From an article at Techcrunch by Lora Kolodny (@lorakolodny): Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Vinod Khosla, Jack Ma, John Doerr and 15 other high-profile investors have formed a new venture firm, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, that will pour at least $1 billion into cleantech companies over the next 20 years. The firm’s goal, according to its own [...]
From an article by Justin Brown at The Power of Ideas: A new theory in neuroscience suggests consciousness is an intrinsic property of everything, just like gravity. The theory, called Integrated Information Theory, states that consciousness appears in physical systems that contain many different and highly interconnected pieces of information. Based on that hypothesis, consciousness can be [...]
From an article by Nanoneophyte at genesisnanotech: Leaving your phone plugged in for hours could become a thing of the past, thanks to a new type of battery technology that charges in seconds and lasts for over a week. Scientists from the University of Central Florida (UCF) have created a supercapacitor battery prototype that can store [...]
From nanowerk news: Nanoparticles -- those with diameters less than one-thousandth the width of a human hair -- are increasingly prevalent in high technology, medicine, and consumer goods. Their characteristics, both desirable and undesirable, depend critically on their size. For example, a nanoparticle (NP) in the bloodstream that is 50 nanometers (nm, billionths of a [...]
From Nano Orbit: Sight is an integral part of life for most animals, but certain individuals are not fortunate enough to see the world in 20/20 vision. Scientists have long tried to develop techniques and technology to improve or completely restore impaired vision. Thanks to the work of Czech scientists there is now a ray [...]
From an article written by By ANDY PASZTOR, ALEXANDER MARTIN and ROLFE WINKLER at wsj.com: Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. is pumping $1 billion into OneWeb Ltd., which aims to use hundreds of satellites to provide internet access in rural areas and developing countries, in a fundraising round that values the startup at roughly $2.5 billion. OneWeb’s [...]
From an article at phys.org: In the lab, doctors can attach chemotherapy to nanoparticles that target tumors, and can use nanoparticles to enhance imaging with MRI, PET and CT scans. Unfortunately, nanoparticles look a lot like pathogens - introducing nanoparticles to the human body can lead to immune system activation in which, at best, nanoparticles [...]
From Science Daily: Catalysts are at the heart of fuel cells-devices that convert hydrogen and oxygen to water and enough electricity to power vehicles for hundreds of miles. But finding effective, inexpensive catalysts has been a key challenge to getting more of these hydrogen-powered, emission-free vehicles out on the road. To help tackle this challenge, [...]
From an interview conducted by Jake Wilkinson: Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is a relatively new technique that provides the ability to form nanoscale patterns at a significantly lower cost than conventional lithography methods. NIL technology is attractive to biomedical and optical device manufacturers, however, a lack of knowledge of the technique means many manufacturers have not yet [...]
From an article at phys.org: A chip developed by mechanical engineers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) can trap and identify metastatic cancer cells in a small amount of blood drawn from a cancer patient. The breakthrough technology uses a simple mechanical method that has been shown to be more effective in trapping cancer cells than [...]
