Shale gas

From Wiki "Shale gas is natural gas produced from shale. Shale gas has become an increasingly important source of natural gas in the United States over the past decade, and interest has spread to potential gas shales in Canada, Europe, Asia, and Australia. One analyst expects shale gas to supply as much as half the natural gas production in North America by 2020."
Study says natural gas use likeky to double, NYTimes, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/business/energy-environment/25natgas.html?_r=1&src=busln

Dal Sole24ore "L'Eia ha ritoccato le stime sulle riserve nazionali di shale gas - il metano che si ricava da antiche e stratificate formazioni rocciose – più che raddoppiandole. Così, quegli Stati Uniti già abbastanza ossessionati dalla dipendenza dal petrolio d'importazione, scoprono con sollievo di essere una potenza nel gas: secondo l'Eia, nel 2035 il 45% del fabbisogno americano verrà dalle rocce sedimentarie."

http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/tecnologie/2010-12-17/roccia-pieno-metano-nuove-214900.shtml?uuid=AYD0VfsC

http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/tecnologie/2010-12-17/domande-risposte-213806.shtml?uuid=AYN6iesC

Cryogenic energy storage

Cryogenic energy storage plant could provide valuable back-up | News | The Engineer
"The UK’s first cryogenic power storage plant, which uses liquid nitrogen to store and release energy, is scheduled to open next month. Its operator, Highview Power Storage, said the system could provide a relatively cheap way of storing power, particularly from intermittent sources such as wind turbines, to better match the supply of electricity to demand.The pilot facility near Slough has been providing electricity to the National Grid since April last year by evaporating liquid nitrogen stored at -200ºC to drive turbine generators. Highview is now installing equipment to re-liquefy and compress the nitrogen using electricity from the grid, creating a closed cryogenic system that can store energy at times of surplus and release it when it is needed, while re-using the cold air exhaust."

Lanzan pájaro espía

Un miniavión espía en forma de colibrí que funciona a control remoto fue presentado por el Pentágono.

connuestroperu

Fotovoltaico organico

Come celle solari organiche si intendono quei dispositivi la cui parte fotoattiva è basata sui composti organici del carbonio, includendo anche quelle celle più prettamente di tipo ibrido. La struttura base di una cella organica è un "sandwich" composto da un substrato e da una o più sottilissime pellicole contenenti i materiali fotoattivi, in mezzo a due elettrodi conduttivi di cui uno trasparente.
"La gamma di celle solari organiche è ampia e si trova in diversi stadi di ricerca e di maturazione tecnologica e comprende, in sintesi, le celle “dye sensitized” (o DSSC), le celle totalmente organiche (anche dette plastiche), e le celle ibride organico/inorganico. Per le celle DSSC (o di Grätzel, dal nome del loro inventore), la parte fotoelettricamente attiva, spessa qualche micrometro ed inserita tra due elettrodi, è costituita da un pigmento organico, da ossido di titanio e da un elettrolita. Le celle DSSC, ispirandosi al processo di fotosintesi clorofilliana, utilizzano una miscela di materiali in cui un pigmento assorbe la radiazione solare e gli altri componenti estraggono la carica per produrre elettricità. Infatti è possibile ottenere l’effetto fotovoltaico anche con pigmenti vegetali. Efficienze massime del 10-11% e tempi di vita di vari anni, valori comunque in costante aumento, sono stati misurati in laboratorio per questo tipo di cella singola, utilizzando pigmenti sintetizzati attraverso i processi della chimica organica. ...
Le celle fotovoltaiche completamente organiche, sia quelle a “small molecules”, realizzate attraverso un’evaporazione sotto vuoto, sia quelle polimeriche, realizzate attraverso deposizione in forma liquida, sono recentemente arrivate al 4-5% di efficienza massima per celle in laboratorio. Queste celle, anche conosciute come “plastiche”, sono molto interessanti in quanto le tecniche di fabbricazione sono le più semplici da attuare."
More Rinnovabili.it: L’evoluzione “organica” delle celle fotovoltaiche

Drilling for geothermal energy

"An exploration team in Newcastle plan to drill through old mining tunnels to search for geothermal energy under the city centre. Researchers from Newcastle University who are leading the project hope it could initially provide up to 5MW of thermal energy, with potentially more heat and electricity from future boreholes. This would provide heat for a new campus that will combine research facilities with affordable housing, while some energy may be siphoned off the power a nearby shopping centre."
Read more Drilling to begin on Newcastle geothermal energy scheme | News | The Engineer

The 3D light for spintronics

"Circularly polarized light, which is used in 3D movies, has its electric field vector rotating like a clock hand. It's typically produced by sending light through a filter, but now a team has created a small, solid device that emits partially circularly polarized light, as they describe in the 4 February Physical Review Letters. If this semiconductor technology can be further perfected, it could be used in devices that help biochemists control protein synthesis or help physicists control electrons in spintronics--a futuristic type of electronics." More in "Giving Light a Spin", Physical Review Focus

Nanobeads with liquid hydrogen to fuel cars?

"Plastic nanobeads that can store hydrogen at room temperature as a liquid are being commercialised for fuel applications by technology start-up Cella Energy." This is announced in an article by Andrew Czyzewski, The Engineer. More Nanobeads could store liquid hydrogen to fuel cars | News | The Engineer

Atlantic Wind Connection

Su Google. "... il gigante di Mountain View lancia un progetto mastodontico di energia eolica per le famiglie americane. Si chiama Atlantic Wind Connection (Awc) ed un progetto che si pone l'obiettivo di portare energia pulita nelle case di almeno due milioni di famiglie americane della East Coast. Il progetto vede coinvolta Google e vale sulla carta circa cinque miliardi di dollari, cifra necessaria per erigere a circa 15 miglia dalla costa degli Stati Uniti bagnata dall'Oceano Atlantico una dorsale di turbine eoliche lunga 350 miglia, che partirebbe da New York per raggiungere in direzione Sud la Virginia in quel di Norfolk."
More sole24ore

Thermal water pump

A water pump that uses thermal energy from the sun is to undergo field testing before potentially being used by farmers in the developing world for irrigating fields. The device uses a non-inertive-feedback thermofluidic engine (NIFTE) that converts relatively small temperature differences between its heat source and heat sink into mechanical force.
Thermal water pump could aid farmers in developing nations | News | The Engineer
NIFTE is the core product of an univerisyt spin-off, http://www.thermofluidics.com/ . It would be interesting to have more details.

Thermodynamic solars: a new italian technology

"Encouraging news in the renewable energy come from solar thermal industry that, in 2009, has experienced considerable growth and that seems destined to play an even more important in coming years. The U.S., in fact, intend to achieve by 2020 the technology for new power plants with a total capacity of 10.3 GW of power.
Also Italy is taking decisive steps in this field, as evidenced by the recent birth of a company called Archimedes Solar Energy, which produces the key component of solar thermal power plants, pipes receptors, according to a new technology patented by ENEA." World of Solar Thermal - Solar Thermal Energy Daily News, Events, Companies, Products, Jobs and more - Thermodynamic solars: a new italian technology

Why the name "Archimedes"? Let us remember what the 2nd century AD author Lucian wrote about.
"During the Siege of Syracuse (c.214–212 BC), Archimedes destroyed enemy ships with fire. Centuries later, Anthemius of Tralles mentions burning-glasses as Archimedes' weapon. The device, sometimes called the "Archimedes heat ray", was used to focus sunlight onto approaching ships, causing them to catch fire. This purported weapon has been the subject of ongoing debate about its credibility since the Renaissance. René Descartes rejected it as false, while modern researchers have attempted to recreate the effect using only the means that would have been available to Archimedes. It has been suggested that a large array of highly polished bronze or copper shields acting as mirrors could have been employed to focus sunlight onto a ship. This would have used the principle of the parabolic reflector in a manner similar to a solar furnace." More  wiki

Wind turbines need more studies

Wind turbines need to be farther apart, suggests study | News | The Engineer
"Currently, turbines on large wind farms are spaced about seven rotor diameters apart. The new spacing model developed by Meneveau and Johan Meyers, an assistant professor at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium, suggests that placing the wind turbines 15 rotor diameters apart - more than twice as far apart as in the current layouts – results in more cost-efficient power generation. Large wind farms - consisting of hundreds or even thousands of turbines - are planned or already operating in the western United States, Europe and China."

Carbon nanotubes spin a yarn

Researchers in US are the first to produce electrically conducting yarns from webs of carbon nanotubes and various powders and nanofibres. The yarns, made by a technique called biscrolling, are very strong and can be woven, sewn, knitted and braided into a variety of structures. They could find applications in energy storage and harvesting, structural composites, photocatalysis and intelligent textiles. http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/44733

Fluorescence test for water quality

"A team of engineers and scientists are developing a device that measures water’s fluorescence in order to detect harmful microbes and chemicals... Water, like other substances, can absorb certain wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation and then emit it at a different wavelength, a process known as fluorescence.
Bridgeman’s technology identifies where radiation absorbed and emitted at specific wavelengths creates high intensity fluorescence, indicating that water pollutants are present."
Item by Stephen Harris, http://www.theengineer.co.uk/1006706.article?cmpid=TE01P&cmptype=newsletter&cmpdate=070111&email=true

Coronary stent

Most balloon angioplasty procedures include the insertion of tiny cylindrical wire mesh structures, called cardiovascular stents*, into the artery to prevent the elastic recoil that follows arterial dilatation. The scaffolding characteristics of the stent provide strength to the artery wall. However, vascular injury during stent deployment and/or recognition of the stent as a foreign material triggers neointimal hyperplasia, causing re-closure of the artery. A recent advancement to counteract restenosis is to employ drug-eluting stents to locally deliver immunosuppressant andantiproliferative drugs.  Furthermore,  auxetic (negative Poisson's ratio) stent structures were proposed that exhibits high circumferential strength in its expanded configuration and low flexural rigidity in its crimped configuration. 

*A stent is an artificial tubular structure inserted into a natural passage/conduit to prevent, or counteract, a localized flow constriction. The term may also refer to a tube used to temporarily hold such a natural conduit open to allow access for surgery.
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronary_stent

Note the structure of the two stents. Stretching the tube corresponds in increasing the diameter. This image has been obtained after elaboration of the original one: Zwei Stents von schräg vorne mit Zentimetermaß. Ort der Aufnahme: Baden-Baden, Deutschland, Frank C. Müller.

Analogue audio - Cylinders and 78 rpm

"Phonograph cylinders were the earliest commercial medium for recording and reproducing sound. Commonly known simply as "records" in their era of greatest popularity (c. 1888–1915), these cylinder shaped objects had an audio recording engraved on the outside surface which could be reproduced when the cylinder was played on a mechanical phonograph. The competing disc-shaped gramophone record system triumphed in the market place to become the dominant commercial audio medium in the 1910s, and commercial mass production of phonograph cylinders ended in 1929" from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonograph_cylinder

"Early disc recordings were produced in a variety of speeds ranging from 60 to 130 rpm, and a variety of sizes. From 1900, the two leading manufacturers of flat records were Columbia, which used 80 rpm as its speed, and Victor, which used 76.59 rpm. Since one company's records were playable on the other's machines, the standard speed became 78 rpm, which is around the average speed between the two. By 1925, the speed of the record became standardised at a nominal value of 78 rpm."

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

You can listen old cylinders and 78 rpms at http://www.archive.org/details/78rpm Internet Archive has a huge collection, quite interesting for researches on the modern music history.
rpm = revolutions per minute

Powering the space missions

Deep-space missions are powered by a RTG system. A radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG, RITEG) is a generator that obtains its power from radioactive decay. The heat released by the decay of a  radioactive material is converted into electricity by the Seebeck effect using an array of thermocouples (see "how did Georg do it?").
RTGs are systems quite suitable as power sources for satellites and space probes and also for remote facilities where the use of solar cells is not feasible (for instance, lighthouses built by the former Soviet Union inside the Arctic Circle). RTGs are able to give few hundred watts for very long periods. The problem is to guarentee a safe use of radioisotopes.

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

Where is Cassini spacecraft?

Cassini–Huygens is a robotic spacecraft currently studying the planet Saturn and its  satellites. The launched spacecraft consisted of two elements: the Cassini orbiter, named for the astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini, and the Huygens probe, named for the astronomer, mathematician and physicist Christiaan Huygens. Cassini-Huygens  was launched on October 15, 1997, and it entered into orbit around Saturn on July 1, 2004. On December 25, 2004, the Huygens probe was separated from the orbiter and  reached Saturn's moon Titan on January 14, 2005. It descended into the atmosphere of the moon, sending information back to the Earth. This was the first landing ever accomplished in the outer solar system. The mission will continue until 2017. 

On November 2, Cassini was triggered into a standby mode, after a bit flip caused it to miss an important instruction. Cassini was reactivated as scheduled on November 24 and has returned to perfect working order, in time for two scheduled close fly-bys with Enceladus.
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm

What is powering Cassini?

Bacteria in Titanic rusticles

TITANIC BEING EATEN BY DESTRUCTIVE BACTERIA, by Rossella Lorenzi.
"A new bacterium isolated from the Titanic wreck is accelerating the wreck's disintegration into a pile of dust."

http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/titanic-bacteria-rust-wreck.html

These are bacteria potentially dangerous to underwater metal structures.  Shipwrecks disapper but also offshore oil and gas pipelines. The articecle tells that the newly discovered species could also have positive applications for industry for instance in the recycling of iron structures in deep ocean.