Growth is Good There is an essay “Who’s afraid of economic growth?” which makes an excellent case in favor of economic growth and why those who are trying to stop or constrain it are wrong. Behind today’s trendy arguments about environmentalism, ethical living and happiness, there lurks a deep disdain for material progress. From an …
Shifting China’s economy towards services would do much more than strengthening the social safety net as a way to boost the miserly share of consumption in GDP, McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) said on Friday. The 74 page report is here in pdf form and requires a free registration to view it. “If You’ve Got It, …
1. Platform for Controlled Supramolecular Nanoassembly We here present a two-dimensional (2D) micro/nano-fluidic technique where reactant-doped liquid−crystal films spread and mix on micro- and nanopatterned substrates. Surface-supported phospholipid monolayers are individually doped with complementary DNA molecules which hybridize when these lipid films mix. Using lipid films to convey reactants reduces the dimensionality of traditional 3D …
On August 4, 2009, Petrobank and TriStar agreed to a strategic combination of TriStar and Petrobank’s CBU. The combination will create a new publicly listed company, PetroBakken, that will be a premier, Bakken-focused, light oil exploration and production company. Petrobank pioneered the horizontal fracture stimulation techniques that opened up the true potential of this substantial …
It is report in New Scientist that if the ability to build a synthetic genome can be combined with this technique to transplant it, then the dawn of synthetic life could be close. Indeed Venter hopes this biological milestone will be possible in just a month or so. Bloomberg News has coverage of the work …
Usain Bolt set a new world record. The 22-year-old Jamaican recorded a time of 9.58 seconds to shave 0.11 off the mark he set last year when winning gold at the Beijing Olympics. American Tyson Gay was second in a time of 9.71, with Jamaica’s Asafa Powell claiming bronze in 9.84. UPDATE: Usain Bolt has …
Microstructure of passive and active F-actin solutions and networksvisualized by electron microscopy (A–C) and fluorescence microscopy (A–CInsets, E, and F). (A) Passive solutions are isotropic, homogeneous, and unbundled.(B) Active solutions ([myosin]/[actin] 0.02 and 5 mMATP) are still homogeneous(Inset), but the myosin locally aligns and bundles the actin filaments. (C)Active networks ([FLNa]/[actin] 0.005, [myosin]/[actin] …
Applications which can use the large new supply of carbon nanotubes [click on the picture to the left for a larger image]. CNano Technology Limited (CNano) announced that it has received regulatory approval from the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to sell multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) through its subsidiary in the USA. This approval …
From 2007, the semiconductor industry will continue to see performance improvements after CMOS gate scaling runs up against physical limits, said Hiroshi Iwai, a professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. Researchers can achieve higher transistor densities by pursuing reduced operating voltages, and nanowire or nanotube-based field-effect transistors (FETs) will eventually play key roles as …
Eliezer Yudkowsky, Singularity Institute, Overcoming Bias, Less Wrong and Scott Aaronson, MIT talk for over an hour on Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Computing at BloggingHeads.tv. The disagreement they have is over timescale. One to ten decades versus a few thousand years. However, Scott Aaronson indicates that nothing in Eliezer Yudowsky position is counter to what …
Nuclear fuel burnup is measured in gigawatt-days per tonne and its potential is proportional to the level of enrichment. Hitherto a limiting factor has been the physical robustness of fuel assemblies, and hence burn-up levels of about 40 GWd/t have required only around 4% enrichment. But with better equipment and fuel assemblies, 55 GWd/t is …