The Boeing X-51A WaveRider on May 26, 2010 successfully completed the longest supersonic combustion ramjet-powered flight in history — nearly three and a half minutes at a top speed of Mach 5. The previous longest scramjet burn in a flight test was 12 seconds in a hydrogen-based engine in the NASA X-43. UPDATE – August …
MIT Technology review reports that a group from the German Sport University Cologne in Germany detected the real SARM (selective androgen receptor modulators)in a product called Andarine, available online for $100 and labeled as green tea extracts and face moisturizer. Selective androgen receptor modulators have steroid effects but are believed to be safer, without many …
The EU is working on road trains, where cars have electronics to allow them to automatically follow lead vehicles driven by professional drivers. A new EU project SARTRE is being launched to develop and test technology for vehicles that can drive themselves in long road trains on motorways. This technology has the potential to improve …
Towns downstream of the station’s dam were said not to be at risk BBC News reports that an oil-filled transformer exploded at the Sayano-Shushenskaya power plant in Siberia, bringing down the ceiling of the turbine hall, which then flooded. RusHydro, the operator of the power station, said the damage would run into “billions of roubles” …
Hydrophilic (water soluble) carbon clusters are being designed by Rice researchers to sense the presence of oil that remains in old wells. The HCCs are sheets of carbon one atom thick and 60 nanometers long, with embedded molecules that will detect oil, sulfur and water and store information about how much of each they encounter …
For any energy source, the cooling water can be waste-water or salt-water if the siting of the power plant has those non-fresh water sources available. Coal and solar-thermal can have more siting issues. Coal needs to be nearer to coal resources because millions of tons/year of coal is needed per plant. Solar thermal needs to …
Researchers assessed the feasibility, implications, limitations, and enablers of annually producing 90 billion gallons of ethanol — sufficient to replace more than 60 billion of the estimated 180 billion gallons of gasoline expected to be used annually by 2030. Ninety billion gallons a year exceeds the U.S. Department of Energy’s goal for ethanol production established …
NEC AND the Tokyo Institute of Technology have developed the technology for a ten-Petaflop supercomputer. The foundation of this beast is a network of optical interconnections between nests of chips. The Japanese government says it could be ready by 2010. The optically connected chips can talk to each other at 25 gigabits per second, so …
From Wired,Scientists have proof in human subjects that resveratrol, a derivative of an ingredient in red wine, combats some symptoms of aging. Sirtris Pharmaceuticals announced the results here on Monday at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference. Resveratol, naturally found in red wine, stimulates a gene known as SIRT1, which has been linked with extended lifespans in …