Ontario Liberals initially promised to close Ontario’s coal plants by 2007. They since pushed the closures back several times when it became obvious alternatives were not going to be in place, eventually writing the 2014 closures into regulation in the summer of 2007 The Liberals won a strong majority with 71 of 107 districts. There …
A protein in our cells called ‘Bub 1’ is essential for normal cell division to take place; if the gene that generates Bub 1 is ‘switched off’ then the cells are unable to divide successfully. Now that scientists understand the precise role of Bub 1 in normal cell division, as well as what goes wrong …
Welcome to the Carnival of space week 23. We have two articles inspired by the 50th anniversary of Sputnick, then we have a mixed bag of articles on raising pigs on Mars, habitable planets, another look at the Apollo program, Nasa colorizing of space photos, the Carancas meteorite, Type 1a Supernovae, my own submission on …
Ponoko is an attempt at an online network of people and companies of the total manufacturing chain Currently this version of the concept seems targeted at small producers. There are other attempts to leverage the internet to source components and alternative suppliers. hat tip to futurismic Brian WangBrian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and …
The method was tested separately on the nano- and micro-sized particles, and was equally successful in providing greater control than using only complementary DNA in assembling both types of particles into large or small groupings. The method, based on designed DNA shells that coat a particle’s surface, can be used to manipulate the structure – …
Thermochemical nanolithography uses an atomic force microscope (AFM). Researchers heat a silicon tip and run it over a thin polymer film. The heat from the tip induces a chemical reaction at the surface of the film. This reaction changes the film’s chemical reactivity and transforms it from a hydrophobic substance to a hydrophilic one that …
News from Centauri Dreams of progress on the mini-mag Orion concept Take what would be a rocket design that is 70-80 times more efficient than existing chemical rockets and beam particles at it so that it can go at 15% of the speed of light at a cost of $3 billion per flight in Uranium. …
Nanowerk reports that the Advanced Energy Consortium (AEC), is to develop subsurface nanosensors that can be injected into oil and gas well bores. By virtue of their very small size, these sensors would migrate out of the well bores and into the pores of the surrounding geological structure to collect data about the physical characteristics …
“Finding a type of mouse stem that so closely resembles the human stem cells will accelerate the delivery of health benefits from stem cell research.” When asked how far away the first applications might be, Prof Pedersen said: “We’re talking five years. Those would be very early studies that involve a human individual. I think …
The USA is threatening 27% tariffs against China to force China to more quickly raise the value of the Yuan by 15 to 40% This supports my thesis that China’s economy will the pass the USA by 2020 15% appreciation in the yuan would move it from 7.6 to 1 US dollar to 6.6 to …
In 2004, it was estimated that China would be 58 to 60 percent urban 2020, and the urban population would hit 800 to 900 million. The urbanization rate was 37.7 percent in 2002. More recent figures suggest urbanization is at 42% in 2004, so urbanization is happening faster. A more recent university study indicates that …