Colorado College professor Daniel Johnson’s mathematical formula—one based on factors such as wealth and politics, and not on athletic ability—has come close to nailing down the final medal count for the last four Olympic Games. For the Beijing Olympics he has predicted the US getting the most overall medals with a total of 103. They’ll …
On the left is a schematic of the first 3-D “fishnet” metamaterial that can achieve a negative index of refraction at optical frequencies. On the right is a scanning electron microscope image of the fabricated structure, developed by UC Berkeley researchers. The alternating layers form small circuits that can bend light backwards. Image by Jason …
From a 15 slide pdf presentation by Tom Richmond on Montana’s Bakken oil. Nextbigfuture has already provided detailed coverage of Bakken oil in North Dakota and Saskatchewan Oil companies in MontanaA breakdown by share of production in 2005. The major companies are Continental Resources, Headington Oil, Burlington Resources, Enerplus Resources USA and Encore Operating LP. …
Seth Lloyd discusses adiabatic quantum computers in MIT technology review. Seth Lloyd and Kaminsky created the theoretical design of a superconducting adiabatic quantum computer on which the Dwave System is based. Seth has suggested experiments that Dwave can perform to prove if their system is achieving a quantum state. The pioneers of superconducting quantum computation …
One day soon a biosensing nanodevice developed by Arizona State University researcher Wayne Frasch may eliminate long lines at airport security checkpoints and revolutionize health screenings for diseases like anthrax, cancer and antibiotic resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Frasch works with the enzyme F1-adenosine triphosphatase, better known as F1- ATPase. This enzyme, only 10 to 12 …
As I had been predicting for nearly a year, Ma of the KMT won the Presidential election. He won by 58 to 41 over Frank Hsieh of the DPP Ma’s vote total topped the 7 million mark, a point at which it would be mathematically impossible for him to lose, the commission said. The commission …
Michael Anissimov has a picture of a progression from World War 2 soldier to a mech. The hypothetical Mech has a hypothetical price tag of 500k-700K. Military hummers cost $150K armored and $60-75k unarmored Of course they are not autonomous, although with the DARPA program for self driving cars..we could add yet (and tack on …
For the same wind velocity, FloDesign’s Mixer Ejector Wind Turbine (MEWT) having a maximum diameter 50% smaller than an existing 3-Bladed regular wind turbine can potentially generate over 50% more power, and can potentially cost 25-35% less than the same conventional wind turbine (horizontal axis wind turbines, HAWT). Hat tip to Al fin for this …
Tom Craver posits in a comment that the current financial troubles of the United States are from spending too much money on the military and for War in Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terror and not because of the subprime mortgage situation. The USA is overspending on the wrong kinds of defense and buying …
New batteries using silicon nanowire, developed through research led by Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, produces 10 times the amount of electricity of existing lithium-ion, known as Li-ion, batteries. If these batteries are produced in high volume at a reasonable cost this will enable high performance all electric cars and plug …