GE and Hitachi are building the first commercial-scale U-235 laser enrichment facility licensed for production. It will use an Australian-developed laser enrichment technology known as Separation of Isotopes by Laser Excitation (SILEX). Currently Silex has completed its phase I test loop program at GE-Hitachi Global Laser Enrichment’s (GLE) facility in North Carolina. When the commercial …
MIT chemical engineers have designed tiny particles that can “steer” themselves along preprogrammed trajectories and align themselves to flow through the center of a microchannel, making it possible to control the particles’ flow through microfluidic devices without applying any external forces. Such particles could make it more feasible to design lab-on-a-chip devices, which hold potential …
The market for micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) chips will almost double from about $12 billion in 2012 to over $22 billion by 2018, according to market analyst. MEMS for mobile is the driver for future growth, noting that smartphones have as many as 12 MEMS chips today, growing to as many as 20 in the near …
Using inexpensive materials configured and tuned to capture microwave signals, researchers at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering have designed a power-harvesting device with efficiency similar to that of modern solar panels. It operates on a similar principle to solar panels, which convert light energy into electrical current. But this versatile energy harvester could be …
Nextbigfuture was looking at how and where to operate robotic cars to accelerate their introduction back in 2008. Robotic car only zones in city centers would have enabled robotic cars to have more simplified and controlled environments to navigate. We had also looked at having robotic cars waiting or going to users. Robotic electric cars …
The Carnival of Nuclear Energy 181 is up Atomic Power Review Brave New Climate looks at radiation damage to DNA. Researchers last year at MIT subjected mice to 400 times the background rate of radiation for about 6 months. They estimated it would add 12 pieces of extra damage every day to each normal 10,000 …
Mars One will launch its first unmanned mission to the Red Planet in 2016, its co-founder says. The firm plans to establish a human settlement on Martian soil in 2023, by offering passengers a one-way ticket. Mars One will send “a small craft that will demonstrate the technologies we need for our human colony” and …
The Ukrainian space agency has always been short of funding. The Ukrainians used to work closely with the Russians as part of the Soviet program, but that stopped with the breakup of the soviet union. Currently Russia’s leader Putin has bad relations with the Ukraine. Ukraine has the Zenit rocket family Ukraine had been working …
The view of extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) has always been a bit rosy from this part of the world, where it is being born. So it’s no surprise that EUV held a relatively sunny spot in an otherwise fairly detailed and balanced semiconductor road map the IMEC research institute showed at an annual press event …
Frederik George Pohl was an American science fiction writer, editor and fan, with a career spanning over seventy-five years — from his first published work, the 1937 poem “Elegy to a Dead Satellite: Luna”, through the 2011 novel All the Lives He Led and articles and essays published in 2012. From about 1959 until 1969, …
Loosely inspired by a biological brain’s approach to making sense of visual information, a University of Michigan researcher is leading a project to build alternative computer hardware that could process images and video 1,000 times faster with 10,000 times less power than today’s systems—all without sacrificing accuracy. DARPA has awarded up to $5.7 million to …