High field magnets exponentially better at imaging

Nuclear magnetic resonance, or NMR, generates a true-to-life fingerprint – a unique pattern indicating the presence of specific molecules – for a research sample that is being analyzed. It has been found that a higher power magnet (21.1 tesla) increases the picture’s brightness by a factor of about 10 relative to low-field images (14.1 tesla) …

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Costs of regulations

An interesting article about the costs of regulation by Eliezer Yudkowsky It links to the benefits of FDA regulation relative to that in foreign countries could reasonably be put at some 5,000 casualties per decade or 10,000 per decade for worst-case scenarios. In comparison, it has been argued above that the cost of FDA delay …

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Solar sail progress is difficult to assess

Different materials for solar sails with wide variation in capability are all in development. The lighter the sail then the faster it will accelerate. This link has a table which shows the different speeds possible with different accelerations. The carbon nanotube sail has the highest potential. 1 square kilometer 30 kg or 0.03 grams per …

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Comparing modern skeptism about molecular nanotechnology with FPGA in 1957

Chris Pheonix has a though experiment of taking an FPGA chip back in time to 1957. He indicates the problems that would encountered trying to get the engineers of the day to accept that the FPGA could work and to believe in it enough to invest the time, money and effort into making the connections …

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Next-Generation Retinal Implant

Scientists plan to test an implanted chip with four times the resolution of the previous version in people blinded by retinal degeneration It now has 60 pixels instead of 16 and because it is smaller the operation to implant it is much less traumatic, taking just 90 minutes instead of eight hours. Prof Humayun predicts …

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Silicon photonics advances

Wired discusses advances in silicon photonics In 15 or 20 years out, electrons will nearly exclusively be the stuff that computes, while photons will nearly exclusively be the stuff that communicates. Paniccia’s group at Intel will announce its fabrication of an optical modulator on a silicon chip that can translate electronic signals to light at …

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New York times discusses better uses for 1.2 trillion dollars

Better uses for the conservative estimate of the Iraq War 1.2 trillion Currently the war is not buying much. A shift should be made to a lower cost approach. Just engage enough to prevent safe havens for terrorists. Redeploy to borders. Occasional sweeps through different cities. Reduce the objectives. Shore up allies Kuwait, Israel, Turkey, …

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