Technological Improvements Raise the Energy Return For Energy Production

1. Improvements in Life Cycle Energy Efficiency and Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Corn-Ethanol from researchers at the University of Nebraska Ethanol-to-petroleum output/input ratios ranged from 10:1 to 13:1 but could be increased to 19:1 if farmers adopted high-yield progressive crop and soil management practices. An advanced closed-loop biorefinery with anaerobic digestion reduced GHG emissions by …

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Toward a Urine Test for Corony Artery Disease

A new urine test that is about 80-92% accurate could allow for early detection of coronary artery disease. Coronary artery disease (CAD) is responsible for most of the 1.5 million heart attacks that occur in the United States each year. A cheap and simple test for biomarkers would allow for early detection and monitoring of …

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Frontiers of Propulsion Science

Frontiers of Propulsion Science is the first-ever compilation of emerging science relevant to such notions as space drives, warp drives, gravity control, and faster-than-light travel – the kind of breakthroughs that would revolutionize spaceflight and enable human voyages to other star systems. Although these concepts might sound like science fiction, they are appearing in growing …

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Wind, Nuclear Power in 2008

Global wind energy capacity grew by 28.8% last year, even higher than the average over the past decade, to reach total global installations of more than 120.8 GW [260 TWh/year] at the end of 2008, according to the Global Wind Energy Council. More than 27 GW of new wind power generation capacity came online in …

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Update on IEC Fusion

The Talk Polywell has been analyzing the latest Navy project for the Inertial Electrostatic (Bussard/IEC) fusion effort. * The contractor will modify/upgrade the existing wiffleball #7 (WB-7) device by installing compact, high temperature coil joints to investigate the electron parallel heat loss. This modified device shall hereafter be identified as Wiffleball #7.1 (WB-7.1). * The …

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A Galactic Scale Uploaded Civilization: 10**50 Simulated Human Mind Equivalents

Recent astronomy news. There are 3 trillion stars in the Milky Way. The Milky way is about 8 times bigger than was thought. We still have a shaky understanding of our own galaxy as refined measurements of star speed in the arms indicates that the volume is about 8 times more than was previously believed. …

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Progress to the Skylon Single Stage to Orbit Spaceplane for 2019

The last time this site had looked at the work of Reaction Engines, the designers of the Skylon Single-stage to Orbit vehicle proposal, they had designed the Mach 5 – A2 commercial Concorde replacement. Reaction Engines has gotten tens of millions of dollars in funding for various engine and cooler subsystem development and testing. They …

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Feb 3rd a $10 Laptop and Future Energy Harvesting Convergence

A $10 laptop (Rs 500) prototype, with 2 GB RAM capacity, would be on display in Tirupati, India on February 3 when the Indian National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology is launched. According to some unofficial reports the laptop will feature 2GB of memory, WiFi, fixed Ethernet, expandable memory, and consume just …

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Carnival of Space 88

Carnival of Space Week 88 is up at the Space Writer This site provided the article on laser array space launch details The Music of the Spheres provides an introduction to electric propulsion rockets. Electric Propulsion rockets were also featured in the latest Popular Science magazine. Orbital Hub looks at the Kepler exo-planet hunter mission …

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Graphene turned from highly Conductive into Insulating Graphane by Adding Hydrogen

Graphane crystal. This novel two-dimensional material is obtained from graphene (a monolayer of carbon atoms) by attaching hydrogen atoms (red) to each carbon atoms (blue) in the crystal. Credit: University of Manchester Researchers at The University of Manchester have produced a ground-breaking new material, graphane, which has been derived from graphene. What is huge:1. Graphene …

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IPhone “Intelligence” Enhancement and An Idea for Advanced Exoskeleton Training and Instant Skills

There is a new $1 iPhone application called CubeCheater which helps you solve the classic Rubik’s Cube puzzle toy using a mix of sophisticated algorithms and simple image-recognition technology. You take six pictures of your mixed up Rubik’s Cube using the iPhone’s camera — one photo per side. If you have an iPod Touch, you …

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