The USA has the Very High Temperature Gen IV reactor candidate, which could have deep burn [65% of the nuclear material would be used instead of about 1% for current reactors] and temperatures up to 1000 degrees. High temperatures is efficient for providing heat for many industrial applications. The difference between the US and China …
Researchers established that the mutated Indy gene helped fruit flies live longer. They have now explored what mechanisms lead to the longer life of the fruit fly. (Indy flies’ life span increased from an average life span of about 35 days to 70 days.) The researchers decided the best way to try to understand how …
Eric Drexler indicates in a new post that stiffness matters for nanotechnology. Drexler also continues his discussion on stiffness of materials and different proteins at e-drexler.com Drexler also has an article about molecular assembly lines and getting away with less programmability. In the comments, Chris Phoenix notes that it is easy to add a useful …
China’s BYD E6, a pure electric vehicle GM announced on Jan. 12, 2009 that it would buy lithium ion cells from LG Chem of Seoul, South Korea. The cells will be manufactured in Korea and assembled into battery packs at a new facility that GM will build in Michigan. Robert Lutz, a GM vice chairman, …
A presentation by Penn West, a Senior Canadian Oil Company, on its oil drilling plans. [34 pages] They are making a significant allocation to enhanced oil recovery. Horizontal multi-stage fracturing can be 44% of the cost of conventional oil drilling approaches for certain oil formations. Horizontal multi-stage fracturing should draw billions of barrels of oil …
The proposed sustained 10 petaflop and 200 peak petaflop tensilica computer is based on 2008 technology. Over the next few years, Tensilica will have 45 nanometer and 32 nanometer chips with improved energy usage and performance, which would enable affordable supercomputers that are more powerful than 10 petaflops. Other proposed, in development or completed supercomputers …
Bakken Oil North Dakota UpdateIn October, 2008 North Dakota had an average of 203785 barrels of oil per day, with most of that from the Bakken Oil Formation. In spite of reduced oil prices drilling is continuing in 2009 in North Dakota but drilling budgets will be down about 30% Better and Cheaper Oilsands CAPRI, …
Nikkei Electronics is reporting that Qimonda will be revealing research success with carbon based memory that could scale to 3-4 nanometer dimensions. Qimonda developed a technology to switch those allotropes by applying an electric current. Specifically, the technology can switch among CNT, conductive carbon such as graphite and insulating carbon like diamond. At this point, …
1. Air pollution from fossil fuel use is costing California $28 billion per year and 3800 lives per year. It increases healthcare costs and kills more people each year 3812 than 9/11. 2. The EPA’s (Enviromental Protection Agency) recent decision, likely future decisions and President-elect Obama and the likely new federal energy plan will be …
Japan considering Using gene engineered seaweed to get million of tons of Uranium The Mitsubishi Research Institute (MRI) has recently recommended Japan mass-culture seaweed to collect natural resources such as bio-ethanol and uranium. In the “Apollo and Poseidon Initiative 2025,” MRI suggests that Japan cultures gulfweed, which can grow more than 2 metres high a …
Cytos Biotechnology has a product CYT003-QbG10 with the potential to treat many different allergies because it does not give people tiny doses of the specific substance that they are allergic. Instead, it works by distracting the overactive immune system, which is thought to be the cause of most allergic reactions. Current allergy shot treatments require …