Ad Support : Nano Technology Netbook Technology News Computer Software Japan’s Atomic Energy Agency has restarted the Monju fast neutron reactor. The facility, called Monju, was shut down in 1995 following a fire. The fast-breeder reactor was declared reactivated by Monju’s director general, Kazuo Mukai, after one of its control rods, which had been inserted to …
Ad Support : Nano Technology Netbook Technology News Computer Software Associate Professor Richard Mildren and his colleagues at the Macquarie University Photonics Research Centre (Australia) have demonstrated diamond lasers with efficiency higher than almost all other materials “The major achievement is that we are able to use synthetic diamond to create high performing laser devices,” Mildren …
1. The Toyama Lab in Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology has the Wearable Agri Robot It is an exoskeleton for aging japanese farmers that should be commercially available in Japan in 2012 for about one million yen (about $10,000). They hope to halve if the device is mass-produced. According to the Japanese census, half …
Metamaterial sound proofing from materials less than an inch thick would be as good as 4 foot thick walls for soundproofing. People outside a metamaterial sound proofed room – no one will hear you screaming inside Applied Physics Letters – Acoustic metamaterial panels for sound attenuation in the 50–1000 Hz regime The Hong Kong University …
1. Researchers at IBM have increased the efficiency of a novel type of solar cell made largely from cheap and abundant materials by over 40 percent. According to an article published this week in the journal Advanced Materials, the new efficiency is 9.6 percent, up from the previous record of 6.7 percent for this type …
Plastics Today – Bayer MaterialScience has opened a large carbon nanotube (CNT) pilot facility in Leverkusen, boasting annual capacity of 200 tonnes The announcement from Bayer comes the same week that Belgian competitor Nanocyl said it was installing a new reactor for nanotube production that would boost its production capacity to 400 tonnes/year. That new …
The 2010 Edge Annual Question – How is the Internet Changing the Way You Think? (H/T Eric Drexler at Metamodern who posted his answer – The internet helps you see what (you are missing) what is not there some of the 169 responses Science historian George Dyson asks “what if the cost of machines that …