Self assembly of the nanostructure of platinum has been performed on a bulk scale. They used the new method to create a platinum structure with uniform hexagonal pores on the order of 10 nm across (a nanometer is the width of three silicon atoms). Platinum is, so far, the best available catalyst for fuel cells, …
Following up on Iraq Oil status Oil production and output holding steady at higher levels that started in May. Iraq will produce up to 2.9 million bpd by the end of 2008, Hussein al-Shahristani Iraqi Oil Minister 2.9 million bpd would be an increase of about 400,000 bpd from levels at the end of May, …
The first new oil refinery in the United States in thirty years is one step closer. Union County residents voted 58 percent to 42 percent Tuesday to endorse the rezoning of almost 3,300 acres of pristine farm land north of Elk Point for the oil refinery. Texas-based Hyperion Resources requested the rezoning for the $10 …
1. Fuel depots. 2-17 times more stuff to the moon or other space missions. Lowering costs for GTO closer to LEO orbit costs Boeing Propellant fuel depot 2. Lunar concrete would reduce the amount of material needed to build things on the moon by ten times. A 50 meter telescope could be built from lunar …
Nantero partnered with SVTC Technologies to offer the first eight-inch nanotube thin-film development foundry. SVTC uses Nantero’s process to prototype commercial CMOS carbon nanotube designs for fabless chip houses. Nantero has developed a “CMOS-friendly” proprietary CNT process that it will install at SVTC’s two state-of-the-art development fabs, in San Jose, Calif., and Austin, Texas. Together, …
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have begun to develop the hardware for deploying a 1 gigawatt space based solar power system by 2030. These we will small lab tests. JAXA, which plans to have a Space Solar Power System (SSPS) up and running by 2030, envisions a system consisting of giant solar collectors in geostationary …
The technological singularity is a hypothesized point in the future variously characterized by the technological creation of self-improving intelligence, unprecedentedly rapid technological progress, or some combination of the two. I would want to focus on the aspect of “unprecendentedly rapid technological progress“. I feel that a proxy for measuring “technological progress” can be the rate …
Physorg reports that General Motors plans to have robotically driven cars for commercial sale by 2018 The most significant obstacles facing the vehicles could be human rather than technical: government regulation, liability laws, privacy concerns and people’s passion for the automobile and the control it gives them. Much of the technology already exists for vehicles …
Fast Company reports on Johnathan Goodwin. He aims to use the turbine to turn the Hummer into a tricked-out electric hybrid. UPDATE: It would be interesting and useful to see more independent testing of the fuel economy of the turbine/hybrid hummer. A 60 mpg hummer would need to have power sources that are about three …
The Energy bill has passed both the Senate and House of representatives with veto proof margins and will increase the CAFE to 35 mpg Separately, Congress reached a tentative agreement on a major energy package that it plans to enact outside the energy bill. The agreement, to be included in a broad government spending bill, …
NASA hypersonics expert Dr Isaiah Blankson believes that MHD energy-conversion in the intakes can take 30-40% of the energy, letting a turbine engine run at up to Mach 7. Past the MHD the air would slow from Mach 7 to Mach 3. This was the speed of the air going into engines of the Blackbird …