ENID, Oklahoma (Reuters) – To the untrained eye, Pollard Farms looks much like any other cattle ranch. Similar looking cows are huddled in similar looking pens. But some of the cattle here don’t just resemble each other. They are literally identical — clear down to their genes.

Of the 400-some cattle in Barry Pollard’s herd of mostly Black Angus cattle there are 22 clones, genetic copies of some of the most productive livestock the world has ever known.

Pollard, a neurosurgeon and owner of Pollard Farms, says such breeding technology is at the forefront of a new era in animal agriculture. “We’re trying to stay on the very top of the heap of quality, genetically, with animals that will gain well and fatten well, produce well and reproduce well,” Pollard told a reporter during a recent visit to his farm.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2008 approved the sale of food from clones and their offspring, stating the products are indistinguishable from that of their non-clone counterparts. Japan, the European Union, and others have followed suit.

The moves have stirred controversy about whether tinkering with nature is safe, or even ethical, prompting major food companies to swear off food products from cloned animals. But consumers are likely already eating meat and drinking milk from the offspring of clones, which are technically not clones, without even knowing it.

Farmers can now use cloning and other assisted breeding technologies to breed cows that produce bigger, better steaks or massive amounts of milk, and animals that resist diseases or reproduce with clockwork precision. Premier genes can translate to improved feeding efficiency, meaning the ability to convert the least amount of feed into the most meat or milk, which results in a smaller environmental footprint.

“If you don’t need as much corn to feed your cattle, you might be able to cut back on the amount of fertilizer put out there on the countryside that might end up in a river. You can cut the amount of diesel that’s spent raising that corn,” Pollard said. “Just like they improve the genetics of corn, so they can produce more bushels per acre, we’re trying to do that same type of thing by using cloning and superior genetics to produce more meat with less input.”

RISING FOOD DEMAND

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization has said food production will need to double by mid-century to meet demand from a growing world population, with 70 percent of that growth coming from efficiency-improving technologies. Such forecasts have prompted calls for a second Green Revolution, a rethinking of the movement championed by Norman Borlaug, who won the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in boosting grain production for starving nations.

Biotechnological advances in grain production will remain at the forefront of the global fight to alleviate hunger, although animal agriculture will likely contribute in the longer term.

“When people talk about feeding the world, reducing or eliminating hunger, I don’t think animal agriculture has much of a role to play. But, as people successfully move out of that extreme poverty, that’s when you get the growth in demand for animal protein and potentially cloning could have positive benefits,” said Robert Thomson, professor of agricultural policy at the University of Illinois.

Some animal breeds, ideally suited for arid climates, could be propagated to utilize grazing pastures unsuitable for crop production. Others may be bred to resist local maladies, like the Nguni cattle breed, which can develop resistance to ticks and immunity to tick-borne diseases.

Meanwhile, a growing and more affluent population in the developing world is seen boosting demand for meat and dairy products. Meat consumption in developing countries more than doubled from about 10 kilograms (22 pounds) per person per year in the 1960s to around 26 kg near the turn of the century, according to the FAO. By 2030, that was expected to rise to 37 kg per person. Milk and dairy product consumption has made similarly rapid growth.

SLOW ACCEPTANCE

Supporters say cloning will no doubt play a role in accelerating production, but the technology has been slow to take, primarily because of the high cost and resistance on ethical grounds. Of the more than 2.4 million Angus cattle that have been registered with the American Angus Association since 2001, only 56 were clones, according to Bryce Schumann, the group’s chief executive.

It costs at least $15,000 to clone a cow and $4,000 to clone a sow, although improving efficiencies will likely lower those costs in coming years, said Mark Walton, president of ViaGen, a company in Austin, Texas, that provides animal cloning and genomics services.

ViaGen owns the intellectual property rights to the technology that in 1996 produced Dolly the sheep, the world’s first animal cloned from an adult cell, at Scotland’s Roslin Institute. ViaGen, along with its partner company, Trans Ova Genetics of Sioux Center, Iowa, produces the vast majority of the clones in the United States. Other cloning companies are in Brazil, Argentina, Australia, and China.

Of the roughly 102 million cattle and 66 million hogs in the United States, “no more than a few thousand” are clones, according to Walton. Global numbers are around 6,000.

The most common cloning technique is called somatic cell nuclear transfer, a process in which a donor egg cell’s nucleus is removed and replaced with the nucleus (and genes) of a cell from the animal that scientists aim to duplicate. That cell is then stimulated and later implanted in a surrogate mother.

Walton said cloning is costly because it is a relatively tedious process and the technology is relatively immature, comparable to the production inefficiencies to that of the early automobile industry. Years ago, scientists were able to achieve success in only 2 or 3 percent of attempts, but ViaGen now boasts 10 to 15 percent efficiency in producing a calf. It’s aim is nearer to 60 percent, about the same as traditional in-vitro fertilization, Walton said.

CONSUMER ACCEPTANCE

Despite the steady improvement in the technology, consumer acceptance of cloning as a viable means to produce human food remains the top hurdle for breeders and cloning companies.

A survey conducted by the International Food Information Council found that half of Americans surveyed viewed animal cloning as “not very favorable” or “not at all favorable.” A similar number said they were unlikely to buy meat, milk, or eggs from offspring of cloned animals, even if the FDA says the products are safe. Other surveys have found that nearly half of consumers have moral objections to cloning.

“When you’re genetically modifying a plant, creating a seed that perhaps has a resistance to insects, that’s different than cloning, and maybe modifying a sentient being,” said Chris Waldrop, director of the Food Policy Institute at the Consumer Federation of America. “There are different ethical, religious, and moral issues that a society has to grapple with before they move forward on such a technology.”

Despite cloning’s gradually improving rate of success in producing healthy animals, the process still has a high rate of failure. Some animals are born with abnormalities and have to be euthanized and some have more health problems at birth than conventionally bred animals.

Large Offspring Syndrome also occurs more often with assisted breeding technologies like cloning. The syndrome causes the fetus to grow too large, causing problems for both the clone and the surrogate.

Opponents also say the FDA’s risk assessment was not thorough enough and a long-term, multi-generational study of cloning’s effects on food products is needed. At the very least, the products should be labeled as derived from cloning, they say.

“The largest study looked at milk from only 15 cows. Only one study used standard methods of toxicology, and that study looked at the effects of feeding 20 rats products from clones for 14 weeks,” said Jaydee Hanson, policy analyst at the Center for Food Safety, a nonprofit advocacy and research group. “We don’t think that cloning is a technology that’s ready yet, and we certainly don’t think it’s ready to be on your plate.”

The only way to definitively avoid food from clones is to buy organic products, which by the Organic Trade Association’s definition are from only traditionally bred animals, he said.

The U.S. Agriculture Department has asked the livestock industry to voluntarily keep clones out of the food supply for the moment, but the moratorium does not apply to progeny of clones. Major meat and dairy companies, such as Tyson Foods, Smithfield Foods, and Dean Foods, have said they will not accept products from clones, citing the desires of their customers.

BREEDERS, NOT FOOD

ViaGen’s Walton said cloned animals are far too valuable as breeding stock to be used for food, but that the progeny of clones are “undoubtedly already in the food chain.” However, he said, “the proportion is infinitesimally small compared to the total meat supply, a tiny little drop in the ocean.”

Still, ViaGen and the Biotechnology Industry Organization have helped to create a supply chain management program to track clones from birth to death. ViaGen also gives farmers the incentive to disclose when and where they cull a clone by holding a deposit until the clone’s owner can verify that the animal has been euthanized or slaughtered for meat.

In time, Walton said, consumers and food producers will become more comfortable with cloning, much like they have with genetically modified crops, but it will take time and it will take openness from cloning providers.

“Companies have a bottom line to protect, so they are cautious about new technologies and they are cautious about listening to their customers,” he said. “No scientist can say definitively that nothing will be different tomorrow. But, given the body of knowledge and the amount of work that’s been done, you can be extremely confident that the probability of something untoward happening is incredibly small.”

Dell has been a trend-setter when it comes to the incorporation of greener technologies to reduce their corporate carbon footprint and they’re doing it again! Although this time they are following the lead of Google, by installing solar trees in the parking lot of their head office in Round Rock, Texas.

The solar trees were created by Envision Solar, which was also responsible for Google’s installation, and will accomplish more than one goal for the company – providing a green solar option that will provide some level of power to the headquarters site, and create charging stations for employees in the staff parking lot. Although Envision Solar engineered the project, the solar panels themselves are byproducts of BP Solar and the charging points themselves, which will provide plug-in energy for those driving hybrid and electric vehicles to work at Dell, come from Coulomb Technologies.

The solar trees will provide 130,000 KW per year to the facility, and also offer shade and charging points to staff in the parking lots; the only downside of this installation is that the trees are only accessible for shade and charging for a small percentage of Dell employees who drive to work since they cover a mere 56 spots and have 2 Clean Charge stations for plug-in power in the Round Rock lot.

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Dell has been a trend-setter when it comes to the incorporation of greener technologies to reduce their corporate carbon footprint and they’re doing it again! Although this time they are following the lead of Google, by installing solar trees in the parking lot of their head office in Round Rock, Texas.

The solar trees were created by Envision Solar, which was also responsible for Google’s installation, and will accomplish more than one goal for the company – providing a green solar option that will provide some level of power to the headquarters site, and create charging stations for employees in the staff parking lot. Although Envision Solar engineered the project, the solar panels themselves are byproducts of BP Solar and the charging points themselves, which will provide plug-in energy for those driving hybrid and electric vehicles to work at Dell, come from Coulomb Technologies.

The solar trees will provide 130,000 KW per year to the facility, and also offer shade and charging points to staff in the parking lots; the only downside of this installation is that the trees are only accessible for shade and charging for a small percentage of Dell employees who drive to work since they cover a mere 56 spots and have 2 Clean Charge stations for plug-in power in the Round Rock lot.

Start uga_filter:

Designed for Renault, the “Zep’lin” by industrial designer Damien Grossemy is a hypothetical vehicle to explore the new range of electric vehicles. Featuring a vertical architecture, the concept vehicle by French designer can change the direction quickly and land anywhere without the need of infrastructure. Generating energy from solar panels located on the top, the Zep’lin can tilt towards the sun, thanks to the ingenious rudder system, for optimum energy generation. Moving like a sailboat, the Zep’lin is a new symbol of eco-commutation. Check out the video after the jump.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JJ6C0Sp76c

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Designed for Renault, the “Zep’lin” by industrial designer Damien Grossemy is a hypothetical vehicle to explore the new range of electric vehicles. Featuring a vertical architecture, the concept vehicle by French designer can change the direction quickly and land anywhere without the need of infrastructure. Generating energy from solar panels located on the top, the Zep’lin can tilt towards the sun, thanks to the ingenious rudder system, for optimum energy generation. Moving like a sailboat, the Zep’lin is a new symbol of eco-commutation. Check out the video after the jump.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JJ6C0Sp76c

Start uga_filter:

Carbon is usually typecast as a villain in terms of the environment but researchers at the University of Warwick have devised a novel way to miniaturise a technology that will make carbon a key material in some extremely green heating products for our homes and in air conditioning equipment for our cars.

Professor Bob Critoph, University of Warwick. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Warwick)

Most domestic heating and automotive air conditioning requires a lot of energy. Domestic space heating and hot water account for 25% of energy consumption in the UK. Across the EU, vehicle air conditioning uses about 5% of the vehicle fuel consumed annually, and within the UK it is responsible for over 2 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions.

To combat global warming, new technologies to reduce these emissions are vital. Researchers at the University of Warwick have been working on practical solutions for many years and are now developing new energy saving technologies.

In houses, the best condensing boilers are about 90% efficient. There are electric heat pumps on the market that use electricity to extract heat from the outside air or the ground to heat homes more efficiently, but the electricity used still incurs large CO₂ emissions at the power station. Researchers have long been aware of a much more energy efficient way to drive heat pumps (or air conditioners) using adsorption technology. This uses heat from a gas flame or engine waste heat to power a closed system containing only active carbon and refrigerant. When the carbon is at room temperature it adsorbs the refrigerant and when heated the refrigerant is driven out. A process which alternately heats and cools the carbon can be used to extract heat from the outside air and put it into radiators or hot water tanks. In the case of air conditioning it extracts the heat from the inside of the car. The major snag has been that adsorption technology to date would need to be roughly 300 litres in volume for a car air conditioner and larger for a heat pump to heat your house. Clearly that is not going to fit into a car and the volume of unit required for domestic heating probably couldn’t fit under your stairs at home either…

However University of Warwick researchers have made a breakthrough in adsorption systems design that dramatically shrinks these devices making them small and light enough for use in both domestic heating and automotive air conditioning. They have devised and filed a patent on a clever new arrangement that distributes thin (typically 0.7mm thick) sheets of metal throughout the active carbon in the heat exchanger. Each of these sheets contains more than a hundred tiny water channels (typically 0.3mm in diameter) designed to make the heat transfer much more efficient. This has enabled the Warwick team to create adsorption based equipment that is up to 20 times smaller than was previously possible.

The researchers expect that their new adsorption technology can create domestic heat pumps that will produce a 30% or more reduction in domestic fuel bills (and CO₂ emissions) compared to even the best condensing boiler. In car air conditioning systems their new system can exploit waste heat from the engine, converting it into useful cooling. Because no (or very little) mechanical power is then taken from the engine it will reduce both fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions by nearly 5%. The research team also anticipate that in new vehicle models the system can be integrated with little or no extra cost.

The University of Warwick engineers have had significant interest in the new technology from a range of companies, and they have already entered a technical partnership with a major global vehicle manufacturer to develop and demonstrate the technology. There has also been considerable interest from the domestic heating and hot water market

This significant commercial interest has led to a new spin-out company, Sorption Energy Ltd, being set up by Warwick Ventures, the university’s technology transfer office, and H2O Venture Partners. Initially the company will use the new patent pending technology to focus on two high value markets: greener heating and hot water systems for houses and air conditioning for cars.

Lead researcher on the new technology, University of Warwick’s Professor Bob Critoph said:

“My team has been working on these developments for several years, supported by grants from EPSRC and the EU totalling over £2.5million. The technology is now ready for commercialisation and we are very excited by the opportunities which are developing. It is particularly pleasing that the technology will significantly help reduce CO₂ emissions.”

Dr David Auty, Chief Executive of Sorption Energy said: “This is exciting stuff. The technology has been proven in the University’s laboratories at the sizes needed for vehicles and domestic systems, and there are several other large markets. The ability to provide products which make significant reductions in both energy consumption and CO₂ emissions at a similar price to existing products will make Sorption Energy very attractive to customers, and is very satisfying for the team.”

“The UK is the global market leader in gas boilers. There are 21 million gas boilers in the UK with 1.7million installed each year, mainly replacements, and around 11 million units sold annually worldwide. For domestic housing the retrofit market is the primary interest: 80% of the housing for 2050 has already been built. This presents both a massive opportunity both for emission reduction and for UK industry.”

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Carbon is usually typecast as a villain in terms of the environment but researchers at the University of Warwick have devised a novel way to miniaturise a technology that will make carbon a key material in some extremely green heating products for our homes and in air conditioning equipment for our cars.

Professor Bob Critoph, University of Warwick. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Warwick)

Most domestic heating and automotive air conditioning requires a lot of energy. Domestic space heating and hot water account for 25% of energy consumption in the UK. Across the EU, vehicle air conditioning uses about 5% of the vehicle fuel consumed annually, and within the UK it is responsible for over 2 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions.

To combat global warming, new technologies to reduce these emissions are vital. Researchers at the University of Warwick have been working on practical solutions for many years and are now developing new energy saving technologies.

In houses, the best condensing boilers are about 90% efficient. There are electric heat pumps on the market that use electricity to extract heat from the outside air or the ground to heat homes more efficiently, but the electricity used still incurs large CO₂ emissions at the power station. Researchers have long been aware of a much more energy efficient way to drive heat pumps (or air conditioners) using adsorption technology. This uses heat from a gas flame or engine waste heat to power a closed system containing only active carbon and refrigerant. When the carbon is at room temperature it adsorbs the refrigerant and when heated the refrigerant is driven out. A process which alternately heats and cools the carbon can be used to extract heat from the outside air and put it into radiators or hot water tanks. In the case of air conditioning it extracts the heat from the inside of the car. The major snag has been that adsorption technology to date would need to be roughly 300 litres in volume for a car air conditioner and larger for a heat pump to heat your house. Clearly that is not going to fit into a car and the volume of unit required for domestic heating probably couldn’t fit under your stairs at home either…

However University of Warwick researchers have made a breakthrough in adsorption systems design that dramatically shrinks these devices making them small and light enough for use in both domestic heating and automotive air conditioning. They have devised and filed a patent on a clever new arrangement that distributes thin (typically 0.7mm thick) sheets of metal throughout the active carbon in the heat exchanger. Each of these sheets contains more than a hundred tiny water channels (typically 0.3mm in diameter) designed to make the heat transfer much more efficient. This has enabled the Warwick team to create adsorption based equipment that is up to 20 times smaller than was previously possible.

The researchers expect that their new adsorption technology can create domestic heat pumps that will produce a 30% or more reduction in domestic fuel bills (and CO₂ emissions) compared to even the best condensing boiler. In car air conditioning systems their new system can exploit waste heat from the engine, converting it into useful cooling. Because no (or very little) mechanical power is then taken from the engine it will reduce both fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions by nearly 5%. The research team also anticipate that in new vehicle models the system can be integrated with little or no extra cost.

The University of Warwick engineers have had significant interest in the new technology from a range of companies, and they have already entered a technical partnership with a major global vehicle manufacturer to develop and demonstrate the technology. There has also been considerable interest from the domestic heating and hot water market

This significant commercial interest has led to a new spin-out company, Sorption Energy Ltd, being set up by Warwick Ventures, the university’s technology transfer office, and H2O Venture Partners. Initially the company will use the new patent pending technology to focus on two high value markets: greener heating and hot water systems for houses and air conditioning for cars.

Lead researcher on the new technology, University of Warwick’s Professor Bob Critoph said:

“My team has been working on these developments for several years, supported by grants from EPSRC and the EU totalling over £2.5million. The technology is now ready for commercialisation and we are very excited by the opportunities which are developing. It is particularly pleasing that the technology will significantly help reduce CO₂ emissions.”

Dr David Auty, Chief Executive of Sorption Energy said: “This is exciting stuff. The technology has been proven in the University’s laboratories at the sizes needed for vehicles and domestic systems, and there are several other large markets. The ability to provide products which make significant reductions in both energy consumption and CO₂ emissions at a similar price to existing products will make Sorption Energy very attractive to customers, and is very satisfying for the team.”

“The UK is the global market leader in gas boilers. There are 21 million gas boilers in the UK with 1.7million installed each year, mainly replacements, and around 11 million units sold annually worldwide. For domestic housing the retrofit market is the primary interest: 80% of the housing for 2050 has already been built. This presents both a massive opportunity both for emission reduction and for UK industry.”

Start uga_filter:

Researchers in Australia and the UK are flying the idea that insect wings could act as a model for making self-cleaning, frictionless, and superhydrophobic materials. They discuss the latest developments in their laboratories in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Nanomanufacturing.

Insects are incredible nanotechnologists. The surfaces of many insect wings have evolved properties materials scientists only dream of for their creations. For instance, some wings are superhydrophobic, due to a clever combination of natural chemistry and their detailed structure at the nanoscopic scale. This means that the wing cannot become wet, the tiniest droplet of water is instantly repelled. Likewise, other insect wing surfaces are almost frictionless, so that any tiny dust particles that might stick are sloughed away with minimal force.

Now, Gregory Watson of the James Cook University, in Townsville, Queensland, working with colleagues there and at Griffith University, and the universities of Queensland, and Oxford, are hoping to mimic these properties by using the surface of insect wings as a template for producing plastics, or polymeric, materials with novel surface properties.

If they are successful, they might then develop self-cleaning, water-resistant, and friction-free coatings for a wide range of machine components, construction materials, and other applications, including nano- and micro-electromechanical systems (NEMS and MEMS) and lab-on-a-chip devices for medical diagnostics and environmental sensing.

The team has carried out atomic force microscopy analysis of the surface of insect wings in order to determine the forces with which fine dust particles stick, or rather don’t stick to the wing. That work confirms that only very small forces, just a few billionths of a Newton (2 to 20 nanonewtons) are needed to shed nanoscopic dust particles. 10 Newtons is the approximate force exerted by a 1 kg bag of sugar sitting on a kitchen work surface because of gravity. 2 nN is equivalent to the downward force of 100th imposed by a single grain of sugar.

“Many of the surfaces demonstrate superhydrophobic properties and will not only reduce the effects of contact with surfaces but also promote a self-cleaning function for removing foreign bodies,” the team explains.

With that data in hand, they then used wing membrane as a “natural template” to cast a polymer surface and so duplicate the surface structure of the wing in PDMS, polydimethylsiloxane, the same type of silicone gel used in breast implants. One of the advantages of this approach is that no prior “design” of the surface of the material is needed and so the team can exploit the enormous diversity of surface types from different insects and so produce materials with specific characteristics.

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Researchers in Australia and the UK are flying the idea that insect wings could act as a model for making self-cleaning, frictionless, and superhydrophobic materials. They discuss the latest developments in their laboratories in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Nanomanufacturing.

Insects are incredible nanotechnologists. The surfaces of many insect wings have evolved properties materials scientists only dream of for their creations. For instance, some wings are superhydrophobic, due to a clever combination of natural chemistry and their detailed structure at the nanoscopic scale. This means that the wing cannot become wet, the tiniest droplet of water is instantly repelled. Likewise, other insect wing surfaces are almost frictionless, so that any tiny dust particles that might stick are sloughed away with minimal force.

Now, Gregory Watson of the James Cook University, in Townsville, Queensland, working with colleagues there and at Griffith University, and the universities of Queensland, and Oxford, are hoping to mimic these properties by using the surface of insect wings as a template for producing plastics, or polymeric, materials with novel surface properties.

If they are successful, they might then develop self-cleaning, water-resistant, and friction-free coatings for a wide range of machine components, construction materials, and other applications, including nano- and micro-electromechanical systems (NEMS and MEMS) and lab-on-a-chip devices for medical diagnostics and environmental sensing.

The team has carried out atomic force microscopy analysis of the surface of insect wings in order to determine the forces with which fine dust particles stick, or rather don’t stick to the wing. That work confirms that only very small forces, just a few billionths of a Newton (2 to 20 nanonewtons) are needed to shed nanoscopic dust particles. 10 Newtons is the approximate force exerted by a 1 kg bag of sugar sitting on a kitchen work surface because of gravity. 2 nN is equivalent to the downward force of 100th imposed by a single grain of sugar.

“Many of the surfaces demonstrate superhydrophobic properties and will not only reduce the effects of contact with surfaces but also promote a self-cleaning function for removing foreign bodies,” the team explains.

With that data in hand, they then used wing membrane as a “natural template” to cast a polymer surface and so duplicate the surface structure of the wing in PDMS, polydimethylsiloxane, the same type of silicone gel used in breast implants. One of the advantages of this approach is that no prior “design” of the surface of the material is needed and so the team can exploit the enormous diversity of surface types from different insects and so produce materials with specific characteristics.

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Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated the first “universal” programmable quantum information processor able to run any program allowed by quantum mechanics — the rules governing the submicroscopic world — using two quantum bits (qubits) of information. The processor could be a module in a future quantum computer, which theoretically could solve some important problems that are intractable today.

NIST postdoctoral researcher David Hanneke at the laser table used to demonstrate the first universal programmable processor for a potential quantum computer. A pair of beryllium ions (charged atoms) that hold information in the processor are trapped inside the cylinder at the lower right. A colorized image of the two ions is displayed on the monitor in the background. (Credit: J. Burrus/NIST)

The NIST demonstration, described in Nature Physics, marks the first time any research group has moved beyond demonstrating individual tasks for a quantum processor — as done previously at NIST and elsewhere — to perform programmable processing, combining enough inputs and continuous steps to run any possible two-qubit program.

The NIST team also analyzed the quantum processor with the methods used in traditional computer science and electronics by creating a diagram of the processing circuit and mathematically determining the 15 different starting values and sequences of processing operations needed to run a given program. “This is the first time anyone has demonstrated a programmable quantum processor for more than one qubit,” says NIST postdoctoral researcher David Hanneke, first author of the paper. “It’s a step toward the big goal of doing calculations with lots and lots of qubits. The idea is you’d have lots of these processors, and you’d link them together.”

The NIST processor stores binary information (1s and 0s) in two beryllium ions (electrically charged atoms), which are held in an electromagnetic trap and manipulated with ultraviolet lasers. Two magnesium ions in the trap help cool the beryllium ions.

NIST scientists can manipulate the states of each beryllium qubit, including placing the ions in a “superposition” of both 1 and 0 values at the same time, a significant potential advantage of information processing in the quantum world. Scientists also can “entangle” the two qubits, a quantum phenomenon that links the pair’s properties even when the ions are physically separated.

With these capabilities, the NIST team performed 160 different processing routines on the two qubits. Although there are an infinite number of possible two-qubit programs, this set of 160 is large and diverse enough to fairly represent them, Hanneke says, making the processor “universal.” Key to the experimental design was use of a random number generator to select the particular routines that would be executed, so all possible programs had an equal chance of selection. This approach was chosen to avoid bias in testing the processor, in the event that some programs ran better or produced more accurate outputs than others.

Ions are among several promising types of qubits for a quantum computer. If they can be built, quantum computers have many possible applications such as breaking today’s most widely used encryption codes, such as those that protect electronic financial transactions. In addition to its possible use as a module of a quantum computer, the new processor might be used as a miniature simulator for interactions in any quantum system that employs two energy levels, such as the two-level ion qubit systems that represent energy levels as 0s and 1s. Large quantum simulators could, for example, help explain the mystery of high-temperature superconductivity, the transmission of electricity with zero resistance at temperatures that may be practical for efficient storage and distribution of electric power.

The new paper is the same NIST research group’s third major paper published this year based on data from experiments with trapped ions. They previously demonstrated sustained quantum information processing and entanglement in a mechanical system similar to those in the macroscopic everyday world. NIST quantum computing research contributes to advances in national priority areas, such as information security, as well as NIST mission work in precision measurement and atomic clocks.

In the latest NIST experiments reported in Nature Physics, each program consisted of 31 logic operations, 15 of which were varied in the programming process. A logic operation is a rule specifying a particular manipulation of one or two qubits. In traditional computers, these operations are written into software code and performed by hardware.

The programs did not perform easily described mathematical calculations. Rather, they involved various single-qubit “rotations” and two-qubit entanglements. As an example of a rotation, if a qubit is envisioned as a dot on a sphere at the north pole for 0, at the south pole for 1, or on the equator for a balanced superposition of 0 and 1, the dot might be rotated to a different point on the sphere, perhaps from the northern to the southern hemisphere, making it more of a 1 than a 0.

Each program operated accurately an average of 79 percent of the time across 900 runs, each run lasting about 37 milliseconds. To evaluate the processor and the quality of its operation, NIST scientists compared the measured outputs of the programs to idealized, theoretical results. They also performed extra measurements on 11 of the 160 programs, to more fully reconstruct how they ran and double-check the outputs.

As noted in the paper, many more qubits and logic operations will be required to solve large problems. A significant challenge for future research will be reducing the errors that build up during successive operations. Program accuracy rates will need to be boosted substantially, both to achieve fault-tolerant computing and to reduce the computational “overhead” needed to correct errors after they occur, according to the paper.

As a non-regulatory agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, NIST promotes U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve our quality of life.

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Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated the first “universal” programmable quantum information processor able to run any program allowed by quantum mechanics — the rules governing the submicroscopic world — using two quantum bits (qubits) of information. The processor could be a module in a future quantum computer, which theoretically could solve some important problems that are intractable today.

NIST postdoctoral researcher David Hanneke at the laser table used to demonstrate the first universal programmable processor for a potential quantum computer. A pair of beryllium ions (charged atoms) that hold information in the processor are trapped inside the cylinder at the lower right. A colorized image of the two ions is displayed on the monitor in the background. (Credit: J. Burrus/NIST)

The NIST demonstration, described in Nature Physics, marks the first time any research group has moved beyond demonstrating individual tasks for a quantum processor — as done previously at NIST and elsewhere — to perform programmable processing, combining enough inputs and continuous steps to run any possible two-qubit program.

The NIST team also analyzed the quantum processor with the methods used in traditional computer science and electronics by creating a diagram of the processing circuit and mathematically determining the 15 different starting values and sequences of processing operations needed to run a given program. “This is the first time anyone has demonstrated a programmable quantum processor for more than one qubit,” says NIST postdoctoral researcher David Hanneke, first author of the paper. “It’s a step toward the big goal of doing calculations with lots and lots of qubits. The idea is you’d have lots of these processors, and you’d link them together.”

The NIST processor stores binary information (1s and 0s) in two beryllium ions (electrically charged atoms), which are held in an electromagnetic trap and manipulated with ultraviolet lasers. Two magnesium ions in the trap help cool the beryllium ions.

NIST scientists can manipulate the states of each beryllium qubit, including placing the ions in a “superposition” of both 1 and 0 values at the same time, a significant potential advantage of information processing in the quantum world. Scientists also can “entangle” the two qubits, a quantum phenomenon that links the pair’s properties even when the ions are physically separated.

With these capabilities, the NIST team performed 160 different processing routines on the two qubits. Although there are an infinite number of possible two-qubit programs, this set of 160 is large and diverse enough to fairly represent them, Hanneke says, making the processor “universal.” Key to the experimental design was use of a random number generator to select the particular routines that would be executed, so all possible programs had an equal chance of selection. This approach was chosen to avoid bias in testing the processor, in the event that some programs ran better or produced more accurate outputs than others.

Ions are among several promising types of qubits for a quantum computer. If they can be built, quantum computers have many possible applications such as breaking today’s most widely used encryption codes, such as those that protect electronic financial transactions. In addition to its possible use as a module of a quantum computer, the new processor might be used as a miniature simulator for interactions in any quantum system that employs two energy levels, such as the two-level ion qubit systems that represent energy levels as 0s and 1s. Large quantum simulators could, for example, help explain the mystery of high-temperature superconductivity, the transmission of electricity with zero resistance at temperatures that may be practical for efficient storage and distribution of electric power.

The new paper is the same NIST research group’s third major paper published this year based on data from experiments with trapped ions. They previously demonstrated sustained quantum information processing and entanglement in a mechanical system similar to those in the macroscopic everyday world. NIST quantum computing research contributes to advances in national priority areas, such as information security, as well as NIST mission work in precision measurement and atomic clocks.

In the latest NIST experiments reported in Nature Physics, each program consisted of 31 logic operations, 15 of which were varied in the programming process. A logic operation is a rule specifying a particular manipulation of one or two qubits. In traditional computers, these operations are written into software code and performed by hardware.

The programs did not perform easily described mathematical calculations. Rather, they involved various single-qubit “rotations” and two-qubit entanglements. As an example of a rotation, if a qubit is envisioned as a dot on a sphere at the north pole for 0, at the south pole for 1, or on the equator for a balanced superposition of 0 and 1, the dot might be rotated to a different point on the sphere, perhaps from the northern to the southern hemisphere, making it more of a 1 than a 0.

Each program operated accurately an average of 79 percent of the time across 900 runs, each run lasting about 37 milliseconds. To evaluate the processor and the quality of its operation, NIST scientists compared the measured outputs of the programs to idealized, theoretical results. They also performed extra measurements on 11 of the 160 programs, to more fully reconstruct how they ran and double-check the outputs.

As noted in the paper, many more qubits and logic operations will be required to solve large problems. A significant challenge for future research will be reducing the errors that build up during successive operations. Program accuracy rates will need to be boosted substantially, both to achieve fault-tolerant computing and to reduce the computational “overhead” needed to correct errors after they occur, according to the paper.

As a non-regulatory agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, NIST promotes U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve our quality of life.

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Danish nanophysicists have developed a new method for manufacturing the cornerstone of nanotechnology research — nanowires. The discovery has great potential for the development of nanoelectronics and highly efficient solar cells.

A nanowire made of the two semi- conductors (GaInAs and InAs) with gold (Au) as a catalyst. To the right a schematic illustration of the new cultivation method, where the semi- conductor materials can move both from the top of the gold droplet and from the underside. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Copenhagen)

It is PhD student Peter Krogstrup, Nano-Science Center, the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen, who developed the method during his dissertation.

“We have changed the recipe for producing nanowires. This means that we can produce nanowires that contain two different semiconductors, namely gallium indium arsenide and indium arsenide. It is a big breakthrough, because for first time on a nanoscale, we can combine the good characteristics of the two materials, thus gaining new possibilities for the electronics of the future,” explains Peter Krogstrup.

We can capture more of the sun’s light

Today only approximately 1 % of the world’s electricity comes from solar energy. This is because it is difficult to convert solar energy into electricity. It is a great advantage for the researchers to be able to combine different semiconductors in the same nanowire.

“Different materials capture energy from the sun in different and quite specific absorption areas. When we manufacture nanowires of gallium indium arsenide and indium arsenide, which each have their own absorption area, they can collectively capture energy from a much wider area.

“We can therefore utilize more solar energy, if we produce nanowires from the two superconductors and use them for solar cells,” explains Peter Krogstrup

The nanowires of gallium indium arsenide and indium arsenide also have great potential in nanoelectronics. They can, for example, be used in the new OLED displays and LEDs. But it requires sharp transitions between the two materials in the nanowire.

No soft transitions

The cultivation of nanowires takes place in a vacuum chamber. The researchers lay a gold droplet on a thin disc comprising of the semiconductor and the nanowire grows up from below. In the transition between the two semiconductor materials in the gold droplet there was previously a mixing between the materials in the gold droplet and there was a soft transition between the materials. With the new method both of the materials can go from the top of the gold droplet or from the underside of the gold droplet. When the material comes from the underside, there is no mixing of the semiconductor materials. There is therefore a sharp transition on the atomic level between the gallium indium arsenide and indium arsenide.

“This sharp transition between the two semiconductors is necessary for the current — in the form of electrons, to be able to travel with high efficiency between the two materials. If the transition is soft, the electrons can easily get caught in the border area. The new mixed nanowire can be beneficial for many areas of nano research around the world,” says Peter Krogstrup, who has been working at the Danish III-V Nanolab, operated in collaboration between the University of Copenhagen and the Technical University of Denmark.

A new collaboration between the company SunFlake A/S and The Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation has recently begun. SunFlake A/S uses nanowires to develop prototypes of solar cells and they can also benefit from the new method in their continuing work. The nanophysicists’ discovery has just been published in the scientific journal Nano Letters.

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Danish nanophysicists have developed a new method for manufacturing the cornerstone of nanotechnology research — nanowires. The discovery has great potential for the development of nanoelectronics and highly efficient solar cells.

A nanowire made of the two semi- conductors (GaInAs and InAs) with gold (Au) as a catalyst. To the right a schematic illustration of the new cultivation method, where the semi- conductor materials can move both from the top of the gold droplet and from the underside. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Copenhagen)

It is PhD student Peter Krogstrup, Nano-Science Center, the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen, who developed the method during his dissertation.

“We have changed the recipe for producing nanowires. This means that we can produce nanowires that contain two different semiconductors, namely gallium indium arsenide and indium arsenide. It is a big breakthrough, because for first time on a nanoscale, we can combine the good characteristics of the two materials, thus gaining new possibilities for the electronics of the future,” explains Peter Krogstrup.

We can capture more of the sun’s light

Today only approximately 1 % of the world’s electricity comes from solar energy. This is because it is difficult to convert solar energy into electricity. It is a great advantage for the researchers to be able to combine different semiconductors in the same nanowire.

“Different materials capture energy from the sun in different and quite specific absorption areas. When we manufacture nanowires of gallium indium arsenide and indium arsenide, which each have their own absorption area, they can collectively capture energy from a much wider area.

“We can therefore utilize more solar energy, if we produce nanowires from the two superconductors and use them for solar cells,” explains Peter Krogstrup

The nanowires of gallium indium arsenide and indium arsenide also have great potential in nanoelectronics. They can, for example, be used in the new OLED displays and LEDs. But it requires sharp transitions between the two materials in the nanowire.

No soft transitions

The cultivation of nanowires takes place in a vacuum chamber. The researchers lay a gold droplet on a thin disc comprising of the semiconductor and the nanowire grows up from below. In the transition between the two semiconductor materials in the gold droplet there was previously a mixing between the materials in the gold droplet and there was a soft transition between the materials. With the new method both of the materials can go from the top of the gold droplet or from the underside of the gold droplet. When the material comes from the underside, there is no mixing of the semiconductor materials. There is therefore a sharp transition on the atomic level between the gallium indium arsenide and indium arsenide.

“This sharp transition between the two semiconductors is necessary for the current — in the form of electrons, to be able to travel with high efficiency between the two materials. If the transition is soft, the electrons can easily get caught in the border area. The new mixed nanowire can be beneficial for many areas of nano research around the world,” says Peter Krogstrup, who has been working at the Danish III-V Nanolab, operated in collaboration between the University of Copenhagen and the Technical University of Denmark.

A new collaboration between the company SunFlake A/S and The Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation has recently begun. SunFlake A/S uses nanowires to develop prototypes of solar cells and they can also benefit from the new method in their continuing work. The nanophysicists’ discovery has just been published in the scientific journal Nano Letters.

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Astrophysicists at the University of Warwick and Kiel University have discovered two earth sized bodies with oxygen rich atmospheres — however there is a bit of a disappointing snag for anyone looking for a potential home for alien life, or even a future home for ourselves, as they are not planets but are actually two unusual white dwarf stars.

Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectroscopy of this inconspicuous blue object -- SDSS1102+2054 -- reveals it to be an extremely rare stellar remnant: a white dwarf with an oxygen-rich atmosphere (Credit: The Sloan Digital Sky Survey)

The two white dwarf stars SDSS 0922+2928 and SDSS 1102+2054 are 400 and 220 light years from Earth. They are both the remnants of massive stars that are at the end of their stellar evolution having consumed all the material they had available for nuclear fusion.

Theoretical models suggest that massive stars (around 7 — 10 times the mass of our own Sun) will consume all of their hydrogen, helium and carbon, and end their lives either as white dwarfs with very oxygen-rich cores, or undergo a supernova and collapse into neutron stars. Finding such oxygen-rich white dwarfs would be an important confirmation of the models.

Unfortunately, almost all white dwarfs have hydrogen and/or helium envelopes that, while low in mass, are sufficiently thick to shield the core from direct view. However should such a core lose its remaining hydrogen envelope, astrophysicists could then detect an extremely oxygen-rich spectrum from the surface of the white dwarf.

Searching within an astronomical data set of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), the University of Warwick and Kiel University astrophysicists did indeed discover two white dwarfs with large atmospheric oxygen abundances.

Lead author on the paper, astrophysicist Dr. Boris Gänsicke from the University of Warwick, said: “These surface abundances of oxygen imply that these are white dwarfs displaying their bare oxygen-neon cores, and that they may have descended from the most massive progenitors stars in that class.”

Most stellar models producing white dwarfs with such oxygen and neon cores also predict that a sufficiently thick carbon-rich layer should surround the core and avoid upward diffusion of large amounts of oxygen. However, calculations also show that the thickness of this layer decreases the closer the progenitor star is to upper mass limit for stars ending their lives as white dwarfs. Hence one possibility for the formation of SDSS 0922+2928 and SDSS 1102+2054 is that they descended from the most massive stars avoiding core-collapse, in which case they would be expected to be very massive themselves. However current data is insufficient to provide any unambiguous measure of the masses of these two unusual white dwarves.

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Astrophysicists at the University of Warwick and Kiel University have discovered two earth sized bodies with oxygen rich atmospheres — however there is a bit of a disappointing snag for anyone looking for a potential home for alien life, or even a future home for ourselves, as they are not planets but are actually two unusual white dwarf stars.

Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectroscopy of this inconspicuous blue object -- SDSS1102+2054 -- reveals it to be an extremely rare stellar remnant: a white dwarf with an oxygen-rich atmosphere (Credit: The Sloan Digital Sky Survey)

The two white dwarf stars SDSS 0922+2928 and SDSS 1102+2054 are 400 and 220 light years from Earth. They are both the remnants of massive stars that are at the end of their stellar evolution having consumed all the material they had available for nuclear fusion.

Theoretical models suggest that massive stars (around 7 — 10 times the mass of our own Sun) will consume all of their hydrogen, helium and carbon, and end their lives either as white dwarfs with very oxygen-rich cores, or undergo a supernova and collapse into neutron stars. Finding such oxygen-rich white dwarfs would be an important confirmation of the models.

Unfortunately, almost all white dwarfs have hydrogen and/or helium envelopes that, while low in mass, are sufficiently thick to shield the core from direct view. However should such a core lose its remaining hydrogen envelope, astrophysicists could then detect an extremely oxygen-rich spectrum from the surface of the white dwarf.

Searching within an astronomical data set of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), the University of Warwick and Kiel University astrophysicists did indeed discover two white dwarfs with large atmospheric oxygen abundances.

Lead author on the paper, astrophysicist Dr. Boris Gänsicke from the University of Warwick, said: “These surface abundances of oxygen imply that these are white dwarfs displaying their bare oxygen-neon cores, and that they may have descended from the most massive progenitors stars in that class.”

Most stellar models producing white dwarfs with such oxygen and neon cores also predict that a sufficiently thick carbon-rich layer should surround the core and avoid upward diffusion of large amounts of oxygen. However, calculations also show that the thickness of this layer decreases the closer the progenitor star is to upper mass limit for stars ending their lives as white dwarfs. Hence one possibility for the formation of SDSS 0922+2928 and SDSS 1102+2054 is that they descended from the most massive stars avoiding core-collapse, in which case they would be expected to be very massive themselves. However current data is insufficient to provide any unambiguous measure of the masses of these two unusual white dwarves.

Start uga_filter:

Scientists at the University of Adelaide have made a breakthrough that could change the world’s thinking on what light is capable of.

A researcher is testing an optical fiber system in the Institute for Photonics & Advanced Sensing, University of Adelaide. (Credit: Photo by Jennie Groom.)

The researchers in the University’s new Institute for Photonics & Advanced Sensing (IPAS) have discovered that light within optical fibers can be squeezed into much tighter spaces than was previously believed possible.

Optical fibers usually act like pipes for light, with the light bouncing around inside the pipe. As you shrink down the size of the fiber, the light becomes more and more confined too, until you reach the ultimate limit — the point beyond which light cannot be squeezed any smaller.

This ultimate point occurs when the strand of glass is just a few hundred nanometers in diameter, about one thousandth of the size of a human hair. If you go smaller than this, light begins to spread out again.

The Adelaide researchers have discovered they can now push beyond that limit by at least a factor of two.

They can do this due to new breakthroughs in the theoretical understanding of how light behaves at the nanoscale, and thanks to the use of a new generation of nanoscale optical fibers being developed at the Institute.

This discovery is expected to lead to more efficient tools for optical data processing in telecommunications networks and optical computing, as well as new light sources.

IPAS Research Fellow Dr Shahraam Afshar has made this discovery ahead of today’s launch of the new Institute for Photonics & Advanced Sensing.

The Australian Government, South Australian Government, Defence Science & Technology Organisation (DSTO), Defence SA and the University of Adelaide have committed a combined total of more than $38 million to support the establishment of the new Institute.

IPAS is a world leader in the science and application of light, developing unique lasers, optical fibers and sensors to measure various aspects of the world around us. A strong focus of the new Institute is in collaboration with other fields of research to find solutions to a range of problems.

“By being able to use our optical fibers as sensors — rather than just using them as pipes to transmit light — we can develop tools that, for example, could easily detect the presence of a flu virus at an airport; could help IVF (in vitro fertilization) specialists to determine which egg should be chosen for fertilization; could gauge the safety of drinking water; or could alert maintenance crews to corrosion occurring in the structure of an aircraft,” says Professor Tanya Monro, Federation Fellow at the University of Adelaide and Director of IPAS.

Professor Monro says Dr Afshar’s discovery is “a fundamental breakthrough in the science of light”.

Another IPAS researcher, Dr Yinlan Ruan, has recently created what is thought to be the world’s smallest hole inside an optical fiber — just 25 nanometers in diameter.

“These breakthroughs feed directly into our applied work to develop nanoscale sensors, and they are perfect examples of the culture of research excellence that exists among our team members,” Professor Monro says.

“They will enable us to study the applications of light at much smaller scales than we’ve ever thought possible. It will help us to better understand and probe our world in ever smaller dimensions.”

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Scientists at the University of Adelaide have made a breakthrough that could change the world’s thinking on what light is capable of.

A researcher is testing an optical fiber system in the Institute for Photonics & Advanced Sensing, University of Adelaide. (Credit: Photo by Jennie Groom.)

The researchers in the University’s new Institute for Photonics & Advanced Sensing (IPAS) have discovered that light within optical fibers can be squeezed into much tighter spaces than was previously believed possible.

Optical fibers usually act like pipes for light, with the light bouncing around inside the pipe. As you shrink down the size of the fiber, the light becomes more and more confined too, until you reach the ultimate limit — the point beyond which light cannot be squeezed any smaller.

This ultimate point occurs when the strand of glass is just a few hundred nanometers in diameter, about one thousandth of the size of a human hair. If you go smaller than this, light begins to spread out again.

The Adelaide researchers have discovered they can now push beyond that limit by at least a factor of two.

They can do this due to new breakthroughs in the theoretical understanding of how light behaves at the nanoscale, and thanks to the use of a new generation of nanoscale optical fibers being developed at the Institute.

This discovery is expected to lead to more efficient tools for optical data processing in telecommunications networks and optical computing, as well as new light sources.

IPAS Research Fellow Dr Shahraam Afshar has made this discovery ahead of today’s launch of the new Institute for Photonics & Advanced Sensing.

The Australian Government, South Australian Government, Defence Science & Technology Organisation (DSTO), Defence SA and the University of Adelaide have committed a combined total of more than $38 million to support the establishment of the new Institute.

IPAS is a world leader in the science and application of light, developing unique lasers, optical fibers and sensors to measure various aspects of the world around us. A strong focus of the new Institute is in collaboration with other fields of research to find solutions to a range of problems.

“By being able to use our optical fibers as sensors — rather than just using them as pipes to transmit light — we can develop tools that, for example, could easily detect the presence of a flu virus at an airport; could help IVF (in vitro fertilization) specialists to determine which egg should be chosen for fertilization; could gauge the safety of drinking water; or could alert maintenance crews to corrosion occurring in the structure of an aircraft,” says Professor Tanya Monro, Federation Fellow at the University of Adelaide and Director of IPAS.

Professor Monro says Dr Afshar’s discovery is “a fundamental breakthrough in the science of light”.

Another IPAS researcher, Dr Yinlan Ruan, has recently created what is thought to be the world’s smallest hole inside an optical fiber — just 25 nanometers in diameter.

“These breakthroughs feed directly into our applied work to develop nanoscale sensors, and they are perfect examples of the culture of research excellence that exists among our team members,” Professor Monro says.

“They will enable us to study the applications of light at much smaller scales than we’ve ever thought possible. It will help us to better understand and probe our world in ever smaller dimensions.”

Start uga_filter:

The Japanese space agency has unveiled an incredible new plan to start collecting solar power in space, and zap it down to Earth via microwaves or laser beams.

Under the plan, known as the Space Solar Power System (SSPS), floating photovoltaic dishes several square miles across would hover in geostationary orbit outside the Earth’s atmosphere as soon as 2030.

According to a researcher at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, one of the project participants, “Since solar power is a clean and inexhaustible energy source, we believe that this system will be able to help solve the problems of energy shortage and global warming. The sun’s rays abound in space.” (Another picture after the jump).

To achieve this ambitious and highly futuristic aim, the Japanese government has recently chosen a consortium of companies and scientists charged with making the multi-billion-dollar dream of unlimited clean energy a reality in as little as 20 years. The team, called the Institute for Unmanned Space Experiment Free Flyer (USEF), also includes Mitsubishi Electric, NEC, Fujitsu and Sharp.

The plan is that the giant solar cells would harvest solar energy, which is at least five times stronger in space than on Earth, and beam it down to terra firma through clusters of lasers or microwaves.

Tadashige Takiya, a spokesman at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), told reporters that the beams would then be collected by gigantic parabolic antennae, most likely located in restricted areas at sea or on dam reservoirs.

At this stage, the consortium are hoping to create a one gigawatt system, equivalent to a medium-sized nuclear power plant, that would produce electricity at eight yen (nine cents) per kilowatt-hour, six times cheaper than the current cost in the country.

Tatsuhito Fujita, one of the JAXA researchers heading the project said that within several years, “a satellite designed to test the transmission by microwave should be put into low orbit with a Japanese rocket.”

The next step, scheduled for around 2020, is to launch and test a large flexible photovoltaic structure with 10 megawatt power capacity, to be followed by a 250 megawatt prototype.

Officials say that this would help evaluate the project’s financial viability, the final aim being to produce electricity cheap enough to compete with other alternative energy sources.

JAXA maintains that the transmission technology would be safe but concedes it would have to convince the public to accept the controversial plan, admitting that some may harbour images of laser beams shooting down from the sky, roasting birds or slicing up aircraft in mid-air.

According to a 2004 study by JAXA, the words ‘laser’ and ‘microwave’ caused the most concern among the 1,000 people questioned.

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uga_get_option: internal_domains uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.humacon.org,humacon.org', 'account_id' => 'UA-10399907-2', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => false, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: internal_domains (www.humacon.org,humacon.org) Checking hostname www.humacon.org Checking hostname humacon.org Ending uga_is_url_internal: Get tracker for external URL Start uga_track_external_url: www.usef.or.jp/english/e_index.html Start uga_get_option: track_ext_links uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.humacon.org,humacon.org', 'account_id' => 'UA-10399907-2', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => false, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: track_ext_links (1) Tracking external links enabled Start uga_get_option: prefix_ext_links uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.humacon.org,humacon.org', 'account_id' => 'UA-10399907-2', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => false, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: prefix_ext_links (/outgoing/) Ending uga_track_external_url: www.usef.or.jp/english/e_index.html Ending uga_track_full_url: /outgoing/www.usef.or.jp/english/e_index.html Adding onclick attribute for /outgoing/www.usef.or.jp/english/e_index.html Ending uga_preg_callback: Institute for Unmanned Space Experiment Free Flyer (USEF) Start uga_preg_callback: Array Get tracker for full url Start uga_track_full_url: www.jaxa.jp/index_e.html Start uga_is_url_internal: www.jaxa.jp/index_e.html Start uga_get_option: internal_domains uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.humacon.org,humacon.org', 'account_id' => 'UA-10399907-2', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => false, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: internal_domains (www.humacon.org,humacon.org) Checking hostname www.humacon.org Checking hostname humacon.org Ending uga_is_url_internal: Get tracker for external URL Start uga_track_external_url: www.jaxa.jp/index_e.html Start uga_get_option: track_ext_links uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.humacon.org,humacon.org', 'account_id' => 'UA-10399907-2', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => false, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: track_ext_links (1) Tracking external links enabled Start uga_get_option: prefix_ext_links uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.humacon.org,humacon.org', 'account_id' => 'UA-10399907-2', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => false, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: prefix_ext_links (/outgoing/) Ending uga_track_external_url: www.jaxa.jp/index_e.html Ending uga_track_full_url: /outgoing/www.jaxa.jp/index_e.html Adding onclick attribute for /outgoing/www.jaxa.jp/index_e.html Ending uga_preg_callback: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Start uga_preg_callback: Array Get tracker for full url Start uga_track_full_url: cleantechnica.com/files/2009/11/space-solar-power-system-usef-jaxa-ssps.jpg Start uga_is_url_internal: cleantechnica.com/files/2009/11/space-solar-power-system-usef-jaxa-ssps.jpg Start uga_get_option: internal_domains uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.humacon.org,humacon.org', 'account_id' => 'UA-10399907-2', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => false, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: internal_domains (www.humacon.org,humacon.org) Checking hostname www.humacon.org Checking hostname humacon.org Ending uga_is_url_internal: Get tracker for external URL Start uga_track_external_url: cleantechnica.com/files/2009/11/space-solar-power-system-usef-jaxa-ssps.jpg Start uga_get_option: track_ext_links uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.humacon.org,humacon.org', 'account_id' => 'UA-10399907-2', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => false, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: track_ext_links (1) Tracking external links enabled Start uga_get_option: prefix_ext_links uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.humacon.org,humacon.org', 'account_id' => 'UA-10399907-2', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => false, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: prefix_ext_links (/outgoing/) Ending uga_track_external_url: cleantechnica.com/files/2009/11/space-solar-power-system-usef-jaxa-ssps.jpg Ending uga_track_full_url: /outgoing/cleantechnica.com/files/2009/11/space-solar-power-system-usef-jaxa-ssps.jpg Adding onclick attribute for /outgoing/cleantechnica.com/files/2009/11/space-solar-power-system-usef-jaxa-ssps.jpg Ending uga_preg_callback: Start uga_preg_callback: Array Get tracker for full url Start uga_track_full_url: repository.tksc.jaxa.jp/dr/detail?DEF_XSL=05&SUM_START=111&SUM_NUMBER=20&IS_SCH=META&IS_STYLE=eng&DB_ID=G0000001AIREX&GRP_ID=G0000001&IS_TYPE=meta&IS_DB=G0000001AIREX001&IS_START=112&IS_NUMBER=&IS_TAG_S30=rectype&IS_KEY_S30=JAXA&IS_LGC_S30=AND&IS_TAG_S1=D072CC&IS_LGC_S2=AND&PAGE_KIND=category&SYS_TYPE=jaxa&IS_KEY_S1=%E7%A0%94%E7%A9%B6%E9%96%8B%E7%99%BA%E8%B3%87%E6%96%99&IS_KIND=MetaMeta Start uga_is_url_internal: repository.tksc.jaxa.jp/dr/detail?DEF_XSL=05&SUM_START=111&SUM_NUMBER=20&IS_SCH=META&IS_STYLE=eng&DB_ID=G0000001AIREX&GRP_ID=G0000001&IS_TYPE=meta&IS_DB=G0000001AIREX001&IS_START=112&IS_NUMBER=&IS_TAG_S30=rectype&IS_KEY_S30=JAXA&IS_LGC_S30=AND&IS_TAG_S1=D072CC&IS_LGC_S2=AND&PAGE_KIND=category&SYS_TYPE=jaxa&IS_KEY_S1=%E7%A0%94%E7%A9%B6%E9%96%8B%E7%99%BA%E8%B3%87%E6%96%99&IS_KIND=MetaMeta Start uga_get_option: internal_domains uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.humacon.org,humacon.org', 'account_id' => 'UA-10399907-2', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => false, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: internal_domains (www.humacon.org,humacon.org) Checking hostname www.humacon.org Checking hostname humacon.org Ending uga_is_url_internal: Get tracker for external URL Start uga_track_external_url: repository.tksc.jaxa.jp/dr/detail?DEF_XSL=05&SUM_START=111&SUM_NUMBER=20&IS_SCH=META&IS_STYLE=eng&DB_ID=G0000001AIREX&GRP_ID=G0000001&IS_TYPE=meta&IS_DB=G0000001AIREX001&IS_START=112&IS_NUMBER=&IS_TAG_S30=rectype&IS_KEY_S30=JAXA&IS_LGC_S30=AND&IS_TAG_S1=D072CC&IS_LGC_S2=AND&PAGE_KIND=category&SYS_TYPE=jaxa&IS_KEY_S1=%E7%A0%94%E7%A9%B6%E9%96%8B%E7%99%BA%E8%B3%87%E6%96%99&IS_KIND=MetaMeta Start uga_get_option: track_ext_links uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.humacon.org,humacon.org', 'account_id' => 'UA-10399907-2', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => false, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: track_ext_links (1) Tracking external links enabled Start uga_get_option: prefix_ext_links uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.humacon.org,humacon.org', 'account_id' => 'UA-10399907-2', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => false, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: prefix_ext_links (/outgoing/) Ending uga_track_external_url: repository.tksc.jaxa.jp/dr/detail?DEF_XSL=05&SUM_START=111&SUM_NUMBER=20&IS_SCH=META&IS_STYLE=eng&DB_ID=G0000001AIREX&GRP_ID=G0000001&IS_TYPE=meta&IS_DB=G0000001AIREX001&IS_START=112&IS_NUMBER=&IS_TAG_S30=rectype&IS_KEY_S30=JAXA&IS_LGC_S30=AND&IS_TAG_S1=D072CC&IS_LGC_S2=AND&PAGE_KIND=category&SYS_TYPE=jaxa&IS_KEY_S1=%E7%A0%94%E7%A9%B6%E9%96%8B%E7%99%BA%E8%B3%87%E6%96%99&IS_KIND=MetaMeta Ending uga_track_full_url: /outgoing/repository.tksc.jaxa.jp/dr/detail?DEF_XSL=05&SUM_START=111&SUM_NUMBER=20&IS_SCH=META&IS_STYLE=eng&DB_ID=G0000001AIREX&GRP_ID=G0000001&IS_TYPE=meta&IS_DB=G0000001AIREX001&IS_START=112&IS_NUMBER=&IS_TAG_S30=rectype&IS_KEY_S30=JAXA&IS_LGC_S30=AND&IS_TAG_S1=D072CC&IS_LGC_S2=AND&PAGE_KIND=category&SYS_TYPE=jaxa&IS_KEY_S1=%E7%A0%94%E7%A9%B6%E9%96%8B%E7%99%BA%E8%B3%87%E6%96%99&IS_KIND=MetaMeta Adding onclick attribute for /outgoing/repository.tksc.jaxa.jp/dr/detail?DEF_XSL=05&SUM_START=111&SUM_NUMBER=20&IS_SCH=META&IS_STYLE=eng&DB_ID=G0000001AIREX&GRP_ID=G0000001&IS_TYPE=meta&IS_DB=G0000001AIREX001&IS_START=112&IS_NUMBER=&IS_TAG_S30=rectype&IS_KEY_S30=JAXA&IS_LGC_S30=AND&IS_TAG_S1=D072CC&IS_LGC_S2=AND&PAGE_KIND=category&SYS_TYPE=jaxa&IS_KEY_S1=%E7%A0%94%E7%A9%B6%E9%96%8B%E7%99%BA%E8%B3%87%E6%96%99&IS_KIND=MetaMeta Ending uga_preg_callback: According to a 2004 study by JAXA Ending uga_filter:

The Japanese space agency has unveiled an incredible new plan to start collecting solar power in space, and zap it down to Earth via microwaves or laser beams.

Under the plan, known as the Space Solar Power System (SSPS), floating photovoltaic dishes several square miles across would hover in geostationary orbit outside the Earth’s atmosphere as soon as 2030.

According to a researcher at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, one of the project participants, “Since solar power is a clean and inexhaustible energy source, we believe that this system will be able to help solve the problems of energy shortage and global warming. The sun’s rays abound in space.” (Another picture after the jump).

To achieve this ambitious and highly futuristic aim, the Japanese government has recently chosen a consortium of companies and scientists charged with making the multi-billion-dollar dream of unlimited clean energy a reality in as little as 20 years. The team, called the Institute for Unmanned Space Experiment Free Flyer (USEF), also includes Mitsubishi Electric, NEC, Fujitsu and Sharp.

The plan is that the giant solar cells would harvest solar energy, which is at least five times stronger in space than on Earth, and beam it down to terra firma through clusters of lasers or microwaves.

Tadashige Takiya, a spokesman at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), told reporters that the beams would then be collected by gigantic parabolic antennae, most likely located in restricted areas at sea or on dam reservoirs.

At this stage, the consortium are hoping to create a one gigawatt system, equivalent to a medium-sized nuclear power plant, that would produce electricity at eight yen (nine cents) per kilowatt-hour, six times cheaper than the current cost in the country.

Tatsuhito Fujita, one of the JAXA researchers heading the project said that within several years, “a satellite designed to test the transmission by microwave should be put into low orbit with a Japanese rocket.”

The next step, scheduled for around 2020, is to launch and test a large flexible photovoltaic structure with 10 megawatt power capacity, to be followed by a 250 megawatt prototype.

Officials say that this would help evaluate the project’s financial viability, the final aim being to produce electricity cheap enough to compete with other alternative energy sources.

JAXA maintains that the transmission technology would be safe but concedes it would have to convince the public to accept the controversial plan, admitting that some may harbour images of laser beams shooting down from the sky, roasting birds or slicing up aircraft in mid-air.

According to a 2004 study by JAXA, the words ‘laser’ and ‘microwave’ caused the most concern among the 1,000 people questioned.

Start uga_wp_footer_track: Start uga_get_tracker Start uga_in_feed Ending uga_in_feed: Start uga_track_user Start uga_get_option: ignore_users uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.humacon.org,humacon.org', 'account_id' => 'UA-10399907-2', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => false, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: ignore_users (1) Start uga_get_option: max_user_level uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.humacon.org,humacon.org', 'account_id' => 'UA-10399907-2', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => false, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: max_user_level (8) Tracking user with level 0 Ending uga_track_user: 1 Start uga_get_option: account_id uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.humacon.org,humacon.org', 'account_id' => 'UA-10399907-2', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => false, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: account_id (UA-10399907-2) Ending uga_get_tracker: Start uga_insert_html_once: footer, Footer hooked: HTML inserted: Location is FOOTER Inserting HTML End uga_insert_html Ending uga_wp_footer_track: Start uga_shutdown Start uga_in_feed Ending uga_in_feed: Start uga_track_user Start uga_get_option: ignore_users uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.humacon.org,humacon.org', 'account_id' => 'UA-10399907-2', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => false, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: ignore_users (1) Start uga_get_option: max_user_level uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.humacon.org,humacon.org', 'account_id' => 'UA-10399907-2', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => false, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: max_user_level (8) Tracking user with level 0 Ending uga_track_user: 1 Footer hook was executed Start uga_get_option: footer_hooked uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.humacon.org,humacon.org', 'account_id' => 'UA-10399907-2', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => false, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: footer_hooked (1) Start uga_get_option: debug uga_options: array ( 'internal_domains' => 'www.humacon.org,humacon.org', 'account_id' => 'UA-10399907-2', 'enable_tracker' => true, 'track_adm_pages' => false, 'ignore_users' => true, 'max_user_level' => '8', 'footer_hooked' => true, 'filter_content' => true, 'filter_comments' => true, 'filter_comment_authors' => true, 'track_ext_links' => true, 'prefix_ext_links' => '/outgoing/', 'track_files' => true, 'prefix_file_links' => '/downloads/', 'track_extensions' => 'gif,jpg,jpeg,bmp,png,pdf,mp3,wav,phps,zip,gz,tar,rar,jar,exe,pps,ppt,xls,doc', 'track_mail_links' => true, 'prefix_mail_links' => '/mailto/', 'debug' => true, 'check_updates' => true, 'version_sent' => '1.6.0', 'advanced_config' => true, ) Ending uga_get_option: debug (1) -->