview with Ross Tierney of Direct Launch and an article on breakthroughs in curing radiation sickness. Three is coverage from Samba about the impact on Jupiter. Centauri Dreams reviews a paper on detecting potentially habitable …
NASA is working on two heat shield materials. Two ablative materials for heat shields, AVCOAT and PICA, are being tested. Both materials proved successful in previous missions to space. AVCOAT, which is manufactured directly onto the spacecraft and has an embedded honeycomb-like material, was used for the original Apollo capsules. PICA, or Phenolic Impregnated Carbon …
The US annual deficit was less than $500 billion/year for every year before the first budget of the Obama administration. The current 2009 deficit is projected to be about $2 trillion. In the pictures, you can see the actual deficit spending under President George Bush and the projected deficits under President Obama. The projected deficits …
Russia will utilize 1.36 trillion rubles (US$43.7 billion) from its US$95.4 billion Reserve Fund in Q3 2009 in an attempt to finance its first budget deficit in nearly a decade. The reserve fund has fallen from US$137 billion at the end of 2008. (Bloomberg) Russia has been drawing heavily from its sovereign wealth funds to …