Instead of throwing all that potentially valuable material into the pacific ocean, why not coral it all into one big "trash heap" and recycle it? After, it takes a lot more energy to put something into orbit than it does to move something to another orbit. At the very least, the trash heap could serve as a testing ground for space manufacturing processes.

So what happens when some wiseguy decides to mine asteroids for gold? The gold market could crash into the ground from the amount of gold flowing into the market.

As it is, gold is already more expensive per unit kilogram than the cost of launching a kilogram into space.

Cost of gold as of now: $26970.70
Cost of launching a kilogram into space:
Using the space shuttle: ~$22,000
Using a falcon 9: ~$2800

The moon's gravity well is much shallower than Earth's How much shallower you might ask? Well to get a pretty good idea, take a look at the Saturn V compared to the Apollo Lunar Module. If you want to get more technical, the mass ratio, or initial mass of rocket(w/ propellant)/final mass of rocket minus propellant of a rocket increases exponentially with the amount of delta V you need. So in other words you need 37* times "more rocket" to launch the same amount of mass to LEO from the Earth than it does from the Moon all other things being equal. * mass ratio =e^ (Delta V/ Exhaust velocity) Delta V from Lunar surface to LEO 6.4 Delta V from Earth surface to LEO 10 e^10/e^6.4= 36.5982344

According to "Sustainable Energy--- without the hot air," it's pretty much impossible to get anything but small gains in energy efficiency in aircraft.

So according to this article it takes 40 people wearing these to purify 2 cubic meters of air in a minute. Each of which needs to be in direct sunlight as this probably relies on a photocatalyst. At this rate it'd probably be far more effective for these 40 people to bike or bus instead of commuting by car.(Of course, one could put the photocatalyst in the pavement, but that's already been done) And not to mention, given that these dresses likely use a photocatalytic mechanism, they do nothing about particulate pollution.

One reason the researchers might be suggesting a device that plugs into the phone, is that the microfluidic chip might require power. The detection process might require a PCR step(and yes, PCR can be done in 'CSI plot device' timeframes) this takes power. Bodily fluids are often quite viscous and might need to be pumped through the device. This would be especially necessary if part of the detection process involved mixing the bodily fluids with reagents as on small size scales(low Re, unless the fluid's going at the speed of sound) fluids don't mix, at least over reasonable time scales. This necessitates pumping your fluids to be mixed through micromixers, this takes power. Also, at the very least a UV LED would be needed to show fluorescent markers.

Another attractive feature of additive manufacturing(3d printing refers to a specific additive manufacturing process) is that it's more efficient to additively manufacture exceptionally strong materials like TiAl6V4 and than it is to machine them. As exceptionally strong materials tend to be hard to machine, because they're exceptionally strong! In addition, making "impossible" shapes might be advantageous. Hollow impossible to make cellular truss structures can have around twice the specific strength and specific stiffness of bulk material. Also additive manufacturing can be used for production, in fact the new joint strike fighter could have additively manufactured parts in it. In addition this is being done because it's cheaper(as in ~$10 million cheaper) to make them this way. Though, if you want a nice shiny surface finish you'll need to do post-processing....

Absolutely, present the .STL files and I'll download one right now.

and statistics... Wouldn't want everyone freaking out after every low-n medical study that comes out(IE "SMOKING MAKES YOU HEALTHIER!").

Perhaps this is yet another one of Steve Wozniak's pranks...

You might want to reconsider growing algae for food, one research group at my university is investigating growing algae to produce sugar, so we don't have to cut down forests to grow sugarcane. Also, I really hope those LED panels are solar powered. As solar powered LED panels emitting light at frequencies the algae uses can be far more efficient than growing algae in direct sunlight(even cheap solar panels are more efficient at solar conversion than algae).

One of the reasons bioluminescence gets researched by the military so much is because bioluminescent plankton create flashes of light that interfere with submarine laser communication systems. As plankton and submarine laser communication systems like to use wavelengths of light that transmit furthest in water(blue-green).

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know of any purging gas or artificial atmosphere applications that CANNOT under any circumstance use argon as a replacement for helium?

Why even bother rebottling it when you can scrub the CO2 out and add more oxygen just like they do in rebreathers? The helium, which is inert, would essentially be along for the ride each inhalation-exhalation breathing cycle.

Anyone care to do the energy density calculation on a mass basis? Also I wonder how efficient the process is at converting mechanical energy to chemical energy?(it's almost like a gasoline engine running in reverse!)