Arxiv – New Dark Matter Detectors using DNA for Nanometer Tracking (13 pages) Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) may constitute most of the matter in the Universe. While there are intriguing results from DAMA/LIBRA, CoGeNT and CRESST-II, there is not yet a compelling detection of dark matter. The ability to detect the directionality of recoil …
Economist – Silicon photodetectors are inflexible, not particularly cheap, not that sensitive and absorb only 10-20% of the light that falls on to them. For years, therefore, engineers have been on the lookout for a cheap, bendable, sensitive photodetector. Such a device could have many novel applications—wearable electronics, for example. With a little clever engineering, …
Here are details from a 12 page technical specification We have been closely tracking China’s Broad Group and their prefabricated factory mass produced ‘Can be Built’ skyscraper technology. Six months ago they had earthquake certified a scale model of their 30 story building. now they have built an actual 30 story building in 15 days …
Blomoberg – Aging and shrinking labor pools are also poised to curb expansion across the other so-called BRIC nations that contributed almost half of global growth in the past decade. With fewer youths keeping factories going and more pensioners to support in those markets, the world economy is set to slow, Goldman Sachs says. The …
At UCLA’s Laboratory of Integrative Neuroimaging Technology, researchers use functional MRI brain scans to observe brain signal changes that take place during mental activity. They then employ computerized machine learning (ML) methods to study these patterns and identify the cognitive state — or sometimes the thought process — of human subjects. The technique is called …
Technology Review blog looks at an Arxiv paper on metamaterials on the Casimir force Nextbigfuture looked at the Huge Casimir effect at finite temperature in electromagnetic Rindler space paper seven weeks ago. In a particular kind of electromagnetic space called a Rindler space, the Casimir effect is huge. The essential idea here is that the …
Infineon Technologies AG has produced the first chips (“first silicon”) on a 300-millimeter diameter thin wafer for power semiconductors at the Villach site in Austria. This makes Infineon the first company in the world to succeed in taking this step forward. The chips now produced on a 300-millimeter thin wafer exhibit the same behavior as …
An ULTra PRT on a test track in Cardiff. Credit: ULTra PRT. Technology Review – ULTra PRT (ULtra “personal rapid transit”) could soon be branching out beyond Heathrow airport. The company has proposed systems similar to that at Heathrow for 10 cities in the United States. The City of San Jose has already committed $4 …
The United States is “within reach of strategically defeating al Qaeda,” Leon Panetta declared, as he traveled to Afghanistan for his first visit there as Secretary of Defense. Panetta said intelligence gathered during the raid at Osama bin Laden’s compound has lead the United States to target 10-20 key al Qaeda leaders. “If we can …
Phononic Devices has advanced semiconductor materials for high efficiency thermoelectric devices. The DOE ARPA-E gave them $3 million in funding. They expect to start selling the devices to electronics cooling-and- refrigeration customers near the end of 2012. Phononic Devices materials and devices are expected to more than double thermal-electric efficiency — compared to conventional thermoelectrics …
Flower-like defects in graphene can occur during the fabrication process. The NIST team captured images of one of the defects (figures a and c) using a scanning tunneling microscope. A simulated image from their computer models (figure b) shows excellent agreement. Credit: Cockayne,Stroscio/NIST. A class of decorative, flower-like defects in the nanomaterial graphene could have …