dditive manufacturing (AM) is a high-priority technology growth area for U.S. manufacturers. Innovative AM processes that fabricate parts layer-by-layer directly from a 3-D digital model have great potential for producing high-value, complex, individually customized parts. Companies are beginning to use AM as a tool for reducing time to market, improving product quality, and reducing the …
Boeing has been awarded an estimated $90 million indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract for the development and delivery of an experimental laser pod. The contractor will provide research and development of high energy laser technologies through the next five years. The laser pod referred to in this award is likely to be the Self-Protect High Energy Laser …
China has approved a 247-billion-yuan ($36-billion) railway plan to improve transport links between the capital Beijing, the port city of Tianjin, and the neighboring province of Hebei, part of plans to integrate the three areas into a mega-city. The plan will span nine projects that total 1,100 km (683 miles) in length, the country’s powerful …
1. Forbes – James Conca – Renewable Energy Will Do Just Fine In President Trump’s America Energy did not make any difference in who we chose for President on Tuesday. But the energy sector won biggly, nonetheless. Under a Trump Presidency, U.S. climate change policy and goals will evaporate, as will the Clean Power Plan, …
Blood plasma from young people has been found to rejuvenate old mice, improving their memory, cognition, and physical activity. The method has the potential to be developed into a treatment for people, says Sakura Minami of Alkahest, the company behind the work. Previous research has found that stitching old and young mice together has an …
Times have changed since the supersonic Concorde was made. Eli Dourado is the director of the Mercatus Center’s Technology Policy Program discusses the changes in technology that will make a new commercial supersonic passenger jet. Modern materials such as carbon fiber are lighter and stronger than aluminum, and modern engines are much more efficient than …
China’s power consumption in August rose 8.3 percent from a year ago because of increased cooling demand due to high temperatures. China’s power consumption reached 563.1 billion kilowatt hours (kwh) in August, said Zhao Chenxin, spokesman for the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Power consumption totalled 3.89 trillion kwh in the first eight months …
The US Army has already experimented with a 10-kilowatt laser on a heavy truck, Boeing’s High Energy Laser – Mobile Demonstrator (HEL-MD), which could shoot down mortar rounds in flight. Lockheed is scaling up the truck-mounted laser to 60 kiloWatts, Boeing has scaled its laser down to 2 kW: still powerful enough to shoot down …
The accumulation and extrusion of Ca2+ in the pre- and postsynaptic compartments play a critical role in initiating plastic changes in biological synapses. To emulate this fundamental process in electronic devices, we developed diffusive Ag-in-oxide memristors with a temporal response during and after stimulation similar to that of the synaptic Ca2+ dynamics. In situ high-resolution …
Thomas Shugart at War on the Rocks makes the case that China’s artificial islands in the South China Sea are not trivial. Thomas Shugart is a Senior Military Fellow at the Center for a New American Security and a submarine warfare officer in the U.S. Navy. China has three major islands Fiery Cross, Subi, and …
Robots for the automation of industrial tasks are on the rise in North America, according to a recently-released industry report from the Association for Advancing Automation. More than $800 million in orders were placed in the first half of 2016, setting a new purchasing high for the industry of 14,583 robots. This represents a 2% …
