'Energy Science 101'
Pollution Science 101
By Michael J. Ross
Http://MonsantoInvestigation.com
Published: August 23rd, 2016
Last Update: January 25th, 2017
Chapter 1: Tesla
Chapter 2: CERN
Chapter 3: Antimatter
Chapter 4: Plasma energy
Chapter 5: Cold Fusion
Chapter 6: Dark Energy
Chapter 7: Batteries & energy storage
Chapter 8: Magnetic energy
Chapter 9: Piezoelectric & mechanical energy
Chapter 10: Lazers
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Current news
Would it be possible to use clean uranium, and clean coal for power. It just seems that whenever we try to use depleted uranium, that when we mine and oxidize the uranium, it makes it more toxic to us. This is why I still think we need more research. Some question we could trap the uranium reactors, miles under the Earth. Some say that we now
Demand for clean energy inspires new generation to innovate nuclear power
January 4, 2017MILES O’BRIEN: Physicist Edwin Lyman is with the Union of Concerned Scientists. He says the promise of this new generation of nukes should be tempered by the uncertainties.
EDWIN LYMAN: Some non-water-cooled systems have a lower risk of certain types of accident, but they have greater risks of other kinds of accidents, or they introduce other security or safety issues, so there’s really no free lunch here.
MILES O’BRIEN: But the private sector is apparently not dissuaded. A D.C.-based think tank, Third Way, found more than 40 startups across the U.S. developing advanced nuclear power designs.
These atomic business plans have lured more than a billion dollars in investment.
LESLIE DEWAN, Transatomic Power: I think a lot of it might just be the changing demographics of nuclear engineers, that now there are a large number of young nuclear engineers who think, I have a really good idea. I’m going to raise some funding. I’m going to see if I can do this on my own.
How much do you have to worry about free fluorine?
MILES O’BRIEN: Leslie Dewan is one of the young entrepreneurs leading this revolution. She became enamored with some nuclear technology first developed 50 years ago at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It’s called a molten salt reactor, not table salt, liquid fluoride salts.
LESLIE DEWAN: A molten salt reactor uses liquid fuel, rather than solid fuel.
MILES O’BRIEN: Having uranium dissolved in liquid offers some safety advantages. If the fuel gets too hot, the liquid expands, and the uranium atoms become too dispersed to maintain a nuclear chain reaction. It shuts itself down.
And in the case of a station blackout, like Fukushima, the liquid fuel drains into a larger tank, where it cools down passively, no electricity needed. At Oak Ridge, they successfully ran and tested a molten salt reactor for four years, and it worked.
But building a reactor that can withstand something as corrosive as a very hot bath of salt is a huge engineering challenge. At Oak Ridge, the funding ended before they could work on that. So, the corrosion problem is the focus of early testing for Leslie Dewan’s startup company, Transatomic.
LESLIE DEWAN: We can make something that works for five years, that works for 10 years. Like, that, we certainly know. What we are trying to figure out now is whether we can use newer materials or new methods of corrosion control to extend the lifetime of the facility, because, ultimately, we care about making this low-cost.
If you have to replace your key components every 10 years, it’s not going to be cheaper than coal. And if it’s not cheaper than coal, then it’s not worth doing.
MILES O’BRIEN: Without a tax, or a cap, on carbon emissions, matching the cost of fossil fuels will likely be an impossible order for these new nuclear designs.
EDWIN LYMAN: We don’t put a lot of stock in seeing an alternative to a water-cooled reactor being developed anytime soon, certainly not quickly enough to make a dent in the greenhouse gas problem.
MILES O’BRIEN: But, in Idaho, they are pressing forward with urgency. In the U.S., there are currently about 100 nuclear reactors in operation. The majority of them are slated for retirement in the 2030s. What will replace them? Wind and solar? Not without a breakthrough in battery technology to store power on the grid.
NATHAN MYHRVOLD: The fate of the whole planet depends on us renewing our energy system with renewables and with nuclear. And if we step back from that, we are going to create a tremendous problem for future generations.
MILES O’BRIEN: Worries about waste, weapons proliferation and safety nearly derailed nuclear energy in the past. But the quest to meet rising demand for energy, without wrecking the planet, has put new nuclear technology back on the agenda.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/demand-clean-energy-inspires-new-generation-innovate-nuclear-power/
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Improving the selective extraction of spent uranium in nuclear waste clean-up
June 16, 2015
Driven by the need to find ways of separating, recycling and reducing nuclear waste, chemists at The University of Nottingham are developing our understanding of how uranium interacts with elements from around the periodic table to potentially help improve the selective extraction of spent uranium in nuclear waste clean-up.
http://phys.org/news/2015-06-spent-uranium-nuclear-clean-up.html#jCp
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Recycling nuclear waste via advanced reactor design
May 28th, 2015An advanced nuclear reactor under development by Hitachi could help solve the nuclear waste problem, and University of Michigan researchers were involved in verifying its safe performance through computer simulations.
The U-M team worked with colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkeley. After more safety analysis, Hitachi plans to move forward with a prototype of the "resource-renewable boiling water reactor" in the next few years.
One of the major technological hurdles for nuclear energy is developing systems to dispose of the waste produced by typical reactors. It must be sealed away for hundreds of millennia while the radioactivity naturally decreases.
Hitachi's new design would burn off the longest-lived radioactive materials, called transuranics, shortening that isolation period to a few centuries. This would recycle the nuclear waste to produce yet more energy and reduce the amount that must be stowed away.
http://phys.org/news/2015-05-recycling-nuclear-advanced-reactor.html
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Encouraging minerals to capture troubling radionuclides
May 08, 2015
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Graphene, the finest filter
January 5, 2016
http://phys.org/news/2016-01-graphene-finest-filter.html#nRlv
Graphene can simplify production of heavy water and help clean nuclear waste by filtering different isotopes of hydrogen, University of Manchester research indicates.
Writing in Science, a team led by Sir Andre Geim demonstrated that using membranes made from graphene can act as a sieve, separating protons – nuclei of hydrogen – from heavier nuclei of hydrogen isotope deuterium.
The process could mean producing heavy water for nuclear power plants could be ten times less energy intensive, simpler and cheaper using graphene.
One of the hydrogen isotopes, deuterium, is widely used in analytical and chemical tracing technologies and, also, as heavy water required in thousands of tons for operation of nuclear power stations.
The heaviest isotope, tritium, is radioactive and needs to be safely removed as a byproduct of electricity generation at nuclear fission plants. Future nuclear technology is based on fusion of the two heavy isotopes.
The current separation technologies for production of heavy water are extremely energy intensive, and have presented a major scientific and industrial problem. Now graphene promises do so efficiently.
Researchers tested whether deuterons – nuclei of deuterium – can pass through graphene and its sister material boron nitride. They fully expected deuterons to easily pass through, as existing theory did not predict any difference in permeation for both isotopes.
The researchers were surprised to find that deuterons were not only effectively sieved out by their one atom thick membranes, but were sieved with a high separation efficiency.
The discovery makes monolayers of graphene and boron nitride attractive as separation membranes to enrich mixtures of deuterium and tritium.
Furthermore, the researchers showed that the separation is fully scalable. Using chemical-vapor-deposited (CVD) graphene, they built centimetre-sized devices to effectively pump out hydrogen from a mixture of deuterium and hydrogen.
Dr Marcelo Lozada-Hidalgo, University of Manchester postdoctoral researcher and first author of the paper, said: "This is really the first membrane shown to distinguish between subatomic particles, all at room temperature.
"Now that we showed that it is a fully scalable technology, we hope it will quickly find its way to real applications."
Professor Irina Grigorieva, who co-authored the research, said: "We were stunned to see that a membrane can be used to separate subatomic particles.
"It is a really simple set up. We hope to see applications of these filters not only in analytical and chemical tracing technologies but also in helping to clean nuclear waste from radioactive tritium."
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Many have even mentioned about using genetically modified archaea (bacteria), that could eat and digest uranium, including other toxic waste. The bacteria could turn the toxic waste, into a different chemical structure, that may not be as toxic, or could biodegrade properly. However, some question if this type of bacteria, could pose a threat to the environment.
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For uranium cleanup ... bacteria?
May 19, 2006http://news.stanford.edu/news/2006/may24/criddle-052406.html
Bacteria are back
Bioremediation was used in the 1980s to clean up toxic organics, mainly spills of fuels and solvents. Bacteria basically ate the fuels—chomping down long-chain hydrocarbons—or they "breathed" the solvents and created nontoxic forms.
"Microorganisms also 'breathe' metals like uranium, converting it into a form that is immobile because it does not appreciably dissolve in water," said Nyman, a doctoral student whose laboratory studies helped to guide operations in the field. After microbes convert the uranium, it's "just sitting there, like a rock," Criddle said. "In future studies, we hope to see how stable we can make that 'rock.' Ideally, it will remain in that form for thousands of years."
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Scientists develop material to remove radioactive contaminants from drinking water
April 13, 2011
http://phys.org/news/2011-04-scientists-material-radioactive-contaminants.html#nRlv
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Technique could set new course for extracting uranium from seawater
December 17, 2015
An ultra-high-resolution technique used for the first time to study polymer fibers that trap uranium in seawater may cause researchers to rethink the best methods to harvest this potential fuel for nuclear reactors.http://phys.org/news/2015-12-technique-uranium-seawater.html
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Some people think that this technology could be useful, to cleanup excess uranium, from ocean water. Many people still believe, that there are still better sources of energy, than using uranium for energy.
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We even have the medical technology, to treat radiation sickness. This technology could also become beneficial for cancer patients.
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FDA ticks off first drug to treat radiation sickness after nuclear disasters
May 25, 2015
http://www.gizmag.com/fda-drug-radiation-nuclear/37671/
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Metal foams could provide lightweight radiation shielding
- July 22, 2015
Radiation generally comes under the heading of "things you want to stay away from," so it's no surprise that radiation shielding is a high priority in many industries. However, current shielding is bulky and heavy, so a North Carolina State University team is developing a new lightweight shielding based on foam metals that can block X-rays, gamma rays, and neutron radiation, as well as withstanding high-energy impact collisions.
http://www.gizmag.com/metal-foam-lightweight-radiation-shielding/38515/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget
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Researchers awarded patent for tokamak device, would turn nuclear waste into fuel
September 13, 2012
University of Texas at Austin physicists have been awarded a U.S. patent for an invention that could someday be used to turn nuclear waste into fuel, thus removing the most dangerous forms of waste from the fuel cycle.
The researchers—Mike Kotschenreuther, Prashant Valanju and Swadesh Mahajan of the College of Natural Sciences—have patented the concept for a novel fusion-fission hybrid nuclear reactor that would use nuclear fusion and fission together to incinerate nuclear waste. Fusion produces energy by fusing atomic nuclei, and fission produces energy by splitting atomic nuclei.
The process of burning the waste would also produce energy. The researchers' goal is to eliminate 99 percent of the most toxic transuranic waste from nuclear fission reactors.
"The potential for this kind of technology is enormous," said Mahajan, professor of physics. "Now that we have the patent, we hope this will open up opportunities to engage with the research and development community to further this potentially world-changing technology."
The researchers' patent covers a tokamak device, which uses magnetic fields to produce fusion reactions. The patented tokamak is surrounded by an area that would house a nuclear waste fuel source and waste by-products of the nuclear fuel cycle. The device is driven by a transformational technology called the Super X Divertor.
The Super X Divertor is a crucial technology that has the capacity to safely divert the enormous amounts of heat out of the reactor core to keep the reactor producing energy.
Toxic nuclear waste is stored at sites around the U.S., and the need to store nuclear waste is widely considered to be a major disadvantage associated with nuclear energy.
The physicists' invention could someday drastically decrease the need for any additional or expanded geological repositories, making nuclear power cleaner and more viable.
The patented hybrid reactor is currently in a conceptual phase.
The Super X Divertor, however, is being installed as the centerpiece of a $40 million upgrade of the MAST tokamak in the United Kingdom. This installation is a critical step forward in testing the Super X Divertor experimentally. It is not covered by the U.S. patent but is the technology invented by the University of Texas at Austin physicists.
http://phys.org/news/2012-09-awarded-patent-tokamak-device-nuclear.html#nRlv
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Fuel comparison
With a complete combustion or fission, approx. 8 kWh of heat can be generated from 1 kg of coal, approx. 12 kWh from 1 kg of mineral oil and around 24,000,000 kWh from 1 kg of uranium-235. Related to one kilogram, uranium-235 contains two to three million times the energy equivalent of oil or coal. The illustration shows how much coal, oil or natural uranium is required for a certain quantity of electricity. Thus, 1 kg natural uranium - following a corresponding enrichment and used for power generation in light water reactors - corresponds to nearly 10,000 kg of mineral oil or 14,000 kg of coal and enables the generation of 45,000 kWh of electricity.
https://www.euronuclear.org/info/encyclopedia/f/fuelcomparison.htm
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Honestly, we need more studies on the subjects of clean uranium energy, inducing clean coal. There are mixed articles, on both of these subjects. However, some question if trapping excess carbon, is still the best way to produce energy. We still believe that many other sources of energy are being suppressed. Such as hydrogen energy, energy from Nikola Tesla, and fusion technology.
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Renewables Aren’t Enough. Clean Coal Is the Future
https://www.wired.com/2014/03/clean-coal/
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Some articles are for clean coal. Other articles are against clean coal.
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The Myth of Clean Coal: Analysis
Jul 14, 2011
Will coal become the clean, green fuel of the future? Not so fast.
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Can Coal Ever Be Clean?
April 2014
It’s the dirtiest of fossil fuels. We burn eight billion tons
of it a year, with growing consequences.
The world must face the question.
American Electric Power’s Mountaineer Plant, on the Ohio River in New Haven, West Virginia, inhales a million pounds of Appalachian coal every hour. The coal arrives fresh from the ground, on barges or on a conveyor belt from a mine across the road. Once inside the plant, the golf-ball-size lumps are ground into dust as fine as face powder, then blown into the firebox of one of the largest boilers in the world—a steel box that could easily swallow the Statue of Liberty. The plant’s three steam-powered turbines, painted blue with white stars, supply electricity round the clock to 1.3 million customers in seven states. Those customers pay about a dime per kilowatt-hour, or roughly $113 a month, to power the refrigerators, washers, dryers, flat screens, and smartphones, to say nothing of the lights, of an average household. And as Charlie Powell, Mountaineer’s plant manager, often said, even environmentalists like to keep the lights on.
The customers pay not a cent, however, nor does American Electric Power (AEP), for the privilege of spewing six to seven million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year from Mountaineer’s thousand-foot-high stack. And that’s the problem. Carbon is dumped without limit because in most places it costs nothing to do so and because there is, as yet, no law against it in the U.S. But in 2009 it looked as if there might soon be a law; the House of Representatives had already passed a bill that summer. AEP, to its credit, decided to get ahead of it.
That October, Mountaineer began a pioneering experiment in carbon capture. Powell oversaw it. His father had worked for three decades at a coal-fired power plant in Virginia; Powell himself had spent his career at Mountaineer. The job was simple, he said: “We burn coal, make steam, and run turbines.” During the experiment, though, it got a bit more complicated. AEP attached a chemical plant to the back of its power plant. It chilled about 1.5 percent of Mountaineer’s smoke and diverted it through a solution of ammonium carbonate, which absorbed the CO₂. The CO₂ was then drastically compressed and injected into a porous sandstone formation more than a mile below the banks of the Ohio.
The system worked. Over the next two years AEP captured and stored more than 37,000 metric tons of pure carbon dioxide. The CO₂ is still underground, not in the atmosphere. It was only a quarter of one percent of the gas coming out the stack, but that was supposed to be just the beginning. AEP planned to scale up the project to capture a quarter of the plant’s emissions, or 1.5 million tons of CO₂ a year. The company had agreed to invest $334 million, and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) had agreed to match that. But the deal depended on AEP being able to recoup its investment. And after climate change legislation collapsed in the Senate, state utility regulators told the company that it could not charge its customers for a technology not yet required by law.
In the spring of 2011 AEP ended the project. The maze of pipes and pumps and tanks was dismantled. Though small, the Mountaineer system had been the world’s first to capture and store carbon dioxide directly from a coal-fired electric plant, and it had attracted hundreds of curious visitors from around the world, including China and India. “The process did work, and we educated a lot of people,” said Powell. “But geez-oh-whiz—it’s going to take another breakthrough to make it worth our while.” A regulatory breakthrough above all—such as the one Obama promised last summer—but technical ones would help too.
Capturing carbon dioxide and storing or “sequestering” it underground in porous rock formations sounds to its critics like a techno-fix fantasy. But DOE has spent some $6.5 billion over the past three decades researching and testing the technology. And for more than four decades the oil industry has been injecting compressed carbon dioxide into depleted oil fields, using it to coax trapped oil to the surface. On the Canadian Great Plains this practice has been turned into one of the world’s largest underground carbon-storage operations.
Since 2000 more than 20 million metric tons of carbon dioxide have been captured from a North Dakota plant that turns coal into synthetic natural gas, then piped 200 miles north into Saskatchewan. There the Canadian petroleum company Cenovus Energy pushes the CO₂ deep into the Weyburn and Midale fields, a sprawling oil patch that had its heyday in the 1960s. Two to three barrels of oil are dissolved out of the reservoir rock by each ton of CO₂, which is then reinjected into the reservoir for storage. There it sits, nearly a mile underground, trapped under impermeable layers of shale and salt.
For how long? Some natural deposits of carbon dioxide have been in place for millions of years—in fact the CO₂ in some has been mined and sold to oil companies. But large and sudden releases of CO₂ can be lethal to people and animals, particularly when the gas collects and concentrates in a confined space. So far no major leaks have been documented at Weyburn, which is being monitored by the International Energy Agency, or at any of the handful of other large storage sites around the world. Scientists consider the risk of a catastrophic leak to be extremely low.
They worry more about smaller, chronic leaks that would defeat the purpose of the enterprise. Geophysicists Mark Zoback and Steven Gorelick of Stanford University argue that at sites where the rock is brittle and faulted—most sites, in their view—the injection of carbon dioxide might trigger small earthquakes that, even if otherwise harmless, might crack the overlying shale and allow CO₂ to leak. Zoback and Gorelick consider carbon storage “an extremely expensive and risky strategy.” But even they agree that carbon can be stored effectively at some sites—such as the Sleipner gas field in the North Sea, where for the past 17 years the Norwegian oil company Statoil has been injecting about a million tons of CO₂ a year into a brine-saturated sandstone layer half a mile below the seabed. That formation has so much room that all that CO₂ hasn’t increased its internal pressure, and there’s been no sign of quakes or leaks.
American Electric Power’s Mountaineer Plant, on the Ohio River in New Haven, West Virginia, inhales a million pounds of Appalachian coal every hour. The coal arrives fresh from the ground, on barges or on a conveyor belt from a mine across the road. Once inside the plant, the golf-ball-size lumps are ground into dust as fine as face powder, then blown into the firebox of one of the largest boilers in the world—a steel box that could easily swallow the Statue of Liberty. The plant’s three steam-powered turbines, painted blue with white stars, supply electricity round the clock to 1.3 million customers in seven states. Those customers pay about a dime per kilowatt-hour, or roughly $113 a month, to power the refrigerators, washers, dryers, flat screens, and smartphones, to say nothing of the lights, of an average household. And as Charlie Powell, Mountaineer’s plant manager, often said, even environmentalists like to keep the lights on.
The customers pay not a cent, however, nor does American Electric Power (AEP), for the privilege of spewing six to seven million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year from Mountaineer’s thousand-foot-high stack. And that’s the problem. Carbon is dumped without limit because in most places it costs nothing to do so and because there is, as yet, no law against it in the U.S. But in 2009 it looked as if there might soon be a law; the House of Representatives had already passed a bill that summer. AEP, to its credit, decided to get ahead of it.
That October, Mountaineer began a pioneering experiment in carbon capture. Powell oversaw it. His father had worked for three decades at a coal-fired power plant in Virginia; Powell himself had spent his career at Mountaineer. The job was simple, he said: “We burn coal, make steam, and run turbines.” During the experiment, though, it got a bit more complicated. AEP attached a chemical plant to the back of its power plant. It chilled about 1.5 percent of Mountaineer’s smoke and diverted it through a solution of ammonium carbonate, which absorbed the CO₂. The CO₂ was then drastically compressed and injected into a porous sandstone formation more than a mile below the banks of the Ohio.
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America’s first ‘clean coal’ plant is now operational — and another is on the way
January 10th, 2017https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/01/10/americas-first-clean-coal-plant-is-now-operational-and-another-is-on-the-way/?utm_term=.c6e92a69f19f
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Chapter 1: Tesla
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We need a clean source of energy. Many claim we already can generate energy out of hydrogen, air, water, magnetism, including cold fusion and friction.
We should limit our use of uranium and fossil fuel, for energy. The people need to have an equal say, in how the energy policies of the world are decided. For too long, we have allowed the same political groups, such as different governments of the world, that have continued to allow companies to pollute and harm the planet, just for a profit. This happens, when many people do not agree with how different governments, including different political groups, continue to threaten our natural way of life, on this planet.
Many people think that the inventions of Nikola Tesla, could harness an abundance of energy for the people of this planet.
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U.S. Army develops Tesla-style lightning bolt to destroy enemy vehicles
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2165966/U-S-Army-develops-Tesla-style-lightning-bolt-destroy-enemy-vehicles-adds-Sci-fi-fans-youre-welcome.html
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Tesla coil
A Tesla coil is an electrical resonant transformer circuit invented by Nikola Tesla around 1891. It is used to produce high-voltage, low-current, high frequency alternating-current electricity. Tesla experimented with a number of different configurations consisting of two, or sometimes three, coupled resonant electric circuits.
Tesla used these coils to conduct innovative experiments in electrical lighting, phosphorescence, X-ray generation, high frequency alternating current phenomena, electrotherapy, and the transmission of electrical energy without wires. Tesla coil circuits were used commercially in sparkgap radio transmitters for wireless telegraphy until the 1920s, and in medical equipment such as electrotherapy and violet ray devices. Today their main use is for entertainment and educational displays, although small coils are still used today as leak detectors for high vacuum systems.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_coil
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Teleforce
Teleforce is a charged particle beam projector that Nikola Tesla claimed to have conceived of after studying the Van de Graaff generator. Tesla described the weapon as being able to be used against ground-based infantry or for anti-aircraft purposes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleforce
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NIKOLA TESLA - THE MASTER OF LIGHTNING - Discovery History Science (documentary)
May 4, 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb5LMWpL3io
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Scalar Waves: Nicola Tesla's Forgotten Discovery Of A Source Of Clean, Cost Free Energy
Scalar wavelengths are finer than gamma rays or X rays and only one hundred millionth of a square centimeter in width. They belong to the subtle gravitational field and are also known as gravitic waves. Uniquely, they flow in multiple directions at right angles off electromagnetic waves, as an untapped energy source called 'potentials'. Potentials are particles which are unorganized in hyperspace - pure etheric energy not manifest in the physical world. In comparison, electromagnetic waves (measured by so many hertz or pulses per second, with which we are familiar with as radio other waves in the electro-magnetic spectrum) exist normally in the physical world, but can only be measured up to levels determined by the sensitivity of the equipment being used as to how many cycles per second they operate.
http://www.greenteethmm.com/science-scalar-waves.shtml
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How the Physics of Electromagnetism can Generate Electricity
http://syzygyastro.hubpages.com/hub/How-the-Physics-of-Electromagnetism-can-Generate-Electricity
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From negative energy, we can create positive energy.
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Getting a charge from changes in humidity
Jan 27, 2014
New type of generator built with bacterial spores could one day provide a steady source of green electricity
BOSTON — A new type of electrical generator uses bacterial spores to harness the untapped power of evaporating water, according to research conducted at the Wyss Institute of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. Its developers foresee electrical generators driven by changes in humidity from sun-warmed ponds and harbors.
The prototype generators work by harnessing the movement of a sheet of rubber coated on one side with spores. The sheet bends when it dries out, much as a pine cone opens as it dries or a freshly fallen leaf curls, and then straightens when humidity rises. Such bending back and forth means that spore-coated sheets or tiny planks can act as actuators that drive movement, and that movement can be harvested to generate electricity.
http://wyss.harvard.edu/viewpressrelease/137/getting-a-charge-from-changes-in-humidity
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A new clean nuclear fusion reactor has been designed
January 14, 2013
A researcher at the Universidad politécnica de Madrid (UPM, Spain) has patented a nuclear fusion reactor by inertial confinement that, apart from be used to generate electric power in plants, can be applied to propel ships.
This invention is the result of a work carried out by the Professor José Luis González Díez from the Higher Technical School of Naval Engineering of the UPM, who has contributed to solve the problem of contamination risk associated with the generation of nuclear fission power. It is a design of a fusion nuclear reactor by laser ignition of 1000 MWe that uses as fuel hydrogen isotopes that can be extracted from water allowing us a significant saving in fuel.
The nuclear fission is generally considered as a dangerous energy due to its contaminant risks of radioactive waste resulting from the electricity generation process. The past events occurred in Japan after the tsunami of 2011 increased the risk perception of this type of energy generation what has provoked that research on alternative ways to obtain energy have gained more importance than ever.
For years, nuclear fusion was studied as an alternative to nuclear fission because of its remarkable advantages for security and financial issues. However, today, there is not working any fusion reactor to produce continuous electrical energy of high voltage.
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Electrostatic nuclear accelerator
An electrostatic nuclear accelerator is one of the two main types of particle accelerators, where charged particles can be accelerated by subjection to a static high voltage potential. The static high voltage method is contrasted with the dynamic fields used in oscillating field particle accelerators. Owing to their simpler design, historically these accelerators were developed earlier. These machines are operated at lower energy than some larger oscillating field accelerators, and to the extent that the energy regime scales with the cost of these machines, in broad terms these machines are less expensive than higher energy machines, and as such they are much more common. Many universities world wide have electrostatic accelerators for research purposes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrostatic_nuclear_accelerator
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May 25, 2001
TESLA project goes public
http://cerncourier.com/cws/article/cern/28450
At a major event held at the DESY laboratory in March (see News May 2000), the international TESLA collaboration, together with the members of various study groups, released the TESLA Technical Design Report. This five-volume opus presented the final facts and figures concerning a grand plan for the future: the "TeV-Energy Superconducting Linear Accelerator", a 33 km electron-positron linear collider with an integrated X-ray laser laboratory.
To be built near the DESY laboratory in Hamburg, the facility would not only provide particle collision energies of 500 GeV - which could be increased to 800 GeV - but also include powerful X-ray lasers that would open up new research opportunities in a variety of fields, ranging from condensed matter physics through chemistry and material science to structural biology.
It is widely acknowledged among particle physicists that a linear accelerator colliding electrons and positrons is the ideal machine to complement CERN's Large Hadron Collider, which is due to start operation in 2006. As well as the TESLA collaboration, plans for similar next-generation linear electron-positron colliders are being worked on by other teams.
SLAC in the US and KEK in Japan are jointly developing two similar designs - known respectively as the Next Linear Collider and the Japan Linear Collider - which could be ready for construction at around the same time as TESLA. CERN is also working on a next-generation collider, CLIC. However, the TESLA proposal is the first to be fully costed and made public. It is also the only project to include an X-ray laser laboratory and thus to address a large interdisciplinary research community.
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Chapter 2: CERN
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Doing experiments with the interaction of antimatter, including chemicals such as uranium, have many people and scientists concerned. As we know, smashing certain chemicals, such as uranium at very high speeds, could create a giant catastrophic explosion on the planet.
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Gravitational interaction of antimatter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_interaction_of_antimatter
The gravitational interaction of antimatter with matter or antimatter has not been conclusively observed by physicists. While the overwhelming consensus among physicists is that antimatter will attract both matter and antimatter at the same rate that matter attracts matter, there is a strong desire to confirm this experimentally.
Antimatter's rarity and tendency to annihilate when brought into contact with matter makes its study a technically demanding task. Most methods for the creation of antimatter (specifically antihydrogen) result in high-energy particles and atoms of high kinetic energy, which are unsuitable for gravity-related study. In recent years, first ALPHA [1][2] and then ATRAP [3] have trapped antihydrogen atoms at CERN; in 2013 ALPHA used such atoms to set the first free-fall loose bounds on the gravitational interaction of antimatter with matter, with a relative precision of the measurement of ±100%, not enough for a clear scientific statement about the sign of gravity acting on antimatter. Future experiments need to be performed with higher precision, either with beams of antihydrogen (AEGIS or GBAR) or with trapped antihydrogen (ALPHA).
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CERN researchers confirm existence of the Force
April, 2015
Researchers at the Large Hadron Collider just recently started testing the accelerator for running at the higher energy of 13 TeV, and already they have found new insights into the fundamental structure of the universe. Though four fundamental forces – the strong force, the weak force, the electromagnetic force and gravity – have been well documented and confirmed in experiments over the years, CERN announced today the first unequivocal evidence for the Force. "Very impressive, this result is," said a diminutive green spokesperson for the laboratory.
http://phys.org/news/2015-04-cern.html#jCp
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Meson f0(1710) could be so-called “glueball” particle made purely of nuclear force
Terms to describe the strange world of quantum physics have come to be quite common in our lexicon. Who, for instance, hasn't at least heard of a quark, or a gluon or even Schrodinger's cat? Now there's a new name to remember: "Glueball." A long sought-after exotic particle, and recently claimed to have been detected by researchers at TU Wien, the glueball's strangest characteristic is that it is composed entirely of gluons. In other words, it is a particle created from pure force.First mooted as a particle in 1972 when physicists Murray Gell-Mann and Harald Fritsch wondered about possible bound states of recently-discovered gluons, scientists have sought the particle in the intervening decades. Originally dubbed "gluonium," but now called glueballs, these strange particles of pure force are exceptionally unstable and can only be indirectly detected by monitoring their decay as they disassemble into lesser particles.
More recently, physics Professor Anton Rebhan and his PhD student Frederic Brünner from TU Wien have theorized that a strong nuclear decay resonance, called f0(1710), observed in the data from a number of particle accelerator experiments is strong evidence for the elusive glueball particle...
http://www.gizmag.com/meson-f01710-glueball-particle/39866/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget
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Stephen Hawking Says 'God Particle' Could Wipe Out the Universe
( Simulated data from the Large Hadron Collider particle detector shows the Higgs boson produced after two protons collide. )
Stephen Hawking bet Gordon Kane $100 that physicists would not discover the Higgs boson. After losing that bet when physicists detected the particle in 2012, Hawking lamented the discovery, saying it made physics less interesting. Now, in the preface to a new collection of essays and lectures called "Starmus," the famous theoretical physicist is warning that the particle could one day be responsible for the destruction of the known universe.
http://www.livescience.com/47737-stephen-hawking-higgs-boson-universe-doomsday.html
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Although energy can be harvested from CERN, we still question how this type of technology can be abused, and used as a weapon.
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CERN Document Server - Micro energy harvesting
2015
https://cds.cern.ch/record/2019306
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CERN Document Server - Piezoelectric energy harvesting
2015
http://cds.cern.ch/record/1613190?ln=en
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CAST explores the dark side of the universe
September 21, 2015
Over the next 10 days, CERN's Axion Solar Telescope (CAST) will receive the Sun's rays. The Sun's course is visible from the window in the CAST experimental hall just twice a year, in March and September. The scientists will take advantage of these few days to improve the alignment of the detector with respect to the position of the Sun to within a thousandth of a radian.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-09-explores-dark-side-universe.html#jCp
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Big Chill Sets in as RHIC Physics Heats Up
Run 14 promises highest collision rates enabling exploration of detailed properties of early-universe matter
Monday, February 03, 2014
UPTON, NY—If you think it's been cold outside this winter, that's nothing compared to the deep freeze setting in at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), the early-universe-recreating "atom smasher" at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory. Brookhaven's accelerator physicists have begun pumping liquid helium into RHIC's 1,740 superconducting magnets to chill them to near absolute zero (-273 degrees Celsius—the coldest anything can get) in preparation for the collider's next physics run.
Once that extreme subzero temperature is reached, enabling the magnets to operate with zero energy loss, the physicists will begin injecting beams of gold ions and steering them into head-on collisions at nearly the speed of light. Those collisions create temperatures at the opposite extreme of the temperature scale—4 trillion degrees Celsius, or 250,000 times hotter than the center of the sun—to produce RHIC's signature "perfect" liquid quark-gluon plasma, a stand in for what the universe was like an instant after the Big Bang. During this experimental run, the 14th at this nuclear physics scientific user facility, scientists will conduct detailed studies of the primordial plasma's properties and fill in some missing data points to plot its transition to the matter we see in the universe today
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The puzzle of the origin of elements in the universe
December 17, 2015
A rare nuclear reaction that occurs in red giants has been observed for the first time at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy. This result was achieved by the LUNA experiment, the world's only accelerator facility running deep underground.
The LUNA experiment at the INFN Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy has observed a rare nuclear reaction that occurs in giant red stars, a type of star in which our sun will also evolve. This is the first direct observation of sodium production in these stars, one of the nuclear reactions that is fundamental for the formation of the elements that make up the universe. The study has been published in Physical Review Letters.
LUNA (Laboratory for Underground Nuclear Astrophysics) is a compact linear accelerator. It is the only one in the world installed in an underground facility, shielded against cosmic rays. The experiment aims to study the nuclear reactions that take place inside stars where, like in an intriguing and amazing cosmic kitchen, the elements that make up matter are formed and then driven out by gigantic explosions and scattered as cosmic dust.
http://phys.org/news/2015-12-puzzle-elements-universe.html
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RHIC particle smashups find that shape matters
December 7, 2015
Peering into the seething soup of primordial matter created in particle collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC)-an "atom smasher" dedicated to nuclear physics research at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory-scientists have come to a new understanding of how particles are produced in these collisions. This understanding represents a paradigm shift consistent with the presence of a saturated state of gluons, super-dense fields of the glue-like particles that bind the building blocks of ordinary matter.
http://phys.org/news/2015-12-rhic-particle-smashups.html
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Physicists search for signs of supersymmetry
December 17, 2015
The first results from direct searches for new physics were announced today from CERN's energy-upgraded Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Among these results was a search for signs of a new theory called supersymmetry in which members of the University of Bristol particle physics group have played a leading role.
The LHC is the world's highest energy particle accelerator. After an almost two year shutdown and several months' re-commissioning, the LHC delivered physics data to its experiments from June to November this year at the unprecedented energy of 13 TeV, almost double the collision energy of its first run. The energy of the colliding protons is such that new particles much heavier than the proton can be created including the famous Higgs boson, and possibly even heavier and more exotic particles hypothesised in new physics theories. One such theory is called supersymmetry, which predicts an exotic partner for each currently known particle type.
http://phys.org/news/2015-12-physicists-supersymmetry.html
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Four new elements confirmed
January 4, 2016
http://www.gizmag.com/new-periodic-table-elements-confirmed/41139/
Chemistry textbooks are in need of a rewrite with the addition of four new elements to the Periodic Table. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) has confirmed the existence of four new elements with the atomic numbers 113, 115, 117, and 118, which were discovered by laboratories in Japan, the United States, and Russia. This bumper group of new elements completes the 7th row of the Periodic Table and clears the way for the discoverers to start thinking up names for them.
Until now, elements 113, 115, 117, and 118 have only been known from their gaps in the table and the temporary names ununtrium (Uut), ununpentium (Uup), ununseptium (Uus), and ununoctium (Uuo). Now, thanks to RIKEN in Japan; the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), California; and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, (ORNL), Tennessee, these elements that do not exist in nature have been confirmed to have been created for the first time.
The fourth IUPAC and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) Joint Working Party (JWP) reviewed the findings of the discoverers and, based on a criteria set out in 1991, have confirmed them. Elements 115 and 117 were found by the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, LLNL, and ORNL. Element 118 was found by the Joint Institute and LLNL, and 113 was found by RIKEN.
The periodic table in its modern form was invented by Russian chemistry professor Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869 and lists elements according to their atomic numbers based on the number of protons in their nuclei. Its odd shape, which is familiar to anyone trying to stay awake in chemistry class, is due to the discovery that by arranging the elements to group them by their chemical properties and electron configurations, it becomes a graphic representation of objective reality.
In other words, chemists could not only use the table to describe known elements, but also predict the existence and properties of unknown elements that were yet to be discovered. This makes the IUPAC announcement particularly important because it means that an entire row or period of the table has now been filled in thanks, in part, to this predictability.
Though many of the new elements were discovered as far back as 2004, the tricky bit has been proving that they exist. In the 19th century, any competent chemist could determine if a substance was a pure element, but the new elements reside in a part of the table where the atoms are super heavy and so unstable that they exist for less than a thousandth of a second.
Element 113, for example, was created by using a linear accelerator to bombard a thin layer of bismuth with zinc ions travelling at about ten percent of the speed of light in hope that, in rare instances, the bismuth and zinc atoms would fuse to form a element. The resulting super-heavy atom of 113 would then decay and turn into other unstable radioactive isotopes, which would decay nearly as fast.
The result was that the scientists who created the new element had to spend years tracing back the event through a labyrinth of isotopic breakdowns to prove that they descended from the new element. Then, the JWP of the IUPAC had to review the literature to make sure no mistakes were made.
Now that the elements are confirmed, the discoverers can officially apply permanent names and symbols to them. The proposed names and two-letter symbols will be checked by the Inorganic Chemistry Division of IUPAC and then be subjected to a public review for five months to make sure they conform to the standards of consistency, translatability into other languages, and historic use. Typically, names have been derived from mythology, minerals, geography, or the name of a scientist.
One other interesting point about the new elements is that it opens the way to the search for an "island of stability." That is, a region beyond the current Periodic Table where new superheavy elements will become stable and exist long enough to allow for conventional chemistry experiments.
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The perfect liquid -- now even more perfect
January 17, 2012
Ultra hot quark-gluon-plasma, generated by heavy-ion collisions in particle accelerators, is supposed to be the "most perfect fluid" in the world. Previous theories imposed a limit on how "liquid" fluids can be. Recent results at the Vienna University of Technology suggest that this limit can be broken -- making the world's "most perfect fluid" even more perfect.
How liquid can a fluid be? This is a question particle physicists at the Vienna University of Technology have been working on. The "most perfect liquid" is nothing like water, but the extremely hot quark-gluon-plasma which is produced in heavy-ion collisions at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. New theoretical results at Vienna UT show that this quark-gluon plasma could be even less viscous than was deemed possible by previous theories. The results were published in Physical Review Letters and highlighted as an "editors' selection".
Highly viscous liquids (such as honey) are thick and have strong internal friction, quantum liquids, such as super fluid helium can exhibit extremely low viscosity. In 2004, theorists claimed that quantum theory provided a lower bound for viscosity of fluids. Applying methods from string theory, the lowest possible ratio of viscosity to the entropy density was predicted to be ħ/4π (with the Planck-constant ħ). Even super fluid helium is far above this threshold. In 2005, measurements showed that quark-gluon-plasma exhibits a viscosity just barely above this limit. However, this record for low viscosity can still be broken, claims Dominik Steineder from the Institute for Theoretical Physics at Vienna UT. He obtained this remarkable result working as a PhD-student with Professor Anton Rebhan.
http://phys.org/news/2012-01-liquid-.html#nRlv
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Linear particle accelerator
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_particle_acceleratorA linear particle accelerator (often shortened to linac) is a type of particle accelerator that greatly increases the kinetic energy of charged subatomic particles or ions by subjecting the charged particles to a series of oscillating electric potentials along a linear beamline; this method of particle acceleration was invented by Leó Szilárd. It was patented in 1928 by Rolf Widerøe, who also built the first operational device at the RWTH Aachen University in 1928, influenced by a publication of Gustav Ising.
Linacs have many applications: they generate X-rays and high energy electrons for medicinal purposes in radiation therapy, serve as particle injectors for higher-energy accelerators, and are used directly to achieve the highest kinetic energy for light particles (electrons and positrons) for particle physics.
The design of a linac depends on the type of particle that is being accelerated: electrons, protons or ions. Linacs range in size from a cathode ray tube (which is a type of linac) to the 3.2-kilometre-long (2.0 mi) linac at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, California.
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China to build a particle collider twice the size of the Large Hadron Collider
November 27, 2015China is planning to enter the Europe- and US-dominated world of experimental physics with (wait for it …) a bang. It has formally announced that it will begin the first phase of construction of an enormous particle accelerator around 2020, which will be twice the size and seven times more powerful than CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
http://www.gizmag.com/china-worlds-biggest-particle-collider/40526/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget
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Antimatter Propulsion Engine Redesigned Using CERN's Particle Physics Simulation Toolkit
Latest simulation shows that the magnetic nozzles required for antimatter propulsion could be vastly more efficient than previously thought–and built with today’s technologies
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/427923/antimatter-propulsion-engine-redesigned-using-cerns-particle-physics-simulation-toolkit/
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For more information on nuclear experiments with plasma accelerator technology, view chapter titled "Plasma technology."
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Chapter 3: Antimatter
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Antimatter
In particle physics, antimatter is material composed of antiparticles, which have the same mass as particles of ordinary matter but opposite charges, as well as other particle properties such as lepton and baryon numbers and quantum spin. Collisions between particles and antiparticles lead to the annihilation of both, giving rise to variable proportions of intense photons (gamma rays), neutrinos, and less massive particle–antiparticle pairs. The mass of any produced neutrinos is negligible, while they contain energy that generally continues to be unavailable after the release of particle–antiparticle annihilation. The total consequence of annihilation is a release of energy available for work, proportional to the total matter and antimatter mass, in accord with the mass–energy equivalence equation, E = mc2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimatter
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Air Force pursuing antimatter weapons / Program was touted publicly, then came official gag order
October 4, 2004
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Air-Force-pursuing-antimatter-weapons-Program-2689674.php
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Antimatter weapon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimatter_weapon
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The antimatter factory: inside the project that could power fusion and annihilation lasers
August 28, 2013
http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/28/4659834/unlocking-the-positron-fusion-annihilation-laser
Physicists have been chasing antimatter technology for more than 80 years now — driven by the promise of oppositely oriented particles that explode in a burst of energy whenever they make contact with their more common counterpart. If we could tame antimatter, those explosions could be used to power a new generation of technology, from molecular scanners to rocket engines to the so-called "annihilation laser," a tightly concentrated energy beam fueled by annihilating positrons. But while scientists have seen recent breakthroughs in creating the particles, they still have trouble capturing and containing them.
That progress has left us closer to workable antimatter than ever before, and parallel projects are already working on novel devices to cool and trap the particles, along with new magnetic arrays to keep them stable. With the right funding, experts estimate we could see the dawn of the positron age in as few as five years. Positron Dynamics is one key player in the new wave of technology, working on an innovative method for cooling down and capturing positrons, the antimatter equivalent of the common electron. Whenever a positron and an electron meet, they annihilate each other, which presents a serious challenge for anyone working with them. It’s particularly difficult because electrons are literally everywhere, floating in clouds around essentially every atom in the universe. Right now, the best solution for cooling the positrons is running them through a block of frozen neon (called a "moderator"), which offers a minimum of stray electrons. But the system only catches roughly one in 100 positrons, and in the 30 years it’s been in use, no one’s been able to improve on it.
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After 85-year search, massless particle with promise for next-generation electronics found
July 16, 2015
An international team led by Princeton University scientists has discovered Weyl fermions, an elusive massless particle theorized 85 years ago. The particle could give rise to faster and more efficient electronics because of its unusual ability to behave as matter and antimatter inside a crystal, according to new research.
The researchers report in the journal Science July 16 the first observation of Weyl fermions, which, if applied to next-generation electronics, could allow for a nearly free and efficient flow of electricity in electronics, and thus greater power, especially for computers, the researchers suggest.
Proposed by the mathematician and physicist Hermann Weyl in 1929, Weyl fermions have been long sought by scientists because they have been regarded as possible building blocks of other subatomic particles, and are even more basic than the ubiquitous, negative-charge carrying electron (when electrons are moving inside a crystal). Their basic nature means that Weyl fermions could provide a much more stable and efficient transport of particles than electrons, which are the principle particle behind modern electronics.
http://phys.org/news/2015-07-year-massless-particle-next-generation-electronics.html#jCp
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Antiproton Decelerator
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiproton_Decelerator#ATRAP
The Antiproton Decelerator (AD) is a storage ring at the CERN laboratory in Geneva. It was built as a successor to the Low Energy Antiproton Ring (LEAR) and started operation in the year 2000. The decelerated antiprotons are ejected to one of several connected experiments.
ATRAP
The ATRAP collaboration at CERN developed out of TRAP, a collaboration whose members pioneered cold antiprotons, cold positrons, and first made the ingredients of cold antihydrogen to interact. ATRAP members also pioneered accurate hydrogen spectroscopy and first observed hot antihydrogen atoms.
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'Anti-atomic fingerprint': Physicists manipulate anti-hydrogen atoms for the first time (Update)
Mar 07, 2012
http://phys.org/news/2012-03-anti-atomic-fingerprint-physicists-anti-hydrogen-atoms.html#jCp
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Space Station's Giant Antimatter Magnet Finds Abundance Of Mysterious Particles
April 3, 2013
The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer's first results could be evidence of dark matter.
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2013-04/antimatter-magnet-flying-space-station-finds-new-clues-pointing-dark-matter
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Warp Drive, When? Status of Antimatter
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/technology/warp/antistat.html
Antimatter is real stuff, not just science fiction. Antimatter is firmly in the realm of science with some aspects even entering the technology realm. There is also a lot of speculation about what one might do with antimatter.
What is Antimatter?
Antimatter is matter with its electrical charge reversed. Anti-electrons, called "positrons," are like an electron but with a positive charge. Antiprotons are like protons with a negative charge. Positron, antiprotons and other antiparticles can be routinely created at particle accelerator labs, such as CERN in Europe, and can even be trapped and stored for days or weeks at a time. And just last year, they made antihydrogen for the first time. It didn’t last long, but they did it. Also, Antimatter is NOT antigravity. Although it has not been experimentally confirmed, existing theory predicts that antimatter behaves the same to gravity as does normal matter.
Technology is now being explored to make antimatter carrying cases, to consider using antimatter for medical purposes, and to consider how to make antimatter rockets.
The catch?
Right now it would cost about One-Hundred-Billion dollars to create one milligram of antimatter. One milligram is way beyond what is needed for research purposes, but that amount would be needed for large scale applications. To be commercially viable, this price would have to drop by about a factor of Ten-Thousand.
And what about using antimatter for power generation? - not promising.
It costs far more energy to create antimatter than the energy one could get back from an antimatter reaction. Right now standard nuclear reactors, which take advantage of the decay of radioactive substances, are far more promising as power generating technology than antimatter. Something to keep in mind, too, is that antimatter reactions - where antimatter and normal matter collide and release energy, require the same safety precautions as needed with nuclear reactions.
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Left-handed cosmic magnetic field could explain missing antimatter
May 14, 2015
http://phys.org/news/2015-05-left-handed-cosmic-magnetic-field-antimatter.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu
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Chapter 4: Plasma energy
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New methods to make longer streams of plasma with greater longevity could lead to laser-powered lightning rods
September 24, 2015
( A picture of a femtosecond laser. The laser beam itself is invisible (800nm), but due to the formation of a plasma channel, the beam emits (visible) white light. )
Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod 250 years ago to protect people and buildings from lightning strikes. Someday, those metal poles may be replaced with lasers.
A team of researchers from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, have demonstrated new techniques that bring lasers as lighting rods closer to reality.
When a powerful laser beam shoots through the air, it ionizes the molecules, leaving a thin trail of hot, ionized particles in its wake. Because this stream of plasma conducts electricity, it could be used to channel away a potentially damaging lightning bolt.
The researchers found ways to make the length of such a plasma channel reach more than 10 times longer—a necessary advance for using the channel to redirect a lightning strike.
http://phys.org/news/2015-09-methods-longer-streams-plasma-greater.html#jCp
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Researchers build real-time tunable plasmon laser
4/24/2015
Traditionally, light can only ever be focused down to a point half the size of its frequency—aka the diffraction limit. Scientists have found a way around that limit, however, by building what are known as plasmon lasers, which are lasers that couple their beam with plasmons (oscillating surface electrons) on the surface of metals—gold for example, arranged in an array. But that approach has had its limitations as well, because it has had to rely on a solid bit of material called the gain—such lasers could not be tuned very easily, and not in real-time at all. In this new effort, the researchers report that they have found a way to use a liquid material as the gain, and because of that, are able to tune their laser in real time.
http://phys.org/news/2015-04-real-time-tunable-plasmon-laser.html#jCp
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Michio Kaku - Can you build a real Lightsaber ?
Mar 5, 2014
Dr. Michio Kaku attempts to build a real Lightsaber from the Star Wars universe using modern technology
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X marks the spot: Researchers confirm novel method for controlling plasma rotation
June 23rd, 2015http://phys.org/news/2015-06-method-plasma-rotation.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu
Rotation is key to the performance of salad spinners, toy tops, and centrifuges, but recent research suggests a way to harness rotation for the future of mankind's energy supply. In papers published in Physics of Plasmas in May and Physical Review Letters this month, Timothy Stoltzfus-Dueck, a physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), demonstrated a novel method that scientists can use to manipulate the intrinsic - or self-generated - rotation of hot, charged plasma gas within fusion facilities called tokamaks.
Such a method could prove important for future facilities like ITER, the huge international tokamak under construction in France that will demonstrate the feasibility of fusion as a source of energy for generating electricity. ITER's massive size will make it difficult for the facility to provide sufficient rotation through external means.
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Extending life of plasma channels could allow lasers to be used as lightning rods
September 25, 2015
http://www.gizmag.com/plasma-channels-laser-lightning-rods/39588/
Today's simple metal lightning rods may be on their way to
obsolescence. That's because scientists at The Hebrew University of
Jerusalem are developing a high-tech alternative that could potentially
reach higher and be more effective – laser lightning rods.
When a high-power laser is shot into the sky, it
ionizes airborne molecules in the process. As a result, even once the
laser itself is shut off, a trail of ionized particles known as a plasma
channel is left in its place. Plasma channels conduct electricity, not
unlike a good ol' steel rod.
Led by scientist Jenya Papeer, the Jerusalem team
successfully created plasma channels measuring 100 microns in diameter,
by firing a laser in pulses lasting just 100 femtoseconds each.
Unfortunately, however, after three nanoseconds the plasma cooled off
and the channels ceased to exist.
In order to boost those trails' longevity by a
factor of 10, the researchers added a second laser that is fired in
10-nanosecond bursts along the path of the first one. Its wider beam
envelopes the plasma created by the first beam, keeping it hot and
conductive. By boosting the power of that second laser, or even by
adding additional beams, it is hoped that the lifespan and the length of
the plasma channels could be lengthened further.
Speaking of which, though, the first plasma
channels to be produced were only a meter (3.3 ft) long. The researchers
addressed this limitation by creating an array of lenses that change
the way in which the laser is focused. As a result, it now creates a
series of three one-meter-long channels linked end-to-end, effectively
forming one 3-meter plasma channel.
That said, by further adjusting the focus and using
a powerful enough laser, it should be possible to produce any number of
linked plasma channels, creating a lightning rod of any desired length.
A paper on the research will be presented on Oct. 22nd at the Frontiers in Optics conference, in San Jose, California.
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The Air Force Exploration of Pulse-Train Plasmoid Guns
http://www.topsecretwriters.com/2012/07/the-air-force-exploration-of-pulse-train-plasmoid-guns/
In 1956, Winston Bostick discovered an entity consisting of plasma and magnetic field, which he named the Plasmoid(1).
Plasmoids have a series of cosmic implications and is used to explain various phenomenon, such as the magnetic plasma structures found in comet tails, solar wind, and solar atmosphere.
However, barely four years after the discovery of the Plasmoid, the U.S. government conducted research into the possibility of using Plasmoids as a weapon. TheBlackVault.com acquired a Defense Technical Information Center report through an FOIA request on the matter.
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Kilotesla Magnetic Field due to a Capacitor-Coil Target Driven by High Power Laser
- Published
http://www.nature.com/srep/2013/130130/srep01170/full/srep01170.html
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Seeding magnetic fields for laser-driven flux compression in high-energy-density plasmas.
2009 AprA compact, self-contained magnetic-seed-field generator (5 to 16 T) is the enabling technology for a novel laser-driven flux-compression scheme in laser-driven targets. A magnetized target is directly irradiated by a kilojoule or megajoule laser to compress the preseeded magnetic field to thousands of teslas. A fast (300 ns), 80 kA current pulse delivered by a portable pulsed-power system is discharged into a low-mass coil that surrounds the laser target. A >15 T target field has been demonstrated using a <100 J capacitor bank, a laser-triggered switch, and a low-impedance (<1 Omega) strip line. The device has been integrated into a series of magnetic-flux-compression experiments on the 60 beam, 30 kJ OMEGA laser [T. R. Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)]. The initial application is a novel magneto-inertial fusion approach [O. V. Gotchev et al., J. Fusion Energy 27, 25 (2008)] to inertial confinement fusion (ICF), where the amplified magnetic field can inhibit thermal conduction losses from the hot spot of a compressed target. This can lead to the ignition of massive shells imploded with low velocity-a way of reaching higher gains than is possible with conventional ICF.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19405657
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Amplifying Magnetic Fields in High Energy Density Plasmas
Ultra high intensity magnetic fields open new opportunities in high energy density plasma science.
October 2012
(A double coil is assembled on the transmission line of the magnetic field generator (MIFEDS) by Mr. PY Chang, PhD student at the University of Rochester. The MIFEDS device discharges 50 kA of current through the coil generating a ~10 Tesla magnetic field used to magnetize laser-driven targets.)
http://science.energy.gov/fes/highlights/2012/fes-2012-10-c/
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Skunk Works Reveals Compact Fusion Reactor Details
Oct 15, 2014
http://aviationweek.com/technology/skunk-works-reveals-compact-fusion-reactor-details
Lockheed Martin aims to develop compact reactor prototype in five years, production unit in 10
Hidden away in the secret depths of the Skunk Works, a Lockheed Martin research team has been working quietly on a nuclear energy concept they believe has the potential to meet, if not eventually decrease, the world’s insatiable demand for power.
Dubbed the compact fusion reactor (CFR), the device is conceptually safer, cleaner and more powerful than much larger, current nuclear systems that rely on fission, the process of splitting atoms to release energy. Crucially, by being “compact,” Lockheed believes its scalable concept will also be small and practical enough for applications ranging from interplanetary spacecraft and commercial ships to city power stations. It may even revive the concept of large, nuclear-powered aircraft that virtually never require refueling—ideas of which were largely abandoned more than 50 years ago because of the dangers and complexities involved with nuclear fission reactors. -
-To understand the breakthroughs of the Lockheed concept, it is useful to know how fusion works and how methods for controlling the reaction have a fundamental impact on both the amount of energy produced and the scale of the reactor. Fusion fuel, made up of hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium, starts as a gas injected into an evacuated containment vessel. Energy is added, usually by radio-frequency heating, and the gas breaks into ions and electrons, forming plasma.
The super hot plasma is controlled by strong magnetic fields that prevent it from touching the sides of the vessel and, if the confinement is sufficiently constrained, the ions overcome their mutual repulsion, collide and fuse. The process creates helium-4, freeing neutrons that carry the released energy kinetically through the confining magnetic fields. These neutrons heat the reactor wall which, through conventional heat exchangers, can then be used to drive turbine generators.
Until now, the majority of fusion reactor systems have used a plasma control device called a tokamak, invented in the 1950s by physicists in the Soviet Union. The tokamak uses a magnetic field to hold the plasma in the shape of a torus, or ring, and maintains the reaction by inducing a current inside the plasma itself with a second set of electromagnets. The challenge with this approach is that the resulting energy generated is almost the same as the amount required to maintain the self-sustaining fusion reaction.
An advanced fusion reactor version, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), being built in Cadarache, France, is expected to generate 500 MW. However, plasma is not due to be generated until the late 2020s, and derivatives are not likely to be producing significant power until at least the 2040s.
The problem with tokamaks is that “they can only hold so much plasma, and we call that the beta limit,” McGuire says. Measured as the ratio of plasma pressure to the magnetic pressure, the beta limit of the average tokamak is low, or about “5% or so of the confining pressure,” he says. Comparing the torus to a bicycle tire, McGuire adds, “if they put too much in, eventually their confining tire will fail and burst—so to operate safely, they don’t go too close to that.” Aside from this inefficiency, the physics of the tokamak dictate huge dimensions and massive cost. The ITER, for example, will cost an estimated $50 billion and when complete will measure around 100 ft. high and weigh 23,000 tons.
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Scientists in Germany switch on nuclear fusion experiment (Update)
February 3, 2016
Scientists in Germany flipped the switch Wednesday on an experiment they hope will advance the quest for nuclear fusion, considered a clean and safe form of nuclear power.
Following nine years of construction and testing, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald injected a tiny amount of hydrogen into a doughnut-shaped device—then zapped it with the equivalent of 6,000 microwave ovens.
The resulting super-hot gas, known as plasma, lasted just a fraction of a second before cooling down again, long enough for scientists to confidently declare the start of their experiment a success.
"Everything went well today," said Robert Wolf, a senior scientist involved with the project. "With a system as complex as this you have to make sure everything works perfectly and there's always a risk."
Among the difficulties is how to cool the complex arrangement of magnets required to keep the plasma floating inside the device, Wolf said. Scientists looked closely at the hiccups experienced during the start-up of the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland more than five years ago to avoid similar mistakes, he said.
The experiment in Greifswald is part of a world-wide effort to harness nuclear fusion, a process in which atoms join at extremely high temperatures and release large amounts of energy that's similar to what occurs inside the sun.
Advocates acknowledge that the technology is probably many decades away, but argue that—once achieved—it could replace fossil fuels and conventional nuclear fission reactors.
Construction has already begun in southern France on ITER, a huge international research reactor that uses a strong electric current to trap plasma inside a doughnut-shaped device long enough for fusion to take place. The device, known as a tokamak, was conceived by Soviet physicists in the 1950s and is considered fairly easy to build, but extremely difficult to operate.
The team in Greifswald, a port city on Germany's Baltic coast, is focused on a rival technology invented by the American physicist Lyman Spitzer in 1950. Called a stellarator, the device has the same doughnut shape as a tokamak but uses a complicated system of magnetic coils instead of a current to achieve the same result.
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GPS Moonshots: Creating a star on earth
December 22, 2014http://www.cnn.com/videos/bestoftv/2014/12/22/exp-gps-moonshots-iter-sot.cnn
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The problem with trying to create a synthetic star with ITER, is trying to harness the immense heat, given off by the artificial miniature star. Scientists want to use magnetic energy, in order to trap the heat, given off by the synthetic star. This has many scientists concerned. The same types of theories were used, in trying to create an artificial black hole, while attempting to trap the energy, with different types of magnetic energy.
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ITER
ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor and Latin for "the way") is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject, which is currently building the world's largest experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor adjacent to the Cadarache facility in the south of France. The ITER project aims to make the long-awaited transition from experimental studies of plasma physics to full-scale electricity-producing fusion power plants.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITER
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Hydrogen-Boron vs. Deuterium-Tritium
Nuclear fusion has the potential to generate power without the radioactive waste of nuclear fission, but that depends on which atoms you decide to fuse. Conventional fusion approaches work with deuterium and tritium (DT), while focus fusion works with hydrogen and boron eleven (pB11).http://focusfusion.org/index.php/site/article/deuterium_tritium_vs_hydrogen_boron/
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We can even harness energy from different chemicals and gases, that can be made for self-sustaining sources of renewable energy. Scientists still question the footprint, that may be left, when using of combination of different chemicals, for a source of energy.
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HOW IT WORKS: Fusion Power
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJZvFlo0iNs
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Small-scale nuclear fusion may be a new energy source
- September 25, 2015
Nuclear fusion is a process whereby atomic nuclei melt together and release energy. Because of the low binding energy of the tiny atomic nuclei, energy can be released by combining two small nuclei with a heavier one. A collaboration between researchers at the University of Gothenburg and the University of Iceland has been to study a new type of nuclear fusion process. This produces almost no neutrons but instead fast, heavy electrons (muons), since it is based on nuclear reactions in ultra-dense heavy hydrogen (deuterium).
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150925085550.htm
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Nuclear fusion, the ultimate clean energy
20th March, 2015http://theforeigner.no/pages/columns/nuclear-fusion-the-ultimate-clean-energy/
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Magnetic fields and lasers elicit graphene secret
Nov 24, 2014
Scientists at the
Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) have studied the dynamics of
electrons from the "wonder material" graphene in a magnetic field for
the first time. This led to the discovery of a seemingly paradoxical
phenomenon in the material. Its understanding could make a new type of
laser possible in the future. Together with researchers from Berlin,
France, the Czech Republic and the United States, the scientists
precisely described their observations in a model and have now published
their findings in the scientific journal Nature Physics.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-11-magnetic-fields-lasers-elicit-graphene.html#jCp
http://phys.org/news/2014-11-magnetic-fields-lasers-elicit-graphene.htmlRead more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-11-magnetic-fields-lasers-elicit-graphene.html#jCp
Graphene is considered a "wonder material": its breaking strength is higher than steel and it conducts electricity and heat more effectively than copper. As a two-dimensional structure consisting of only a single layer of carbon atoms, it is also flexible, nearly transparent and approximately one million times thinner than a sheet of paper. Furthermore, shortly after its discovery ten years ago, scientists recognized that the energy states of graphene in a magnetic field - known as Landau levels - behave differently than those of semiconductors. "Many fascinating effects have been discovered with graphene in magnetic fields, but the dynamics of electrons have never been studied in such a system until now," explains physicist Dr. Stephan Winnerl from HZDR.
The HZDR researchers exposed the graphene to a four-Tesla magnetic field - forty times stronger than a horseshoe magnet. As a result, the electrons in graphene occupy only certain energy states. The negatively charged particles were virtually forced on tracks. These energy levels were then examined with free-electron laser light pulses at the HZDR. "The laser pulse excites the electrons into a certain Landau level. A temporally delayed pulse then probes how the system evolves," explains Martin Mittendorff, doctoral candidate at the HZDR and first author of the paper.
Electron redistribution surprises scientists
The result of the experiments has astonished the researchers. This particular energy level, into which new electrons were pumped using the laser, gradually emptied. Winnerl illustrates this paradoxical effect using an everyday example: "Imagine a librarian sorting books on a bookshelf with three shelves. She places one book at a time from the lower shelf onto the middle shelf. Her son is simultaneously 'helping' by taking two books from the middle shelf, placing one of them on the top shelf, the other on the bottom. The son is very eager and now the number of books on the middle shelf decreases even though this is precisely the shelf his mother wishes to fill."
Because there were neither experiments nor theories regarding such dynamics before, the Dresden physicists initially had difficulty interpreting the signals correctly. After a number of attempts, however, they found an explanation: collisions between electrons cause this unusual rearrangement. "This effect has long been known as Auger scattering, but no one expected it would be so strong and would cause an energy level to become depleted," explains Winnerl.
This new discovery could be used in the future for developing a laser that can produce light with arbitrarily adjustable wavelengths in the infrared and terahertz ranges. "Such a Landau-level laser was long considered impossible, but now with graphene this semiconductor physicists' dream could become a reality," says Winnerl enthusiastically.
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Magnetized target fusion
Magnetized target fusion (MTF) is a relatively new approach to producing fusion power that combines features of magnetic confinement fusion (MCF) and inertial confinement fusion (ICF) approaches. Like the magnetic approach, the fusion fuel is confined at lower density by magnetic fields while it is heated into a plasma. Like the inertial approach, fusion is initiated by rapidly squeezing the target to greatly increase fuel density and temperature. Although the resulting density is far lower than in traditional ICF, it is thought that the combination of longer confinement times and better heat retention will let MTF yield the same efficiencies, yet be far easier to build. The term magneto-inertial fusion (MIF) is similar, but encompasses a wider variety of arrangements. The two terms are often applied interchangeably to experiments.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetized_target_fusion
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Levitated dipole
A levitated dipole is a nuclear fusion experiment using a solid superconducting torus which is magnetically levitated inside the reactor chamber. It is believed that such an apparatus could contain plasma more efficiently than other fusion reactor designs. The superconductor forms an axisymmetric magnetic field of a nature similar to Earth's or Jupiter's magnetospheres. The machine was run in a collaboration between MIT and Columbia University.
The Levitated Dipole Experiment was funded by the US Department of Energy's Office of Fusion Energy, but funding for the LDX was ended in November 2011 to concentrate resources on Tokamak designs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levitated_dipole
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With lazers, magnetism, vacuums and sustainable energy, it is possible to make many new inventions.
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Plasma propulsion engine
A plasma propulsion engine is a type of electric propulsion that generates thrust from a quasi-neutral plasma. This is in contrast to ion thruster engines, which generates thrust through extracting an ion current from plasma source, which is then accelerated to high velocities using grids/anodes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_propulsion_engine
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For more information on magnets for harvesting energy, view the chapter "Magnetic energy."
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Plasma research shows promise for future compact accelerators
December 22, 2015
"In our research, plasma uses the energy stored in its electromagnetic fields to self-organize itself in such a way to reduce the energy-spread of the laser-plasma ion accelerator," said Sasikumar Palaniyappan of Los Alamos National Laboratory's Plasma Physics group. "In the past, most of the attempts to solve this problem required active plasma control, which is difficult."
Laser-plasma accelerators shoot a high-energy laser into a cloud of plasma, releasing a beam of ions, or electrically charged particles, in a fraction of the distance required by conventional accelerators. The laser generates electromagnetic fields in the plasma.
Using a computer simulation called Vector-Particle-In-Cell (VPIC), the Laboratory's team of physicists and computational scientists developed a scheme that enlists the electromagnetic fields so the beam essentially contains itself, reducing the energy spread, making the beam more efficient, and concentrating more energy on its target.
http://phys.org/news/2015-12-plasma-future-compact.html
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Researchers identify zebra-like stripes of plasma in a patch of space
July 14, 2015
Since the early 1970s, orbiting satellites have picked up on noise-like plasma waves very close to the Earth's magnetic field equator. This "equatorial noise," as it was then named, seemed to be an unruly mess of electric and magnetic fields oscillating at different frequencies in the form of plasma waves.Now a team from MIT, the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Sheffield, and elsewhere has detected a remarkably orderly pattern amid the noise.
http://phys.org/news/2015-07-zebra-like-stripes-plasma-patch-space.html
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In plasmonics, 'optical losses' could bring practical gain
January 26, 2016
What researchers had thought of as a barrier to developing advanced technologies based on the emerging field of plasmonics is now seen as a potential pathway to practical applications in areas from cancer therapy to nanomanufacturing.
Plasmonic materials contain features, patterns or elements that enable unprecedented control of light by harnessing clouds of electrons called surface plasmons. It could allow the miniaturization of optical technologies, bringing advances such as nano-resolution imaging and computer chips that process and transmit data using light instead of electrons, representing a potential leap in performance.
However, the development of advanced optical technologies using plasmonics has been hampered because components under development cause too much light to be lost and converted into heat. But now researchers are finding that this "loss-induced plasmonic heating" could be key to development of various advanced technologies, said Vladimir M. Shalaev, co-director of the new Purdue Quantum Center, scientific director of nanophotonics at the Birck Nanotechnology Center in the university's Discovery Park and a distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering.
http://phys.org/news/2016-01-plasmonics-optical-losses-gain.html
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For more information on nuclear experiments, with particle accelerators, view Chapter : CERN
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Chapter 5: Cold fusion
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Cold fusion reactor verified by third-party researchers, seems to have 1 million times the energy density of gasoline
October 9, 2014
Andrea Rossi’s E-Cat — the device that purports to use cold fusion to generate massive amounts of cheap, green energy — has been verified by third-party researchers, according to a new 54-page report. The researchers observed a small E-Cat over 32 days, where it produced net energy of 1.5 megawatt-hours, or “far more than can be obtained from any known chemical sources in the small reactor volume.” The researchers were also allowed to analyze the fuel before and after the 32-day run, noting that the isotopes in the spent fuel could only have been obtained by “nuclear reactions” — a conclusion that boggles the researchers: “… It is of course very hard to comprehend how these fusion processes can take place in the fuel compound at low energies.”
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/191754-cold-fusion-reactor-verified-by-third-party-researchers-seems-to-have-1-million-times-the-energy-density-of-gasoline
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Focus Fusion: The Fastest Route to Cheap, Clean Energy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhKB-VxJWpg
8:00 - Goldman Sachs funding
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Nuclear Fission vs. Nuclear Fusion
http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/Physical_Chemistry/Nuclear_Chemistry/Fission_and_Fusion/Nuclear_Fission_vs_Nuclear_Fusion
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MIT Physicists Create Ultracold Molecules of 23Na40K
June 10, 2015
(MIT researchers have successfully cooled a gas of sodium potassium (NaK)
molecules to a temperature of 500 nanokelvin. In this artist’s
illustration, the NaK molecule is represented with frozen spheres of ice
merged together: the smaller sphere on the left represents a sodium
atom, and the larger sphere on the right is a potassium atom.)
http://scitechdaily.com/mit-physicists-create-ultracold-molecules-of-23na40k/
A team of physicists from MIT has successfully cooled molecules in a gas of sodium potassium (NaK) to a temperature of 500 nanokelvins, creating ultracold molecules.
The air around us is a chaotic superhighway of molecules whizzing through space and constantly colliding with each other at speeds of hundreds of miles per hour. Such erratic molecular behavior is normal at ambient temperatures.
But scientists have long suspected that if temperatures were to plunge to near absolute zero, molecules would come to a screeching halt, ceasing their individual chaotic motion and behaving as one collective body. This more orderly molecular behavior would begin to form very strange, exotic states of matter — states that have never been observed in the physical world.
Now experimental physicists at MIT have successfully cooled molecules in a gas of sodium potassium (NaK) to a temperature of 500 nanokelvins — just a hair above absolute zero, and over a million times colder than interstellar space. The researchers found that the ultracold molecules were relatively long-lived and stable, resisting reactive collisions with other molecules. The molecules also exhibited very strong dipole moments — strong imbalances in electric charge within molecules that mediate magnet-like forces between molecules over large distances.
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Cold Atom Laboratory Chills Atoms to New Lows
September 26, 2014
(Artist's concept of an atom chip for use by NASA's Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL) aboard the International Space Station. CAL will use lasers to cool atoms to ultracold temperatures.Image Credit: NASA)
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4312
Cold Atom Laboratory
researchers used lasers to optically cool rubidium atoms to temperatures
almost a million times colder than that of the depths of space. The
atoms were then magnetically trapped, and radio waves were used to cool
the atoms 100 times lower. The radiofrequency radiation acts like a
knife, slicing away the hottest atoms from the trap so that only the
coldest remain.
The research is at the point where this process can reliably create a Bose-Einstein condensate in just seconds.
"This
was a tremendous accomplishment for the CAL team. It confirms the
fidelity of the instrument system design and provides us a facility to
perform science and hardware verifications before we get to the space
station," said CAL Project Manager Anita Sengupta of JPL.
While
so far, the Cold Atom Laboratory researchers have created Bose-Einstein
condensates with rubidium atoms, eventually they will also add in
potassium. The behavior of two condensates mixing together will be
fascinating for physicists to observe, especially in space.
Besides
merely creating Bose-Einstein condensates, CAL provides a suite of
tools to manipulate and probe these quantum gases in a variety of ways.
It has a unique role as a facility for the atomic, molecular and optical
physics community to study cold atomic physics in microgravity, said
David Aveline of JPL, CAL ground testbed lead.
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Chapter 6: Dark Energy
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-
Dark energy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy
In physical cosmology and astronomy, dark energy is an unknown form of energy which is hypothesized to permeate all of space, tending to accelerate the expansion of the universe. Dark energy is the most accepted hypothesis to explain the observations since the 1990s indicating that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. Assuming that the standard model of cosmology is correct, the best current measurements indicate that dark energy contributes 68.3% of the total energy in the observable universe; the mass-energy of dark matter and ordinary matter contribute 26.8% and 4.9%, respectively; and other components such as neutrinos and photons contribute a very small amount. Again on a mass–energy equivalence basis, the density of dark energy (6.91 × 10−27 kg/m3) is very low, much less than the density of ordinary matter or dark matter within galaxies. However, it comes to dominate the mass–energy of the universe because it is uniform across space.
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Science Documentary - DARK MATTER / DARK ENERGY Full Universe documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7YCW8rfUDw
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A dark matter bridge in our cosmic neighborhood
July 14, 2015
http://phys.org/news/2015-07-dark-bridge-cosmic-neighborhood.html#jCp
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Dark matter may not be completely dark at all
April 15, 2015
New studies by astronomers are slowly throwing some light on dark matter, the invisible and mysterious stuff that scientists believe makes up much of the universe. For the first time, astronomers believe they've observed the interactions of dark matter via a factor other than the force of gravity.
Dark matter's gravitational interactions with the parts of the universe that we can actually see are the only reason that we know it exists at all. Weirdly, it has seemed until now that dark matter has no other known interactions with anything in the universe, including itself. A recent study seemed to back up the notion that bits of dark matter appear to just drift through space, and not even interact with each other.
However, new observations of the simultaneous collision of four galaxies in the galaxy cluster Abell 3827 – using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile and a technique called "gravitational lensing" – seemed to show a "clump" of dark matter around one of the galaxies, lagging a bit behind that galaxy.
This sort of lollygagging is something that scientists have predicted might be observable during collisions if dark matter were to interact with itself through some force other than gravity, even slightly.
"We used to think that dark matter just sits around, minding its own business, except for its gravitational pull," said Richard Massey at Durham University, lead author of a paper on the study. "But if dark matter were being slowed down during this collision, it could be the first evidence for rich physics in the dark sector – the hidden Universe all around us."
http://www.gizmag.com/dark-matter-not-completely-dark/37013/
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New model suggests dark matter is made of electrically charged particles
September 27, 2015
http://www.gizmag.com/stealth-dark-matter/39577/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget
Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) believe that dark matter may be composed of electrically charged particles that are bound by a yet-unknown force and have somehow managed to escape detection. The theory could be verified with the help of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) particle accelerator.
Dark matter makes up over 80 percent of the mass in our universe, but we know little about its nature. Astrophysicists know it must exist from its gravitational effects on large clusters of galaxies, but they have been unable to spot it because this elusive substance interacts weakly with both ordinary matter and itself. In fact, so little is known about dark matter that scientists are still speculating as to what it's even made of.
Through a combination of computer simulations and theoretical results, researchers Pavlos Vranas and colleagues have now developed a "stealth dark matter" model that could help unravel the mystery of why dark matter behaves like it does, what particles make it up, and what force binds them. Crucially, the model offers assumptions that physicists should be able to test using CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) particle accelerator.
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Dark matter hiding in stars may cause observable oscillations
September 18, 2015
http://phys.org/news/2015-09-dark-stars-oscillations.html#jCp
(Phys.org)—Dark matter has never been seen directly, but scientists know that something massive is out there due to its gravitational effects on visible matter. One explanation for how such a large amount of mass appears to be right in front of our eyes yet completely invisible by conventional means is that the dark matter is hiding in the centers of stars.
In a new study, physicists have investigated the possibility that large amounts of hidden mass inside stars might be composed of extremely lightweight hypothetical particles called axions, which are a primary dark matter candidate. The scientists, Richard Brito at the University of Lisbon in Portugal; Vitor Cardoso at the University of Lisbon and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; and Hirotada Okawa at Kyoto University and Waseda University, both in Japan, have published their paper on dark matter in stars in a recent issue of Physical Review Letters.
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Milky Way's black hole shows signs of increased chatter
September 23, 2015
Three orbiting X-ray space telescopes have detected an increased rate of X-ray flares from the usually quiet giant black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy after new long-term monitoring. Scientists are trying to learn whether this is normal behavior that was unnoticed due to limited monitoring, or these flares are triggered by the recent close passage of a mysterious, dusty object.
http://phys.org/news/2015-09-milky-black-hole-chatter.html#jCp
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Scalar field dark matter
The universe may be accelerating, fueled perhaps by a cosmological constant or some other field possessing long range ‘repulsive’ effects. A model must predict the correct form for the large scale clustering spectrum, account for cosmic microwave background anisotropies on large and intermediate angular scales, and provide agreement with the luminosity distance relation obtained from observations of high redshift supernovae. The modeled evolution of the Universe includes a large amount of unknown matter in order to agree with such observations. This matter has two components cold dark matter and dark energy. Each contributes to the theory of the origination of galaxies and the expansion of the Universe. The Universe must have a critical density, a density not explained by baryonic matter (ordinary matter) alone.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalar_field_dark_matter
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PHYSICS
Neutrinos understood
Neutrinos—ghostly particles—change identity as they move through space. The three types or flavour of neutrinos—electron, muon and tau—morph into each other through a phenomenon called oscillation. Just like white light composed of red, green and blue shifts its tint as the proportions of each colour change, the type of a neutrino changes as their masses oscillate. Two of these oscillations have been quantified. Now, researchers have characterised the third one. The measurement makes possible new experiments that may help explain why the present universe is filled mostly with matter, and not equal parts of matter and antimatter as postulated by the Big Bang theory.
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/science-and-technology-briefs-27
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Lambda-CDM model
The ΛCDM (Lambda cold dark matter) or Lambda-CDM model is a parametrization of the Big Bang cosmological model in which the Universe contains a cosmological constant, denoted by Lambda (Greek Λ), associated with dark energy, and cold dark matter (abbreviated CDM). It is frequently referred to as the standard model of Big Bang cosmology, since it is the simplest model that provides a reasonably good account of the following properties of the cosmos:- the existence and structure of the cosmic microwave background
- the large-scale structure in the distribution of galaxies
- the abundances of hydrogen (including deuterium), helium, and lithium
- the accelerating expansion of the universe observed in the light from distant galaxies and supernovae
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambda-CDM_model
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NASA simulation suggests black holes may make ideal dark matter labs
Jun 23, 2015
(The image layers multiple frames from the visualization to increase the number of dark matter particles. The particles are shown as gray spheres attached to shaded trails representing their motion. Redder trails indicate particles more strongly affected by the black hole's gravitation and closer to its event horizon (black sphere at center, mostly hidden by trails). The ergosphere, where all matter and light must follow the black hole's spin, is shown in teal. Credit: NASA Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio)
The image layers multiple frames from the visualization to increase the number of dark matter particles. The particles are shown as gray spheres attached to shaded trails representing their motion. Redder trails indicate particles more strongly affected by the black hole's gravitation and closer to its event horizon (black sphere at center, mostly hidden by trails). The ergosphere, where all matter and light must follow the black hole's spin, is shown in teal. Credit: NASA Goddard Scientific Visualization StudioA new NASA computer simulation shows that dark matter particles colliding in the extreme gravity of a black hole can produce strong, potentially observable gamma-ray light. Detecting this emission would provide astronomers with a new tool for understanding both black holes and the nature of dark matter, an elusive substance accounting for most of the mass of the universe that neither reflects, absorbs nor emits light.
http://phys.org/news/2015-06-nasa-simulation-black-holes-ideal.html
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From MACHOs to WIMPs—meet the top five candidates for 'dark matter'
December 15, 2015
When we look out at the universe – even with the most powerful of telescopes – we can only see a fraction of the matter we know must be there. In fact, for every gram's worth of atoms in the universe, there is at least five times more invisible material called "dark matter". So far scientists have failed to detect it, despite spending decades searching.
The reason we know it exists is because of the gravitational pull of galaxy clusters and other phenomena we observe. The matter we can see in a cluster isn't enough to hold it together by gravity alone, meaning some additional invisible or obscure matter must be present. But we have no idea what it is – it could be made up of new, yet undiscovered particles.
There are four fundamental forces that a dark matter particle could interact with. There is the strong force that binds together the atomic nucleus; the weak force which governs the decay of particles such as radioactivity; an electromagnetic force that mediates the force between charged particles; and the gravitational force which governs gravitational interaction. To observe matter in space we need it to interact via the electromagnetic force, as this involves the release of light or other electromagnetic radiation that a telescope can register.
http://phys.org/news/2015-12-machos-wimpsmeet-candidates-dark.html
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The XENON Dark Matter Project
The XENON100 experiment has recently released results from the last run (2011-2012). These data were acquired over 224.6 days within a fiducial volume containing 34 kg of liquid xenon and with an ultra low electromagnetic background. After unblinding the region of interest, two events were observed, consistent with the total background expectation of (1.0 ± 0.2) events.
A Profile Likelihood analysis of these data leads to the upper limit on the spin independent elastic WIMP-nucleon scattering cross section ( σSI), with a minimum of 2x 10-45 cm2 at 55 GeV/c2 and 90% confidence level,
which are shown in the picture on the left, and
corresponds to the present best experimental upper limit set on σSI.
For comparison, the results from a selection of other experiments are also shown along with the most likely parameter space for a positive detection as predicted by the Constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Extension of the Standard Model (cMSSM) and in accordance with the latests results from the LHC. The most recent status of XENON100 can be found in Presentations.
http://xenon.astro.columbia.edu/XENON100_Experiment/
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National Geographic Documentary - Mysteries Of The Black Hole - The Planet Eater [Documentary 2015] -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBQj4OvskZ8
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New law implies thermodynamic time runs backwards inside black holes
September 3, 2015
http://phys.org/news/2015-09-law-implies-thermodynamic-black-holes.html-----------
National Geographic Documentary 2015 || Is There an Edge to the Universe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM8XNhr0ap8----------
For more information on dark energy, view the chapter "Antimatter."
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Inexplicable signal provides tantalising clue about dark matter
October 16, 2014
Space scientists at the University of Leicester have detected a curious signal in the X-ray sky – one that provides a tantalising insight into the nature of mysterious Dark Matter.
The Leicester team has found what appears to be a signature of 'axions', predicted 'Dark Matter' particle candidates – something that has been a puzzle to science for years.
In a study being published on Monday 20 October in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the University of Leicester scientists describe their finding of a signal which has no conventional explanation.
As first author Professor George Fraser, who sadly died in March of this year, wrote: "The direct detection of dark matter has preoccupied physics for over thirty years." Dark Matter, a kind of invisible mass of unknown origin, cannot be seen directly with telescopes, but is instead inferred from its gravitational effects on ordinary matter and on light. Dark Matter is believed to make up 85% of the matter of the Universe.
"The X-ray background - the sky, after the bright X-ray sources are removed - appears to be unchanged whenever you look at it," explained Dr. Andy Read, also from the University of Leicester Department of Physics and Astronomy and now leading the paper. "However, we have discovered a seasonal signal in this X-ray background, which has no conventional explanation, but is consistent with the discovery of axions."
This result was found through an extensive study of almost the entire archive of data from the European Space Agency's X-ray observatory, XMM-Newton, which will celebrate its 15th year in orbit this December. Previous searches for axions, notably at CERN, and with other spacecraft in Earth orbit, have so far proved unsuccessful.
As Professor Fraser explains in the paper: "It appears plausible that axions – Dark Matter particle candidates - are indeed produced in the core of the Sun and do indeed convert to X-rays in the magnetic field of the Earth." It is predicted that the X-ray signal due to axions will be greatest when looking through the sunward side of the magnetic field because this is where the field is strongest.
Dr. Read concludes: "These exciting discoveries, in George's final paper, could be truly ground-breaking, potentially opening a window to new physics, and could have huge implications, not only for our understanding of the true X-ray sky, but also for identifying the Dark Matter that dominates the mass content of the cosmos."
President of the Royal Astronomical Society Professor Martin Barstow, who is Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Head of the College of Science & Engineering and Professor of Astrophysics & Space Science at the University of Leicester said: "This is an amazing result. If confirmed, it will be first direct detection and identification of the elusive dark matter particles and will have a fundamental impact on our theories of the Universe."
http://phys.org/news/2014-10-inexplicable-tantalising-clue-dark.html#jCp
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Dark 'noodles' may lurk in the Milky Way
January 21, 2016
http://phys.org/news/2016-01-dark-noodles-lurk-milky.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu
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Study finds possible alternative explanation for dark energy
December 30, 2014
http://phys.org/news/2014-12-alternative-explanation-dark-energy.html-------------------
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----------------
Chapter 7: Batteries & energy storage
----------------
----------------
---------------------
The following chapter will detail some of the new technology that has been introduced in battery technology, including energy storage.
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Wood nanobattery could be green option for large-scale energy storage
July 6, 2013
(A closeup of the wood fibers used by the researchers in their sodium-ion battery (Image: University of Maryland)
Li-ion batteries may be ok for your smartphone, but when it comes to large-scale energy storage, the priorities suddenly shift from compactness and cycling performance (at which Li-ion batteries excel) to low cost and environmental feasibility (in which Li-ion batteries still have much room for improvement). A new "wood battery" could allow the emerging sodium-ion battery technology to fit the bill as a long-lasting, efficient and environmentally friendly battery for large-scale energy storage.
http://www.gizmag.com/wood-battery-energy-storage/28032/
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Trees are source for high-capacity, soft batteries
Jun 01, 2015
( A closeup of the soft battery, created with wood pulp nanocellulose.)
A method for making elastic high-capacity batteries from wood pulp was unveiled by researchers in Sweden and the US. Using nanocellulose broken down from tree fibres, a team from KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Stanford University produced an elastic, foam-like battery material that can withstand shock and stress.
"It is possible to make incredible materials from trees and cellulose," says Max Hamedi, who is a researcher at KTH and Harvard University. One benefit of the new wood-based aerogel material is that it can be used for three-dimensional structures.
"There are limits to how thin a battery can be, but that becomes less relevant in 3D, " Hamedi says. "We are no longer restricted to two dimensions. We can build in three dimensions, enabling us to fit more electronics in a smaller space."
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Biodegradable computer chips made almost entirely from wood
May 28, 2015
http://www.gizmag.com/biodegradable-wooden-computer-chips/37755/
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You'll never be-leaf what makes up this battery
January 28, 2016
http://phys.org/news/2016-01-youll-be-leaf-battery.html
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Making batteries with portabella mushrooms
Porous structure of portabella mushrooms is key to making efficient batteries that could power cell phones, electric vehicles
Can portabella mushrooms stop cell phone batteries from degrading over time? Researchers think so. They have created a new type of lithium-ion battery anode using portabella mushrooms, which are inexpensive, environmentally friendly and easy to produce.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150929142522.htm
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MIT’s photonic crystals lead towards nuclear batteries everywhere
February 3, 2012
Researchers at MIT have developed photonic crystals that, in as little as two years, could enable the use of hydrocarbon reactors in portable electronic devices, and nuclear power sources everywhere else.
Photonic crystals are optical nanostructures that are tuned to specific wavelengths of light. If you understand how semiconductors affect the motion of electrons (i.e. the bandgap only allows electrons with a certain energy level to pass through), photonic crystals are the optical equivalent. In this case, MIT has created infrared-absorbing photonic crystals using metals such as tungsten and titanium. Because of their metallic roots, these photonic crystals can operate at temperatures up to 1200C (2192F).
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/116853-mits-photonic-crystals-lead-towards-a-nuclear-reactor-in-every-gadget
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Tin nanocrystals for the battery of the future
Published:
08.04.13
(Monodisperse tin nanodroplets in an electron microscopic image.)
More powerful batteries could help electric cars achieve a considerably larger range and thus a breakthrough on the market. A new nanomaterial for lithium ion batteries developed in the labs of chemists at ETH Zurich and Empa could come into play here.
http://www.ethlife.ethz.ch/archive_articles/130408_li_ionen_fb/index_EN
--------------
New "Spin Battery" Storing Energy into Nano-Magnets
http://www.greenoptimistic.com/2009/03/12/spin-battery-magnetic-energy-storage/#.UmNYqRDNkmw
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Graphene Charges Atmosphere with Battery Running on Thin Air
December 20, 2014http://www.greenoptimistic.com/graphene-charges-atmosphere-battery-running-thin-air-20141220/#.VSFkGeG-2zk
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‘Power Paper’ – Story Of A Paper That Can Store Electricity
December 12, 2015Power Paper, created by the researchers of Sweden’s Linköping University, is showing an outstanding ability in storing energy, which can later be used to recharge devices.
http://www.greenoptimistic.com/power-paper-store-electricity/
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From allergens to anodes: Pollen derived battery electrodes
February 5, 2016
Pollens, the bane of allergy sufferers, could represent a boon for battery makers: Recent research has suggested their potential use as anodes in lithium-ion batteries."Our findings have demonstrated that renewable pollens could produce carbon architectures for anode applications in energy storage devices," said Vilas Pol, an associate professor in the School of Chemical Engineering and the School of Materials Engineering at Purdue University.
Batteries have two electrodes, called an anode and a cathode. The anodes in most of today's lithium-ion batteries are made of graphite. Lithium ions are contained in a liquid called an electrolyte, and these ions are stored in the anode during recharging.
The researchers tested bee pollen- and cattail pollen-derived carbons as anodes.
"Both are abundantly available," said Pol, who worked with doctoral student Jialiang Tang. "The bottom line here is we want to learn something from nature that could be useful in creating better batteries with renewable feedstock."
Research findings are detailed in a paper that appeared on Feb. 5 in Nature's Scientific Reports.
Whereas bee pollen is a mixture of different pollen types collected by honey bees, the cattail pollens all have the same shape.
"I started looking into pollens when my mom told me she had developed pollen allergy symptoms about two years ago," Tang said. "I was fascinated by the beauty and diversity of pollen microstructures. But the idea of using them as battery anodes did not really kick in until I started working on battery research and learned more about carbonization of biomass."
The researchers processed the pollen under high temperatures in a chamber containing argon gas using a procedure called pyrolysis, yielding pure carbon in the original shape of the pollen particles. They were further processed, or "activated," by heating at lower temperature - about 300 degrees Celsius - in the presence of oxygen, forming pores in the carbon structures to increase their energy-storage capacity.
http://phys.org/news/2016-02-allergens-anodes-pollen-derived-battery.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu
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New alloy claimed to have higher strength-to-weight ratio than any other metal
December 11, 2014When it comes to metal that's being used in the automotive or aerospace industries, the higher its strength-to-weight ratio, the better. With that in mind, researchers from North Carolina State University and Qatar University have developed a new alloy that reportedly has a low density similar to that of aluminum, but that's stronger than titanium.
The material is a type of high-entropy alloy, meaning that it's made up of at least five metals in more or less equal amounts. In this case, those metals are lithium, magnesium, titanium, aluminum and scandium.
"It has a combination of high strength and low density that is, as far as we can tell, unmatched by any other metallic material," said NCSU's Dr. Carl Koch, senior author of a paper on the research. "The strength-to-weight ratio is comparable to some ceramics, but we think it’s tougher – less brittle – than ceramics."
He additionally informed us that while carbon fiber very likely has a higher strength-to-weight ratio than the alloy, it also wouldn't be as tough – in other words, the alloy would be more likely to bend under an amount of stress that would cause the carbon to fracture.
More work still has to be done in the testing of the alloy, along with establishing a practical production method. Koch and his colleagues are also looking into replacing or eliminating the scandium that makes up 20 percent of the material, as it's very expensive.
http://www.gizmag.com/high-entropy-alloy-strength-to-weight/35170/
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Graphene-Boron Compound Could Revolutionize Lithium-Ion Battery Capacity
May 28, 2013
http://www.greenoptimistic.com/graphene-boron-compound-could-revolutionize-lithium-ion-battery-capacity-20130528/#.VSFr-eG-2zk
Researchers have touted graphene as a
game-changing material that could boost the power and energy capacity of
a lithium-ion battery.
Graphene,
a film of carbon atoms just one atom thick, is an excellent conductor
of electricity. In a battery, the massive surface area of such carbon
sheets could be a boon to increasing the power capacity of a lithium-ion battery. The only problem is lithium ions won’t bond with graphene, which makes it practically useless in a battery.While pure graphene didn’t seem to be a good option, researchers turned to imperfect graphene, that is, carbon mixed with other elements. Testing with boron, researchers at Rice University found the material to be about twice that of the standard graphite currently used in lithium-ion batteries. The new material is also more stable and doesn’t expand and contract as much as graphite alone.
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CALMAC Stores Surplus Wind Energy in Ice Banks
November 25, 2009
http://www.greenoptimistic.com/calmac-stores-surplus-wind-energy-in-ice-banks-20091125/#.VSF_W-G-2zk
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Utah-Based Company Digging Underground Compressed Air Batteries
February 9, 2010http://www.greenoptimistic.com/utah-underground-energy-storage-20100209/#.VSHcl-G-2zk
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An All-Liquid Battery For Storing Solar And Wind Energy
(This room-temperature liquid battery was made with mercury, salt water, and steel foam. High temperature liquid batteries could one day efficiently store solar and wind energy.)
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Liquified Air Could Be Cheaper Energy Storage Than Batteries
May 20, 2013
The idea is a couple of hundred years old, but liquified air technology was just too inefficient to store energy.
http://www.greenoptimistic.com/liquified-air-could-be-cheaper-energy-storage-than-batteries-20130520/
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Scientists convert harmful algal blooms into high-performance battery electrodes
October 9, 2015Last August, the seasonal harmful algal blooms (HABs) in Lake Erie grew so extreme that they poisoned the water system in Toledo, Ohio, leaving nearly half a million residents without drinking water. But a few researchers at the time collected some of the toxic HABs, and have now shown that, by heating them at temperatures of 700-1000 °C in argon gas, the HABs can be converted into a material called "hard carbon" that can be used as high-capacity, low-cost electrodes for sodium-ion (Na-ion) batteries.
http://techxplore.com/news/2015-10-scientists-algal-blooms-high-performance-battery.html
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Semiliquid battery competitive with both Li-ion batteries and supercapacitors
May 22, 2015
http://phys.org/news/2015-05-semiliquid-battery-competitive-li-ion-batteries.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu
(Phys.org)—A new semiliquid battery developed by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin has exhibited encouraging early results, encompassing many of the features desired in a state-of-the-art energy-storage device. In particular, the new battery has a working voltage similar to that of a lithium-ion battery, a power density comparable to that of a supercapacitor, and it can maintain its good performance even when being charged and discharged at very high rates.The researchers, led by Assistant Professor Guihua Yu, along with Yu Ding and Yu Zhao, at UT Austin, have published their paper on the new membrane-free, semiliquid battery in a recent issue of Nano Letters. The researchers explain that the battery is considered "semiliquid" because it uses a liquid ferrocene electrolyte, a liquid cathode, and a solid lithium anode.
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Flexible and Safe Aluminum-Graphite Battery Charges in One Minute
April 8, 2015http://www.greenoptimistic.com/aluminum-graphite-battery/#.VSX0dZO-2zk
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"Origami battery" made from paper and dirty water for just a few cents
By Eric Mack
June 13, 2015
June 13, 2015
A foldable, inexpensive paper battery that can generate a small amount of electricity brings a new sense of power to origami, the Japanese art of paper folding. An engineer at Binghamton University in New York has developed a battery that creates power through the process of microbial respiration in a drop of dirty water on paper.
http://www.gizmag.com/origami-battery-bacteria/37970/
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Nano-mechanical study offers new assessment of silicon for next-gen batteries
September 24, 2015
A detailed nano-mechanical study of mechanical degradation processes in silicon structures containing varying levels of lithium ions offers good news for researchers attempting to develop reliable next-generation rechargeable batteries using silicon-based electrodes.
http://phys.org/news/2015-09-nano-mechanical-silicon-next-gen-batteries.html#jCp
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Clay sheets stack to form proton conductors
July 13, 2015
http://phys.org/news/2015-07-clay-sheets-stack-proton-conductors.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu
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Williams demonstrates sodium-ion-powered proof-of-concept e-bike
May 15, 2015
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Chemists discover key reaction mechanism behind the highly touted sodium-oxygen battery
May 27, 2015
http://phys.org/news/2015-05-chemists-key-reaction-mechanism-highly.html#jCp
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Candle soot could reduce lithium ion battery production costs
October 15, 2015A new study suggests that the carbon-based waste material given off by burning candles could be suitable for use in larger, more powerful lithium ion batteries such as those used in electric cars. Two researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology found that as an anode material, candle soot compares favorably to existing commercial options because of its low cost of production and fractal-like nanoparticle structure.
http://www.gizmag.com/candle-soot-lithium-ion-battery/39881/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget
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High-voltage lithium-ion battery realized with superconcentrated electrolyte
July 26, 2016https://techxplore.com/news/2016-07-high-voltage-lithium-ion-battery-superconcentrated-electrolyte.html
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New lithium-oxygen battery greatly improves energy efficiency, longevity
July 25, 2016
http://phys.org/news/2016-07-lithium-oxygen-battery-greatly-energy-efficiency.html---------
Sulfur-based polymers open door to a new class of battery
April 19, 2013http://www.gizmag.com/sulfur-polymer-batteries/27117/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget
Whether sulfur is a by-product or a waste product of oil refinement and coal combustion depends on how you slice it. Certainly, much of that sulfur can be put to use producing sulfuric acid, fertilizer and other chemicals, but some is left to accumulate on stockpiles which are expensive to maintain (due to the need to neutralize acidic run-off). Researchers at the University of Arizona think more of that sulfur could one day be put to use thanks to a new chemical process that uses sulfur to make polymers. The new material could lead to a new generation of lighter, more efficient lithium-sulfur batteries, the researchers claim.
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CaO makes the graphene hierarchy for high-power lithium-sulfur batteries
January 26, 2016
http://phys.org/news/2016-01-cao-graphene-hierarchy-high-power-lithium-sulfur.html
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New battery made of molten metals may offer low-cost, long-lasting storage for the grid
January 13, 2016
As their first combination, Sadoway and Bradwell chose magnesium for the top electrode, antimony for the bottom electrode, and a salt mixture containing magnesium chloride for the electrolyte. They then built prototypes of their cell—and they worked. The three liquid components self-segregated, and the battery performed as they had predicted. Spurred by their success, in 2010 they, along with Luis Ortiz SB '96, PhD '00, also a former member of Sadoway's research group, founded a company—called initially the Liquid Metal Battery Corporation and later Ambri—to continue developing and scaling up the novel technology.
http://phys.org/news/2016-01-battery-molten-metals-low-cost-long-lasting.html
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Zinc–air battery
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc%E2%80%93air_battery
-----------------------------
New Battery Boasts 7 Times More Energy Density
July 30th, 2014
http://cleantechnica.com/2014/07/30/new-battery-boasts-7-times-energy-density/
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High-Energy Batteries Coming to Market
Oct, 2009
Rechargeable zinc-air batteries can store three times the energy of a lithium-ion battery.
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/416020/high-energy-batteries-coming-to-market/
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Ein-Eli's New Battery Could Power a Laptop for Hundreds of Hours
December 1, 2009
An Israeli research team conducted by Prof. Yair Ein-Eli at the Technion – Israel Institute of Science, has recently developed a new battery that is able to produce thousands of hours of charge from an abundant and non-polluting fuel source.
This new portable battery could replace the batteries used in hearing aids, due to its reduced dimensions (measuring about less than a third of an inch). According to the researchers, in the near future it can replace laptop batteries as we known them, allowing them to run for hundreds of hours on a single charge. The small devices could benefit of this technology within a couple of years. “This would take about 10 years more and be revolutionary,” said Ein-Eli.
The current prototypes of the battery have a silicon power source that reverts back to their original form as sand. “In the paper, we showed that at 600 hours it had used only 10 percent of the energy. So we are talking about 6,000 hours,” says the professor.
http://www.greenoptimistic.com/ein-elis-new-battery-could-power-a-laptop-for-hundreds-of-hours-20091201/#.VSF4ceG-2zk
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Commercially-available NanoTritium battery can power microelectronics for 20+ years
August 15, 2012
When installing micro-electronic devices in locations that are expensive or hard to reach, or just downright dangerous, you don't want to have to keep returning to swap out a battery cell. City Labs has announced the commercial launch of its NanoTritium betavoltaic power source, a thumb-sized battery that draws on the energy released from its radioactive element to provide continuous nanoWatt power for over 20 years.
http://www.gizmag.com/city-labs-nanotritium-betavoltaic-battery/23720/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget
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New X-Ray microscopy technique reveals nanoscale secrets of rechargeable batteries
August 4, 2016
http://phys.org/news/2016-08-team-reveals-nanoscale-secrets-rechargeable.html
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New design points a path to the 'ultimate' battery
October 29, 2015
http://phys.org/news/2015-10-path-ultimate-battery.html
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Silicon Nanowire Battery Has Three Times More Capacity, Charges Faster
http://www.greenoptimistic.com/silicon-nanowire-battery-capacity-20130216/#.VSFr9OG-2zk
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Newly Discovered TiO2-Coated Nanotubes Could Build Better Li-Ion Battery Electrodes
February 2, 2010
http://www.greenoptimistic.com/titanium-dioxide-coated-nanotube-electrode-20100202/#.VSFcYuG-2zk
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Lithium-ion batteries inspired by snail shells could prove longer-lasting
February 11, 2015
In an ongoing effort to improve the performance of lithium-ion batteries, scientists have looked to the techniques that snails use to control the growth of their shells. This biological inspiration, combined with a peptide found to bind very effectively with materials used to make cathodes, has potential for making lighter and longer-lasting batteries.
http://www.gizmag.com/lithium-ion-batteries-snail-shells/36045/
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Newly Discovered Property of Graphene to Boost Fuel Cells Efficiency
November 28, 2014The founder of graphene discovered one more incredible property of the material that can give the ever-so-needed to boost fuel cells and hydrogen-based technologies. The strongest, thinnest, and initially known as impermeable material, in fact allows hydrogen protons to pass through.
No wonder graphene is labelled as the “miracle material”. Every property or use of it that is discovered, opens up a great deal of new and super exciting opportunities and applications. Of course, there is no one, who better understands graphene than its discoverer- the Nobel prize winner Andre Geim of University of Manchester, and therefore it is no surprise that exactly his team has found yet another super exciting property of the thin super-strong material.
In the study published this week in the journal Nature, the team describes how at high temperatures, above 250 degrees Celsius, graphene allows hydrogen protons to pass through. In addition, this process of proton transport can be enhanced by adding an extra layer of catalytic metal nanoparticles, such as platinum. This great discovery has a potential in improving the performance of fuel cells. Here, it could act as a proton-conducting membrane, which could potentially eliminate the pressing problem of fuel leaks, associated with reduction of cell efficiency. This property also opens up new horizons for development of exciting hydrogen-based technologies.
http://www.greenoptimistic.com/newly-discovered-property-graphene-boost-fuel-cells-efficiency-20141128/#.VSFr4OG-2zk
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New electrolyte promises to rid lithium batteries of short-circuiting dendrites
March 2, 2015
(Scanning electron microscope images that show how normal electrolyte promotes dendrite growth (a, left), while PNNL’s new electrolyte produces smooth nodules that don’t short-circuit cells (b, right).
Dendrites – thin conductive filaments that form inside lithium batteries – reduce the life of these cells and are often responsible for them catching fire. Scientists working at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) of the US Department of Energy claim to have produced a new electrolyte for lithium batteries that not only completely eliminates dendrites, but also promises to increase battery efficiency and vastly improve current carrying capacity.
http://www.gizmag.com/dendrite-electrolyte-lithium-batteries/36274/
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Erupting electrodes: How recharging leaves behind microscopic debris inside batteries (w/ Video)
Apr 10, 2015
http://phys.org/news/2015-04-erupting-electrodes-recharging-microscopic-debris.html#jCp
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Researchers develop safer electrolytes and use novel technique to assess them
Apr 03, 2015
Most of us have seen dramatic photographs of laptops and even cars
that have burst into flames due to failures in lithium-ion batteries. On
a much larger scale, battery fires grounded Boeing's 787 Dreamliner
jets for several months in 2013 while the company implemented new
features to reduce the risk of overheating and combustion.
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Newly Invented Energy-Storing Organic Membrane Better and Cheaper Than Batteries and Capacitors
October 27, 2011An organic membrane may be the world’s next best battery and may revolutionize energy storage as we know it – it can bear far more energy than capacitors can, and can charge quicker than ever. Not to mention that it’s also dead-cheap.
http://www.greenoptimistic.com/xie-energy-storing-organic-membrane-20111027/
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Technique matters: A different way to make cathodes may mean better batteries
January 11, 2016
http://phys.org/news/2016-01-technique-cathodes-batteries.html
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A Married Couple’s Sweet Music – A Graphene Battery Printing
October 25, 2014http://www.greenoptimistic.com/married-couples-sweet-music-graphene-battery-printing-20141025/#.VSFr_eG-2zk
This couple is making beautiful music together – they’ve printed a battery made of graphene. Dr. Elena Polyakova and Dr. Daniel Stolyarov, originally from Russia, founded Graphene 3D Lab and have since moved the company to Calverton, New York. They spent more than five years researching raw materials that can be used to make a graphene battery using a 3D printer.
Graphene is a special form of carbon in which the atoms are arranged in a hexagonal lattice along a single layer. In this configuration, the carbon is 200 times stronger than steel and it conducts electricity 30 times faster than silicon. It is the latter feature that makes it ideal for making tough composites, computer chips and well, batteries. Already batteries with lives 25 percent longer than lithium-ion batteries have already been made by other researchers. Graphene 3D Lab’s design has one up on the competition, however, because it can be made anywhere and practically in any shape.
Although the prototype is able to produce the same amount of power as a common AA battery, it has already produced considerable interest from the military, as well as from the aerospace and car industries, according to Dr. Polyakova, Graphene 3D Lab’s CoO. The company’s technology allows one to print batteries to fit crooks and nannies where space is tight. It can be used to print other graphene parts. As such, this technology is very useful for space missions. Dr. Polyakova says, “That is an exotic example, but a good one. A mission of that kind requires thousands of spare parts and dozens of different battery types. Our technology could remove the need to carry replacement batteries.”
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Looking at graphene and other 2d crystals in energy conversion and storage
3 February 2015
http://graphene-flagship.eu/?news=looking-at-graphene-and-other-2d-crystals-in-energy-conversion-and-storage
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Scientists see the light on microsupercapacitors: Laser-induced graphene makes simple, powerful energy storage possible
December 3, 2015
Rice University researchers who pioneered the development of laser-induced graphene have configured their discovery into flexible, solid-state microsupercapacitors that rival the best available for energy storage and delivery.
http://phys.org/news/2015-12-scientists-microsupercapacitors.html
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Long-sought chiral anomaly detected in crystalline material
September 3, 2015
http://phys.org/news/2015-09-long-sought-chiral-anomaly-crystalline-material.html#jCp
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Scientists copy structure of cork to produce 3D blocks of graphene
December 6, 2012
(A scanning electron microscope image of the cork-like 3D graphene (Image: Ling Qiu, Monash University).
Imagine how limiting it would be if steel, wood or plastic only existed in the form of thin sheets. Well, that’s been the case so far when it comes to graphene. While its incredible strength and high conductivity make it very useful in things like semiconductors, batteries and solar cells, there’s no doubt that it would be even more useful if it could be produced in three-dimensional blocks. Scientists at Australia’s Monash University have now managed to do just that – by copying the structure of cork.
http://www.gizmag.com/3d-graphene-cork-blocks/25342/
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A new wrinkle for cell culture
Apr 23, 2015
Researchers from Brown University have developed new graphene surfaces, engineered with tiny wrinkles, as environments for cell culture. The surfaces could provide a way to culture cells in the lab that better approximates the complex environments in which cells grow in the body.http://phys.org/news/2015-04-wrinkle-cell-culture.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu
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Renewable energy from evaporating water (w/ Video)
June 16, 2015
(The "moisture mill" is a new kind of turbine engine that turns
continuously as water evaporates from the wet paper lining the walls of
the engine.)
In the June 16 online issue of Nature Communications, Columbia University scientists report the development of two novel devices that derive power directly from evaporation - a floating, piston-driven engine that generates electricity causing a light to flash, and a rotary engine that drives a miniature car.
http://phys.org/news/2015-06-renewable-energy-evaporating-video.html
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World's first "aqueous solar flow battery" outperforms traditional lithium-iodine batteries
August 3, 2015The scientists that revealed the "world's first solar battery" last year are now, following some modifications, reporting its first significant performance milestone. The device essentially fits a battery and solar cell into the one package, and has now been tested against traditional lithium-iodine batteries, over which the researchers are claiming energy savings of 20 percent.
It was last October that researchers at Ohio State University (OSU) first detailed their patent-pending design for a dye-sensitized solar cell also capable of storing its own power. With three electrodes rather than the typical four, it featured a lithium plate base, two layers of electrode separated by a thin sheet of porous carbon, and a titanium gauze mesh that played host to a dye-sensitive titanium dioxide photoelectrode.
The reasoning behind the porous nature of the materials was to allow the battery's ions to oxidize into lithium peroxide, which was in turn chemically decomposed into lithium ions and stored as lithium metal. But the team has redesigned the battery so that air no longer needs to pass through it in order to function.
http://www.gizmag.com/aqueous-solar-flow-battery-osu/38748/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget
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----------------
Chapter 8: Magnetic energy
----------------
----------------
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Magnetic energy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_energyMagnetic energy and electric energy are related by Maxwell's equations. The potential energy of a magnet of magnetic moment m in a magnetic field B is defined as the mechanical work of magnetic force (actually of magnetic torque) on re-alignment of the vector of the magnetic dipole moment
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New class of "non-Joulian magnets" have potential to revolutionize electronics
May 21, 2015
Magnets are at the heart of much of our technology, and their properties are exploited in a myriad ways across a vast range of devices, from simple relays to enormously complex particle accelerators. A new class of magnets discovered by scientists at the University of Maryland (UMD) and Temple University may lead to other types of magnets that expand in different ways, with multiple, cellular magnetic fields, and possibly give rise to a host of new devices. The team also believes that these new magnets could replace expensive, rare-earth magnets with ones made of abundant metal alloys.
http://www.gizmag.com/expanding-alloy-magnets/37621/
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Electromagnetic fields as cutting tools
Dec 01, 2009
http://phys.org/news178914974.html
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Melt metal with magnets
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i2OVqWo9s0
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Molecular trick alters rules of attraction for non-magnetic metals
August 5, 2015
Scientists have demonstrated for the first time how to generate magnetism in metals that aren't naturally magnetic, which could end our reliance on some rare and toxic elements currently used...
- Magnets are used in many industrial and technological applications, including power generation in wind turbines, memory storage in hard disks and in medical imaging.
"Future technologies, such as quantum computers, will require a new breed of magnets with additional properties to increase storage and processing capabilities. Our research is a step towards creating such 'magnetic metamaterials' that can fulfil this need," said Al Ma'Mari.
http://phys.org/news/2015-08-molecular-non-magnetic-metals.html#jCp
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MERS Device Harnesses Residual Magnetic Power Produced by Electrical Current
September 27, 2010Researchers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in collaboration with the Office of Naval Research Global plan to develop a new device for capturing residual magnetic energy from electrical current.
http://www.greenoptimistic.com/mers-device-magnetic-power-recovery-20100927/
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Magnetic Pendulum: A Free Energy Device Running for Three Years Now
January 19, 2010http://www.greenoptimistic.com/magnetic-pendulum-a-free-energy-device-running-for-three-years-now-20100119/#.VSFjmuG-2zk
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World's first magnetic "wormhole" produces magnetic monopole
September 4, 2015
It may not instantly whisk you to far-flung reaches of the universe like the gravitational wormholes of Stargate, Star Trek and Interstellar, but researchers at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) claim to have created the first experimental wormhole that links two regions of space magnetically.
http://www.gizmag.com/magnetic-wormhole/39257/
---------------------
Scientists At NASA Announce That Space Portals Actually Do Exist
Is science finally catching up with spirituality?
Well, that’s what we hoped they meant. It turns out these so called “X-points”, or electronic diffusion regions, is a connection linking the Earth’s magnetic field to the sun’s magnetic field.
Alas it is not the galaxy hopping wormhole we were hoping for, but it could be potentially be a start into finding something along those lines.
http://www.neonnettle.com/news/1432-scientists-at-nasa-announce-that-space-portals-actually-do-exist
-------------------
Converting Magnetic Energy Into Electric Voltage Using Power Spintronics
January 4, 2013
The American Institute of Physics’ (AIP) journal Applied Physics Letters, published a report, which shows a new application of spintronics. According to the study, it is now possible to convert magnetic energy into electric voltage by changing the dynamics of magnetization using magnetic nanostructures.
http://www.greenoptimistic.com/converting-magnetic-energy-into-electric-voltage-using-power-spintronics-20130104/
---------------
New Technology 2014 Floating Magnetic Cars
Dec 15, 2013https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmMbyAGlnI4
----------------------------------
Tiny magnets mimic steam, water and ice
September 21, 2015
Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) created a synthetic material out of 1 billion tiny magnets. Astonishingly, it now appears that the magnetic properties of this so-called metamaterial change with the temperature, so that it can take on different states; just like water has a gaseous, liquid and a solid state. This material made of nanomagnets might well be refined for electronic applications of the future – such as for more efficient information transfer.
http://phys.org/news/2015-09-tiny-magnets-mimic-steam-ice.html#jCp
---------------------------------------------
New tool for studying magnetic, self-propelled bacteria that resemble compass needles
September 15, 2015
In the Marvel Comics universe, Professor Xavier and the X-Men are only able to fend off their archrival Magneto, the magnetic mutant with the ability to control metals, once they truly understand the scope of the villain's powers. To better understand the behavior of the microbial world's Magnetos—the magnetically influenced water-dwellers known as magnetotactic bacteria—three researchers from Europe and Russia have developed a new tool that allows these unique microscopic species to be studied more easily, especially in their natural environment.
http://phys.org/news/2015-09-tool-magnetic-self-propelled-bacteria-resemble.html#jCp
-----------------------------
Giant enhancement of magnetic effect will benefit spintronics
December 21, 2015
Researchers have demonstrated that coating a cobalt film in graphene doubles the film's perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA), so that it reaches a value 20 times higher than that of traditional metallic cobalt/platinum multilayers that are being researched for this property. In a material with a high PMA, the magnetization is oriented perpendicular to the interface of the material's layers. High-PMA materials are being researched for their applications in next-generation spintronic devices, such as high-density memories and heat-tolerant logic gates.
The researchers, Hongxin Yang, et al., have published a paper on the giant PMA enhancement in a recent issue of Nano Letters.
http://phys.org/news/2015-12-giant-magnetic-effect-benefit-spintronics.html#jCp
--------------------------
Cooled down and charged up, a giant magnet is ready for its new mission
September 24, 2015
The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory—or Fermilab—announced that a 680-ton superconducting magnet is secure in its new home and nearly ready for a new era of discovery in particle physics. This achievement follows the delicate, 3,200-mile transport of the magnet's 17-ton, 50-foot-wide housing ring to the U.S. Department of Energy facility outside Chicago two years ago. The fully assembled magnet will drive high-energy particle experiments as part of an international partnership among 34 institutions, of which the University of Washington is a leading contributor.
http://phys.org/news/2015-09-cooled-giant-magnet-ready-mission.html#jCp
---------------
For more information on how scientists are able to use magnets, with energy from light, view the chapter "Light energy."
----------------------
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Chapter 9: Piezoelectric & mechanical energy
----------------
----------------
---------------------
Energy harvesting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_harvestingEnergy harvesting (also known as power harvesting or energy scavenging) is the process by which energy is derived from external sources (e.g. solar power, thermal energy, wind energy, salinity gradients, and kinetic energy), captured, and stored for small, wireless autonomous devices, like those used in wearable electronics and wireless sensor networks.
Energy harvesters provide a very small amount of power for low-energy electronics. While the input fuel to some large-scale generation costs money (oil, coal, etc.), the energy source for energy harvesters is present as ambient background and is free. For example, temperature gradients exist from the operation of a combustion engine and in urban areas, there is a large amount of electromagnetic energy in the environment because of radio and television broadcasting.
Piezoelectric
The piezoelectric effect converts mechanical strain into electric current or voltage. This strain can come from many different sources. Human motion, low-frequency seismic vibrations, and acoustic noise are everyday examples. Except in rare instances the piezoelectric effect operates in AC requiring time-varying inputs at mechanical resonance to be efficient.
Most piezoelectric electricity sources produce power on the order of milliwatts, too small for system application, but enough for hand-held devices such as some commercially available self-winding wristwatches. One proposal is that they are used for micro-scale devices, such as in a device harvesting micro-hydraulic energy. In this device, the flow of pressurized hydraulic fluid drives a reciprocating piston supported by three piezoelectric elements which convert the pressure fluctuations into an alternating current.
-------------------------
Preparation on transparent flexible piezoelectric energy harvester based on PZT films by laser lift-off process
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924424712006516
The piezoelectric energy generation properties of transparent flexible devices (TFD) based on PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3 (PZT) films, which were fabricated by laser lift-off (LLO) process, were studied for a piezoelectric energy harvester. Through the introduction of indium-tin-oxide (ITO) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates, TFDs were implemented, respectively. The TFDs based on PZT films generated an AC-type output signal and output power of 8.4 nW/cm2, at periodically bending and releasing motion. In addition, inverted output signals were observed when the manufactured TFDs were connected to the measuring equipment in reverse and were bended to the reverse direction, demonstrating that the generating signals originated from the piezoelectric effect of TFDs. The experimental results clearly showed that the TFDs based PZT film have potential for use in next generation of electronic devices applications such as flexible devices, transparent electronics, and energy harvester.----------------
Scientists use shape-fixing nanoreactor to make a better fuel cell catalyst
May 11, 2015
http://phys.org/news/2015-05-scientists-shape-fixing-nanoreactor-fuel-cell.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu
---------------------
Laser-machined piezoelectric cantilevers for mechanical energy harvesting
In this study, we report results on a piezoelectric- material-based mechanical energy-harvesting device that was fabricated by combining laser machining with microelectronics packaging technology. It was found that the laser-machining process did not have significant effect on the electrical properties of piezoelectric material. The fabricated device was tested in the low-frequency regime of 50 to 1000 Hz at constant force of 8 g (where g = 9.8 m/s2). The device was found to generate continuous power of 1.13 muW at 870 Hz across a 288.5 kOmega load with a power density of 301.3 muW/cm3.
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/login.jsp?tp=&arnumber=4626918&url=http%3A%2F%2Fieeexplore.ieee.org%2Fiel5%2F58%2F4626908%2F04626918.pdf%3Farnumber%3D4626918
-----------------------
Bismuth-Ferrite Piezoelectric Material Opens New Roads for Energy Generation
November 15, 2009
http://www.greenoptimistic.com/bismuth-ferrite-piezoelectric-material-opens-new-roads-for-energy-generation-20091115/#.VSIYCeG-2zk
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Chinese Scientists Find Alternative to Lead-Containing Mainstream Piezoelectric Material
April 2, 2012http://www.greenoptimistic.com/zinc-oxide-vanadium-piezoelectric-20120402/#.VSIYEOG-2zk
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Energy-Saving Thermoelectric Material Made From Dirt
November 29, 2012
A team of researchers at Michigan State University have developed a new type of thermoelectric material by using common materials found in dirt. The researchers developed this material using what they know about tetrahedrites, one of the most abundant minerals on Earth.
MSU Professor of Chemical Engineering, Donald Morelli, and his team figured out how to synthesize compounds that have the same chemical composition as natural minerals and closely mimic tetrahedrites. By modifying the composition, researchers have been able produce even more efficient thermoelectric material.
Why is this important? Themoelectric energy needs to be more efficient to be a viable energy source. For example, if thermoelectric was more efficient, the heat generated by a car engine that travels through the tail pipe could then be converted into actual electricity. By tweaking the composition, researchers are coming closer to making this a reality.
http://www.greenoptimistic.com/thermoelectric-material-dirt-20121129/
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Proof-of-Concept Piezoelectric Generators Used to Recover Energy from Wind
November 24, 2009http://www.greenoptimistic.com/andreopoulos-piezoelectric-wind-power-20091124/#.VSIbWOG-2zk
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Scientists harvest energy from beam's self-induced, self-sustaining vibrations in airflow
July 27, 2015
http://phys.org/news/2015-07-scientists-harvest-energy-self-induced-self-sustaining.html#jCp
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New Piezo Crystals Harness Sound Waves to Generate Hydrogen Fuel
03/17/10
http://inhabitat.com/new-piezo-crystals-harness-sound-waves-to-generate-hydrogen-fuel/
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Fuel-free nanomotor is powered by ultrasound and magnetic fields
Jun 26, 2015
Nanoscale motors, like their macroscale counterparts, can be built to run on a variety of chemical fuels, such as hydrogen peroxide and others. But unlike macroscale motors, some nanomotors can also run without fuel, instead being powered by either magnetic or acoustic fields. In a new paper, researchers for the first time have demonstrated a nanomotor that can run on both magnetic and acoustic fields, making it the first magneto-acoustic hybrid fuel-free nanomotor.http://phys.org/news/2015-06-fuel-free-nanomotor-powered-ultrasound-magnetic.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu
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Ear-Piercing Sounds Harvested for Energy
Dec 6, 2013http://news.discovery.com/tech/alternative-power-sources/ear-piercing-sounds-harvested-for-energy-131206.htm
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Engineering students use sound waves to put out fires
Mar 26, 2015
http://phys.org/news/2015-03-students.html
----------------
German student creates electromagnetic harvester that gathers free electricity from thin air
February 12, 2013
A German student has built an electromagnetic harvester that recharges an AA battery by soaking up ambient, environmental radiation. These harvesters can gather free electricity from just about anything, including overhead power lines, coffee machines, refrigerators, or even the emissions from your WiFi router or smartphone.
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/148247-german-student-creates-electromagnetic-harvester-that-gathers-free-electricity-from-thin-air
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New technique for generating electricity from mechanical vibrations
Nov 12, 2014
http://www.gizmag.com/mechanical-vibration-generate-electricity/34701/
-----------------------
New Cell Phone Charging System Harvests Energy from Vibrations
02/28/14
http://inhabitat.com/university-of-wisconsin-develops-cell-phone-charging-system-that-harvests-energy-from-vibrations/
----------------------
Pavegen looking to harness energy from pedestrian footsteps
May 28th, 2015http://phys.org/news/2015-05-pavegen-harness-energy-pedestrian-footsteps.html#nRlv
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Portland to generate electricity within its own water pipes
February 17, 2015
http://www.gizmag.com/portland-lucidpipe-power-system/36130/
-------------------------
Shape-shifting nanoprobes report on internal body conditions using magnetic fields
April 5, 2015
Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have developed a new type of shape-shifting nanoprobe that can perform high-resolution remote biological sensing not possible with current technology. Around one-tenth the size of a single red blood cell, the nanoprobes are designed to provide feedback on internal body conditions by altering their magnetic fields in response to their environment. The researchers predict wide-spread applications for the nanoprobes in the fields of chemistry, biology, engineering and, one day, to aid physicians in high-accuracy clinical diagnostics.
http://www.gizmag.com/nanoprobes-nist-gem-biosensing-magnetic-fields/36803/
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Study Confirms Magnetic Properties of Silicon Nano-Ribbons
October 24, 2012
http://www.bangscience.org/2012/10/study-confirms-magnetic-properties-of-silicon-nano-ribbons/
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Heat makes electrons spin in magnetic superconductors
4/24/2015http://article.wn.com/view/2015/04/24/Heat_makes_electrons_spin_in_magnetic_superconductors_Univer/
----------------
Scientists fabricate hexagonal silicon, potentially leading to light-emitting semiconductors
August 18, 2015
Virtually all semiconductors used in today's electronic devices are made of silicon having a cubic crystal structure, as silicon naturally crystallizes in the cubic form. In a new study, researchers have fabricated silicon in a hexagonal crystal structure, which is expected to exhibit novel optical, electrical, superconducting, and mechanical properties compared with cubic silicon.
http://phys.org/news/2015-08-scientists-fabricate-hexagonal-silicon-potentially.html#jCp
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Researchers prove magnetism can control heat, sound
May 28th, 2015
http://phys.org/news/2015-05-magnetism.html
-----------------------------------
Ultrafast heat conduction can manipulate nanoscale magnets
June/8/2015
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have uncovered physical mechanisms allowing the manipulation of magnetic information with heat. These new phenomena rely on the transport of thermal energy, in contrast to the conventional application of magnetic fields, providing a new, and highly desirable way to manipulate magnetization at the nanoscale.
http://phys.org/news/2015-06-ultrafast-nanoscale-magnets.html#jCp
--------------------------------
Magnetostrictive resonators as sensors and actuators
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924424712007509
Two types of magnetostrictive resonators – magnetostrictive microcantilever (MSMC) and magnetostrictive particle (MSP) – have been introduced as sensor platforms. Their principles and advantages as sensor platforms are discussed along with the materials selection. A detailed and complete comparison between the MSMC and MSP is given. It is concluded that for the resonators with the same size, an MSP exhibits a higher sensitivity and has a much higher resonant frequency. For the resonators with the same resonant frequency, MSMCs exhibit a much higher sensitivity and have a much smaller size than MSPs. Using antibody as the sensing element, MSP biosensors for in situ detection of Escherichia coli and Listeria monocytogenes are developed and characterized. These biosensors exhibit a high performance. For example, the MSP-antibody biosensors of 1 mm × 0.3 mm × 15 μm exhibit a detection limit less than 100 cfu/ml for in situ detection of bacterial cell in water. A new type actuator is introduced using MSPs. The MSP actuator is operated using AC magnetic field with a frequency close to, but different than, its resonant frequency. The MSP actuator exhibits an unlimited displacement, and its moving direction is controlled by the operating frequency used.
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Levitating Magnet May Yield New Approach to Clean Energy
http://engineering.columbia.edu/levitating-magnet-may-yield-new-approach-clean-energy
Achieving nuclear fusion in the laboratory has been a cherished goal of physicists and energy researchers for more than 50 years. That’s because it offers the possibility of nearly endless supplies of energy with no carbon emissions and far less radioactive waste than that produced by today’s nuclear plants, which are based on fission, the splitting of atoms (the opposite of fusion, which involves fusing two atoms together). But developing a fusion reactor that produces a net output of energy has proved to be more challenging than initially thought.---------------
We are even inventing news ways, to harvest and store energy, with new technological applications.
----------------
Cleaner Fuel Cells on the Way from Moscow
January 1, 2016A European research team has been working on ion-exchange membranes that convert energy created by chemical reactions. These membranes are based on amphiphilic compounds, and are synthetic. This has great implications for the use of clean fuel cells.
The team, comprised of Russian, French and German scientists, have been collaborating to create this process that can be possibly used in fuel cells. The study was conducted at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, at the Laboratory of Functional Organic and Hybrid materials.
Batteries produce energy by utilizing the reaction of oxidizing and reducing agents. The batteries’ lifespan is complete when both the agents are consumed. When an accumulator is used, electric energy can be stored in packets.
http://www.greenoptimistic.com/moscow-clean-fuel-cells/
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Chapter 10: Lazers
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Laser propulsion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_propulsion
---------------------------------
Laser Travel by Photonic Thruster
October 21, 2013http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=29341
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Blue Light and Sunshine May be the Next Gen Weapons Against Antibiotic-Resistant Infections
March 14, 2013
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/03/14/blue-light-therapy.aspx
Skin and soft tissue infections are among the most common bacterial infections encountered in clinical practice.
Such infections can be caused by a number of bacteria that gain entrance into your body via cuts, scrapes, bites or open wounds. Even bacteria that normally live on your skin can cause an infection when introduced into your body this way.
Skin and soft tissue infections account for more than 14 million hospital visits each year, costing the health care system an estimated $24 billion.
Unfortunately, many infections are becoming increasingly difficult to treat. Antibiotic overuse has led to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, also known as MRSA.
Finding effective countermeasures to this growing public health threat has turned out few options, but the remedy may be as simple as colored light.
According to a new proof-of-principle study,1 blue light can selectively eliminate infections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. According to lead researcher Michael R. Hamblin of the Massachusetts General Hospital:2
"Microbes replicate very rapidly, and a mutation that helps a microbe survive in the presence of an antibiotic drug will quickly predominate throughout the microbial population. Recently, a dangerous new enzyme, NDM-1, that makes some bacteria resistant to almost all antibiotics available has been found in the United States. Many physicians are concerned that several infections soon may be untreatable.Blue light is a potential non-toxic, non-antibiotic approach for treating skin and soft tissue infections, especially those caused by antibiotic resistant pathogens."
Could Blue Light Replace Antibiotics?
In the study, lab animals were infected with P. aeruginosa. Incredibly, ALL of the animals treated with blue light survived, while 82 percent of the controls died. Could this possibly be the beginning of a whole new treatment paradigm for infections? Clearly, we’re nearing the end of the road of the antibiotic era, as antibiotic-resistance spreads.
Blue light therapy has also been shown to be effective against MRSA and other resistant bugs, offering new hope for effective treatments.
In a previous study published in 2009,3 over 90 percent of community acquired and hospital acquired strains of MRSA were successfully eradicated within mere minutes of exposure to blue light. According to the authors:
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In plasmonics, 'optical losses' could bring practical gain
January 26, 2016
What researchers had thought of as a barrier to developing advanced technologies based on the emerging field of plasmonics is now seen as a potential pathway to practical applications in areas from cancer therapy to nanomanufacturing.
Plasmonic materials contain features, patterns or elements that enable unprecedented control of light by harnessing clouds of electrons called surface plasmons. It could allow the miniaturization of optical technologies, bringing advances such as nano-resolution imaging and computer chips that process and transmit data using light instead of electrons, representing a potential leap in performance.
However, the development of advanced optical technologies using plasmonics has been hampered because components under development cause too much light to be lost and converted into heat. But now researchers are finding that this "loss-induced plasmonic heating" could be key to development of various advanced technologies, said Vladimir M. Shalaev, co-director of the new Purdue Quantum Center, scientific director of nanophotonics at the Birck Nanotechnology Center in the university's Discovery Park and a distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering.
http://phys.org/news/2016-01-plasmonics-optical-losses-gain.html
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ESA's Proba-V infrared sensor has a future in medicine and industry
March 12, 2015
http://www.gizmag.com/esa-proba-v-infrared-sensor-terrestrial-uses/36518/
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Low level laser therapy
Low-level laser therapy (LLLT) is a form of laser medicine used in physical therapy and veterinary treatment that uses low-level (low-power) lasers or light-emitting diodes to alter cellular function. Other names for the therapy include low-power laser, soft laser, cold laser, biostimulation laser, therapeutic laser, and laser acupuncture.[1] Whereas high-power lasers ablate tissue, low-power lasers are claimed to stimulate it and to encourage the cells to function.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_level_laser_therapy
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Veterinary Use of Laser Therapy Expands
April 05, 2011
http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2011/04/05/veterinary-use-of-laser-therapy-for-pets-expands.aspx
Laser therapy works in a number of ways to heal injuries and manage pain. Among them:
- It increases the release of endorphins (natural painkillers).
- Laser therapy decreases inflammation, which helps return tissue to a normal state.
- It restores metabolic function.
---------------------
History of Cold Laser Therapy
http://www.spine-health.com/treatment/pain-management/history-cold-laser-therapyCold Laser Therapy has been used in clinical practice all around the world for over four decades. In 1916, Albert Einstein conceived the theory of Light Amplification through Stimulated Emission of Radiation or LASER. In 1967, Professor Andre Mester began using low power lasers in medicine. Dr. Mester is recognized by many as the grandfather of laser therapy.
The first experimental FDA clearance of Class 3B Lasers occurred in February of 2002, after a successful study for carpal tunnel syndrome on workers at General Motors. The laser that was used had a power of 90mw at 830nm.
Certain low level laser devices are also FDA approved for relief of the following conditions3,4:
- Muscle and joint pain
- Stiffness associated with arthritis
- Pain associated with muscle spasms
- Hand pain and wrist pain associated with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
- Neck pain
- Lower back pain
- Wound healing
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Cold Laser Therapy Advantages and Disadvantages
http://www.spine-health.com/treatment/pain-management/cold-laser-therapy-advantages-and-disadvantages-------------
Laser Light Could Make Flu Vaccine 7 Times More Effective
http://www.popsci.com/article/science/laser-light-could-make-flu-vaccine-7-times-more-effective
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Near-Infrared Laser Adjuvant for Influenza Vaccine
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0082899--------------
Laser vaccine adjuvants
- Received: 14 Feb 2014
- Accepted: 9 Apr 2014
- Published online: 29 Apr 2014
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.4161/hv.28840?journalCode=khvi20#preview
----------------------------
ESA's Proba-V infrared sensor has a future in medicine and industry
http://www.gizmag.com/esa-proba-v-infrared-sensor-terrestrial-uses/36518/-------
Discover the Benefits of K-Laser Class 4 Laser Therapy Treatments
July 28, 2013
What You Need to Know About Lasers
Lasers are classified according to their power output:
The most significant issue with the clinical use of lasers is the depth of penetration. Some practitioners make the mistake of using low-power Class 3 lasers, which basically amounts to a standard laser pointer.
- Class 3a—maximum of 5 milliwatts of power (standard laser pointer)
- Class 3b—maximum of 500 milliwatts/0.5 watts
- Class 4—anything over 500 milliwatts/0.5 watts
Most class 3a lasers only use a red wavelength – 635 nanometers in the visible red. When you look at the depth of penetration with laser, red laser light only penetrates about one to two millimeters (far less than 1/8 inch) into the human body.
Granted, red laser is highly useful for treating superficial wounds, cuts, abrasions, and perhaps even for the treatment of vitiligo, but they will not penetrate far enough for deep seated pain reduction. However, infrared lasers (around 800 nanometers) penetrate far deeper and able to go several centimeters, into your body which will reach most tissue injuries.
Power is also another crucial factor when it comes to laser therapy. Power is measured in watts, and you can think of it as the brightness of the light. A higher-powered laser is a brighter light, and it can produce more energy per unit of time. When it comes to doing laser therapy treatment, a higher-powered laser (Class 4) provides two benefits:
- A therapeutic dose of laser light can be applied to a much larger volume of tissue
- By shining that brighter light at the surface, photons of light are able to penetrate deeper into the tissues, which allows you to treat deep-seated pain conditions
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The Effect of Low-Level Laser in Knee Osteoarthritis: A Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial
Aug, 2009
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19530911
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Researchers demonstrate the world's first white lasers
July 29, 2015
http://phys.org/news/2015-07-world-white-lasers.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu
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NASA Beams Mona Lisa to Moon with Laser
January 17, 2013Call it the ultimate in high art: Using a well-timed laser, NASA scientists have beamed a picture of Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, to a powerful spacecraft orbiting the moon, marking a first in laser communication.
http://www.space.com/19323-mona-lisa-moon-laser-photo.html
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Paintballs to deflect killer-asteroids
Mar 07, 2013
Having reviewed these traditional asteroid deflection techniques, Sung Wook Paek, a graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, suggests an unusual alternative: Mr Paek proposes using paintballs to pull an asteroid off course.
The argument behind Mr Paek's idea is reasonably simple; after measuring the velocity and rotation of an incoming asteroid, two unmanned spacecraft would approach the celestial body close enough to be able to shoot large clouds of white paintballs at it! Two probes would be needed because, as the asteroid rotates, a shot from only one spacecraft would not cover the entire asteroid with white paint and so the first probe strikes one side of the asteroid, the second probe covers the other.
The white paint would reflect light and other electromagnetic radiation from the asteroid's surface, and, over time, the cumulative effect of billions of photons would result in the asteroid changing course. The white paint would effectively act as a 'solar sail', increasing the balance of solar radiation absorbed and emitted by the asteroid, gently easing it away from its original destination.
Another deflection technique, also based on light reflectivity or laser sublimation was proposed by a team of American researchers who suggested launching a swarm of 'mirror bees' towards the potential killer.
Tiny probes, equipped with mirrors, would position themselves in such a way as to reflect a concentration of sunlight on one specific point of the asteroid. This 'beam of light' would then generate enough heat for it to start to vaporise, creating propulsive gas jets. In essence, vapour emitted from the asteroid would push it off-course. Alternatively, the asteroid might 'simply' be wrapped in reflective 'foil'.
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Paintballs_to_deflect_killer_asteroids_999.html
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Laser Bees
A New Way to Deflect a Dangerous Asteroid
What do we do if an asteroid is found to be on a collision course with Earth? At
this point, the answer is not clear, so The Planetary Society has
partnered with researchers to discover ways to protect Earth when we
one-day find a dangerous space rock.We've been working with a team at the University of Strathclyde and the University of Glasgow in Scotland to study a new technique which uses concentrated light to gently move an asteroid -- a project we called "Mirror Bees" -- using mirrors on several spacecraft swarming around an asteroid to focus sunlight onto a spot on the asteroid. As part of the initial Mirror Bees project, researchers found that lasers are more effective than mirrors and can be used from greater distances. So, now the project is called "Laser Bees."
http://www.planetary.org/explore/projects/laser-bees/
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Physicist unveils plan for entangling massive objects
August 5, 2015
Schnabel's plan is to place two of the mirrors in a Michelson-type interferometer in such a way as to have both sides of both mirrors hit by light that is sent in. The mirrors would also be placed in the interferometer in a way that would allow them to oscillate when struck by the light. This would allow for momentum to be transferred between the mirrors and the light. The mirror oscillations would then have an impact on the phase of the reflected light, causing the momentum and the light to become entangled. At that point, the entanglement could be "swapped" to the mirrors, causing them to be entangled, by measuring the light beams as they exit.http://phys.org/news/2015-08-physicist-unveils-entangling-massive.html#jCp
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Asteroid Impact Avoidance
July 2013
DE-STAR is designed to vaporize or divert asteroids that threaten Earth. This isn't science fiction—I build things that have to work in practice. DE-STAR stands for Directed Energy Solar Targeting of Asteroids and exploRation. It looks like an open matchbook with lasers on one flap and a photovoltaic panel for power from sunlight on the other. By synchronizing the laser beams, we can create a phased array, which produces a steerable 70-gigawatt beam. An onboard system receives orders on what to target. Our laser beam would then produce a spot about 100 feet in diameter on an asteroid that's as far away from the satellite as we are from the sun. The laser would raise an asteroid's surface temperature to thousands of degrees Celsius—hot enough that all known substances evaporate. In less than an hour, DE-STAR could have completely vaporized the asteroid that broke up over Russia this winter, if we had seen it coming. Plus, as the material evaporates, it creates a thrust in the opposite direction, comparable to the space shuttle's rocket booster. That means you could divert the asteroid by changing its orbit with a shorter laser blast.
DE-STAR could also power things on Earth or in space. You could send the electrical power it produces—not via laser beam but via microwaves. Or you could use the laser to directly propel spacecraft. But here's the thing: For full-blown asteroid vaporization, each flap of the matchbook would have to be six miles long. We've never built a structure this size in space, but if there were the worldwide will, I could see building this within 30 to 50 years. But since it's completely modular, we propose starting smaller. We could begin with a version that's three feet per side right now. With that, you could cook your dinner from 600 miles away.
—Philip Lubin is a physicist at UC Santa Barbara and co-inventor of DE-STAR with statistician Gary Hughes, of California Polytechnic State University.
This article originally appeared in the July 2013 issue of Popular Science.
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-06/death-star
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Researchers use laser to levitate, glowing nanodiamonds in vacuum
September 7, 2015
Researchers have, for the first time, levitated individual nanodiamonds in vacuum. The research team is led by Nick Vamivakas at the University of Rochester who thinks their work will make extremely sensitive instruments for sensing tiny forces and torques possible, as well as a way to physically create larger-scale quantum systems known as macroscopic Schrödinger Cat states.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-09-laser-levitate-nanodiamonds-vacuum.html#jCp
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Scientists Produce Unprecedented 1 Megajoule Laser Shot, Step Towards Fusion Ignition
January 28, 2010
US scientists have produced a laser shot with an unprecedented energy level that could be a key step towards nuclear fusion, the US National Nuclear Security Administration said Wednesday.
http://phys.org/news/2010-01-scientists-unprecedented-megajoule-laser-shot.html#nRlv
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Physicists demonstrate conditions for laser-driven fusion
March 15, 2011
Currently, commercial nuclear power plants generate electricity using nuclear fission, in which an atom’s nucleus is split into lighter nuclei. But scientists are also researching the reverse reaction, nuclear fusion, in which two light atomic nuclei fuse to form a single heavier nucleus. Compared with fission, fusion has the potential to produce less radioactive waste while still generating large amounts of energy.http://phys.org/news/2011-03-physicists-conditions-laser-driven-fusion.html#nRlv
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First atomic X-ray laser created
January 25, 2012
Scientists working at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) SLAC
National Accelerator Laboratory have created the shortest, purest X-ray
laser pulses ever achieved, fulfilling a 45-year-old prediction and
opening the door to a new range of scientific discovery.
The
researchers, reporting today in Nature, aimed SLAC's Linac Coherent
Light Source (LCLS) at a capsule of neon gas, setting off an avalanche
of X-ray emissions to create the world's first "atomic X-ray laser."
The following will discuss Lazers as weapons, including the use of lazers, being used for weather modification. Companies such as DuPont, and Boeing, want to make lazers, for the use in the war industry. The people need to be cautious, of giving too much technological power, to one group of people. Often, we can see how new technology, can be abused in warfare, and on the environment as well.
Indium phosphide, Diode Lazers & Dupont
Lazers & Dupont
Diode lazer
DuPont originally began the research into building a blue diode laser for CD read/write devices, however they were unable to make the lasers suitable for commercial use. AdvR licensed the patents from DuPont and received BMDO funding to create a solid-state replacement for the Argon-ion laser.
http://www.mdatechnology.net/techprofile.aspx?id=555
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DuPont - LASER WELDING
http://www2.dupont.com/Hyundai_Kia/en_US/assets/downloads/presentations/Laser%20Welding_Korea_Fujita.pdf
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DuPont Introduces Water Resistant Somos(R) 7110 Epoxy Resin for Helium Cadmium Laser Systems -
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/DuPont+Introduces+Water+Resistant+Somos%28R%29+7110+Epoxy+Resin+for...-a019781521
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A. Felix du Pont, Jr. -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._Felix_du_Pont,_Jr.
Known for being a philanthropist
For five years, Felix du Pont worked for the family owned DuPont and for a short time became involved in the investment business. With a lifelong interest in aviation, he partnered with brother Richard to found All American Aviation Company which became Allegheny Airlines and eventually US Airways. He later was a vice president of the Piasecki Helicopter Corp. of which he and Laurence Rockefeller were early investors on its founding in 1946.
( Piasecki Helicopter Corporation was a designer and manufacturer of helicopters located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and nearby Morton, Pennsylvania in the late 1940s and the 1950s. Its founder, Frank Piasecki, was ousted from the company in 1956 and started a new company, Piasecki Aircraft. Piasecki Helicopter was renamed Vertol Corporation in early 1956.
Vertol was acquired by Boeing in 1960 and renamed Boeing Vertol. -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piasecki_Helicopter )
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Electric Laser Race Heats Up
http://sites.psu.edu/thebigbangtheory/2012/10/29/the-holographic-excitation/Not wanting to be left out of the race to field compact battlefield lasers, Boeing announced yesterday that it’s tested its own solid-state laser technology. "In each laser firing at Boeing’s facility in West Hills, Calif., the high-energy laser achieved power levels of over 25 kilowatts for multi-second durations, with a measured beam quality suitable for a tactical weapon system," says Boeing.
What’s interesting about this announcement is that Boeing is not part of the Defense Department’s Joint High-Powered Solid State Laser, a program that has funded Northrop Grumman and Textron to build a deployable laser weapon. Boeing at one point teamed with the Livermore lab on a solid-state work, but that laser, which was powerful but large, was not selected by the program for funding. Similarly, Raytheon also has a solid state laser that was passed over for funding. Both Livermore and Raytheon have continued their solid-state laser work on their own dime, however. Boeing, until this point, did not appear to be that active on solid-state lasers, and it appears this new effort is self-funded.
ALSO:
- Russian ‘Expert’: Soviets Had Laser Cannons First
- Laser Gunship Blasts Beams, Preps for ’08 Flight Test
- Marines Request ‘Long-Range Blow Torch’ for Iraq
- Lasers-Only on "Gunless" Gunship
- Air Force Eyes Energy Shields, Microwave Bombs
- Navy Pushing Laser ‘Holy Grail’ to Weapons Grade
- Laser Jet Zaps Animated Missiles, Spouts Jargon
- Israel’s Military Shoots Down Laser Cannon
- Israelis Sue Government for Laser Cannon
- Laser Weapons Better Against Rockets?
- Second life for Laser Defense?
- Ray Gun "Holy Grail" Aims for Battlefield Strength
- Monster Truck Gets a Laser
- Laser Death Star
- Laser Weapons Closing in on Reality
- Real-Life Laser Rifle: Army Goal
- Flipper Fires Lasers in Air Force Brief
- Laser Relays Live!
- Vice vs. the Flying Lightsaber
- Laser Jet Over Oklahoma
- Congress Slashes Flying Lightsaber
- Pentagon Report: No More ‘Death Rays’
- Spooky Math for "Flying Lightsaber"
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Boeing Laser Systems Destroy Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Tests
Boeing's Matrix laser
http://news.cnet.com/2300-11386_3-10012168-17.html--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Neither rain, nor fog, nor wind stops Boeing's laser weapon destroying targets
September 8, 2014http://www.gizmag.com/boeing-laser-directed-energy-weapon-fog/33672/
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Lockheed Martin begins manufacturing vehicle-mounted laser weapon
October 8, 2015Lockheed Martin announced this week that production of a new laser weapon system has begun at the company's Bothell, Washington facility. The high-powered laser weapon modules will be used as the heart of a 60-kilowatt system designed to be fitted to a US Army vehicle.
The laser can be operated by a single person and is made up of multiple fiber laser modules, which not only allows for greater flexibility, but also lessens the chance of the weapon being knocked out by a minor malfunction, so frequent repairs aren't required. Lockheed Martin also says that the modular design means that the laser power can be varied across an extremely wide range to suit specific mission needs. Using off-the-shelf commercial fiber laser components to keep down costs, the modules can be linked together to produce lasers of up to 120 kW.
http://www.gizmag.com/lockheed-martin-athena-laser-weapon-manufacture/39753/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget
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MIRACL
MIRACL, or Mid-Infrared Advanced Chemical Laser, is a directed energy weapon developed by the US Navy. It is a deuterium fluoride laser, a type of chemical laser.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIRACL
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Tactical High Energy Laser
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactical_High_Energy_Laser--------------
Electrolaser
An electrolaser is a type of electroshock weapon which is also a directed-energy weapon. It uses lasers to form an electrically conductive laser-induced plasma channel (LIPC). A fraction of a second later, a powerful electric current is sent down this plasma channel and delivered to the target, thus functioning overall as a large-scale, high energy, long-distance version of the Taser electroshock gun.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolaser
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Laser Weapons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxcwlJ30uAw--------------------------
Sonic weapon
Sonic and ultrasonic weapons (USW) are weapons of various types that use sound to injure, incapacitate, or kill an opponent. Some sonic weapons are currently in limited use or in research and development by military and police forces. Others exist only in the realm of science fiction. Some of these weapons have been described as sonic bullets, sonic grenades, sonic mines, or sonic cannons. Some make a focused beam of sound or ultrasound; some make an area field of sound.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_weapon
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Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol_on_Blinding_Laser_Weapons----------------------
Solid-state laser
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_laserA solid-state laser is a laser that uses a gain medium that is a solid, rather than a liquid such as in dye lasers or a gas as in gas lasers. Semiconductor-based lasers are also in the solid state, but are generally considered as a separate class from solid-state lasers (see Laser diode).
Solid-state lasers are being developed as optional weapons for the F-35 Lightning II, and are reaching near-operational status, as well as the introduction of Northrop Grumman's FIRESTRIKE laser weapon system. In April 2011 the United States Navy tested a high energy solid state laser. The exact range is classified, but they said it fired "miles not yards".
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Lockheed Martin Weapon Prototype Immobilizes Truck Over A Mile Away 'In Matter Of Seconds': Here's How
March 7th, 2015http://www.techtimes.com/articles/38044/20150307/lockheed-martin-weapon-prototype-immobilizes-truck-over-a-mile-away-in-matter-of-seconds-heres-how.htm
ATHENA was designed based on Lockheed Martin's Area Defense Anti-Munitions (ADAM) laser weapon system used in demonstrations against small airborne and sea-based targets. Lockheed Martin developed a technique called spectral beam combining together three 10-kilowatt fiber laser modules into a single, powerful, high-quality 30-kilowatt beam that is more powerful than its 10-kilowatt components.
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Shooting lightning out of the sky
New methods to make longer streams of plasma with greater longevity could lead to laser-powered lightning rods
- Date:
- September 24, 2015
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150924124045.htm
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Boeing says laser weapon a success in Pentagon testing
Boeing Co.'s Directed Energy Systems division says it has achieved a sufficient level of power and beam quality to allow a solid-state laser system to be deployed to battlefields. The system - which could eventually bring down rockets and drones and destroy IEDs with a blast of light- is part of a major effort towards the development of directed energy weapons.
Boeing announced last week its Thin Disk Laser System, which uses a series of high-powered industrial lasers to generate a single concentrated, high-energy beam, has achieved the required thresholds for power and beam quality during demonstrations for the Department of Defense's Robust Electric Laser Initiative, or RELI, effort.http://blog.al.com/breaking/2013/08/one_step_closer_to_star_wars_b.html
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Boeing to be awarded contract for Laser SDB
28 June, 2013
28 June, 2013
28 June, 2013The US Air Force intends to award Boeing a contract to develop and test a new laser-guided version of its 250lb (113kg) small diameter bomb (SDB).
The company says that the weapons can carry out many of the functions of Raytheon’s SDB II, which has a tri-modal seeker with millimeter wave radar, infrared, and semi-active laser guidance capabilities, at far lower cost. The new weapon is based on Boeing’s laser joint direct attack munition (JDAM) technology.
http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-dewline/2013/06/boeing-to-be-awarded-contract/#sthash.wOJQCrub.dpuf
The
US Air Force intends to award Boeing a contract to develop and test a
new laser-guided version of its 250lb (113kg) small diameter bomb (SDB).
The
company says that the weapons can carry out many of the functions of
Raytheon’s SDB II, which has a tri-modal seeker with millimeter wave
radar, infrared, and semi-active laser guidance capabilities, at far
lower cost. The new weapon is based on Boeing’s laser joint direct
attack munition (JDAM) technology.
- See more at: http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-dewline/2013/06/boeing-to-be-awarded-contract/#sthash.wOJQCrub.dpuf--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Raytheon Government Agencies and Companies to Come to Consensus on Weather Modification
A Plan for the next phase in Weather Modification Science and Technology
Development
Weather Modification Association Annual Meeting, 2005
PDF: Raytheon says more WEATHER MODIFICATION!
http://r3zn8d.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/raytheon-says-moar-weather-modification.pdf
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Connecting the Raytheon, AMS, Lockheed, HAARP, NOAA, General Dynamics and DARPA dots….
Defense Advanced Research Program Association, or DARPA, has contracted co-operation command of the Highly Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) electromagnetic microwave ionospheric heater in Gakona, Alaska, for military communication and weapon “defense” purposes. They also take part in biological warfare “testing” over land, water, and city, whereby defense contractor jets, such as those crafted especially for war or weather programs by BAE Systems (owner of the HAARP facility) or Raytheon (owner of the HAARP patent), for the Navy and Air Force and NATO, disperse hazardous toxins into the air and then attempt to eradicate them with chemicals or jet-mounted microwave radiation weapons (like AESA). In addition, the Lockheed Martin and Boeing corporations joined up in a B2B contract with BAE and Raytheon, hardware and software hosted by none other than Microsoft, so that their defense contractor industry market could remain consistently and wirelessly networked, and would never be halted by distance, time, or situational awareness. The NOAA, a member of the Weather Modification Operations and Research Board, (partnered on that board with the American Meteorological Society and the National Science Foundation) sold its weather reporting functionality to Raytheon, who operates it now under the name Advanced Weather Information Processing System. Raytheon happens to contract many of its services and industrial airliners to the tune of global weather modification programs, such as those ever popular “global warming mitigation” or “global dimming” programs, (whereby jets utilizing liquid propane, liquid nitrogen, silver iodide, potassium chlorate, barium oxide, acrylamides, and trimethyl aluminum, spray these chemicals to replace cloud cover over entire countries) and, they’ve even managed to create, through their sub-company General Dynamics Robotics, Unmanned Autonomous Vehicles such as the Global Hawk that can fly for 72 hours, with a payload of 20,000 lbs or more, running entirely on programming and artificial intelligence microwave signal networking, without landing or refueling. It’s not just local chemical “cloud seeding” or “storm prevention” anymore, as is still practiced by the state-and-regional program member companies of the Weather Modification Association.
http://geoengineeringwatch.org/html/weatherreportedbyraytheon.html
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Free Electron Laser (FEL)
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/research/8-laser-weapon-systems-to-zap-planes-boats-and-people#slide-6
Power: 100-kw class
In 1989 Boeing was awarded a contract to build a unique laser weapon made from a Free Electron Laser—essentially a laser made out of a particle accelerator.
After all these years, though, Boeing still has plenty of work to do to actually build serious FEL weapons. At minimum, the laser would need to reach 100 kilowatts, and so far the free electron laser power record is only 14. Pogue hopes to reach 100 kilowatts in the lab by 2015—and then figure out how the heck to get a particle accelerator on a ship
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World's most powerful laser to tear apart the vacuum of space
Due to follow in the footsteps of the Large Hadron Collider, the latest "big
science" experiment being proposed by physicists will see the world's
most powerful laser being constructed.
Capable of producing a beam of light so intense that it would be equivalent to
the power received by the Earth from the sun focused onto a speck smaller
than a tip of a pin, scientists claim it could allow them boil the very
fabric of space – the vacuum.
Contrary to popular belief, a vacuum is not devoid of material but in fact
fizzles with tiny mysterious particles that pop in and out of existence, but
at speeds so fast that no one has been able to prove they exist.
The Extreme Light Infrastructure Ultra-High Field Facility would produce a
laser so intense that scientists say it would allow them to reveal these
particles for the first time by pulling this vacuum "fabric"
apart.
They also believe it could even allow them to prove whether extra-dimensions
exist.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8857154/Worlds-most-powerful-laser-to-tear-apart-the-vacuum-of-space.html
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How we recreated the early universe in the laboratory
May 12, 2015
- Instead of focusing our attention on immense particle accelerators, we turned to the ultra-intense lasers available at the Central Laser Facility at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, UK. We used an ultra-high vacuum chamber with an air pressure corresponding to a hundredth of a millionth of our atmosphere to shoot an ultra-short and intense laser pulse (hundred billions of billions more intense that sunlight on the Earth surface) onto a nitrogen gas. This stripped off the gas' electrons and accelerated them to a speed extremely close to that of light.
The beam then collided with a block of lead, which slowed them down again. As they slowed down they emitted particles of light, photons, which created pairs of electrons and their anti-particle, the positron, when they collided with nuclei of the lead sample. A chain-reaction of this process gave rise to the plasma.
However, this experimental achievement was not without effort. The laser beam had to be guided and controlled with micrometer precision, and the detectors had to be finely calibrated and shielded – resulting in frequent long nights in the laboratory.
But it was well worth it as the development means an exciting branch of physics is opening up. Apart from investigating the important matter-antimatter asymmetry, by looking at how these plasmas interact with ultra powerful laser beams, we can also study how this plasma propagates in vacuum and in a low-density medium. This would be effectively recreating conditions similar to the generation of gamma-ray bursts, some of the most luminous events ever recorded in our universe.
http://phys.org/news/2015-05-recreated-early-universe-laboratory.html#jCp
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No Big Bang? Quantum equation predicts universe has no beginning
Feb 09, 2015
http://phys.org/news/2015-02-big-quantum-equation-universe.html
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Holometer rules out first theory of space-time correlations
December 4, 2015
http://phys.org/news/2015-12-holometer-theory-space-time.html
The Holometer is a deceptively simple device. It uses a pair of laser interferometers placed close to one another, each sending a one-kilowatt beam of light through a beam splitter and down two perpendicular arms, 40 meters each. The light is then reflected back into the beam splitter where the two beams recombine. If no motion has occurred, then the recombined beam will be the same as the original beam. But if fluctuations in brightness are observed, researchers will then analyze these fluctuations to see if the splitter is moving in a certain way, being carried along on a jitter of space itself.
According to Fermilab's Aaron Chou, project manager of the Holometer experiment, the collaboration looked to the work done to design other, similar instruments, such as the one used in the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) experiment. Chou said that once the Holometer team realized that this technology could be used to study the quantum fluctuation they were after, the work of other collaborations using laser interferometers (including LIGO) was invaluable.
"No one has ever applied this technology in this way before," Chou said. "A small team, mostly students, built an instrument nearly as sensitive as LIGO's to look for something completely different."
The challenge for researchers using the Holometer is to eliminate all other sources of movement until they are left with a fluctuation they cannot explain. According to Fermilab's Chris Stoughton, scientist on the Holometer experiment, the process of taking data was one of constantly adjusting the machine to remove more noise.
"You would run the machine for a while, take data, and then try to get rid of all the fluctuation you could see before running it again," he said. "The origin of the phenomenon we're looking for is a billion billion times smaller than a proton, and the Holometer is extremely sensitive, so it picks up a lot of outside sources, such as wind and traffic."
If the Holometer were to see holographic noise that researchers could not eliminate, it might be detecting noise that is intrinsic to space-time, which may mean that information in our universe could actually be encoded in tiny packets in two dimensions.
The fact that the Holometer ruled out his theory to a high level of significance proves that it can probe time and space at previously unimagined scales, Hogan said. It also proves that if this quantum jitter exists, it is either much smaller than the Holometer can detect, or is moving in directions the current instrument is not configured to observe.
So what's next? Hogan said the Holometer team will continue to take and analyze data, and will publish more general and more sensitive studies of holographic noise. The collaboration already released a result related to the study of gravitational waves.
And Hogan is already putting forth a new model of holographic structure that would require similar instruments of the same sensitivity, but different configurations sensitive to the rotation of space. The Holometer, he said, will serve as a template for an entirely new field of experimental science.
"It's new technology, and the Holometer is just the first example of a new way of studying exotic correlations," Hogan said. "It is just the first glimpse through a newly invented microscope."
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Nanoparticles found to violate second law of thermodynamics
April 3, 2014It may be a little late for April Fool's, but some skepticism is nonetheless warranted when reading that researchers have shown nanoparticles to disobey a fundamental law of physics which dictates the flow of entropy and heat in, it was believed, any situation. Specifically, researchers from three universities theoretically proposed then demonstrated that a nanoparticle in a state of thermal non-equilibrium does not always behave as larger particles might under the same conditions, with implications for various fields of research.
The second law of thermodynamics is the one that makes perpetual motion machines impossible. It states that the entropy – the measure for the disorder of a system – of any isolated system cannot decrease spontaneously, with the system evolving towards the state of maximum entropy (favoring disorder). The team has shown that a nanoparticle trapped with laser light temporarily violates this law. This seeming violation of universal law is transient, something that the researchers first derived as a mathematical model of fluctuations expected at the nanoscale.
http://www.gizmag.com/nanoparticles-violate-law-thermodynamics/31491/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget
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Scientists announce breakthrough in quest for fusion power
February 13, 2014
http://www.gizmag.com/fusion-breakthrough/30814/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget
In a perfect example of beating swords into plowshares, a team of scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's (LLNL) National Ignition Facility (NIF) in California reached a milestone in the quest for practical fusion power using a process designed for the development and testing of nuclear weapons. The announcement in the February 12 issue of Nature claims that the team used the world’s most powerful laser barrage to produce a controlled fusion reaction where more energy was extracted from the fuel than was put into it.
If there is an ultimate engineering dream, then nuclear fusion is about as close as close as one can get. By literally harnessing the power of the stars, it holds the promise of what is, for all practical purposes, unlimited clean energy. Since man-made fusion was first demonstrated in 1951 with a boosted fission weapon, scientists and engineers have worked on some way to produce a practical fusion reactor instead of a hydrogen bomb.
The story of the fusion reactor is one of both great progress, but also constant frustration. When work began, the first reactor was predicted to be 25 years away. Since then and up until today, it’s still 25 years away. That’s because although nuclear fusion is relatively simple in theory, getting a controlled reaction started outside of the heart of a star is extremely difficult. The trick is to reach the “ignition” point, where the energy released by the reactor is greater than what’s put into it and the reaction becomes self-sustaining.
A fusion reactor works by simulating the conditions inside the Sun. Put simply, hydrogen atoms fuse in the Sun because its huge mass squashes the atoms together to form helium, releasing huge amounts of energy as the strong nuclear force that keeps them apart is overcome. A hydrogen bomb does the same thing, only with a fission bomb creating the necessary conditions for a millionth of a second.
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Apparent breakthrough in nuclear fusion silenced by shutdown
Scientists have come one step closer to harnessing the power of the sun. Researchers at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) have passed a milestone in achieving self-sustaining nuclear fusion -- but you won't hear about it from the researchers. The NIF team has been furloughed as a result of the U.S. government shutdown, which began on Oct. 1, and is not releasing updates to the press.
According to the BBC, a research experiment conducted in late September succeeded in releasing more energy through a fusion reaction than it absorbed by the fuel going in. NIF is the first research facility in the world to achieve this goal. A spokesperson for the NIF could not give CBSNews.com a comment on the results of the experiment.NIF's method for achieving fusion involves sending 192 laser beams through a 1,500-meter journey that increases its energy output by a factor of more than a quadrillion. The laser beams' energy grows from one-billionth of a joule to 4 million joules in 5 millionths of a second.
A breakthrough in nuclear fusion is widely considered the holy grail of achieving an unlimited clean energy source.
Scientists believe that fusion can fuel our future without threat of nuclear proliferation or environmental damage because the process of creating fusion requires very few resources. One of the biggest challenges in producing energy derived from fusion has been to pass the break-even point -- a goal that has eluded scientists for nearly 50 years.
Nuclear fusion is not to be confused with nuclear fission. Instead of splitting an atom's nucleus, like in fission, nuclear fusion is the process of bringing together two atomic nuclei to form a new nucleus.
While the NIF has passed the break-even point, it is just shy of reaching "ignition" -- when nuclear fusion produces as much energy as is supplied to the lasers.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57606588/apparent-breakthrough-in-nuclear-fusion-silenced-by-shutdown/
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Weather could be controlled using lasers
Scientists are attempting to control the weather by using lasers to create clouds, induce rain and even trigger lightning.
Experts from around the world are to gather at the World Meteorological Organisation next month to discuss how powerful laser pulses can be used to generate changes in the atmosphere that influence the weather.
Their experiments have shown that intense pulses of light can cause ice to
form and water to condense, leading to the formation of clouds.
The scientists have now begun testing their equipment outside for the first
time with extremely short pulses of laser light were fired into the sky.
Researchers have also proved that lightning discharges can be triggered and
channelled through the air using laser pulses.
There is a long history of attempts by scientists to control the weather,
including using techniques such as cloud seeding.This involves spraying small particles and chemicals into the air to induce water vapour to condense into clouds.
In the 1960s the United States experimented with using silver iodide in an attempt to weaken hurricanes before they made landfall.
The USSR was also claimed to have flown cloud seeding missions in an attempt to create rain clouds to protect Moscow from radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
More recently the Russian Air force has also been reported to have used bags of cement to seed clouds.
Before the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the Chinese authorities used aircraft and rockets to release chemicals into the atmosphere.
Other countries have been reported to be experimenting with cloud seeding to prevent flooding or smog.
However, Professor Wolf, Dr Kasparian and their colleagues believe that lasers could provide an easier and more controllable method of changing the weather.
They began studying lasers for their use as a way of monitoring changes in the air and detecting aerosols high in the atmosphere.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/10268455/Weather-could-be-controlled-using-lasers.html
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Laser-induced condensation shows promise for cloud seeding
Over the past decade, commercially-available lasers have increased in power by two orders of magnitude, reaching the petawatt level, with exawatts firmly within sight. The 2011 experiment used a 100 terawatt laser, and a "mobile" (actually the size of a shipping container) laser of five terawatts.
Further understanding of how lasers spur condensation will also help. The process, known as photodissociation, involves the laser's photons breaking down atmospheric compounds to produce ozone and nitrogen molecules. Those in turn form nitric acid particles, which bind water molecules together into droplets.
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-07/17/laser-coud-seeding
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Laser Beams May Be Next Rainmakers-
http://www.livescience.com/15834-laser-cloud-seed-rain.html
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Second Conference on Laser, Weather and Climate (LWC 2013) -
http://www.laserweatherandclimate.com/
Welcome
As highlighted by the success of the first Conference on Laser-based Weather Control in 2011, ultra-short lasers launched into the atmosphere have emerged as a promising prospective tool for weather modulation and climate studies. Such prospects include lightning control and laser-assisted condensation, as well as the striking similarities between the non-linear optical propagation and natural phenomena like rogue waves or climate bifurcations.
Filaments generated by ultra-short laser pulses launched into the atmosphere have emerged as an unexpected prospective tool for weather modulation. In particular, lightning control and laser-assisted water condensation recently appeared as spectacular prospects in this direction.
Although these new perspectives triggered an increasing interest and activity in many groups worldwide, the highly interdisciplinary nature of the subject limited its development, due to the need for enhanced contacts between laser and atmospheric physicists, chemists, electrical engineers, and meteorologists.
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Climate control: United States weather modification in the cold war and beyond. -
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18313754
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Weather modification
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_modification
Proposed US Legislation
2005 U.S. Senate Bill 517 and U.S. House Bill 2995 U.S. Senate Bill 517 and U.S. House Bill 2995 were two bills proposed in 2005 that would have expanded experimental weather modification, to establish a Weather Modification Operations and Research Board, and implemented a national weather modification policy. Neither were made into law. Former Texas State Senator John N. Leedom was the key lobbyist on behalf of the weather modification bills.
2007 U.S. Senate Bill 1807 & U.S. House Bill 3445 Senate Bill 1807 and House Bill 3445, identical bills introduced July 17, 2007, proposed to establish a Weather Mitigation Advisory and Research Board to fund weather modification research.
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Physicists observe attosecond real-time restructuring of electron cloud in molecule
May 14, 2015
http://phys.org/news/2015-05-physicists-attosecond-real-time-electron-cloud.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu
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Physicist finds mysterious anti-electron clouds inside thunderstorm
May 13, 2015
In August 2009, Dwyer and colleagues were aboard a National Center for
Atmospheric Research Gulfstream V when it inadvertently flew into the
extremely violent thunderstorm—and, it turned out, through a large cloud
of positrons, the antimatter opposite of electrons, that should not
have been there.
To encounter a cloud of positrons without other
associated physical phenomena such as energetic gamma-ray emissions was
completely unexpected, thoroughly perplexing and contrary to currently
understood physics.
"The fact that, apparently out of nowhere,
the number of positrons around us suddenly increased by more than a
factor of 10 and formed a cloud around the aircraft is very hard to
understand. We really have no good explanation for it," says Dwyer, a
lightning expert and the UNH Peter T. Paul Chair in Space Sciences at
the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space.
It is
known that thunderstorms can sometimes make flashes of energetic gamma
rays, which may produce pairs of electrons and positrons when they
interact with air. But the appearance of positrons should then coincide
with a large increase in the number of gamma rays.
"We should
have seen bright gamma-ray emissions along with the positrons," Dwyer
says. "But in our observations, we first saw a positron cloud, then
another positron cloud about seven kilometers away and then we saw a
bright gamma-ray glow afterwards. So it's all not making a whole lot of
sense."
http://phys.org/news/2015-05-physicist-mysterious-anti-electron-clouds-thunderstorm.html?utm_source=menu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=item-menu
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Researchers show presence of charge-density waves in superconductive material
December 10, 2015
Ultrafast laser techniques helped MIT physics graduate student Fahad Mahmood and colleagues establish that electrons form charge-density waves in the thin-film superconductive material LSCO cuprate.
"The question is how does this fluctuating charge-density wave compete
or not interfere with superconductivity, and what we found is that it
actually competes with superconductivity," Mahmood explains. "Electrons
for a very short amount of time are in this charge-density wave state,
and in another time scale, if you take another snapshot, they'll be in
the superconductivity state."
Charge-density waves occur when
electron density in a conductor is distributed in a sinusoidal pattern,
like ripples on water, instead of the common uniform density.
"It's
a fluctuating order that lasts for a very short amount of time and
equilibrium probes won't be able to detect it," he says. Using ultrafast
spectroscopy, Mahmood and co-authors of a 2013 Nature Materials paper
were able to show that for extremely short periods of time—up to about 2
picoseconds—electrons clustered in a density wave that could be
measured by its amplitude and phase.
http://phys.org/news/2015-12-presence-charge-density-superconductive-material.html
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Extending life of plasma channels could allow lasers to be used as lightning rods
September 25, 2015
http://www.gizmag.com/plasma-channels-laser-lightning-rods/39588/
Today's simple metal lightning rods may be on their way to
obsolescence. That's because scientists at The Hebrew University of
Jerusalem are developing a high-tech alternative that could potentially
reach higher and be more effective – laser lightning rods.
When a high-power laser is shot into the sky, it
ionizes airborne molecules in the process. As a result, even once the
laser itself is shut off, a trail of ionized particles known as a plasma
channel is left in its place. Plasma channels conduct electricity, not
unlike a good ol' steel rod.
Led by scientist Jenya Papeer, the Jerusalem team
successfully created plasma channels measuring 100 microns in diameter,
by firing a laser in pulses lasting just 100 femtoseconds each.
Unfortunately, however, after three nanoseconds the plasma cooled off
and the channels ceased to exist.
In order to boost those trails' longevity by a
factor of 10, the researchers added a second laser that is fired in
10-nanosecond bursts along the path of the first one. Its wider beam
envelopes the plasma created by the first beam, keeping it hot and
conductive. By boosting the power of that second laser, or even by
adding additional beams, it is hoped that the lifespan and the length of
the plasma channels could be lengthened further.
Speaking of which, though, the first plasma
channels to be produced were only a meter (3.3 ft) long. The researchers
addressed this limitation by creating an array of lenses that change
the way in which the laser is focused. As a result, it now creates a
series of three one-meter-long channels linked end-to-end, effectively
forming one 3-meter plasma channel.
That said, by further adjusting the focus and using
a powerful enough laser, it should be possible to produce any number of
linked plasma channels, creating a lightning rod of any desired length.
A paper on the research will be presented on Oct. 22nd at the Frontiers in Optics conference, in San Jose, California.
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Atmospheric Vortex Engine creates tornadoes to generate electricity
December 20, 2012
Tornadoes generally evoke the destructive force of nature at its most awesome. However, what if all that power could be harnessed to produce cheaper and more efficient electricity? This is just what Canadian engineer Louis Michaud proposes to achieve, with an invention dubbed the “Atmospheric Vortex Engine” (or AVE).
AVE works by introducing warm air into a circular station, whereupon the difference in temperature between this heated air and the atmosphere above creates a vortex – or controlled tornado, which in turn drives multiple wind turbines in order to create electricity. The vortex could be shut down by simply turning off the source of warm air.
http://www.gizmag.com/vortex-engine-tornadoes-electricity/25508/?li_source=LI&li_medium=default-widget
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Tiny magnets mimic steam, water and ice
September 21, 2015
Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) created a synthetic material out of 1 billion tiny magnets. Astonishingly, it now appears that the magnetic properties of this so-called metamaterial change with the temperature, so that it can take on different states; just like water has a gaseous, liquid and a solid state. This material made of nanomagnets might well be refined for electronic applications of the future – such as for more efficient information transfer.
http://phys.org/news/2015-09-tiny-magnets-mimic-steam-ice.html#jCp
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Volcanic ash proves inefficient cloud ice maker
May 28th, 2015When tons of ash spewed into the atmosphere from a 2010 Icelandic volcano it caused havoc for vacationers across Europe. But did it also dramatically change clouds? Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory found that volcanic ash is not as efficient as common dust in birthing clouds' ice particles. Using a novel laboratory testing chamber they formed cloud ice, a process called ice nucleation, around particles of dust and volcanic ash. Their results revealed the importance of optimal particle structure to efficiently attract super cold water vapor to nucleate ice.
http://phys.org/news/2015-05-volcanic-ash-inefficient-cloud-ice.html#jCp
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Silicon Nanoparticles Allow Production of Hydrogen from Water Without Heat, Light or Electricity
January 26, 2013
http://www.bangscience.org/2013/01/silicon-nanoparticles-allow-production-of-hydrogen-from-water-without-heat-light-or-electricity/
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Enhancement of electron energy during vacuum laser acceleration in an inhomogeneous magnetic field
In this paper, the effect of a stationary inhomogeneous magnetic field on the electron acceleration by a high intensity Gaussian laser pulse is investigated. A focused TEM (0,0) laser mode with linear polarization in the transverse x-direction that propagates along the z-axis is considered. The magnetic field is assumed to be stationary in time, but varies longitudinally in space. A linear spatial profile for the magnetic field is adopted. In other words, the axial magnetic field increases linearly in the z-direction up to an optimum point
http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/pop/22/3/10.1063/1.4916130
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Lazers sound like a good medical technology. We must question and see to it, that this technology is abused, by the wrong type of people. Imagine if the government could secretly administer the entire population with a vaccine, without their knowledge, just by pointing a lazer at them. You could even have multiple lazers targeting multiple individuals, for whatever type of chemicals you want to inject in them. Whether that chemical is medicinal or a poison. We must make the public aware of this type of technology, and how we should take steps in our civilization, to make sure that the governments and other individuals, do not abuse this type of technology, especially on a mass scale. Technically, all it would take is someone to point a lazer at someone, and that person could die from the administered chemicals in the lazer instantly or over a period of time.
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Jellyfish proteins used to create polariton laser
August 22, 2016
A combined team of researchers from Scotland and Germany has developed a way to create a polariton laser by using jellyfish proteins cultivated in E. coli cells. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the team describes their technique and possible uses for the result.
As most people know, at a basic level, conventional lasers work by bouncing light around inside of a cavity and then emitting identical photons as a beam. There is another type of laser that is less well known, the polariton laser—it works by tossing photons back and forth between excited molecules. But the reason it has not made its way into commercial use is because it must be cooled to an extremely low temperature to work properly. In this new approach, the researchers report the development of such a laser that works at room temperatures.
http://phys.org/news/2016-08-jellyfish-proteins-polariton-laser.html#jCp
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For more information on lazers, view our book titled "The DuPont Investigation. - Http://dupontinvestigation.blogspot.com/ ."
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To continue this discussion, view our book titled "Pollution Science 101 - 'Solutions'. - http://pollutionscience101solutions.blogspot.com/ ."
Here is a preview of the following subjects and chapters of the new book "Pollution Science 101 - 'Solutions'. - http://pollutionscience101solutions.blogspot.com/ ."
Chapter 1: Dyeing technology
Chapter 2: Armor technology
Chapter 3: Sustainable materials & fibers
Chapter 4: Sustainable Paints & coatings
Chapter 5: Plastics & Polymer technology
Chapter 6: Conductivity in polymers and rubbers
Chapter 7: Strongest fibers & materials
Chapter 8: Glass technology
Chapter 9: Light Energy
Chapter 10: Solar & Hydrogen power
Chapter 11: Green computing
Chapter 12: Chips, wires & Wafers
Chapter 13: Nature & energy
Chapter 14: Wind energy
Chapter 15: Air power
Chapter 16: Transportation
Chapter 17: Alternative fuel
Chapter 18: Biofuel
Chapter 19: Sustainable Lubricants
Chapter 20: Displays
Chapter 21: Water harvesting
Chapter 22: Refrigeration
Chapter 23: Vertical & sustainable farming methods
Chapter 24: Clean-up technology
Chapter 25: Toxic clean-up technology
