The Gregory Benford proposal sounds like the cheapest and safest method for climate modification. Of course society should to actually stop making the problems worse as described in Jamais article. But a problem is that most plans from environmentalist fail to recognize the scope of the problems or involve everyone suddenly becoming virtuous. Some propose …
The new age of climate re-engineering and the $25 million bounty from Richard Branson is discussed at open the future. It is noted that the re-engineering efforts would have the best chance of succeeding if we adjust technology and behavior to stop making the problems worse. Gregory Benford’s proposal for climate re-engineering is discussed at …
Wired magazine has an interview with David Deutsch, the father of Quantum computers I agree with almost everything that he says about Dwave, Quantum computers and nanotechnology. I have pulled what are my highlights from the interview. On quantum computing gaining mind share with the Dwave announcement.He replied: the field [quantum computing] doesn’t need acceptability. …
Bismuth compound has been identified as material for the new wires needed to one day build the most powerful superconducting magnet in the world, a 30 Tesla magnet. Using MR techniques at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Fla., Halperin and his team studied Bi-2212, one of the “darlings” of superconductivity. To measure …
Nantero, Inc., a nanotechnology company using carbon nanotubes for the development of next-generation semiconductor devices, has resolved all of the major obstacles that had been preventing carbon nanotubes from being used in mass production in semiconductor fabs. Nantero is developing NRAM™ –a high-density nonvolatile random access memory device. NRAM™ is a ‘universal memory’ that is …
Businessweek indicates that nuclear players are gearing up to build more than 20 reactors in the USA Overseas, 27 plants are under way, 62 are on order or planned, and an additional 130 have been proposed. This site has a breakdown of the reactors by country Canada* 18 now, 2 under construction 1.54 GW, 2 …
Led by Professor David Leigh the team from Edinburgh have designed and built a molecule, known as a rotaxane, that can move and sort particles. It took three years of painstaking work to find a molecular form that could do this job. Brian WangBrian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger …
Chemicals are used to turn the bacteria on and off. They push their bead forward at speeds of around 15 microns per second. Sitti and Behkam began by sticking several S. marcescens – the kind of bacteria that cause pink stains on shower curtains – onto polystyrene beads 10 microns in diameter. These tiny “robots” …
Organic containing metals have tuneable properties, and now they work above room temperature Brian WangBrian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging …
The World Health Organization (WHO) says 3 million people are killed worldwide by outdoor air pollution annually from vehicles and industrial emissions, and 1.6 million indoors through using solid fuel. Most are in poor countries. One study says 7-20% of cancers are attributable to poor air and pollution in homes and workplaces. Wikipedia discusses air …
We can submit our challenges for friendly AI, molecular nanotechnology, large scale quantum computers, and mass producible thorium liquid fluoride reactors to the NSF. The NSF is looking for the greatest technological challenges of the next century — a nine-month process that could give birth to new research initiatives. The project, called the “Grand Challenges …