Graphene goes plasmonic and could increase internet communication speeds by ten times to 10 gigabits per second

April 7, 2017August 30, 2011 by Brian Wang

Scanning electron microscopy micrographs of the graphene devices with plasmonic nanostructures. Researchers have discovered a crucial recipe for improving the characteristics of graphene devices for use as photodetectors in the next generation of pholtovoltaic devices for telecommunications and energy harvesting. In the new research, the team combined graphene with metallic nanostructures, leading to a twenty-fold …

Genome Editing Improves Blood Clotting in Mice with Hemophilia B

April 7, 2017June 28, 2011 by Brian Wang

Scientists have used a gene therapy tool that acts like intelligent molecular scissors to correct the key gene defect in mice with hemophilia B, a disease that can lead to uncontrolled bleeding. The intervention improved the animals’ blood clotting enough that their severe disease was reduced to a mild form. Hemophilia B affects about 3,000 …

17 years of nanorobotics

April 7, 2017June 25, 2011 by Brian Wang

Ari Requicha, PhD, Founder of USC’s Molecular Robotics Lab nano –manipulation nanorobots nano-robots swarms network of sensors and actuators nanomedicine bottom up assembly AFMs (PicoSPM, CP-R, MFP-3D) Interactive pushing Time consuming and labor intensive to move atoms this way Automated. Start and goal motions. Matching for pushing motion with Hungarian algorithm. Greedy algorithm to achieve …

Skylon challenges analyzed at the Space Review

April 7, 2017June 14, 2011 by Brian Wang

Work by Reaction Engines on the Skylon concept stretches back more than two decades. Skylon had its origins in another SSTO RLV project called HOTOL by British Aerospace and Rolls Royce in the 1980s. When the British government declined to further invest in HOTOL in the late 1980s, a group of engineers led by Alan …

Carnival of nuclear energy 40

April 7, 2017February 19, 2011 by Brian Wang

Carnival of nuclear energy 40 is up at the ANS nuclear cafe Nextbigfuture provided the review of the minimal amount of reactor certifications in the 36 years of history of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Brave New Climate looks at different scenarios for the nuclear fuel cycle Consider four simplistic scenarios, highly idealized to emphasize the …

Microsoft uses Internet Explorer to copy Google search results for Bing

April 7, 2017February 1, 2011 by Brian Wang

Search engine land describes how Bing copies Google search results Matt Cutt revealed the charges at some public conferences. If you liked this article, please give it a quick review on ycombinator or StumbleUpon. Thanks Brian WangBrian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His …

Method Prints Nanostructures Using Hard “Pen” Tips Floating on Soft Polymer Springs

April 7, 2017January 27, 2011 by Brian Wang

Northwestern University researchers have developed a new technique for rapidly prototyping nanoscale devices and structures that is so inexpensive the “print head” can be thrown away when done. Hard-tip, soft-spring lithography (HSL) rolls into one method the best of scanning-probe lithography — high resolution — and the best of polymer pen lithography — low cost …

Focardi and Rossi LENR (Cold Fusion) Demo today

April 7, 2017January 14, 2011 by Brian Wang

Photo of the device from last month I had reported that the Focardi and Rossi demo would be on Jan 15th (based on an online notice) that was the online press conference and that will happen tomorrow. Today there was the italian press conference. UPDATE – The online “press conference” was question and answer in …

Thermal Energy Storage for concentrated solar power

April 7, 2017December 13, 2010 by Brian Wang

Thermal Energy Storage for concentrated solar power research 21 pages) * One of the Solar Program goals is to reduce the cost of thermal energy storage to $15/kWh thermal * Capital cost of storage could be reduced with new concepts Performance * Thermal energy storage (TES) is a key performance advantage of CSP * TES …

China fighter jet clones and longer range missiles and nuclear powered missile submarines

April 7, 2017December 12, 2010 by Brian Wang

Wall Street Journal – China has reached a tipping point: It now can produce many of its own advanced weapons—including high-tech fighter jets like the Su-27—and is on the verge of its own aircraft carrier Chinese engineers cloned the prized Su-27’s avionics and radar but they are fitting it with the last piece in the …

Emerging Applications of Carbon Nanotubes

April 7, 2017November 22, 2010 by Brian Wang

Emerging Applications of Carbon Nanotubes On the basis of their unique electrical and mechanical properties, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted great attention in recent years. A diverse array of methods has been developed to modify CNTs and to assemble them into devices. On the basis of these innovations, many applications that include the use of …