Tuesday, April 25
Monday, April 24
Turning Solar Power Into Hydrogen Fuel
- Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology broke through the 1-kilowatt ceiling of green hydrogen generation using solar energy.
- The system turns solar power into hydrogen, oxygen, and heat.
- The lab wants to find new ways to use solar to create useful energy sources.
Researchers in Switzerland took a promising lab experiment and scaled it into a real-world example of how we could use solar energy to produce green hydrogen. Their system broke the coveted 1-kilowatt ceiling for green hydrogen production, and offers a new commercialization opportunity.
This efficient convertor of solar energy to fuel functions as an efficient artificial photosynthesis system, according to a new study by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) published in Nature Energy. It also produces useful byproducts of oxygen and heat.
“This is the first system-level demonstration of solar hydrogen generation,” Sophia Haussener, head of the Laboratory of Renewable Energy Science and Engineering in the School of Engineering at EPFL, says in a news release.
“Unlike typical lab-scale demonstrations, it includes all auxiliary devices and components, so it gives us a better idea of the energy efficiency you can expect once you consider the complete system, and not just the device itself.”
To make it all happen, a system that looks like a satellite dish has been engineered to act like a tree. The 23-foot-diameter dish concentrates the sun’s radiation power nearly 1,000 times.
To make it all happen, a system that looks like a satellite dish has been engineered to act like a tree. The 23-foot-diameter dish concentrates the sun’s radiation power nearly 1,000 times.
When water is piped into the system, a connected reactor uses photoelectrochemical cells powered by that concentrated solar radiation to split the water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.
The process—dubbed artificial photosynthesis—also generates heat, which can move through a heat exchanger to reach a useful finished state. READ MORE...
It's Your Government
We have a 4 party system here in the US of A...
- Democrats
- Republicans
- Independents
- Socialists
Our two major parties are:
- Democrats
- Republicans
Democrats basically believe in the following:
- More government control
- Social Welfare and other programs
- Higher Taxes (especially the wealthy)
- Weak Military
Republicans basically believe in the opposite:
- Less government control
- Less social welfare
- Lower taxes
- Strong Military
The Independents usually like a little bit of both sides and typically vote for the candidate not the party
The Socialists want everything controlled and regulated by the government so there is really no private ownership of anything... It all belongs to the people
There is a movement in the Democratic party called the Progressive movement and their political philosophy is closer to socialism than it is toward a Democratic Republic which is what we have now.
Most socialistic countries FAIL economically but there are some that have survived and their residents are blessed with a lot of free programs but they have very weak militaries and national security... usually if there is a conflict somewhere in the world, they remain NEUTRAL in the hopes that no country will invade them and take them over.
It is hard to believe that this might happen to the US of A... but, anything and everything is possible...
Just as soon as the US Congress passes a bill for FREE COLLEGE EDUCATION... advanced education will no longer be important because AI/Robots are going to replace most jobs. College education has been so watered down so that stupid people can receive college degrees that employers will stop trusting the benefits of college... OR, they will hire graduates who got their education outside of the US of A.
There are some damn fine schools outside of the US of A like IIT in India which some say offers a better education than our MIT...
You must decide for yourself which way you think that the US of A should be heading, rather than look at how much your government can give to you. The more you think our government should give to its citizens, the weaker our country becomes... But, if you do not believe that, then you should try and get your government to give you as much as it can...
Space Time - Quantum Magic
 Maybe quantum chaos will lead to a better theory of gravity. Image Credit: kakteen/Shutterstock.com |
All the world’s a stage and the stage itself is space-time where all the laws of physics are merely players. But maybe space-time is not the fundamental aspect that it is believed to be. A team of researchers from Japan’s RIKEN suggests that space-time could emerge from quantum properties, and one in particular that is involved in it is called quantum magic.
That is not something out of a Marvel movie despite sounding like it. It is actually a mathematical measure of how difficult is to simulate a quantum state on a regular (read that as non-quantum) computer. It turns out that apart from the simplest quantum states, anything with a bit of chaos will end up being maximally magical, which is a wonderful mathematical euphemism for we can’t model them.
How does that relate to space-time? Well, there is a quantum theory that needed an extra ingredient and that particular flavor might be quantum magic. The theory is called bulk quantum gravity and it was proposed in the 1990s to try to reconcile gravitational and quantum theories. A requirement is that space-time is something that emerges from the theory, not something that is assumed a priori.
“Physicists have long been fascinated about the possibility that space and time are not fundamental, but rather are derived from something deeper,” lead author Kanato Goto of the RIKEN Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences, said in a statement. READ MORE...
Sunday, April 23
Biblical Timeline of Earth's Existence
This biblical timeline has always bothered ever since my first Science class where I learned how old the universe was based upon verified scientific evidence... not heresay or speculation or what was written in a book.
All of my talks with ministers, pastors, priests, or members of the clergy have all tried to explain that this discrepancy should be taken with a grain of salt and if God thought it was important, that he would have explained it...
That answer was always unsatisfactory to me.
The other issue that has always bother is that the Bible says God is perfect and therefore does not make mistakes...
If God is perfect why didn't HE explain or use the real number of years in how old the universe was/is instead of his 6,000 years? That omission sounds like a mistake to me. Surely God is smart enough to have realized that someday science would discovery the true age of the universe and prove the Bible wrong.
However, the Bible does not really talk about the age of the universe directly. In order to get the 6,000 years, one has to add together the geneological records of the Bible with the Genesis account of creation. Therefore, the 6,000 is not really from the word of God and must have another explanation.
To that I say BS.
The Bible was put together by man... and when it was put together, no one was really concerned about the age of the universe.
Does God's omission keep him from making a mistake?
Human Brain Detects Signal
Scientists have recently identified a unique form of cell messaging occurring in the human brain that's not been seen before. Excitingly, the discovery hints that our brains might be even more powerful units of computation than we realized.
Back in 2020, researchers from institutes in Germany and Greece reported a mechanism in the brain's outer cortical cells that produces a novel 'graded' signal all on its own, one that could provide individual neurons with another way to carry out their logical functions.
By measuring the electrical activity in sections of tissue removed during surgery on epileptic patients and analyzing their structure using fluorescent microscopy, the neurologists found individual cells in the cortex used not just the usual sodium ions to 'fire', but calcium as well.
This combination of positively charged ions kicked off waves of voltage that had never been seen before, referred to as a calcium-mediated dendritic action potentials, or dCaAPs.
Brains – especially those of the human variety – are often compared to computers. The analogy has its limits, but on some levels they perform tasks in similar ways.
Both use the power of an electrical voltage to carry out various operations. In computers it's in the form of a rather simple flow of electrons through intersections called transistors.
In neurons, the signal is in the form of a wave of opening and closing channels that exchange charged particles such as sodium, chloride, and potassium. This pulse of flowing ions is called an action potential. READ MORE...
Saturday, April 22
Trans Athletes
The USA is a country where freedoms prevail and life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is guaranteed under the US Constitution...
However, don't come knocking on my front door as I will slam in door in your face quicker than stink on shit... if ya catch my drift.
Have of my career has been spent dealing with females who want to be treated equally with males in the areas of physical work and equal pay. I strongly believe that if a female can work like a man, then she should get paid like a man... and, if a man wants to work like a female, then he should get paid equal to that of a female.
Males who dress like females and have their penis cut off and take female hormones will still never be able to physically give birth. Females, who have their breasts removed and take male hormones will never grow a penis... although, I am sure they will have no problems wearing strapon dildos... hopefully, that will make them feel like a man.
HOWEVER, from a phyical point of view and a logical point of view, a man's body is different from a female's body... if you believe in God then blame him for that difference... but, no matter how much you piss and moan, the two bodies will never be the same... maybe similar but not physically identical. THEREFORE, biological males that have transitioned to females, should NEVER BE ALLOWED TO PLAY FEMALE SPORTS... under any circumstances.
If you are a fan of EQUITY, then females are not receiving any EQUITY when this happens... and, the day that a biological male joins a female sports team, then the rest of the biological females should quit because, none of you will ever win again. Your team may win but you will never win.
AND... the day that trans althletes compete in the OLYMPICS will be that the OLYMPICS turn into an athletic JOKE...
I cannot imagine biological females athletes wanting to show with biological male trans females... but, I could be wrong.
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