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The constant research and development on alternative energy sources could lead soon to a new era in human history, an era in which two renewable energy sources, wind and solar, are the most energy to provide to our species.
At least I think Walter Kohn, University of California at Santa Barbara, who shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1998.
Today, oil and natural gas provide us with approximately 60 percent of global energy consumption.
However, as Kohn argues, the most widely accepted estimates of future global production of these two actions indicate that production will reach a peak within 10 to 30 years or so, followed by a rapid decline.
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A new experiment proposed by physicists in the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) could enable scientists tested with unprecedented accuracy the effects of gravity at very short distances at a spatial scale that could be detected in the new and exotic details of this behavior.
Of the four fundamental forces that govern the interactions in the universe, gravity may be the most familiar, but ironically is the least understood by physicists. Although the influence of gravity on bodies separated by astronomical distances is well studied, little has been proven at very small scales in the order of millionths of a meter, an area often dominated by electromagnetic forces. This lack of data has generated years of scientific debate.
There are many different theories about whether gravity behaves differently over distances as short. But it is quite difficult to get so close to two objects and measure with sufficient precision movement relative to each other.
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The era of personal electricity generators, with each home or small commercial building can produce its own electricity for heating, air conditioning and electric cars recharge is now a step closer, thanks to the discovery of a new and powerful catalyst , a key element for such generators viable. This technological advancement could help free citizens and small businesses of their dependence on power companies and gas stations.
“Our goal is to make each home is its own mini electric,” explains Daniel Nocera of MIT, one of the authors. “We are working to develop personal power generator that can be manufactured, distributed and installed at low cost. Certainly there are big obstacles to overcome, for example we need to improve solar cells and existing fuel. However, one can imagine people India and Africa can buy a cheap basic system before too long time. ”
Such a system would be solar panels on a roof to produce electricity for heating or air conditioning, and also, for example, to recharge the batteries of electric cars, cooking and lighting.
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“Please, stay perfectly still”: This statement has come to be crucial for patients to be examined by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as possible complete stagnation has been the only way to get sharp images for diagnosis. So far, it was almost impossible to obtain images of bodies in motion using MRI. But the situation may change substantially in the near future, thanks to a new technical development.
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Gottingen have been able to significantly reduce the time required for imaging. With this achievement, it can be filmed “live” for the first time the dynamics of organs and joints, including for example the movements of the eyes and jaws, and bending the knee and heartbeat. The new MRI method promises to provide important information about diseases of the joints and heart. Thanks to this innovative technique, in many cases, MRI scans may become more easy and comfortable for patients.
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An international team of astronomers led from the CSIRO has developed a new way of measuring the mass of the planets in our solar system, using radio signals of small spinning stars called pulsars.
This is the first time someone has “heavy” entire planetary systems, ie planets and their moons and rings. David Champion team Max-Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany, has also provided an independent check on previous results.
Measurements of planetary masses made with this new approach could provide data needed for future space missions.
So far, astronomers have obtained the value of the mass of the planets by measuring the orbits of its moons or the spacecraft passed nearby. This is because mass creates gravity and the gravitational pull of a planet determines the orbit of anything around him, both the size of the orbit as the time it takes to complete.
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The former “terror bird”, Andalgalornis could not fly, but used his head unusually large and rigid, with his hooked beak like hawks, for a battle tactic similar in some respects to the basic strategy of fighting a fighter.
According to the results of a new study, this agile creature attacked and retreated again and again, quite accurate beaten to his prey.
This is the first detailed investigation on the style of predatory attack by a member of an extinct group of large birds, flightless but with a scary skull and often huge dimensions.
These birds evolved about 60 million years, isolated in South America, an island-continent until the last few million years, and have branched out into about 18 known species of varying sizes. Most of them, the Kelenken, reaching 2.1 meters in height.
As these birds have no analogues among terrifying modern birds, their habits of life have been a mystery.
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A team of scientists from the University of Oregon has determined the detailed genetic structure of an animal that showed a clear evolutionary response to rapid climate change in the past.
The results of this research, focusing on the mosquito Wyeomyia smithii, demonstrate the power of genomic technologies, which may provide new insights into the variety of species on the planet.
William Cresko team has shown that post-glacial populations of Wyeomyia smithii originated in a shelter in the Appalachian Mountains, after the recession of the Laurentide ice sheet makes between 22,000 and 19,000 years ago.
Biologists discovered that the expansion of the geographical ranges of the animal to land previously occupied by northern ice was a sequential and orderly wave.
With this detailed information, scientists can determine the genetic mechanism underlying the response to rapid climate change, a response in the case of organisms used to living in warm climates is the right way to adjust the seasonal timing of dormancy, migration , development and reproduction.
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Neutrinos, elementary particles created by nuclear reactions in the sun, have an “identity crisis” when crossing the universe, metamorphosing from three “tastes” different. Their antimatter counterparts (which are identical in mass but opposite charge and spin) are also experiencing an identity crisis. However, a team of physicists has now been found striking differences between neutrinos and antineutrinos in regard to behavior change “flavor.”
If confirmed, the finding may help explain why matter and not antimatter dominates our universe.
Each particle of matter has a corresponding antiparticle of antimatter. Electrons are negatively charged particles surrounding the nucleus of every atom. The positron is an antiparticle with the same mass and magnitude of charge of the electron but exhibiting a positive charge. When ordinary matter, such as an electron, combines with an equal amount of antimatter, such as a positron, they both annihilate.
Taking this into account, and that both were created in the formation of the universe, and that the present universe contains matter but virtually no antimatter, there must be some reason why the matter was ended by imposing on antimatter.
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Researchers at the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) have manipulated the process of photosynthesis of plants in a way that may allow the energy produced in the process to be utilized for subsequent use as electricity.
The achievement is a first step of the process that could one day provide power, green in more ways than one.
The research team led by Gadi Schuster and Noam Adir, considered a key protein in the process of electrons moving along the production line of photosynthesis. In its natural state, this protein extract electrons from water and moves through the plant cell membrane.
Altering an amino acid of the hundreds found in the protein, the researchers changed the direction of electron emission, thus allowing the energy produced in the process could take for later use. This modified protein “export” electrons at a frequency high enough to produce a useful amount of energy. The change from positive to negative does not affect the protein function and the development of the plant, thanks to which it is possible to obtain large amounts of protein at minimal cost.
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Dusting furniture and windows of a home is certainly a task that requires time, and should be done periodically to maintain an adequate level of cleanliness.
Imagine, then, which means having to keep dust and dirt the objects that fill an area as large as 25 or 50 football fields. That is the problem faced by companies dealing with large arrays of solar panels. A team of scientists has developed a solution: self-cleaning solar panels based on technology developed for space missions to Mars.
The team of Malay K. Mazumder, University of Boston has adapted the above space. The result is a self-cleaning coating placed on the surface of solar cells, which could increase their efficiency in producing electricity from sunlight, and reduce maintenance costs for large arrays of solar panels.
This new technology, which can be used in photovoltaic systems both small and large, seems to be the only known automatic cleaning powder that requires no water or mechanical movement to fulfill its mission.
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Researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Gottingen have been able to significantly reduce the time required for imaging. With this achievement, it can be filmed “live” for the first time the dynamics of organs and joints, including for example the movements of the eyes and jaws, and bending the knee and heartbeat. The new MRI method promises to provide important information about diseases of the joints and heart. Thanks to this innovative technique, in many cases, MRI scans may become more easy and comfortable for patients.