Clipmarks | Silkweaver's For k21st collection

Seeds of a new manufacturing revolution

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 12:22:07 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: I am following this technological trend for quite a while. It is very impressive and has the potential to allow developing countries to reach very high rates of economical growth in a relatively short time, and in a relatively environmental friendly method.

Clip Source: nextbigfuture.com

A transformation in the pace of economic growth can be achieved even without nanofactories. These pre-nanofactory methods would transition well to a world with nanofactories when they do arrive.

A coordinated effort by research, companies and government could be made to plan and develop Rapid Automated Manufacturing by 2030. There could be an increase in economic growth into the 10-20% per year range even for developed countries like the USA.

Layer by layer additive construction. 200 times

faster than conventional methods. 5 times lower cost for construction.

Inflatable electric cars. Flatship cars from a factory like Ikea furniture and could be as cheap as $2500 for an environmentally friendly car.

Reprap is an inexpensive fabrication system that can now self-replicate. The machine can make another copy of itself and construct other devices.

Desktop Factory says per-cubic-inch printing costs will hover somewhere around $1.

Desktop Factory 3D printer builds robust, composite plastic parts

Tags: manufacturing, desktop manufacturing

Physicist Claims First Real Demonstration of Cold Fusion

Tue, 27 May 2008 23:05:06 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: "Arata and Zhang demonstrated very successfully the generation of continuous excess energy [heat] from ZrO2-nano-Pd sample powders under D2 gas charging and generation of helium-4," Takahashi told New Energy Times. "The demonstrated live data looked just like data they reported in their published papers [J. High Temp. Soc. Jpn, Feb. and March issues, 2008]. This demonstration showed that the method is highly reproducible."

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

To many people, cold fusion sounds too good to be true. The idea is that, by creating nuclear fusion at room temperature, researchers can generate a nearly unlimited source of power that uses water as fuel and produces almost zero waste. Essentially, cold fusion would make oil obsolete.

However, many experts debate whether money should be spent on cold fusion research or applied to more realistic alternative energy solutions.

Now, esteemed Physics Professor Yoshiaki Arata of Osaka University in Japan claims to have made the first successful demonstration of cold fusion.

Last Thursday, May 22, Arata and his colleague Yue-Chang Zhang of Shianghai Jiotong University presented the cold fusion demonstration to 60 onlookers

Evidence for the occurrence of this fusion came from measuring the temperature inside the cell. When Arata first injected the deuterium gas, the temperature rose to about 70° C (158° F), which Arata explained was due to nuclear and chemical reactions.

Tags: energy, clean energy, cold fusion

The Complexity Disease

Sat, 24 May 2008 11:13:36 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver

Clip Source: www.futuristspeaker.com

Complexity is a Very-Real, Very-Destructive Disease
that Destroys Human-Based Systems

Often time we hear about some new disease that sounds kind of phony and quickly discard it because it sounds like some made-up name for a common personality quirk. So, when I talk about the “complexity disease”, your first inclination will probably be to say “yeah right!”

But here’s the difference. Complexity is not a disease that affects humans. Complexity is a disease that affects systems. And even though it has never been labeled as such before now, it becomes a very useful frame of reference for people involved in building, operating, or managing a system. Complexity is a very-real, very-destructive disease.

Tags: complexity, systems, management

Artificial bladder grown in lab, soon for human patients

Fri, 23 May 2008 15:46:24 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver

Clip Source: www.medgadget.com

Tengion, a company out of East Norriton, PA, has successfully grown full size replacement bladders in large mammal models, helping pave the way for the company to receive FDA clearance to initiate clinical trials on humans in 2009.

Tengion's Neo-Bladder Replacement was able to regenerate an entire urinary bladder within six months after implantation

The regenerated bladder demonstrated near-baseline capacity and cystography by six months after implantation

The regenerated bladder wall structure consisted of three layers: urothelium, muscle, and serosa by approximately two months after implantation

The regenerated bladder wall showed near native pharmacological and electrophysiological functional responses by six months after implantation

Tags: medicine, biotechnology, organ replacement

Fusion 2.0 - soon at a powerplant nearby

Mon, 19 May 2008 09:50:25 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver

Clip Source: www.cosmosmagazine.com

Fusion could one day generate limitless cheap energy from little more than water, while emitting no greenhouse gases. We look at its promise as the ultimate power panacea for a warming world.

A total of €10 billion (about A$16.7 billion) has been earmarked for the construction and initial operation of ITER, a giant fusion reactor. It will generate a cloud of super-hot plasma in which isotopes of hydrogen will fuse to form helium, releasing vast amounts of energy.

If successful, the project will realise a dream that has preoccupied physicists for many decades: the harnessing of the power that drives the Sun. The potential is, to say the least, immense.

Fusion plants could one day generate billions of watts of power, entirely replacing 19th century coal and 20th century gas, oil and nuclear fission, and all without producing any carbon dioxide or long-lived radioactive waste.

It’s the ultimate power panacea for a warming world.

Tags: energy, fusion, iter

Clipmarks | Silkweaver's For k21st collection

Seeds of a new manufacturing revolution

Physicist Claims First Real Demonstration of Cold Fusion

The Complexity Disease

Complexity is a Very-Real, Very-Destructive Disease that Destroys Human-Based Systems

Artificial bladder grown in lab, soon for human patients

Fusion 2.0 - soon at a powerplant nearby

Complexity is a Very-Real, Very-Destructive Disease
that Destroys Human-Based Systems