MIT engineers have developed a new type of easily customizable vaccine that can be manufactured in one week, allowing it to be rapidly deployed in response to disease outbreaks. So far, they have designed vaccines against Ebola, H1N1 influenza, and Toxoplasma gondii (a relative of the parasite that causes malaria), which were 100 percent effective …
Scientists from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have discovered a possible secret to dramatically boosting the efficiency of perovskite solar cells hidden in the nanoscale peaks and valleys of the crystalline material. Solar cells made from compounds that have the crystal structure of the mineral perovskite have captured scientists’ imaginations. …
Food Chain Reaction: A Global Food Security Game is an international simulation based in the near future during a global food crisis. In November 2015, 65 thought leaders and policy makers from several countries came together in Washington, D.C. to participate in the exercise. Teams of participants represented governments, institutions, and businesses and responded to …
A statistical projection of traffic fatalities for 2015 shows that an estimated 35,200 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes. This represents an increase of about 7.7 percent as compared to the 32,675 fatalities that were reported to have occurred in 2014. If these projections are realized, fatalities will be at the highest level since …
America, Japan and China are racing to be the first nation to make nuclear energy completely renewable. The hurdle is making it economic to extract uranium from seawater, because the amount of uranium in seawater is truly inexhaustible. James Conca at Forbes describes the latest developments with uranium seawater extraction. James has some update from …
Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal probably consists of approximately 110-130 nuclear warheads, although it could have more. Islamabad is producing fissile material, adding to related production facilities, and deploying additional nuclear weapons and new types of delivery vehicles. Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is widely regarded as designed to dissuade India from taking military action against Pakistan, but Islamabad’s …
Greek lawmakers on Thursday ratified the sale of a majority stake of Piraeus Port to China COSCO Shipping, a major privatization project of the bailed-out nation under a left wing government. Under the 368.5 million euro deal signed in April between COSCO and Greece’s privatization agency, COSCO is to buy 51 percent of Piraeus for …
Michael Gove, the controversial Caledonian Brexiteer is seeking the leadership of the UK Tory Party and thus become the Prime Minister, is calling to “reboot democracy” in a new “start-up nation”. “The total amount we spend as a nation on research and development is significantly less than countries such as the US and government spending …
Remarks made by senior leaders since 2012 make it clear that the long-term goal is for China to be a leader across all aspects of maritime power; having some of these capabilities means that China has some maritime power but that it is “incomplete.” Research strongly suggests that China will achieve the goal of being …
US Air Force Chief Scientist Greg Zacharias said based upon the current trajectory, the US Air Force will likely have some initial hypersonic weapons ready by sometime in the 2020s. In the 2030s, the air force could have a hypersonic drone or ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) vehicle. “I don’t yet know if this is envisioned …
Scientists believe they have discovered that Parkinson’s disease is caused in a different way than previously thought and also a possible new way of treating the severely debilitating condition. It was believed Parkinson’s occurs when mitochondria – which supply power to cells – malfunctioned, causing brain cells that produce the key hormone dopamine to die. …