Annual solar installations are predicted to expand at a rate of 18 percent in 2014, reaching 41 GW and firmly marking the end of the solar industry’s two-year slowdown. IHS reaffirms its prediction made in early 2013 that installations this year will amount to 35 . Global photovoltaic (PV) installations are forecast to rise at …
Making clean drinking water globally accessible is one of the biggest challenges of this century. Yet a new study by Oxford University contends that this goal is achievable if the key elements of good governance and management are adopted. The problem of providing clean water is most acute in developing countries, particularly in Africa, where …
Despite continued reports of economic growth in Africa, much of the continent remains wracked by poverty, with roughly one in five citizens saying they frequently lack food, clean water and medical care, according to the largest survey of African citizens. The fifth round of the Afrobarometer, which comes out every several years, was released today …
In the United States, Amtrak’s Acela Express tops the speed charts, with three services sprinting between Wilmington and Baltimore Penn on the Northeast Corridor at 169.4 km/h (105 mph over about 360 miles). China now has a high speed (over 200 km/h or 120 mph) across 10,000 kilometers (6000 miles) of high speed track. The …
Insufficient or inadequate infrastructure—and the resulting congestion, power outages, and lack of access to safe water and roads—is a global concern. Mckinsey has identified practical steps could boost productivity in the infrastructure sector—a long-time laggard—by as much as 60 percent, thereby lowering spending by 40 percent for an annual saving of $1 trillion. Over the …
Nanosys, enabling a new generation of perfect-color fidelity, energy-efficient displays with its quantum-dot technology, today announced that it has passed a major production milestone at its recently opened 60,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Milpitas, CA. The shipment of more than 2000kg of Nanosys Quantum Dot Concentrate™, used to make Quantum Dot Enhancement Film (QDEF™), …
A research team that includes a physics professor at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) has recorded a drastically reduced measurement of the Casimir effect, a fundamental quantum phenomenon experienced between two neutral bodies that exist in a vacuum. The experiment revealed the Casimir pressure was reduced at more than twice the expected levels when the …
A pair of breakthroughs in the field of silicon photonics by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Micron Technology Inc. could allow for the trajectory of exponential improvement in microprocessors that began nearly half a century ago—known as Moore’s Law—to continue well into the future, allowing for increasingly …
Arxiv – Spin Neurons: A Possible Path to Energy-Efficient Neuromorphic Computers Nano-scale spin-torque switches as “neurons” can make energy-efficient neuromorphic computers. Using simple device-circuit analysis researchers showed that spin neurons provide essential terminal characteristics like low input impedance and transfer characteristics like high-transimpedance-gain and fast state-switching. These properties combined with ultra-low voltage operation of compact …
Earlier this year, Google announced that Austin, Texas would be the second city to receive its ultra-fast Google Fiber service, and AT and T isn’t far behind. It quickly followed Google’s announcement with news that it too would offer gigabit fiber internet in the city, and today, the telecoms giant detailed what the service will …
A successful flight test of the Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket on Sunday demonstrated booster-return capability on a flight to orbit. The technology could enable reusable orbital launch vehicles as early as February, 2014 Spacex Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the California coast carrying the Canadian CASSIOPE scientific satellite, …