The World Bank reports that based on current trends, the Chinese can expect to live only 66 “healthy years” (years free from disease and disability), ten years less than in some leading G-20 countries Non-communicable chronic diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of death in China, accounting for close to 70 percent of the disease …
China’s Gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 9.5 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2011, tapering off slightly from the 9.7-percent growth posted in the first quarter and 9.8 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). According to preliminary statistics, the country’s GDP reached 20.45 trillion yuan …
Chinese health officials were considering a program of catch-up vaccinations for children who had not been vaccinated at birth, but were reluctant to commit funds to a widespread hepatitis B catch-up vaccination program until analysis confirmed its cost-effectiveness. The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) determined that it would be cost effective …
Structureless Space Telescope® (SST) for Science Applications (27 pages, 2008) – 30-meter diameter optical telescope using extensions of current technology – 88 free-floating mirrors controlled in orbit and attitude in all 3 axes by light pressure from a set of Control Lasers – System is relatively near-term — i.e., GEO demonstration mission with 10-meter diameter …
North Dakota oil production set a record of 361438 barrels per day in May. They overcame issues with flooding that was slowing production increases. If you liked this article, please give it a quick review on ycombinator or StumbleUpon. Thanks Brian WangBrian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 …
A new biological water purification facility developed by Siemens generates enough methane gas to power its own operations. It also produces much less sludge than conventional systems. The pilot facility for this process, which is located at a site run by Singapore’s Public Utilities Board, has been operating in an energy- neutral manner since June …
A molecular technique originally developed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has taken one step closer to becoming a treatment for the devastating genetic disease Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The novel treatment uses strips of genetic code – called antisense oligonucleotides – to restore the function of a defective dystrophin gene. In a …
Muon-catalyzed nuclear fusion. (1) A beam of negatively charged muons is produced and injected into a mixed fuel of deuterium and tritium, (2) resulting in the creation of many muonic tritium atoms (tµ). As muons are 207 times heavier than electrons, the muon orbits the nucleus at a much closer distance to the nucleus than …
Scientists have been producing nuclear fusion reactions from muon catalysed fusion for decades – just not consistently, or in sufficient volumes for it to be considered a viable energy source – until now. Star Scientific Limited is perfecting a world-first technique to economically produce pions, and hence muon catalysed fusion, in a CONTROLLED and SUSTAINED …
In the computer simulation, a slow-moving cloaked sphere leaves no wake at all as it moves downward (inset, left), while the cloak still reduces the turbulence behind the sphere at faster speeds (inset, middle and right). Physics World – a pair of physicists in the US have proposed a new type of material that lets …
Apple has a valuation of $369 billion (as the stock price closes on $400 per share) At $449 per share (if Exxon Mobil remained shares were flat), Apple would be the world’s most valuable company. Apple is worth more than Microsoft ($235 billion) and Intel ($122 billion) combined. Apple is close to the value of …