Manmade diamonds become batteries when placed near radioactive sources like nuclear waste like carbon-14

New technology has been developed that uses nuclear waste to generate electricity in a nuclear-powered battery. A team of physicists and chemists from the University of Bristol have grown a man-made diamond that, when placed in a radioactive field, is able to generate a small electrical current. The development could solve some of the problems …

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Genetically modified superwheat that boosts harvest by 20 to 40%

Genetically modified wheat crops could see a leap in yields after glasshouse trials showed a massive 40% increase in grain output. Researchers focusing on making the photosynthesis process in wheat plants more efficient are hoping to have the first field trial of this new wheat crop drilled next spring. The new wheat plants – with …

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US Army testing self driving supply trucks

US Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center, or TARDEC, has been testing robotic trucks for the Army in Michigan and Michigan will be the main location for developing autonomous technology for commercial trucks. TARDEC is developing its vehicle-to-infrastructure capabilities to increase safety, reduce distracting tasks and carry supplies for soldiers, he said. In …

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Spacex will invest $1 billion towards advanced engine systems and then before 2020 claim over $3 billion per year in SLS and NASA deep space funding

Spacex and Elon Musk are developing the Interplanetary Transport System, the Raptor engine and the Falcon Heavy on spec. Spacex is mostly self-funding the initial development of those systems. Elon Musk is spending tens of millions per year on developing his Mars colonization plans and the hardware for it. This will scale up to $200-300 …

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Russia will test an anti-satellite laser from a modified cargo plane

Russia’s newly-developed combat aircraft A-60 will be capable of destroying enemy targets with a high accuracy laser, an adviser to the deputy CEP of Russia’s Concern of Radio-Electric Technologies (KRET, an affiliate of Rostec), Vladimir Mikheyev, has told TASS. “It will boast super-accurate navigation. The crew are to be able to precisely determine the plane’s …

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Hybrid material opens the door to new possibilities in graphene applications

Many scientists consider graphene to be a wonder material. Now, a team of researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has succeeded in linking graphene with another important chemical group, the porphyrins. Porphyrins are well-known because of their striking functional properties which for example play a central role in chlorophyll during photosynthesis. These new …

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Study predicts Zika epidemic will end in three years because about 90% of the people in effected areas will have already had Zika

The current Zika epidemic is likely to end within three years because there will be too few people left to infect, a team of scientists is predicting. Herd immunity against infectious disease requires that 80-95% of the entire population are immune. Writing in the journal Science, they said this could lead to a gap of …

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China Deregulating its energy industry so more efficient producers will win and polluting dirty producers will contract

China is in the process of ending the monopoly of state-owned power distributors, by allowing end-users to negotiate directly with generators: “direct trading will bring end-users benefits as low coal prices and power over-supply push down rates. Instead of fixed flat-rate pricing from the government, China will ‘re-commodify’ electricity, by allowing generators to sell via …

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Spacex has third successful droneship rocket landing

SpaceX on Friday landed its third consecutive rocket on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean, during a mission that successfully launched a commercial communications satellite to orbit. “Falcon 9 has landed,” a member of SpaceX’s launch team confirmed about 10 minutes after a 230-foot Falcon 9 rocket’s 5:39 p.m. blastoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force …

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Ohio Replacement SSBN-X Ballistic Missile Submarine Program Report to Congress

The Ohio ballistic submarine replacement program is about $97.0 billion in constant FY2016 dollars, including about $12.0 billion in research and development costs and about $85.1 billion in procurement costs. The Ohio replacement program (ORP) os a program to design and build a new class of 12 ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) to replace the Navy’s …

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