The new system uses molten salts instead of traditional fuel rods.
The world is rethinking nuclear power plants in the face of climate change.
Your average plant produces 8,000 times more power than fossil fuels and is environmentally friendly. There’s one massive caveat, though, in the form of nuclear disasters, such as the 1986 Chernobyl incident and the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
Aeromine says its unique “motionless” rooftop wind generators deliver up to 50% more energy than a solar array of the same price, while taking up just 10% of the roof space and operating more or less silently. In independent tests, they seem legit.
Distributed energy generation stands to play a growing part in the world’s energy markets. Most of this currently comes in the form of rooftop solar, but in certain areas, wind could definitely play a bigger part. Not every spot is appropriate for a bladed wind turbine, though, and in this regard, University of Houston spinoff Aeromine Technologies has designed a very different, very tidy form of rooftop wind energy capture that looks like it could be a real game-changer.
As with traditional wind turbines, size is key. So while Aeromine’s wind energy boxes take up a relatively small footprint on your roof, they’re still pretty bulky. The wings themselves are maybe 10 feet (3 m) high, at a rough guess, and looking at the latest imagery they’re now sitting on top of boxes that might add another 6 ft (1.8 m) or more to their height – so they’re no shrinking violets. On the other hand, they don’t create the noise, or the constantly moving visual distraction of a regular, bladed turbine, so they may prove to be less unwelcome in populated areas.
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Welcome everybody to our first episode of Science News without the gobbledygook. Today we’ll talk about this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics, trouble with the new data from the Webb telescope, what’s next after NASA’s collision with an asteroid, new studies about the environmental impact of Bitcoin and exposure to smoke from wildfires, a test run of a new electric airplane, and dogs that can smell mathematics.
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00:00 Intro.
Thanks to a $19.2 million collaboration co-funded by the European Union.
Irish firm Ocean Energy has signed up to a collaboration project with 14 industry and university partners in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, and Spain. The project will test its OE35 floating wave energy device at scale over the next four years.
The new €19.6 million ($19.
Researchers have demonstrated a quantum sensor that can power itself using sunlight and an ambient magnetic field, an achievement that could help reduce the energy costs of this energy-hungry technology.
No longer the realm of science fiction, quantum sensors are today used in applications ranging from timekeeping and gravitational-wave detection to nanoscale magnetometry [1]. When making new quantum sensors, most researchers focus on creating devices that are as precise as possible, which typically requires using advanced—energy-hungry—technologies. This high energy consumption can be problematic for sensors designed for use in remote locations on Earth, in space, or in Internet-of-Things sensors that are not connected to mains electricity. To reduce the reliance of quantum sensors on external energy sources, Yunbin Zhu of the University of Science and Technology of China and colleagues now demonstrate a quantum sensor that directly exploits renewable energy sources to get the energy it needs to operate [2].
Thanks to NASA, the world may soon have access to chargers that can top off an EV in as little as five minutes. One of the biggest obstacles to fast charging is dealing with temperature. According to NASA, for an EV to be charged in five minutes, the charger must deliver an electric current of 1,400 amperes. For reference, the fastest chargers currently available max out at around 520 amperes. More amperes equals more heat. A lot more heat. Companies and research organizations are pursuing solutions to the problem; Ford and Purdue University, for example, are exploring liquid-cooled charging cables.
A team sponsored by NASA’s Biological and Physical Sciences Division is working on technology that could provide another solution needed for ultra fast EV charging. The technology has been developed for use in space, in which massive temperature differentials require massive heat transfer capabilities. An experiment to prove the new tech, the Flow Boiling and Condensation Experiment (FBCE), was installed on the International Space Station and is providing data that NASA will use to determine if the system will provide the claimed orders-of-magnitude benefits in heat transfer efficiency.
We’re definitely not NASA-level engineers but we will try to explain the FBCE the best we can. The FBCE is made up of several modules; one of which is called a “Flow Boiling Module” (FBM). When cooling liquid inside the FBM begins to boil, the bubbles formed draw liquid from the inner part of the flow channel to its walls. The process “efficiently transfers heat by taking advantage of both the liquid’s lower temperature and the ensuing change of phase from liquid to vapor.” The technique has been dubbed “subcooled flow boiling.”
O.o!!!
The ocean covers most of our planet’s surface, accounts for the majority of our oxygen production, and provides a significant amount of resources by way of food, minerals, and energy.
Yet our oceans are shockingly underrepresented when it comes to environmental conventions on an international scale.
The deep blue yonder is often reduced to footnotes and passing mentions in international accords that aim to unite our world in sustainable practices.
Musk was inspired by Alexander and Napolean, says his father.
Elon Musk is a combination of Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, and John D. Rockefeller, according to Dolly Singh, a former SpaceX executive who worked with Musk between 2008 and 2013.
Daniel Oberhaus/ Wikimedia Commons.
The Elon Musk Show is a three-part documentary, available only in the U.K., that looks to unravel the making of Elon Musk through interviews with family, friends, former employees as well as Musk’s adversaries. The first episode aired last week, while Singh made the comments in the second episode, which Business Insider has previewed.
