Next Big Future - 6 new articles

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Subject: Next Big Future - 6 new articles

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"Next Big Future" - 6 new articles

1. Meteor Hits Russia with force of 20 Hiroshima bombs
2. Synthesizing DNA 10,000 times cheaper and making a synthetic biology revolution
3. All Optical Nanoparticle Computing
4. Rethinking Solar to get it cheaper than natural gas
5. Graphene Supercapacitor
6. Producing Terawatts of Economical Energy Storage in the next two decades
7. More Recent Articles
8. Search Next Big Future
9. Prior Mailing Archive

Meteor Hits Russia with force of 20 Hiroshima bombs A meteorite streaked across the sky and exploded over central Russia on Friday, raining fireballs over a vast area and causing a shock wave that smashed windows, damaged buildings and injured 1,200 people. This is a reminder of the need for an Asteroid shield like that proposed by the Lifeboat foundation and other groups. People heading to work in Chelyabinsk heard what sounded like an explosion, saw a bright light and then felt the shock wave, according to a Reuters correspondent in the industrial city 1,500 km (950 miles) east of Moscow. The fireball, travelling at a speed of 30 km (19 miles) per second according to Russian space agency Roscosmos, had blazed across the horizon, leaving a long white trail that could be seen as far as 200 km (125 miles) away. NY Times has coverage Read more » • Email to a friend • Article Search • Synthesizing DNA 10,000 times cheaper and making a synthetic biology revolution Problem: Synthetic biology has the potential to create new organisms that could do an infinite number of things. But the cost of synthesizing DNA is currently prohibitively expensive. Solution: Austen has developed a new technique to synthesize DNA 10,000 times cheaper than existing technology. 1. DNA microarray 2. Microbeads capture DNA - separates the sequences 3. Beads copy the single strand many times 4. Attach beads to glass and read out the sequences for quality control and create a quality score 5. Use laser to recover the DNA (Laser pulse catapulting) Print up to 100 strands per second Technology: One of the big challenges with DNA synthesis is error correction during fabrication, fabricating the correct sequence of A, T, G and Cs. Austen solves this problem by fabricating billions of strands at once, quickly (and cheaply) optically sequencing them and then selecting the correct DNA sequences using a fast moving laser. More on SolveforX.com. Read more » • Email to a friend • Article Search • All Optical Nanoparticle Computing Problem: Moore's law won't continue forever. Transistors are now so small that they have reached the quantum scale and it will simply not be physically possible to make them smaller. Solution: Many people have proposed optical computing as the next technology to continue Moore's Law because photons move several orders of magnitude faster than electrons, do not lose energy while moving. Prashant Jain and his colleagues have developed an optical transistor - a device that could serve as the underlying logic gate for optical computing. 3 or 4 charges in a nanoparticle or quantum dot can convert it from a semiconductor to a metal antenna. Nanoparticle antenna for communication and semiconductor for the computation. Technology that might make it possible: The optical transistor is built using doped metal nanoparticles that absorb and emit photons at specific frequencies of light when a voltage potential is applied. More at SolveforX.com. Read more » • Email to a friend • Article Search • Rethinking Solar to get it cheaper than natural gas Problem: The price of solar electricity is still higher than electricity from coal or natural gas. Price parity or perhaps making solar cheaper than fossil fuel is required for widespread adoption of solar. Solution: Bill outlines several ideas that could reduce the material, labor and maintenance costs of solar thermal electricity. 1. Rethink Storage - integrated rock storage right in the tower 2. Rethink Engine - Low temperature stirling engine 3. Rethink Actuation 4. Rethink Installation Wind is the Enemy of Solar 0 Solar has heavy frames to resist strong wind Cover the solar when winds are strong, so solar setup can be cheap and lightweight Technology that might make it possible: Energy storage using rocks, higher efficiency (~30%) sterling engine, low-weight mirror structures including a retractable wind covers, wire drive mirrior actuation and automated construction and installation of the mirrors. More at SolveforX.com! Read more » • Email to a friend • Article Search • Graphene Supercapacitor The video shows how easy it now is to produce graphene and discusses how a supercapacitor made from graphene could be a huge deal. Read more » • Email to a friend • Article Search • Producing Terawatts of Economical Energy Storage in the next two decades Problem: Wind and solar energy sources simply can't produce power at all times. Energy storage is needed to store energy from the sun and wind when it's produced for use later. No economical, widespread energy storage method currently exists that would allow a substantial portion of the electrical grid's electricty to be supplied by these renewable sources. Solution: An inexpensive, compressed air energy storage system with 60-70% efficiency could be widely scaled, hopefully enabling terawatts of grid energy storage in the next two decades. Technology that might make it possible: Water is used to cool air temperature during compression and increase temperature during expansion, making the system more efficient. This solution is well thought out and considers the response of the fossil fuel markets and companies. A large expansion of renewables will just cause fossil fuel prices to go down to the cost of extraction and processing. Reducing emissions down to 20% of current levels is sustainable. Fossil fuels could only be used for high value purposes, More at SolveforX.com Read more » • Email to a friend • Article Search • More Recent Articles Tricking CMOS to generate Terahertz frequencies for cheap THz communication, imaging and medical applications George Miley 10 kw LENR nanoparticle cold fusion proposal did well in voting for ARPA-E Ultralight future energy project funding Planetary Resources Describes New Designs and Advances for Making Satellite Imaging ten times cheaper and three times better and plans for asteroid mining Rodney Brook re-imagines manufacturing with localized production with robotics and 3d printing Accelerating Intelligence and technology is powerful but persistent stupidity has proven to last for the ages

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