Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, leading developer of spider silk based fibers, has received a contract valued at up to $1.0 million for the development of high performance fibers for protective apparel applications. the Company will deliver ballistic shoot packs constructed from its proprietary Dragon Silk™ material for performance testing. These shoot packs will be tested and …
Tesla has been aggressive in its use of technologies that are just emerging. The company’s use of software to control more features of its cars, over-the-air updates, and a giant touch-screen dashboard interface show how it is taking more risks than incumbents. Normally a car’s features are set three years before it hits the market. …
DARPA’s Collaborative Operations in Denied Environment (CODE) program aims to remove limitations around the number of swarming drones and enable more complex operations with new algorithms and software for existing unmanned aircraft that would extend mission capabilities and improve U.S. forces’ ability to conduct operations in denied or contested airspace. CODE researchers seek to create …
The most observable leakage radiation from an advanced civilization may well be from the use of power beaming to transfer energy and accelerate spacecraft. Applications suggested for power beaming involve Earthto-space applications such as launching spacecraft to orbit, raising satellites to a higher orbit, and interplanetary concepts involving space-to-space transfers of cargo or passengers. We …
China General Nuclear Power (CGN) and China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC) plan to build four more indigenous nuclear reactors on the mainland of China. CGN plans to use the Hualong One design for the fifth and sixth reactors at the Ningde plant in Fujian province, while CNNC plans to use the reactor in the first …
Planetaria – Mystery solved? odd bright spots on Ceres explained as salt deposits False color view of Occator crater on Ceres, showing the unusual bright spots. The image was taken by the framing camera on NASA’s Dawn spacecraft from a distance of about 4,400 kilometres (2,700 miles). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA Planetaria – Stunning new images …
Meet “Super H mode,” a newly discovered state of tokamak plasma that could sharply boost the performance of future fusion reactors. This new state raises the pressure at the edge of the plasma beyond what previously had been thought possible, creating the potential to increase the power production of the superhot core of the plasma. …
On Monday, Royal Dutch Shell ended its nine-year effort to explore for oil in the Alaskan Arctic — a $7 billion investment — in another sign that the entire industry is trimming its ambitions in the wake of collapsing oil prices. An oil forecast by Kirk Spano (Bluemound Asset Management) is that oil prices will …
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that over the 2015–2024 period, the Administration’s plans for nuclear forces would cost $348 billion, an average of about $35 billion a year, and an amount that is close to CBO’s December 2013 estimate of $355 billion for the 2014–2023 period. (Both estimates are given in nominal dollars; that …
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A quantum network of atomic clocks could create even more accurate and stable time-keeping devices than present atomic clocks, reports a paper published online this week in Nature Physics. Such a network could have technological applications as well as provide a resource for Earth science studies and fundamental tests of relativity and quantum gravity. A …