Light Crude has fallen below $92. It was at $91.90 at 11:36 a.m. Singapore time on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The plunge in oil, cotton and copper led to the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 commodities erasing its gains for the year. The CRB index fell 3.3 percent to 348.26 yesterday, down 2.9 percent …
The Speculist has a clear article and graph that explains how curing all diseases (other than aging) compares to curing aging in terms of life expectancy. This is simplified. If we cure all diseases (all diseases, that is, except aging itself) 20% will make it to 95. So if you’re part of that lucky 1 …
Light crude oil prices have fallen below $100 amid signs that refineries along the Gulf of Mexico coast will soon resume operations after shutting for Hurricane Ike and escaping major damage. “It looks like we’ve dodged another bullet,” said Peter Beutel, president of energy consultant Cameron Hanover Inc. in New Canaan, Connecticut. “The refineries in …
19% of oil refinery capacity in the Gulf of Mexico was shutdown by hurricane Ike An analysis from the peal oil site the Oil drum is that the oil refineries will be out for about 2 weeks. The analysis is that it would take an outage of 3 weeks or more for gasoline prices to …
NASA looks to be developing larger (12-40KW) radioisotope thermoelectric generators for the moon’s surface. Hopefully NASA finishes this work as they have a history of starting big RTG projects and not completing them. Also, it probably would be better to use the Hyperion uranium hydride reactor instead, which has been covered extensively on this site …
Carnival of Space week 70 is up at Orbital Hub New experiments for modular space craft that would control relative position via magnetic fields. This site contributed the article on the advance in separating carbon nanotubes which seems likely to be a significant step towards space elevators. A graduate student at Cornell University set up …
13 genes changed in a mouse embryo system, influence the molecular machinery to yield human limb and thumb development patterns. The method used could be applied across the genome to understand at a molecular level what leads to differences between humans and non-human primates. This work relates to transgenic genetic engineering and the possibility of …
1. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has approved uprates to seven nuclear reactors over the last year, adding a further 249 MWe (2 billion kwh) to overall US nuclear capacity. 2. Researchers have genetically engineered a thermophilic bacterium, meaning it’s able to grow at high temperatures, and this new microorganism makes ethanol as the …
Stable carbon-80 fullerene (C79B) would be an electron short, instead of having an extra electron. There would be the components of a molecular semiconductor. C79N (carbon 80 with one carbon changed to a nitrogen) would have an extra electron. “No one has done anything like this,” said Harry Dorn of Virginia Tech. “Since the article …
Natural Gas production is going up by a lot in the United States. This was noted at Peak Oil Debunked about a month ago. The peak oil people such as Mike Ruppert and Matt Simmons were saying in 2003 and since then that natural gas production was heading for a sharp decline. Now even some …
Beyond CMOS: Emerging research devices presentation at the summer 2008 ITRS public conference. Emerging Research Device Technology Candidates are to be evaluated. This is the list of devices being considered to go beyond CMOS.– Nano-electro Mechanical Switches– Collective Spin Devices– Spin Torque Transfer Devices– Atomic Switch / Electrochemical Metallization– Carbon-based Nanoelectronics– Single Electron Transistors– CMOL …