Russia to Mine “Ideal Fuel” on the Moon by 2020Russia is planning to mine a rare fuel on the moon by 2020 with a permanent base and a heavy-cargo transport link, a Russian space official quoted by AFP said on Wednesday.
“We are planning to build a permanent base on the moon by 2015 and by 2020 we can begin the industrial-scale delivery... of the rare isotope Helium-3,” Nikolai Sevastyanov, head of the Energia space corporation, was quoted by ITAR-TASS news agency as saying at an academic conference.
... (more)
|
|
Nuclear Energy Plan Would Use Spent FuelThe Bush administration is preparing a plan to expand civilian nuclear energy at home and abroad while taking spent fuel from foreign countries and reprocessing it, in a break with decades of U.S. policy, according to U.S. and foreign officials briefed on the initiative.
The United States has adamantly opposed reprocessing spent fuel from civilian reactors since the 1970s because it would produce material that could be used in nuclear weapons. But the Bush program, envisioned as a... (more)
|
|
Nano World: First solar-powered nano motorThe absorption of sunlight by one of the two stoppers, a light-harvesting one, causes the transfer of one electron to station A, which is deactivated as far as wanting the ring to encircle it. As a consequence, the ring moves to its second port of call, station B. Station A is subsequently reactivated by the return of the transferred electron to the light-harvesting stopper, and the ring moves back to this station. Copyright © UCLA
An international team of scientists has cre... (more)
|
|
David and the Inflatable GoliathRemember the Walrus? That's the Darpa project to build a humongous blimp that can haul 500-1000 tons' worth of soldiers and gear halfway across the world in less than a week.
The L.A. Times today profiles Worldwide Aeros, the small firm run by ex-Soviet engineers, which is going toe-to-toe with Lockheed Martin for the $100-million contract to build a Walrus p... (more)
|
|
Japanese made, unmanned helicopters may be in hands of Chinese ArmyIWATA, Shizuoka -- Several unmanned helicopters produced by Yamaha Motor Co. may have been passed on to China's People's Liberation Army, it has been learned.
Suspicions have arisen that the helicopters, which are employed largely for industrial use but can be also used for military purposes, were illegally exported to China, investigators allege.
Yamaha Motor has denied the allegations, but suspicions have arisen that the helicopters may have been passed on to the ... (more)
|
|
New super-gun to be tested in FebWASHINGTON, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- Next month a new high-explosive munition will be fired in Singapore and then tested again by the U.S. Army, heralding what may be a sea change in weaponry: a family of guns that can fire at speeds of up to 240,000 rounds per minute, albeit in short bursts.
A Metal Storm gun of any size -- from a 9mm handgun up to a machine gun size or a grenade launcher -- has no moving parts other than the bullets or munition inside the barrel. Rather than chambering ... (more)
|
|
Acupuncture 'deactivates brain'Acupuncture works by deactivating the area of the brain governing pain, a TV show will claim.
Tuesday's programme - the first of three on complementary medicine - will show researchers carrying out brain scans on people having acupuncture.
The BBC Two show will also feature heart surgery done using acupuncture instead of a general anaesthetic.
The patient is conscious during the operation in China, but she was given sedatives and a local anaesthetic.<... (more)
|
|
Big Content would like to outlaw things no one has even thought of yetThe EFF's Deeplinks section has a pretty alarming post about the RIAA and MPAA's attempts to freeze the progress of consumer electronics technology and then start turning back the clock on all of us. Fair use, meet your successor: "customary historic use."
The post points to broadcast flag draft legislation sponsored by Senator Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) that contains provisions which appear to limit digital broadcast media reception devices to "customary historic use of broadcast cont... (more)
|
|
China to build world's first "artificial sun" experimental deviceA full superconducting experimental Tokamak fusion device, which aims to generate infinite, clean nuclear-fusion-based energy, will be built in March or April in Hefei, capital city of east China's Anhui Province.
Experiments with the advanced new device will start in July or August. If the experiments prove successful, China will become the first country in the world to build a full superconducting experimental Tokamak fusion device, nicknamed "artificial sun", experts here said.... (more)
|
|
Beauty to die for: health hazards of cosmetics and skin care products revealedYour medicine cabinet is one of the most dangerous areas of your house, and not for the reasons you may think. Lurking just behind your bathroom mirror, where all of your favorite beauty products are housed, is a virtual toxic nightmare. The growing list of synthetic ingredients manufacturers add to their products is turning the most innocent-looking shampoos and moisturizers into cocktails of toxins that could cause cancer or reproductive damage over years of sustained use. Modern cosmetics con... (more)
|
|
Toddlers targeted for flu jabEvery two-year-old in Britain could be given a flu jab under plans being drawn up by health officials, The Independent on Sunday has learnt.
But mass pre-school vaccination will get the go-ahead only if it protects enough adults from the virus to cover the cost of the jabs to the NHS.
The capacity of young children to spread flu, well known to parents, makes them a priority for vaccination, according to some public health experts. One of the Government's advisers sa... (more)
|
|
Experts sceptical as thousands rush to buy anti-bird flu kitsScientists describe them as "a total waste of time and money" but that does not appear to have dissuaded thousands of Britons from rushing to stockpile biohazard suits and surgical masks to protect against bird flu.
Suppliers claim that they have been inundated since the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus spread through Turkey.
They are offering everything from 14p surgical masks to £493 "ultimate family packs", complete with hooded chemical and biological boiler... (more)
|
|
Is your firewall spying on you?IT’S OBVIOUS, REALLY, that the best way of penetrating users' PCs to see what they get up to online would be to become a Firewall maker.
Like, when I wanted a Firewall and was too tight to pay for one, I turned to Checkpoint’s little freebie Zone Alarm. It sits there between you and the Internet and lets you know when someone’s trying to sneak in through your backdoor or when a program you’re running tries to connect to the Web for no apparent reason. When ... (more)
|
|
University of Michigan develops quantum processorIt's much too early for AMD or Intel to start looking over their shoulder, but the University of Michigan has developed a quantum chip that contains one cadmium ion. The ion, which is suspended in electrical fields, can exist in many possible states which collapse into one when viewed by an outsider. Quantum computing has been touted as great leap in computing, but still faces many challenges.
Composed of gallium arsenide, the quantum chip was made with the same microlithography p... (more)
|
|
Genetically Modified Peas Caused Dangerous Immune ResponseSUMMARY:
Genetically modified (GM) peas under development created immune responses in mice, suggesting that they may also create serious allergic reactions in people. The peas had been inserted with a gene from kidney beans, which creates a protein that acts as a pesticide. When this protein is produced naturally in beans, it does not elicit a response from mice. When produced in the GM peas, however, it did cause a reaction. Using sensitive testing methods, scientists discovered subtle d... (more)
|
|
Cells That Read MindsOn a hot summer day 15 years ago in Parma, Italy, a monkey sat in a special laboratory chair waiting for researchers to return from lunch. Thin wires had been implanted in the region of its brain involved in planning and carrying out movements.
Every time the monkey grasped and moved an object, some cells in that brain region would fire, and a monitor would register a sound: brrrrrip, brrrrrip, brrrrrip.
A graduate student entered the lab with an ice cream cone in h... (more)
|
|
New study: no link between mobiles and tumoursThe largest study completed so far on mobile phone use and brain tumours has concluded that there is no link between the two.
But the researchers stressed that mobile phones have only been in widespread use for about 10 years, and the long-term effects were still unknown.
The idea that using a mobile phone was linked to an increased risk of brain tumours was suggested last year in a Swedish study by Professor Lennart Hardell.
This appears to have ... (more)
|
|
£100m laser project will mimic nuclear explosion· Aldermaston plan seen as vital because of test ban
· Critics demand inquiry, fearing new weapons
On the site of an old runway in the Berkshire countryside, builders are preparing the ground for an extraordinary scientific facility that will create states of matter found nowhere else on Earth.
Known as Orion, the £100m project is the closest Britain gets to extreme engineering. The world's most powerful laser will be capable of recreatin... (more)
|
|
Google Earth fingers CIA rendition flights? Here's a absolute beauty for those of you who like the skies above Google Earth filled with black helicopters: what exactly was going on at Glasgow Prestwick airport the day the Google sat passed over?:
What we've got here is three USAF C-5 Galaxies sitting on an otherwise virtually deserted airport. Thoughfully, the local bus company has in one case nipped out to pick up passengers, as can be seen.
All of this caused a small flurry of emails from readers because t... (more)
|
|
Symantec Hides Rootkits In SoftwareWhat's worse than finding spyware and viruses on your computer? Finding out that the software you use to keep your computer safe may be just as dangerous.
Symantec, makers of the popular Norton AntiVirus protection software and numerous other products, routinely hides a "rootkit" in its Norton SystemWorks program suite.
The rootkit was designed to prevent SystemWorks users from mistakenly deleting files necessary to run the program suite, but the rootkit also hides ... (more)
|
|
Invasion of the giant jellyfishTOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- A slimy jellyfish weighing as much as a sumo wrestler has Japan's fishing industry in the grip of its poisonous tentacles.
Vast numbers of Echizen kurage, or Nomura's jellyfish, have appeared around Japan's coast since July, clogging and ripping fishing nets and forcing fishermen to spend hours hacking them apart before bringing home their reduced catches.
Representatives of fishing communities around the country gathered in Tokyo on Thursd... (more)
|
|
Strange Fish Washes Ashore in the Cayman Islands, Baffles LocalsCayman Brac (January 13, 2006) A strange looking sea creature washed up on the shores of Cayman Brac this weekend.
Layman Scott found the fish while walking along the beach early Sunday morning. It is roughly thirty inches long, more than half of which is a long, eel-like tail attached to a fish body. It has pale pink scales, pectoral fins, a dorsal fin and a small feathery fin on its belly.
Local fishermen say they have not seen a creature quite like this before. I... (more)
|
|
Moon-based telescope may peer at the EarthTHE Italian astronomer Galileo was the first to point a telescope at the moon and observe it in detail. So it is only fitting that Italians now want to be the first to build a telescope on the moon and observe Earth from above. But the plan has been panned by the European Space Agency (ESA).
The Italian Space Agency (ASI) is studying the feasibility of landing robots on the moon and using them to construct a space telescope that would both peer into deep space and study the Earth.... (more)
|
|
Russia's SS-27 Makes Bush's Missile Defense A FantasyOn November 2, a rather staid little story appeared on a ticker powered by Itar-Tass, a Russian News Agency. The tone was decidedly Russian-matter-of-fact and shorn of all hyperbole. It reported the test launch of a ballistic missile called the Topol RS 12 at 8:10 pm Moscow time. After taking off from the Kapustny Yar test range in the Astrakhan region, it hit the intended target at Balkhash in Kazakhstan at 8:34-24 minutes later.
"The target was precisely hit," said the report, ... (more)
|
|
Algae - like a breath mint for smokestacksBOSTON – Isaac Berzin is a big fan of algae. The tiny, single-celled plant, he says, could transform the world's energy needs and cut global warming.
Overshadowed by a multibillion-dollar push into other "clean-coal" technologies, a handful of tiny companies are racing to create an even cleaner, greener process using the same slimy stuff that thrives in the world's oceans.
Enter Dr. Berzin, a rocket scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. About thr... (more)
|
|
'Doomsday vault' to house world's seedsBuilt with Fort Knox-type security, the three-million-dollar vault will be designed to hold around two million seeds representing all known varieties of the world's crops.
They are the precious food plants that have emerged from 10,000 years of selection by farmers.
The facility "would essentially be built to last forever," according to a feasibility study.
It will be built deep in permafrost in the side of a sandstone mountain on the Norwegian island... (more)
|
|
| 
