Technology Review – The Makani Airborne Wind Turbine consists of several turbines attached to a wing, which is tethered to the ground. In flight, the vehicle takes essentially the same path as the tip of a wind turbine’s blade, following a circle perpendicular to the wind direction. Thanks to crosswind aerodynamics—which produce the rapid circular …
Silicon Valley venture capitalist Jim Breyer made $5 billion for his firm Accel Partners and earned himself billionaire status by taking a risky bet on Facebook in 2004. Breyer says that over the next decade “you will see at least half of the top 10 or 20 Internet companies come from China. China remains a …
Kurzweilai – How the properties of quarks and gluons can be used (in principle) to perform computation at the femtometer (10^-15 meter) scale. An atom is about 10^-10 m in size. The next smallest thing in nature is the nucleus, which is about 100,000 times smaller, i.e., 10^-15 m in size — a femtometer, or …
The Quantum Chip: In the center, there is the microwave resonator and the dark diamond. Two completely different quantum systems were successfully joined at Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna). This should pave the way to feasible quantum-computer microchips. Microwaves have now been coupled to the quantum states of a diamond. Physical Review Letters – …
I am at the Foresight Conference today. I will try to liveblog but the WiFi seems very sluggish. Hopefully that clears up You can try sending questions to speakers by using this Twitter tag (though in-person participants get first priority): #foresight2011 Foresight conference schedule Free webcast at ustream tv 9:00-9:15am “Nanotech: the Next 25 Years” …
A long piece from Chronosphere covers a fair amount of ground, and holds up the AIDS patient advocacy of the 80s and 90s as a model of success that could be and should be emulated for longevity science advocacy. Fightaging summarizes the lengthy Chronopause article. [For example], mature, clinically available, and FDA-approved therapies to slow …
Schematic of MIX-8 device using Octahedral Electromagnet FP Generation was first formed in 2005 by two Columbia graduate students in the department of Applied Physics. In April of 2009, FPG raised $3 million in series A financing from two leading cleantech venture funds to demonstrate the viability of the MIX concept for net fusion power …
Atomic resolution electron micrograph of activated graphene. The images show that the material is composed of single sheets of crystalline carbon, which are highly curved to form a three-dimensional porous network. Activated graphene combines high storage capacity with quick energy release and unlimited recharge. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have …
With the addressing scheme arbitrary patterns of atoms in the lattice can be prepared. The atomic patterns each consist of 10 – 30 single atoms that are kept in an artificial crystal of light. Using a laser beam, scientists could address single atoms in a lattice of light and change their spin state. They managed …
LA Times – Japan’s Kyodo News service, citing government sources, reported that the U.S. military would deploy unmanned, high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft to take images of the building that houses the No. 4 reactor to determine the status of its spent-fuel pool. In Washington, Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko said at a congressional hearing that …
VASIMR VX-200 Performance and Near-term SEP Capability for Unmanned Mars Flight was presented at the Future In-Space Operations (FISO) Workshop Ad Astra has demonstrated 60% propulsion system efficiency (DC to jet power) at an Isp of 4800 seconds and an input power of 220 kW DC • The ratio of mass to power (alpha) of …