Treasury Under Secretary Lael Brainard said China has less than a decade to overhaul its economy and safeguard long-term growth that goes beyond a boom based on cheap labor. Prior testimony by Lael Brainard gave details on his views of the challenges that China’s economy is facing. China’s current headline growth rate may look enviable …
Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering – A single-pixel wireless contact lens display This is an advance on prior work in 2008 We (University of Washington researchers) present the design, construction and in vivo rabbit testing of a wirelessly powered contact lens display. The display consists of an antenna, a 500 × 500 µm2 silicon power …
A new theory explains the huge piles of jumbled-up icebergs strewn across the cracked and mottled surface of Europa as the tips of subsurface lakes that well up and warm the surface. The existence of such lakes would thrill scientists seeking life beyond Earth, a group long drawn to Europa. “Europa has the best chance …
1. International Energy Agency = Global oil supply rose by 1.0 million barrels per day to 89.3 mb/d in October from September, driven by recovering non-OPEC output A yearly comparison shows similar growth, with OPEC supplies well above year-ago levels. Non-OPEC supply growth averages 0.1 mb/d in 2011 but rebounds to 1.1 mb/d in 2012, …
CNET – Boston Dynamics has released new video of its Petman robot. The vid below shows the anthropomorphic bot (aka the Protection Ensemble Test Mannequin) walking on a treadmill, doing squats, and pumping out push-ups without breaking a sweat. Boston Dynamics site description of the PETMAN project PETMAN will balance itself and move freely; walking, …
Optics Express – Photonic crystal nanobeam cavities are versatile platforms of interest for optical communications, optomechanics, optofluidics, cavity QED, etc. In a previous work [Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 203102 (2010)], we proposed a deterministic method to achieve ultrahigh Q cavities. This follow-up work provides systematic analysis and verifications of the deterministic design recipe and further …
The Army, Marine Corps and the Pentagon’s Joint IED Defeat Organization are working to procure and deliver thousands of small, easily transportable “throwable” robots equipped with surveillance cameras designed to beam back video from confined spaces, buildings, tunnels and other potentially dangerous locations, service officials said. They are looking for ultra-light recon robot capability to …
The AlphaDog Proto is a lab prototype for the Legged Squad Support System, a robot being developed by Boston Dynamics with funding from DARPA and the US Marine Corps. When fully developed the system will carry 400 lbs of payload on 20-mile missions in rough terrain. The first version of the complete robot will be …
Imagine a single drug that would treat most, if not all, autoimmune disorders, such as asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, and Lupus. That might not be so hard to do thanks to a team of researchers who have discovered a molecule normally used by the body to prevent unnecessary immune reactions. This molecule, pronounced “alpha v …
A new supercomputer new system, called Stampede, will be built by TACC (Texas Advanced Computing Center) in partnership with Dell and Intel to support for four years the nation’s scientists in addressing the most challenging scientific and engineering problems. NSF is providing $27.5 million immediately and Stampede is expected to be up and running in …
Arxiv – Implementing the Quantum von Neumann Architecture with Superconducting Circuits (43 pages) This paper is more detail for an article from September 1st about the connection of a quantum processor with quantum memory. The von Neumann architecture for a classical computer comprises a central processing unit and a memory holding instructions and data. We …