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Posted on 03.02.08 by John @ 7:53 pm
Abengoa Solar Inc., a Spanish technology company that has several smaller solar-thermal projects in Spain, North Africa and the United States, will build and run the Solana Generating Station. Solana will use 2,700 "troughs" of mirrors lined up across former alfalfa farmland, focusing sunlight on tubes in the middle of the troughs. The tubes will be filled with a petroleum-based chemical that will heat up to 735 degrees, and transfer their heat to water, making steam and spinning turbines in two 140-megawatt generators. The petroleum liquid is reused in the tubes, not burned. The plant also will use molten salt to store heat and continue generating electricity for as long as six hours after the sun sets. That’s key in Arizona, where residents use the most electricity between 5 and 6 p.m., when the sun is low in the sky and common solar panels struggle to generate electricity. [via lonelocust] 
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Posted on 02.07.08 by John @ 7:48 pm
The new material is comprised of photorefractive polymers. These chemicals have photoelectric properties that make them well-suited to storing the optical interference patterns used to produce holograms. When a photorefractive polymer is exposed to a pattern of bright and dark areas, electrons are released from the areas exposed to high-intensity light and migrate to areas that are darker. Once in place, the electron-rich areas diffract light differently from the electron-poor ones, allowing the original interference pattern to be reproduced when the material is exposed to light Holodeck 0.1: the durable, rewritable holographic display
Filed under: Science and Technology and Cool and Design Comments: None |
Advances in display technology are simply amazing. I hope to see holographic display units so common place that they are used in cheap kids toys like and LCD would be used today.|
Posted on 01.17.08 by John @ 9:16 pm
Building the lenses was a challenge because materials that are safe for use in the body, such as the flexible organic materials used in contact lenses, are delicate. Manufacturing electrical circuits, however, involves inorganic materials, scorching temperatures and toxic chemicals. Researchers built the circuits from layers of metal only a few nanometers thick, about one thousandth the width of a human hair, and constructed light-emitting diodes one third of a millimeter across. They then sprinkled the grayish powder of electrical components onto a sheet of flexible plastic. The shape of each tiny component dictates which piece it can attach to, a microfabrication technique known as self-assembly. Capillary forces – the same type of forces that make water move up a plant’s roots, and that cause the edge of a glass of water to curve upward – pull the pieces into position. Contact lenses with circuits, lights a possible platform for superhuman vision
Filed under: Science and Technology and Mad Science and Cool Comments: 1 Comment |
My friend Greg sent this to me today. I’ll be first in line when these come out!|
Posted on 10.11.07 by John @ 4:55 pm
A new composite plastic built layer by layer has been created by engineers at the University of Michigan. This plastic is as strong as steel. It has been built the same way as mother-of-pearl, and shows similar strength. Interestingly, this 300-layer plastic has been built with ’strong’ nanosheets of clay and a ‘fragile’ polymer called polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), commonly used in paints and glue, which acts as ‘Velcro’ to envelop the nanoparticles. This new plastic could soon be used to design light but strong armors for soldiers or police officers. The researchers also think this material could be used in biomedical sensors and unmanned aircraft.
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Now if this material can be made clear… Oh wait, it is. If it can be made crystal clear and has good refractive qualities it would make for some dandy scratch proof glasses.|
Posted on 09.23.07 by John @ 9:11 pm
Andrews Space & Technology (AS&T) introduced an innovative propulsion system that could significantly shorten round trips from Earth to Mars (from two years to only six months!) and enable our spaceships to reach Jupiter after one year of space traveling. The system, which may dramatically affect interplanetary space travel is called the Miniature Magnetic Orion (Mini-Mag Orion for short), and is an optimization of the 1958 Orion interplanetary propulsion concept. [via slashdot ]
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Oh cool, Mars in six months? Nice…|
Posted on 09.14.07 by John @ 6:43 pm
The X PRIZE Foundation and Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced the Google Lunar X PRIZE, a robotic race to the Moon to win a remarkable $30 million prize purse. Private companies from around the world will compete to land a privately funded robotic rover on the Moon that is capable of completing several mission objectives, including roaming the lunar surface for at least 500 meters and sending video, images and data back to the Earth. Well this is just cool, a $30 million dollar (US) prize may not sound like all that much when your talking about going to the moon but the money isn’t what is at stake here. Charles Lindbergh didn’t set out to win the Orteig prize (Started in 1919 by a wealthy hotel owner, it offered $25,000 for the first allied aviator(s) to fly non-stop from New York NY to Paris France vice-versa) just for the cash. I’m sure the money was part of the incentive, but the achievement of winning was it’s own reward. When Lindbergh finished his 30 plus hour flight his accomplishment ushered in a new age for aviation. I can see [via CNN Money] Google Sponsors Lunar X PRIZE to Create a Space Race for a New Generation
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Posted on 08.22.07 by John @ 11:11 pm
NuclearSpace: The Pro-Nuclear Space Movement
Filed under: Science and Technology and Space Comments: 2 Comments |
When you take a look at it, the quickest and most efficient way to ‘get out of the well’ and go into space is by using a rocket that has real power. Sure, the Saturn V took man to the moon but it took days to get there and was done on the barest of economy. But what if you could launch a rocket that had so much power that your ship could built like a submarine and not like a flimsy soda can? Six months to Mars? Nope, more like two weeks. Sounds like a dream doesn’t it, true science fiction. Well at one time this very idea was being worked on by some of the smartest scientists in the US. It was called ‘|
Posted on 08.08.07 by John @ 3:35 pm
NASA - STS-118 Mission Page
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Posted on 07.04.07 by John @ 6:01 pm
Not that I’d ever want to lose a finger myself but if I did I’d want something at least as good as one of these.
Mechanical Fingers Give Strength, Speed to Amputees-Wired Magazine
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Posted on 06.29.07 by John @ 4:11 pm
Cats will always remain mysterious animals–but exactly where they came from is no longer a riddle. A genetic study has shown that the ancestors of all of today’s domestic cats prowled the Near East. The work bolsters the notion that cats became useful to humans when agriculture started–which scientists believe happened in the Near East–forcing people to protect grain stores from rodents. A Fertile Domestication of Cats — Holden 2007 (628): 1 — ScienceNOW
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Posted on 06.22.07 by John @ 10:41 pm
Quite amazing. I hope he builds some more computer parts out of wood. … a few months ago, I had an idea as to how the divide by two mechanisms from my first marble machine could be cascaded together to actually function as a sort of adder or counter. Once I had that idea, I knew I had to try it at some point, and recently, I finally got around to building my marble binary adding machine. [via MAKE]
Filed under: Science and Computers and Technology and Mad Science and Cool and Design and DIY and Artistic Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 06.15.07 by John @ 4:24 pm
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Posted on 06.08.07 by John @ 4:42 pm
NASA Space Shuttle Mission STS-117
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The space shuttle Atlantis has made a perfect launch on it’s service mission to install more power capacity on the International Space Station. Good work!|
Posted on 04.26.07 by John @ 9:07 pm
On dry land, most organisms are confined to the surface, or at most to altitudes of a hundred meters—the height of the tallest trees. In the oceans, though, living space has both vertical and horizontal dimensions: with an average depth of 3800 meters, the oceans offer 99% of the space on Earth where life can develop. And the deep sea, which has been immersed in total darkness since the dawn of time, occupies 85% of ocean space, forming the planet’s largest habitat. Yet these depths abound with mystery. The deep sea is mostly uncharted—only about 5 percent of the seafloor has been mapped with any reasonable degree of detail—and we know very little about the creatures that call it home. Current estimates about the number of species yet to be found vary between ten and thirty million. The deep sea no longer has anything to prove; it is without doubt Earth’s largest reservoir of life. [via science redigg] Pick it up on Amazon.com - The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss
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Who needs science fiction aliens when we have them right here. I mean, most of these critters look to have been drawn up by the best special effects designers in Hollywood.|
Posted on 04.24.07 by John @ 10:32 pm
NASA’s Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) satellites have provided the first three-dimensional images of the sun. For the first time, scientists will be able to see structures in the sun’s atmosphere in three dimensions. The new view will greatly aid scientists’ ability to understand solar physics and there by improve space weather forecasting. These are some of the best 3D astro images I have ever seen. For an even bigger treat download some of the videos. Seeing the mass ejections and sunspots with real depth is astounding.
Filed under: Science and Photography and Technology and Space Comments: None |
Break out the 3D glasses because the big brains at NASA have done it again!| previous posts » |
