Prospects for room temperature superconductors

A pfd physics paper with a design for a room temperature superconductor MgB2 is the superconductor with the highest critical temperature for a phonon-mediated superconductor. The superconductors with higher critical temperatures are the high temperature cuprates. The high temperature cuprates do not have a good theory to explain them. There is a good theory for …

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Hacking the nervous system

An early milestone on the path to reverse engineering the brain for the purposes of Artificial Intelligence and achieving the singularity is hacking the nervous system for military purposes. The simplest aspects are using electromagnetic beams to trigger various nerves to create pain, feeling cold or hot or other sensations. Next would be trigger muscle …

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Better rotary engine

Canadian company says it has fine-tuned the design of a Wankel rotary engine and is preparing to reintroduce the technology to a broader market that includes the U.S. military. Reg Technologies Inc. says that its Radmax direct-charge engine is based on the Wankel rotary design but can deliver up to three times the power with …

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DNA nanorobotic arm array

FromScience Daily, more on Ned Seemans DNA nanorobotic arms. NYU chemistry professor Nadrian C. Seeman and his graduate student Baoquan Ding have developed a DNA cassette — shown here as red L-shaped structures — containing a nanomechanical device that can be inserted within a DNA array and function there. (Image courtesy of New York University) …

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Carbon nanotube muscles created 100 times stronger than natural muscle

Carbon nanotube muscle 100 times stronger than normal muscle has been created. Spinning carbon nanotubes into yarn a fraction of the width of a human hair, researchers have developed artificial muscles that exert 100 times the force, per area, of natural muscle. This is according to Ray Baughman, director of the Nanotech Institute at the …

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Superconducting quantum computer update

Dwave systems has decided to push back the demo of their superconducting quantum computer until sometime in Q1/2007. The CTO does claim that In the almost 8 years since we started D-Wave I’ve only celebrated once (last week [Nov 20-26, 2006]), when the whole system was working beginning to end. The new programming environment includes …

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