1. The FDA’s recent approval of a trivalent seasonal influenza vaccine made using novel manufacturing technology marks a significant milestone in the ongoing battle against this life-threatening illness. According to a Jan. 16 FDA release, Flublok, which is approved for use in adults ages 18-49, does not rely on the traditional method of growing the …
1. Power Engineering – China saw its nuclear power generation in 2011 hit 87.4 billion kilowatt-hours, a jump of 16.95% on-year, according to recent figures released by China Electricity Council. This was an increase of 17.3 TWh from 2010 2. The capacity factor of Indias 20 operational nuclear reactors, adding up to an installed capacity …
Reason – Based on data from hundreds of programs, policy analyst John D. Graham and his colleagues at the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis found in 1997 that the median cost for lifesaving expenditures and regulations by the U.S. government in the health care, residential, transportation, and occupational areas ranges from about $1 million to …
Switzerland generates roughly 40% of its energy from the country’s five nuclear reactors. The rest comes mostly from the more than 1,000 hydropower plants located in the Alps and along Switzerland’s rivers. Ms. Leuthard said the government hasn’t yet fixed a date for when the last nuclear-power station will go offline, but experts believe such …
Foresight@Google 25th Anniversary Conference & Reunion Weekend Google HQ in Mountain View, CA June 25-26, 2011 Early registration prices end May 17th, in less than 48 hours: Before May 17th 11:59 PM $225 After $300 Senior Associate membership + Banquet ($75) is $325 If you signup because of nextbigfuture please email Desiree D. Dudley, Director …
Lloyd’s Register, Enterprises Shipping and Trading, Hyperion Power Generation and BMT have joined forces to explore the potential for nuclear power (Hyperions small 25 MWe reactors) to propel future generations of commercial tankers Changing to nuclear powered container ships would reduce air pollution by the equivalent of about 20,000 cars converted to electric for each …
Robin Hanson is an economist who has written about the economics of technological singularities. I will summarize some of his writings and my own about achieving higher levels of economic growth. There are several projects from DARPA and Airbus which could revolutionize manufacturing. A construction revolution is possible with Contour crafting (printing buildings with concrete …
Boston Consulting Group (BCG) released a report called What’s Next for Alternative Energy? BCG examines the state of seven of the most significant alternative-energy technologies—advanced biofuels, electric vehicles (EVs), concentrated solar power (CSP), solar photovoltaic (PV), onshore wind, offshore wind, and clean coal through carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). Prospects were assessed in terms of …
A mark-length write strategy for multiterabit per square inch scanned-probe memories is described that promises to increase the achievable user density by at least 50%, and potentially up to 100% or more, over conventional approaches. The new study shows how the density could be increased to 10 Tbit/in^2 or more. The viability of the write …
The Tennessee Valley Authority has taken the first step toward gaining regulatory approval to build up to six new mini-nuclear reactors on the site of the abandoned Clinch River Breeder Reactor in Oak Ridge The federal utility “is evaluating the feasibility” of erecting two of the new Babcock & Wilcox-designed “mPower reactors” by 2020. Each …
1. China is accelerating the yuan’s appreciation as part of the “grand bargain” to win U.S. support for Beijing to gain a bigger say at the International Monetary Fund, says Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s Jim O’Neill. The yuan will rise faster than the 3 percent traders are betting on in the non-deliverable forwards, according to …