Nuclear power flashes light at tunnel end
February 20, 2008
It seems that nuclear power is gaining ground on the energy market, or so the report of a “London-based World Energy Council” maintains. James Kanter, writes on a Business of Green blog, how Europe seems to be investing its hopes into the fission reactors.
“Nuclear energy technology, its proponents say, already works and can supply a huge base load of power to keep national grids supplied,” Mr. Kanter writes. “By contrast, renewable sources of power like wind and solar are intermittent and less able — at least for the moment — to deliver the quantity of electricity needed to drive modern, industrial nations.”
Yet, the author writes, “[t]he question of how developed economies will keep the lights on without burning more fossil fuels seems unlikely to go away anytime soon.”
Picture: Flickr
Human bodies to accommodate nano-physicians
December 22, 2007
For those who remember Asimov’s “Fantastic Voyage” the news of nanotravels possibilities inside human bodies should come as old news. For the rest, Roland Piquepaille, on his Emerging Technology Trends blog, elaborates on the use of nanorobots to travel inside human bodies, diagnosing disease and delivering the needed drugs.
“The idea of using nanorobots to deliver drugs and fight diseases such as cancers is not new,” Piquepaille writes. “But there are still lots of issues to solve before nanorobots can diagnose our diseases and treat them.”
Now the use of nanorobots can be tested on a software and hardware platform, designed specifically for these matters by an international team of experts. The researchers expect an operational prototype, which will be able to integrate “nanobioelectronics and proteomics” to travel through human body and be of real medical help, to be ready by 2015. Mass commercialization would be pushed back a bit more, allowing for safety testing.
Picture: Adriano Cavalcanti and colleagues
Tabletop molecular factories by 2020 - one of the eight pathways
December 13, 2007
Desktop molecular manufacturing may happen not until 2020, but the scenarios of nanotechnology development already sketch such possibility among other eight general storylines, IEET.ORG reports.
The Center for Responsible Nanotechnology (CRN) released the result of collective work of “international team of policy, technology, and economic specialists,” who depicted possible development patterns of nanotechnology in case of widely-ranging events – “from pandemics to climate crises to international conflicts.”
The scenarios aim at springing international “discussions of molecular manufacturing policies and societal responses,” said Jamais Cascio, CRN’s Director of Impacts Analysis, rather than giving predictions.
The importance of the study rolls out from the possibility to cross-examine various, widely ranging possible development pathways of nanotechnology, the website reports, providing for balanced relevant policy-making approach.
Picture: Flickr
Socializing proves to stand behind brain evolution
November 28, 2007
Peter Pirolli raises an interesting question, on his Augmented Social Cognition blog, of what the social networks like Facebook, Twitter or Wikidashboard “buy us” as a mankind, directly relating the size of mankind’s social circle to the size of the human brain.
He builds on the findings that “neocortext ratio for various species is strongly correlated with the average size of the social group for members of that species (and for humans that number is 150 at the limit).”
“Recent evidence suggests that [the neocortex ratio] is more specifically correlated with pairbonding,” Pirolli writes on the blog. “But even more importantly, it appears that increasing sociality increases reproductive success. So social cognition increases fitness.” Which translates into the more social connections one has, and the closer one keeps up with their acquaintances and their relations, and the in-between relations, the wiser one becomes.
Pirolli quotes the findings of comparative biologists, who claim that “our ability to maintain awareness and reason about complex social relations buys us something important.”
“So, assuming that things like Twitter and Facebook (or the Wikidashboard) and the rest give us greater social awareness and reasoning—what exactly does it buy us?” Pirolli concludes.
Photo: Flickr
What if carbon can’t be captured until 2025?
November 25, 2007
As James Kanter writes on his International Herald Tribune blog, the prospect of halting the peak of greenhouse gas emissions within next 8 years seems slim, if the assertions of CO2 panel experts prove true.
Shell’s Future Fuels and CO2 department general manager, Gijs van Breda Vriesman, said the 2020 deadline for a widely commercially available technology, called Carbon Capture and Sequestration, was unreachable.
He gave a better estimate – 2025. Yet, in the world’s situation of having to significantly reduce emissions of carbon dioxide to prevent dreadful effects of global warming, 10 years later seems too late.
A light-powered, toothpaste-free toothbrush
November 25, 2007
The new light-powered toothbrush, currently undergoing tests among 120 students in
A great time for a nuclear Pakistan
November 23, 2007
Pakistani authorities, be it military or civilian would probably need a superior quality and length whip, to keep their nuclear weapons under control. The political turmoil and the looming anarchy in
The untold destiny of electronic books - are we there yet?
November 23, 2007
The future of the only remnant of “analog culture” – the good old paper book, is under question yet again. And future looks, yet again, digital or… paper. The creators of the new device, the Amazon Kindle (named so to be reminiscent of “the crackling ignition of knowledge”), seem to have included all the goodies of the traditional paperback, while incorporating things that “your mom’s copy of “Gone With the Wind” can’t match.” Yet, Siva Vaidhyanathan, has a go on the soon-to-be-out gadget, highlighting the goal-mismatch of its main protagonists – the creators, publishers and wireless service providers, while bringing on stage the whereabouts of the ever-present faulty copyrights.
When Green Meetings Pollute…
November 23, 2007
Do we eat to live or do we live to eat? A similar question can be asked about conferences on global warming and the disastrous effects of human activity, while thousands of flights are needed to gather all the bright minds to discuss those disastrous effects of human activity. Ironic, isnt’ it? At the same time, the tons of paper, generated as a byproduct of any conference, including a green one, raise the question of better thinking. A better use of electronic materials could save the paper, and teleconferencing could reduce the air pollution. Libby Rosenthal is also wondering whether a physical presence of a journalist is always necessary to cover those polluting, green meetings.
Interconnecting wind farms
November 23, 2007
Wind power is clean and cheap. But it heavily depends on Mother Nature, and we all now - it can become capricious. Yet, by interconnecting all the wind farms in the