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Electricity from body heat

Submitted by Roanman on Mon, 02/25/2013 - 09:11

 

From Geek.com.

As always, click on the the little gear above or the photo below for the entire story.

 

Fujifilm creates organic printed sheet that harvests energy from body heat

Feb. 6, 2013 (3:32 pm) By: Matthew Humphries

As The Matrix has taught us, the human body is a great source of energy as long as you can find a way to harvest it efficiently. We don’t as of yet, but research and development is ongoing in this field.

Fujifilm has used the Nanotech 2013 conference in Tokyo to demonstrate some progress with the creation of a new thermoelectric conversion material. Such a material can convert temperature differences directly into electricity, which can then be stored or used immediately to power or charge some device.

The material Fujifilm has created in collaboration with Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) is desirable because it is both organic and has the highest thermoelectric conversion efficiency yet seen. Using a temperature difference of just one degree Celsius it can produce “several milliwatts” of electricity.

 

There's a "Supermoon" tonight ... last night really, but we missed it.

Submitted by Roanman on Sun, 05/06/2012 - 16:42

 

This full Moon will appear to be up to 14% larger and 30% brighter than most other full moons during the year.

The reason for this phenomenon being that this month the Moon becomes full on its closest approach to Earth on May 5, 2012.

Here's a nice NASA video explaining the "Supermoon" phenomenon, a term coined by our good friend Richard Nolle.

It should still be pretty good again tonight if you have clear skies.

 

 

Solar Storm Dumps Gigawatts into Earth's Upper Atmosphere

Submitted by Roanman on Sun, 03/25/2012 - 07:20

 

From NASA Science News via our friend Richard Nolle.

 

Solar Storm Dumps Gigawatts into Earth's Upper Atmosphere

 

 A recent flurry of eruptions on the sun did more than spark pretty auroras around the poles.  NASA-funded researchers say the solar storms of March 8th through 10th dumped enough energy in Earth’s upper atmosphere to power every residence in New York City for two years.

“This was the biggest dose of heat we’ve received from a solar storm since 2005,” says Martin Mlynczak of NASA Langley Research Center.  “It was a big event, and shows how solar activity can directly affect our planet.”

 

 

Mlynczak is the associate principal investigator for the SABER instrument onboard NASA’s TIMED satellite.  SABER monitors infrared emissions from Earth’s upper atmosphere, in particular from carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitric oxide (NO), two substances that play a key role in the energy balance of air hundreds of km above our planet’s surface.

“Carbon dioxide and nitric oxide are natural thermostats,” explains James Russell of Hampton University, SABER’s principal investigator.  “When the upper atmosphere (or ‘thermosphere’) heats up, these molecules try as hard as they can to shed that heat back into space.”

That’s what happened on March 8th when a coronal mass ejection (CME) propelled in our direction by an X5-class solar flare hit Earth’s magnetic field.  (On the “Richter Scale of Solar Flares,” X-class flares are the most powerful kind.)  Energetic particles rained down on the upper atmosphere, depositing their energy where they hit.  The action produced spectacular auroras around the poles and significant1 upper atmospheric heating all around the globe.

“The thermosphere lit up like a Christmas tree,” says Russell.  “It began to glow intensely at infrared wavelengths as the thermostat effect kicked in.”

For the three day period, March 8th through 10th, the thermosphere absorbed 26 billion kWh of energy.  Infrared radiation from CO2 and NO, the two most efficient coolants in the thermosphere, re-radiated 95% of that total back into space.

In human terms, this is a lot of energy.  According to the New York City mayor’s office, an average NY household consumes just under 4700 kWh annually. This means the geomagnetic storm dumped enough energy into the atmosphere to power every home in the Big Apple for two years.

 

Look to the west tonight at dusk

Submitted by Roanman on Sun, 02/26/2012 - 17:29

 

I should have gone through my email yesterday as I would have known to go check out the sky for a fairly rare conjunction of the three brightest lights in the evening sky, Venus, Jupiter and the Moon.

No matter, the show is back on tonight although configured somewhat differently.

Thanks to Judy M. for the heads up.

Look to the west tonight at dusk. 

 

 

The Aurora Borealis from The International Space Station

Submitted by Roanman on Sun, 02/26/2012 - 12:21

 

We're back to practicing avoidance around here for a while as the stuff we've been grinding on is just too depressing to work at posting.

Besides, as we are in the midst of almost nightly arguments over just what exactly it is that's going on out there and just what exactly do it mean, we have no thinking worth posting right now anyway.

Besides again, I just took on a second project which is beating the crap out of my not nearly as spry as it used to be body, the result being that I've been coming home, pounding the Advil and sucking on a bottle of Merlo in front of the fire rather than sitting in my office and reading crap that makes me crabby.

I'm starting to think that this may well be a superior approach to life.

Anyway, Holly B. sent us just a raft of real good video from NASA and SevereStudios.com.

The first two vids were shot from the International Space Station, the third from the ground.

Earth can be a beautiful place when the idiots aren't busy screwing things up. 

 

 

 

 

Our Angry Sun (seriously ..... this time)

Submitted by Roanman on Wed, 08/10/2011 - 15:37

 

From Space.com 

 

Solar Storms are Building Toward a 2013 Peak NASA Predicts

It's the Sun, but it's blue because it's an "Ultra Violet" photo.

I dunno.

Click the photo for the entire piece ..... it's science.

 

Solar flares like the huge one that erupted on the sun early today (Aug. 9) will only become more common as our sun nears its maximum level of activity in 2013, scientists say.

Tuesday's flare was the most powerful sun storm since 2006, and was rated an X6.9 on the three-class scale for solar storms (X-Class is strongest, with M-Class in the middle and C-Class being the weakest).

Flares such as this one could become the norm soon, though, as our sun's 11-year cycle of magnetic activity ramps up, scientists explained. The sun is just coming out of a lull, and scientists expect the next peak of activity in 2013. 

 

Click here for just an outstanding photo essay of past Solar Eruptions.

And here for a history of the most disruptive solar storms of the past 50 years.

They screw up the grid.

 

La Nina y El Nino (imagine squiggly things over the n)

Submitted by Roanman on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 02:43

 

 

Here's an article published March 1, 2011 at Weblog's 2011 science blog of the the year Watts Up With That?. 

A distinction they could have never earned prior to "Climategate".

That last part was an editorial comment.

As always, click the photo below to link up with the entire post.

 

Big-Time La Nina Tornado and Spring Flood Season Possible?

By Joseph D’Aleo, CCM, AMS Fellow

 

Tornado season kicks off in February most years, and yesterday’s storm had tornadoes, and other severe weather and with heavy rains after a snowy winter, major flooding. The tornado seasons tend to be more severe in La Ninas with larger outbreaks and stronger tornadoes.

 

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, because the original photo that appears with the above post at Watt's Up With That? is a bit long and skinny for the format we use here, we went out looking for a different tornado photo to use as substitute.

So we googled for an image search of tornadoes, and got this.

Now, if you click the photo above, it will as usual link you up with the story about La Nina and El Nino weather patterns at Watts Up With That?.

But if you click it at the page that results from the google image search, you get this, Mother Nature Network's list of the top ten tornado videos of all time of which the following vid is number three.

 

 

Thanks to Kenneth S. over at our facebook page for the idea,

Hopefully, that'll do it for the tornadoes for a good long while.

 

Elenin Cometh

Submitted by Roanman on Sun, 05/15/2011 - 10:18

 

Ok then, first of all be warned that the guy doing this video is going to try to sell you some silver at the end of this thing.

He doesn't try very hard.

He doesn't even give you his telephone number just in case straight out of left field you happen to be a buyer.

So as far as I'm concerned the guy is harmless.

Except .....

This is some seriously scary stuff being promoted here.

I'm not kidding.

What's going on here is that Mike is manipulating a model published by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the orbit of the comet Elenin/dwarf brown star, take your pick.

When I use the word manipulate in this conversation it's not a bad thing as he is simply setting the model for the following series of dates:

September 4, 2010, date of the Christchurch, New Zealand 7.2 magnitude earthquake.

February 27, 2010, date of the Santiago, Chile 8.8 magnitude earthquake

February 11, 2011, date of the Christchurch, New Zealand, 6.3 magnitude earthquake

March, 11, 2011 date of the Fukushima Japan, 9.1 magnitude earthquake. 

And then the following dates:

September 27, 2011 ?????

October 17, 2011 ?????

November 5, 2011 ?????

His conclusion?

You ain't gonna like it.

 

 

 

Now being me, I had to check it out for myself.

It all works exactly like the video.

If you click the photo of the model below it will take you to the exact NASA model used in the video.

Try it for yourself.

Go ahead I dare ya, scare the crap right out of your own self.

 

 

Sissy!

 Now NASA, right here explains very patiently that all of the above is simply a very large nothingburger.

For NASA to be more right about this particular issue than they have been on let's say ... ummmmmm ... that global warming thing, would in my mind be a very good thing.

Only time will tell.

 

Smart Little Lena Clones

Submitted by Roanman on Sat, 10/23/2010 - 13:34

 

We eulogized Smart Little Lena a month or so ago here.

As stated in that eulogy, he was among the greatest equine athletes of all time.

Below are the baby pictures of his five cloned offspring.

Four of these colts will be sold as four year olds at this year's NCHA futurity sale.

I personally like #4, Dave ..... seriously, Dave.

I don't know ............ he looks like a good guy.

They are being sold because differences of opinion regarding the ethics of the cloning and subsequent use of the cloned colts broke out within the syndicate that owned him, and landed everybody in court.

 

 

The above jpeg links to to a pay site article at Nature Biotechnology entitled Nuclear Transfer Saddles Up, that I just know for sure you are are going to want to read over and over again.

Maybe not.

These here gears here  links to an article about a cloned daughter of Docs Serendipity, another great champion cutting horse.  It offers some conversation about genetics vs. environment that's not very tough reading.

I liked it.

This little gear here  will take you to a very easy to read article which explains why these babies' white markings are all different.

I went looking around for a coherent discussion regarding the ethics of all of this ..... never found it.

Aside from the fact that all of this stuff just causes me to marvel, I really don't even know what I think about it.

 

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