A webcast (FBR Capital Market conference) updates the situation with Blacklight Power They are now indicating that they will have continuous run prototypes in 2010. This is a delay from previous talk about a commercial system in 2009. However, if they make their continuous run prototypes with 50KW to 75KW of power available for independent …
Harvesting energy in the wake of a circular cylinder using piezoelectric materials [Harvesting energy from a flying jet plane Using the new technology automobiles and aircraft could harness currently wasted kinetic energy to generate electricity and power some systems. About a half-inch by one inch, these piezoelectric devices might be mounted on the roof or …
BAU – Business as usual, LC – Low Carbon plan, ELC – Enhanced Low Carbon plan A report presented to the Annual General Meeting of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), chaired by Li Keqiang, vice premier, in Beijing yesterday and to Premier Wen Jiabao concludes that China has much …
Project on Social Attitudes to Road Traffic Risk in Europe (SARTRE) New technologies to enhance road safety Surveyed atttitudes to three different types of road safety systems. These were those that:• Helped the driver (aid systems),• Imposed certain behaviour (alert and intervention systems),• Could be used by the police to enforce the law (regulatory systems …
(Left) A mechanic wearing a tracked head-worn display performs a maintenance task on a Rolls Royce DART 510 Engine. (Right) A view through the head-worn display depicts information provided using augmented reality to assist the mechanic. MIT Technology Review reports that in the not-too-distant future, it might be possible to slip on a pair of …
The VASIMR (Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket) is using a 2 Tesla superconducting magnet in 2009. The VX-200 superconducting magnet was delivered to Ad Astra’s Houston facility on February 10, 2009 by its manufacturer, Scientific Magnetics of Oxford, U.K. Cryogen-free superconducting magnets for magneto-plasma rocket engine A complex cryogen free superconducting magnet system for use …
Accelerating Future has the Saturday program for the Singularity Summit in New York on October 3rd and 4th, 2009. The full two day program is here Stephen Wolfram, the British polymath known as the creator of Mathematica and Wolfram Alpha and the author of A New Kind of Science, will be attending the Singularity Summit …
1. New Scientist reports that the codebreaking quantum computer algorithm (shors algorithm for factoring) has been run on a silicon chip. Journal Science abstract: Shor’s Quantum Factoring Algorithm on a Photonic Chip Shor’s quantum factoring algorithm finds the prime factors of a large number exponentially faster than any other known method, a task that lies …
Here is the Henry Markram interview by Sander Olson. [Note: there 14 questions and answers and a copyright by Dr. Markram at the end] Dr. Markram is the Project Director of the Blue Brain project, and Dr. Markram recently predicted that the Blue Brain project could have a human level brain simulation within a decade. …
Researcher from Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) have succeeded in the vapor-phase synthesis of a stack of nanometer-scale thin films of diamond using carbon isotopes 12C and 13C, which differ in mass. Electrons and holes were confined to a single material for the first time using the diamond stack. Previously …
Here is an interview with Ross Tierney. Mr. Tierney is a representative of the of the Direct Launcher organization, which has a proposal to get to the moon using NASA shuttle components and other existing technology. This Jupiter rocket system could also be used to go to near-earth objects and possibly even Phobos and Mars. …