Despite the economic downturn, rapid urbanization and industrialization in Asia have significantly increased demands on water and wastewater treatment systems.
Augmented reality (AR) technology, which overlays 3-D graphics or information over a live camera feed, isn’t a brand-new idea. But now that smartphones are penetrating the mass market, AR may be on the cusp of wide adoption. Imagine traveling to a foreign country, pointing your camera at a building and having it up pull up a trove of historical information, video and images of the place over the past century. (via
Scientists have been plagued by Einstein’s theories which state nothing can travel faster than light. But over the past decade or so, we have seen a new branch of physics theorized, one which might give Einstein cause for pause. It’s called Superluminal Electromagnetic Field / Wave Propagation, which is basically a form of faster than light relativity. Experiments have been conducted by several scientists which involve light and radio sources traveling at speeds well in excess of the speed of light. Seem possible? Earlier this year, a physicist called John Singleton created an application of this theory which he believes could greatly advance semiconductors. Called a polarization synchrotron, the device combines radio waves with a rapidly spinning magnetic field. The effect is described as “abusing the radio waves so severely that they finally give in and travel faster than light”. (via Faster-than-light radio waves could revolutionize computer industries – New Tech Gadgets & Electronic Devices | Geek.com)
This video shows an iron nanoparticle shuttle moving through a carbon nanotube in the presence of a low voltage electrical current. The shuttles position inside the tube can function as a high-density nonvolatile memory element.
(Courtesy of /Zettl Research Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California at Berkeley)/
Ultra-dense billion year memory chip (via BerkeleyLab)
LAB TIME Sharon Nunes, right, who heads I.B.M.’s environmental innovation group, watches Young-Hye Na demonstrate a project that makes inexpensive membranes for desalinization. New York Times: Bringing Efficiency to the Infrastructure
As populations grow at a fast clip, they are placing greater demands on the city infrastructures that deliver vital services such as transportation, healthcare, education and public safety. Adding to the strain are ever-changing public demands for better education, greener programs, accessible government, affordable housing and more options for senior citizens.
“Here’s the most-accurate and concise definition of nanotechnology I have seen in a while:
Nanotechnology refers broadly to a field of applied science and technology whose unifying theme is the control of matter on the molecular level in scales smaller than one micrometer, normally 1 to 100 nanometers, and the fabrication of devices within that size range. For scale, a single virus particle is about 100 nanometers in width.”
![Keeping the 600,000 bridges in the U.S. safe is no small challenge. That’s why engineers are beginning to fit some of the most-traversed structures with sensors that can alert them to potential problems. (via “Smart” Bridges Harness Technology to Stay Safe [Slide Show]: Scientific American)
FUGGEDABOUTIT The 126-year-old Brooklyn Bridge, which connects lower Manhattan to the outer borough, has fiber optic sensors that measure displacement and temperature.© BOJIDAR YANEV, NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION](http://8.media.tumblr.com/L2LtU8zYIovgb9zd2sCtjtJJo1_400.jpg)
