Netizen

Nanotube Muscles Bench 50,000 Times Their Own Weight

Carbon nanotube yarns powered by light or electricity can run motors, flip a catapult, and lift impressive amounts of weight. ..... lifting loads as much as 50,000 times greater than their own weight .... Artificial muscles might be used as actuators in robotics and surgical tools, and drive tiny motors and flywheels. The nanotube muscles can be powered by electricity, but they also contract in response to light and certain chemicals. And they work at temperatures as high as 2,500 degrees Celsius, an extreme that reduces other strong actuating materials to a molten puddle. And unlike previous carbon nanotube muscles, these materials require no packaging or battery-like electrolytes to function. ..... Individual carbon nanotubes are stronger than steel, highly conductive, have great optical properties, and so on .... One problem is the tendency for nanotubes to form spaghetti-like tangles, where each point of tube-to-tube contact can compromise strength. But over the past few years materials scientists have been learning how to straighten out these tangles and build large, useful things

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

For China To Achieve Double Digit Growths Again

GDP per capita China 2002 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Massive political reform is necessary. A country that represses free speech can not beat one that celebrates it.

China’s Innovation Success Depends on Political Changes

Since 1978, the Chinese economy has seen phenomenal growth. ..... the country has grown by relying heavily on investments, exports, and its huge low-cost labor force. That formula has worked well so far, but evidence indicates that China is getting less and less from this approach lately. The country’s export growth is decelerating quickly, and China is already investing an amount equivalent to about half of its GDP—which is probably the highest level ever among any country in peacetime. ...... changing the country’s strategy so that its growth wastes less energy, requires less investment, and is less reliant on exploiting cheap labor as a competitive advantage. .... a transition out of the rapid growth model of the last three decades will be fraught with technical uncertainties and political complexities ..... The factors that drive a country to grow when its GDP per capita is $500 are totally different from the growth drivers when a country has a per capita GDP beyond $5,000. At $500—which was the case in China in 1994—you can copy the technology and production methods of other countries and drop them into your economy. ..... As a country gets richer, its growth formula changes. Innovations, technology, and productivity improvements become more important, as do domestic entrepreneurs and innovators. ...... Professors in China are like company employees, in contrast to their fiercely independent counterparts in the West. Research projects are often directed from the top down rather than being initiated by professors and researchers. Data sharing is difficult across bureaucracies ...... the huge export markets in Europe and the United States—is shrinking on the demand side. ...... technology-based growth drivers require more than simply copying other countries’ technology and business models. They require a rule-based system, IP protection, freedom to think and challenge authority, and a government with limited reach and power. In other words, they require Western institutions.