A tethered airship wind power system could tap into more consistent and more accessible winds at the 270 meter / 1000 foot level. This would increase capacity load to 40-50% and allow placement closer to population centers but 5 miles away from airports due to air traffic rules. They are producing a prototype 4 kilowatt …
I think the technology optimistic view is the correct one, but we have to work hard and be careful to make that vision happen. Freeman Dyson identifies the growing rigidity of scientific organizations as a real and serious problem Amateurs and small companies will have a growing role in the future of science. This will …
A legislator from Southern California has introduced a bill to lift the state’s ban on new nuclear power plants. The bill would give a boost to plans by investors to bring nuclear power to the heart of the San Joaquin Valley. Update: Contact your california state assembly representative to indicate your support for this bill …
Nuclear energy costs dependent upon assumptions The cost of generating power via nuclear energy can be separated into the following components: * The construction cost of building the plant. * The operating cost of running the plant and generating energy. * The cost of waste disposal from the plant. * The cost of decommissioning the …
Scientists believe that 10,000 idle PS3s can deliver over a petaflop This is four times more than IBM’s BlueGene/L System, which cranks out 280.6 trillion calculations per second. If Sony could actually sell the PS3 with as much success as the PS2, then 100 million units could provide over an exaflop of computing power. The …
Xiao-Gang Wen at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Michael Levin at Harvard University have come up with a prediction for a new state of matter (string-net liquid) and even a tantalising picture of the nature of space-time itself. Herbertsmithite could be the new silicon – the building block for quantum computers. In theory, quantum …
One of the other lies and distortions resorted to by environmentalists like Herman Scheer is that there are only 50 years of Uranium reserves left. From wikipedia: At the present use rate, there are 50 years left of known uranium-235 reserves at the current extraction price per kilogram. Given that the cost of fuel is …
Photos of the event by Steve Jurvetson Geordie Rose on stage at the Computer History Musem as data streams into the quantum computer… Article about the event from the Register IEEE Spectrum also has an article and reaction from Lieven Vandersypen, an associate professor at Delft University Vandersypen was a wait and see attitude. Vandersypen …
Chemicals are used to turn the bacteria on and off. They push their bead forward at speeds of around 15 microns per second. Sitti and Behkam began by sticking several S. marcescens – the kind of bacteria that cause pink stains on shower curtains – onto polystyrene beads 10 microns in diameter. These tiny “robots” …
MIT study (long PDF) on geothermal energy suggest 100GW can be generated by 2050. $300-400 million over 15 years would need to be invested in research and cost reduction for 15 years before geothermal would be cost competitive. The 100GW by 2050 figure assumes $800 million to $1 billion over 15 years in investment in …
The World Health Organization (WHO) says 3 million people are killed worldwide by outdoor air pollution annually from vehicles and industrial emissions, and 1.6 million indoors through using solid fuel. Most are in poor countries. One study says 7-20% of cancers are attributable to poor air and pollution in homes and workplaces. Wikipedia discusses air …