Friday, Febuary 19, 2010
That was a popular bumper sticker in the period following the 3-Mile
Island disaster in 1979. Usually described as "the worst civilian nuclear
accident in US history," there were no human casualties. However, seven
years later the Chernobyl disaster in the Soviet Union, now Ukraine, led
to massive casualties from radiation exposure, reinforcing the nuclear
fear factor. Not a single nuclear power plant has been commissioned in the
US since. That's about to change. Industries are seeking approval of new
modular designs that will bring the benefits of standardization to the
nuclear power industry. The news comes just as President Barack Obama
announced more than $8 billion in loan guarantees to stimulate production
of new nuclear power plants. If there is a problem, it most likely will
come from a dysfunctional Congress.
If you want to sell a car in Brazil, it had better run on ethanol.
Brazilians began running cars on ethanol during the oil embargo in the
1970s. According to an article by Antonio Regalado in this week's Science,
they make ethanol for half of what it costs to make it from corn in the
United States. But they know the rest of the world is investing heavily
in the next generation biofuel: cellulosic ethanol. Brazil's bio-ethanol
science and technology Center (CTBE) has just been inaugurated right in
the middle of sugarcane country.
Several times a year there are announcements that of inventors obtaining
free energy. Occasionally they succeed in patenting their idea.
Unfortunately, even a patent will not make the idea work. Patent number
6,938,422 seems to be such a case. What is claimed seems to be that
electric power can be generated using ambient energy extracted from the
working fluid. If that's so the second law of thermodynamics would not be
a law would it? We'll keep working on it.
The so-called Tranquility Node has been successfully installed on the
International Space Station. The 14-ton node will house Core life support
systems, exercise equipment, robotic workstations and an unmatched view of
Earth from a new viewing deck. Observations are made through the largest
window ever sent into space. There are four more shuttle missions to the
ISS planned for the next seven months before the shuttle fleet is retired.
So far, unfortunately, there are no reports of anything new seen from the
viewing deck. Earth, of course, is both complex and dynamic; there's a lot
to look at. Astronauts will therefore keep looking. If anything new is
reported we will let you know at once. Whether this will attract
additional paying space tourists is not clear.
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