This is a coal plant. Nuclear power is not the only ones with the big cooling towers. As of 2005, there were 1,522 coal-fired electric generating units in the U.S. These plants had a total 335,891 (megawatts) MW of production capacity Country 2005 Coal Power Prod. % of World Total U.S. 2,090,000 GWh 30.1% China …
Researchers have discovered human antibodies that neutralize not only H5N1 bird flu but other strains of influenza as well and say they hope to develop them into lifesaving treatments. Flu at wikipedia. Flu kills about 250,000 people every year. This can increase to 1-2 million during a pandemic. The spanish flu killed over 50 million …
Harvard researchers have made the paper chips into a three-dimensional diagnostic device by layering them with punctured pieces of waterproof tape. A drop of liquid can move across channels and into wells on the first sheet, diffuse down through the holes in the tape, and react in test wells on the second paper layer. The …
From MIT Technology Review, racetrack memory is making experimental progress towards surpassing flash memory. Racetrack memory stores data in vertical nanowires, it can theoretically pack 100 times as much data into the same area as a flash-chip transistor, and at the same cost. There are no mechanical parts, so it could prove more reliable than …
Light rather than electrical current: The inner or outer surfaces of glass micropipettes can be coated with nanoparticles of a narrow-band-gap semiconductor. When visible or near-infrared light is used for excitation, these micropipettes (labeled PE Stim in the image) can activate nearby neurons (labeled *) in brain tissue without the damage associated with electrical stimulation. …
Mini-Helicon plasma thrusters are the first three parts of a Vasimr plasma propulsion unit. The Mini-Helicon is the first rocket to run on nitrogen, the most abundant gas in our atmosphere. Nitrogen is cheaper than Xenon and other gases used in other electric propulsion. The new system, called the Mini-Helicon Plasma Thruster, is much smaller …
On the Apollo missions, only 1/601 of the mass sent into space returned. An Orion mission to Mars would return 1/2.5 of its mass and a mission to Saturn would return 1/6 of its mass. In 1958 dollars, an Orion mission would have cost 11 cents per kilogram sent into space, while in 2005 dollars, …
We are looking at faster computing developments based on recent breakthroughs. There are now several ways that we can get computing down to 1-2 nanometer feature or element size. These manufacturing methods could be scaled up and delivering computer hardware products within 4-10 years. Many thought that computer hardware might permanently stall at 10-20 nanometer …
Four atomic quantum dots are coupled to form a “cell” for containing electrons. The cell is filled with just two electrons. Control charges are placed along a diagonal to direct the two electrons to reside at just two of the four quantum dots comprising the cell. This new level of control of electrons points to …
An overhead view (bottom) shows cylindrical block-coploymer structures, consisting of a central polymer (blue) linked to a surrounding polymer (red). An atomic-force microscope image (center), shows the densely packed cylinders, dark in the center, with the varying height of the surface beneath them visible as alternating lighter and darker stripes. The side view diagram (top) …
The International Atomic Energy Agency said that Iran now has amassed a stockpile totaling one ton of uranium which could easily be made into weapons-grade material with further purification. In their first assessment of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme since Barack Obama became US president, atomic inspectors disclosed that Tehran’s leaders understated by a third …