Graphene for Ultrafast Photonics and Telecommunications

Nanowerks has a spotlight on the work of Dingyuan Tang from Nanyang Technological University and Professor Kian Ping Loh from National University of Singapore with the first breakthrough in using few-layer graphene as a saturable absorber for the mode locking of lasers. Graphene can be used for telecommunications applications and that its weak and universal …

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China Thinktank Floats Yuan Revaluation idea and a Forecast of $123 trillion for China s Economy in 2040

1. WSJ – A prominent Chinese think tank on Wednesday said now is a good time for a 10% revaluation of the yuan as it warned the world’s third-largest economy is at risk of asset bubbles and overheating this year. The comments, in an essay by a researcher at the Institute of World Economic and …

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Reviewing Kurzweil Predictions from 1999 for 2009

Michael Anissimov notes that Ray Kurzweil had several predictions from 1999 for 2009 and those predictions are in general wrong. UPDATE: Wikipedia has a more comprehensive list of Ray Kurzweil predictions. Many of those predictions were mostly correct and Ray’s trend tracking and projections are more accurate than most projections. 1. Personal computers with high …

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Mayo researchers find obesity key

Cell Metabolism journal: Sarcolemmal ATP-Sensitive K+ Channels Control Energy Expenditure Determining Body Weight Metabolic processes that regulate muscle energy use are major determinants of bodily energy balance. Here, we find that sarcolemmal ATP-sensitive K+ (KATP) channels, which couple membrane excitability with cellular metabolic pathways, set muscle energy expenditure under physiological stimuli. Disruption of KATP channel …

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Russia Investigates a Mission to Deflect Asteroid Apothis

Roscosmos will soon consider a project to prevent a large asteroid from colliding with Earth after 2030, the head of Russia’s space agency said on Wednesday. “A scientist recently told me an interesting thing about the path [of an asteroid] constantly nearing Earth… He has calculated that it will surely collide with Earth in the …

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Nuclear Plans Around the World

1. Nuclear power plans in Africa, Middle East * Algeria aims to build its first commercial nuclear power station by around 2020 and to build another every five years after that, energy minister Chakib Khelil* Egypt announced plans to build several nuclear reactors to meet rising power demand in 2007* Russia plans to start up …

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World Nuclear 2009

The IEA nations currently generate about 80% of the worlds nuclear power and for the first nine months of the year are down -1.2% from 2008. The OECD total for Jan-Sep,2009 is 1602.9 TWHe. For 2008 the OECD total was 2171 TWHe. The world total was 2601 TWhe in 2008. This is an update of …

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Wireless and Fiber Communication News Roundup – 4G, 3G and 10 to 100 Gbps trials and upgrades

1. Swedish telecommunications company TeliaSonera has launched the world’s first commercially available 4G mobile broadband network. Based on the much talked about LTE or Long Term Evolution Technology, the fourth generation of cellular wireless standards aims to give users a seamless service across several different networks and systems. It will have speeds of up to …

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Epigenetic therapy

Epigenetics research takes aim at cancer, Alzheimer’s, autism, other illnesses. Two mice. One weighs 20 grams and has brown fur. The other is a hefty 60 grams with yellow fur and is prone to diabetes and cancer. They’re identical twins, with identical DNA. Their varying traits are controlled by a mediator between nature and nurture …

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Boron nitride nanotubes Spun into Commercially Usable Fibers

Small wonder. The first macroscopic, commercially usable BNNTs, spun into a 3-centimeter-long, 1-milimeter-diameter piece of yarn. Credit: Michael Smith Researchers have long been able to make nanotubes out of carbon, but they have struggled to craft them from boron nitride. The two have about the same strength, but boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) can survive temperatures …

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