The Carnival of Space 217 is up at Dear Astronomer. Universe Today – SpaceX to Develop a Fully Reusable Launch System — and Elon Musk Wants to Send Humans to Mars Elon Musk incidated in a speech that humanity should be willing to spend about one quarter of one percent of GDP for Mars colonization …
The FBI has charged a would-be terrorist in Ashland, Massachusetts with planning multiple bomb attacks in which radio-controlled planes would have been used as bargain-basement, explosives-packed drones. It could lead to a thicket of regulations on both the vendors and flyers of RC planes in future. Ferdaus ordered and acquired a $6,500 remote-controlled aircraft, an …
Michael Johnson believes that Usain bolt can run faster than 19 seconds in the 200 meters The American says that whilst Bolt’s untidy technique, where he rocks from side to side, can let him down, he stands a better chance than fellow Jamaican Blake of running 18-point. Usain Bolt has run the 100 meters in …
Matternet will use UAVs to provide point to point for half the price of current systems. 6 cents per kilometer per kilogram. In Africa dirt roads can be washed out 6 months out of the air. It will help leapfrog over the lack of infrastructure for 1.4 billion people. Ignisolar is a company that harnesses …
Ben Goertzel at HPlus Magazine talks about his idea for robots made of quarter centimeter to one centimeters pieces that he calls Inorganic Macrocell Robots or IMBots The idea seems very doable with the current millimeter scale claytronics which are themselves precursors to Micron based claytronics and precursors to utility fog. Utility fog needs early …
Embedded after the jump is my 2011 Singularity University presentation. Latest Developments and Current Capabilities in Nanotechnology. I went over the following areas – 2D and 3D Nanoscale patterning and manufacturing – Quantum dots – Self Assembly – Memristors – Sensors and electronics in living cells – Carbon nanotubes and graphene – Advice on nanotechnology …
Left- Biological scaffolds made of extracellular matrices, Center – mound of ECM powder or pixie dust that regenerate finger tips, Right – pixie dust in a test tube Stephen Badylak is a leading researcher on tissue regeneration. Here is a link to his publications. It appears that they are having success with inducing the regeneration …
Solar Electric Propulsion : Evolving Capability Supporting Multiple Users & Missions” Tom Kessler , Boeing at the Future In-Space Operations (FISO) Working Group (8 page presentation) Solar electric propulsion in the megawatt class is better than capabilities that we have now. There are other capabilities like electric solar sails and nuclear fusion for space propulsion …
IMF forecasts China will pass the USA in Purchasing power parity GDP in 2016. The latest IMF forecast report is here (World Economic Outlook April 2011, 242 pages) Under PPP, the Chinese economy will expand from $11.2 trillion this year to $19 trillion in 2016. Meanwhile the size of the U.S. economy will rise from …
For the first time, scientists have made star-shaped, biodegradable polymers that can self-assemble into hollow, nanofiber spheres, and when the spheres are injected with cells into wounds, these spheres biodegrade, but the cells live on to form new tissue. Nature Materials – To repair complexly shaped tissue defects, an injectable cell carrier is desirable to …
The artificial general intelligence researcher Ben Goertzel is a major proponent of anti-aging research. In H+magazine, Goertzel interviews one of the foremost authorities on the subject, Jao Pedro de Magalhaes. Magalhaes is confident that with sufficient funding, anti-aging treatments could be in use by mid-century. Aubrey de Grey’s Key to Longevity If you liked this …