In a vacuum, light travels so fast that it would circle the Earth more than seven times within the blink of an eye. When light propagates through matter, however, it slows by a factor typically less than 5. This factor, called the refractive index, is positive in naturally occurring materials, and it causes light to …
Writers of the Future has released the 1987 time capsule predictions from science fiction writers for the year 2012. (H/T KurzweilAI) Sheldon Glashow Prediction 1 (Sheldon Glashow) – There will be no fast trains connecting American cities, but a network of levitated superconducting trains will be under construction in Western Europe and in Japan. There …
DARPA researchers have created the world’s first solid state receiver to demonstrate gain at 0.85 terahertz (THz). This is the latest breakthrough in the DARPA THz Electronics program in its quest for transistor-based electronics that will enable electronic capabilities at THz frequencies. This represents progress toward the second major technical milestone on the way to …
Researchers at the Center for Laser Applications at the University of Tennessee Space Institute in Tullahoma have developed a technology that goes on a “seek and destroy” mission for cancerous tumors. They have harnessed the power of lasers to find, map, and non-invasively destruct cancerous tumors. “Using ultra-short light pulses gives us the ability to …
The fabrication process and the operation characteristics of a fully roll-to-roll printed resistive write-once-read-many memory on a flexible substrate are presented. The low-voltage (less than 10 V) write operation of the memories from a high resistivity ‘0’ state to a low resistivity ‘1’ state is based on the rapid electrical sintering of bits containing silver …
Imagine a machine that makes layered, substantial patches of engineered tissue—tissue that could be used as grafts for burn victims or vascular patches. Sounds like science fiction? According to researchers at the University of Toronto, it’s a growing possibility. Toronto researchers have invented a new device that may allow for the uniform, large-scale engineering of …
Shin Wolsong unit 1 nuclear plant has entered commercial operation, KHNP announced. It comes within days of Shin-Kori 2 starting commercial service. The Shin Wolsong 1 OPR-1000 unit, construction of which began in November 2007, started up and was connected to the grid in January 2012. The final stages of commissioning tests began on 24 …