A new study published July 27 in the journal Nature shows that the neural networks in the brains of the middle-aged and elderly have weaker connections and fire less robustly than in youthful ones. Intriguingly, note the scientists, the research suggests that this condition is reversible. As people age, they tend to forget things, are …
In magnetic contrast images (top) taken by the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the bright spots are nanomagnets with their north ends pointing down (represented by red bar below) and the dark spots are north-up nanomagnets (blue). The six nanomagnets form a majority logic gate transistor, where the output on the right …
Scientists have used a gene therapy tool that acts like intelligent molecular scissors to correct the key gene defect in mice with hemophilia B, a disease that can lead to uncontrolled bleeding. The intervention improved the animals’ blood clotting enough that their severe disease was reduced to a mild form. Hemophilia B affects about 3,000 …
A sample of ‘Cambridge crude’ — a black, gooey substance that can power a highly efficient new type of battery. A prototype of the semi-solid flow battery is seen behind the flask. Photo: Dominick Reuter Flow batteries have existed for some time, but have used liquids with very low energy density (the amount of energy …
We reported today that Dr. James Woodward is now seeing consistent thrust signatures that are reversible in the 1.0 micro-Newton thrust range as captured using his ARC-Lite torque pendulum, which has a force resolution of ~0.05 micro-Newtons. Paul March has explained what scaling up could look like if development were to proceed smoothly from here: …
IEA world oil March 15, 2011 report World oil supply rose to an all‐time high of 89 mb/d in February, up 0.2 mb/d from January. Non‐OPEC oil supply rose 0.3 mb/d to 53.2 mb/d on re‐instated Alaskan output. 2010 non‐OPEC estimates are left unchanged at 52.8 mb/d, while the 2011 forecast is raised by 0.1 …
Kolomeisky and Rice graduate student Alexey Akimov have taken a large step toward defining the behavior of these molecular whirligigs with a new paper in the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Physical Chemistry C. Through molecular dynamics simulations, they defined the ground rules for the rotor motion of molecules attached to a gold surface. American …
Objet, EOS, Z Corp. and 3D Systems introduce new technology at Euromold that reduces costs and boosts capability for additive manufacturing equipment. Objet Geometries of Rehovot, Israel introduced a new family of desktop 3-D printers (Objet24 and Objet30), starting at $19,900. The company also demonstrated advanced materials featuring clear transparency, high-temperature resistance and ABS-like quality. …
Economist Robin Hanson at Overcoming Bias notes that robotic cars will make cities more efficient and productive. Google told the world it has developed computer driving tech that is basically within reach of doubling (or more) the capacity of a road lane to pass cars. Pundits don’t seem to realize just how big a deal …
Kurzweilai reports that NASA Ames has “just started a project with DARPA called the Hundred Year Starship,” with $1 million funding from DARPA and $100K from NASA Worden also mentioned some nearer-term ideas that NASA is exploring. One new propulsion concept is electric propulsion. NASA is also funding a new program to develop microwave thermal …
Ad Support : Nano Technology Netbook Technology News Computer Software The metamaterial patterns are directly sculpted on the highly doped GaAs facet of the device. Artificial coloring in the figure indicates deep and shallow micron scale grooves, which have different functions. The shallow “blue” grooves efficiently couple laser output into surface electromagnetic waves on the facet …