LA Times interview of Elon Musk of Spacex. Q – The movies provide us with two space future models: “Star Trek,” where a government agency governs space, versus “Alien,” where a private space mining company makes its own rules. A – We need a new archetype. I’ve talked to James Cameron about this. He’s got …
Space innovators at the University of Surrey and Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) are developing ‘STRaND-2’, a twin-satellite mission to test a novel in-orbit docking system based upon XBOX Kinect technology that could change the way space assets are built, maintained and decommissioned. STRaND-2 is the latest mission in the cutting edge STRaND (Surrey Training, …
Economist Magazine – Despite a recent slowdown, the world’s second-biggest economy is more resilient than its critics think. Rapid development can look messy close up, as our special report this week explains; and there is much that is going wrong with China’s economy. It is surprisingly inefficient, and it is not as fair as it …
Russia-IC (2011 statements)- Officials from Russia’s Space Agency, Roscosmos, are reportedly in talks with Europe’s ESA and NASA over possibly establishing a collective an orbital station around the moon, or a manned lunar research base. According to Russian news site RIA Novosti, while the country intends on making the moon its focal point, Russia’s plans …
Using an atomic force microscope as a “crane”, LMU (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) researchers have succeeded in bringing two biomolecules together to form an active complex – with nanometer precision and built-in quality control. The business end of the atomic force microscope (AFM) is its needle-sharp tip. It can be used to pick single molecules from a …
CNX Software – Chinese retailers have started selling a miniature Linux computer that is housed in a 3.5-inch plastic case slightly larger than a USB thumb drive. Individual units are available online for $74. The small computer has an AllWinner A10 single-core 1.5GHz ARM CPU, a Mali 400 GPU, and 512MB of RAM. An HDMI …
Abakan portfolio company Powdermet, Inc. (www.powdermetinc.com) announces it has made significant advancements in the performance levels of forged nanocomposite aluminum alloys. Working with the U.S. Army, Powdermet’s nano/micro-aluminum composites have achieved 30-50% higher ductility than traditional high strength aluminum alloys such as aluminum-lithium. Powdermet has devised a powder metallurgy process allowing the retention of nano-crystallites …
Spacex will soon start a new countdown for an attempt to launch at 3:44 AM EST Tuesday. They fixed a valve which triggered an aborted launch on Saturday. Simulations showed the launch would still have been successful. If you liked this article, please give it a quick review on ycombinator or StumbleUpon. Thanks Brian WangBrian …
Europeans have teleported photons 150 kilometers between two Canary Islands. this breaks a chinese record of 100 km set a couple of weeks ago Quantum teleportation is a quintessential prerequisite of many quantum information processing protocols. By using quantum teleportation, one can circumvent the no-cloning theorem and faithfully transfer unknown quantum states to a party …
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen founded the Allen Institute for Brain Science in 2003 with the aim of unlocking the secrets of the human brain. A human brain is 1,000 times as complex as a mouse brain. The neurons in a rat brain are in many respects functionally similar to those in a human brain. But …
While Thomas Sterling’s interview about the impossibility of reaching zettaflops made a lot of sense, the history of making negative predictions about technology is often an embarrassing one. Note – Thomas Sterling left himself an out that entirely new architectures could achieve zettaflops. So John Barr and Thomas Sterling are in general agreement. HPCWire – …