Purposely Adding Defects in Carbon Nanotubes increases Energy Stored in Supercapacitors by up to 200%

April 7, 2017November 23, 2009 by Brian Wang

University of California San Diego researchers have developed a method to enhance the capacitance (up to three times) of carbon nanotube (CNT) electrode-based electrochemical capacitors by controllably incorporating extrinsic defects into the CNTs. “While batteries have large storage capacity, they take a long time to charge; while electrostatic capacitors can charge quickly but typically have …

Nextbigfuture Highlights Week 39-45

April 7, 2017November 14, 2009 by Brian Wang

This is the sixth set of highlights for Next Big Future for 2009. more will be added later this weekend. Here is the link to the highlights for weeks 33-38 Here is the link to the highlights for weeks 20-32 Here is the link to the highlights for weeks 13-19 Here is the link to …

Correcting Amory Lovins Again

April 7, 2017October 18, 2009 by Brian Wang

Amory Lovins wrote an article on Grist primarily making the case that nuclear power is not economic and has a 30+ page pdf on the “Four Myths of Nuclear” This will be the first of a few articles where I show where Lovins is wrong. Firstly he talks about gross dollar or energy amounts. Those …

Resonant interband tunneling diodes made with Chemical Vapor Deposition

April 7, 2017October 16, 2009 by Brian Wang

Researchers at Ohio State University have discovered a way to make quantum devices using technology common to the chip-making industry today. The team fabricated a device called a tunneling diode using the most common chip-making technique, called chemical vapor deposition. Manufacturers could potentially fabricate quantum devices directly on a silicon chip, side-by-side with their regular …

Exawatt Lasers

April 7, 2017October 7, 2009 by Brian Wang

Todd Ditmire of the University of Texas will talk about the present and future of the university’s Texas Petawatt Laser program at the Optical Society’s (OSA’s) Annual Meeting, Frontiers in Optics (FiO; Oct. 11 to 15, 2009, San Jose, CA). At present the Texas Petawatt Laser producing pulses at the petawatt (10^15 W) power level, …

Attoseconds, Zeptoseconds and Yoctoseconds

April 7, 2017October 7, 2009 by Brian Wang

Attoseconds are 10^-18 seconds. 1 attosecond is the time it takes for light to travel the length of three hydrogen atoms.Zeptoseconds are 10^-21 secondsYoctoseconds are 10^-24 seconds. 1 ys: time taken for a quark to emit a gluon. The time that light needs to traverse an atomic nucleus 1. Collisions of heavy ions in a …

U of T researchers create microchip that can detect type and severity of cancer

April 7, 2017September 28, 2009 by Brian Wang

University of Toronto researchers, Shana Kelley and Ted Sargent, have made a cancer diagnostic breakthrough. Kelley said a five-year time frame would be a “conservative estimate” to get the device on the market. U of T researchers have used nanomaterials to develop an inexpensive microchip sensitive enough to quickly determine the type and severity of …

Mobile Money Could Benefit World Poor as Much as Mobile Phones Already Have

April 7, 2017September 24, 2009 by Brian Wang

The Economist magazine has a special feature on how mobile money could benefit the lives of the world’s poor as much as mobile phones already have. Mobile phones have become tools of economic empowerment for the world’s poorest people. These phones compensate for inadequate infrastructure, such as bad roads and slow postal services, allowing information …

Richard Feynmann Explaining Quantum Physics in Video

April 7, 2017September 11, 2009 by Brian Wang

Feynmann Explaining Reflection Feynman on Wave Particle Duality (QED Lecture in New Zealand) 5 minutes of Part of the longer videos linked to below. Feynmann on Electricity Feynmann on Atoms Feynmann on Magnets Here is a youtube video where Feynmann explains gravitation. [no embed link] There are lengthy 90-100 minute video lectures by Feynmann here. …

NanoPen: Low-Power, and Light-Actuated Patterning of Nanoparticles

April 7, 2017September 5, 2009 by Brian Wang

Nanoletters Journal: NanoPen: Dynamic, Low-Power, and Light-Actuated Patterning of Nanoparticles (H/t Brett Coalson) We introduce NanoPen, a novel technique for low optical power intensity, flexible, real-time reconfigurable, and large-scale light-actuated patterning of single or multiple nanoparticles, such as metallic spherical nanocrystals, and one-dimensional nanostructures, such as carbon nanotubes. NanoPen is capable of dynamically patterning nanoparticles …

Previous Dense Plasma Focus Research

April 7, 2017August 14, 2009 by Brian Wang

There was work (37 page pdf) done by Jan S. Brzosko, “High Efficiency Plasma Focus: Fusion and Applications” which showed 500 repeated firings of a Dense Plasma Focus (DPF) device (H/T Culled from links at Focusfusion.org which collected this and other relevant research) This is related to the work of Lawrenceville plasma Focus to develop …