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Tech post for 5-July-2008
Jul. 5th, 2008 12:25 pmJapanese sailor crosses Pacfic powered only by waves - After a voyage lasting 110 days, Kenichi Horie completed a trans-Pacific voyage using a boat outfitted with two fins that propelled the boat forward with each wave he encountered.
Cassini granted another 2-year mission - After completing a highly successful 4-year study of the environs of Saturn, NASA has agreed to extend the mission by two more years. Let's hear it for plucky space probes!
Nanotech makes your water boil faster - For those of you MUST have their water hot ASAP, US researchers have discovered that by adding nanorods to the inner layer of a kettle they can make the water boil faster. Well, sort of. They never actually measured the difference in boil time, but observed that the surface converted water to steam 6 times faster than copper alone.
More to Mercury than meets the eye according to MESSENGER - During MESSENGER's most recent flyby of Mercury it discovered evidence of ancient volcanism, water vapour in it's tenuous atmosphere (yes, it appears to have one, albeit thin), and that solidification of the planet's liquid core is causing the planet to shrink by almost 4 kilometres since being formed.
Canadian inventor proposes a man-made tornado as a power source - Louis Michaud, a gas turbine engineer, says that it may be possible to generate energy using what he calls an Atmospheric Vortex Engine (AVE) which is, essentially, a man-made tornado. The vortex is formed by piping warm air into a 200 metre-wide arena such that the winds rotate about the arena centre at up to 200 mph. The vacuum created sustains the vortex which then extends into the much colder air in the sky, well above the 100 metre-high walls of the arena. Turbines at the air intakes would generate as much as 200 megawatts of energy. The warmed air would be provided by waste heat from an industrial plant, and after the vortex is formed it would be sustained as long as the air at the base is much warmer than the air high up in the sky. At least in theory. It will cost $60 million to test the idea. As yet, no investors have come knocking at his door.
Cassini granted another 2-year mission - After completing a highly successful 4-year study of the environs of Saturn, NASA has agreed to extend the mission by two more years. Let's hear it for plucky space probes!
Nanotech makes your water boil faster - For those of you MUST have their water hot ASAP, US researchers have discovered that by adding nanorods to the inner layer of a kettle they can make the water boil faster. Well, sort of. They never actually measured the difference in boil time, but observed that the surface converted water to steam 6 times faster than copper alone.
More to Mercury than meets the eye according to MESSENGER - During MESSENGER's most recent flyby of Mercury it discovered evidence of ancient volcanism, water vapour in it's tenuous atmosphere (yes, it appears to have one, albeit thin), and that solidification of the planet's liquid core is causing the planet to shrink by almost 4 kilometres since being formed.
Canadian inventor proposes a man-made tornado as a power source - Louis Michaud, a gas turbine engineer, says that it may be possible to generate energy using what he calls an Atmospheric Vortex Engine (AVE) which is, essentially, a man-made tornado. The vortex is formed by piping warm air into a 200 metre-wide arena such that the winds rotate about the arena centre at up to 200 mph. The vacuum created sustains the vortex which then extends into the much colder air in the sky, well above the 100 metre-high walls of the arena. Turbines at the air intakes would generate as much as 200 megawatts of energy. The warmed air would be provided by waste heat from an industrial plant, and after the vortex is formed it would be sustained as long as the air at the base is much warmer than the air high up in the sky. At least in theory. It will cost $60 million to test the idea. As yet, no investors have come knocking at his door.