An 80-base-pair piece of DNA to be sequenced (shown here in purple) is first inserted into a circular template of DNA, along with four stretches of synthetic DNA, called adaptors (pink and blue). A specialized enzyme then makes hundreds of consecutive copies of the DNA circle. Thanks to chemical properties engineered into the adaptor sequences, …
A team of scientists from Boston College and Duke University has developed a highly-engineered metamaterial capable of absorbing all of thelight that strikes it – to a scientific standard of perfection – they report in Physical Review Letters. The team designed and engineered a metamaterial that uses tiny geometric surfacefeatures to successfully capture the electric …
The technique involves inserting nanomagnets into monocytes – a type of white blood cell used to carry gene therapy – and injecting the cells into the bloodstream. The researchers then placed a small magnet over the tumour to create a magnetic field and found that this attracted many more monocytes into the tumour. This new …
The DOE funded 25 projects as part of the Next Generation Photovoltaic Devices & Processes program to make solar power cost competitive with coal and nuclear power by 2015. Here are several of the funded projects: Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, NY) project will develop PV cells for solar concentrator applications using high efficiency nanostructures. …
This is a follow up to my proposal for widespread monitoring and analysis of biomarker data in people to improve medical research and treatment. There would be work to do to bring costs down and to make more comprehensive tests. Which is why I was suggesting that someone like an Andy Grove (who lead Intel …
Toshiba Corporation today announced important breakthroughs in key technologies for magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), a promising, next-generation semiconductor memory device. Cell Structure. A material with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, which is used for recording media and a type of cobalt-iron, is employed in the magnetic layer, with magnesium oxide in the insulating layer and cobalt-iron-boron …
Submarines could be made less visible to sonar using metamaterials There are still many challenges to overcome including the variability of the surrounding water and enabling lack of sonar reflection from more than one direction (ie another submarine at the same depth unable to detect but one above or below could) Brian WangBrian Wang is …
WiPower uses induction (magnetic coupling) to transfer power from the base station to the receiving devices. They are claiming 68% efficiency in the transfer of power and believe that they can achieve 80% efficiency. A regular power cord is 58% efficient. Brian WangBrian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with …
USB 3.0 could hit communication speeds of 4 Gbps and next generation Firewire might be 3.2 Gbps or 10 Gbps USB2 has a speed of 480 mbps. The USB3 spec probably will have to reduce the five-meter reach of USB 2.0, perhaps to as little as two meters. The 1394 has been studying use of …
The US current account deficit was a record $857 billion in 2006 A 45% depreciation of the dollar against the yuan would not result in balanced U.S. bilateral trade with China. The cost advantage of most Chinese exports is simply too great to be eliminated by currency movements alone. Moreover, many of the goods that …
The 12th Carnival of Space is up at Flysinger.blogspot.com My contribution was my review on updated nuclear propulsion concepts Centauri dreams looks at worldships for space colonization Galaxy zoo is an internet collaboration to classify galaxies Colony Worlds takes another look at future Mars colonization Brian WangBrian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a …