Free piston engines could achieve efficiencies of 50% which is almost double a regular gas combustion engine. However, new super efficient diesel engines could be even better, plus diesels would be more familiar to the market place. Some small companies are working on free piston engines and there are researchers around the world at Sandia …
Bridgewave Communications, the leading supplier of gigabit wireless solutions, has been selling the SLE100 point-to-point bridge that delivers highly reliable, low latency, wire-speed 100 Mbps full-duplex, half-mile (800-meter) connectivity since July 15, 2008. Built around BridgeWave’s field-proven 60 GHz radios, the SLE100 enables enterprise network managers to seamlessly extend LANs and achieve carrier-class performance at …
An 80-base-pair piece of DNA to be sequenced (shown here in purple) is first inserted into a circular template of DNA, along with four stretches of synthetic DNA, called adaptors (pink and blue). A specialized enzyme then makes hundreds of consecutive copies of the DNA circle. Thanks to chemical properties engineered into the adaptor sequences, …
The Carnival of Space is up at Alice Astro Info. This site looked at using magnetic flux to hold together giant (200 meter and bigger) space telescopes. Centauri Dreams takes the long view of civilization and interstellar travel. Ideafestival talks about J. Richard Gott’s predictions based on the Copernican Principle, which is that there is …
Applied Biosystems (NYSE:ABI) today announced a new genomic analysis platform, the SOLiD™ 3 System, that is expected to enable scientists to sequence a human genome for approximately $10,000. Earlier this year, Applied Biosystems used the SOLiD 3 System’s underlying oligonucleotide ligation and detection technology to sequence a human genome for less than $60,000 [in 4 …
Thermoelectrics could capture currently wasted heat to boost overall vehicle efficiency from 38% to 57%. A 50% efficient free-piston engine could be boosted to 65% overall efficiency A regular 30% gas engine would be boosted to 51% overall efficiency. Scientists at RTI are teaming up with several leading universities and a major aerospace company to …
Vertical farming/urban farming is a plan to grow produce in vertical, multi-story structures within urban areas to reduce the dependence on food grown and transported long distances. Vertical farming will be using new versions of hydroponics and aquaponics. It will use about 100 times less water and provide over 5 times greater energy efficiency. The …
ASML Holding NV (ASML) presents today at the 2008 International Symposium on Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUV) on recent achievements in its EUV lithography program and unveils a production system roadmap that supports cost-effective chip manufacturing to at least 11 nanometers (nm). This would enable the ITRS roadmap to stay on track through 2022. The ASML …
From a new Management Information Service analysis of US energy funding of all kinds from 1950-2006 Click on the images for a larger view. Tax PolicyTax policy includes special exemptions, allowances, deductions, credits, etc., related to the federal tax code. RegulationTwo types of federal expenditures associated with regulation were identified:1) gains realized by energy businesses …
Wired reports that China will build the Controversial Emdrive. UPDATE: The cost and details of superconducting radiofrequency cavities is examined and the potential if the emdrive worksEND UPDATE This site has covered the Emdrive several times before, including the controversy, and the upside. A successful superconducting system would be most efficient at nulling out gravity …
Georgia Tech computer scientists are laying the groundwork for exascale machines that will process more than a million trillion – or 10^18 – calculations per second. Karsten Schwan recently received a 2008 HP Labs Innovation Research Award to work with HP Labs, HP’s central research arm, to help solve some of the key problems in …