Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) has a projection of the world economy with breakouts for each country in purchasing power parity terms and by market exchange rate in 2050. PWC uses United Nation population projections. The medium UN population projections assume no easing in China’s fertility policy. Fertility policy easing is already happening and will be …
Metastable Innershell Molecular State (MIMS), an innershell-bound ultra-high-energy molecule, was previously proposed to explain a ∼40% efficiency of soft-X-ray generation in ∼0.05 keV/amu nanoparticle impact on solids. Here, the MIMS model has been extended and applied to interpreting the experimental K-shell X-ray satellite spectra for more than 40 years in keV-MeV/amu heavy-ion impact on solids. …
A new study from the Bank for International Settlements shows exactly why rapid finance sector growth is bad for the rest of the economy. When private sector debt passes 100% of GDP, that point is reached. Another way of looking at the same topic is the proportion of workers employed by the finance sector. Once …
With his company Afforestt, eco-entrepreneur Shubhendu Sharma is creating mini-forest ecosystems using an accelerated method. It’s based on the practices of Japanese forester Akira Miyawaki, as well as on Sharma’s own experiences gleaned from his former career in car manufacturing. Trees are planted close to each other to simulate natural conditions of growth and competitions. …
China’s hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV), called WU-14 by the Pentagon, was launched into space by an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) booster, after which it returned to the atmosphere to glide at up to Mach 10. The test was conducted within China, says the defense ministry in Beijing. On Jan. 19, another object was test-launched from …
NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and ESA’s (European Space Agency) XMM-Newton telescope are showing that fierce winds from a supermassive black hole blow outward in all directions — a phenomenon that had been suspected, but difficult to prove until now. This discovery has given astronomers their first opportunity to measure the strength of these …
Russia has invented special fuel formula enabling Russia’s hypersonic aerial vehicles to fly faster than five times the speed of sound. Unlike the US and China, who have concentrated on developing boost-glide vehicles, Russia and India are designing the so-called “hypersonic cruise missiles.” While a boost-glide air vehicle first lift to an extreme altitude and …
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside’s Bourns College of Engineering have developed a novel paper-like material for lithium-ion batteries. It has the potential to boost by several times the specific energy, or amount of energy that can be delivered per unit weight of the battery. This paper-like material is composed of sponge-like silicon nanofibers …
The Carnival of Space 393 is up at Universe Today Meet Three People Who Intend to Die on Mars at Universe Today More than 200,000 people have applied to the Mars One Project, and 663 candidates have been put on the shortlist. Eventually just 4 people will be packed into a spacecraft and blasted off …
Spark plugs can only ignite the fuel at one end of the chamber. A laser ignites the fuel in the middle of the chamber instead, burning more of the fuel and improving combustion efficiency by 27 per cent. Laser ignition could boost the fuel efficiency of a car from 40 miles per gallan up to …
India is tripling its fleet of nuclear submarines in the country’s priciest naval expansion in five years, a move that comes as China increases naval activity in the Indian Ocean. A cabinet committee on Tuesday approved plans to build six nuclear-powered submarines and seven stealth warships at a cost of about 1 trillion rupees ($16 …