Inside Science – Several research groups claim to have thin one molecule thick sheets of silicon called silicene (analogous to graphene for carbon), igniting a controversy over who won the race to synthesize this promising new material. According to Lew Yan Voon, electronic devices based on silicene could reliably exhibit the critical on-off function required …
1. Electrostatic Active Space Radiation Shielding for Deep Space Missions This study will seek to test and validate an electrostatic gossamer structure to provide radiation shielding. It will provide guidelines for energy requirements, dose reduction and deflection efficiencies, and effective enhancements of dual electrostatic-passive (material) shielding technologies, and ‘engineering-feasible’ architectures. Ram Tripathi, has been funded …
Artificial skin is being produced automatically in a lab in Germany, with the production enabled by tissue engineering. Previously, production was only possible only using expensive manual methods in specialized laboratories. Artificial skin for use in transplants or to verify the safety of the active ingredients of drugs, cosmetics and chemicals is a rare commodity. …
A*STAR Institute of Microelectronics (IME) and Picosun Oy, a Finland-based global manufacturer of Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) equipment, have announced a partnership to develop advanced ALD techniques to enable continuing growth in the areas of next generation memories and solar cells. With this collaboration, IME and Picosun will jointly develop innovative ALD and plasma-enhanced ALD …
Michael Pettis wants to bet the Economist Magazine that by the end of 2018 China will not be the largest economy in the world (on a nominal GDP basis). I am willing to make that bet. For some minor factors in my favor I would want Hong Kong and Macau’s GDP to be included in …
Virgin Oceanic looks to build on what Walsh, Piccard, and Cameron have done by leagues, true leagues. The Virgin Oceanic Deep Challenger is capable of 12-15 miles of transit on the bottom. The previous trips have been lunar landers, fantastic for getting there at all, and expanding man’s knowledge of a foreign world logarithmically. Our …
At noon, local time (10 p.m. ET), James Cameron’s “vertical torpedo” sub broke the surface of the western Pacific, carrying the National Geographic explorer and filmmaker back from the Mariana Trench’s Challenger Deep—Earth’s deepest, and perhaps most alien, realm. The first human to reach the 6.8-mile-deep (11-kilometer-deep) undersea valley solo, Cameron arrived at the bottom …
A proposal to only launch ultra thin and light inflatable mirrors (no power conversion, no energy storage, no lasers or masers to transmit the power etc…) and have them redirect sunlight to ground based solar farms at night. Efficiency is the ground based systems efficiency. Can be done at lower orbit 600 miles up with …
The National Geographic Deep Sea Challenge site proclaims This is the New Age of Exploration. National Geographic Explorer James Cameron Embarks on a Dive to the Ocean’s Deepest Point. The latest news is here but there is not yet an official announcement of a dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench So far there …
Stem cells were used to heal heart damage in 2011 ABC News reports on research from the Lancet – Researchers at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and The Johns Hopkins University harvested stem cells from the hearts of 17 heart attack patients and after prepping the cells, infused them back into the patients’ hearts. The patients received …
BBC News – The DEEPSEA CHALLENGER team has set off from Guam, friends, family and colleagues wave and cheer until their ship fades into the distance. If they can get a few days of good weather on their side, the team hopes to first make an unmanned 11km dive with the sub, to check it …