Leapfrog / Disruptive Technologies

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 01 Jan 2010 10:06

Carbon Nanotube-based nanopores will revolutionize genomic sequencing, ushering in the era of personal molecular medicine:

http://www.physorg.com/news181466707.html

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 04 Jan 2010 10:38

Neurologist Develops Method to Repair Severed Spinal Cords

Ravi Karumanchiri · Post by **Ravi Karumanchiri** » 02 Feb 2010 06:52

I heard a fascinating radio interview with Dr. David Anderson last night on the Coast to Coast AM radio show (the largest overnight listening audience of any radio program in the world – www.coasttocoastam.com).

Here is the write-up for the show, which you can also read online at http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2010/01/31 (NB: There’s MUCH more info linked from this page – definitely worth visiting.)

Time Technology & Research

Joining Art Bell for the entire 4-hour program, physicist Dr. David Anderson discussed the state of time technology from his research, as well as other labs around the world. He recapped his work from 2002, when he last appeared with Art on the show. At that juncture, his team had created small time warp fields that he said could accelerate time by 300% within the field, as well as reversing time. He described the initiation of a time warp field as quite spectacular to witness, "between the combinations of different chemical reagents and high energy lasers we use to excite or initiate a time warp field...a lot of light, a lot of energy."

Since 2002, the effects have increased by "two orders of magnitudes," both in time acceleration and retardation rates, and living organisms have been successfully tested in the warp fields, he detailed. By regenerating "closed timelike curves" (bending spacetime so time loops back on itself) we're finding it "just as easy to move backwards in time as well as forward," Anderson explained.

Currently countries such as Japan, China, and especially India have been experimenting with time technologies, Anderson reported. Through a device called the Temporal Tremor Detector (TTD), his team is able to track such experiments by observing disruptions in the spacetime fabric, he said.

As time technology becomes further developed, moral and ethical issues are arising, he pointed out. Benefits of the technology include accurate historical studies of the past, but on the negative side, we could experience "Time Wars," with deliberate destruction of parts of the timeline. Anderson advocated for more transparency and disclosure of the technology, so the public can have input on how it's used.
_______________________________________________________________________

During the show, Dr. Anderson mentioned that India is outspending any other nation in this area of research by tenfold, and that there’s a DRDO lab in Pune that is the central hub for this work in India.

Because I am located in Toronto, Canada, for me the show is broadcast starting at 1am Eastern Standard Time, until 5am – but because I had to call it a night by 3am, I missed the last two hours of the show. Lucky for me (and for you), there’s no ‘Toronto Maple Leafs’ hockey game tonight, so the show will probably be re-broadcast starting at 9pm (roughly 30 minutes from now). I will listen-in to the re-broadcast on AM 640, and if you are unable to get this Toronto-area station, you can listen-in online by going to http://www.640toronto.com/ and clicking on the ‘Listen Live’ link at the top-center of your screen.

ENJOY!

Ravi Karumanchiri · Post by **Ravi Karumanchiri** » 02 Feb 2010 07:35

^^^^^

AWWWW! BUMMER!

It seems my previous post directing you to listen to AM640 online was mistaken -- for some inexplicable reason the station managers have decided to re-broadcast a show from last Friday, featuring another physicist Dr. Michio Kaku.

THIS IS NOT THE SAME SHOW I MENTIONNED IMMEDIATELY ABOVE.

You can try to do what I am about to do and find another affiliate on www.coasttocoastam.com that will rebroadcast last night's show.

Good luck.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 05 Feb 2010 21:55

Even though the story is about green technology can India use the Hydroform technology and add cement to help improve the infrastructre in the rural areas?

Madonna builds schools in Malawi with green tech

Any civil engineers on the board?

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 04 Mar 2010 22:44

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=31531&tag=nl.e539 Called a nanophotonic avalanche photodetector, the device is the fastest of its kind and has “significant implications” for the future of electronics, IBM says.

very useful for our mil as well

muraliravi · Post by **muraliravi** » 05 Mar 2010 04:56

ramana wrote:Even though the story is about green technology can India use the Hydroform technology and add cement to help improve the infrastructre in the rural areas?

Madonna builds schools in Malawi with green tech

Any civil engineers on the board?

Ramana Sir,

I am a civil engineer. India could use much cheaper and easier technologies in rural areas if the will is there. Grancrete is an outstanding example. The brain behind grancrete is a desi in the US.

http://www.grancrete.net/

Look at the website and see what you think. There are already efforts on to bring it to India. It is a very innovative and easy product to use. Basically take foam and set a structure and grancrete has developed sprayable concrete that you can spray on the foam and it will set in 2 hrs. they have nice videos you can check them

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 05 Mar 2010 09:46

gancrete: it doesn't say what is it made of? composition?

furthermore, the toxicity aspects are not given. no clear details yet.

I doubt, we would want anything that is toxic.

krisna · Post by **krisna** » 05 Mar 2010 22:15

http://satyameva-jayate.org/2010/03/04/lavan-vajra/
Quote:
…Dr Raja Marathe, IIT Bombay alumni and a former Naxal leader who returned to India from the United States a few years ago, may as well be known as Nanded’s rainman. Armed with burning tyres packed with salt, Marathe has single-handedly floated his own rain seeding project in the villages of Nanded (constituency of CM Ashok Chavan) called Lavan Vajra that has now been sanctioned by the collector of the district

video presentation at innovations 2010
http://live.kpoint.in/kapsule/gcc-71c9d ... 5086e96139#

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 27 Apr 2010 09:22

Graphene platelets boost polymer strength much more than nanotubes:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2010/04/adding ... .html#more

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 14 May 2010 09:18

Perhaps this might be an interesting gadget for cellphone-heavy India:

Sharp Develops 3D Camera for Smart Phones

Sharp's new 3D camera module. Credit: Sharp.

Sharp Corporation announced yesterday that it has developed a module for smart phones and other devices that can capture high-definition 3D images. The module combine views from two cameras to create an image, automatically correcting differences in color, brightness and positioning.

The company says the camera module can be embedded in digital cameras, smart phones and other devices. While Sharp hasn't announced a price for the module, it will begin shipping sample modules to manufacturers in July. It plans to start mass production sometime later this year.

Sharp is one of many companies pushing 3D. Last month it announced that it would sell 3D LCD television--joining a host of other companies releasing 3D equipment.

Actually, given the increasing presence of security cameras for public security, I'd wonder if 3D stereo camera technology could offer useful advantages for security purposes, since it might help to better discern objects in its field of view. The extra information provided by the 3D stereo imaging could perhaps prove to be valuable. Any opinions on this?

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 22 May 2010 06:25

Researchers led by Dr Craig Venter have created the world's first "synthetic bacteria" by creating its DNA from synthesis machines and then inserting it into the hollow membrane of an existing bacterium, whereupon it immediately began functioning like a regular organism:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-0 ... ngers.html

Conceivably, if bio-terrorists one day get their hands on this type of technology, they could kill countless numbers of people. Or even state bio-weapons programs.

This could become the most deadly form of WMD yet.

Imagine if such deadly bio-weapons could proliferate throughout our eco-system. Then the very environment we live in could become deadly to us.

On the other hand, suppose we could create novel bacteria capable of surviving and thriving on Mars. We might be able to terraform the entire planet to make it habitable for ourselves. Given the power of bacteria to multiply exponentially, they could transform an entire planet in relatively short order - far faster than conventional evolutionary and geologic timescales.

kenop · Post by **kenop** » 24 May 2010 08:10

krisna wrote:http://satyameva-jayate.org/2010/03/04/lavan-vajra/
Quote:
…Dr Raja Marathe, IIT Bombay alumni and a former Naxal leader who returned to India from the United States a few years ago, may as well be known as Nanded’s rainman. Armed with burning tyres packed with salt, Marathe has single-handedly floated his own rain seeding project in the villages of Nanded (constituency of CM Ashok Chavan) called Lavan Vajra that has now been sanctioned by the collector of the district

video presentation at innovations 2010
http://live.kpoint.in/kapsule/gcc-71c9d ... 5086e96139#

The latest developments on this
1. Dr. Marathe made a presentation to the Uniion Agriculture Ministry (Sharad Pawar and the secretary plus a few others) on 12th May.
2. This was after he had an interaction with the Sakal Foundation (Pawar clan owned) and Pratap Pawar arranged for the above meeting
3. He was interviewed for Sakal and a story was published (Marathi langauge http://72.78.249.124/esakal/20100510/50 ... 730205.htm)
4. The publication had some effect and a lot of peole got in touch with him (3500 calls in one week is reported)
5. Confirmation of his hypothesis by two Indian Meterological Department ex-scientists (in the URL above too)
6. Dr. Mashelkar is involved in getting things verified/tested
7. Dr. Anna Hazare is organizating a "camp" in his native village on 25th May. Demos/information sessions etc are planned. As per reports, national media too is invited
8. A few other political/social service types are also pursuing Dr. Marathe
9. A few channels (I watched on India TV) also did some interviews with Dr. Marathe

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 28 May 2010 09:35

insects genetically modified to be attracted to blue light in the same way that they would be attracted to fruit:

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/25247/

if they can be engineered to do this, then what else can they be engineered for?
sniffing out explosives? nuclear materials?

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 04 Jun 2010 07:55

HP Research Says Low-Power ARM Processors Could Benefit Data Centers

And Indian players have been making a name for themselves in ARM design. Couple that with the fact that India is a nice locale for situating data centers. Their new memristor technology is fundamentally disruptive, and also offers low-power non-volatile memory capabilities.

Interestingly, HP themselves are looking to increase their investment in commercial data centers.

Originally, I thought they were merely trying to imitate IBM's strategy of garnering business through infrastructure outsourcing. But this ARM+memristor low power angle might bring them ahead in the longterm.

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 08 Jun 2010 09:44

A Better Way to Make Graphene

A new method could allow more practical manufacturing of the material.

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 11 Jun 2010 09:42

"fully homomorphic encryption" - the ability to work on data that is encrypted, without having to decrypt it:

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/25537/

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 14 Jun 2010 07:26

Scientists Grow Liver in Lab from Stem Cells

more:

http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/25538/?a=f

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 16 Jun 2010 09:19

Harvard's George Church on Genomic Sequencing

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 20 Jun 2010 22:33

Carbon Nanotubes Improve Battery Power Upto Tenfold

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 20 Jun 2010 22:37

Graphene Used for Touchscreens

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/25633/?a=f

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 01 Jul 2010 07:24

Has anybody ever heard of Pulse Detonation Engines? Constant-volume/supersonic combustion through detonation rather than conventional deflagration.
NASA and GE are researching a hybrid version of PDEs combined with turbofans

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/RT/2006/RX/RX45S-reddy.html

It's interesting to see what the hybrid actually looks/sounds like:

No boom-boom-boom staccato, but instead the softer sounds of rapid flaring.
Could PDEs even be combined with scramjets?
Is it possible to imagine "flare propulsion" for spaceflight and air travel?

Are ISRO or DRDO researching PDEs of any kind?
If they've managed to do scram engines in the lab (as Americans and Soviets had even done 50 years ago), then why don't they move onto PDEs in the lab? Practical flight is a different matter, but doing PDEs in the lab should be cheaper to attempt than even doing scramjets in the lab.

We all know that pulse-jets have been in use since the German V-1 "buzz bomb" of WW2 infamy. PDEs use roughly the same hardware, so it shouldn't be too difficult for Indians to at least attempt to research the concept in the lab.

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 09 Jul 2010 11:03

Metallic Xenon Diflouride (XeF2) Created Under High Pressure

But how to make it meta-stable for use?

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 13 Jul 2010 12:00

New Terahertz Remote-Sensing Technique Can Detect Explosives, Drugs, etc

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/ ... detection/

http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/report_ ... es_1408907

This reminds me a bit of the chemcam system developed by NASA for its upcoming Mars rover. I'm thinking that not only could this new Terahertz sensing method be useful for detecting explosives, but it could also be useful for analyzing rocks on the Moon or other planets. The Chandrayaan-2 rover will apparently be using something like chemcam, but perhaps this latest technique could be even better still. Maybe it's not too late to upgrade the planned instrument packages. This latest technology sounds like it could even work from orbit, and so you wouldn't have to equip it on the rover, but could just keep it on the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter.

The most productive use would be for remote intelligence gathering here on Earth. You could have a satellite or drone aircraft equipped with this technology, which would be able to gather more detailed information about a target it's monitoring.

vijayk · Post by **vijayk** » 23 Jul 2010 21:07

http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors ... um-nitride
THE CRYSTAL THAT WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING: The World's Best Gallium Nitride
A little Polish company you've never heard of is beating the tech titans in a key technology of the 21st century

Want to revolutionize the electronics industry, become a multimillionaire, and earn your place as an immortal in the tech pantheon? Your job is simple: Figure out a cost-effective way to make really good, reasonably large crystals of pure gallium nitride.

With such crystals as the foundation for the growth of devices made of the same material, manufacturers would have a far richer yield of the violet lasers on which the optoelectronics industry increasingly depends. For example, the short wavelengths of these lasers are needed to read the hyperfine, data-rich line that rings the discs in Blu-ray players and in the latest game machines. Better gallium nitride would also let automakers make the power-handling circuitry in their hybrid electric vehicles more efficient, improving mileage and possibly even affordability. And with a fabulously good crystal foundation, LEDs could perform better, speeding the demise of the century-old incandescent bulb.

So far, though, gallium nitride crystals of good size and archangelic purity have been beyond the grasp of all but one of the companies that have worked for years to create them. That company’s based not in Japan, Korea, or even the United States, but in Poland. Meet Ammono, the greatest success story in materials science you’ve never heard of.

The company got where it is today by bucking the common wisdom in the industry. Instead of growing crystals with vapor deposition, the approach that all the leading gallium nitride substrate manufacturers take, it grows them the way the Earth does: under high heat and pressure.

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 24 Jul 2010 01:39

Pentagon Pushes for Near-Perfect Regenerative Medicine

Since they've already made a separate DARPA-E for energy research, maybe they should also make a DARPA-B for biotech

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 24 Jul 2010 07:19

vijayk wrote:http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors ... um-nitride
THE CRYSTAL THAT WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING: The World's Best Gallium Nitride

Panasonic’s GaN Transistor Goes A Long Way
July 23, 2010
The high power transistor is suited to long-distance millimeter-wave communication and theoretically can be used for transmissions over 84km.

--

25 GHz communication would enable multi-gigabit per second data communication (super fast wireless broadband!)

ArmenT · Post by **ArmenT** » 28 Jul 2010 09:23

Interesting paper showed up on arXiv from one Dhruba Dasgupta in the University of North Bengal, Siliguri:

Indications of room-temperature superconductivity at a metal-PZT interface.

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 29 Jul 2010 08:51

^^^ Well, remember that Arxiv is like Wikileaks - it's not peer-reviewed or corroborated, just merely published.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 30 Jul 2010 01:53

^^^ While the above paper has not been published (AFAIK), given its very impressive claims and easily reproducible process to achieve them, I believe we will soon know (it will soon likely to be peer reviewed/checked etc..) The claim of 313K is impressive.

Such a simple metal mix (lead zirconium titanate (PZT) - a fairly common substance - coated with Al) certainly sounds too good to be true but I hope they have done their experimental measurements correctly and it is a true case of superconductivity and not a false alarm...(it is easy to make a mistake if one goes by number of false claims reported about room temperature HTS ).. BTW the paper is NOT that they are 100% sure-- it says:

The surface resistance of the silver-coated samples also shows a sharp change near 313 K. The results are strongly suggestive of a superconductive interfacial layer, and have been interpreted in the framework of Bose-Einstein condensation of bipolarons as the suggested mechanism for high-temperature superconductivity in cuprates...
[or]
..The experimental results reported here strongly suggest the presence of a superconducting layer near room temperature in the interface between a metal film and a PZT substrate. The data have been interpreted in the framework of the above model..[

In any case the news is significant enough and it is being reported in more visible and popular media.. (and a few e-mail lists)
(Last time - Discovery of HTS got a Noble prize - just about a year after the discovery)
(I also made a comment in the physics thread - which has little more details)

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 31 Jul 2010 13:03

the data seems to have a low signal-to-noise ratio

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 04 Aug 2010 06:32

Researchers at Stanford have come up with a way to improve solar energy conversion efficiency, called Photon Enhanced Thermionic Emission (PETE):

http://www.gizmag.com/pete-process-harn ... ncy/15918/

http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/vaop ... t2814.html

http://nextbigfuture.com/2010/08/stanfo ... .html#more

They claim it can double existing photoelectric conversion efficiencies.

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 23 Aug 2010 09:56

GPUs (vector processors) can apply their powerful parallel-processing capabilities to increase packet throughput for faster routers:

How Game Consoles Could Revolutionize the Internet

Would AMD soon give Cisco a run for their money?

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 27 Aug 2010 08:02

Wednesday, August 25, 2010
How DARPA Plans to Reinvent U.S. Manufacturing
DoD research wing wants to make everything from tanks to bombers in "fabs."

--

Hmm, sounds like a chip off the ol' block

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 29 Aug 2010 05:15

A New Design for a Gravimeter
A New Design for Gravity Detection

Scientists have developed a novel design for a highly compact, ultra-sensitive quantum device to measure subtle changes in gravity over very short time or distance scales.

---

This could enable efficient detection of heavy-metal deposits like Uranium, for mining purposes.

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 27 Sep 2010 09:22

New Robotic Gripper Uses Novel Approach

a_bharat · Post by **a_bharat** » 04 Dec 2010 07:41

US-based Indian creates first artificial kidney

US-based Indian origin researcher Shuvo Roy has created the world's first implantable artificial kidney. What's sensational about Roy's creation is that the organ, no larger than a coffee cup, will be able to mimic the kidney's most vital functions like filtering toxins out of the bloodstream, regulate blood pressure and produce the all- important vitamin D.

The artificial kidney has been tested successfully on a small number of animals. Large-scale trials on animals and humans are expected over the next five years. Once available, and if affordable, this creation by the Roy-led team at University of California will do away with the need for kidney dialysis.

This will be a boon for all patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). At present in India, of the 1.5 lakh new patients who suffer from end-stage renal failure annually, only 3,500 get kidney transplants and 6,000-10,000 undergo dialysis. The rest perish due to an acute shortage of dialysis centres and nephrologists to man them.

Neshant · Post by **Neshant** » 31 Jan 2011 02:01

South Carolina scientist works to grow meat in lab

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/ ... WZ20110130

http://www.science20.com/run_and_tumble ... wn_chicken

wilson_th · Post by **wilson_th** » 01 Feb 2011 17:42

Wish if the below becomes reality sooner then 4-5 years.

Hydrogen-based fuel produces no greenhouse gases so could help nations slash their carbon footprint
It is due to be available at the pumps in three to five years

scientists from the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, near Oxford, University College London and Oxford University have found a way of densely packing hydrogen into tiny beads that can be poured or pumped like a liquid

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... l?ITO=1490

a_bharat · Post by **a_bharat** » 19 Jul 2011 16:18

New fuel discovered that reversibly stores solar energy

Alexie Kolpak and Jeffrey Grossman from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology propose a new type of solar thermal fuel that would be affordable, rechargeable, thermally stable, and more energy-dense than lithium-ion batteries. Their proposed design combines an organic photoactive molecule, azobenzene, with the ever-popular carbon nanotube.

Before we get into the details of their proposal, we’ll quickly go over how photoactive molecules store solar energy. When a photoactive molecule absorbs sunlight, it undergoes a conformational change, moving from the ground energy state into a higher energy state. The higher energy state is metastable (stable for the moment, but highly susceptible to energy loss), so a trigger—voltage, heat, light, etc.—will cause the molecule to fall back to the ground state. The energy difference between the higher energy state and the ground state (termed ΔH) is then discharged. A useful photoactive molecule will be able to go through numerous cycles of charging and discharging.

The challenge in making a solar thermal fuel is finding a material that will have both a large ΔH and large activation energy. The two factors are not always compatible. To have a large ΔH, you want a big energy difference between the ground and higher energy state. But you don’t want the higher energy state to be too energetic, as it would be unstable. Instability means that the fuel will have a small activation energy and be prone to discharging its stored energy too easily.

Kolpak and Grossman managed to find the right balance between ΔH and activation energy when they examined computational models of azobenzene (azo) bound to carbon nanotubes (CNT) in azo/CNT nanostructures. According to their calculations, placing azobenzene on carbon nanotubes will stabilize both the ground and higher energy states. There is a decent energy gap between the two states, meaning a good ΔH. Second, stabilizing the higher energy state means that the activation energy is large enough to give the photo-excited azo/CNT material a relatively long half life (over one year).