Last year, China surpassed Japan to become the second-largest box office behind the United States, with theater earnings up 36 percent to $2.7 billion from the previous year. China’s box office gross in 2012 was still about one quarter of America’s, but that is expected to grow to one third of our take this year, …
Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Antares rocket finally made it off the launch pad. The rocket’s maiden voyage appeared to go off without a hitch, culminating with the successful insertion of a payload meant to simulate the Cygnus spacecraft into orbit. This paves the way for a full-fledged demo flight to the International Space Station, which Orbital …
IBM and its partners used a solar concentrator dish to shine light on a thin array of highly efficient triple-junction solar cells, which produce electricity from sunlight. By concentrating the light 2,000 times onto hundreds of one-centimeter-square cells, IBM projects, a full-scale concentrator could provide 25 kilowatts of power. In this design, the engineers hope …
The most powerful batteries on the planet are only a few millimeters in size, yet they pack such a punch that a driver could use a cellphone powered by these batteries to jump-start a dead car battery – and then recharge the phone in the blink of an eye. Developed by researchers at the University …
Faced with big budget cuts, the Navy made a big choice. It opted in the last few months to preserve most of its multi-year shipbuilding programs — at the expense of ship deployments and what’s called “Operations and Maintenance” (O&M) accounts. They will keep building ships but they will not deploy or operate many of …
A new study lists and quantifies environmental sustainability factors and ranks energy sources under different scenarios for the following technologies: hydro, coal, oil, gas and nuclear. The results show that hydroelectric plants are usually the best solution. Coal and nuclear could be a good choice even if each type of plant has its strengths and …
Scientists from DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have set a world record for energy storage, using a clever “yolk-shell” design to store five times more energy in the sulfur cathode of a rechargeable lithium-ion battery than is possible with today’s commercial technology. The cathode also maintained a high level of performance after …
A report claiming that a mysterious blast rocked the Fordow uranium enrichment facility in Iran last week made headlines in Israel on Sunday, but remained unverified. According to the report, penned by former Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Reza Kahlili, for the WND.com website, the explosion “destroyed much of the installation and trapped about 240 personnel deep …
New research in the FASEB Journal by NIH scientists suggests that a small molecule called TFP5 rescues plaques and tangles by blocking an overactive brain signal, thereby restoring memory in mice with Alzheimer’s A new ray of hope has broken through the clouded outcomes associated with Alzheimer’s disease. A new research report published in January …
North Dakota increased its daily oil production to 747,239 barrels per day. This continues a string of 19 monthly increases since April, 2011. Recent national oil production numbers from the Energy Information Administration suggest that North Dakota and Texas have continued to increase oil production into December. If you liked this article, please give it …
Flightglobal – SpaceX intends to build a methane/liquid oxygen (Lox) engine, said founder Elon Musk, in a shift away from the highly refined kerosene rocket propellant (RP-1) that has powered the company’s previous engines. Speaking at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London, SpaceX chief executive and lead rocket engineer Musk said Lox and methane would …