Updated: 2009-10-19 23:29:12
skip to main skip to sidebar Next Big Future Tracking high impact progress to the technology future , future technology and especially advanced nanotechnology , nuclear and energy technology , quantum computers , life extension , space technology and AI . Proposing and tracking the best societal , business and technical choices to the next big things that will shape our future . Official Lifeboat Foundation news . source October 19, 2009 Nanoparticle Breakthrough Can Make Higher Efficiency Solar Cells and Speed Development of Nanotechnology Quantum dots could widen the collection of the solar spectrum by 14 times to gather ten times more energy Chemists at Idaho National Laboratory and Idaho State University have invented a way to manufacture highly precise , uniform nanoparticles to . order The technology , Precision Nanoparticles , has the potential to vastly improve the solar cell and further spur the growing nanotech revolution . The researchers wanted to improve how raw materials are transformed into semiconducting nanoparticles . The industry's established method of doing this is relatively imprecise and energy-intensive , requiring temperatures around 300 degrees Celsius .
Updated: 2009-10-19 16:54:26
skip to main skip to sidebar Next Big Future Tracking high impact progress to the technology future , future technology and especially advanced nanotechnology , nuclear and energy technology , quantum computers , life extension , space technology and AI . Proposing and tracking the best societal , business and technical choices to the next big things that will shape our future . Official Lifeboat Foundation news . source October 19, 2009 Terahertz Ray Lasers with 400 Times Higher Gain than Before and Should Lead to Wider Commercialization Prof . Leonid Shvartsman and Prof . Boris Laikhtman of the university's Racah Institute of Physics have invented a novel design of TeraHertz-ray T-ray . lasers They said the novel device will have 400 times higher gain a measure of power than that of the only coherent T-ray sources existing today , called THz Quantum cascade . lasers The novel method to produce efficient T-ray emitters will enable the use of this important imaging source for various applications , including security and medical applications , he . said T-rays are electromagnetic waves with a wavelength shorter than microwave but longer than infrared . They could be very attractive
Updated: 2009-10-19 15:06:47
Optometrists could benefit from a liquid-crystal device that corrects vision in both eyes simultaneously.
Updated: 2009-10-19 00:20:44
skip to main skip to sidebar Next Big Future Tracking high impact progress to the technology future , future technology and especially advanced nanotechnology , nuclear and energy technology , quantum computers , life extension , space technology and AI . Proposing and tracking the best societal , business and technical choices to the next big things that will shape our future . Official Lifeboat Foundation news . source October 18, 2009 Energy Subsidies and Amory Lovins Misdirection on Private versus Government Money Correcting Amory Lovins Grist Aricle : Stewart Brand’s nuclear enthusiasm falls short on facts and logic Amory Lovins tries to indicate that nuclear power is unique in getting governments paying for its development . Per KWH nuclear gets less support than renewable energy Energy Information Agency calculation of per KWH : support Source subsidy and support in dollars per megawatt-hour mills per kilowatt-hour Nuclear 1.59 Biomass and biofuels 0.89 Geothermal 0.92 Hydroelectric 0.67 Solar- 24.34 Wind 23.37 Landfill Gas 1.37 Municipal Solid Waste 0.13 Renewables average 2.80 Total average 1.65 Energy subsidies in the US and around the world support all forms of . energy
Updated: 2009-10-18 16:09:13
skip to main skip to sidebar Next Big Future Tracking high impact progress to the technology future , future technology and especially advanced nanotechnology , nuclear and energy technology , quantum computers , life extension , space technology and AI . Proposing and tracking the best societal , business and technical choices to the next big things that will shape our future . Official Lifeboat Foundation news . source October 18, 2009 Amory Lovins and President Jimmy Carter Were Also Wrong In Their Energy Predictions Too In the Grist article by Amory Lovins : stewart brands nuclear enthusiasm falls short on facts and logic In its first half-century , nuclear power fell short of its forecast capacity by about 12-fold in the U.S . and 30-fold worldwide , mainly because building it cost several-fold more than expected , straining or bankrupting its owners This is referring to nuclear engineers around 1967, expected 2,000 GW nuclear by the year 2000 and Nixon called for the building of 1,000 nuclear reactors by the year 2000. Yes , those predictions were wrong . Let us see how Amory Lovins and Jimmy Carter predictions plans worked out . It turns out Amory and Jimmy Carter were wrong
Updated: 2009-10-17 16:30:46
skip to main skip to sidebar Next Big Future Tracking high impact progress to the technology future , future technology and especially advanced nanotechnology , nuclear and energy technology , quantum computers , life extension , space technology and AI . Proposing and tracking the best societal , business and technical choices to the next big things that will shape our future . Official Lifeboat Foundation news . source October 17, 2009 Focus Fusion Dense Plasma Focus Project Has Started Test Firing After seven years of theoretical work and raising money , five months of design , five months of construction and assembly , and a week of , testing LPP Lawrenceville Plasma Physics now has a functioning dense plasma focus , Focus-Fusion-1. The first shot , using helium as the fill gas , was achieved at 5:29 PM today , Oct.15, and the first pinch was achieved at 6:04 PM on the second shot . The fact that a pinch was achieved so soon was evidence of the soundness of the design . The shots were produced with a charging potential of 20 kV , a bit less than half the full bank charge of 45 kV . We will not know the exact current achieved until we reduce some instrumental noise in the next
Updated: 2009-10-15 18:07:51
skip to main skip to sidebar Next Big Future Tracking high impact progress to the technology future , future technology and especially advanced nanotechnology , nuclear and energy technology , quantum computers , life extension , space technology and AI . Proposing and tracking the best societal , business and technical choices to the next big things that will shape our future . Official Lifeboat Foundation news . source October 15, 2009 China Buys Two 880 MWe Fast Neutron Nuclear Reactors from Russia A high-level agreement has been signed for Russia to start pre-project and design works for two commercial 880 MWe fast neutron reactors in . China Breeder reactors burn more of the nuclear fuel uranium The BN800 has a fuel burn-up of 70-100 GWd t . Maximum fuel burn up is 950 GWd t Gigawatt days per ton and current reactors have a burnup of 30-60 GWd . t Russia is building the BN-800 fast reactor at Beloyarsk in Russia which is due to start up in 2012. Russia has operated a 600 MWe fast reactor since 1980. The deal with China is first time commercial fast reactors will have been . exported Pictures and information on the BN800 from the coal2nuclear page on the BN800 reactor
Updated: 2009-10-15 17:27:58
skip to main skip to sidebar Next Big Future Tracking high impact progress to the technology future , future technology and especially advanced nanotechnology , nuclear and energy technology , quantum computers , life extension , space technology and AI . Proposing and tracking the best societal , business and technical choices to the next big things that will shape our future . Official Lifeboat Foundation news . source October 15, 2009 60 Tesla Superconducting Magnets Would Allow Tests of Gravitational Field Propulsion Superconducting magnets have been built with 33.8 Tesla fields and 45-70 Tesla superconducting magnets appear likely to be developed over the next two . years Magnets at 60 Tesla field strength will enable testing of gravitational field . propulsion The so-called hyperdrive concept won the 2005 American Institute of Aeronautics Astronautics award for the best nuclear and future flight . paper The basic concept is this : according to the paper's authors Jochem Häuser , a physicist and professor of computer science at the University of Applied Sciences in Salzgitter and Walter Dröscher a retired Austrian patent officer if you put a huge rotating ring above a
Updated: 2009-10-14 14:02:33
Updated: 2009-10-13 15:05:43
The first demonstration of a renewable method for hydrogen production from wastewater using a microbial electrolysis system is underway at the Napa Wine Company in Oakville. The refrigerator-sized hydrogen generator will take winery wastewater, and using bacteria and a small amount of electrical energy, convert the organic material into hydrogen, as per a Penn State environmental engineer........
Updated: 2009-10-12 11:12:31
Eliminating backscatter could boost optical communications
Updated: 2009-10-05 12:38:15
A telescope that compresses light could speed up optical communication systems.
Updated: 2009-09-28 01:54:15
A scalable method of structural colour printing could find applications in forgery protection and the design of advanced materials.
Updated: 2009-09-25 14:29:26
Carbon nanotubes coated in gold show excellent photoacoustic and photothermal responses for in vivo medical imaging.
