The death toll from the massive earthquake in the capital Port-au-Prince could reach 200,000, Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime says. “We have already collected around 50,000 dead bodies. We anticipate there will be between 100,000 and 200,000 dead in total, although we will never know the exact number,” the minister said. The security situation is …
John Hunter wants to shoot stuff into space with a 3,600-foot gun. And he’s dead serious—he’s done the math. Making deliveries to an orbital outpost on a rocket costs $5,000 per pound, but using a space gun would cost just $250 per pound. * The Quicklaunch will cost $562 million to develop over 4 phases …
Figure 1: Schematic diagrams of three types of quantum simulators: atoms (red) held in place by an optical field (green; top left); ions (yellow) aligned using an electromagnetic field (top right); and superconducting circuits (bottom). Iulia Buluta and Franco Nori of the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute present an overview of how quantum simulators may become …
This site had previously advocated using tax revenue from allowing oil drilling and new nuclear reactors to help solve California’s budget problems. [This is repeated below] California assemblyman Chuck Devore introduced a proposal that generates as much as $16 billion by 2011, enough to fill more than three-quarters of California’s estimated $21 billion budget deficit. …
Resistive magnets are built in-house at the magnet lab using so-called Florida Bitter technology pioneered by researchers there. Circular plates of copper sheet metal are stamped with cooling holes; insulators with the same pattern are placed between the plates and stacked to make a coil. Voltage is then run across the coil and current flows …
NY Times reports Discovery, Imax and Sony confirmed on Tuesday that they are forming a joint venture for a 3-D television channel. Broadcasting Cable has some more info: The partnership aims to launch in the U.S. in 2011 with a mix of 3D-friendly content, including natural history, space, exploration, adventure, engineering, science and technology, motion …
Almost 90 percent of the 110-120 million e-bikes (electric bikes) on China’s streets exceed the government limits. Electric bikes and scooters strategy would be the easiest and fastest path to electrifying transportation. Electric bikes and scooters use 10 to 100 times less material and less batteries. China can make 50 million each year now versus …
In response to a post where I noted that the US had in the first two months of fiscal 2010 generated $292 billion of deficit, a commenter 5Live asked what has changed since my posting of Sept. 2008 where I compared national debt of different countries. Below I show that projections are that the debt …
Alan Boyle at MSNBC cosmic Log reviews the status of nuclear fusion projects He does not mention General Fusion or Japan’s Muon fusion project. For IEC Fusion: In September, EMC2 Fusion was awarded a Navy contract, backed by $7.9 million in stimulus funds, to develop a scaled-up version of a Polywell fusion reactor. Development and …
Computerworld reports that the U.S. Department of Energy has already begun holding workshops on building a system that’s 1,000 times more powerful — an exascale system, said Buddy Bland, project director at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility that includes Jaguar. The exascale systems will be needed for high-resolution climate models, bio energy products and …
Qualified Teams have passed the second judging stage of the Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE. After acceptance of their Registration Application, these teams went on to pass a rigorous review of their Business Plan and initial Technical Specifications. 68 pages of guidelines describe the requirements of the judging process. The PIAXP will encourage production-capable vehicles …