Month: September 2013

Weather analysis shows there was no plausible Fukushima scenario in which Tokyo, Yokosuka, or Yokota would have been subject to dangerous levels of airborne radiation

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Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory calculated the worst case scenarios from the tsunami damaged Fukushima nuclear reactors. Weather analysis shows there was no plausible Fukushima scenario in which Tokyo, Yokosuka, or Yokota would have been subject to dangerous levels of airborne radiation. Even if all of the reactors went critical and there was a worst case …

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A company is forming to develop the Hyperloop

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After gaining steam on the collaboration platform JumpStartFund, a group of engineers set out to create a crowd-friendly company to make the Hyperloop happen. Dirk Ahlborn and his co-founders have connections with SpaceX, they were able to talk over the idea with the company’s president, Gwynne Shotwell, and get the green light to feature it …

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Chinese telecom billionaire moving to build Nicaragua Canal

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A Chinese telecom billionaire has signed a deal with the government of Nicaragua to build a $40 billion canal across Nicaragua. Panama is now trying to complete a $5.25-billion reconstruction by mid-2015 that will greatly enhance the channel’s capacity. It’s not clear that the world’s largest shipping companies will continue, or resume, using the Panama …

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Origami Batteries have 14 times higher energy density

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Arizona researchers suggest that advances in geometric folding algorithms and computational tools to determine folding patterns for making complex 3D structures from planar 2D sheets may lead to numerous other configurations possible for 3D batteries. Furthermore, with advances in robot manipulation including paper folding by robots, the manufacturability of folded batteries at scale may be …

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Four Longevity Scenarios for 2030s and beyond

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Future Tense (Slate, New America, University of Arizona) will host an event in Washington, D.C., on how increases in human lifespan could transform public policy, society, and the economy. They have four longevity scenarios for 2030. Some pertinent historical facts that shape The Washington Longevity Scenarios for 2030: * For the last 160 years, life …

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European nuclear reactors are three times the cost of the same european designed nuclear reactors in China

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China has indicated that to 1700 MWe European Pressurized Reactors (EPR) cost $7.5 billion (50 billion yuan). All of the heavy components have been installed on the chinese reactors and everything appears to be on schedule and budget for a late 2013 start for unit 1 and a 2014 start for unit 2. On 3 …

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Debates should not treat money as scarce for energy research and infrastructure

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People often debate energy and whether a few hundreds of million get spent on some energy research project or not. There is money all over energy, energy research, energy subsidies. Buying energy and building out energy infrastructure are the big items. Energy research and development (angels and venture capitalists) in the USA is about $10 …

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Photons molecules behave like light sabers with photons that push and deflect each other

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In 2013, Harvard and MIT researchers have managed to coax photons into binding together to form molecules – a state of matter that, until recently, had been purely theoretical. The Likin group has published dozens of papers on photonics. There was a 2015 paper by Lukin and his team on Rydberg Blockade. Physics Review – …

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Dwave Systems scales up production of Quantum Computing systems with a deal with a semiconductor fab

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D-Wave had the 512 qubit D-Wave 2 machine, which claims to be able solve some real-world problems faster than any other option available. NASA Ames, Lockheed and Google have both bought D-Wave machines. “We can make 120 quantum chips at a time, on an eight-inch wafer,” Colin Williams director of partnerships at D-Wave told TechWeekEurope. …

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Carbon nanotube computer about equal to the Intel 4004

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For the first time, researchers have built a computer whose central processor is based entirely on carbon nanotubes. The carbon nanotube computers, created by Stanford University engineers, show that carbon nanotube electronics are a viable potential replacement for silicon when it reaches its limits in ever-smaller electronic circuits. The carbon nanotube processor is comparable in …

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Global warming is irreversible without massive geoengineering according to IPCC

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Global warming is irreversible without massive geoengineering of the atmosphere’s chemistry. This stark warning comes from the draft summary of the latest climate assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Even if all the world ran on carbon-free energy and deforestation ceased, the only way of lowering temperatures would be to devise a scheme …

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