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Phase 2 of China’s National 5G tests were conducted in Huairou in Beijing. ZTE completed tests for continuous wide coverage, eMBB (enhanced mobile broadband) at sub-6Ghz, eMBB at millimeter-wave frequencies, uRLLC (ultra-Reliable and Low Latency Communications), eMTC (massive Machine Type Communications), in addition to two hybrid scenarios, achieving multiple breakthroughs: eMBB@Sub6GHz Test: New Record for the Peak Value, with Cell Throughput Exceeding 19 Gbps In the eMBB@Sub6GHz test scenario, ZTE provided 28 streams for multiple users by using the 3.5 GHz pre-commercial base station, with a peak cell throughput higher than 19 Gbps, a new industry record. This data rate

Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha government has approved the start of construction of a US$5 billion (S$6.9 billion) high-speed train project, to be developed by China. Bangkok to the northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima, a distance of more than 250km, will start later this year and is scheduled for completion in 2021. It will cost an estimated 179 billion baht (around US$5.1 billion). The government hopes to eventually extend the high-speed railway by some 350km to Nong Khai Province, opposite Laos, in the hope of boosting cross-border trade volume and turning Thailand into a regional hub. It could eventually link

Driving under the influence of marijuana is illegal no matter which state you’re in. To enforce the law, authorities need a simple, rigorous roadside test for marijuana intoxication. Although several companies are working to develop marijuana breathalyzers, testing a person’s breath for marijuana-derived compounds is far more complicated than testing for alcohol. But scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have taken an important step toward that goal by measuring a fundamental physical property of the main psychoactive compound in marijuana, delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Specifically, they measured the vapor pressure of this compound—a measurement that, due to

China’s Micius satellite is a highly sensitive photon receiver that can detect the quantum states of single photons fired from the ground. Micius orbits at an altitude of 500 kilometers, and for most of this distance, any photons making the journey travel through a vacuum. To minimize the amount of atmosphere in the way, the Chinese team set up its ground station in Ngari in Tibet at an altitude of over 4,000 meters. So the distance from the ground to the satellite varies from 1,400 kilometers when it is near the horizon to 500 kilometers when it is overhead. The

Los Alamos National Laboratory has a radical new solid propellent for cubesats. Unlike a traditional composite propellant, which mechanically mixes a fuel and an oxidizer into a high explosive, the new propellant ignites an energetic fuel — really a low explosive. Then hydrogen and nitrogen gases from the burning fuel flow through the solid oxidizer component of the system, which gasifies, mixes with the fuel gases and unleashes significant thrust. Both components of this binary system, the energetic fuel and the oxidizer, are immune to detonation, a huge advantage over other rocket fuels. Even the shock from the detonation of

Los Alamos is working with NASA on nuclear fission systems (Kilopower and MegaPower) as a heat source that transfers heat via a heat pipe to a small Stirling engine-based power convertor to produce electricity from uranium. NASA has focused on the use of KiloPower for potential Mars human exploration. NASA has examined the need for power on Mars and determined that approximately 40 kilowatts would be needed. Five 10-kilowatt KiloPower reactors (four main reactors plus one spare) could solve this power requirement. During steady state, a reactor operates with a neutron multiplication factor of ‘1.000’; that is, the number of

– Tri Alpha Energy (TAE), the world’s largest private fusion company ($500 million in funding), has achieved first plasma on its newest generator, Norman, formerly known as C-2W and now named after the company’s late co-founder, Dr. Norman Rostoker. The $100 million plasma generator, the fifth in a series of devices built over the last 20 years, will continue validation of the company’s underlying technology and enable commercialization efforts toward delivering utility-scale fusion energy. With Norman now operational, the company will continue to move quickly down its developmental path, expanding temperature ranges and sustaining plasma for longer periods towards perfecting

There are new small modular reactors where the nuclear reactor could be approaching the size of a shipping container but then the balance of the nuclear plant (turbines and other systems) is far larger. Holos Generator is transportable (by heavy lift cargo plane or truck), sealed, self-controlled, highly-efficient, affordable, and load-following, thus providing a generator as a distributable power source. The breakthrough in size and safety enables many breakthrough designs and applications. The designers Claudio Filippone ad K. Jordan have had previous nuclear reactor designs. The Clean and Environmentally Safe Advanced Reactor (CAESAR) is a nuclear reactor concept created by

Total acquisition costs for Lockheed Martin F35 stealth fighter may rise about 7 percent to $406.5 billion, according to figures in the Selected Acquisition Report. That’s a reversal after several years of estimates that had declined to $379 billion recently from a previous high of $398.5 billion in early 2014. The $27.5 billion increase is reflected in current “then-year” dollars that cover research, development, procurement and military construction. The separate roughly $1.1 trillion long-term operations and support estimate to keep the aircraft flying until 2070 increased by $35.3 billion. The estimated increase in the F35s total procurement cost to $346.2

The Defense Science Board has a 99 page report which proposes that the US military fund the development of very small nuclear reactors for forward remote operating bases. The Task Force reviewed several nuclear reactor concepts that differ in size and technology from conventional commercial reactors and the small modular reactor (SMR) concepts currently under development for commercial use. Some of these reactors, very small modular reactors (vSMRs) with an output less than 10 MWe (megawatts-electric), may be transportable and deployable in FOB, ROB, and expeditionary force situations, and could eliminate the need for logistics fuel otherwise dedicated to producing

The Center for International Development at Harvard University (CID) has GDP growth projections from now to 2025. Canada and Japan have surprisingly high average GDP growth from 2017 to 2025. If China were to maintain 1.54% more growth than the USA then China would gain about 16% from now to 2025 in overall economy. India would be falling short of the double digit economic growth they are targeting and which China had at the same point of development. India 7.72% avg GDP growth to 2025 Indonesia 5.82% avg GDP growth to 2025 China 4.41% avg GDP growth to 2025 Canada

Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine researchers have demonstrated a key step on the path to generate implantable tissues with functioning capillaries. They showed how to use a combination of human endothelial cells and mesenchymal stem cells to initiate a process called tubulogenesis that is crucial to the formation of blood-transporting capillaries. The work is an important step with fragile endothelial cells (ECs) made from “induced pluripotent stem cells,” or iPSCs, a type of cell that can potentially be made from the cells of any human patient. Because iPSCs can be patient-specific, researchers hope to find ways of using

In 2012, among women aged 15–49 years, the estimated global prevalence of chlamydia was 4.2% (95% uncertainty interval (UI): 3.7–4.7%), gonorrhoea 0.8% (0.6–1.0%), trichomoniasis 5.0% (4.0–6.4%), and syphilis 0.5% (0.4–0.6%); among men, estimated chlamydia prevalence was 2.7% (2.0–3.6%), gonorrhoea 0.6% (0.4–0.9%), trichomoniasis 0.6% (0.4–0.8%), and syphilis 0.48% (0.3–0.7%). These figures correspond to an estimated 131 million new cases of chlamydia (100–166 million), 78 million of gonorrhoea (53–110 million), 143 million of trichomoniasis (98–202 million), and 6 million of syphilis (4–8 million). Prevalence and incidence estimates varied by region and sex. Oral sex is producing dangerous gonorrhoea and a decline in

Prof Adam Balen, president of the British Fertility Society, said that he had noticed a “big shift” in UK society, with many university-educated women delaying starting a family. “In my clinic I certainly see more older women seeking fertility treatment than in the past,” he said. The research comes amid a sex imbalance at British universities. In the academic year 2015-2016, 56% of UK students were women and 44% men, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency. The number of men attending US colleges for every 100 women has dropped from 117 in 1970 to 75 in 2011. According to

Airbus has set itself a goal of having a serialized production Urban Air Mobility (UAM) system ready for testing in a major city as early as 2023. The company is investing in two UAM research programs, CityAirbus, being developed in Europe by Airbus Helicopters under the group’s chief technology office (CTO), and the Vahana being developed by the company’s Silicon Valley offshoot, A3. Airbus has already carried out a successful trial in São Paulo of its helicopter ride-hailing service Voom, which aims to ease congestion by making helicopter travel more accessible and affordable. Elsewhere, teams from Silicon Valley to Europe

Baby incubators for moving premature babies are heavy, cumbersome devices, that require an external electricity supply and often dedicated vehicles to carry them as well. The Babypod was initially developed by AHT as a lightweight and more practical alternative. Williams (of Formula One) was then called in to develop a new, more advanced design. The result is a device that weighs just 9.1kg (20lb) – about the same as three bricks – takes up relatively little space, and that can withstand an impact of up to 20G (in case the ambulance carrying it is involved in an accident, for example).

Traci Mann, a social and health psychologist at the University of Minnesota, says it is possible to be fat and fit. Obesity is correlated with three different things are known to be deadly and shorten lifespan: 1. being sedentary 2. having a lower income 3. not getting enough medical care Being inactive is defined as having fewer than 30 minutes of physical activity a week. One clear bit of advice is that regardless of your success or lack of success dieting at least 1. Try to stay active and mobile 2. Avoid being poor and especially avoid being fat and

The US Department of Defense selected a small San Jose-based company, Paradromics Inc., to lead one of six consortia it is backing with $65 million to develop technologies able to record from one million individual neurons inside a human brain simultaneously. Recording from large numbers of neurons is essential if engineers are ever to create a seamless, high-throughput data link between the human brain and computers, including to restore lost senses. Paradromics wants to use the high bandwidth brain computer interface to cure blindness, deafness, paralysis, ALS, and amputation. Paradromics Neuroscience Research System would redefine “large–scale” by offering over 65,000,

Two weeks ago, Spacex successfully launched and recovered two Falcon 9 first stage boosters in the space of 49 hours. SpaceX’s used the booster recovered from the launch of Thaicom-8. Spacex seems confident in the reuse of first stages that have suffered high-velocity recoveries. It seems highly likely at least one and likely both recovered boosters will be relaunched. Spacex had the first use of a remotely-operated recovery robot. It could be seen below the leaning first stage as it entered Port Canaveral. SpaceX’s success with three launches in 13 days shows that weekly launches are possible, so long as

The 2017 UN world population prospects indicates that the world population is 7.6 billion as of mid-2017 and will reach 8.0 billion in 2020-2024. World population is growing at 1.10% each year and is adding 83 million people each year. This is down from 1.24% per year a decade ago. There may still be an undercount in several fast growing African nations because of very old census data. It is politically problematic in some countries to have a census. There could also be an undercount in China because of undocumented second and third children. There should be 7.65 billion people

1. The Evolving Planet – United States to experience first coast to coast total solar eclipse in 100 years! The solar eclipse will be most visible along a path that goes from Oregon to South Carolina on August 21. 2. The Evolving Planet – Research Suggests New Stars are Born in Pairs 3. Nextbigfuture – Tracking the advances in improved solar power for space applications 4. Nextbigfuture – Near term technology projects for 400 kilowatt 2000 ISP space propulsion 5. Nextbigfuture – Milky Way could have at least 100 billion larger brown dwarf stars Our galaxy could have 100 billion

There are many examples where costs have gone up well over ten times in education, healthcare and other areas but have not had the proportional improvement. Some importnant things cost 10 times as much, 10 times more than they used to and 10 times more than in other countries Inflation-adjusted cost of a US university education was something like $2000/year in 1980. Now it’s closer to $20,000/year. It can still cost $2000 per year for a university education in many universities in Canada. Do you think that modern colleges provide $18,000/year greater value than colleges did in your parents’ day?

The current most advanced robot cook is the hamburger maker developed by Momentum Machines, a startup funded by venture capitalist Vinod Khosla. It takes in raw meat, buns, condiments, sauces, and seasonings, and converts these into finished, bagged burgers at rates as high as 400 per hour. The machine does much of its own food preparation, and to preserve freshness it does not start grinding, mixing, and cooking until each order is placed. It also allows diners to greatly customize their burgers, specifying not only how they’d like them cooked, but also the mix of meats in the patty. Reviewers

It should be possible to build a silicon version of the human cerebral cortex with the transistor technology that was in production in 2013. The resulting machine would take up less than a cubic meter of space and consume less than 100 watts, not too far from the human brain. This article is summarizing the work of Jennifer Hasler and Bo Marr writing in Frontiers of Neuroscience – Finding a roadmap to achieve large neuromorphic hardware systems. Computational power efficiency for biological systems is 8–9 orders of magnitude higher (better) than the power efficiency wall for digital computation. Analog techniques

There was a 2015 NASA presentation on the status of solar power and batteries for use on NASA missions. There is progress on the packaging to store higher power and lighter weight solar. It also discusses the dropoff in solar power as you get farther from the sun.

Aerojet Rocketdyne, the nation’s premiere propulsion provider and a subsidiary of Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:AJRD), advocates Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) as a central element of America’s deep space architecture. During testimony before the Subcommittee on Space in the U.S. House of Representatives, Joe Cassady, executive director for Space Programs at Aerojet Rocketdyne, said, “SEP is key to a sustainable architecture by enabling efficient transfer of cargo, habitats and payloads to deep space destinations in advance of astronaut arrival.” SEP systems have between 6 and 10 times the propellant efficiency (specific impulse) of traditional chemical propulsion systems. More than 200

Researchers from Tohoku University have been trying to find out how the plasma flow is influenced by its environment via laboratory experiments. They are making progress towards creating an electrodeless plasma thruster used to propel spacecraft. There are many methods of propulsion used to accelerate spacecraft and artificial satellites. And while they all have their pros and cons, electric propulsion is now mature and widely used. The technology behind the electrically powered plasma thruster can deliver large thrust density without the need to expose electrodes to plasma, which cuts down on damage from erosion over time. While nearly all spacecraft

Deteriorating reliability of the F35 will causes costs to balloon, the Pentagon’s costliest program, according to an assessment from the Defense Department’s own testing office. The aircraft and its parts aren’t as reliable as expected, and it’s taking longer to repair them than planned, according to the presentation by the director of operational testing for defense officials and congressional aides. About 20 percent of the jets must await spares in depots because suppliers can’t keep up with expanding production while fixing returned parts. Costs and delays mean it is projected to cost $379 billion program to buy the planned fleet

Our galaxy could have 100 billion brown dwarfs or more, according to work by an international team of astronomers, led by Koraljka Muzic from the University of Lisbon and Aleks Scholz from the University of St Andrews. On Thursday 6 July Scholz will present their survey of dense star clusters, where brown dwarfs are abundant, at the National Astronomy Meeting at the University of Hull. Brown dwarfs are objects intermediate in mass between stars and planets, with masses too low to sustain stable hydrogen fusion in their core, the hallmark of stars like the Sun. After the initial discovery of

Reports of North Korea’s July 4 missile test say the missile had a range of “more that 930 km” (580 miles), and flew for 37 minutes (according to US Pacific Command). The 37 minute flight time suggests that the same missile could reach a maximum range of roughly 6,700 km (4,160 miles) on a standard trajectory.

Richard Fontaine at War on the Rocks considers the North Korea problem nuclear missile problem. Fontaine believes United States should respond to North Korea’s ICBM launch with a series of tough measures based on the actual, prevailing dynamics of power on the Korean peninsula and in Northeast Asia. He believes the following should be assumptions. * China will not solve North Korea. China does not want a unified Korea and getting of North Korea leadership could lead to a costly refugee problem for China. * South Korea and Japan will not solve North Korea. The military risks are too high

INRS researchers have achieved a breakthrough in a light-weight photonic system created using on-chip devices and off-the-shelf telecommunications components. They demonstrated that photons can become an accessible and powerful quantum resource when generated in the form of color-entangled quDits. The system uses a small and cost-effective photonic chip fabricated through processes similar to those used for integrated electronics. With an on-chip micro-ring resonator excited by a laser, photons are emitted in pairs that share a complex quantum state. The photons are constructed in a state featuring a number of superimposed frequency components: The photons have several colors simultaneously, and the

Four years ago, researchers at MIT’s Media Lab developed a computer vision system that can analyze street-level photos taken in urban neighborhoods in order to gauge how safe the neighborhoods would appear to human observers. Now, in an attempt to identify factors that predict urban change, the MIT team and colleagues at Harvard University have used the system to quantify the physical improvement or deterioration of neighborhoods in five American cities. In work reported today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the system compared 1.6 million pairs of photos taken seven years apart. The researchers used the

Fightaging reviews 15 years of SENS antiaging research. Go to this link to donate to SENS where your money can have the most impact on improving human longevity. Here is the highlights of since 2015. 2015 * The SENS Research Foundation’s yearly budget reaches $5 million. * The Spiegel Lab at Yale announces a method of creating glucosepane, a vital and to this point missing tool needed to develop glucosepane cross-link breaker drugs. This work was funded by the SENS Research Foundation. * A research team demonstrates the first senolytic drug candidates capable of selectively destroying senescent cells. The number

A US congressional committee is proposing that the US armed forces add a new military branch called the United States Space Corps. If this is passed it would be the first new branch of the armed forces since the Air Force was created in 1947. The Space Corp would provide “combat-ready space forces” that enable the commanders of the combatant commands to fight and win wars. The Space Corps would fall under the Air Force in the same way the Marine Corps works with the Navy. The 2018 Air Force space budget: it grew at least $1.5 billion. That’s a

Once propulsion challenges are overcome, allowing humans to travel great distances quickly without incurring significant radiation damage, Saturn’s moon Titan is the optimal location in the solar system for an off-Earth human settlement. It has Earth-like qualities and a thick atmosphere that provides shielding from damaging radiation unlike any other solid surface location in the solar system. Given the distance from Earth (~1.3 billion km), such a settlement must be self-sustainable, and in particular, humans will need to produce oxygen to breathe and provide heating for habitats. The abundance of hydrocarbons and availability of wind and hydro-based power give this

Researchers at the KIT are developing sunglasses with glasses made from semi-transparent, organic solar cells that supply an integrated microprocessor with energy. The solar glasses are an example of future mobile applications of photovoltaics. Organic solar cells are flexible, transparent and light – and can be produced in any shape and color. As a result, they offer a wealth of applications that can not be realized with conventional silicon solar cells. Researchers at the KIT are now presenting in the trade magazine Energy Technology a pair of sunglasses with colored half-transparent solar cells in the glass surfaces, which supply a

Materials that can withstand very high temperatures well over 2000 degrees (up to 3000 degrees celsius) can enable hypersonic vehicle, better rockets, better reentry vehicles and other space and military applications. The new material ihas a rate of material loss over 12 times better than conventional zirconium carbide at 2,500 °. Being able to withstand higher temperatures is central to better engineering for more efficient jet engines, high efficiency turbines for energy. Higher temperature materials are fundamental to allowing many things to be faster, more powerful and more efficient. University of Manchester and Central South University of China performed the work.

Half the world’s nations have fertility rates below the replacement level of just over two children per woman. Countries across Europe and the Far East are teetering on a demographic cliff, with rates below 1.5. On recent trends, Germany and Italy could see their populations halve within the next 60 years. The world has hit peak child, says Hans Rosling at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Peak person cannot be far behind. Some demographers had predicted peak global population by 2076 but most new estimates project continued world population growth past 2100. However, the population growth is focused in

Red.com who makes high resolution cameras used by photographic professionals and movies is making a $1200 holographic smartphone that will need no special glasses. It will be the world’s first holographic media machine and it will fit in your pocket. * view all 2D content at normal full resolution * view RED holographic hydrogen 4-View content * view stereo 3D content * view 2D/3D VR (virtual reality), AR (Augmented Reality) and MR (multi dimensional) It also has multidimensional audio. The new holographic phone will also integrate with all of RED’s high end video and still cameras. It will ship in

In 2016, IBM made a five-qubit quantum processor available to developers, researchers and programmers for experimentation via its cloud portal. In May, 2017 IBM announced a 16 qubit processor for its cloud-based quantum computer and a more tightly engineered 17-qubit processor could be the basis for commercial systems. IBM is using wire-loop superconducting circuits. Google’s 20-qubit processor is also using wire loop superconducting circuits. Google’s Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab expects to achieve quantum supremacy (quantum computers with a 49-qubit chip by the end of this year. Superconducting circuits and trapped ions should both be able become larger than 50 qubits

Scientists in China raised them have set a world record by achieving 101.2 seconds of steady-state H-mode operation of the tokamak, an experimental device designed to harness the energy of fusion. The milestone meant China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), dubbed “artificial sun,” becoming the world’s first tokamak device to achieve the 100-second level, Hefei Institute of Physical Science under the Chinese Academy of Sciences said Wednesday. Last year, the EAST team in Hefei, capital of Anhui Province, created a record by achieving over 60 seconds of steady-state long-pulse H-mode discharge of the device. EAST’s steady-state H-mode operation has provided

South Korea offers North korean defectors $860,000 in cash rewards for sensitive information about Kim Jong-un regime. An expanded $10 billion program of rewards could buy chaos, mass defections and breakdown of the North Korean nuclear and missile programs and pressure the North Korean leadership. There was also a $25 million bounty for Bin Laden. Taiwan used to give gold (550 pounds or almost $10 million in todays value) for Chinese pilots who defected with their jets. The South Korean rewards would go to “people who provide intelligence and knowledge that can enhance South Korea’s security”, the Yonhap news agency

In May, a study claimed that the revolutionary CRISPR gene editing technique can cause thousands of unwanted and potentially dangerous mutations. The authors called for regulators to reassess the safety of the technique. But doubts were raised about these claims from the very beginning, not least because it was a tiny study involving just three mice. Some critics have called for the paper to be withdrawn. Now a paper posted online on 5 July has proposed a simple and more plausible explanation for the controversial results. Tsang and colleagues claimed that by sequencing the entire genome, they found off-target mutations

The Straddle bus project gained worldwide attention when it was shown at various trade fairs in 2016 and with coverage 2009 to 2016. The project was also covered at Nextbigfuture. Time listed the Straddle bus as one of the top 50 innovations of 2010. The project was officially stopped last month. Police in Beijing have launched an investigation and arrested 32 people for illegal fundraising, as speculation mounts that rather than China’s next ambitious transit solution it was never much more than an elaborate investment scam. The BBC reported Tuesday that among those arrested was Bai Zhiming, CEO of the

All US Presidents from Reagan, to Bush 1, Clinton, Bush 2, Obama and Trump have failed to reverse the North Korean Nuclear program. Presidents from Eisenhower to Carter failed to prioritize and solve the North Korean rogue state issue. China has long feared a refugee crisis flooding its borders if North Korea’s leadership collapses. South Korea does not want to pay the price of a second Korean war. China does not want a unified Korea and China and Russia have seen some utility for North Korea in its current state. Sanctions have not worked because China has not enforced them

Duke Robotics makes the TIKAD drone, which is a drone modified to carry a machine gun, a grenade launcher, and variety of other weapons to fight tomorrow’s urban warfare battles. They are selling the drone to the the US and Israeli military. It is a fully robotic weaponry system to an airborne platform. TIKAD, which is a proprietary development of Duke, uses the delivery of a unique suppression firing and stabilization solution. The TIKAD allows us to utilize completely new capabilities against terrorist groups and reduce the number of deployed ground troops, and therefore, the number of casualties. Instead of

Instead of relying on silicon-based devices, a new 3D chip uses carbon nanotubes, which are sheets of 2-D graphene formed into nanocylinders, and resistive random-access memory (RRAM) cells, a type of nonvolatile memory that operates by changing the resistance of a solid dielectric material. The researchers integrated over 1 million RRAM cells and 2 million carbon nanotube field-effect transistors, making the most complex nanoelectronic system ever made with emerging nanotechnologies. The RRAM and carbon nanotubes are built vertically over one another, making a new, dense 3-D computer architecture with interleaving layers of logic and memory. By inserting ultradense wires between