breathe. | zen habits A Sound Way To Turn Heat Into Electricity University of Utah physicists developed small devices that turn heat into sound and then into electricity. The technology holds promise for changing waste heat into electricity, harnessing solar energy and cooling computers and radars. "We are converting waste heat to electricity in an efficient, simple way by using sound," says Orest Symko, a University of Utah physics professor who leads the effort. Five of Symko's doctoral students recently devised methods to improve the efficiency of acoustic heat-engine devices to turn heat into electricity. Symko plans to test the devices within a year to produce electricity from waste heat at a military radar facility and at the university's hot-water-generating plant. The research is funded by the U.S. Symko expects the devices could be used within two years as an alternative to photovoltaic cells for converting sunlight into electricity. How to Get Power from Heat and Sound Using sound to convert heat into electricity has two key steps.
Synthetic Biology "Synthetic biology" is an umbrella term that refers to a new set of powerful techniques for manipulating the fundamental molecular structures of life, including genes, genomes, cells and proteins. Techniques being developed under the "synthetic biology" rubric include the modification of existing bacteria to produce useful substances or perform new functions, the creation of novel artificial organisms from "scratch," and — less noted to date — the modification of animal and human genes. Synthetic biologists foresee a host of human applications, including new methods to produce drugs, biofuels and vaccines; to diagnose, prevent and cure disease; and — far more controversially — to screen, select, and modify genes for specified traits in embryos, children, and adults. While diverse constituencies have voiced concerns about ecological and biosecurity risks, little attention has so far been called to the dangers connected to synthetic biology's human applications.
mogyoro.hu - Funky-tól a processzorig :) GREEN POWER SCIENCE Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, Environme body divine yoga | unlock your kundalini power, ignite your third eye, awaken your inner oracle Ötletláda 3quarksdaily aggregator & magazine Violence is an unavoidable part of being human Rowan Williams in the New Statesman: It would help if we had a single, clear story we could believe about violence – it’s getting worse because of this or that factor in our world, so we know whom to blame; it’s getting better as we all become more educated and secular, so we don’t have to worry in the long term. Richard Bessel begins his lucid and well-documented book with a round-up of contemporary views, from those who think first of the astronomical statistics of humanly devised injury and death in the 20th century to those (like Steven Pinker in a much-discussed recent book) for whom what matters is the gradual change in sensibility that has made us simply more sensitive to the suffering of others – as well as the relative absence of major international conflict in the past half-century or so. More here. Posted by S. Earthworks, new and ancient, and the art of disappearance Stefany Anne Golberg at The Smart Set: more here. more here. T. 1.
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