A european research project, Eureka 3051 virtual fiber , has successfully trialed 10 Mbps symmetrical internet speed for 28000 people over existing copper cable lines. Local businesses in the trial were able to obtain 50 MB/s symmetrical data connectivity. The technology has subsequently been developed to provide 100 MB/s connectivity and has already been sold …
As of April 2007, Dr. Robert Bussard, stated that due to the publicity from his 11/9/2006 talk at Google and the 2006 Outstanding Technology of the Year Award, the U.S. Navy sent him a contract extension to continue his fusion research. UPDATE FROM TOM LIGON: Evidently somebody got carried away with some fairly routine bookkeeping. …
From MIT Technology Review: unlike the conventional genetic engineering currently used in the manufacture of antibiotics and protein drugs such as insulin, synthetic biology involves hacking the entire metabolic system–changing the structure of some proteins, altering the expression of others, and adding in genes from other organisms–to create an efficient microbial machine. Amyris Biotechnology previous …
Making a negative-index material that works for visible light is more difficult, because the building blocks have to be much smaller–no bigger than 10 to 20 nanometers. That’s now very possible to achieve, however, and several groups are working on it. If it can be done, these metamaterials could be used to increase the amount …
In research findings published in Nature Nanotechnology, of Choi Hee-cheul and Kim Hyun-tak describe what they call the first semiconductor that has broken the 10 nm barrier. Carbon nanotube guided formation of silicon oxide nanotrenches is the name of the article. Here we show that carbon nanotubes can act as the carbon source to reduce …
A pulsed magnet reached 87.8 tesla The Earth’s magnetic field is one twenty thousandth of (.00005) of a tesla. The united states national magnet labs (Gainesville – University of Florida, Los Alamos – LANL, Tallahassee – Florida State University) have most of the most powerful magnets in the world. – The 45 tesla world-record hybrid …
If anyone has heard the Vernor Vinge talk of non-singularity futures, please provide information in the comments here. He spoke in San Francisco Feb 15, 2007. Update: I guess a podcast or other recording of the talk will be up or is up on the longnow site Update: The text and slides from the speech …
India needs 400GW of power in 2030 thanks to the Thorium energy forum and Kirk Sorensen for pointing it out Kalam said that hydroelectric capacity can be increased to 80,000 MW, solar energy to 55,000 MW, wind energy 64,000 MW and nuclear power plants have a target of 50,000 MW capacity. The remaining gap of …
Led by Professor David Leigh the team from Edinburgh have designed and built a molecule, known as a rotaxane, that can move and sort particles. It took three years of painstaking work to find a molecular form that could do this job. Brian WangBrian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger …
A group of researchers at Tufts University has launched a multidisciplinary initiative focused on the science and engineering of a new class of robots that are completely soft-bodied. These devices will make possible advances in such far flung arenas as medicine and space exploration. According to Kaplan, the project will bring together biology, bioengineering and …
Wired summarizes destructive methods usable by micro robots and micro UAVs Israel is developing a robot the size of a hornet to attack terrorists. And although the prototype will not fly for three years, killer Micro Air Vehicles, or MAVs, are much closer than that. British Special Forces already use 6-inch MAV aircraft called WASPs …