MeRAM is up to 1,000 times more energy-efficient than current technologies

UCLA – By using electric voltage instead of a flowing electric current, researchers from UCLA’s Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have made major improvements to an ultra-fast, high-capacity class of computer memory known as magnetoresistive random access memory, or MRAM. The UCLA team’s improved memory, which they call MeRAM for magnetoelectric random …

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Robot mimics almost all the major muscles in a human

Kenshiro robot body mirrors almost all the major muscles in a human, with 160 pulley-like “muscles”—50 in the legs, 76 in the trunk, 12 in the shoulder, and 22 in the neck. It has the most muscles of any other bio-inspired humanoid out there. The Japanese researchers decided to design a robot with the same …

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Flexible Samsung smartphones to launch in 2013

Trusted Reviews -Samsung is reportedly set to launch its first bendable screened smartphones in 2013. Tipped to launch in the first half of 2013, given the expected release date, it has been rumoured that the first handset to boast a flexible screen will be the high-profile and eagerly awaited Samsung Galaxy S4, a device which …

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Combined visible, near infrared and infrared sensors with networked heads up displays

DARPA – PIXNET technology would combine visible, near infrared and infrared sensors into a single clip-on device that soldiers can attach to their weapon sight or helmet. Desirable features for many new man-portable systems include small size, light weight, minimal power consumption, low cost, ease of use, multi-functionality and, to the extent possible, network friendliness. …

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Kirk Sorensen A Global Alternative to thorium energy via LFTR

Kirk thinks medical isotopes will be the initial product from thorium reactors to fund the development to scale up thorium reactors for energy. 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 …

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Smartphones that Use Half the Power

Technology Review – Powering cellular base stations around the world will cost $36 billion this year—chewing through nearly 1 percent of all global electricity production. Much of this is wasted by a grossly inefficient piece of hardware: the power amplifier, a gadget that turns electricity into radio signals. The versions of amplifiers within smartphones suffer …

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Australia’s Queensland will permit uranium mining and Japanese nuclear reactors will have systems to prevent hydroegen explosions

1. After years of staunchly opposing uranium mining, Queensland state (austrialia’s northeast) has had a sudden change of heart. The state government says it plans to restart an industry that’s been dormant since 1982 so it can unlock deposits of the nuclear fuel worth 10 billion Australian dollars (US$10.3 billion). That’s good news for listed …

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Acoustic cell-sorting chip may lead to cell phone-sized medical labs

A technique that uses acoustic waves to sort cells on a chip may create miniature medical analytic devices that could make Star Trek’s tricorder seem a bit bulky in comparison, according to a team of researchers. The device uses two beams of acoustic — or sound — waves to act as acoustic tweezers and sort …

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Carnival of Space 267

The Carnival of Space 267 is up at Supernova Condensate Centauri Dreams looks at a space imperative, building closed ecologies for years- or decades-long missions. Early work on Earth has revealed how far we have to go. The time is now to add on to this work with a new push in closed systems. Urban …

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A $1.2bn Living Earth Simulator

Technology Review – Professor Dirk Helbing of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich wants to build a “living earth simulator” to probe the kind of dangerous cascading effects that he believes threaten financial markets, power grids and other complex systems that modern life relies upon. He has a good chance at getting €1bn ($1.2bn) …

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