Massive solar thermal plant feeds the grid
MIT Technology Review: The world’s largest solar thermal energy plant, built by Brightsource Energy in Ivanpah, California, has delivered electricity to the power grid for the first time in a...
View ArticleGenerating electricity from nuclear waste
New York Times: Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates is among the investors in TerraPower, a startup company planning to build a nuclear reactor that runs on nuclear waste. If the Belleville,...
View ArticleInternational Space Station to get 3D printer
BBC: Additive manufacturing, otherwise known as 3D printing, will soon be used in space. NASA has contracted with space manufacturing company Made in Space to send a 3D printer, which builds objects...
View ArticleNew transmission system and algorithm could improve wireless data transfer
MIT Technology Review: Multipath TCP (transmission control protocol) is a communications technique that uses multiple wireless networks simultaneously, such as both 4G and WiFi signals on a phone. The...
View ArticleFirst metamaterial made from superconductors
MIT Technology Review: Many metamaterials are arrays of identical pieces that combine to produce unusual effects, such as negative indexes of refraction. Using superconductors to create metamaterials...
View ArticleProsthetic leg is first that can be controlled by thought
Los Angeles Times: Zac Vawter lost a leg in a motorcycle accident in 2009. Thanks to an $8 million grant from the US Army to the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, he is the first person to use a...
View ArticleGeoengineering gets boost from IPCC report
Nature: Last week’s UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report briefly mentions geoengineering as potentially necessary to slow or stop the rise of the global average temperature....
View ArticleMars mission gets approval to continue working despite government shutdown
Science: When the US federal government shut down, NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft appeared likely to have its launch window threatened. However, because part of the...
View ArticleUK close to signing deal for new nuclear power station
BBC: The UK is set to sign a contract for the country’s first power-generating nuclear reactor since Sizewell B, which was completed in 1995. The new reactor will be built at Hinkley Point in South...
View ArticleMinuscule thermal transistor could work at light speed
MIT Technology Review: A new thermal transistor that uses thermal photons rather than phonons may have the potential to one day operate at the speed of light. Developed by Philippe Ben-Abdallah at the...
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