WHO Director General Margaret Chan told a news conference in Geneva as she raised the official alert level to phase 5, the last step before a pandemic. “The biggest question is this: how severe will the pandemic be, especially now at the start,” Chan said. But she added that the world “is better prepared for …
A field test was performed from Sept 2006 to August 2007 and the recovery and performance exceeded expectations. The recovery factor was over 75%, energy used per barrel was 23% less than anticipated and peak production rates were better than expected. ET Energy’s Electro Thermal technology could be used to pump out 600 billion barrels …
Chris Phoenix has considered RepRap and cheap 3D desktop manufacturing devices and iterative improvements there as a path evolves into molecular manufacturing. The Reprap can produce its own circuit boards and desktop manufacturing can produce prototypes. I believe that in the near to mid-term the financial and societal impact will be with things like the …
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has agreed to buy power from a startup company that wants to tap the strong, unfiltered sunlight found in space to solve the growing demand for clean energy. Sometime before 2016, Solaren Corp. plans to launch the world’s first orbiting solar farm. Unfurled in space, the panels would bask in …
There is progress working in the lab and in theory how to create reconfigurable spacecraft. The dynamics and control problems have been worked on in theory, math and simulation and the joints have been mocked and tested on an air table. Success would transform space operations and systems and enable large particle based solar sails, …
Raser Technologies is announcing an plug in hybrid electric SUV that can get up to 100mpg in city driving with recharges every 40 miles. It will use a 200 kw Symetron Electric drive and a 100kw Symetron generator. The vehicle is propelled by a 200 kW Symetron Enhanced AC induction motor and drive system designed …
A 560 page report on the future of China’s cities. * China is leading the global urbanization trend of developing countries and in 2025-2030 one in five of the global city dwellers will be in Chinese cities* Based on current trends, China in 2025 will have 221 cities with more than one million people compared …
Gold nanocups at their magnetoinductive resonance have the unique ability to redirect scattered light in a direction dependent on cup orientation, as a true three-dimensional nanoantenna. Nanocups are just what they sound like: very tiny, cup-shaped particles. What makes them special is their ability to bend light. Halas and Mirin have found a way to …
University of Cincinnati researchers have taken 25-micron carbon nanotube thread and created a dipole antenna using double-sided transparent tape and silver paste. They were immediately successful in transmitting radio signals. “It transmitted almost as well as the copper did, but at about one ten-thousandth of the weight,” says. They transmitted both AM and FM in …
There is a patent for a electronically enabled bullet dodging capability. If a sniper is firing from 2500 meters then there is 4 seconds to move out of the way if the bullet can be detected as it emerges from the muzzle. (H/T to Firearm blog The knee reflex takes about 20 milliseconds to fire. …
From Green Car Congress: Wal-Mart Stores has set of goal of increasing total fleet efficiency by 100% from 2005 to 2015, and has already exceeded its 2008 interim goal of a 25% increase, according to Chris Sultemeier, Wal-Mart’s Senior Vice President of Transportation. Total fleet efficiency is a combination of driving and operational practices as …