Biological things
Bacterias are not dirty, they are cool!! Look how they gather!!!
And now viruses
Protein
Unicellular organism
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Energy
Acali Expedition
Le 13 mai 1973 (était-ce un vendredi?), 5 hommes et 6 femmes qui ne se connaissaient ni d’Eve ni d’Adam, embarquaient pour une expérience humaine unique de 101 jours en mer sur le radeau “Acali” (du nom d’une province mexicaine). Une coque de noix dessinée par l’architecte britannique Colin Mudie, reconstructeur, entre autres, de l’Argo amarré à Gênes.
A lire ou à relire, “L’expédition Acali” par l’anthropologue mexicain Santiago Genovès, le premier radeau moderne à ralier l’Afrique au Mexique. Je n’ai trouvé aucun site internet y faisant référence, alors bonne lecture. Santiago Genovès a participé aux expéditions Ra 1 et Ra 2 de Thor Heyerdahl, navigateur, anthropologue et archéologue ayant traversé l’Atlantique sur des radeaux en papyrus.
Extrait: “Entre les chercheurs qui restèrent à terre et nous qui prîmes la mer se produisirent des heurts; il y eut de l’envie, de la jalousie, de la peur. Dans le radeau et loin du radeau. Dans la science et hors de la science. C’est de tout cela qu’il s’agit dans le projet Acali”.
20 ans après l’ “Acali”, l’expédition “Hsu-Fu” reliait la Chine aux côtes de l’Amérique en jonque traditionnelle de bambou. [source : http://www.leblognautique.com/livres/index.html]
Baghdad Battery
The Baghdad Battery is the common name for a number of artifacts created in Mesopotamia, possibly during the Parthian or Sassanid period (the early centuries AD). These jars were probably discovered in 1936 in the village of Khuyut Rabbou’a, near Baghdad, Iraq. These artifacts came to wider attention in 1938 when Wilhelm König, the German director of the National Museum of Iraq, found the objects in the museum’s collections. In 1940 König published a paper speculating that they may have been galvanic cells, perhaps used for electroplating gold onto silver objects.[1] This interpretation continues to be considered as at least a hypothetical possibility. If correct, the artifacts would predate Alessandro Volta’s 1800 invention of the electrochemical cell by more than a millennium.
Building a “Baghdad Battery” - More DIY How To Projects
Where to look? In the past? Or in the future?
Now do you believe in time travel? Hehehe!
Nuclear humour back in 1981
Back in Paris for a few days in my parents house, I found a book I bought long ago.
Before I was born people used to have an incredible sense of humour. They were soooo convinced nuclear was no danger, so they issued this fancy book with spaghetti-western font:
Roughly, it explains how nuclear is cool because it kills less people than coal exploitation does :
Than we come to the design part of it : the nuclear waste disposal (click to enlarge) :
So basically these are simpler tankers UK nuclear services just throw in the middle of the ocean, where no one will be able to locate them precisely ever. And the technique they use to “secure” the tankers is quite hi-tech you will agree :
And british nuclear waste managment services have been practicing this fancy sport since nuclear waste exist on these particularly exciting spots :
So I guess I must add these precious points on this map of the immaculate oceans, how sad :
If the milk is sour, we will have no choice but to drink it :
And we cant ever get the truth about all this stuff, even if they know about it…
Who is “we” and who is “they” in the previous sentence? Guess.
But now comes real serious criticism, the one I can do as I am a qualified graphic designer :
The book, printed in 1981 and only borrowed three times from the RCA librairy is completely falling apart today (2008)… This is very worrying… How can a group of engineers responsible for the management of nuclear waste design and mass produce so fragile books? This is scary… This is absolutely scandalous! This binding is extremely dangerous! What if somebody reads this book in a bit careless fashion?!! What if someone drops the book? Everything could happen! Imagine the worst!
The whole nuclear thing is badly binded… Can we trust people who cant design a several centuries traditional knowledge (book binding), design nuclear waste tankers that are supposed to last until radioactive matter becomes harmless (at least 10′000 years)…
Now, you have only a few days left, if you are in London, to run see this exellent exhibition “NUCLEAR: Art & Radioactivity” by the Art Catalyst, Chris Oakley and Simon Hollington & Kypros Kyprianou until the 30th of November 2008 at the Nicholls & Clarke Building, Spitalfields, London E1 (Liverpool street station). It is about what I’ve been talking so far, but not from 1981 standpoint of view, it is a serious update, it is free, it is spooky, strong, strange, where is art, where is radioactivity, are we safe?
Last year, high court judge Jeremy Sullivan caused an apparent setback to the government’s nuclear energy ambitions by ruling that public consultation into the creation of a new fleet of nuclear power stations was “misleading” and “seriously flawed”. Soon after these events, Simon Hollington & Kypros Kyprianou started a residency at The British Atomic Nuclear Group as part of a public perceptions programme. Hollington & Kyprianou’s work in Nuclear is the outcome from this residency, particularly their work within B.A.N.G’s wide-ranging public consultation into the possibility of siting a nuclear power facility in the heart of London. Their new installation, ‘The Nightwatchman’ traces changing perceptions of the nuclear power industry over its 50 year history through a single immersive narrative environment, blending fact and fiction into a darkly humorous journey through hard-nosed PR and spin to a logical hysteria.
Chris Oakley’s new film ‘Half-life’ looks at the histories of Harwell, birthplace of the UK nuclear industry, and the new development of fusion energy technology at the Culham facility in Oxfordshire. Oakley gained the cooperation of both these organisations in his research and filming. The film examines nuclear science research through a historical and cultural filter. With the recent widespread acceptance of the reality of climate change driven by carbon dioxide emissions, the work explores the realities and myths surrounding the nuclear sciences.
Enjoy !
submarine flight
From TED
Graham Hawkes has created a new generation of high-tech undersea vessels that truly augment the way terrestrials experience the immense, otherworldly habitats of the oceans. His Deep Flight submersibles look like airplanes and behave like ocean creatures, using their wings and unique propulsion to gracefully soar and somersault into the deep — giving their pilot an unprecedented 3D perspective. According to his website, Hawkes’ designs account for a “significant percentage of manned and unmanned vehicles used by science and industry.”
Hawkes leads Hawkes Ocean Technologies, whose submersibles were featured in James Cameron’s 3D IMAX film, Aliens of the Deep. His company also produced the WASP and Mantis Atmospheric Diving Suits, built to facilitate undersea pipelaying. Hawkes currently holds the world record for the deepest solo dive — 3,000 feet — using one of his own inventions, the Deep Rover submersible.
“We’re throwing billions of dollars into the void and ignoring a rich frontier much closer to home: Earth’s oceans. They’re awash with unknown life, unclaimed territory, and immense natural resources. Perhaps the future of mankind isn’t out in space but in our sea.”
Graham Hawkes, WIRED
Garrett Lisi: A beautiful new theory of everything
Working from principles of differential geometry, physicist Garrett Lisi is developing a new unified theory that purports to explain all the elementary particles, and gravity, in one elegant model. His theory is based on a mathematical shape called E8. With 248 symmetries, E8 is large, complex and beautiful — and Lisi believes the relationships of its symmetries correspond to known particles and forces, including gravity.
His work, explained in his paper “An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything,” and in an ongoing discussion on FQXi, is still on science’s speculative fringe. But some physicists believe he could be pointing the way toward a truly unified theory.
“This is an ‘all or nothing’ kind of theory — meaning it’s going to end up agreeing with and predicting damn near everything, or it’s wrong. At this stage of development, it could go either way.”
Garrett Lisi on physicsforums.com
plants’ energy storage system for solar technology
In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn’t shine. Daniel Nocera describes new process for storing solar energy:
See the video.
Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later use is prohibitively expensive and grossly inefficient. With today’s announcement, MIT researchers have hit upon a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy.
Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials, this discovery could unlock the most potent, carbon-free energy source of all: the sun.
“This is the nirvana of what we’ve been talking about for years,” said MIT’s Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT and senior author of a paper describing the work in the July 31 issue of Science. “Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon.”
Inspired by the photosynthesis performed by plants, Nocera and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera’s lab, have developed an unprecedented process that will allow the sun’s energy to be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. Later, the oxygen and hydrogen may be recombined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power your house or your electric car, day or night.
The key component in Nocera and Kanan’s new process is a new catalyst that produces oxygen gas from water; another catalyst produces valuable hydrogen gas. The new catalyst consists of cobalt metal, phosphate and an electrode, placed in water. When electricity – whether from a photovoltaic cell, a wind turbine or any other source – runs through the electrode, the cobalt and phosphate form a thin film on the electrode, and oxygen gas is produced.
Combined with another catalyst, such as platinum, that can produce hydrogen gas from water, the system can duplicate the water splitting reaction that occurs during photosynthesis.
The new catalyst works at room temperature, in neutral pH water, and it’s easy to set up, Nocera said. “That’s why I know this is going to work. It’s so easy to implement,” he said.
‘Giant leap’ for clean energy
Sunlight has the greatest potential of any power source to solve the world’s energy problems, said Nocera. In one hour, enough sunlight strikes the Earth to provide the entire planet’s energy needs for one year.
James Barber, a leader in the study of photosynthesis who was not involved in this research, called the discovery by Nocera and Kanan a “giant leap” toward generating clean, carbon-free energy on a massive scale.
“This is a major discovery with enormous implications for the future prosperity of humankind,” said Barber, the Ernst Chain Professor of Biochemistry at Imperial College London. “The importance of their discovery cannot be overstated since it opens up the door for developing new technologies for energy production thus reducing our dependence for fossil fuels and addressing the global climate change problem.”
‘Just the beginning’
Currently available electrolyzers, which split water with electricity and are often used industrially, are not suited for artificial photosynthesis because they are very expensive and require a highly basic (non-benign) environment that has little to do with the conditions under which photosynthesis operates.
More engineering work needs to be done to integrate the new scientific discovery into existing photovoltaic systems, but Nocera said he is confident that such systems will become a reality.
“This is just the beginning,” said Nocera, principal investigator for the Solar Revolution Project funded by the Chesonis Family Foundation and co-Director of the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Center. “The scientific community is really going to run with this.”
Nocera hopes that within 10 years, homeowners will be able to power their homes in daylight through photovoltaic cells, while using excess solar energy to produce hydrogen and oxygen to power their own household fuel cell. Electricity-by-wire from a central source could be a thing of the past.
The project is part of the MIT Energy Initiative, a program designed to help transform the global energy system to meet the needs of the future and to help build a bridge to that future by improving today’s energy systems. MITEI Director Ernest Moniz, Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems, noted that “this discovery in the Nocera lab demonstrates that moving up the transformation of our energy supply system to one based on renewables will depend heavily on frontier basic science.”
The success of the Nocera lab shows the impact of a mixture of funding sources - governments, philanthropy, and industry. This project was funded by the National Science Foundation and by the Chesonis Family Foundation, which gave MIT $10 million this spring to launch the Solar Revolution Project, with a goal to make the large scale deployment of solar energy within 10 years.
Original article by Anne Trafton, News Office July 31, 2008