Month: August 2009

Graphene has Current Carrying Capability 100-1000 times Copper and Graphane For Easier Electronic Device Construction

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1. Recent research into the properties of graphene nanoribbons provides two new reasons for using the material as interconnects in future computer chips. In widths as narrow as 16 nanometers, graphene has a current carrying capacity approximately a thousand times greater than copper—while providing improved thermal conductivity. Georgia Tech is claiming 100MA/cm2 current densities for …

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Siggraph Emerging Technology : Touchable Holography, Scratch Interaction and Progress to Holodecks

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There were a lot of Emerging technologies presented at Siggraph 2009 [see this link for the list]. Here are several of those emerging technologies. Touchable Holography from the The University of Tokyo Ultrasound is used to focus force or sensation where it is precisely needed and wiimotes are used for handtracking. Recently, mid-air displays are …

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Comparing Healthcare in Canada and the United States and the World

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Wikipedia has a lengthy comparison of the healthcare systems in Canada and the United States. UPDATE: Comparison study of many national healthcare programs around the world by the CATO institute H/T reader Mercy Vetsel for the link The WHO (World Health Organization) is study bases its conclusions on such highly subjective measures as “fairness” and …

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Per Peterson on Pebble Bed Reactors Status

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Status and Progress for the Pebble-Bed Advanced HighTemperature Reactor (AHTR) by Per Peterson Mar 2009 [53 page pdf] Overview of intermediate and long term nuclear energy options* Modular PB-AHTR design 900 MWth / 410 MWe Core power density 20 – 30 MW/m3 Core inlet/outlet temps 600°C/704°C Uses available ASME Section III Materials * Modular PB-AHTR …

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Faster and Cheaper Nuclear Plant Construction

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An 83 page presentation on the Westinghouse AP1000 and the recent Korean experience with nuclear plant construction. Schedule Validation With 4D ToolsAllows the details of construction, erection and test activities as well as their interactions to be worked out well in advance of actual construction.Primavera linked to Intergraph Smart Plan was used for the AP1000. …

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Novartis, Novavax and China’s Sinovec Biotech Begin Human Field Testing Swine Flu Vaccines

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Swiss drugmaker Novartis has begun injecting its swine flu vaccine into people in the company’s first human tests, a spokesman said Wednesday. At the moment swine flu is rated only a “moderate” pandemic by WHO standards but it could worsen as temperatures cool, making conditions better for the virus. Swine flu deaths are at 1154 …

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Generation 3.5 Nuclear Reactors

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Korea has made the APR1400. H/T to reader guarr. • Economics :20% superior to coal• Capacity : 1400 MWe• Design life: 60 years• Construction period : 48th months• Availability: 90% Korea is also using a lot of 3D design, modular and prefab construction techniques. Korea APR1400 claims superior economics to coal and to the Westinghouse …

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Set Tasers on Wide Area Stun

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The TASER company and the military are working together on the TASER Shockwave that combines a lot of TASER stun devices together for riot control and other purposes. Multiple TASER Shockwave units can be stacked together either horizontally in order to extend area coverage, or vertically to allow multiple salvo engagements; or daisy chained together …

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Quantum Computer Enhanced Machine Learning

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Geordie Rose, CTO of Dwave Systems – who are making adiabatic quantum computers, is presenting a series of articles on generating binary classifiers that use Dwave quantum computers. At a high level the way the application works is that, given an object, it will classify the object into one of two categories. For example, the …

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China Considers Accelerating Urbanization for Long Term Domestic Demand

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The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top economic planner, together with other departments, is studying new urbanization policies in hopes of helping rural migrant workers settle down in cities. “There are 140 million migrant workers nationwide, and that figure can increase to 300 million, taking their families into account. If these people can …

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Nvidia Chief Scientist Predicts 20 Teraflop Nvidia GPUs in 2015

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William J. Dally Chief scientist, Nvidia Corp predicts Nvidia GPUs in 2015 will be implemented on 11 nm process technology that feature roughly 5,000 cores and 20 teraflops of performance. Throughput processors have hundreds of cores today and will have thousands of cores by 2015. Performance scaling of single-thread processors stopped in 2002, Dally said, …

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