Moller International (OTCBB: MLER) is pleased to announce that it has successfully developed and tested a damage resistant, carbon fiber blade technology that increases durability for the ducted fans used in its Skycar® and Neuera™ VTOL aircraft product lines. This improvement reduces blade rotating inertia, allowing the fans to respond quicker to roll and pitch …
1. MIT Technology Review reports on the work of Arizona based Fluidic Energy who are working toward development of a metal-air battery that relies on ionic liquids, instead of an aqueous solution, as its electrolyte. The company aims to build a Metal-Air Ionic Liquid battery that has up to 11 times the energy density of …
An electric solar wind sail is a recently introduced propellantless space propulsion method whose technical development has also started. The electric sail consists of a set of long, thin, centrifugally stretched and conducting tethers which are charged positively and kept in a high positive potential of order 20 kV by an onboard electron gun. The …
Researchers observed previously unconsidered strong kinematic forces on neutral atoms in short-pulse laser fields. The ponderomotive force on electrons is the driving mechanism, producing ultra-strong acceleration of neutral atoms greater that Earth’s gravitational acceleration by 14 orders of magnitude. A force of such strength may lead to new applications in both fundamental and applied physics. …
1. Chemists from the University of Würzburg have made progress to achieving artificial photosynthesis Nanocapsules have been loaded with reactive molecules which convert UV light to visible light which varies based on the pH of the environment. The chemical conversion to light could lead to artificial photosynthesis and separately be used for tiny sensors for …
Day 3 also appears to be done with no change in the standings or prizes won. Lasermotive has won the level 1 prize of $900,000. No other prizes were won and no other team qualified for a prize. LaserMotive retained their lead, and inched closer to the 5 m/s benchmark – they removed some payload, …
HP today announced new inertial sensing technology that enables the development of digital micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) accelerometers that are up to 1,000 times more sensitive than high-volume products currently available. A MEMS accelerometer is a sensor that can be used to measure vibration, shock or change in velocity. By deploying many of these detectors as …
In a pilot study of two patients monitored for two years, an international team of researchers slowed the onset of the debilitating brain disease X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) using a lentiviral vector to introduce a therapeutic gene into patient’s blood cells. Although studies with larger cohorts of patients are needed, these results suggest that gene therapy …
1. Complete Genomics has a report in the journal Science describing its proprietary DNA sequencing platform, including analysis of sequence data from three complete human genomes. The consumables cost for these three genomes sequenced on the proof-of-principle genomic DNA nanoarrays ranged from $8,005 for 87x coverage to $1,726 for 45x coverage for the samples described …
Lawrenceville Plasma Physics (LPP) a small research and development company part way through a two-year-long experimental project to test the scientific feasibility of Focus Fusion, controlled nuclear fusion using the dense plasma focus (DPF) device and hydrogen-boron fuel. Hydrogen-boron fuel produces almost no neutrons and allows the direct conversion of energy into electricity. Success would …
According to Forbes there are 79 billionaires in China Earlier in the year Forbes Mar 2009 list of world billionaires only found 28 Chinese Billionaires. The economic crisis is easing, particularly in China, so the net worth of Chinese billionaires is better than earlier in the year, Here is a link to the Forbes March …