Several economists have projected future economic growth for China Albert Keidel at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington says that when Japan was at China’s current level of GDP of just over $2,000 per capita, and headed for $10,000, it sustained growth rates of 8-10 percent. So did South Korea and Taiwan. Keidel …
Ener1 Inc’s battery division Enerdel believes that they can reduce the cost of lithium ion batteries to half of their current cost when produced in high volume. This will mean a payback of two years instead of eight years for making a car a hybrid and having the fuel savings pay for the extra costs. …
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is requesting that the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) reinstates the construction permits for two unfinished reactors at its Bellefonte site in Alabama. It continues to pursue regulatory approval for two further units at the site. Bellefonte 1 (1213 MWe, 88% complete) and 2 (1213 MWe, 50% complete) are pressurized …
An excellent idea featured at Melanie Swan’s blog: there are 1,000 trillion bacteria that are part of each human (10x the number of human cells) could be an ideal augmentation substrate. There are at least three ways for achieving human-electronic interfaces; physical implants, wearables and a third as yet unconsidered possibility, exploiting the human bacterial …
Michele Mosca of the Institute for Quantum Computing and Dept. of Combinatorics & Optimization, University of Waterloo and St. Jerome’s University, and Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics reviews Quantum Algorithms. Aug, 2008 [71 pages] Some of the categories of algorithms: Factoring, Discrete Logarithms and the Abelian Hidden Subgroup Problem : like Shor’s algorithm. Quantum Walk …
Professor Peter Weyand, Southern Methodist University (Texas), known for his expertise in terrestrial locomotion and human and animal performance says that humans would soon have the ability to modify and greatly enhance muscle fibre strength. This would enable speeds of 45 miles per hour and 5 seconds times for 100 meters. The fast four-legged runners …
Researchers have now discovered a method that produces the bucky ball configuration of carbon with nearly 100% conversion efficiency from precursor materials. Getting high efficiencies means that you don’t have to sift through the reaction product and separate what you wanted—not a small challenge when you’re sorting billions of particles with nanometer dimensions. The relatively …
Justin Rattner, CTO of Intel, agrees with Ray Kurzweil that the Singularity (the time when computer intelligence exceeds human intelligence) is near. Rattner thinks the Singularity will happen before 2050. In the bottom of this article, there is a large update on the Carnegie Mellon University/Intel work on claytronics. Justin and his colleagues then showed …
Electron microscopes are great for magnification but they tend to destroy or damage what they are looking at. Similar magnification should be possible using a much lower-energy, gentler beam of helium atoms and recording how they are scattered by a sample. Up to this point only 1% of helium atoms can be reflected and focused …
Crowlspace hosts the carnival of space week 68. This site supplies an analysis of the technology that an interstellar capable civilization should have and an alternative to big antimatter rockets with mirror laser array propulsion Centauri Dreams considers the difficulties of interstellar travel. Crowlspace looks at antimatter propulsion. Check out the carnival of space week …
Human blood have been grown from embryonic stem cells for the first time during research that promises to provide an almost limitless supply suitable for transfusion into any patient. This could lead to trials of the blood within two years, and ultimately to an alternative to donations that would transform medicine. If such blood was …