Month: November 2016

China approves $36 billion of subways and other links to reduce commutes over an area twice the size of South Korea from several hours to mostly 60 minutes or less

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China has approved a 247-billion-yuan ($36-billion) railway plan to improve transport links between the capital Beijing, the port city of Tianjin, and the neighboring province of Hebei, part of plans to integrate the three areas into a mega-city. The plan will span nine projects that total 1,100 km (683 miles) in length, the country’s powerful …

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Self Checkout and Image recognition checkout will eliminate cashiers

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McDonalds is rolling out self-order kiosks, mobile pay options, an updated interior design, even table service. The changes are already starting to show up at locations in Florida, New York and Southern California, where 500 restaurants have been updated. Restaurants in San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, D.C. and Seattle will get upgrades in early 2017. McDonald’s …

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DARPA seeks drone escort for military truck convoys to protect against enemy drones

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DARPA is asking for industry’s help in developing a agile and mobile drone-defense system that can defeat a raid of self-guided, small unmanned aerial systems (UAS) that are attacking an important moving target like a high-value convoy. The potential $63 million Mobile force protection project seeks ways to defend against not only today’s radio-controlled and …

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Carnival of Space 485

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The Carnival of Space 485 is up at Urban Astronomer Universe Today – ‘Global Warming Hiatus’ Not Good News For Planet Earth Universe Today – How Do We Colonize Jupiter’s Moons? Establishing colonies on the Galilean moons has many potential benefits for humanity. For one, the Jovian system is incredibly rich in terms of volatiles …

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Entirely new theoretical method for factoring numbers using quantum simulation could lead to a theory of numbers that is based on physical quantum systems

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Researchers introduced new concepts and arithmetic functions that could play a significant role in the quantum factorization problem. The Factorization Ensemble is the main one; it allows us to bind the hamiltonian of a quantum factoring simulator. Although the researchers have not yet built a quantum simulator, they show that the prime factors of large …

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Manmade diamonds become batteries when placed near radioactive sources like nuclear waste like carbon-14

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New technology has been developed that uses nuclear waste to generate electricity in a nuclear-powered battery. A team of physicists and chemists from the University of Bristol have grown a man-made diamond that, when placed in a radioactive field, is able to generate a small electrical current. The development could solve some of the problems …

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Researchers remove mutated DNA from mitochondria to slow or reverse a cause of aging

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Researchers from Caltech and UCLA have developed a new approach to removing cellular damage that accumulates with age. The technique can potentially help slow or reverse an important cause of aging. Led by Nikolay Kandul, senior postdoctoral scholar in biology and biological engineering in the laboratory of Professor of Biology Bruce Hay, the team developed …

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China’s new mach 6 hypersonic missile has over twice the range of best US air to air missile and new drones could create a stealth plane targeting network

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A Chinese J-16 strike fighter recently test-fired a mach 6 hypersonic missiles to successfully destroying the target drone at a very long range. The hypersonic missile has a range of between 200-310 miles. The U.S. military’s own longest-range air-to-air missile, the AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile. The AMRAAM is just 12 feet long and seven …

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Attempted statistical lies that try to link French Nuclear Power Plants and Childhood Leukemia

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There was a flawed Geocap Study in 2012 which suggested a possible excess risk of AL [childhood acute leukemia] in the close vicinity of French NPPs [nuclear power plants] in 2002–2007. France gets 80% of its electricity from nuclear energy. France is a target for those who are against nuclear energy to try to find …

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Near Term Planet photographing exoplanet telescopes

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Exoplanets are detected—by measuring the wobble their gravity causes in their host stars, or by noting the slight decline in a star’s brightness as a planet passes in front of it—yield little detail. Using them, astronomers can infer such basics as a planet’s size, mass and orbit. Occasionally, they can interrogate starlight that has traversed …

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Switzerland votes to keep nuclear power which provides 35% of electricity

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Switzerland has voted to keep their nuclear reactors. Five nuclear reactors provide over one-third of Switzerland’s electricity. Nuclear power is Switzerland’s second largest source of electricity, providing about 35% of electricity in 2015 and complementing 52% hydro to give the country one of the cleanest and most secure electricity systems in the world. Now Swiss …

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