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Fabrication Progress to Atomic Layer Deposition of solar nanorectennas that could collect solar energy with 70% efficiency

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A novel fabrication technique developed by UConn engineering professor Brian Willis could provide the breakthrough technology scientists have been looking for to vastly improve today’s solar energy systems. Over the next year, Willis and his collaborators in Pennsylvania plan to build prototype rectennas and begin testing their efficiency. Read more: http://www.nanowerk.com/news2/newsid=29256.php#ixzz2M73ryUdY For years, scientists have …

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Using drones to help with trade and other positive goals

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Problem: What if war could be fought using technology that’s more humane and could achieve political or tactical goals without killing civilians? Solution: Targeted military force could do limited harm or potentially do good instead of the drone missle strikes that are used today. Technology: Natalie proposes unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) could be used in …

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Sky City Skyscraper project has not been cancelled and Broad Group will soon be proposing construction projects in the USA

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Some have claimed that the Sky City 220 story skyscraper project was cancelled (instead of just delayed). 1. In the China Daily site, has an interview with Wang Shuguang, general manager of subsidiary Broad USA. “The idea is to set up franchises anywhere such as the United States, using the techniques of making sustainable prefabricated …

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College credit for online courses and eliminating and changing weak universities

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USA Today – The American Council on Education, a non-profit organization that represents most of the nation’s college and university presidents, is preparing to weigh in on massive open online courses — MOOCs, for short — a new way of teaching and learning that has taken higher education by storm in recent months. A stamp …

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IBM Researchers Demonstrate Initial Steps toward Commercial Fabrication of Carbon Nanotube Chip

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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 …

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China Opens more High Speed Rail

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NZWeek – A new high-speed railway connecting central China’s Zhengzhou City and the eastern city of Wuhan opened last Friday. The Zheng-Wu high-speed railway, covers a distance of 536 km and trains will pass along it at a designed speed of 350 km per hour. The Zheng-Wu high-speed railway has cut the travel time from …

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Built-in Germanium Lasers could make Computer Chips faster

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Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) researchers have investigated how they could make the semiconductor Germanium emit laser light. As a laser material, Germanium together with Silicon could form the basis for innovative computer chips in which information would be transferred partially in the form of light. This technology would revolutionise data streaming within chips and give …

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SpiderFab: Process for On-Orbit Construction of Kilometer-Scale Apertures

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Currently, a significant fraction of the engineering cost and launch mass of space systems is required exclusively to enable the system to survive launch. This is particularly true for systems with physically large components, such as antennas, booms, and panels, which must be designed to stow for launch and then reliably deploy on orbit. Furthermore, …

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China’s current nuclear energy situation

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Idaho Samizdat reviews the current nuclear energy situation in China. The Chinese government reinvigorated its civilian nuclear energy program last week with three major actions. First, it announced the release of a long awaited safety plan that will result in the lifting of a moratorium on new nuclear reactor projects. Second, it announced approval of …

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A Post By Professor Bruce Charlton On Why Genius Is So Rare

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A guest post by Joseph Friedlander. I ran across an interesting pair of articles by Professor Bruce Charlton on the difficulty of reliably channeling  genius and creativity into science and technology.  If we could double the number of great geniuses who thread through the educational and societal maze to a productive career in the arts of science and technology our …

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