Richard Jones (who regularly criticizes molecular nanotechnology, Ray Kurzweil and the Singularity] writes about the Singularity in terms of “Faith in Technology” and Scott Aaronson writes about how the “Singularity is Far’ Points in the Richard Jones article that I wanted to respond to:1. Jones: Peak oil could cause a societal collapse and thus prevent/cripple …
MIT and Westinghouse have been working on increasing the power of existing pressure water nuclear reactors by 50%. A test reactor at MIT had successful tests. The technical and economic issues continue to be studied. This presents the economic and technical analysis that are being performed. In 2006, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute started a …
Natural Gas production is going up by a lot in the United States. This was noted at Peak Oil Debunked about a month ago. The peak oil people such as Mike Ruppert and Matt Simmons were saying in 2003 and since then that natural gas production was heading for a sharp decline. Now even some …
China’s Small and Medium Size Enterprises Are to Employment and Economy Chinese enterprises, especially small and medium ones, are facing a harder time because of the combined effects of the global slowdown, tight domestic credit, rising costs and an appreciating yuan. About 67,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) went bankrupt throughout China in the first …
The Carnival of space Week 69 is up at Discovery Free Space by Irene Klotz The carnival is organized in an A to Z format. This site supplied the Z for Zettaflops and other anticipated breakthroughs with materials, fusion energy and more. Colony Worlds had E for energy, which was geothermal enery on other planets …
A transgenic animal is one that carries a foreign gene that has been deliberately inserted into its genome. (Usually from another animal.) Two methods of producing transgenic mice are widely used: – transforming embryonic stem cells (ES cells) growing in tissue culture with the desired DNA;– injecting the desired gene into the pronucleus of a …
IBM achieved groundbreaking results in transferring data at a sustained rate of over one million Input/Output (I/O) per second — with a response time of under one millisecond (ms). Compared to the fastest industry benchmarked disk system Quicksilver improved performance by 250 percent at less than 1/20th the response time, took up 1/5th the floor …
Honda Insight Hybrid 2010 UPDATE: The 2010 Honda Insight has been introduced but with low EPA ratings of 40-city and 43-highway. Test drives are showing higher mileage. We recently got the opportunity to drive the new Honda Insight through the gently rolling hills just north of Phoenix, AZ, and managed to score 63.4 mile per …
Tobacco mosaic virus is like a 18-nanometer wide straw, which can hold gene silencing RNA The tobacco mosaic virus appears to be the key to safe and effective delivery of gene silencing RNA. Bentley’s team has successfully hollowed out the virus and filled it with siRNA, and then used it to slip the frail substance …
Rodney Brooks, co-founder and CTO of iRobot, is leaving his iRobot post to found his own robotics company, Heartland Robotics. Heartland Robotics, based in Cambridge, Mass., will focus on the manufacture of industrial worker robots. “I want to effect a powerful evolution in the world’s labor markets, and my current focus is to develop low-cost …
UK’s Sheffield Forgemasters is considering the addition of a 15,000 tonne press, which would allow it to accept 500 tonne ingots. The machine, 50% more powerful than its largest existing press, would allow it to make reactor pressure vessels for reactors up to and including Areva’s 1650 MWe EPR, the largest PWR currently on the …