From Transterrestrial: 1. Jay Penn of Aerospace described a proposed a 125kW laser beaming demonstrator , that could scale up to 200kW with technology insertion. The system would be self-lifting from LEO to GEO using ion propulsion, to save mass. 2. Jordin Kare discussed on laser diode power beaming that will be used at the …
Some people online say that China passing the USA in GDP is a wild dream. One posted analysis is from the Futurist, Stephen Aguilar-Millan. UPDATE:This site has a historical analysis of the actual reported GDP numbers from 2000 to 2008 for China, USA and Japan. The Futurist had 2005 GDP numbers instead of 2007 numbers. …
1. Large Enhancements in the Thermoelectric Power Factor of Bulk PbTe at High Temperature by Synergistic Nanostructuring Power was increased by 71% and the figure of merit increased to 1.5 Northwestern University researchers (along with colleagues from University of Michigan and the Jet Propulsion Lab) discovered that adding two metals, antimony and lead, to the …
4mm square of new carbon nanotube adhesive holds up a bottle of coke. Image: Science/AAAS Liming Dai, a professor of materials engineering at the University of Dayton, and Zhong Wang, director of the Center for Nanostructure Characterization at Georgia Tech have developed an adhesive made of carbon nanotubes whose structure closely mimics that of gecko …
Terahertz near field nanoscope has 40 nanometer resolution. Nanoscale resolution is achieved by THz field confinement at the very tip apex to within 30 nm, which is in good agreement with full electro-dynamic calculations. Imaging semiconductor transistors, we provide first evidence of 40 nm (λ/3000) spatial resolution at 2.54 THz (wavelength λ = 118 μm) …
1. A team of internationally renowned astronomers and opticians may have found a way to make “unbelievably large” telescopes on the Moon. – they are synthesizing ionic liquids that remain molten even at liquid-nitrogen temperatures.– all the materials for an entire lunar telescope 20 meters across would be “only a few tons, which could be …
Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University researcher Hao Yan is making DNA based nanostructures inside a living cell. “Cells are really good at making copies of double stranded DNA and we have used the cell like a copier machine to produce many, many copies of complex DNA nanostructures.” DNA nanotechnologists have made some very exciting …
1. Mirrored drones can make jet mounted lasers more effective. [H/T alfin and Tom Craver] The flying laser cannon could be accompanied by a fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) fitted with mirrors. These relay UAVs would be harder to spot and more disposable than a 747, and could bounce the high-energy beam onto targets …
Free piston engines could achieve efficiencies of 50% which is almost double a regular gas combustion engine. However, new super efficient diesel engines could be even better, plus diesels would be more familiar to the market place. Some small companies are working on free piston engines and there are researchers around the world at Sandia …
The Hyperion Power Generation uranium hydride reactor will weigh fifteen to 20 tons, depending on whether you’re measuring just the reactor itself or the cask—the container that we ship it in—as well. It was specifically designed to fit on the back of a flatbed truck because most of our customers are not going to have …
An 80-base-pair piece of DNA to be sequenced (shown here in purple) is first inserted into a circular template of DNA, along with four stretches of synthetic DNA, called adaptors (pink and blue). A specialized enzyme then makes hundreds of consecutive copies of the DNA circle. Thanks to chemical properties engineered into the adaptor sequences, …