Dwave systems has a 48 page presentation that describes more technical details and specifics of the operation of their adiabatic quantum computers. the steps to run the dwave adiabatic quantum computer (currently 128 qubits) 1. Load 100 microseconds2. Wait to cool 1 milliseconds (loading heats ot 400 millikelvin)3. Anneal system 10 microseconds4. Read qubit state …
An electric solar wind sail is a recently introduced propellantless space propulsion method whose technical development has also started. The electric sail consists of a set of long, thin, centrifugally stretched and conducting tethers which are charged positively and kept in a high positive potential of order 20 kV by an onboard electron gun. The …
Here is an interview with Dr. Steven Armentrout, the CEO of Parabon Computation. Parabon has a unique approach to cloud computing – they do not own or operate any data centers. Rather, they contract out with Universities and other organizations to utilize unused compute cycles from large groups of idle computers. Parabon then leases most …
This site had an interview with Richard Varvill, the Technical Director and Chief Designer at Reaction Engines Limited. Reaction Engines Limited is a UK company that is developing a fully reusable launch system called Skylon. There was a comment (link to the comment) by reader Goatguy which has a response from Richard Varvill Below is …
One of the 37 projects that were funded under the ARPA-E program was Wave Disc Engines Wave Disc Engine. Michigan State will complete its prototype development of a new gas-fueled electricity generator, five times more efficient than traditional auto engines in electricity production, 20% lighter, and 30% cheaper to manufacture. This novel ultrahigh efficiency engine …
When people think about building things with carbon nanotubes or with carbon nanotube enhanced materials they need to know that there is not much production of carbon nanotubes. There is less than 1000 tons/year of carbon nanotubes being produced and most of that is in a form that is like an unsorted powder. The material …
It took less than two years for the Blue Brain supercomputer to accurately simulate a neocortical column, which is a tiny slice of brain containing approximately 10,000 neurons, with about 30 million synaptic connections between them. The Blue Brain team is now developing a model of a complete rat brain—that should be done in 2010—Markram …
China has had far fewer deaths from H1N1 and has limited and delayed the spread of H1N1. From April 25 to July 5, a total of 8,272 people entering China with flu-like symptoms were transferred to medical institutions for quarantine. Some 228 of them were confirmed as H1N1 flu patients. China’s strategy for fighting swine-flu …
Correcting Amory Lovins Grist Aricle: Stewart Brand’s nuclear enthusiasm falls short on facts and logic Amory Lovins tries to indicate that nuclear power is unique in getting governments paying for its development. * Per KWH nuclear gets less support than renewable energy Energy Information Agency calculation of per KWH support: Source – subsidy and support …
Adam Crowl, crowlspace, points out that with the 6.3% of light speed exhaust velocity from Winterbergs deuterium fusion rocket design means a 120,000 ton starship attached to 12,000,000 tons of deuterium can do a delta-vee of ~0.2 c (20% of lightspeed). This would be using the two stage configuration of the Project Daedelus (which was …
Here is the Uzi Vishkin interview. Dr. Vishkin is a Professor in the Department of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Maryland: Dr. Vishkin has developed a new computer paradigm that has the potential to speed up many computer operations by 10x or even 100x. The new software developed by Dr. Vishkin, called …