Major Japanese sake manufacturer Gekkeikan announced on March 28, 2008, that it has developed a new technology for producing bioethanol, which is attracting keen interest as a replacement for fossil fuels. Using “super yeast” — sake yeast genetically modified with koji mold genes — the innovative technology can directly produce ethanol from inedible plant materials …
The last poll results are here The top results were: Improve humanity (safe singularity) 59 out of 284 (21%)Effective anti-aging treatment 56 out of 284 (20%)Stronger economy (triple growth or more) 55 out of 284 (19%)Peak Oil solutions 32 out of 284 (11%)Reduce CO2 from transportation and energy 20 out of 284 (7%)Cure disease (cancer, …
Mark D Moore of NASA had a presentation at the Electric aircraft conference and described a hybrid plane that could achieve 720 mile range and 100mpg with a speed of 80 knots (92.2 mph) The plane could fly from San Francisco, CA to Salt Lake City, Utah in less than 8 hours (using 8 gallons …
U.S. life expectancy has been steadily rising, usually by about two to three months from year to year. This year’s jump of fourth months to 78.1 years is“an unusually rapid improvement,” Preston said. The preliminary number of deaths in the United States in 2006 was 2,425,900, a 22,117 decrease from the 2005 total. With a …
IEA (International Energy Agency) weekly oil report was issued June 10. Global oil product demand is expected to average 86.8 mb/d in 2008, 80 kb/d below last month’s estimate, following the reduction of price subsidies in several non-OECD countries. Global growth is cut even more steeply by 230 kb/d to +0.9% or +800 kb/d when …
The New Apple iPhone 2.0 able to use faster 3G communication was announced today. It will be available for $199 for the 8GB model and $299 for the 16GB model. iPhone 2.0 will be availabe July 11, 2008. Competing SmartphonesThe Economist magazine notes that while the Apple iPhone has 20% of the smartphone market in …
Titanium could become a lot cheaper and more commongly used. A non-melt consolidation process being developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and industry partners could reduce the amount of energy required and the cost to make titanium parts from powders by up to 50 percent, making it feasible to use titanium alloys for brake rotors, …
Liviu Popa-Simil, former Los Alamos National Laboratory nuclear engineer and founder of private research and development company LAVM and Claudiu Muntele, of Alabama A&M University, US, say transforming the energy of radioactive particles into electricity is twenty times more effective (up to power density of 1 kw/cm^3) than thermoelectric materials. It will be big impact …
Researchers at Boston College and MIT have used nanotechnology to achieve a major increase in thermoelectric efficiency, a milestone that paves the way for a new generation of products – from semiconductors and air conditioners to car exhaust systems and solar power technology – that run cleaner. UPDATE:Info from the Technology Review on how this …
The Chinese yuan is 7.10 to the US dollar The Chinese yuan is 10.85 to the Euro I have previously predicted that China’s economy will be larger than the US economy on an exchange rate basis before 2020. and think it is most likely to happen in the 2017-2019 range The German economy ended 2007 …
SpaceX dragon in cargo configuration. Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) has completed the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) for the second Falcon 9 / Dragon demonstration under NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) project. During this second and much longer demonstration, the uncrewed Dragon spacecraft will approach within 10 kilometers of the ISS and hold its …