Joe Studwell’s book How Asia Works is a great look at the factors that drove the rapid economic growth in several Asian countries. The Wealhiest man in the world, Bill Gates, recommends it for anyone who’s doing business in Asia. Studwell’s answers to the multi-trillion-dollar question of why some Asian countries developed rapidly and others …
A non-mechanical approach could open the door to a new class of miniaturized, extremely low-cost, robust laser-scanning technologies for military and commercial use Many essential military capabilities—including autonomous navigation, chemical-biological sensing, precision targeting and communications—increasingly rely upon laser-scanning technologies such as LIDAR (think radar that uses light instead of radio waves). These technologies provide amazing …
The world’s first Malaria vaccine provides modest protection. Four injections of the RTS,S vaccine reduced cases of malaria in children aged 5 to 17 months and babies aged 6 to 12 weeks at first vaccination by 36 and 26 per cent respectively after four years, compared with non-recipients. “Given that there were an estimated 198 …
The FAA is years late in approving commercial use of drones and has violated numerous congressional deadlines. Mr. Bezos says regulatory inertia—not massive R and D—is blocking Amazon’s futuristic plan to have low-flying vehicles deliver within 30 minutes the 85% of its packages weighing less than five pounds. The FAA added insult to injury by …
The French Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle is deploying with its battlegroup to the Gulf, and is understood to be preparing to contribute to coalition air strikes against Islamic State. Sailing on 13 January, the carrier battlegroup – which includes a nuclear-powered attack submarine – will head from Toulon through the Suez Canal …
Vanadium “redox flow” batteries are very stable. They can be discharged and recharged 20,000 times without much loss of performance, and are thought to last decades (they have not been around long enough for this to have been demonstrated in practice). They can also be enormous, and – in large part thanks to their vanadium …
Perhaps the most striking consumer trend to emerge from the Global Cities 2030 study is the way in which the number of high-income Chinese consumers is set to leap ahead over the next two decades. Starting from a comparatively low base today, China will boast some 45 million urban households in 2030 with annual incomes …
Josh Hall [J Storrs Hall] gave a recent talk and went into the history of cold fusion at a level of detail that most people are not familiar with. For example: he recounted how when Fleischmann and Pons were experimenting with their device they had been using .75 amps for over a month to load …
The Carnival of Nuclear Energy 208 is at ANS Nuclear Cafe Forbes – James Conca – Nuclear Waste Leak Traced To… Kitty Litter? The recent news of a radioactive waste incident at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant has now been tempered by the revelation that an attempt to “go green” may have been responsible for …
What if 3-D printers could use a wide assortment of different materials, from living cells to semiconductors, mixing and matching the “inks” with precision? Jennifer Lewis, a materials scientist at Harvard University, is developing the chemistry and machines to make that possible. She prints intricately shaped objects from “the ground up,” precisely adding materials that …
Before Fukushima in 2011, China was steadily raising its 2020 nuclear energy target. (from 40 GW, to 60 GW, 70 GW, 80-85GW). With Fukushima, China paused its new nuclear reactor approval and had existing construction retrofitted with more safety systems. China paused inland construction approvals. Now everything is back on the table. Inland nuclear reactor …