China is buying the newest manufacturing equipment. In China (now the third largest Asian robot market), robot investment is still booming, with 5,800 units installed in 2006, an increase of 29% on the previous year. Here, alongside the automotive sector, demand is increasing in the electronics and rubber and synthetics industries. At the end of …
There was a 2004 study that posited a worst case nuclear accident scenario. This is related to a previous analysis of the deaths per TWH from different energy sources. It assumes super-terrorists making a successful attack on the Indian Point nuclear reactor with a plane and then assume that optimal weather and optimal everything else …
Some people worry that if oil supplies were to radically drop that there would not be enough fuel to build non-fossil fuel replacement. They then promote the use of draft animals and small windmills. This article will show that there is enough oil and fuels to supply a transition build and that even if supplies …
Scientists have identified biomarkers that indicate telomere shortening. CRAMP, stathmin, EF-1α, and chitinase are proteins that they found to be secreted from telomere-dysfunctional bone-marrow cells of late generation telomerase knockout mice. Their study, which was published this week in PNAS, showed an increase in expression of these markers in the blood of aging and geriatric …
Half of the people do not respond to current cholesterol drugs, but one dose of a new RNAi treatment lowers LDL cholesterol by 60% in mice and monkeys. The Alnylam Pharmaceuticals drug might one day provide another option for patients who are resistant to existing cholesterol-lowering drugs due to genetic factors, or it might also …
Pipeline and refinery construction projects will constrain North Dakota oil exports in coming months, the state’s chief oil and gas regulator told lawmakers Wednesday. Oil companies will not expand drilling plans by buying or bringing in more drilling rigs until the constraints have passed in early 2010. North Dakota’s director of the state Department of …
China’s population estimate 1.33 billion in 2007 (0.6% increase) Add in Hong Kong and Macau 8 million. Total population in 2008 1.35 billion. This analysis was related to a question from Tom Craver, what would China’s GDP look like if you split it into two countries ? The overall GDP was 3.3 trillion (2007) and …
Researchers at Yeshiva University have used transgenic mice to turn on a process that helps keep the liver of older mice young and healthy. Using a double transgenic mouse model that could be modulated to selectively increase the number of receptors for damaged proteins, they found that the process of chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) could be …
Colorado College professor Daniel Johnson’s mathematical formula—one based on factors such as wealth and politics, and not on athletic ability—has come close to nailing down the final medal count for the last four Olympic Games. For the Beijing Olympics he has predicted the US getting the most overall medals with a total of 103. They’ll …
On the left is a schematic of the first 3-D “fishnet” metamaterial that can achieve a negative index of refraction at optical frequencies. On the right is a scanning electron microscope image of the fabricated structure, developed by UC Berkeley researchers. The alternating layers form small circuits that can bend light backwards. Image by Jason …
Titanium could become a lot cheaper and more commonly used. A non-melt consolidation process being developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and industry partners could reduce the amount of energy required and the cost to make titanium parts from powders by up to 50 percent, making it feasible to use titanium alloys for brake rotors, …