The USA and China have agreed to increase the validity of short-term tourist and business visas issued to each other’s citizens from one to ten years – the longest validity possible under U.S. law – and increase the validity of student and exchange visas from one to five years. The United States will begin issuing …
Elon Musk and Greg Wyler have discussed launching around 700 satellites, each weighing less than 250 pounds. That is about half the size of the smallest communications satellites now in commercial use. The satellite constellation would be 10 times the size of the largest current fleet, managed by Iridium Communications Inc. Greg Wyler is a …
Initial evidence shows that the decades-old rocket engines used by Dulles-based Orbital Sciences Corp. were the cause of the catastrophic explosion Oct. 28, spurring the company to look to its competitors to help launch its vehicle to the International Space Station. Orbital will need to go to direct competitors to launch its Cygnus cargo spacecraft. …
According to the most recently published data, in 2011 total deposits held in these institutions by corporations, individuals and other entities amounted to 80.9 trillion yuan ($13.3 trillion)—70% more than China’s GDP. (In the U.S. in 2014, M2—consisting of total demand deposits, savings deposits and small time deposits—was 35% less than U.S. GDP). If and …
A team at the University of Cambridge and Georgia Institute of Technology are exploring whether the element thorium could help to meet the new design’s fuel needs. As well as being three to four times more abundant than uranium, thorium could potentially produce electricity more fuel efficiently and therefore more cheaply. The aim of the …
James Collins, a synthetic biologist at Boston University, says he’s been able to print the ingredients for simple DNA experiments on paper, freeze dry them, and use them as much as a year later. It could lead to cheap diagnostic tests for viruses like Ebola. The idea of inexpensive paper-based diagnostics isn’t new. But so …
A new model by David Fisman and Ashleigh Tuite of the University of Toronto in Canada – the first to take account of efforts to fight infections – suggests that if things continue as they have been up until now, 700,000 people could have had the virus by the time the epidemic in Liberia, Guinea …
It is possible to find electric cars with monthly lease costs of $69-99 per month. These are usually leftovers from a prior year. Early in 2014, some Mitsubishi dealers went as low as $69 per month (for 24 months), with $2,100 down, on the 2013 I-MiEV. Currently there have been deals on Fiat 500e’s in …
Many people ask if the imminent peak oil story is not correct then when will we pay less at the gasoline pump ? The average price of gasoline in the United States will soon be below $3 per gallon. This seems likely to hold for the next several years. Efficiency from higher mileage and eventually …
Scientists from Tohoku University in Japan have developed a new type of energy-efficient flat light source based on carbon nanotubes with very low power consumption of around 0.1 Watt for every hour’s operation — about a hundred times lower than that of an LED. The researchers detail the fabrication and optimization of the device, which …
[Business Week] Defying the U.S. and Europe is forcing Russian President Vladimir Putin to aid his biggest rival to the east. To avert a recession, Russia is turning to China for investment, granting it once restricted access to raw materials and advanced weapons. Russia is likely to sign contracts for the delivery of S-400 missile …