Carnival of Space 94 is up at the Planetary Society blog This site contributed one of the articles in the series on using an underground nuclear blast to launch large unmanned and cheap payloads into space. A Mars sample return mission is examined at robot explorers Discovery helps peole understand the size and scale of …
Four atomic quantum dots are coupled to form a “cell” for containing electrons. The cell is filled with just two electrons. Control charges are placed along a diagonal to direct the two electrons to reside at just two of the four quantum dots comprising the cell. This new level of control of electrons points to …
The short and less technical version from Classical Values. 1. The machine is working way better than the usual theories predict2. No one knows why (lots of suspicions floating around)3. New instruments are being added 4. The current machine is called WB-7. WB 7.1 (no details) is in progress. The technical version mainly in Dr. …
Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Rice University, United States, have successfully created a microchip that uses 30 times less electricity while running seven times faster than today’s best technology. The Rice-NTU team plans to follow its proof-of-concept work on encryption with proof-of-concept tests on microchips for cell phones, graphics cards and medical implants. The microchip …
Desert sand is made hydrophobic be adding the additive SP-HFS 1609. The additive creates a capilliary breaking hydrophobic encapsulation of the sand making it resistant to salts, particularly sodium chloride salts. The Federal Environment Agency (FEA) in Berlin has approved Hydrophobic Sand as being environmentally safe. The product comes with a 30 year guarantee for …
The $99 iPhone are refurbished phones available until Dec 31, 2008 and require a two year AT&T service plan. Wal-Mart will offer the 8GB iPhone 3G for $197 and the 16GB model for $297. That’s a whopping $2 off AT&T’s iPhone prices and includes the same two-year service contract. Best Buy, in contrast, is currently …
A new drug proves effective in fighting obesity and related diseases while increasing stamina in mice and mimics calorie-restricted diet. Estimates of life extension from calorie restriction are 3 to 13 years. The effects of the compound are similar to those of resveratrol, a molecule found in red wine that has previously been shown to …
Dwave posted a recent presentation of their Adiabatic Quantum Computer system. [58 pages] In May 2008, Dwave had developed a 48 qubit quantum computer system and this month (November, 2008) Dwave will produce their 128 qubit design. Background of Dwave and the Older RSFQ Superconducting DesignDwave cools superconducting circuits to nearly absolute zero. The approach …
Many futurists and marketers have predicted that new technology ABC or some new process XYZ will radically change the world. There are several reasons why change does not get created, change is incremental instead of radical, change is developed but turns out not to be low impact and people can often be poor judges of …
One of the major highlights of the Oct 25, 2008 Singularity summit was the presentation by Neil Gershenfeld, Director of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms One of the other highlights was on human brain emulation, which I have researched further here. The article below is on the work at MIT and other places for …
1. Italy will make 8-10 nuclear reactors starting in 2013. Correcting a 50 billion euro mistake of ending nuclear power in Italy. The long term aim, according to Scajola, is to ‘rebalance the power generation in Italy’. By 2030 the Italian government would like to see nuclear power taking a 25% share in generation, with …