United States and California Population Forecasts

The Census Bureau released population estimates Thursday that say California remains the nation’s most populous state with 36.5 million residents, but figures from the state Department of Finance say there are 987,000 (37.5 million total) more people in July, 2006 than estimated by the Census Bureau. The difference is based on the federal government using …

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Design for optical light frequency invisibility shell

Purdue University engineers, following mathematical guidelines devised in 2006 by physicists in the United Kingdom, have created a theoretical design, to make something invisible to one visible light frequency, that uses an array of tiny needles radiating outward from a central spoke. Creating the tiny needles would require the same sort of equipment already used …

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Garbage power

MIT Technology Review indicates plasma burning of garbage generates 6 times the energy consumed. There’s enough energy in U.S. munici­pal and other waste to replace as much as a quarter of the gasoline the country uses, says ­Daniel Cohn, cofounder of IET and senior research scientist at the MIT center. Previously this site covered microbial …

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Nanoscopic ‘coaxial cable’ transmits light

From the New Scientist, a way to make nanoscopic metal cables transmit light could lead to innovations in solar cells, artificial retinas and quantum computing components. The cable is 300 nanometres in diameter. A carbon nanotube is in the center and a film of aluminium oxide is the middle layer and a coating of chromium …

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