The Homely Scientist

 Hydrogen is often held up as the fuel of the future, but there are some problems with good old H-2.  First, it’s explosive.  Second, as the lightest element, Earth’s gravity isn’t even strong enough to keep it here.  Third, given one and two, rather hard to safely contain and if that isn’t enough, fourth … it isn’t that easy to generate.  Yes, I did the electrolysis experiment in school using a battery to split water into oxygen and hydrogen, but the reality is that the amount of energy required to get the hydrogen out, exceeds the amount of energy the hydrogen releases.

Yeah not good.  Okay to tackle the safety, storage and transport issues we have the hydrogen pellet:

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy research lab, has come up with a new formula for hydrogen pellets that looks like it holds a lot of energy, per gram.

The PNNL pellet is made out of ammonia borane, or AB, compressed into small pellets. A milliliter of AB weighs about 0.75 grams and can hold up to 1.8 liters of hydrogen. Researchers speculated that a fuel system powered by AB pellets will occupy less space and be lighter in weight than systems using pressurized hydrogen gas. That’s one of the pellets (and not a half-dissolved Jawbreaker) in the photo. Source: Another formula for hydrogen fuel pellets | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

This looks promising, but they have to work on getting the hydrogen back out easily, effectively, and cheaply.  Now on the generation side:

Those mad scientists at Purdue University seem to think they have something big on their hands, with them now claiming that they’re “perfecting” a new hydrogen-generating technology that they first announced earlier this year. According to the researchers, the technology could represent a “pollution-free energy source” for a whole range of applications, with it effectively generating “hydrogen on demand.” To do that, the researchers added water to an alloy of aluminum and gallium, which attracts oxygen from the water, letting hydrogen loose in the process. Source: Engadget

Again anything to reduce the amount of energy require to liberate a quantity of hydrogen is a good thing.  Again, more work needed.

See the pattern here?  There are no easy answers.  There are no quick fixes.  It is going to take, time, money, and brains to get us to a place where we aren’t so dependant on fossil fuels.  At least now I think we have the collective will to help make it all happen.

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 I don’t know if this is a post for here or PimpYourWork, but eh, we’ll do it here (more science than work I guess).  We know that electrical resistance makes heat (this how toasters and electric heaters work, btw) and our computers are packing in so many electro-bits (I made that up) that heat generation is a big problem.  I have no less than three devices handy to help keep my laptop cool.  All involve passive cooling (letting more cool air get to the machine), not what if the processors were made to cool themselves!

US researchers have developed a prototype device that creates a “breeze” made up of charged particles, or ions, to cool computer chips.

The “ionic wind”, the scientists say, will help to manage the heat generated by increasingly powerful, yet ever-shrinking devices.

[snip]

The prototype, which is attached to a mock computer chip, works by shifting charged particles from one end of the device to the other. As a voltage is applied to the ionic engine, positively charged particles (ions) are produced, and are dragged towards a negatively charged wire (a cathode), forcing constant air movement.

The team found the prototype engine boosted cooling

The researchers said that when it was used in conjunction with a conventional fan, air molecules, rather than getting stuck, were dragged across the chip’s surface boosting cooling.

The team said the device increased the cooling rate from a conventional fan by up to 250%.

Source: BBC NEWS | Technology | Tiny wind engines cool computers

Sure, while this is a long way off, if I’m right, the more powerful the processor the stronger the wind so the better the cooling.  This could help computers get pretty dern powerful!

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 Not only does our world run on electricity, it runs on batteries.  Batteries, while greatly improved even in my lifetime,  still have a way to go.  They are heavy (relatively), bulky, and toxic (like really freakin’ toxic).  What if a battery could be thin, light, and safer?  Soon that might be possible….

Companies have been trying to figure out how to use carbon nanotubes in electronics. Batteries may be the answer, say researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

The device is a piece of paper infused with carbon nanotubes and a salt, which serves as an electrolyte. Because it stores energy and conducts it, the device can act like a battery. Source: Paper and carbon nanotube battery developed, and it’s flexible | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

What is cool about this is that carbon is, well, everywhere.  Yes, while this new tech is getting a lot of press and coverage, practical applications are a long way off.  Think about it like the first glider or understanding how a combustion engine might work.  Yep, we just have to wait, watch and see.  That is also what science is about: patience.

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 One of the problems with our dependence on petroleum is that it isn’t “renewable” (technically, it is … it just takes so long that it isn’t functionally), but what if we could “grow” gasoline?  Looks like that might not be such a pipe dream after all:

LS9, a company based in San Carlos, CA, and founded by geneticist George Church, of Harvard Medical School, and plant biologist Chris Somerville, of Stanford University, had previously said that it was working on what it calls “renewable petroleum.” But at a Society for Industrial Microbiology conference on Monday, the company began speaking more openly about what it has accomplished: it has genetically engineered various bacteria, including E. coli, to custom-produce hydrocarbon chains.

To do this, the company is employing tools from the field of synthetic biology to modify the genetic pathways that bacteria, plants, and animals use to make fatty acids, one of the main ways that organisms store energy. Fatty acids are chains of carbon and hydrogen atoms strung together in a particular arrangement, with a carboxylic acid group made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen attached at one end. Take away the acid, and you’re left with a hydrocarbon that can be made into fuel. Source: Technology Review: Making Gasoline from Bacteria

Clearly this is in early stages of work, essentially proving that you can get something refinable out of these little buggers.  One thing that I’d like to know is if these hydrocarbon chains are complex enough for all the other things we use petroleum for (plastics, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, etc).  That is probably the Holy Grail of breaking our addiction to oil.

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 Think of all the small, free-standing structures you see in a given day.  Bus stops, small sheds, fixed awnings.  They are put there to keep sun (yes and rain, I know) off people.  What about the roofs of those structures?  Looks like there could be a product that will let us take advantage of a lot of small surfaces and use them as solar collectors:

Soliant’s primary customer is commercial building owners but the company’s product design is flexible enough that it has developed a specialized solar-power generator for car parks, or roofs that shade cars during the day.

“One thing we realized about a year ago was that we could make very large panels, which is something that ordinary solar panels can’t do,” said company CEO Brad Hines.

The company’s traditional “heliotube” concentrator, which is meant to be the same size as traditional solar panels, has 10 tubes that shine light onto solar cells.

To make a product to shade cars it used the same basic design, but by stringing together 16 tubes, Soliant makes the panel a little over 8 feet long, said Hines. The company is planning to ship its commercial products by the end of this year. Source: Solar power while you park the car | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

I know I’m sounding like a broken record here, but it’s these kinds of simple innovations that can add up to the big stuff.  Heck I saw one today on GearLive’s unboxing–instead of having a screensaver come on after five minutes, just have the screen turn off then.  Simple, easy and will save a lot of power … a lot.

Let’s just brainstorm and think of more things … like what about micro-hydropower generators in downspouts?  Out here when it rains, it rains.  Why not use the power of the water going down the drain pipe generate a little power.  If nothing else they could charge batteries to power outside lights.

Together I know we can work through this.

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Remember me talking about wind-power hitting a tipping point and how solar was almost there?  In a case of news almost made to order is this bit of news:

The University of Delaware has inched up the record for solar cell efficiency with a new device that can convert 42.8 percent of the light that strikes it into electricity.

That beats the old record of 40.7 percent hit in December. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, has been funding research to get efficiency up to 50 percent.

The cell, created by Christina Honsberg and Allan Barnett of UD, splits incoming light into three buckets: high energy, low energy, and medium energy light. The light is then directed to different materials, which then extract electrons out of the photons that make up sunlight.

The device also has an optical concentrator, sort of like a lens that directs more sunlight to the solar cell than would occur naturally and thereby increasing efficiency. Source: A new record in solar cells | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

While this might not seem huge, the combination of technologies is extremely important.  By using three different materials to extract the electrons and a concentrator the stage is set for more improvements to follow.  This development isn’t something we’ll see on people’s houses anytime soon, they are going to be very expensive to produce at first, but all innovations, all breakthroughs aren’t mystical bolts from the blue, they all build on the work done before.  This is just one of those steps or pieces of the puzzle.

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I don’t know anyone with a severe allergy to peanuts, but I do know that people who are live in a world where just about any food could make them sick, or worse.

News from North Carolina might give them some hope:

People with life-threatening allergies to peanuts might be able to rest easy at their friendly neighborhood Thai restaurants soon, if research announced this week proves true. A release from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University says researcher Mohamed Ahmedna has developed whole, roasted peanuts in which the allergen is completely inactivated and that serum from people with severe peanut allergies did not react to the processed peanuts at all. The university paper does not explain the process at all. However, it claims the technique inactivates peanut allergens without degrading the taste or quality of treated peanuts. Source:Researcher develops allergy-free peanuts | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

While this is awesome news, I have to caution that I doubt that there would be universal adoption of this new peanut.  Cheap peanuts from around the world might not use the new strain or new process.  I think this new developement might wind up being a double-edged sword.  Lulled into a false sense of security, a person with this allergy could be exposed to the “old” peanut and have a reaction.  Maybe the most realistic thing is that they will be able to enjoy peanutbutter at some time.

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Replacement limbs have generally been somewhat useful objects.  Sure, there are hooks, and some bio-mechanical hands, and much better legs now, but true bionics have eluded us, until now:

Touch Bionics announced Tuesday what it calls the world’s first commercially available bionic hand, a prosthetic hand that moves more naturally than traditional prostheses and can hold awkward or delicate objects. While most prostheses today can open and close, allowing people to grasp some items, they lack the detailed movements of a natural hand. The i-Limb Hand gets one step closer to that natural movement, with motors in each finger that make it possible to move individual fingers and form several different grips. Source: Photos: Bionic hand gets thumbs-up | CNET News.com

This is more photo essay than science article, but do read it all.  It’s inspiring really.  The ability of have light tough, strong grip, multiple digit positions.  Very, very cool stuff.  Touch Bionics is even making ones that don’t look like Terminator hands, but real hands.  Very hard to tell the difference in the pictures!

Just awesome.

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 In the Andes, the Incas and modern-day descendents have been gathering water from the fog for centuries.  The process there is simple, the fog hits some kind of cloth or sheeting and the water condenses on it.   Then the water collects and rolls down into a container.  These work amazingly well, but they are also huge and need pretty heavy fog to work well.  Max Whisson has taken the idea that there is always (pretty much) water in the air and uses condensation to make a water gathering machine:

There’s a lot of water floating around in the air everywhere, and inventor Max Whisson has figured out a way to extract it using Max Water, a wind-powered contraption he named after himself. Max Water uses the concept of condensation, where lower temperature allows less water to hang around in the air, and Whisson says that will amount to 10,000 liters per day dripping from this single rooftop device. Man, that’s a lot of water. Source: Green Invention: Max Water Cranks Moisture Out of the Air, Seems Miraculous - Gizmodo

This looks like another great way to gather supplemental water for things like gardens, etc in the city.  Of course it can serve as drinking water if it is purified.  Only hitch is that right now they will set you back about $44 grand.  Maybe with larger production the price can come down.

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Making artificial limbs work like the original has been a lofty goal for years.  Hooks, pulleys, servos, all sorts of gadgets to make fingers and wrists move and respond.  Until now, that’s been the limit, but now inspired by the elephant’s trunk, a breakthrough has been made:

It’s not often you see a piece of tech touted by its developer as being inspired by something “long, gray, and soft,” but that’s exactly how the researchers at Germany’s prolific Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Institute are describing their ISELLA robotic arms. Inspired by the finesse and power of an elephant’s trunk, the team developed a unique redundant motorized “muscle” called DOHELIX, consisting of dual drive shafts intertwined around each other in a double helix, resulting in a system that can be scaled from micrometer-scale muscles to cranes in container seaports. Source: Elephant trunks inspire ISELLA robotic arm - Engadget

Coupled with the new nerve sensing technologies replacement limbs that work like the real thing, might be just around the corner.

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