new scientific discoveries

[Walsingham]

Insta-concrete shelters. http://www.concretecanvas.co.uk/index.html

 

Apologies if this has been posted already. I think it's amazing stuff.

 

Actually, now I think about it, I did post this already. But it's bloody awesome.

[ShadySands]

Part man, part jellyfish, all laser

 

Scientists Combine Human Cell, Jellyfish Into Living Laser

[Walsingham]

Just when you thought organisms like ebola couldn't get any worse, scientists give them frakking lasers.

[Wrath of Dagon]

May be finally a solution to the oil crisis? Natural gas into gasoline : http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/06/04/...-gold-in-qatar/

 

A shame, I would much rather we started moving towards hydrogen and electric cars. Even with this process I imagine the the exhaust still causes massive air pollution.

Those would require nuclear power to generate clean electricity, the prospects of that are pretty dim. I don't think burning natural gas derived gasoline would be very polluting, CO2 would be the main concern. It's probably better than burning coal to generate electricity, since with coal all the energy comes from carbon, where with NG and oil you're also burning hydrogen. With electric cars you also have to consider the environmental impact and energy cost of building and replacing all those giant batteries. Probably hydrogen fuel cells are the better solution, but still you need a clean way to generate electricity, and there's no hydrogen infrastructure currently.

 

As far as running out of natural gas, big new deposits are coming on-line all the time in the US and elsewhere, thanks to the new methods of production that have been recently developed, so I don't think it's going to run out any time soon. Probably the small, modular nuclear power plants are the long term solution, or may be if they ever get fusion working, but we'll see.

 

Edit: By new methods of production I mean fracking: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110612/ap_on_...ling_boom_towns

Edited June 13, 2011 by Wrath of Dagon

[Gorth]

Part man, part jellyfish, all laser

 

Scientists Combine Human Cell, Jellyfish Into Living Laser

Blasto... the first Hanar Spectre!

[Rosbjerg]

May be finally a solution to the oil crisis? Natural gas into gasoline : http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/06/04/...-gold-in-qatar/

 

A shame, I would much rather we started moving towards hydrogen and electric cars. Even with this process I imagine the the exhaust still causes massive air pollution.

Those would require nuclear power to generate clean electricity, the prospects of that are pretty dim.

 

Well not if there was a huge demand .. at least not according to the most prevailing economic theory. But yeah, prospects are unfortunately very dim - it's an unfortunate balance, that we have to gamble our immediate well being (with gigantious investments) if we want a better future or a less hurtful present for a more risky tomorrow.

[Humodour]

Italy, German, Japan, and Australia are all high-tech, rich economies that do not support nuclear power and are planning to, or are, investing heavily in renewable energy. Renewable energy is coming, whether you personally think it is economically viable or not is irrelevant.

 

Google, as a private actor located inside a sovereign state, is also becoming a huge player in the global renewable energy industry, with ownership of hundreds of millions of dollars in projects ranging from state of the art new power transmission cables to hydro, wind, and solar projects across the world (but typically focused on California, the Californian coast, and Nevada).

[Walsingham]

Italy, German, Japan, and Australia are all high-tech, rich economies that do not support nuclear power and are planning to, or are, investing heavily in renewable energy. Renewable energy is coming, whether you personally think it is economically viable or not is irrelevant.

 

Google, as a private actor located inside a sovereign state, is also becoming a huge player in the global renewable energy industry, with ownership of hundreds of millions of dollars in projects ranging from state of the art new power transmission cables to hydro, wind, and solar projects across the world (but typically focused on California, the Californian coast, and Nevada).

 

Um... you can't just say that because people are investing in it, that it's coming. People can invest in the flying car, but the economic utility of both systems are pretty much unbending. certainly in the short to medium term which is when the green doomsayers are saying change has to happen.

[Walsingham]

Bacteria eats bongzilllion tonnes of methane.

 

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/01/07/de...etane_bacteria/

[Humodour]

Italy, German, Japan, and Australia are all high-tech, rich economies that do not support nuclear power and are planning to, or are, investing heavily in renewable energy. Renewable energy is coming, whether you personally think it is economically viable or not is irrelevant.

 

Google, as a private actor located inside a sovereign state, is also becoming a huge player in the global renewable energy industry, with ownership of hundreds of millions of dollars in projects ranging from state of the art new power transmission cables to hydro, wind, and solar projects across the world (but typically focused on California, the Californian coast, and Nevada).

 

Um... you can't just say that because people are investing in it, that it's coming. People can invest in the flying car, but the economic utility of both systems are pretty much unbending. certainly in the short to medium term which is when the green doomsayers are saying change has to happen.

 

Solar is roughly 5 years away from parity with oil and solar can indeed produce baseload electricity (look up solar thermal towers).

 

Anyway, governments around the world have been subsidising fossil fuels and nuclear for decades. It's no surprise that many will do the same for various alternative technologies.

[Humodour]

But for people like you who're rather irrationally averse to solar, whatever. You lot can cheer on thorium nuclear reactors instead, since they're developing with an equally rapid growth trajectory:

 

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-06-pint-s...ear-energy.html

 

So far that I know of, the British, US, Russian, Chinese and Indian governments are actively working on thorium reactors or thorium research.

 

For those out of the loop, thorium reactors are far less radioactive, produce far less waste, and CANNOT undergo nuclear meltdown by design. Also, thorium is extremely abundant such that every country has reserves to power it for quite a long time (with places like India, Canada, Australia having extremely large reserves). Oh, and thorium is actually a waste by-product of rare-earth mining already.

[Walsingham]

Solar is roughly 5 years away from parity with oil

 

Arse. If that were genuinely true you'd have craptonnes of industry gearing up for it to avoid oil price fluctuations alone.

[Humodour]

Um, we DO!

[Walsingham]

Um, we DO!

 

I can't link to people not doing something. You can do the reverse.

[Humodour]

Um, we DO!

 

I can't link to people not doing something. You can do the reverse.

 

Japan now requires all new buildings to have solar panels on their rooves:

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-05-japan-solar-panels.html

 

Google investing hundreds of millions in solar:

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-0...-in-solar-plant

 

America investing billions in solar:

http://gigaom.com/cleantech/doe-offers-alm...ermal-projects/

 

Australia investing hundreds of millions in solar:

http://www.rechargenews.com/energy/solar/article262602.ece

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-20/b...r-projects.html

 

World government investment in solar:

http://cleantechnica.com/2011/06/07/china-...s-top-10-lists/

 

China specifically:

http://cleantechnica.com/2010/07/24/more-i...urope-combined/

 

New news articles describing some massive new solar investment come out every week or so:

http://www.google.com.au/search?sourceid=c...680&bih=925

 

New research papers describing some new advance in solar efficiency or cutting manufacturing costs, or a new type of solar energy come also come out every week or so:

http://www.physorg.com/search/?search=solar

 

 

I reiterate: your aversion to solar energy is irrational, and industry and investors everywhere are switching to it. Solar energy works. And it's getting cheaper just as oil gets more expensive.

[Humodour]

Some Melbournites have discovered a technology which should enable typing-powered laptops in about 3 years.

 

http://www.newelectronics.co.uk/electronic...ou-work-/34845/

[Humodour]

All-day solar power: http://inhabitat.com/video-gemasolar-plant...hr-solar-plant/

[pmp10]

All-day solar power: http://inhabitat.com/video-gemasolar-plant...hr-solar-plant/

That just proper storage, it still can't generate power at night.

[Humodour]

All-day solar power: http://inhabitat.com/video-gemasolar-plant...hr-solar-plant/

That just proper storage, it still can't generate power at night.

That's rather semantics isn't it? It does release power at night, and far better than any battery or fuel cell because it releases 99% of energy trapped in the molten salt. Basic fact is that it produces this "baseload" power the anti-renewables peops are always having a whine about.

 

The "baseload power" argument demonstrates a lack of understanding of how renewable energy works: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/201...m?site=canberra

 

Also noteworthy:

 

The number of households in electricity-starved Bangladesh using solar panels has crossed the one million mark -- the fastest expansion of solar use in the world

 

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-06-millio...olar-power.html

 

German industrial group Bosch will invest 520 million euros ($750 million) in a solar panel factory in Malaysia, a statement said.

 

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-06-bosch-...olar-panel.html

Edited June 27, 2011 by Krezack

[Zoraptor]

I reiterate: your aversion to solar energy is irrational, and industry and investors everywhere are switching to it. Solar energy works. And it's getting cheaper just as oil gets more expensive.

It's fine in a relatively low latitude place like Australia with lots of space, generally lots of sunshine and relatively constant daylight hours but once you start getting towards a UK situation where in winter the sun comes up at 10 am and sets at 4 and the climate is temperate maritime (lots of clouds and rain) it's considerably less practical.

 

Anyone who has spent a winter in the UK can tell why solar ain't a panacea for all places- you can't rely on something that will produce minimum power at precisely the time everyone wants to run their heaters. Plus it is still, at this time, rather expensive.

[Walsingham]

Krezack, I've said before that investing billions in something doesn't make it magically happen. If anything, the billions invested simply underline the fact that it won't work.

 

Look at Eurofighter.

[Humodour]

Krezack, I've said before that investing billions in something doesn't make it magically happen. If anything, the billions invested simply underline the fact that it won't work.

 

You say this:

 

Solar is roughly 5 years away from parity with oil

 

Arse. If that were genuinely true you'd have craptonnes of industry gearing up for it to avoid oil price fluctuations alone.

 

And then when I provide you evidence of "craptonnes of industry gearing up for it", you go and tell me that craptonnes of industry gearing up for it is not evidence of anything and in fact evidence that solar energy doesn't work. And that just because so many advances in the solar manufacturing process and conversion efficiency are taking place doesn't mean that solar is getting better or being is going to work.

 

Tried listening to yourself, Wals?

 

Zoraptor: So build the solar projects in countries where there's plenty of sun and send it over cables (as is already being done in Spain, Morocco). Or, do as is already being done by many companies and combine solar projects with back-up gas to produce a consistent level of output. There's no shame in using fossil fuels to boost renewables. It's a moron who thinks we must only use one or the other.

 

I take it Germany is a very sunny place, btw? Because they sure seem to get a lot out of their solar panels.

[Humodour]

Anyway, this isn't even just about solar. Renewable energy is a mix of technologies and solar is but one. Wind energy appears to be what shines for the UK.

[Gorth]

Wind energy appears to be what shines for the UK.

It sure isn't the sun

 

Ironically, one of the most conservative people I remember, militantly opposing wind power were the Kiwis. Despite the fact that they the entire western coast of the South Island, from Greymouth and downwards being for all intent and purpose uninhabitated and somewhere between windy and stormy most days of the year. The attitude may have changed the last 5-6 years, but back then it was unthinkable to put up noisy, ugly windmills in the middle of nowhere.

[Humodour]

Wind energy appears to be what shines for the UK.

It sure isn't the sun

 

Ironically, one of the most conservative people I remember, militantly opposing wind power were the Kiwis. Despite the fact that they the entire western coast of the South Island, from Greymouth and downwards being for all intent and purpose uninhabitated and somewhere between windy and stormy most days of the year. The attitude may have changed the last 5-6 years, but back then it was unthinkable to put up noisy, ugly windmills in the middle of nowhere.

 

Haha. That brings me to another point: IN WHAT WAY ARE WIND FARMS UGLY?! They're beautiful and majestic and remind me just what humans are capable of. Sort of like the International Space Station.

 

No tengas miedo! El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha va a salvar.