Google is looking good for continued Internet domination. The Google Wave product (available as a developer preview) is the web application people will use to access and edit waves. It’s an HTML 5 app, built on Google Web Toolkit. It includes a rich text editor and other functions like desktop drag-and-drop (which, for example, lets …
Artist view of the implantation of gallium ions (animated in blue) into germanium wafers followed by a reconstruction of the lattice using short-term flash-lamp annealing and, finally, of the observation of superconductivity at low temperatures. Other than in normal conductors, superconductivity is caused by the formation of electron pairs with anti-parallel momentum and spin (animated …
Helion Energy has built a one third scale fusion system and believes a full scale prototype can be buit for $20 million a commercial system for $100 million. One of the reasons that they believe their costs can be lower is because smaller generators in general cost less. Torulf has created graphic animations and images …
The 2009 Energy Information Administration Projections to 2030 have been released. The highest energy growth case has China at 274 billion kilowatt hours for 2020 and 426 billion kilowatt hours for 2030. China is increasing its nuclear build targets to 75 gigawatts for 2020 and 104 nuclear reactors for 2030. The 2030 reactors would mostly …
Bayer has begun construction of a carbon nanotube factory with a capacity of 200 tons/year. They are investing 22 million euro in the plant. They have had a plant with 60 ton/year capacity since 2007. A mid-2008 nextbigfuture look at carbon nanotube production. Nanocomp Technologies, Inc., [they make large sheets of carbon nanotubes] a developer …
Nanofountain pen can use functionalized nanodiamonds for many applications. The placement of nanodiamonds is one thousand times more precise than previous methods. Nanodiamonds are rapidly emerging as promising carriers for next-generation therapeutics and drug delivery. However, developing future nanoscale devices and arrays that harness these nanoparticles will require unrealized spatial control. Furthermore, single-cell in vitro …
Douglas et al. report a method for designing and constructing three-dimensional nanostructures from DNA. a, The computer-aided design process begins with a block of tubes arranged in a honeycomb lattice. b, A template for the desired DNA structure is designed by removing sections of the tubes, just like carving a sculpture from a block. The …
An early demonstration model of the St Andrews air cell. Air enters and leaves via the porous circular membrane in the centre (Image: Peter Bruce/EPSRC) The team’s prototype device has a capacity-to-weight ratio of 4000 milliamp hours per gram – eight times that of a cellphone battery. Even a 10-fold improvement is possible, but tweaking …
University of Ulster Scientists Make a Nanorod Breakthrough. Engineers at the University of Ulster are the first researchers to create diamond nanorods with a diameter as thin as 2.1 nm, which is not only smaller than all the currently reported diamond 1D nanostructures (4-300 nm) but also smaller than the theoretical calculated value (2.7-9 nm) …
The new 2020 targets are 300 GW Hydro, 75GW nuclear, 150GW from renewable if targets are reached. 46% of power would be from non-coal sources if natural gas usage is increased as projected. In 2006/7 the projection was that China would have about 35% power from non-fossil fuel sources in 2020. 270GW Hydro, 40GW nuclear, …
This site has forecast that China’s currency will strengthen substantially versus the US dollar and China will re-establish strong economic growth and pass the overall size of the US economy in 2016. Taiwan is opening its economy to Mainland Chinese investment. On May 1, China formally approved Taiwan-bound investment by qualified domestic institutional investors. Four …