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 …
Byogy has licensed the University of Texas A&M process and hopes to have a plant using the technology up and running within 18 months to two years. The intent is to have raw garbage going in one end of the plant and 95-octane gasoline coming out the other. “Our goal with this technology is to …
Technology Review discusses the work of Gerald Pao, a postdoctoral researcher at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, to perform a detailed genetic analysis of the axolotl salamander’s DNA and the precise molecular processes of successful regeneration. Pao and his collaborators won one billion bases’ worth of free sequencing from Roche Applied Science, based in …
The World Bank estimates that the global middle class is likely to grow from 430 million in 2000 to 1.15 billion in 2030. The bank defines the middle class as earners making between $10 and $20 a day — adjusted for local prices — which is roughly the range of average incomes between Brazil ($10) …
Over one year ago this site wrote about the likely undercount and underprojection of population for the United States and California. The U.S. has nearly 305 million people today. The new census projection is US population to hit 400 million in 2039 and 439 million in 2050. The previous middle projection was 392 million in …
By producing “6-D” images, an MIT professor and colleagues are creating unusually realistic pictures that not only have a full three-dimensional appearance, but also respond to their environment, producing natural shadows and highlights depending on the direction and intensity of the illumination around them. The process can also be used to create images that change …
The Transition “Personal Air Vehicle” is expected to be released in late 2009 and has just shown its operational prototype. The estimated purchase price is $148,000. Owners will drive the car from their garage to an airport where they will then be able to fly within a range of 100 to 500 miles (800 km). …
This technology news roundup has imminent testing of the Vasimr plasma rocket in space, twelve dollar personal computers, ten dollar dime sized microscopes and a plant that is 250% better than corn for biofuels and twice as productive as switchgrass. (the plant has not been modified yet and genetic modifications could vastly increase yields.) Nasa …
New nuclear plants constructed in the USA can provide electricity at about 5-9 cents/kwh Because of the large capital costs for nuclear power, and the relatively long construction period before revenue is returned, servicing the capital costs of a nuclear power plant is the most important factor determining the economic competitiveness of nuclear energy. The …
Berkeley University has compressed light to 10 nanometers This will make possible smaller optical fibers, but it could lead to huge advances in the field of optical computing. Many researchers want to link electronics and optics, but light and matter make strange bedfellows, Oulton said, because their characteristic sizes are on vastly different scales. However, …