Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) has a projection of the world economy with breakouts for each country in purchasing power parity terms and by market exchange rate in 2050. PWC uses United Nation population projections. The medium UN population projections assume no easing in China’s fertility policy. Fertility policy easing is already happening and will be …
A new study from the Bank for International Settlements shows exactly why rapid finance sector growth is bad for the rest of the economy. When private sector debt passes 100% of GDP, that point is reached. Another way of looking at the same topic is the proportion of workers employed by the finance sector. Once …
Wired reports that the Navy has a working robotic shark. It is five feet long and nearly 100 pounds, is about the size of an albacore tuna but looks more like a shark, at least from a distance. It’s part of an experiment to explore the possibilities of using biomimetic, unmanned, underwater vehicles, and the …
New research has demonstrated how glass can be manipulated to create a material that will allow computers to transfer information using light. This development could significantly increase computer processing speeds and power in the future. The challenge was to find a single material that can effectively use and control light to carry information around a …
Siberian Chemical Combine (SCC), based in Tomsk, said yesterday it has completed testing of the first full-scale TVS-4 fuel assembly containing nitride fuel. The assembly is intended for the BN-600 fast neutron reactor, which is the third unit of the Beloyarsk nuclear power plant. These are two new milestones in Russia’s ‘Proryv’, or Breakthrough, project …
Nature – Korean researchers developed graphene copper composite material that is 50% stronger than titanium and a graphene nickel composite that is 4 times stronger than titanium. They demonstrated a new material design in the form of a nanolayered composite consisting of alternating layers of metal (copper or nickel) and monolayer graphene that has ultra-high …
Michael Kope George Church Jeanne Loring [scripps] Brock Reeve [harvard stem cell] George Church thinks technology will impact. Gene therapy will fix the most sick first but then spread to other diseases and then to dual use sickness and health-longevity. Social and issues about difference in life expectancy. 14 year difference in life expectancy between …
In new estimates, WHO (World Health Organization) reports that in 2012 around 7 million people died – one in eight of total global deaths – as a result of air pollution exposure. This finding more than doubles previous estimates and confirms that air pollution is now the world’s largest single environmental health risk. Reducing air …
A school dropout from a poor family in southern India has revolutionised menstrual health for rural women in developing countries by inventing a simple machine they can use to make cheap sanitary pads. Arunachalam Muruganantham’s invention came at great personal cost – he nearly lost his family, his money and his place in society. In …
Tejal Desai and researchers at University of California, San Francisco describe current nano- and microfabrication techniques for creating drug delivery devices. They first review the main physiological barriers to delivering therapeutic agents. Then, they describe how novel fabrication methods can be utilized to combine many features into a single physiologically relevant device to overcome drug …
Transatomic Power (TAP) is developing an advanced molten salt reactor that generates clean, passively safe, proliferation-resistant, and low-cost nuclear power. This reactor can consume the spent nuclear fuel (SNF) generated by commercial light water reactors or use freshly mined uranium at enrichment levels as low as 1.8% U-235. It achieves actinide burnups as high as …