Artificial leaves.

Swimming fish cause ocean currents!

This is a pretty incredible twist on the whole ocean current/climate change story: turns out that the motion of the ocean can't be entirely accounted for by weather. What's the missing energy input? Swimming fish & other sea creatures.

"If swimming generates tide-scale forces, then 'it has an impact on global climate'. This is a rather novel twist to the whole climate story,” said William Dewar, a Florida State University oceanographer.

So, apparently overfishing causes climate change in addition to its other issues.

Put a cow in your tank!

Methane produced by livestock waste is a serious greenhouse gas--much stronger than CO2--that makes a big contribution to global warming. Cattle-rearing alone creates more greenhouse gas than cars!

But methane is great fuel. Hm [scratches head]. What to do?

Apparently, it's really easy to capture biogas & put it to immediate use on very small scales--you don't need massive plants & storage facilities...just a rubber inner tube.



And while you're at it, why stop with animals? I once suggested this self-supplied fuel source to an arctic explorer, but he didn't seem too enthused.

Kitchen microwave science!

Have fun learning about science while creating opportunities for lucrative insurance claims!

Ever wonder what would happen if you put a __ in the microwave? This site will help you find out without even pissing off your domestic companions or lighting the kitchen on fire.

More of a hands-on kind of guy? Why not measure the speed of light in your microwave?

And who says you need the heat & pressure of a star to create the 4th state of matter?

Meat-powered robots.

Turns out that "flesh-eating robot research is not progressing as quickly as you might think". But faster than it probably should, if you ask me.

Ugh! Why would you want to build a robot that runs on slugs it gathers up & ferments? Because "Slugs are slow," says Dr. Ian Kelly, creator of SlugBot. I don't even want to think about what this machine smells like (slug vodka?)...or who might be funding it, actually: soldier-powered war machines?

Hm. On the other hand, make a robot that self-powers by picking up & eating sticks & pine needles instead of slimy mollusks & you've just solved the problem of way too much fuel in western U.S. forests.

Algae energy!

The perfect energy source? Let's see:

Corn = 18 gals. of oil/acre/year;
Palm = 700-800 gals. of oil/acre/year;
Algae = 20,000 gals. of oil/acre/year! And that's in a pond where light-penetration limits yield. You can increase the yields dramatically with thin, vertical greenhouse tanks. Apparently, they can even easily tailor the carbon chains to whatever type fuel you want to get out.

Although I must say, it kind of ruins it for me when Poindexters say things like "If we converted 1/10 of the state of New Mexico to greenhouse algae production, we could supply the entire nation's energy requirement."

How about putting it in all those urban wasteland re-development districts & butt-ugly suburbias?

More about algae fuel.

Dope the ocean to suck up more carbon.

Cquestrate Intro Video from cquestrate on Vimeo.

I don't know what's more staggering about this idea: that it might actually return atmospheric carbon levels to pre-industrial levels while improving marine health at no net cost, or that the guy is evolving the idea as an open-source project.

More info here.

Cheap solar dish that melts steel.

Parabolic solar collectors are nothing new.

The geeks at M.I.T. have created one that is small & cheap, though, which IS new...& uber-cool, even if you don't instantaneously ignite 2x4s by sticking them into the focus like the students did.

Basically a source of concentrated energy that is far cheaper than equivalent photovoltaic panels, you can point its energy at water to make steam to drive a turbine, heat a house, cook, whatever.

Atomic Boyscout.

This is a fantastic, scary story, brought about in part by that most-dangerous of 1960's era do-it-yourself children's manuals: The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments.

Before reading this, I would really not have thought it possible for a preternaturally determined Eagle Scout candidate to assemble the required nuclear material to build a semi-functional breeder reactor & kick off a Superfund nuclear waste clean-up.

Who knew? Here's an ironic quote from one of the seriously unexpected under-the-radar participants:

"“Reactors get hot, it’s just a fact,” Miller, a nervous, skinny twenty-two-year-old, said during an interview at a Burger King in Clinton Township where he worked as a cook."

Still scared of "terrorists"?

Table-top fusion!

Cool--table-top fusion is back in the news!

Seems Japanese researchers may have unlocked the puzzle of cold-fusion experiment repeatability. Proving that the miserably elusive phenomenon actually exists through repetition is the first nut to crack before trying to harness it into an unlimited, clean power supply.

When Pons & Fleischmann went down in flames after claiming to have created low-energy fusion reactions in a jar in the 1980's, mainstream science pretty much took a BIG step back from the controversial subject. Despite random unrepeatable confirmations, cold-fusion was seen as crank pseudo-science & a good way to end a promising career.

But apparently, a surprising number of legitimate scientists have been secretly chipping away at the vexing problem without calling attention to themselves--sort of like entertaining a weird underwear fetish you'd rather not have your neighbors find out about.

By the by, brilliant inventor Philo Farnsworth--who is credited with television--already created a tabletop fusion reactor back in the 1950's! You can even build one yourself or buy a version of the contraption if you need a ready supply of neutrons for some reason.