Japan unlikely to hit 22% 2030 nuclear power target and South Korea will add two more nuclear reactors by 2029

1. Japan’s expectation that nuclear generation will account for as much as 22 percent of its electricity in 2030 is overly optimistic, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said. Factoring in costs and the regulatory hurdles required to extend the life of operating reactors beyond the typical 40 years, atomic power will probably supply no more than …

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Additive manufacturing of plane parts could swap in and make planes 7% lighter but eventual redesigns would enable 50% lighter planes

A Northwestern University team has confirmed a new way to help the airline industry save dollars while also saving the environment. And the solution comes in three dimensions. By manufacturing aircrafts’ metal parts with 3-D printing, airlines could save a significant amount of fuel, materials, and other resources. Led by Eric Masanet, the team used …

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Futurama reference appropriate for Caitlyn Jenner

Bruce Jenner became the transgender Caitlyn Jenner So we get to have a reference from my favorite Futurama episode “Raging Bender”. Bender joins the Ultimate Robot Fighting league. He eventually becomes the ‘The Gender Bender’. I would also note that there has been a 39 year delay but a “woman” has won the gold medal …

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Natural Gas Fracked bacterial fishmeal can save the worlds fish and enable a lot more farmed fish

Methylococcus capsulatus is a methanotroph, a bacterium that metabolises methane. Salmon will consume pelletised protein made from these bacteria. And that could be handy for fish farmers. Calysta, a biotechnology firm in Menlo Park, California, proposes to take advantage of the rock-bottom price of methane, a consequence of the spread of natural-gas fracking, to breed …

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China’s air pollution is still very bad but could get close to levels in the US and Europe by 2020

China’s government has cracked down on burning coal for home heating and the closure of small, dirty coal-fired plants close to major cities. They has also been widespread deployment of scrubbers and other antipollution technology that has long been standard in the West. According to some estimates, close to 90 percent of the coal plants …

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John Nash and wife Alicia die together in Taxi accident on NJ Turnpike

The famed Nobel-prize winner John Nash and Princeton University scholar and his wife Alicia were killed when a taxi carrying them slammed into a guardrail on the New Jersey Turnpike, ejecting and killing both. He was 86 and she was 82. They were featured in the movie A Beautiful Mind. Mr. Nash was the father …

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Air Force should certify Spacex Falcon 9 no later than June 2015 and Allow Spacex to nearly Halve the cost of Air Force Launches

The Air Force expects to certify SpaceX no later than June to compete for space launches, under an updated agreement that streamlines the certification process Once certified, SpaceX, with its Falcon 9 launch vehicle, can compete for national security space launches against United Launch Alliance, the Boeing-Lockheed Martin team that currently has a monopoly on …

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Reinforced microfibers for soft hydrogels are a breakthrough for printed cartilage for 3D printed body parts

QUT biofabrication team has made a major breakthrough by 3D printing mechanically reinforced, tissue engineered constructs for the regeneration of body parts. In an article published in Nature Communications, the biomedical engineers outlined how they had reinforced soft hydrogels via a 3D printed scaffold. Professor Dietmar W. Hutmacher, from QUT’s Institute of Health and Biomedical …

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Will Avengers 2 or Star Wars 7 be the bigger box office movie ?

Avengers 1 was the third highest grossing movie after Titanic and Avatar. Avengers 2 Age of Ultron will open next week. Star Wars 7 will open at Xmas 2015. The Star Wars prequels did not perform as well at the box office but Phantom Menace still was 17th for domestic box office when inflation adjusted. …

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OECD calculates that China about 65% urbanized and has 17 megacities based on Functional urban area

Instead of just looking at cities’ administrative borders or “statutory city population,” OECD’s study takes into account surrounding “functional urban areas” (FUA), which may lie outside the administrative borders but are significant to the social and economic makeup of the city. A lot of this is the result of China’s complex “hukou” system, the registration …

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Bionic Ants, Robotic Butterflies and robotic chameleon tongue grippers

Germany-based automation company Festo is making bionic ants. These are artificial ant units that move together under clear rules. They are showing off their cooperative behavior for doing tasks and working as an overall networked system. The company named their creations BionicANTs, to also stand for Autonomous Networking Technologies. The company sees them suitable as …

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