Copper doped Computer memory should be selling in a few years

Arizona State University’s Center for Applied Nanoionics (CANi) has a new take on old memory, one that promises to boost the performance, capacity and battery life of consumer electronics from digital cameras to laptops. Best of all, it is cheap, made from common materials and compatible with just about anything currently on the market. This …

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Boston Consulting Groups global Millionaire count

Global wealth grew by 7.5 percent in 2006 to reach $97.9 trillion, measured in local currencies. The number of millionaire households grew by 14.0 percent in 2006, to 9.6 million. These were the richest 0.7 percent of households, and they owned $33.2 trillion—or about one-third—of global wealth. North America was home to nearly half of …

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Nuclear licensing activity in the USA

The Wall Street Journal discusses the activity of companies trying to get nuclear plants certified and built. Before seeking the combined construction permit and operating license, the NRC wanted utilities to first seek approval for their proposed plant sites, to determine their suitability. That, the commission said, would speed up the process of going through …

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Simpler, more reliable metamaterial made from semiconductors

An easy-to-produce material made from the stuff of computer chips has the rare ability to bend light in the opposite direction from all naturally occurring materials. The semiconductors that constitute the Princeton invention are grown from crystals using common manufacturing techniques, making it less complex, more reliable and easier to produce than other metamaterials. Bending …

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Productive Nanosystems conference first two talks

The Foresight Productive Nanosystems conference has started. Chris Phoenix at the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology is liveblogging the event. Here is his introductory article about the conference The first speaker is Alex Kawczak, VP, Nanotechnology & BioProducts, Battelle, who talks about some aspects of the Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems There are several Atomically Precise …

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Synthetic vascular system progess towards growth of engineered tissue for transplants

One day soon, laboratories may grow synthetically engineered tissues such as muscle or cartilage needed for transplants. In a major step forward, Cornell engineers describe in the journal Nature Materials a microvascular system they have developed that can nourish growing tissues. The researchers have engineered tiny channels within a water-based gel that mimic a vascular …

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Petaflop plans progress

The Blue Gene/P machine at Argonne is supposed to reach one petaflop — 1 quadrillion sustained operations per second — in 2008. It should have a peak speed of three petaflops by the end of 2008. Turek said IBM’s goal was 10 petaflops by 2011 and 20 petaflops by 2017. The Japanese have announced their …

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NTT docomo’s Super 3G and 4G plans

IEEE spectrum reports on a live NTT test of Super 3G. DoCoMo has taken on something of a leading role in promoting Super 3G inside the 3G Partnership Project (3GPP) a consortium of wireless operators and vendors, including Vodafone, Lucent, Motorola, and Nokia, working to create global specifications for 3G technologies. Essentially, Super 3G is …

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Thermoelectronics for cars, trucks, submarines, refridgerators and more

Michigan State University researchers believe, using thermoelectric generation technology, a 5% improvement in bsfc for and on highway truck is a reasonable 5 year goal 10% improvement possible with new Thermoelectric materials. They currently have a 40 watt thermoelectric generator for gathering waste heat from a truck exhaust. They can get an engine about 1-3.5% …

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