Robotics pioneer Rodney Brooks says a new generation of industrial robots could be enabled by better machine vision. A coming wave of industrial robots will be smart enough to work safely alongside humans in many different settings, says Rodney Brooks, a professor emeritus of robotics at MIT and a founder of iRobot. “I think there’s …
Most pre-election projections were for Canada to elect another Conservative minority government. However, a Conservative Majority was elected. UPDATE: The Bloc Quebecois is no longer an official political party in Canada’s parliament. The younger people in Quebec are less interested in separation. This could mean the passing of Quebec separatism as a significant risk. The …
Nanocone-based solar cell consisting of n-type nanocones, p-type matrix, transparent conductive oxide (TCO) and glass substrate. With the creation of a 3-D nanocone-based solar cell platform, a team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Jun Xu has boosted the light-to-power conversion efficiency of photovoltaics by nearly 80 percent. Xu and colleagues were able to obtain …
A startup called TenKsolar, based in Minneapolis, says it can increase the amount of solar power generated on rooftops by 25 to 50 percent, and also reduce the overall cost of solar power by changing the way solar cells are wired together and adding inexpensive reflectors to gather more light. TenKsolar says its systems can …
bloomberg – President Barack Obama, presenting his second plan in as many months to reduce the nation’s long- term debt today, is vowing to cut $4 trillion in cumulative deficits within 12 years with $3 in spending cuts and interest savings for every $1 in tax increases, according to two congressional aides familiar with the …
Optical microscopy with visible light has been limited to a resolution of 200 nanometers. Now Allard Mosk at the University of Twente in The Netherlands haved uses 561nm laser light to image gold nanoparticles just 97 nanometres across and say it should be possible to do even better. Arxiv – Scattering Lens Resolves sub-100 nm …
BBC News – 1748: French aircraft have destroyed four Libyan tanks in air strikes to the south-west of Benghazi, Al-Jazeera television has reported. * the first shots have been fired in Libya by French military jets enforcing the no-fly zone voted for by the UN * French aircraft are preventing forces loyal to Libyan leader …
Writing in the journal Circulation Research: Journal of the American Heart Association, scientists show in a small study that stem cell therapy can reverse heart damage in patients with enlarged hearts due to heart attacks. In addition, the benefits from the stem cell injections appear to be three times better than that offered by current …
The level of radiation detected at the Tokyo Electric Power Co Fukushima plant has fallen steadily over the past 12 hours, an official at Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said on Thursday. A level of 752 microsieverts per hour was recorded at the plant’s main gate at 5 p.m. (0800 GMT) on Wednesday, said …
2G HTS Applications Developments (62 pages) Superpower inc is working on : 1. 2G HTS SMES (High Temperature Superconductor superconducting magnetic energy storage) 2. FCL (Fault Current Limiters) Transformer 3. FCL (Fault Current Limiters)Module Development 4. HTS (High Temperature Superconductor) Cable 5. HTS (High Temperature Superconductor) Generators and Motors Superconducting magnetic energy storage project • …
The Nook Color, which was designed mainly for reading books and magazines, is about half the size of an iPad or a Xoom. It weighs about 30% less. It runs on WiFi, but not 3G. It has an absolutely superb screen. And, once you’ve unlocked the software, it runs many Android applications, from email to …