This site had already pointed out the european mini-robot work. That work has now been covered by the MIT technology review. The work is interesting because it is system work at the macro scale that tries to integrate with manipulation at smaller scales. Currently the smaller scale is at the micro level of biological cells …
University of Illinois scientists say they’ve developed an innovative strategy of mixing lipids and nanoparticles to produce new drug delivery vehicles. The hollow, deformable and biofunctional capsules could be used in drug delivery, colloidal-based biosensors and enzyme-catalyzed reactions.
NEC’s new technology has achieved a transmission speed of 25 gigabits per second, 40 times faster than the Earth Simulator, the fastest supercomputer at present in Japan, which has a transmission speed of 0.5 gigabits per second The technology uses a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser capable of huge transmissions of data between a central processing unit …
Some electronics while not world changing are just cool, like 100 inch and bigger televisions This 100 inch LCD from LG has 6.22 megapixels which is more than matsushita’s 103 inch 2 megapixel plasma
Sandia’s Z machine has produced plasmas that exceed temperatures of 2 billion degrees Kelvin — hotter than the interiors of stars. The unexpectedly hot output, if its cause were understood and harnessed, could eventually mean that smaller, less costly nuclear fusion plants would produce the same amount of energy as larger plants. The higher temperature …
A new study makes more reliable superconductors with higher critical current density Maximizing oxygen in the Grain Boundary(GB) helps maximize critical current density (Jc), or the maximum current that a superconductor can carry. The superconducting material used in this study was a ceramic compound consisting of millions of microscopic crystals (grains). The WUSTL/Argonne team specifically …
New gene therapy study shows a new way to deliver genes to nearly every muscle cell in the body with a single injection.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory is trying to get commercial-grade carbon fiber to the a price between $3 and $5 per pound. (It is $8-10 per pound now). At the target price, it would become feasible for automakers to use more than a million tons of composites – approximately 300 pounds of composites per vehicle – …
A discussion of advances in solar panels is here. The industry needs to get its price down to about $0.52 per watt (cost $0.26) to achieve installed price of under a $1.00/W, (for 13% efficiency Copper Indium Gallium diSelenide / CIGS panels). Daystar Technology may be reaching $3.00-$3.50/W installed price in 2007 with their Gen …
The places to start are crnano.org, foresight, e-drexler.org, molecularassembler.com, zyvex inc and this site The diamondoid pathway is described by Robert Freitas walking molecules,protein based nano-actuatorsmore physics new other state of the art Molecular Manipulation for Mechanosynthesis (Experimental) [put together by Robert Freitas] Wilson Ho, Hyojune Lee, “Single bond formation and characterization with a scanning …
The place to start is the Nasa Institute for Advanced Concepts Some key concepts and work here or which have been available for some time:Magnetic systems that can utilize the solar wind or use a magnetic plasma. Advantages: reasonable power levels, does not require megascale engineeringMagbeam, Magbeam reference and plasma magnet Magbeam can use 3,000t …