Dwave Quantum Computer is Cooling Its 128 Qubit Chips For Testing

Dwave System reports that three Rainier (128 qubit) 1st silicon chips are on their way to 10mK. On two of them we are doing device-level testing, the third has a full 8-qubit unit cell with all the programmable control circuitry bells and whistles. From the last coverage on Dwave D-Wave plans to have a 1,000-qubit …

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City Scale Robotic Car Details

MIT Technology Review provides details on how the robotic cars for Masdar City in the UAE will work. At both Heathrow and Masdar City, the vehicles will be battery-powered, driverless cars. The system at Heathrow–built by Advanced Transport Systems, based in Bristol, UK–uses cars powered by lead-acid batteries along a concrete track and guided by …

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4DS RRAM – Universal Memory Breakthrough, Production in 18-24 months

Startup 4DS Inc. has emerged from stealth mode and claims to have made a major breakthrough in resistive random access memory (RRAM) technology. FRAM, MRAM, phase-change, RRAM and other technologies are vying for dominance in the ”universal memory” race. 4DS’s website and technology details are at this link. The companies chart and the announcement are …

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The Science of Nuclear War Effects and Battlestar Galactica

This is an analysis from a discussion of scenarios prompted by some events in Battlestar Galactica. This is a follow up to my previous article about problems with the usage of technology in Battlestar Galactica This article will not discuss specific spoilers in Battlestar Galactica, but one could be indirectly spoiled for the last season. …

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Carnival of Space Week 89

The 89th Carnival of Space is hosted by the Moon Society, an organization dedicated to motivating the masses to reclaim our lunar heritage. This site provided details on progress to the Skylon spaceplane. Centauri Dreams re-examines the Drake Equation Paul Anderson (from Merid iani Journal) notes an exo-planet has been discovered that is only two …

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Jovion Corporation Funding and Science Status

Jovion Corporation of Menlo Park, Caifornia in partnership with the University of Colorado in Boulder aims to develop and commercialize a device for producing energy from the electromagnetic quantum vacuum. If successful, this could lead to a practical zero point energy device that would work just as well anywhere in the universe due to the …

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Walmart Will Double the Efficiency of Their Fleet of Cars and Trucks by 2015

From Green Car Congress: Wal-Mart Stores has set of goal of increasing total fleet efficiency by 100% from 2005 to 2015, and has already exceeded its 2008 interim goal of a 25% increase, according to Chris Sultemeier, Wal-Mart’s Senior Vice President of Transportation. Total fleet efficiency is a combination of driving and operational practices as …

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Curing Baldness Could Be a Step to Organ Regeneration

Deep roots. For a hair follicle to begin a new phase of growth, an elusive group of cells called the hair germ (bright red) must be activated. This progression of images shows that the hair germ begins proliferating (green) before other cells do, suggesting a two-step mechanism. Research from Rockefeller University reveals that a structure …

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Debating Singularity Education Programs

As previously noted on this site Ray Kurzweil (inventor, author of the Singularity is Near) and Peter Diamandis (Xprize founder and co-founder of the International Space University) are starting up a Singularity University. This site has noted that the term “University” has some getting their expectations messed up. By examining the program and its stated …

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Montreal Canadians Hockey Team or Religion ?

A self published book analyzes the question are the Montreal Canadiens a hockey team or a religion? The author is Olivier Baurer who is a professor of religious studies at the University of Montreal H/T to Physorg In English, the Montreal Canadiens are referred to as the Habs, but in French the legendary hockey team …

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Hydrophobic Sand Details – Waterproof Nanosand

Desert sand is made hydrophobic be adding the additive SP-HFS 1609. The additive creates a capilliary breaking hydrophobic encapsulation of the sand making it resistant to salts, particularly sodium chloride salts. The Federal Environment Agency (FEA) in Berlin has approved Hydrophobic Sand as being environmentally safe. The product comes with a 30 year guarantee for …

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