Selected readings 10 24 10

Interesting reading and news items.

Please leave some comments that indicate which articles you find most interesting or that identify topics you would like to read about, and I will try to include more articles of a similar nature in the future

These items are also bookmarked at my Diigo account.

The New Nu News!

There could be an extra, "sterile" neutrino out there, although cosmology places tight restrictions on that. There could be a fundamental difference between neutrinos and anti-neutrinos, which we dont (at present) understand at all. Or there could be some physics thats completely off the radar that explains this, but it looks like the good ol standard model (and the simplest modifications to it) is woefully inadequate to explain what were seeing. [Starts with a Bang, 9/27/10]

Primordial Magnetic Field May Permeate the Universe

Two physicists attempting to overcome some unexpected fuzziness in images of distant, supermassive black holes say they have found yet another potential big bang vestige: an extremely weak magnetic field that stretches across the universe. If scientists confirm the finding, it could help reveal the origins of magnetism in the cosmos. [ScienceNOW, 9/24/10]

The Itch of Curiosity

Curiosity is one of those personality traits that gets short scientific shrift. It strikes me as a really important mental habit - how many successful people are utterly incurious? - but its also extremely imprecise. What does it mean to be interested in seemingly irrelevant ideas? And how can we measure that interest? While weve analyzed raw intelligence to death - scientists are even beginning to unravel the anatomy of IQ - our curiosity about the world remains mostly a mystery. [Wired, 8/3/10]

The Personality Paradox

Theres an interesting new paper in Biological Psychiatry on the genetic variations underlying human personality. The study relied on a standard inventory of temperaments - novelty-seeking, harm avoidance, reward dependence and persistence - as measured in 5,117 Australian adults. What did the scientists find? Mostly nothing. The vast genetic search came up empty. [Wired, 8/9/10]

The Worm In Your Brain

So our cortex turns out to be a lot older than previously thought. The common ancestor of us and ragworms–a wormy creature that lived 600 million years ago–not only had a brain, but had an ur-cortex. And it probably used that ur-cortex to learn about its world–most likely learning about the odors it sniffed. That animal’s descendants diverged into different forms, and the ur-cortex changed along the way. Yet they still used many of the same genes their ancestor did long ago. [The Loom, 9/3/10]

Mapping the Brain on a Massive Scale

A massive new project to scan the brains of 1,200 volunteers could finally give scientists a picture of the neural architecture of the human brain and help them understand the causes of certain neurological and psychological diseases. The National Institutes of Health announced $40 million in funding this month for the five-year effort, dubbed the Human Connectome Project. Scientists will use new imaging technologies, some still under development, to create both structural and functional maps of the human brain. [Technology Review, 9/28/10]

Recipes For Limb Renewal

Bioengineers continue to refine prosthetic limbs, but they still can’t replicate the entire constellation of capabilities provided by flesh and blood. So a few determined scientists are pursuing a different solution: They are seeking the recipe for regrowing a missing limb. [Chemical & Engineering News, 8/2/10]

If low serotonin levels arent responsible for depression, what is?

While traditional antidepressants do increase neurogenesis and relieve depression symptoms in some animal models, others show that neurogenesis and antidepressant behaviours are unrelated. Much of this debate comes down to the fact that we dont yet have a real understanding of neurogenesis, how it works, and how it is controlled both in normal brains and in the presence of antidepressants. Until we know, finding a truly effective antidepressant may remain out of reach. So while the monoamine/serotonin hypothesis for depression may be out, neurogenesis needs to step it up a little to make it in. [guardian.co.uk, 9/28/10]

A New Way to Make Stem Cells

A Harvard researcher has developed a way to make pluripotent stem cells that solves several of the major impediments to using them to treat human diseases. Derrick Rossi, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, created pluripotent stem cells--which can turn into virtually any other type of cell in the body--from non-stem cells without using viruses to tinker with a cells genome, as conventional methods do. This means that Rossis method could be substantially safer for treating disease. [Technology Review, 10/1/10]

Alien World Tour: The Exoplanets Around Star Gliese 581

The announcement Wednesday (Sept. 29) of two newfound alien planets circling the star Gliese 581 adds to the nearby solar systems intrigue, further cementing its status as a top candidate to harbor extraterrestrial life. One of the two newly discovered planets, known as Gliese 581g, is a small, Earth-like world that likely lies within its stars habitable zone - the just-right range of distances that allow liquid water to exist. Astronomers have now detected six planets orbiting Gliese 581, the most known to circle any star beyond our own sun. [Space.com, 9/29/10]

If Theres Life on Alien Planet Gliese 581g, How Do We Find It?

After spending decades searching for alien planets capable of harboring life, astronomers may have found one. So how can they check to see if life actually exists on this alien world? ... One of the planets discoverers said in a briefing yesterday that "the chances of life on this planet are 100 percent." To determine if this is true, researchers will have to scrutinize Gliese 581g from afar, searching its atmosphere for certain telltale molecules. But it might be a while before they have the tools to do this properly. [Space.com, 9/30,10]

Astronomer Seeks ET Machines

If we ever do receive a message from outer space, we’ll want to know what kind of aliens sent it. SETI researcher Seth Shostak says we shouldn’t expect them to be anything like us – in fact, they might not be biological at all, but instead, extraterrestrial machines. [Astrobiology Magazine, 10/1/10]

The Gates of Immortality

Why do cells allow some mistakes to accumulate? If evolution is such a powerful process-one that finds solutions to all manner of problems-how could there be processes or problems that cant be fixed? [The Scientist, 10/1/10]

The One True Path?

Niswender and Galli are elucidating a molecular link between mental illness and problems with how the body processes sugars. That link is part of the complex series of events that make up the insulin-signaling pathway, a crucial mechanism by which the pancreatic hormone insulin directs the transport and storage of glucose in virtually every cell type in the body. This is only one of a recent rash of discoveries about how insulin is also intricately involved in many disease processes, including the growth of cancer cells and defects in bone mass regulation. [The Scientist, 10/1/10]

A new source of CP violation?

Abazov et al. report an unexpectedly large value of the same-sign dimuon charge asymmetry. This means that they see pairs of positive muons, μ+μ+, among the debris of their proton-antiproton collisions more often than they see pairs of negative muons, μ-μ-. The key point is that their measurement violates CP symmetry, which relates the behavior of matter and antimatter particles. [Physics, 8/16/10]

Hagfish Analysis Opens Major Gap in Tree of Life

Since the 1970s, many evolutionary biologists have considered an eel-like, deep-sea-dwelling creature called the hagfish to be the closest extant relative of a last common ancestor for all backboned creatures. That made the hagfish a stand-in for a transitional species between invertebrates and higher animals, spanning a leap as dramatic as any in evolutionary history. But a new family tree based on high-powered molecular analysis lumps hagfish together with lampreys, a jawless fish that’s primitive, but very much a vertebrate. [Wired, 10/19/10]

On a quest to map the brain’s hidden territory

On a recent morning, Wedeen pulled up images created with the new technology, in which the lakes of white were crisscrossed by colorful, ropy bundles of fibers, revealing an elegant, three-dimensional architecture. Looking more like art than anatomy, these strands form the connections in the brain — the “connectome.’’ They are neural highways crucial for brain function, including thoughts, movements, and sensations. [The Boston Globe, 10/11/10]

The origin of complex life – it was all about energy

According to a new hypothesis, put forward by Nick Lane and Bill Martin, we are all natural-born gas-guzzlers. Our very existence, and that of every animal, plant and fungus, depended on an ancient partnership, forged a few billion years ago, which gave our ancestors access to unparalleled supplies of energy and allowed them to escape from the shackles of simplicity. [Not Exactly Rocket Science, 10/20/10]

The Fuel Of Evolution

Within the cells of humans and all other modern creatures are lots of tiny mitochondria, which may have been the key to the evolution of complex multicellular life billions of years ago. [InsideScience.org, 10/22/10]

Geologists revisit the Great Oxygenation Event

Why did oxygen levels spike 2.5 billion years ago, and how much oxygen was there in the atmosphere really? Why are banded iron formations made of layers only a few centimeters thick, and why did they stop forming so abruptly? If the oceans were oxygenated 2.5 billion years ago, why did multicellular life delay its appearance for another 2 billion years? And did all these changes really take place at pretty much the same time everywhere on Earth? [Physorg.com, 8/19/10]

Mirror Mirror On The Wall

Every one of the four forces of Nature we know of - gravity, electromagnetism, the weak force, and the nuclear force - all originate from slight variations of this narrative. Gauge symmetries are the origins of all the forces of Nature. For example, gravity arises from a gauge symmetry in 3D: a sphere of a gauge with its hand pointing in any direction in the full three dimensional span of space. [Schrödingers Dog, 10/22/10]

Gravity Up Close

Scientists know how gravity works at big distances -- the inter-planetary or inter-stellar range -- but does it work the same way at the inter-atomic range? A variety of tabletop experiments are trying to explore this issue. Already some theorists say that a departure from conventional gravity behavior could hint at the existence of extra dimensions. [InsideScience.org, 10/13/10]

Cracks In The Universe

Physicists are hot on the trail of one of strangest theorized structures in the universe. A team of researchers have announced what they think are the first indirect observations of ancient cosmic strings, bizarre objects thought to have contributed to the arrangement of objects throughout the universe. [InsideScience.org, 10/11/10]

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10 Extraordinary Photographs of the Starry Night Sky

TreeHugger has an interesting collection of photos of the night sky - 10 Extraordinary Photographs of the Starry Night Sky.

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Selected readings 2 19 10

Interesting reading and news items.

These items are also bookmarked at my Diigo account.

Searching ALL the Tevatron data for exotic physics

The majority of published particle physics papers involve looking for a very specific elementary particle process. They conclude by either showing that it exists or constraining limits on how often that process could possibly occur. But is there a way to take advantage of a collider’s whole data set and seeing if it is consistent with an expansive theoretical model, such as the Standard Model of particle physics? [Symmetry breaking, 2/13/10]

The Cosmological Constant and the Dark Sector

The dark sector refers to dark energy and dark matter, which are two distinct phenomena which seem to have no direct connection other than in name. In this post I am going to talk about the cosmological constant, dark energy, and look at some landmark literature on the subject. [The Astronomist, 2/7/10]

Physicists Solve Difficult Classical Problem with One Quantum Bit

Most research on quantum information systems has concentrated on models that use multiple quantum bits. In a new study, physicists have demonstrated how to solve a difficult classical problem that completely encapsulates a quantum model that requires only one quantum bit. The scientists, Gina Passante, et al., from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, have presented their experimental results for the quantum solution of the approximation of the Jones polynomial, which is a knot invariant. [Physorg.com, 1/8/10]

Quantum computer calculates exact energy of molecular hydrogen

In an important first for a promising new technology, scientists have used a quantum computer to calculate the precise energy of molecular hydrogen. This groundbreaking approach to molecular simulations could have profound implications not just for quantum chemistry, but also for a range of fields from cryptography to materials science. [Physorg.com, 1/10/10]

Warp-Speed Algebra: New Algorithm Does Algebra in a Snap

Quantum computers can do wondrous things: too bad they do not exist yet. That has not stopped physicists from devising new algorithms for the devices, which can calculate a lot faster than ordinary computers—in fact, exponentially faster, in quite a literal sense. Once quantum computers do become available, the algorithms could become a key part of applications that require number crunching, from engineering to video games. [Scientific American, 1/1/10]

Fermi telescope closes in on mystery of cosmic ray acceleration

The Large Area Telescope collaboration, led by KIPAC researchers Takaaki Tanaka, Uchiyama, and Hiroyasu Tajima, released the first image of a supernova remnant in the giga-electronvolt energy range (about 200 million times the energy of visible light). By revealing the spatial distribution of cosmic rays in the remnant, this result is a significant step toward definitively determining how cosmic rays are accelerated in supernova remnants. [Symmetry breaking, 1/7/10]

Do particle theorists have a blind spot?

Theorist Matthew Strassler from Rutgers University challenged particle theorists to not be too simple in their analyses. Most people would probably not claim that theoretical particle physics is too simple, but Strassler argued that nature is likely to be even more complicated than hpysicists expect. And if theorists only properly examine the simplest classes of models, where simple is a relative term, they might be led astray in interpreting future Large Hadron Collider data. [Symmetry breaking, 2/14/10]

How to Change A Skin Cell Into A Nerve Cell or Cellular Anarchy & The Great Leap Sideways

A team at Stanfords Institute for Stem Cell Biology & Regenerative Medicine, led by Marcus Wernig and graduate student Thomas Vierbuchen, recently announced that a combination of only three transcription factors that would change a skin cell into a nerve cell -- with no intermediate (undifferentiated) steps. [h+ Magazine, 2/7/10]

Imaging the Brain Better, Faster, Thinner

fMRIs a tool, an amazing one in a lot of ways, but like any tool it needs to be used well. Along with others, Ive criticized various aspects of recent fMRI practice, but only because its frustrating to see such a powerful tool not being used to its full potential. So I was very pleased by a recent paper by Sabatinelli et al, The Timing of Emotional Discrimination in Human Amygdala and Ventral Visual Cortex. The authors set out to test a hypothesis - that seeing an emotionally charged picture would activate the amygdala and the inferotemporal cortex (IT) before activating the extrastriate occipital cortex. [Neuroskeptic, 2/3/10]

Uncovering the Genetic Controls of Cellular Aging

A fascinating thing about DNA replication is that the actual process lacks the ability to replicate the very ends of chromosomes. That means chromosomes should get shorter with every round of cell division (DNA replication), but they remain more or less the same length, getting gradually shorter with aging. The natural shortening of chromosomes is refered to as cellular aging. So how do chromosomes maintain their ends if not by replication? [DNA Dude, 2/9/10]

Gods will and beliefs are your own, not gods

According to these results believers project their own values and beliefs on their god (or gods) to a great extent, which could certainly help explain not only the great diversity and variability of religious belief and expression, but also the ambiguous nature of religious interpretation. [Ego sum Daniel, 1/27/10]

Hunting Fossil Viruses in Human DNA

The borna virus is at once obscure and grotesque. It can infect mammals and birds, but scientists know little about its effects on its victims. ... The virus now turns out to have an intimate bond with every person on Earth. In the latest issue of Nature, a team of Japanese and American scientists report that the human genome contains borna virus genes. The virus infected our monkey-like ancestors 40 million years ago, and its genes have been passed down ever since. [New York Times, 1/11/10]

The Origin of the Future: Death by Mutation?

The evolutionary biologist Michael Lynch has published a provocative paper (to mark his inauguration into the National Academy of Sciences) in which he makes another kind of forecast. Our future evolution, he warns, is going to lead to a devastating decline in our health. [The Loom, 1/7/10]

Spiral Galaxies Exist — But Why?

Its a minor miracle (and a topic of considerable debate) how all the spirals we see today managed to endure all that mayhem unscathed. "The formation of spirals is a problem," admits Christopher Conselice, a galaxy specialist at the University of Nottingham. "We dont know how they formed, or how they survive all those mergers." [Sky & Telescope, 2/16/10]

WMAP Refines "Precision Cosmology"

Without much public notice, the team running the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) recently released results from the satellites "seven-year data set," updating the five-year data released in 2008. ... The two more years of data have further beaten down the statistical uncertainties in the cosmic background map, allowing analysts to refine what it tells us about the cosmos as a whole. If the new, revised results didnt make much news, its because they show modern cosmology to be steady on course. The better data only firm up confidence in what we already thought we knew. [Sky & Telescope, 2/14/10]

Cell phone radiation may fight Alzheimers... in mice

The study examined the performance of mice that received a daily dose of radiation similar to that produced by cell phones, and found that, over a period of several months, their memory improved. When the same procedure was performed with mice engineered to be predisposed to Alzheimers pathology, it was actually able to reverse some of the cognitive decline. [Nobel Intent, 1/6/10]

Zinc Fingers Could Be Key to Reviving Gene Therapy

The technique, which depends on natural agents called zinc fingers, may revive the lagging fortunes of gene therapy because it overcomes the inability to insert new genes at a chosen site. Other researchers plan to use the zinc finger technique to provide genetic treatments for diseases like bubble-boy disease, hemophilia and sickle-cell anemia. [New York Times, 12/28/09]

Climate change: No hiding place?

The fact that no record high happened in the 2000s does not mean that there was no warming over the decade—trends at scales coarser than the annual continued to point upwards, and other authorities suggest there have been record years during the period. Nor was the length of time without an annual record exceptional. Models simulating centuries of warming normally have the occasional decade in which no rise in surface temperatures is observed. [The Economist, 1/7/10]

Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Fall Short of Potential Found in Embryonic Version

The act of reprogramming cells to make them as capable as ones from embryos apparently can result in aberrant cells that age and die abnormally, suggesting there is a long way to go to prove such cells are really like embryonic stem cells and can find use in therapies. [Scientific American, 2/11/10]

Pop Goes the Pulsar

One of the challenges of astrophysics is interpreting what we observe. Here on Earth we can set up experiments to test phenomena, but when it comes to the cosmos all we can do is sit back and watch. Weve sent probes to the furthest regions of our solar system, but even that is just a tiny corner of the heavens. So how can we possibly know that there are galaxies light years away, or that the universe is billions of years old? The answer is that we take what we know about physics here and apply it to what we observe there. [Upon Reflection, 2/17/10]

Should Evolutionary Theory Evolve?

Some evolutionary biologists say that the body of knowledge concerning evolutionary processes has simply outgrown the confines of the Modern Synthesis, which was crafted before science had a strong grasp of genomics, molecular biology, developmental biology, and other, more recently derived disciplines, such as systems biology. [The Scientist, 1/1/10]

Violating Parity with Quarks and Gluons

Quarks and gluons interact in interesting ways, and in the many fluctuations that happen in these high-temperature collisions we can get “bubbles” that pick out a direction in space. In the presence of these bubbles, quarks treat left and right differently, even though they treat both directions exactly the same when they’re in empty space. [Cosmic Variance, 2/16/10]

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Philosophia Naturalis 10 has been published

By Stuart Coleman at Daily Irreverence. Its full of quantum goodness and other delights. Thanks, Stuart!

And if that whets your appetite for more, be prepared to come back in four weeks for the next edition, which will be hosted June 21 by Chris Rowan at Highly Allochthonous.

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Selected readings 6 13 10

Interesting reading and news items.

Please leave some comments that indicate which articles you find most interesting or that identify topics you would like to read about, and I will try to include more articles of a similar nature in the future

These items are also bookmarked at my Diigo account.

Anticipating the first steps beyond the Standard Model

Physicists’ knowledge of elementary particles is encapsulated in the Standard Model of particle physics, which currently describes almost everything we’ve seen. Yet there is compelling evidence that the Standard Model cannot be the complete description of nature. For example, despite all of its successes, the Standard Model describes only 20 percent of the mass of the Universe. Eighty percent of the mass is known as “dark matter,” which we have never directly observed and know next to nothing about. [Symmetry Breaking, 6/3/10]

Could DZero result point to multiple Higgses?

What caused the DZero result’s large deviation from Standard Model predictions is just as earth-shaking a mystery. The answer could point to the completion of the Standard Model, missing only the theorized Higgs boson particle, or the creation of a new story line for a host of new particles in the saga of how matter in the universe behaves. In their quest for a full explanation, scientists debate whether they are simply missing a chapter in the Standard Model or if they need a sequel that goes beyond the model, potentially including extra dimensions or a theory called supersymmetry that would double the number of known particles. [Symmetry Breaking, 6/4/10]

What is a "law of physics," anyway?

Why should nature be governed by laws? Why should those laws be expressible in terms of mathematics? Why should they be formulated within space and time? These were the questions posed at a fascinating workshop two weeks ago at the Perimeter Institute, the sequel to a workshop held at Arizona State University in December 2008. ... The bottom line is that the organizers had better start planning on more sequels, because the questions seem as intractable as ever. [Scientific American, 6/4/10]

What a shoddy piece of work is man

The human body is certainly no masterpiece of intelligent planning. The eyes retina, for instance, is wired back to front so that the wiring has to pass back through the screen of light receptors, imposing a blind spot. Now John Avise, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of California at Irvine, has catalogued the array of clumsy flaws and inefficiencies at the fundamental level of the genome. His paper ... throws down the gauntlet to advocates of Intelligent design, the pseudo-scientific face of religious creationism. What Intelligent Designer, Avise asks, would make such a botch? [Nature News, 5/3/10]

Illuminating the brain

Now though, advances in a five-year-old field called optogenetics are convincing these scientists to crack open molecular-biology textbooks. Using a hybrid of genetics, virology and optics, the techniques involved enable researchers to instantaneously activate or silence specific groups of neurons within circuits with a precision that electrophysiology and other standard methods do not allow. Systems neuroscientists have longed for such an advance, which allows them their first real opportunity to pick apart the labyrinthine jumble of cell types in a circuit and test what each one does. [Nature News, 5/5/10]

The code within the code

95% of the human genome is alternatively spliced, and that changes in this process accompany many diseases. But no one knew how to predict which form of a particular gene would be expressed in a given tissue. "The splicing code is a problem that weve been bashing our heads against for years," says Burge. "Now we finally have the technologies we need." [Nature News, 5/5/10]

European and Asian genomes have traces of Neanderthal

The genomes of most modern humans are 1–4% Neanderthal — a result of interbreeding with the close relatives that went extinct 30,000 years ago, according to work by an international group of researchers. [Nature News, 5/6/10]

Linux vs. Genome in Network Challenge

A comparison of the networks formed by genetic code and the Linux operating system has given insight into the fundamental differences between biological and computational programming. The shapes are very dissimilar, reflecting the evolutionary parameters of each process. Biology is driven by random mutations and natural selection. Software is an act of intelligent design. [Wired, 5/5/10]

Complex Life Traced to Ancient Gene Parasites

Mysterious gene structures called introns that help make complex organisms possible are descended from DNA parasites that infested bacteria billions of years ago, according to a new study. ... The findings fit the notion that group II introns flourished in the early Earth’s heat, and were ultimately co-opted into their hosts’ genomes. [Wired, 6/9/10]

The Magical Mystery Tour

Cassini, the first spacecraft to orbit Saturn, has revealed intricate details of the gas giant planet and its moons -- but many mysteries remain. Six years ago, the Cassini spacecraft began orbiting Saturn and taking detailed images of its ring and many moons. While the Cassini-Huygens mission has helped answer questions about this planetary system, it also has revealed new mysteries for scientists to puzzle over. [Physorg.com, 5/5/10]

Peptides may hold missing link to life

Scientists have discovered that simple peptides can organize into bi-layer membranes. The finding suggests a "missing link" between the pre-biotic Earths chemical inventory and the organizational scaffolding essential to life. [Physorg.com, 5/6/10]

Physicists study how moral behaviour evolved

A statistical-physics-based model may shed light on the age-old question "how can morality take root in a world where everyone is out for themselves?" Computer simulations by an international team of scientists suggest that the answer lies in how people interact with their closest neighbours rather than with the population as a whole. [Physicsworld.com, 5/5/10]

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Top 10 Technology Advances in Renewable Energy

Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable (naturally replenished). Approximately 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewable sources, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, and 3.4% from hydroelectricity. New renewable sources (small hydro, modern biomass, wind, solar, geothermal, and bio-fuels) accounted for another 3% and are growing very rapidly.

Climate change concerns, coupled with high oil prices, peak oil, and increasing government support, are driving increasing renewable energy legislation, incentives and commercialization. New government spending, regulation and policies helped the industry weather the global financial crisis better than many other sectors. Below is the list of top 10 technological advances made in renewable energy in the last decade-

Solar Energy

Science Daily

When we talk about the renewable sources which have the potential to power the world, wind and sun are the foremost options that strike the mind. To date we have not been able to develop techniques that fully exploit these sources of unlimited energy, however, we have fortunately found some amazing techniques that have changed the expensive and non-efficient face of solar power to something which has the potential for improvement.

June 24, 2009
Paint-on Solar Cells

Thinner solar cells mean that they can be embedded in places where no one ever thought of having them - this is what researchers at the New Jersey Institute of Technology thought when they developed solar cells so thin that they can be painted on flexible plastic sheets, which can then take up the place of your normal glossy paints. These cells are based on the combination of carbon nanotubes and carbon Buckyball molecules to create a series of snake-like patterns which can conduct electricity. Researchers also expect that the technique will be much cheaper than what is being used today.

Learn more about paint-on solar cells here

October, 2008

Technology Review

Spherical Solar Cells

Spherical Silicon Solar Arrays is the brainchild of Japans Clean Venture 21. The technology is up to five times cheaper, uses up to five times less material, and consumes half the energy to reproduce. With good optical properties these 1 millimeter (mm) silicon cells are put into little reactors, measuring 2.2 to 2.7 mm in width. Since the cells are spherical and not rectangular, the sunlight is absorbed from all possible angles for generating power with better efficiency and flexibility.

Domed rest house with solar power generation system at Toyako Town

Learn more about Spherical Solar Cells here

November 26, 2007 Reflective dishes

Treehugger

The demand of solar energy has increased the demand for silicon, this has made researchers think of alternatives to silicon. A team of researchers at Israel’s Ben Gurion University has found what they are calling a better alternative to silicon. The team has used gallium arsenide instead of silicon in their solar cells, which becomes more efficient when used with reflective dishes. This makes the system expensive than silicon solar panels, but the cost per watt is made comparable to that of a conventional power plant. The team has designed a reflector made of mirrors that collects and intensifies the light a thousand times over. A solar energy system built on 4.6 square miles in the Negev would produce 1,000 megawatts of electricity.

Learn more about Reflective dishes at Sustainabilitank

Eco Friend

Wind Energy

Wind energy is among the world’s fastest-growing sources of energy. During the last decade, wind energy growth rates worldwide averaged about 30 percent annually. In the last three years, the U.S. and Texas wind energy markets also have experienced a rapid expansion of capacity. In 2007, for example, U.S. wind power capacity grew by 43 percent, while Texas’ rose by 57 percent.


This growth has been driven by a variety of factors including government subsidies and tax incentives, improved technology, higher fossil fuel prices and investor concerns about potential federal action to reduce carbon emissions, which could make electricity from fossil fuels more expensive. Over the past decade, wind turbine use has increased at more than 25 percent a year. Still, it only provides a small fraction of the worlds energy.

April 29, 2009

Leviathan Energy

Clean Technica

Leviathan Energy is an ideal way to increase the efficiency of a wind turbine. The best part is that there is no need to increase the size of the turbine. This innovation is developed by Daniel Farb, the CEO of Leviathan Energy. He has named this innovation “Wind Energizer” which is capable of increasing wind energy output by 30 percent. The idea was to modify the environment around the turbine to ensure that highest velocity winds hits the blade rather than increasing the blade size of the turbine. So a donut shape structure was formed in such shape and dimensions such that highest velocity wind hits the blade. The break even for erecting this structure has been estimated to be around four to five years, thus, making it an irresistible deal.

Learn more about Leviathan Energy at leviathanenergyinc.com

Tower Height   

Eco Friend

Advance Turbine System (ATS) has come up with an innovative technique to increase the output of a wind turbine by increasing its height. Conventionally people used to increase the blade size to increase the turbine efficiency which soon turned out to be an expensive option with limited availability of space. However, with this technique one can boost the efficiency of the turbine by 20 percent. This is surely a cost-effective method that will continue to offer its benefits for a longer period of time without incurring considerable amount of money.

Learn more about Tower Height at Renewable Energy World

May 18, 2010 

Bladeless Wind Turbine 

A research company in New Hampshire recently patented its bladeless wind turbine, which is based on a patent issued to Nikola Tesla in 1913. This wind turbine is christened as the Fuller Wind Turbine. This turbine is developed by Solar Aero. The specialty of Fuller Wind Turbine is it has only one rotating part, known as the turbine-driveshaft. The entire machinery is assembled inside housing. Wind turbines are often disliked by environmentalists because they kill birds and bats and often generate noise for the residents living nearby.

The wind industry is trying to find a solution to the problem by working with environmental groups, federal regulators, and other interested parties. They are trying to develop methods of measuring and mitigating wind energy’s effect on birds. The Fuller Wind Turbine offers hope to bird lovers and environmentalists.


Fuller Wind Turbine has several advantages over the traditional ones having blades. Fuller Wind Turbine has a screened inlet and outlet. If you try to get a closer look at this wind turbine you can see the only movement visible is as it adjusts to track the wind. This wind turbine can be utilized by the military surveillance and radar installations because there are no moving blades to cause difficulties.


Another plus attached to this wind turbine is that it won’t cost a heaven when you get its power. According to manufacturers this turbine is expected to deliver power at a cost at par with the coal-fired power plants. If you want to probe deeper, its good news that total operating costs over the lifetime of the unit are expected to be about $0.12/kWh.


If we take the maintenance angle it won’t cause much headache because it’s a bladeless turbine. The turbine maintenance requirements are not colossal and it would result in lower lifetime operating costs. The turbine is mainly supported on magnetic bearings. Another advantage is all of the generating equipments are kept at ground level. This will lead towards easy maintenance of equipments. The company comes out with encouraging figures and proclaims “final costs will be about $1.50/watt rated output, or roughly 2/3 the cost of comparable bladed units.”


If we take a look at the Tesla turbine patented in 1913, it operates using the viscous flow of a fluid to move the turbine and as a result generates energy. The Tesla turbine has a set of smooth disks fitted with nozzles that send out a moving gas to the edge of the disk. The gases drag on the disk by following the principle of viscosity and the adhesion of the surface layer of the gas. As the gas slows and adds force to the disks, it twirls in to the center exhaust. Because the rotor has no projections, it is very strong and sturdy. One has to be careful about the disk space because disks in the turbine need to be closely spaced so that they can trap the viscous flow. The Tesla turbine has extremely thin disks to reduce turbulence at the edges and that makes them effective. In 1913, Tesla was unable to find metals of adequate quality to make this work effectively. But now almost a century later, those limitations have been surmounted.

Solar Aero’s current prototype is a modest trailer-mounted unit. But inventor says that their other models “should be capable of 10kW output with no problem.” If this technology takes off smoothly it would remove many hurdles attached with conventional wind turbines and more environment-friendly.

Physorg

 Learn more about the Bladeless Wind Turbine at Solar Aero and Eco Geek

Biomass Power

July 31, 2008

Green crude

Perhaps one of the most promising innovations in recent years is clean energy derived from algae. The slimy green stuff that collects on surface water is filled with fuel potential: Some kinds of algae are comprised of more than 50% oil and contribute zero emissions to greenhouse gases.

According to the World Watch Institute, an average acre of algae grown today for pharmaceutical industries can produce 5,000 gallons (19,000 liters) of biodiesel each year. In contrast, an average acre of corn produces 420 gallons (1,600 liters) of ethanol per year, and an acre of soybeans yields just 70 gallons (265 liters) of biodiesel per year.

With just water, carbon dioxide and sunlight, algae can quadruple in mass in just one day.

Algae is encouraging not only because it’s quickly renewable, but because it’s carbon-neutral. It’s a living, single-celled organism that performs photosynthesis, so it takes the same amount of carbon out of the atmosphere to create itself as it puts back in when it’s burned. Additionally, it removes nitrogen from wastewater. Algae have an application in water treatment facilities, as well.

The primary U.S Company cultivating this green-colored fuel is Sapphire Energy in San Diego. According to the company, they have created green crude that is identical to the light, sweet crude oil used to manufacture gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, and heating oil.

Another benefit to mass-production of green crude is that it is identical to fossil-based crude. That means it can be used in the existing refining infrastructure. None of the factories and refining facilities currently making oil products out of fossil-based crude will have to replace any of their expensive equipment.

The only thing keeping us from moving forward with “green crude” is the cost of production. Currently, it is still cheaper to drill for crude than to put the proper algae-cultivating infrastructure in place.

Guardian.co.uk

Learn more about Green Crude at Sapphire Energy and Treehugger

Biofuels

December 30, 2008

Biofuels (e.g. Jatropha oil, Switchgrass)

Asia Cleantech

When corn and sugarcane first popped up as viable alternative to fuels, hopefulness ensued. But we soon learned that first generation biofuels came with too many setbacks, namely, their interference with food crops and their inability to be cost-competitive with traditional fuels.

Fortunately, second and third generation biofuels are far more promising.

Treehugger

Though almost any crop these days seems fair game as a biofuel material, there are some that are more effective than others. Jatropha oil and switchgrass – both inedible crops – are among them.

The jatropha plant has emerged as one of the best options for airline biofuel because of its resilience and low water needs. In December 2008, Air New Zealand ran a test flight using a blend of kerosene and oil from the jatropha plant. Its success led Air New Zealand to set a goal of using 10% biofuels by 2013.

Today’s biofuels must be sustainable and not compete with food crops for resources, and they must be cost-competitive with fuel oil. Though biofuel made by switchgrass isn’t as energy intensive as algae-based green crude, it is more energy intensive than corn ethanol. In areas where there is plenty of room for these crops to grow, the technology can support the surrounding community.

Because of the vast improvements in utilizing these renewable resources, commercial viability of second and third generation biofuels may be closer than we originally thought.

How close are these technologies to reaching to US consumer market? And which has the most potential to change our energy landscape?

2008 marked the first time that global investment in renewable energy sources surpassed investment in fossil fuel technologies.

According to research firm New Energy Finance, last year’s investment in alternative energy quadrupled the amount in 2004 and topped the record-breaking year of 2007 by 5 percent.

Clearly, this indicates that there is a shift away from expensive oil fossil fuel excavation technology, and toward the vast landscape of renewable energy.

The innovative methods described above – in addition to the old standbys such as wind, solar, nuclear, and geothermal power – are already in existence in pilot programs. It is only a matter of investment and education before the public accepts them as mainstream alternatives to crude oil. Each has its pros and cons, and none may be the panacea for our country’s immense energy needs.

However, a smart combination of renewable energy technologies will perhaps be the best bet in moving forward. For example, power from poultry litter is perfect for any community with a large poultry industry, and green crude will work well where there is already access to algae-rich water.

The future of energy is already here. As we refine these technologies, approach peak oil, and tweak our lifestyle habits, we’ll most likely see wide-scale implementation of renewable energy.

Learn More about Biofuels at Biofuel.org and Ode Wire

Geothermal Power

2006

Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS)

Enhanced Geothermal System

Ten years ago, Marcellus, Barnett and Haynesville were merely considered to be interesting rock formations that contained natural gas in very small pockets.

But that changed when the natural-gas industry successfully commercialized the technique of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.

This simple process involves drilling a hole down to the shale rock, which contains the natural gas. The drill bit then continues through the rock for as much as several miles. The bit is then withdrawn when the hole is pressurized enough, and the rock is hydraulically fractured. This process releases the gas, which then flows to the surface.

This is what has created boom times for the natural gas industry.

Today, geothermal scientists are experimenting with a modified version of the natural gas technique for geothermal energy - known as an Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS).

Simply put, this technique involves pumping cold water down one well, which the underground rock then heats as the water flows through. The water then returns to the surface via a second well. The rest of the process is the same as conventional geothermal.

So how much power could be generated using this technique?

According to a 2006 report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the amount of EGS resources in the United States could provide 140,000 times the total annual energy use in the country.

Using technology available today, MIT scientists further estimated that the total recoverable power from EGS resources could be as much as 12,200 Gigawatts. Thats 15 times higher than the largest peak summertime electrical load in the United States.

Learn more about EGS here

Ocean Tidal Power

Alternative Energy News

Some of the oldest ocean energy technologies use tidal power. All coastal areas consistently experience two high and two low tides over a period of slightly greater than 24 hours. For those tidal differences to be harnessed into electricity, the difference between high and low tides must be at least five meters, or more than 16 feet. There are only about 40 sites on the Earth with tidal ranges of this magnitude.

Currently, there are no tidal power plants in the United States. However, conditions are good for tidal power generation in both the Pacific Northwest and the Atlantic Northeast regions of the country.

Learn more about Tidal Power here

October 11, 2005

Direct Energy Conversion Method

Trident Energy announces breakthrough in sea wave renewable energy technology. Milestone tests at UK’s New and Renewable Energy Centre (NaREC) demonstrate viability of Direct Energy Conversion Method. London: Trident Energy Ltd announced a further major step towards cost effective, flexible and uncomplicated production of energy from sea wave power. Trident Energy Ltd, based in Southend on Sea, Essex, UK, reports that its patented Direct Energy Conversion Method (DECM) has successfully completed testing at the UK’s New and Renewable Energy Centre NaREC) at Blyth, Northumberland. Trident Energy’s technology differs fundamentally from that of all other existing wave energy devices. Rather than using air or hydraulics as part of the conversion train, it converts wave energy directly to electricity through a unique and patented form of low cost linear generator.

Learn more about Direct Energy Conversion Method at Trident Energy

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http://www.technologyreview.in/energy/19696/

http://www.cv21.co.jp/en/index.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy

http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/using-reflective-dishes-to-raise-solar-potential.html

http://cleantechnica.com/2009/04/29/wind-turbine-output-boosted-30-by-breakthrough-design/

http://www.ecofriend.com/entry/technological-advancements-wind-turbines-promising-output/

http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/bladeless-wind-turbine-inspired-by-nikola-tesla/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/31/biofuels.travelandtransport

http://www.treehugger.com/renewable-energy/new-algae-biofuel-from-sapphire-energy-chemically-identical-to-gasoline.html

http://americandreamgeothermal.com/?p=904

http://www.tridentenergy.co.uk/pdf/Trident%20Press%20Release.pdf

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New York City Bike Share Program Will Have 10 000 Bikes 600 Stations

EcoGeek has a post on New Yorks new bike share program - New York City Bike Share Program Will Have 10,000 Bikes, 600 Stations.

Last year, we heard that New York City was considering a huge bike sharing program and now its becoming a reality. New details have been released about the program and its just as big as had been hoped. There will be about 600 stations with 10,000 bikes and the program could be up and running by next summer.

The stations will be widespread, covering the Upper East and West sides all the way down to the tip of Manhattan and then across the East River into Brooklyn as far as Greenpoint and Crown Heights.

The city has chosen Alta Bike Share to install and operate the system. Alta operates bike share programs in Washington, D.C., Boston and Portland, but the New York system will dwarf those systems by a few thousand bikes, making it the largest in the country. Above is a video featuring the Capital Bikeshare program in D.C.

The program will allow for 24-hour, multi-day or annual subscriptions as well as shorter rentals charged by the half-hour. Monthly subscriptions will be cheaper than a monthly MetroCard.

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US Gas to Liquid Plant Planned By SASOL May Cost 10 Billion

The WSJ reports that South African coal to liquids company SASOL is looking to build a GTL (gas to liquids) plant in Louisiana, using the (at least currently) cheap supply of shale gas as feedstock - Gas-to-Liquid Site May Hit $10 Billion.

Sasol Ltd., a chemical company long known for squeezing motor fuel out of coal, is now turning its sights on the glut of natural gas in the U.S.

South Africa-based Sasol on Tuesday announced plans to build a plant in Louisiana, at a cost of up to $10 billion, that would convert natural gas into diesel fuel for trucks and other vehicles.

The companys board last week approved an 18-month feasibility study for the project, which would be constructed on land adjacent to Sasols existing chemical facility in Calcasieu Parish, La.

If given the final go-ahead, the plant would be the first in the U.S. to use "gas-to-liquids" technology. Once seen as futuristic, the technology has gained traction in recent years as discovery of gas supplies have outpaced that of oil.

"The initial numbers look positive," said Ernst Oberholster, Sasols managing director of new-business development, who stood alongside Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal at the companys Louisiana complex when the decision was announced.

What makes the U.S. an attractive location for such a project is the low level of natural-gas prices in the country. Benchmark futures have hovered between $3 and $6 per million British thermal units for two years, well below prices paid by consumers in Europe and Asia.

Sasol would buy the natural gas from suppliers using long-term contracts, convert the gas to liquid fuel and then sell that fuel to blenders, who wouldthen sell it for the open market.

The project is the latest to address what to do with a surplus of natural gas caused by the boom in drilling in shale-rock formations in places like Texas and Pennsylvania. Energy investor T. Boone Pickens and natural-gas producers such as Apache Corp. have promoted the use of natural gas as a road-transportation fuel, one that would be cleaner burning than oil-based alternatives. In addition, some companies have put forward plans to export gas out of the U.S. in cool-liquefied form.

Sasols idea is one of the most ambitious, because it would essentially put natural gas on par with higher-priced crude oil as a key raw material for transportation fuels. And diesel prices trickle down into the cost of consumer goodseverywhere because the fuel is mainly used in trucking. So far this year, retail diesel prices in the U.S. are up 16%, even as the economy grows more fragile.

Sasol officials estimate that a plant producing 96,000 barrels a day of diesel, and some jet fuel, would cost $10 billion to construct. They say they could opt for a smaller facility, however.

By converting natural gas into a liquid, the fuel could be used without retrofitting vehicles or creating new fueling infrastructure, an issue that would affect motorists using compressed natural gas as Apache and Mr. Pickens have advocated. The proposed site in Louisiana is close to Gulf Coast natural-gas fields and is crisscrossed by pipelines that could be easily linked to a new facility, Mr. Oberholster said.

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