Technology, News and keystone Ideas

"Not surprisingly, the Holy Grail of superconductivity research is finding a 'room temperature superconductor,' which requires no cooling whatsoever. . . . There is no Moore's law for superconductors which makes reasonable projections possible."

pp. 273-276.


Shanghai Maglev train attendant	Maglev train , 2003

But several countries, even without room temperature superconductors, within the next ten years will be building maglev trains to connect their main cities ....a maglev train can travel 450 to 500 kilometers per hour ....except that their magnetic coils consume large amounts of power.

Kaku, pp. 276-277.

Military | magnetic levitation | nanotechnology | contraceptives | biotech | fracture

Visualize

How the military policy for harnessing new technology reshaped our society.

The ENIAC 1, the Army in 1946 at the Aberdeen proving grounds built the first digital computer. "Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer"

DESCRIPTION OF the machine: ENIAC was over 100 feet long, circling a room 30 feet by 50 feet. It was 10 feet high and about 3 feet deep.

The ENIAC contained over 18,000 vacuum tubes and programs had to be physically wired into the computer. The ENIAC weighed about 30 tons and was used to integrate ballistic equations and calculate trajectories of naval shells.

The ENIAC was completed in 1946 and remained in use until 1955. The original cost of the system was about $486,000.

A vacuum tube.

source: History of Computing, web site .

Defining terms

digital
analog
bifocal
binary
byte
transistor
semiconductor
superconductor

Technology as technique: the formulation of industrial policy

"What is driving the MEMS market are the same etching techniques that were first pioneered by the microchip industry. Instead of etching millions of transistors, scientists are now etching tiny sensors and motors onto silicon wafers. In addition, tiny X-ray beams are being used to etch polymer, which can be electroplated to create metallic molds."

"One of the people backing MEMS technology is Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, who coined 'Moore's law.' He says, 'It took a long time for the transistor to have an impact. MEMS is really an intriguing technology, and I believe it will have significant impact on the next century."

Michio Kaku, Visions. p. 269-270.

Intel's co-founder, Gordon Moore.

On April 19, 1965 Electronics Magazine published a paper by Gordon Moore in which he made a prediction about the semiconductor industry that has become the stuff of legend.

Known as Moore's Law, his prediction has enabled widespread proliferation of technology worldwide, and today has become shorthand Moores_Law_Original_Graph for rapid technological change.

". . . it will have a significant impact in [this] century."

Contact

books Michio Kaku,

Visions

"How far can we develop this technology? One active area of research is cloning ....cloning is actually found everywhere."

"Although plants are easily cloned, the cloning of mammals has always eluded scientists.

"In doing so, Wilmut's team [Ian Wilmut of the Roslin Institute in Scotland.] disproved a 'law' of nature often quoted in textbooks. that mature cells, once differentiated, cannot revert back to an undifferentiated, embryonic state.... But the moral dilemmas posed by cloning pale in comparison to those raised by genetic engineering of humans. Cloning only produces a carbon copy of an individual, genetic engineering promises the ability to change the human genome and hence the human race."

"...infinitely more difficult to improve upon it."

p. 226.

Hydrogen fuel cocktail mixes vinegar and bacteria

The latest recipe for clean-burning hydrogen fuel is a dash of vinegar, a pinch of electricity and a smidge of—bacteria. Pennsylvania State University researchers say they have improved a technique for harnessing bugs called exoelectrogens to munch acetic acid (found in vinegar) into protons and electrons, which collect on opposite sides of a so-called wastewater fuel cell. When zapped with as little as 0.2 volts of electricity, the two components fuse into hydrogen gas. Because organic matter such as cellulose and glucose yields acetic acid when fermented, the research team proposes that the method could generate hydrogen to power cars and buses without relying so heavily on natural gas or other carbon-releasing fuels. "It's crossed the line from a science fair project to feasible technology," one of the researchers told Wired News. Or maybe not: technology experts told National Geographic News that the system so far produces too little hydrogen to make much of an impact.

Earth and Environment selections from Scientific American

Art Source explained

On England’s River Tyne, near the mining city of Newcastle, stevedores called keelmen transfer coal from barges, or keels, to oceangoing vessels. The harsh glare of the workmen’s torches contrasts with the funnel of creamy light emanating from the moon. Critical opinion about Turner’s unusual nocturne was divided. One reviewer observed: “It represents neither night nor day, and yet the general effect is very agreeable and surprising.’

This North Sea view—a familiar sight to the British public—reveals sooty, modern industry chilled by the colors of a winter’s night.

Commissioned as a pendant to Venice: The Dogana and San Giorgio Maggiore and shown at the Royal Academy in 1835.

"The Keelmen of Newcastle"
Edward Raymond Turner
The American Historical Review, Vol. 21, No. 3 (Apr., 1916), pp. 542-545.

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