The IEA projects that under business as usual close to 1 billion people will still be without access to electricity and 2.6 billion people will still lack access to clean cooking facilities in 2030. The IEA estimates that total investment of nearly $1 trillion ($979 billion) would be required to achieve universal energy access by …
Volvo Cars tests of flywheel technology confirm fuel savings of up to 25 per cent in a S60 sedan. Volvo Car Group has completed extensive testing of kinetic flywheel technology on public roads – and the results confirm that this is a light, cheap and very eco-efficient solution. “The testing of this complete experimental system …
A chance discovery that sea urchins use Nickel particles to harness carbon dioxide from the sea to grow their exoskeleton could be the key to capturing tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere. Experts at Newcastle University, UK, have discovered that in the presence of a Nickel catalyst, CO2 can be converted rapidly and cheaply into …
BBC News – Scientists have reversed paralysis in dogs after injecting them with cells grown from the lining of their nose. The pets had all suffered spinal injuries which prevented them from using their back legs. The Cambridge University team is cautiously optimistic the technique could eventually have a role in the treatment of human …
For the first time, IBM scientists precisely place and test more than ten thousand carbon nanotube devices in a single chip using mainstream manufacturing processes. Novel processing method helped pave the way for carbon technology as a viable alternative to silicon in future computing. IBM scientists have demonstrated a new approach to carbon nanotechnology that …
ITProPortal – China’s Huawei Ascend Mate smartphone is rumored to have a display of 6.1 inches diagonal which is bigger than the 5.5 inches of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and not far from the 7in diagonal that’s common on most small form factor tablets. The Ascend Mate specs on Chinese website MyDrivers * 10mm …
Peter Norvig (Director of Research Google) He went over the last part of his 2007 Singularity Summit talk Probabilistic First Order Logic (thought he needed it in 2007 but upon review not needed) Hierarchical Representation and Problem Solving (yes, progress made and needed it) Learning over the above (yes) Lots of data (yes, used 10 …
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, Fujikura Ltd, Hokkaido University, and Technical University of Denmark demonstrated ultra-large capacity transmission of 1 petabit (1000 terabit) per second over a 52.4 km length of 12-core (light paths) optical fiber. The present achievement indicates that transmission of one petabit per second (Pbps), capacity equivalent to sending 5,000 HDTV videos …
Sandia National Laboratories is seeking an industry partner to market a turbine system that could substantially improve energy efficiency in small modular nuclear reactors. The system uses carbon dioxide in a closed-loop “Brayton-cycle” turbine to crank up electric conversion from heat, said Gary Rochau, manager of the advanced nuclear concepts group at Sandia’s Nuclear Energy …
NASA – Water Walls (WW) takes an approach to providing a life support system that is biologically and chemically passive, using mechanical systems only for plumbing to pump fluids such as gray water from the source to the point of processing. The core processing technology of Water Walls is FORWARD OSMOSIS (FO). Each cell of …
Scientific American – The Carbon Monitoring for Action (CARMA) tool produced by the Center for Global Development has a database of 60,000 power plants worldwide with emissions data going back to 2004. Seven of the world’s 10 dirtiest power plants are in Asia — though none in China. On the other hand, China’s state-owned power …