Current and proposed car fuel efficiency standards from around the world. UPDATE: The Dept of Transportation Secretary Peters Proposes 25 Percent Increase in Fuel Efficiency Standards Over 5 Years for Passenger Vehicles, Light Trucks. Fuel efficiency standards for both passenger vehicles and light trucks would increase by 4.5 percent per year over the five-year period …
During the Go Tournament in Paris, staged between 22 and 24 March 2008 by the French Go Federation (FFG), the MoGo artificial intelligence (IA) engine developed by INRIA — the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control — running on a Bull NovaScale supercomputer, won a 9×9 game of Go against professional …
The Speculist talks about meat factories (making meat from stem cells) and a personal conversion to veganism or vegetarianism. Part of this was initiated by an article that posited that meat eaters are bad people. [I do not agree with this position, are wolves bad?, but I feel that if achieving a goal of reduced …
Kanzius RF therapy attaches microscopic nanoparticles to cancer cells and then “cooks” tumors inside the body with harmless radio waves could be in clinical trials as early as 3 years. The treatment has been 100% effective in animal trials. The CBS news has an extensive 4 webpage feature on the technique. An interesting aspect is …
Solid state laser components. Wired reported that the Navy is funding a follow on megawatt laser project to the 100 kilowatt solid state free electron laser project. I had previusly covered the progress and technical details of the 100kw laser project and here The Navy is pushing ahead with a five-year, $163 million dollar plan …
Here is a picture of the geological layers and formations in the Williston basin (where a potential very large oil resource called the Bakken formation is located). I have previously discussed the great potential of the Bakken oil resource. This information is from the 1995 US Geological Survey (USGS) of the area. A new USGS …
Sprint and Samsung are releasing the Samsung Instinct a iPhone like phone that uses their 3G network (EVDO Rev A, 1400 kbps down/400 kbps up) The Samsung Instinct will be available in June and Sprint is providing and unlimited connection plan Sprint is a company in trouble and is losing subscribers and could have to …
Better computer software is enabling a smaller engine to have higher performance and use 27% less fuel with low emissions Ricardo’s engine, called 2/4SIGHT, uses valves like a four-stroke engine, but in two-stroke mode, the engine keeps both the intake and exhaust valves open at the same time so that the fuel and air in …
Stanford University School of Medicine researchers has developed a new type of imaging system that can illuminate tumors in living subjects—getting pictures with a precision of nearly on nanometer (one-trillionth of a meter). This technique, called Raman spectroscopy, expands the available toolbox for the field of molecular imaging, said team leader Sanjiv Sam Gambhir, MD, …
Traditional view of a Dyson’s sphere. Metamaterials could mask and alter the observable signature and alter the interaction with magnetism and the spectrum of space. The theory of dark matter is that 85-90% of the mass in the universe is dark and does not interact with the electromagnetic force. Recently there has been the design …
Carnival of Space week 47 is up at Martian Chronicles. I had contributed my article on fermi paradox related science and a pictorial review of oceans in our solar system. Centauri Dreams also talked about the possible ocean on Titan and the habitable zone of solar systems. Colony Worlds talks about the Bigelow inflatable space …