The Israeli strike on Syria was probably with conventional fighters and missiles. There had been reports and speculation that Israel used new F35 stealth fighters for the attack. Israeli jets have been able to operate almost freely in or close to Syria, hitting targets across the country with guided weapons without the Syrian Arab Air …
Global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions were flat for a third straight year in 2016 even as the global economy grew, according to the International Energy Agency, signaling a continuing decoupling of emissions and economic activity. This was the result of growing renewable power generation, switches from coal to natural gas, improvements in energy efficiency, as …
A researcher with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), Matsumoto is deeply involved in the design of the space sail that will pick up where Japan’s IKAROS left off. Launched in 2010, the latter was a square sail 14 meters to the side that demonstrated the feasibility of maneuvering a sail on interplanetary trajectories. JAXA has …
Russia and the United Arab Emirates will fund efforts to develop a light fifth generation jet, Russian Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov said on Monday. “We’ve signed an agreement on industrial cooperation in the field of military engineering,” Manturov said at the 13th international weapons show IDEX -2017. Isis not clear what the …
Unit 4 of the Yangjiang nuclear power plant in China’s Guangdong province has completed commissioning tests and now meets the conditions for entering commercial operation, China General Nuclear (CGN) announced on March 15, 2017. The loading of fuel assemblies into the core of the 1080 MWe CPR-1000 pressurised water reactor was completed on 21 November …
Last year Bryan Johnson, founder of the online payments company Braintree, starting making news when he threw $100 million behind Kernel, a startup he founded to enhance human intelligence by developing brain implants capable of linking people’s thoughts to computers. Johnson isn’t alone in believing that “neurotechnology” could be the next big thing. To many …
Russia’s reserve fund could be depleted in mid-2017, perhaps a few months later,” said Ondrej Schneider, chief economist at the Institute of International Finance. Russia may start building up its Reserve Fund in the second half of 2017, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said January. This would be if oil prices average $50 per barrel and …
Figures released by the Russian Federal Treasury have confirmed that Russia’s defence budget has been cut by 25.5% for 2017, falling from RUB3.8 trillion (USD65.4 billion) to RUB2.8 trillion. The reduction represents the largest cut to military expenditure in the country since the early 1990s. The reduction follows an extended period of large increases to …
Semiconductor chip makers TSMC and Global Foundries are finally committed to dates for the commercialization of EUV lithography. Global foundries will use Free electron lasers to boost EUV volume production and lower costs. Brian WangBrian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com …
TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor) disclosed plans for an enhanced 7nm FinFET node using extreme ultraviolet lithography, a 12nm upgrade of its 16nm process and a 22nm planar technology — its answer to fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI). The foundry also described enhancements to its two chip-stacking techniques, advances in RF CMOS and work in transistors and materials, …
Valleytronics is exciting as a potential avenue to quantum computing. Like spintronics, valleytronics offers a tremendous advantage in data processing speeds over the electrical charge used in classical electronics. “In valleytronics, electrons move through the lattice of a 2D semiconductor as a wave with two energy valleys, each valley being characterized by a distinct momentum …