Carbon nanotubes are reinforcing bars that make two-dimensional graphene much easier to handle in a new hybrid material grown by researchers at Rice University. The Rice lab of chemist James Tour set nanotubes into graphene in a way that not only mimics how steel rebar is used in concrete but also preserves and even improves …
1. Japan’s economy grew an annualised 6.7 percent in the first quarter, up sharply from an initial reading of a 5.9 percent rise, and confirmed the fastest pace of growth since July-September 2011. The data beat the median market forecast for GDP to rise 5.6 percent. The upward revision was largely due to a recalculation …
Sergey Brin unveiled Google’s first car built from scratch, a gondola on wheels with no steering wheel and no brake pedals. Brin also discussed his impatience with the pace of innovation and his disappointment with the NSA surveillance revelations and joked about new projects (or not) around invisibility cloaks, fembots and thousands of hovering satellites. …
. The Piketty and Saez data for the U.S. indicate that between 1979 and 2012, the bottom 90 percent’s income dropped by over $3,000. However, the official Census Bureau estimates indicate that the bottom 80 percent of households saw an increase of nearly $3,500. Median income—the income of the household in the middle of the …
South Korea tried to control the size of Seoul half a century ago. In Seoul’s first Basic Urban Plan, in 1966, its population was expected to grow from three to five million by 1985. But it hit that target in 1970. Now half of the population of South Korea is in Seoul. South Korea’s government …
By 2015 China plans to extend the network to 19,000 kilometers (about 11,800 miles), with a mixture of new and existing infrastructure. On the dedicated high-speed lines, trains can exceed 300km/h (186mph); secondary lines allow travel between 200 and 299 km/h (124-185mph); and existing lines that have been upgraded permit some high-speed travel. Bullet trains …
Forbes and other sources are reporting on the the budget cut impacts on the US military. The sequestration provisions of the 2011 Budget Control Act are the big problem for the US military today, because savings goals can only be met in the near term by reducing funding for training and technology. The Army plans …
China’s National Development and Reform Commission, the nation’s top economic planning agency, said today it will promote urbanization and issue supporting policies on residency, land, capital, housing and public services. Priority will be given to investments in projects such as shantytown redevelopment, construction of affordable housing, more railway infrastructure in central and western China and …
Many sizes of small satellites can be included in unused launch space. 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 blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News …
Mars One will launch its first unmanned mission to the Red Planet in 2016, its co-founder says. The firm plans to establish a human settlement on Martian soil in 2023, by offering passengers a one-way ticket. Mars One will send “a small craft that will demonstrate the technologies we need for our human colony” and …
108 pages of new nanotechnology solutions from Eric Drexler and Dennis Pamlin written in May 2013. The key development for the 21st century is advanced, atomically precise manufacturing (APM). This report examines the potential for nanotechnology to enable deeply transformative production technologies that can be developed through a series of advances that build on current …