This is a follow up of my coverage and predictions of a KMT win in Taiwan’s 2008 elections The legislative result has left analysts predicting the Guomindang will re-take the presidency in March elections and steer Taiwan closer to mainland China. Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian has taken full responsibility for the weekend’s loss and has …
Graphene is one hundred times thinner than the smallest silicon transistor possible and graphene conducts electricity much more efficiently. However, graphene sheets tend to curl up and react with substances around them, making them difficult to build into devices. Graphite could provide the most of the electrical property benefits of graphene but be easier to …
A biofuel announcement and updating my energy forecast and recommended energy policy. General Motors announced a partnership with Coskata of Warrenville, IL, a new company that claims it can make ethanol from wood chips, grass, and trash–including old tires–for a dollar a gallon. Coskata is completing a pilot-scale ethanol production facility and will announce locations …
The KMT, pro-China party, won 81 of 113 seats in the legislative elections. I have predicted that KMT victories in the legislative election and then in the presidential election in Taiwan would lead to better relations between Taiwan, China and the USA This is the first third of that prediction. Landslide legislative victory. Then a …
Researchers have created a new process for making complex miniature waveguides that can steer optical signals in three dimensions through solid materials. All optical computers could approach the theoretical speed of a photonic switch which is estimated to be on the order of petahertz (10**15). They should definitely achieve multi-terahertz speeds. So 1000 to 1 …
New materials are making the new generation of skyscrapers safer. The problem for the World Trade Center was that regular steel: Above 750 F, steel starts to lose its structural integrity, and at 1100 F, steel loses 50 percent of its strength. A new formula infuses steel with nanoscale copper particles, this formula could maintain …
There is a 173 report that was published in 2007 on Human enhancement techonologies in Sports. Myostatin inhibitors are four times more effective than high doses of steroids Phase 2 clinical trials for humans are underway From pages 136-137 of the report: Memorandum from Dr Henning Wackerhage and Dr Aivaras Ratkevicius, School of Medical Sciences, …
Wired has an analysis of what would happen in a war between the United States and China in space. I think the analysis is meaningless because I do not believe that the United States and China would go to war. Both countries are prospering under the current world system and world order. The Wired analysis …
Biologists have created baker’s yeast capable of living to 800 in yeast years without apparent side effects. The basic but important discovery, achieved through a combination of dietary and genetic changes, brings science closer to controlling the survival and health of the unit of all living systems: the cell. The study is scheduled to appear …
Rough silicon nanowires synthesized by Berkeley National Lab researchers demonstrated high performance thermoelectric properties even at room temperature when connected between two suspended heating pads. Nearly all of the world’s electrical power, approximately 10 trillion Watts, is generated by heat engines, giant gas or steam-powered turbines that convert heat to mechanical energy, which is then …
Duke University engineers will reveal Friday (Jan. 11) details of an acoustic cloak fabricated from metamaterials that they claim can render objects invisible to sonar. If this works then we will have unprecedented control to hide from the effects or to enhance the effects of sound and other waves in all kinds of material. Submarines …