Scientists believe they have discovered that Parkinson’s disease is caused in a different way than previously thought and also a possible new way of treating the severely debilitating condition. It was believed Parkinson’s occurs when mitochondria – which supply power to cells – malfunctioned, causing brain cells that produce the key hormone dopamine to die. …
A team of astronomers say that the next search for advanced extraterrestrial civilizations should look for stars – or even galaxies – that have vanished without a trace, as anything so unexplainable could only be due to life far more intelligent than us. Beatriz Villarroel at Uppsala University in Sweden says this crazy idea has …
A driver was so enamored of his Tesla Model S sedan that he nicknamed the car “Tessy,” praised the safety benefits of its “Autopilot” system and was watching a Harry Potter video when he became the first person to die in a wreck involving a car in self-driving mode. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration …
Recent reports about propulsion without reaction mass have been met on one hand with enthusiasm and on the other hand with some doubts. Namely, closed metal cavities, when fueled with microwaves, have delivered thrust that could eventually maintain satellites on orbits using solar power. However, the measured thrust appears to be without any apparent exhaust. …
David Rotman, editor at the MIT Technology Review, laments that technologies are not radically transforming the economy. Economists who study productivity, a measure of output per worker, tell us that from around 1994 to 2004 the Internet and advances in computation helped fuel rapid growth. But during the past decade we slid back to far …
DARPA has started the Advanced Full Range Engine which will be a reusable hypersonic engine. It will have a regular turbine engine and then a dual combined cycle to reach Mach 5+. Normal jet engines can reach Mach 2.5 Hypersonic scram jets can start working at Mach 3.5 DARPA will make a hybrid engine. It …
China’s Xian Aircraft Corp. is developing a new strategic bomber that may be a ‘flying wing’ design called the Xian H-20. Certain contributions to the H-20 project were made by Noshir Gowadia, a design engineer who previously worked for Northrop Grumman. He also contributed to the B-2 Spirit development. In 2011, he was convicted to …
Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant Aramco is finalizing proposals for its partial privatization and will present them to its Supreme Council soon, its chief executive said about the centerpiece of the kingdom’s efforts to overhaul its economy. The company has a huge team working on the options for the initial public offering (IPO) of less …
China is developing a next-generation bullet train that can run at 400 kilometers an hour and is suitable for cross-border services, a senior researcher with the nation’s high-speed rail program said on Sunday. It will have wheels that can be adjusted to fit various gauges on other countries’ tracks, compared with trains now that need …
Northrop Grumman’s space and mission systems business will provide support for the Solid State High Power Laser Weapon System Demonstrator program under a potential three-year, $91.1 million U.S. Navy contract. The Defense Department said Thursday the cost-plus-fixed-fee contract has a base value of $53.1 million and base period of performance through Oct. 21, 2016. Northrop …
Techniques from information geometry have been used to show that there are an infinite number of quantum speed limits. They also develop a way to determine which of these speed limits are the strictest, or in other words, which speed limits offer the tightest lower bounds. As the researchers explain, the search for the ultimate …