By Joseph Friedlander One of my great interests for many years has been the quantities and ratio of the natural biological world (excepting geology) to the works of Man. In other words, how much Biomass vs Technomass. I recently read a paper by Richard Cathcart that piqued my old curiosity so here are the results… …
o-Phenylene oligomers can be envisaged as springy chairs. When oxidized (red), the molecule is contracted and less dynamic than its neutral counterparts (white). New, small spring-like polymer chains, or oligomers, from organic compounds called o-phenylenes have been created by Eisuke Ohta, Takanori Fukushima, Takuzo Aida and colleagues at RIKEN Advanced Science Institute in Wako1. These …
Laser propelled spacecraft would be small, simple and expendable with the complicated launch system on the ground. Credit: Jordin Kare Astrobio.net – NASA is now conducting a study to examine the possibility of using beamed energy propulsion for space launches. The study is expected to conclude by March 2011. With the beam shining on the …
France’s DCNS is proposing small offshore nuclear power plants called Flexblue. Akin to the submarines that DCNS has been making for the French navy for 40 years, Flexblue is a cylindrical unit 100 metres in length and 12 to 15 metres in diameter. Inside would be a small nuclear power reactor and well as steam …
Electron and nuclear spin phase rotations reveal the off-diagonal elements of the density matrix. Scientists from Oxford University have made a significant step towards an ultrafast quantum computer by successfully generating 10 billion bits of quantum entanglement in silicon for the first time – entanglement is the key ingredient that promises to make quantum computers …
Length Scaling in Spacecraft Dynamics A candidate spacecraft-on-chip bus is considered as a solar sail, a reentry vehicle, and a Lorentz propelled spacecraft. In each case, the magnitude of nongravitational acceleration suggests the potential for meaningful propellantless maneuvers. Length-scaling represents a new degree of freedom for spacecraft mission design. This paper presents a method for …
Berkeley Lab scientists have developed a nanoscale rope that braids itself, as seen in this atomic force microscopy image of the structure at a resolution of one-millionth of a meter. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have coaxed polymers to braid themselves into wispy nanoscale ropes that approach …
Nature Chemistry – Strained endotaxial nanostructures with high thermoelectric figure of merit The crystallographic alignment of SrTe and PbTe lattices decouples phonon and electron transport and this allows the system to reach a thermoelectric figure of merit of 1.7 at ~800 K. The material exhibits a high thermoelectric figure of merit that is expected to …
MIT researchers have a new technique that could produce filters that select molecules according to their chemical properties and dimensions. The team’s ability to produce tiny, uniform pores smaller than 10 nanometers (billionths of a meter) across is itself a significant accomplishment that solves a major problem in existing nanoseparation technology. This is “a fundamentally …
Tel Aviv University (TAU) develops a groundbreaking nano-laser (called a SPASER) for medicine and electronics “Spaser” is an acronym for “surface plasmon amplification by stimulated emission of radiation” Spasers are considered a critical component for future technologies based on nanophotonics — technologies that could lead to radical innovations in medicine and science, such as a …
Comparing the Costs of Intermittent and Dispatchable Electricity Generating Technologies by Paul L. Joskow at MIT Adjusting for market based economics makes solar and nuclear power look better and makes wind power look worse. Economic evaluations of alternative electric generating technologies typically rely on comparisons between their expected life-cycle production costs per unit of electricity …