Additive manufacturing, including emerging “3D printing” technologies, is booming. Last year an astronaut on the International Space Station used a 3D printer to make a socket wrench in space, hinting at a future when digital code will replace the need to launch specialized tools into orbit. Here on Earth, the Navy is considering applications for …
Two NASA NIAC projects for improving space telescopes. 1. Aperture: A Precise Extremely large Reflective Telescope Using Re-configurable Elements Northwestern University, teamed with the University of Illinois (UIUC), proposes to develop a game changing technology for large deployable optical quality mirrors. The innovation combines the concept of a flying magnetic write head with a magnetic …
Liquid water collects in the Martian soil each night, before evaporating during the day, according to NASA’s Curiosity rover. If future missions can confirm this water cycle, it means astronauts could one day farm moisture to provide drinking water on Mars. Planetary scientists have seen a lot of evidence for frozen water at the Martian …
Future proofing against mass unemployment from robotics
Genetically modified mosquitoes will be raised on a commercial scale for the first time, in a bid to stem outbreaks of dengue fever in Brazil. But it is unclear how well it will work. Next week biotech company Oxitec of Abingdon, UK, will open a factory in Campinas, Brazil, to raise millions of modified mosquitoes. …
Nature Communications – High-strength carbon nanotube fibre-like ribbon with high ductility and high electrical conductivity Macroscopic fibres made up of carbon nanotubes exhibit properties far below theoretical predictions and even much lower than those for conventional carbon fibres. Here we report improvements of mechanical and electrical properties by more than one order of magnitude by …
China might allow Britain to take part in the construction of a large undersea tunnel in exchange for a role in its high-speed railway and nuclear power projects, a senior state firm engineer said. Professor Wang Mengshu, deputy chief engineer with China Railway Tunnel Group and a senior scientific adviser to the government on high-speed …
Scientists at LPP Fusion, led by Chief Scientist Eric Lerner, are just one step away from technically proving out dense plasma focus fusion and you a few thousand other people can help for the final push. They are already 25% of the way to the $200,000 they needed for a few key experiments. Success would …
Westinghouse is in talks to sell eight more AP1000 nuclear Reactors to China for about $24 billion. China currently has 20 nuclear power reactors online, with another 28 under construction, as it seeks to reduce its reliance on costly and polluting fossil fuels to generate electricity. Sun Qin, chairman of major nuclear plant operator China …
China’s high-speed rail system has quickly grown to over 6,000 miles (9,700 km) in five years, and will expand to 19,000 kilometers (11,800 miles) by 2015. It is already transporting some 2 million passengers a day on trains that are rarely delayed, and which go nearly 200 miles an hour, twice as many passengers as …
There was an internet rumor of two Star Trek TV shows with plots related to future police shows. These rumors are not credible to me. J.J. Abrams has said CBS Is ‘Not Interested’ in a new Star Trek TV series. Sparked by the success of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. series, Abrams wasn’t optimistic about Star …