A transformation in the pace of economic growth can be achieved even without nanofactories. These pre-nanofactory methods would transition well to a world with nanofactories when they do arrive. A coordinated effort by research, companies and government could be made to plan and develop Rapid Automated Manufacturing by 2030. There could be an increase in …
Contour Crafting is an effort to scale up rapid prototyping/manufacturing (a billion dollar industry to make 3 dimensional parts) and inkjet printing techniques to the scale of building multi-story buildings and vehicles. The process could accelerate the trillion dollar (US only) construction industry by 200 times. Projections indicate costs will be around one fifth as …
. In an advance online edition of Nature Medicine, the scientists explain how the protein, FOX03a, shields against viral attacks and how the discovery will help in the development of a HIV vaccine. This research could also advance therapies for other viral diseases. Given their perfect resistance to HIV infection, elite controllers represent the ideal …
Researchers from University of Wollongong, New South Wales have a new and better way of separating graphene sheets. Their process allows sheets to be kept apart in aqueous solution by electrostatic repulsion alone – without the need for chemical stabilizers. Graphene sheets have an extremely large surface area and non-bonding interactions can cause the sheets …
Robert Zubrin makes the case that conservation will not free us from dependence on middle east oil. Robert shows that only fuel substitution policies have worked. In electricity generation oil for electricity was substituted for nuclear power. Robert indicates that we need all cars to be flex fuel vehicles. I agree that this is a …
The EPA made a [politically based] ruling that denied California a waiver to set its own fuel standard This will be overturned in a lawsuit. California’s standard would be 36mpg by 2016 versus the recently passed 34 mpg by 2020 CAFE. Brian WangBrian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with …
In a world with 100 cores on a single chip, how do you get enough data onto the chip to keep all those cores fed? Rambus is working on technology that does 32 data transfers per clock beat, so that each line can transmit 32 bits per clock cycle. That’s a ton of per-pin bandwidth, …
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has made a major step forward in reducing the cost of manufacturing single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). Most manufacturing methods, which use a metal catalyst to form the tubes, have several drawbacks that have impeded development of SWCNTs’ numerous applications. NASA researchers have discovered a simple, safe, and inexpensive method to …
Zdnet blogs on the latest quantum computer demo by Dwave Systems The latest iteration of D-Wave’s chip has 28 qubits (quantum bits), according to Rose. He said they were on track to show a 512 qubit machine next year, and 1024 the year after that. The die has room for a million qubits. But first …
Researchers have succeeded in creating a carbon nanotube 20 times more densely packed than existing tubes, a discovery that could accelerate the practical application of nanotubes. The carbon nanotube solid has over 99.9 percent carbon purity, is easy to process and is expected to be applied to long-duration high-performance batteries. The team focused on surface …