General Fusion is nearing significant milestones. General Fusion’s Approach is Magnetized target fusion (MTF). Magnetized target fusion is a hybrid between magnetic fusion and inertial confinement fusion. In MTF, a compact toroid, or donut-shaped magnetized plasma, is compressed mechanically by an imploding conductive shell, heating the plasma to fusion conditions. General Fusion has a full-scale …
The U.S. Navy operates three kinds of submarines—nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs), nuclear-powered cruise missile submarines (SSGNs), and nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs). The SSNs and SSGNs are multi-mission ships that perform a variety ofpeacetime and wartime missions. They do not carry nuclear weapons. The Ohio replacement program (ORP) is a program to design and build …
1. China approved construction of its first nuclear power project since the Fukushima disaster in Japan almost four years ago brought the program to a standstill. China’s State Council gave the go-ahead on Feb. 17 to begin building two new reactors at China General Nuclear Power Group’s Hongyanhe plant in the country’s northeast. Nuclear power …
Harvard’s Luhan Yang described a human germline genetic editing experiment. Researchers hoped to obtain, from a hospital in New York, the ovaries of a woman undergoing surgery for ovarian cancer, caused by a mutation in a gene called BRCA1. Working with another Harvard laboratory, that of antiaging specialist David Sinclair, they would extract immature egg …
2015 Congressional Research report – Navy Force Structure and Shipbuilding Plans: Background and Issues for Congress The Navy’s proposed FY2016 budget requests funding for the procurement of nine new battle force ships (i.e., ships that count against the Navy’s goal for achieving and maintaining a fleet of 306 ships). The nine ships include two Virginia-class …
A 30-kilowatt fiber laser weapon system from Lockheed Martin successfully disabled a vehicle engine from a distance of more than one mile. In the test — said to represent the highest power ever documented by a laser weapon of its type — the beam from the Advanced Test High Energy Asset, or ATHENA, quickly burned …
The French space agency, CNES, on Dec. 11 said it is partnering with Google on the Google X Project Loon to deploy more than 100,000 balloons in the stratosphere to provide high-speed Internet to regions without it. CNES has maintained an active balloon launch program for studies of upper-atmospheric air currents, the chemical composition of …
Nextbigfuture described a future where China helps build out the infrastructure that the rest of the developing world needs over the next few decades. The shortfall of infrastructure is lowering the potential GDP growth by 2-3% in many countries. An extra 2% GDP growth globally would accelerate the arrival of a world with a quadrillion …
The Military Balance is The International Institute for Strategic Studies’ (IISS) annual assessment of the military capabilities and defence economics of 171 countries worldwide. France and Germany have seen a 25% drop in the value of the Euro since 2014 (1.38 down to 1.1). The Euro is expected to drop another 5% or so relative …
China announced an official 2015 military budget of $145 billion, which is a 10.1% increase from 2014. The Pentagon and global arms bodies estimate China’s actual military spending may be anywhere from 40 to 50 percent more because the official budget doesn’t include the costs of high-tech weapons imports, research and development, and other programs. …
Rehabilitation experts at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine hope to one day give people with an arm amputation a prosthetic limb that not only moves like a natural one, but “feels” like it, too. They expect such sensation will improve dexterous control of the device and give users greater intuition about what they …