After three years of being laughed out of meetings, the US Marine Corps’ futuristic plans to deploy through space may finally be getting some traction. The Marine Corps calls the concept the Small Unit Space Transport and Insertion Capability (Sustain). This plan, a growing group of Marine supporters say, is the natural evolution of the service’s proclivity for expeditionary warfare that began decades ago with amphibious landings. The concept is to deliver strategic equipment or a small squad of soldiers to any point on the globe — even the most hard-to-reach location — within hours of need. Once on the ground, those soldiers can carry out strategically critical missions like reconnaissance or destroying a specific target. At least, that’s their pitch — via Defense Tech
EEStor is working on a revolutionary new kind of battery. The most significant benefit would be its efficiency: a car powered by the EEStor unit could run on the equivalent of 45 cents per gallon, driving 500 miles on $9 worth of electricity after just five minutes to charge
Microreactors have already been used for on-site reforming of fuels, such as methanol or propane, to produce hydrogen to be used in fuel cells. Now, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have designed very efficient ceramic microreactors to do this task. The scientists say that their microreactors are much better than other fuel reformer systems. They are now trying to reform gasoline and diesel, which are more widely distributed than propane — via Slashdot
A robot that glides along a layer of mucus inside the human intestine could make medical examinations like colonoscopies less painful for patients, say Dutch scientists. They are working on a snail-inspired robot that should be far gentler on the gut’s delicate lining
Richard Branson, the British magnate and adventurer, said Thursday that all future profits from his five airlines and train company, estimated at $3 billion through the next 10 years, would be invested in developing energy sources that do not contribute to global warming
All Scotland’s electricity needs could be met from renewable energy sources by 2050 under a bold vision for a greener future unveiled yesterday by Nicol Stephen, the deputy first minister. In an hugely ambitious pledge, the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats vowed to go further than the Executive’s existing commitment to meet 40 per cent of the country’s electricity requirements through renewable sources by 2020
Researchers from Intel and the University of California at Santa Barbara have found a way to build low-cost laser chips that could eventually shuttle data around PCs at much higher speeds than today’s copper wire interconnects. The researchers combined the properties of a compound semiconductor material called indium phosphide, which emits light constantly, and silicon, which can be used to amplify and direct that light. They sandwiched the materials together to create a single device that can be manufactured using standard chip-making techniques
An MIT researcher has a vision: Four hundred huge offshore wind turbines are providing onshore customers with enough electricity to power several hundred thousand homes, and nobody standing onshore can see them. The trick? The wind turbines are floating on platforms a hundred miles out to sea, where the winds are strong and steady
Engineers at Brown University have built a prototype of a hybrid plastic battery that uses a conductive polymer. The system, which marries the power of a capacitor with the storage capacity of a battery, can store and deliver power efficiently. For example, during performance testing, it delivered more than 100 times the power of a standard alkaline battery. Still, it’s unlikely that such a device can appear on the market before several years
By studying how beetles can trap air to keep from drowning, researchers suggest artificial gills that mimic such a trick could help people breathe underwater
After over a year of hanging in maybe-planet limbo, newly-classified 2003 UB313, nicknamed Xena, now has a permanent name: Eris, goddess of strife. Its moon will be named Dysnomia, after the goddess of lawlessness, in Greek mythology, Eris’s daughter
Neanderthals were thought to have died out as modern humans arrived in Europe. Now, artefacts found in a cave in Gibraltar reveal that the two groups coexisted for millenia before Neanderthals finally dwindled out of existence
In the next 12 months, starting with a major push this month, Wal-Mart wants to sell every one of its regular customers — 100 million in all — one swirl bulb. In the process, Wal-Mart wants to change energy consumption in the United States, and energy consciousness, too. It also aims to change its own reputation, to use swirls to make clear how seriously Wal-Mart takes its new positioning as an environmental activist — via meta-roj blog
Police have launched a frantic search for three bottles of potentially deadly poison lost after a Shimonoseki Mitsui Chemicals official who had been carrying them went out for a night on the town and got so drunk he can’t remember what he did with them — via Improbable Research
Scientists have discovered a tumour suppressing gene which also leads to ageing in stem cells. The gene also known as p16INK4a when removed from knockout
mice resulted in older mice having organs as healthy as younger ones. However they didn’t live any longer than normal mice. The new study was confirmed by three independent researchers from Harvard, UNC Chapel Hill and University of Michigan
A British scientist’s recent announcement that he had found a way to develop a drug that mimics the happy effects of alcohol — sociability and relaxation — without producing next-day headaches or ravaging the body sparked an immediate controversy — via digg
Australian researchers developing a Bionic Eye say early tests have succeeded in stimulating limited visual sensation in people suffering a rare form of genetic blindness
Geoplasma is planning to build a power plant in St Lucie County, Florida that will generate electricity by vaporising landfill trash and sewage treatment plant sludge with plasma arcs. It will be the first plant of its kind in the USA and the largest in the world. The power plant is expected to destroy 3000 tons of garbage, generating about 120 megawatts of electricity per day. The plant will also supply steam to a nearby Tropicana juice plant. The landfill is expected to be depleted in about 18 years. In addition, up to 600 tons of melted, hardened sludge will be produced each day and will be sold for road construction
The NSW Police Force has invested in a biometric tracking system that is capable of combining information from numerous video cameras to monitor people, vehicles and even packages or briefcases
The American Astronomical Unions Division of Planetary Scientists recognises the IAU’s authority to make a new planet defintion but expects it to be altered. Separately, 300 astronomers have signed a petition saying they won’t use the definition. All this stems from the discontent over how only 424 astronomers voted on the proposal that demoted Pluto — via Slashdot
RSS – Posts