GE has a prototype 10 Megawatt supercritical CO2 turbine that is ten times smaller than the equivalent steam turbine

GE sees its new supercritical carbon dioxide turbine as a strong rival to batteries for storing power from the grid. GE Global Research is testing a desk-size turbine that could power a small town of about 10,000 homes. The unit is driven by “supercritical carbon dioxide,” which is in a state that at very high …

Read more

Human to Mars Advocate Robert Zubrin has a company to convert natural gas that would be flared into CO2 and hydrogen

In 1996, Zubrin founded and is president of Pioneer Energy, a Research and Development firm Colorado. The company’s focus is to develop mobile Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) systems that can enable CO2-based EOR for both small and large oil producers in the United States. The company has also developed a number of new processes for …

Read more

DARPA funds improved bullet proof robotic mule as baby steps to the Star Wars imperial walker continue

Robotics experts at unmanned vehicles expert Boston Dynamics will develop an enhanced version of the company’s Legged Squad Support System (LS3) robot under terms of a $10 million contract awarded by DARPA. Boston Dynamics is developing the four-legged LS3 to help Army and Marine Corps infantry to carry as much as 400 pounds of a …

Read more

Magnetic power inverter: AC voltage generation from DC magnetic fields

Researchers have developed a method that allows power conversion from DC magnetic fields to AC electric voltages using domain wall (DW) motion in ferromagnetic nanowires. The device concept relies on spinmotive force, voltage generation due to magnetization dynamics. Sinusoidal modulation of the nanowire width introduces a periodic potential for a DW, the gradient of which …

Read more

Japan may restart more nuclear reactors in the summer of 2013 and India approves six nuclear reactors

1. Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) revealed on Friday that it may give the approval to restart some of the country’s idled reactors as early as next summer, only after they pass safety inspections beginning in the spring. While only two of Japan’s nuclear reactors are currently online, they were given approval under provisional safety …

Read more

Hybrid printing of mechanically and biologically improved constructs for cartilage tissue engineering applications

A new tissue printer can print cartilage. Bioprinting is an emerging technique used to fabricate viable, 3D tissue constructs through the precise deposition of cells and hydrogels in a layer-by-layer fashion. Despite the ability to mimic the native properties of tissue, printed 3D constructs that are composed of naturally-derived biomaterials still lack structural integrity and …

Read more

Railgun test firing at 5600 mph and 100 mile range

Smartplanet – the first Navy railgun prototype was developed by military contractor BAE systems and a second railgun was developed by General Atomics. General Atomics recently announced a successful test firing shortly after the delivery of their “Advanced Containment Launcher” to the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Virgina. Both railguns have proved capable of …

Read more

Singularity Summit – Our Viral Future #SS12

Carl Zimmer who Writes the blog TheLoon, and science fiction and for major magazines talks about Our Viral Future He talks about Ramses V (pharaoh) Died of Smallpox, earliest identified case, determined by examining the mummy Virus – Medawar Virus a piece of bad news wrapped up in a protein Vaccinate with cow pox and …

Read more

Rice University making reliable 3-D memories from silicon oxide and graphene

Researchers at Rice University are designing transparent, two-terminal, three-dimensional computer memories on flexible sheets that show promise for electronics and sophisticated heads-up displays. The technique based on the switching properties of silicon oxide, a breakthrough discovery by Rice in 2008, was reported today in the online journal Nature Communications. The Rice team led by chemist …

Read more

Double Strength Glass within reach

Rice University researchers determined in a new study that a process called chemical vapor deposition, which is used industrially to make thin films, could yield a glass that withstands tremendous stress without breaking. Wolynes, a senior scientist with the Center for Theoretical Biological Physics at Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative, and Wisitsorasak reported their results this …

Read more

Carnival of Nuclear Energy 122

The Carnival of Nuclear Energy 122 is up at the ANS Nuclear Cafe If you liked this article, please give it a quick review on ycombinator or StumbleUpon. Thanks Brian WangBrian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science …

Read more