The city of Santa Clara flipped on a big Internet switch this week, becoming what it says is the first in the country to use wireless, digital “smart meters” on homes as channels for free citywide outdoor Wi-Fi. “This is just one of the major benefits our community will enjoy as a result of our …
Over the past 15 years air temperatures at the Earth’s surface have been flat while greenhouse-gas emissions have continued to soar. The world added roughly 100 billion tonnes of carbon to the atmosphere between 2000 and 2010. That is about a quarter of all the CO₂ put there by humanity since 1750. And yet, as …
The Economist magazine says that nobody doubts that China has joined the ranks of the great powers. India is often spoken of in the same breath as China because of its billion-plus population, economic promise, value as a trading partner and growing military capabilities. But whereas China’s rise is a given, India is still widely …
Teal Group’s 2012 market study estimates that UAV spending will almost double over the next decade from current worldwide UAV expenditures of $6.6 billion annually to $11.4 billion, totaling just over $89 billion in the next ten years. The U.S. will account for 62% of the worldwide research and development spending on UAV technology over …
People in China rode more than 180 million e-bikes (electric bikes) by the end of last year, up 36 percent since 2010, according to Wood Mackenzie Ltd. Average lead content in a two-wheel e-bike has dropped from about 13 kilograms (29 pounds) in 2010 to 11 kilograms last year, according to the Edinburgh-based researcher. There …
BlackBerry co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin say they have established a $100-million fund for the development and commercialization of quantum computing. They say the new Quantum Valley Investments fund in Waterloo, Ont., will be a catalyst for breakthroughs in an emerging field that could revolutionize information technology. If you liked this article, please give …
A new report by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco finds that Chinese GDP numbers do tend to reflect data provided by more independent sources—namely the exports and imports of China’s trading partners, which are immune from any Beijing manipulation. The Fed study first studied trade with China and its biggest trading partners: the …
The Carnival of Space 294 is up at Dear Astronomer The Meridiani Journal wonders Are alien oceans common? One of the unique characteristics of Earth which sets it apart from other known planets is its oceans. Such large bodies of surface water have not yet been found elsewhere, although a number of moons, including Europa, …
The Carnival of Nuclear Energy 149 is up at the ANS Nuclear Cafe The ANS Nuclear Cafe has an update and perspective on Small Modular Reactor Development The US Department of Energy (DOE) has a $452 million program to share development and licensing costs for selected small modular reactor (SMR) designs. The DOE’s goal is …
Two and a half years ago, the Human Exploration and Telerobotics Project (HET) equipped a trio of these floating robots with Nexus S handsets running Android Gingerbread. (HET is a project at NASA’s Ames Research Center that uses SPHERES, which stands for “Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites,” and that project itself is called …
Researchers at the University of Southampton in England have produced optical fibers that can transfer data at 99.7% of the universe’s speed limit: The speed of light. The researchers have used these new optical fibers to transfer data at 73.7 terabits per second — roughly 10 terabytes per second, and some 1,000 times faster than …