NASA's NEXT ion thruster clocks up continuous operation world record

Photo credit: NASA/ Gizmag

We've all seen photographs & video of the rocket engine belching flames with a thunderous roar. That's what is required to get into Earth orbit. Once out of the gravity well of Earth, a small thrust, available for a thousands of hours will suffice. Such a specification fits the ion engine & its efficiency is 10 to 12 times that of chemical rockets.

http://www.gizmag.com/next-ion-record/25570/ / Evolutionary Xenon Thruster NEXT ion engine world record 43,000 hours continuous operation Glenn Research Center Electric Propulsion Laboratory seven-kiloWatt thruster propel future NASA deep space probes missions chemical rockets practical option efficient solar panels nuclear power source electricity ionize molecules xenon /

How we'd really deal with an Armageddon-sized asteroid

Image credit: The Week

http://theweek.com/article/index/238170/how-wed-really-deal-with-an-armageddon-sized-asteroid / Bruce Willis crew astronauts Sun nuke nuclear explosive knock off course shadow gravity nuclear bomb destroy near Earth object NEO /

Forget JavaScript, it's time for browsers to speed up images

Around 60% of a typical Web page is graphics. So isn't it about time browsers & servers were optimized for handling images?

http://www.webmonkey.com/2012/12/forget-javascript-its-time-for-browsers-to-speed-up-images/ / format HTML .gif .jpg accepts download new /

The year's most audacious private space exploration plans

Photo credit: SpaceX/ Wired

Private asteroid mining!  Commercial trips to the Moon!  Mars settlements!  Can't wait!

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/12/audacious-space-companies-2012/ / NASA engineers veterans spaceflight community deep entrepreneurial pockets potential profits space SpaceX Elon Musk rocket Falcon Heavy US USA military commercial rocket Golden Spike Company lunar surface Planetary Resources Inc B612 Corporation Mars One Google Lunar X-Prize Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Burt Rutan XCOR Lynx spaceplane Scaled Composites /

Nexus 7 cases to protect your new tablet

http://the-gadgeteer.com/2012/12/27/5-nexus-7-cases-to-protect-your-new-tablet/ / Rickshaw Google Android Noreve leather handcrafted France poetic slimline Waterfield Designs Saddleback scratches dings bump scratch /

25 nuclear power plants could be replaced by geothermal in Japan

http://cleantechnica.com/2012/12/22/25-nuclear-power-plants-could-be-replaced-by-geothermal-in-japan/ / atomic uranium fission reactor radiation Stefan Larus Stefansson Iceland ambassador lecture household home heating steam heat turbine hot spring /

Microsoft Surface review: A month with Microsoft’s Surface tablet

Take home message: great hardware, but not the best usability.

http://bgr.com/2012/11/19/microsoft-surface-review-month-one/ / tablet slate Windows RT operating system OS performance issues availability available apps Office software kickstand machined VaporMg magnesium case integrated full size keyboard Touch Type Cover weight performance issue software updates major firmware update Windows 8 Pro portable affordable /

Green storage: New funding for wider use of the sunshine & wind

Many sustainable energy sources are spasmodic: when the Sun shines or the wind blows. To make energy from such sources available 24/7, some form of storage is required. A team at Harvard University has a $600,000 grant from ARPA-E to develop a large scale storage solution.

http://cleantechnica.com/2012/12/25/green-storage-new-funding-for-catching-the-shine-of-the-sun-and-the-stirring-of-the-wind/ / flow battery capacity /

Some autistic brains really are wired differently

http://healthland.time.com/2010/11/03/study-some-autistic-brains-really-are-wired-differently/ / too many tight connections frontal-lobe circuits few long synapse autism language social problems repetitive behavior autism spectrum disorder study published Science Translational Medicine research links variant CNTNAP2 gene functional magnetic resonance imaging fMRI MRI genetic data brain activity motivation pleasure learning /