Russia’s Rosatom nuclear agency signed a deal to build a fast-neutron nuclear reactor on Russian territory in co-operation with 13 Czech companies. It is called the SVBR-100 project. Research and design work on the SVBR-100 reactor will continue until the end of 2014, while operations proper are set to begin in 2017. Potentially, it could …
Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) and Nanospectra Biosciences have planned the first clinical trial for lung cancers of a new therapy that uses gold nanoshells, which were invented at Rice University. Nanospectra’s AuroLase Therapy uses a combination of lasers and nanoparticles to destroy cancer tumors with heat. Because the nanoparticles — balls of silica …
The Royal Society looks at Human enhancement and the future of work. The project explored potential enhancements arising from advances in science and engineering that are likely to impact on the future of work. Here is the 72 page workshop report What is meant by Human Enhancement (for this report) The term ‘human enhancement’ encompasses …
The Atlantic – Yesterday, Sudanese culture and information minister Ahmed Bilal Osman alleged that the previous evening, four Israeli fighter jets flew over Khartoum from the east and partially destroyed the Yarmouk munitions factory, in the city’s south. Israel may have done it for a few reasons: 1. To slow and reduce the amount of …
In the Diplomat, Minxin Pei (professor of government) tries to raise an alarm about the debt levels at China’s banks and local government. This has been an issue that has been discussed for at least two years. The global “wall” of nonfinancial corporate debt maturities coming due from 2012 to 2016 is not new to …
To enable frequent, low-cost opportunities to deliver nanosatellites to destinations beyond Earth orbit, TUI proposes to develop the “Nanosatellite Tethered High-Orbit Release” (NanoTHOR) module. The NanoTHOR module will enable multiple nanosatellites carried as secondary payloads on upper stages launched into GTO to be injected into Earth-escape trajectories by scavenging orbital momentum and propellant from the …
BBC News – A report at the 244th meeting of the American Chemical Society described a new technique using uranium-absorbing mats made from discarded shrimp shells. The oceans hold billions of tonnes of uranium at tiny concentrations, but extracting it remains uneconomical. Although these trials proved the principle of uranium extraction from seawater, the cost …