Nuclear technologist Kirk Sorensen has spent much of his career researching the potential of thorium fission reactors. Sorensen has recently founded a company, Flibe energy, which is dedicated to developing small, portable thorium power plants. In an interview with Sander Olson (exclusively for Nextbigfuture.com), Sorensen discusses why he believes that thorium could be used to …
Steve Omohundro is a computer scientist who has spent decades designing and writing artificial intelligence software. He now heads a startup corporation, Omai Systems, which will license intellectual property related to AI. In an interview with Sander Olson, Omohundro discuss Apollo style AGI programs, limiting runaway growth in AI systems, and the ultimate limits of …
Mount Sinai researchers have developed a way to stimulate production of an enzyme that enables failing hearts to pump more effectively. Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have developed a new gene therapy that is safe and effective in reversing advanced heart failure. SERCA2a (produced as MYDICAR®) is a gene therapy designed to stimulate …
The SonicStar supersonic business jet concept was unveiled at the 2011 Paris Air Show It will cruise at mach 3.5 by leveraging superconductors to achieve 70% more efficiency. The aircraft will have a cruise fuel efficiency below 1.05 lbs. of fuel, per pound of thrust, per hour at Mach 3.5. Jet-A, JP-4 and JP-7 fuel …
Brian Ahern replicated the work of Arata where Arata got small amounts of power without adding any power into his cold fusion set up. Brian Ahern received his PhD in material science from MIT, holds 26 patents and was a senior scientist for 17 years in research and development at USAF Rome Lab at Hanscom …
Iconic wrestler Macho man Randy Savage died of a heart attack recently. I found the Macho Man to be hilarious and he was one of the best wrestling performers. Babylon 5 actor Jeff Conaway died from pneumonia and sepsis. I greatly enjoyed Babylon 5 and Jeff Conaway acting in it. I also enjoyed his performances …
The cost to construct a Stratospheric Shield with a pumping capacity of 100,000 tons a year of sulfur dioxide would be roughly $24 million, including transportation and assembly. Annual operating costs would run approximately $10 million. The system would use only technologies and materials that already exist—although some improvements may be needed to existing atomizer …
The long anticipated Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway will start a one-month trial operation on Wednesday, before its formal launch in late June. The railway authority has also decided that the fastest train service between the two mega-cities will make an extra stop in Nanjing (capital of Jiangsu province), according to an official with the transport bureau …
Nuclear Fusion Journal – Creation of a high-temperature plasma through merging and compression of supersonic field reversed configuration plasmoids (H/T Talk Polywell) A new device, the Inductive Plasma Accelerator, was employed to simultaneously form and accelerate two oppositely directed field reversed configurations (FRCs) where the relative velocity (600 km s−1) of the plasmoids was much …
Partha Ranganathan is Hewlett Packard’s Principal Investigator for HPs exascale datacenter project and is an expert on data center design. Modern data centers are not nearly as efficient as they could be and waste prodigious amounts of energy. Unless these inefficiencies are addressed, exascale supercomputers and data centers will never be feasible. In an interview …
New footage has been released of the moment Japan’s tsunami hit the Fukushima nuclear power plant. It was taken from the cellphone of a worker at the plant. The video shows the giant wave generated by the historic March 11 earthquake crashing over the plant’s seawall and engulfing the facility, with one sheet of spray …