Google are buying into it to share with NASA and various universities. The revolutionary technology is no doubt the start of a whole new era of computing progress. Perhaps this is the start of the Singularity.

They claim that when it runs it is the coldest thing known to Humankind. Perhaps the coldest place in the entire universe. If it is then we are sure to get some attention from our universal neighbours. Along the same lines as figuring out anti gravity which is probably the next step in this quickly escalating process.

The next question appears to be what can we do with such a machine now that we have one. The answer is that it is perfectly suited to tasks such as facial recognition which is probably the first thing it will be used for. Google claim that it will help them fight spam too. No doubt it will also be useful for undertaking certain climate modelling tasks and in the hunt for life hosting planets with the reams of data the have been collected already needing many years to process with conventional computing resources.

One thing is for sure, For certain tasks this new system is the fastest thing we have built yet.

Tags: Construction, e=mc2, Research, Space by sparky
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Scientists working at IBM have found an additional use for their advanced water cooling system developed for the aquasar super computer project proving once again that water is an intrinsic component of the energy process.

They have a working prototype of a concentrated PV module integrated with the cooling device allowing them to achieve upto 5000x concentration levels without vaporising the PV modules. The way it works is at the nano level where water is piped directly onto the surface of the silicon chips and immediately pumped away. The physics are based on the human blood system so we know that is works for us.

Tags: Construction, e=mc2, Environment, Research, Solar, Water by sparky
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Recent news from Stanford and RICE Universities have focused on results of advanced research being undertaken to improve battery performance. Both projects have made use of carbon fibre nanomaterials in the form of nanotubes and Graphene sheets to achieve the results.

The paintable battery project from RICE University allows the possibility of turning any surface into a battery. They employ carbon nanotubes in the paint along side lithium. Examples of use include painting the exterior surface of the house and then covering with solar panels or the same could be done for a car by covering the entire surface interior and exterior that has the potential for greatly increasing the travel range of a single charge. When combined with Spray on solar it seems likely that future vehicles will become self charging with a constant supply of energy from the sun to keep them topped up throughout the day.

The results from the Stanford research focus on using Graphene sheets to increase by 1000x the efficiency of nickel-iron batteries. As the components are abundant, cheap and long lasting this approach should enable very powerful batteries for industrial purposes.

Clearly this technology has been kept under wraps for a while and the US is allowing it to be brought to market. The question remaining is will they make it to manufactured stage before we run out of the energy to manufacture them?

In related news it seems that nanomaterial research is going to take it’s spot this year for the solar industry too in the shape of two improvements to thin film technology that utilise nanomesh and dielectric nanostructures to greatly reduce the thickness of the thin film panels and even to go so far as to allow for completely transparent surfaces that are able to absorb technically perfectly across the specific spectrum of light that they are designed to absorb.

Tags: Construction, e=mc2, Research, Resources, Solar by sparky
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A recent knowledge release has put forward the idea of splitting water to hydrogen with nano scale silver trees. The idea being that trees absorb more light than flat surfaces. The researchers have found that they can capture sunlight at greater incidence angles and for longer periods during the daylight hours with these little trees. One thing they don’t discuss is what happens to the heat that is also captured by the tress. Is it enough to keep the water from getting too hot and evaporating before it gets split into is constituent parts of hydrogen and oxygen?

In other solar news there is a lot of take in the past couple of weeks about the idea of solar towers. There are various concepts being pushed out that include a solar accordion which folds down into a box for easy portability. They say that due to the falling cost of solar these ideas have now become economically feasible to produce. After all if we can produce televisions at a cheaper price than solar panels there is obviously a long way down for the solar panel industry to go before it reaches the true cost that actually manufacturing and shipping the end product should be once the cost of setting up the plants, building all the machinery and paying for all the scientific research has been covered. Take that massive cost out of the equation and the cost of solar falls so dramatically that the fossil fuel industry has absolutely no way to compete on price.

The only thing left going for the old energy market is that they are already up and running and have a high energy output as well as portability in the case of oil and gas. Definitely the nuclear industry must see the rise of extremely low cost solar as a threat to their ability to build massive and expensive power stations all over the place. Relegating nuclear power to the annals of history and research facilities or space exploration where it belongs. Places where the people in charge have a very real need to keep things in top shape or the will loose their own lives. That tends to make scientists more cautious in the way they handle and care for their nuclear facilities than psuedo government/private cash cows like TEPCO.

Tags: e=mc2, Elite, Government, Hydrogen, Nuclear, Research, Solar, Water by sparky
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The team at the Automotive Research Experiment Station from Michigan State University have been developing a new prototype engine system that they claim can get 60% efficiency from conventional fossil fuels. They also claim the weight of the engine is significantly less than a standard ICE which greatly increases fuel economy due to weight savings. They are currently in the process of building and installing a functional system in a vehicle.

The engine has a rotor that’s equipped with wave-like channels that trap and mix oxygen and fuel as the rotor spins. These central inlets are blocked off, building pressure within the chamber, causing a shock wave that ignites the compressed air and fuel to transmit energy.

The Wave Disk Generator uses 60 percent of its fuel for propulsion; standard car engines use just 15 percent. As a result, the generator is 3.5 times more fuel efficient than typical combustion engines.

Researchers estimate the new model could shave almost 1,000 pounds off a car’s weight currently taken up by conventional engine systems.

Tags: e=mc2, Research, Water by sparky
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The latest new on the Facardi-Rossi Low Energy Nuclear Reactor (LENR) saga is that they are now preparing to switch on the brand new 1 Mega Watt power station. AS you can see below the power station has approximately 57 reactors arranged in a 40 foot container. Congratulations are due to Focardi and Rossi for their hard work to get to this stage.

Tags: e=mc2, Nuclear, Research by sparky
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A Singaporean Research team has come up with a novel and highly efficient energy storage system which looks certain to replace all known forms of energy storage once manufacturing is underway. Based on deposited polystyrene-based polymer technology, the soft, foldable fabric can, when charged by two metal plates, store charge at 0.2 farads per square centimeter.

Not only is the membrane made from organic waste materials but it is also bendable and foldable which means that it can be used and many different shapes and sizes unlike Lithium Ion batteries. However the project is partly funded by MIT so we have to be cynical that it the technology will actually be brought to market or achieve anything like it is claimed to in real world tests. One this going for it is that it is being funded by the Singaporean Government. Surely a nation where energy consumption and efficiency is a very hot topic. After all necessity is the mother of invention and in Singapore they certainly need a way out of the quagmire that is the inevitable global energy crunch as the fossil fuels are completely consumed.

As usual there is no mention of how much energy it takes to create the membrane. However we can assume that it will scale fairly significantly based ont eh description of the base ingredients.

Tags: e=mc2, Research by sparky
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MIT scientist Daniel Nocera has released new publicity around his solar leaf concept. The basic idea is that instead of converting sunlight to electricity and storing it in a battery, use the electricity to split hydrogen from water allowing the hydrogen to be used in a hydrogen fuel cell. An inherently lossy process which will require a system to keep hydrogen and oxygen separated until it can be directed into the fuel cell for conversion back to electricity. Theoretically it could provide an almost permanent supply of electricity and stored energy if combined with a rain water capture system. However due to the lossiness of the conversion process it does seem to be running at a significant disadvantage to normal electricity storage in the form of a Lithium Ion battery. However as it is using a fuel cell that probably requires at least some rare earth elements to produce which will inevitably increase the energy consumed in the manufacturing process.

In the meantime a Japanese company has already taken the process to it’s inevitable conclusion and produced a full scale home sized hydrogen conversion system.

If Nocera has a better and cheaper more energy efficient system up his sleeve he is keeping the details to himself at the moment. No doubt he is still waiting for approval from MIT to do something actually useful for a change. The general rule of thumb with anything from MIT is that it never actually gets anywhere other than securing more funding for the scientists involved in the projects.

Tags: e=mc2, Research, Solar, Water by sparky
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New Details on the Focardi-Rossi Reactor have been made public by the Swedish Sceptics Society. They have observed the device in action and made calculations of the energy input and required output to achieve the amount of water to steam conversion required for the amount of water flowing into the system.

View the detailed report here

“Any chemical process should be ruled out for producing 25 kWh from whatever is in a 50 cubic centimeter container. The only alternative explanation is that there is some kind of a nuclear process that gives rise to the measured energy production.”

Their analyses showed that the pure powder consists of essentially pure nickel, while the used powder contains several other substances, mainly 10 percent copper and 11 percent iron.

“Provided that copper is not one of the additives used as catalyst, the copper isotopes 63 and 65 can only have been formed during the process. Their presence is therefore a proof that nuclear reactions took place in the process,” Kullander said

Tags: e=mc2, Nuclear, Research by sparky
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