Homely Scientist

The most pressing issue with alternative fuels like biodiesel is supply.  If you can’t make it in quantity not only does this prevent people from getting the fuel, it makes it more expensive than it really needs to be.  Looks like that’s about to change:
The Grays Harbor, Wash., biodiesel refinery being opened by Imperium Renewables. The 12-acre facility will be capable of churning out 100 million gallons of biodiesel by the end of the year, the company says.
Imperium wants to build three copycat plants over the next 18 months. When it comes to total diesel consumption, 100 million gallons is …read more

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When looking at the world of infectious diseases, once of the huge questions is how fast it spreads and lethal it is (both in terms of number of people who die and how quickly).  The Spanish Flu of 1918, there hasn’t been a flu that deadly since, why?  Ebola, pretty much 100% lethal, very infectious, but because people die so quickly (not to mention horribly) it tends to burn out quickly.  Scientists looking at West Nile Virus have found that a minor change in the amino acids of the virus can have profound effects:
The amino acid change in question alters …read more

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No, this is not a goofy free energy thing like I saw at Gnomedex on Saturday (ugh, it still bugs me).  This is real science, real physics, and doesn’t violate the laws of thermodynamics: heck it uses them!
This papercraft engine only needs to sit on a cup of hot coffee to drive its pistons. No, it’s not the precious caffeine that drives the motion, but the Stirling engine design, in which the difference between alternating hot and cold gas pressure is harnessed for power. Source: Cheaper Than Gas: Paper Stirling Engine Runs Off Hot Coffee – Gizmodo
Boing Boing has …read more

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On my bacteria making hydrocarbons post, Dave commented on what if something hadn’t been discovered or had been discovered by a different person…how would things be different.  Which leads to ethics and science.  Both Einstein and Oppenheimer decried the use of their discoveries.  Yes, Oppenheimer is noted as “the father of the atomic bomb”, but he also didn’t want the world destroyed either.  Nobel invented dynamite, but was so morally devastated by its use that the Nobel Prize was created.
We scientists often discuss how discoveries are ethically “neutral”, it is their use that matters.  Is that entirely true, though?  Are …read more

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From Lifehacker …
How To Pull A Van Uphill (with Only A Rope) – video powered by Metacafe
This video shows one of the simplest machines, the pulley–not a lever as Lifehacker says–and how it increases your ability to lift/pull heavy things.
If you want to try this at home … try something other than a car … log or something.
Technorati Tags: simple machines, physics, pulley

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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 …read more

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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 …read more

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A recent study looked at the whys of people wanting to have sex.  Now, yes, there are some of the obvious ones there, but there are some interesting ones like getting closer to God, and my favourite (for the shock value only) wanting to give someone and STD:
“Why people have sex is extremely important, but rarely studied. Surprisingly, many scientists assume the answer is obvious, but people have different reasons for having sex, some of which are rather complex,” Buss said in a statement.
The top reason both men and women gave was that “I was attracted to the person,” but …read more

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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 …read more

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While coastal upwelling is generally a good thing, like many things in nature, you can have too much of a good thing.  In this case the upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich deep water causes not only a plankton bloom, but the death and decomposition of the buggers have a dark side:
Unlike the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, which is caused by fertilizer washing down the Mississippi River, the Oregon dead zone is triggered by northerly winds, which create an ocean-mixing condition called upwelling.
This brings low-oxygen waters from deep in the ocean close to shore, and spreads nitrogen and other nutrients …read more

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