Centauri Dreams and The Atlantic have articles that consider if would we know if an early mammal built a civilization in the last 60 million years? Let’s assume a civilization lasting no more than 100,000 years, which turns out to be 500 times longer than our own civilization to this point. You would think that …
Greg Matloff and his wife, C Bangs, have researched the use of holographic films for solar and laser pushed space sails. Matloff’s work is described at Centauri Dreams. Greg Matloff is on the Advisor’s Board of Yuri Milner’s $100 million Breakthrough Starshot project. Matloff has worked for decades interstellar travel techniques. Breakthrough starshot is considering …
In 2016, the Shanghai Superintense Ultrafast Laser Facility (SULF), is a single cylinder of titanium-doped sapphire about the width of a Frisbee. achieved an unprecedented 5.3 million billion watts, or petawatts (PW). The lights in Shanghai do not dim each time the laser fires, however. Although the pulses are extraordinarily powerful, they are also infinitesimally …
China’s population is 1.42 billion and India’s population is 1.35 billion. India is projected to surpass China’s population in 2024. In 2024, India and China are expected to have roughly a population of 1.44 billion each. After that, India’s population is projected to continue growing for several decades to around 1.5 billion in 2030 and …
California will have over 40 million people around September, 2018. California’s population grew by 301,000 people between July 1, 2016 and July 1, 2017 to total 39.6 million. By July 1, 2018 California should have 39.9 million and should be over 40 million in September, 2018. World Population Review estimates California’s current population at 39.78 …
The U.S. Army Research Laboratory’s Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Propulsion made an historic first with its experiment in a gas turbine combustor using X-rays. The data will help advance gas turbine engine designs for higher power density and efficiency, scientists said. “This is the strongest X-ray source in the world,” said Tonghun Lee, an …
MIT has combined a roll-to-roll approach — a common industrial approach for continuous processing of thin foils — with the common graphene-fabrication technique of chemical vapor deposition, to manufacture high-quality graphene in large quantities and at a high rate. The system consists of two spools, connected by a conveyor belt that runs through a small …
Defense One Technology Editor Patrick Tucker has reported on August 2017 meetings between US Defense Secretary James Mattis and Google founder Sergey Brin and CEO Sundar Pichai. Over a half day of meetings, Google leaders described the company’s multi-year transition to cloud computing and how it was helping them develop into a powerhouse for research …
South Korea sees a path to a peace agreement with North Korea and an end to the over 65 years old state of war with North Korea. The Korean War never officially ended. Hostilities were suspended for all of these decades. The last time there was a near agreement on peace in Korea was the …
It’s one of the most unbelievable energy stories of the year. A Chinese oil company was sitting on what might be a major oil discovery – a 182-million-barrel probable reserve, with great potential to grow. They spent hundreds of millions of dollars and sunk 13 wells, shot or acquired 6,700 km of 2D seismic, and …
The Mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, confirms that the SpaceX Big Falcon rocket will start production development in Los Angeles. Los Angeles officials said Monday that a tentative lease agreement would allow SpaceX to take over a dormant building at the port in a move that could bring as any as 700 jobs to …