China could complete 9 nuclear reactors in the next 7 months and then start construction on 30 reactors over the next 18 months

China currently has 21 operational nuclear reactors. By the end of 2014, the number of reactors in the country is expected reach 30, bringing the total nuclear capacity to around 27 GWe. In 2015, capacity should reach 36 GWe, as a further eight reactors are brought online. 18 units are expected to start up within …

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Europa has 201 kilometer tall water plume

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has observed water vapor above the frigid south polar region of Jupiter’s moon Europa, providing the first strong evidence of water plumes erupting off the moon’s surface. Previous scientific findings from other sources already point to the existence of an ocean located under Europa’s icy crust. Researchers are not yet fully …

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OECD World Economic Outlook to 2015 has higher growth for China and slightly lower growth for most other countries

GDP growth across the 34-member OECD is projected to accelerate from this year’s 1.2% rate to a 2.3% rate in 2014 and a 2.7% rate in 2015, according to the Outlook. The world economy, by contrast, will grow at a 2.7% rate this year, before accelerating to a 3.6% rate in 2014 and 3.9% in …

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Israel may have bombed a Munitions Factory in Sudan

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 …

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Europe will build 1.08 billion euro 40 meter E-ELT telescope

ESO (European southern Observatory) is to build the largest optical/infrared telescope in the world. At its meeting in Garching today, the ESO Council approved the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) Programme, pending confirmation of four so-called ad referendum votes. The E-ELT will start operations early in the next decade. The E-ELT will collect 100 million …

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UCLA team reports scalable fabrication of self-aligned 10-50 gigahertz graphene transistors, circuits

In September 2010, a UCLA research team reported that they had overcome some of these difficulties and were able to fabricate graphene transistors with unparalleled speed. These transistors used a nanowire as the self-aligned gate — the element that switches the transistor between various states. But the scalability of this approach remained an open question. …

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Stem cell discovery could lead to improved bone marrow transplants and stem cells and baldness

1. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have identified a key molecule for establishing blood stem cells in their niche within the bone marrow. The findings, reported in the January issue of Cell Stem Cell, may lead to improvements in the safety and efficiency of bone marrow transplants. The new study shows that …

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Persistently Forecasting disruptive technological innovation

The National Academies has a 136 page document that examines the better ways to forecast disruptive technological innovation This is one of the main objectives of Nextbigfuture. Nextbigfuture is trying to act as an Office of Technological Assessment and evaluate what is the best ways to use existing technologies and to forecast disruptive technological innovation …

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Second Day Results from the Space Elevator Games and the Third and Final Day

Day 3 also appears to be done with no change in the standings or prizes won. Lasermotive has won the level 1 prize of $900,000. No other prizes were won and no other team qualified for a prize. LaserMotive retained their lead, and inched closer to the 5 m/s benchmark – they removed some payload, …

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Optical transmission record breaks 100 Petabit per second kilometer Which Ten Times Capacity of Current Undersea Cables

Scientists in Bell Labs, the Alcatel’s research arm, have set a new optical transmission record of more than 100 Petabits per second.kilometer (equivalent to 100 million Gigabits per second.kilometer). This transmission experiment involved sending the equivalent of 400 DVDs per second over 7,000 kilometers, roughly the distance between Paris and Chicago. This is the highest …

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Air Force Future UAV munitions and One Pilot Flying 12 UAVs

air Force Research Lab (AFRL) is also developing munitions systems for the UAVs [Unmanned Air Vehicles]. One is a precision missilelike bomb for urban strikes that could be mounted on multiple platforms. Designed to cut down on collateral damage, Suburb Warrior could get a flight test as early as 2014. An integrated submunition guidance system …

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