China’s GDP in 2007 was 24.66 trillion yuan ($3.38 trillion) and per capita GDP was $2,556, official figures suggest. UPDATE of this May article:China’s currency is now 6.88 yuan to 1 USD. China’s GDP is now $3.78 trillion. Hong Kong’s GDP is $409 billion in 2008 Including Hong Kong and Macau China has $4.2 trillion …
Dice-size crumbs of bright material have vanished from inside a trench where they were photographed by NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander four days ago, convincing scientists that the material was frozen water that vaporized after digging exposed it. A link to a NASA video of the ice find Many images at the Phoenix NASA blog
The 59th carnival of space is up at Green Gabbro on the Science blogs Centauri Dreams talks about the improved technology for the burst of new exoplanet discoveries. Nasa is blogging about the GLAST (Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope) mission. 25 reasons to go the moon are discussed Check out the Carnival for much more.
Some people have criticized the technological Singularity and Transhumanism because of the upside being things that they do not believe can be achieved.Also, the primary technologies that are often described as enabling the Singularity and Transhumanism are Molecular Nanotechnology and greater than human intelligence general AI. There has been virtually no effort or money spent …
The UK’s NFAB has a new sub-miniature scanning electron microscope which is a completely new concept in electron microscopy. The microscope is 5 μm long and has atomic resolution (2 Å) at 500 eV energy and 10 nA of current. The low energy means it can identify single atoms on a surface as well as …
Top view of the apparatus [Blacklight power is using] for scattering an electron beam from a crossed atomic or molecular beam and measuring the fifth-force deflected beam. NOTE: this is not the generator but a device for testing some of the science behind it. Dec 11, 2008 UPDATE: Blacklight Power has signed its first commercial …
Sound shield: An acoustic cloak comprising alternating layers of sound-scattering materials should make objects invisible to sonar–and insulated from sound. In this computer-generated image, a cylinder (green circle) is coated with 200 layers of such a material, which was found to be the optimal design. Sound waves moving from left to right (their peaks and …
Surveying the carbon nanotube market, the leaders in large scale production are Baytubes, Hyperion Catalysis International and Nanocyl. Along with Bayer and Hyperion, other leading producers include France’s Arkema, Belgium’s Nanocyl, Iljin Nanotech in South Korea, and Shenzhen Nanotech Port in China. Japan’s Mitsui has a joint venture with Hodogaya Chemical for nanotube R&D, production, …
World cement usage in 2008 is 2.8 billion tons and is forecast to be 3.5 billion tons in 2012 China is using 1.3 billion tons in 2008 about 45% of the world total. The cement usage is mainly driven by the fact that China is adding a one to one and half Los Angeles worth …
The Defense Science Board will examine how the Defense Department could benefit from scientific breakthroughs in the field of synthetic biology. John Young, the under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, wants DSB members to “survey” developments in biotechnology and “attempt to project transition paths from research into current and future defense applications,” …
From Yahoo Sports: The surgery on meniscus in Tiger Wood’s left knee in April didn’t work as well as hope. One knee expert, while obviously not privy to the medical records, watched Woods this weekend and saw trouble. This is not a story related to a “big future”, but it is science and medicine related …