National Geographic photographer Michael Nichols is one of the world’s foremost wildlife photographers. But he recently said that he’d happily spend the rest of his life photographing trees. Of course, the folks over at National Geographic would almost certainly never hear of it. Nichols’ newfound love developed after a serious, yearlong relationship with redwoods.
At least 1,500 years old, this 300-foot giant in California’s Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park has the most complex crown ever mapped. (Michael Nichols/National Geographic)
Wildlife photographer Michael Nichols did it by taking a bunch of close-ups using a special camera rig and stitching them together digitally. NPR has the full story here.
The third smallest sovereign nation in the world has just made an enormous contribution to relieving the world’s debt to the environment. Singapore researchers at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) have discovered how to turn carbon dioxide into methanol…. Double take: They have found a way to make greenhouse gas green. Triple take: They took the biggest contributor to the world’s carbon footprint and converted it into a source of clean energy for the world. Astounding.
In case you’re not jumping out of your skin yet, the IBN research was immediately sent to Angewandte Chemie, published by the German Chemical Society, and the prestigious journal called it a “hot paper,” and “very important.” In layman’s terms, what IBN researchers discovered is that if they used N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs), an organic catalyst, as opposed to heavy metal catalysts, carbon dioxide is activated, a state which it must be in to transform it into something useful.
Then, hydrosilane, a combination of silica and hydrogen, is added to the NHC-activated carbon dioxide and, by adding water into the solution through hydrolysis, the carbon dioxide transforms into methanol.
IBN principal research scientist, Dr. Yugen Zhang, explained: “Hydrosilane provides hydrogen, which bonds with carbon dioxide in a reduction reaction. This carbon dioxide reduction is efficiently catalyzed by NHCs even at room temperature. Methanol can be easily obtained from the product of the carbon dioxide reaction. Our previous research on NHCs has demonstrated their multiple applications as powerful antioxidants to fight degenerative diseases, and as effective catalysts to transform sugars into an alternative energy source. We have now shown that NHCs can also be applied successfully to the conversion of carbon dioxide into methanol, helping to unleash the potential of this highly abundant gas.”
The 2009 Henry Hazlitt Memorial Lecture, presented by Peter Schiff. Recorded at the annual Austrian Scholars Conference, Ludwig von Mises Institute, 13 March 2009.
Is it just me or is there suddenly more interest in flying cars recently? Here’s yet another example. Unlike the moller skycar the Terrafugia is more like a plane. So you would need an airstrip for take off! (tad inconvenient) Then as I previously posted there is also the crazy brit’s with there Parajet Skycar, who are still currently on the adventure from London to Timbuktu. Best of luck to all the projects out there, it’s always nice when talking about a future with flying cars to actually have examples such as these.
Is it a car? Is it a plane? Actually it’s both. The first flying automobile, equally at home in the sky or on the road, is scheduled to take to the air next month.
If it survives its first test flight, the Terrafugia Transition, which can transform itself from a two-seater road car to a plane in 15 seconds, is expected to land in showrooms in about 18 months’ time.
Its manufacturer says it is easy to keep and run since it uses normal unleaded fuel and will fit into a garage.
Carl Dietrich, who runs the Massachusetts-based Terrafugia, said: “This is the first really integrated design where the wings fold up automatically and all the parts are in one vehicle.” read more..
01.Genpet™ The Only Bioengineered Buddy. Available in 7 different personality types.
02.Color Coding Each personality type of the Genpets has been linked to its respective colour, and that color is then used as a base for each package. (Read more)
03.Heart Monitor Each package has a built in low cost heart monitor that is fully functional, with green LED lights and built in speaker. (Read more)
04.Fresh Strip Every single package includes an easy to use “fresh gauge”. Four simple blue LED lights display the status of the Genpet™. The display will also display if the Genpet™ has been sitting on the store shelf too long, or if the package circuitry has malfunctioned in some way. (Read more)
05.Bio-Genica IV System While the Genpets hang on the store shelves they are in a form of hibernation. Each Genpet™ package has a special nutrient feeding tube attached to it, supplying our specially formulated mix and keeping them healthy and asleep.
06.Genpet™ Restraints Restraining the pets in their packaging ensures no damage to the product, as well as allowing for optimal consumer viewing.
(*Genpet™ life may vary depending on temperature and Genpet ™ freshness)
These drawings are hand drawn by a very Talented lady…her name is Linda Huber.
I can’t get over how real and to depth they are, she is a truly talented artist.
I started out drawing from life, then as the years passed my drawings became more detailed. Today most all of my work takes anywhere from 20-80 hours so I work primarily from reference photos. I’m self taught and strive for realism in each piece using only graphite pencils. Details are key to realism so patience is significant, working a small area to near finish before moving on is a personal technique of mine. Portraiture is one favorite due to the vast features also capturing a unique personality is always a rewarding challenge. Drawing inanimate objects has become another favorite, textures such as metal and glass are extremely interesting and fun to draw. I’ve been taking commissions since 1998 from people across the US and all over the world. My artwork has been used in advertisement, books, has been featured on many internet sites, Ovation TV, and in a local art gallery ~Linda.
Jerry Woodall an engineer from Purdue University, has designed a new Hydrogen road car. I look forward to seeing the progress of this car and hopefully more car companies will take on his technology.
Jerry Woodall, an engineer from Purdue University,
has developed a method that uses an aluminum alloy to extract hydrogen
from water on contact. This process eliminates the need to transport or
store hydrogen gas, 2 things that have been major obstacles to
achieving the much anticipated hydrogen economy.
Hydrogen is generated spontaneously when water is added to pellets of
the alloy, which is a mixture of aluminum and gallium. Aluminum has
been used for a long time in chemical production of hydrogen, but the
addition of gallium makes this alloy far more effective as a catalyst.
As aluminum oxidizes, a skin forms on it’s surface preventing further
contact between the aluminum and the water. The gallium prevents this
skin formation, allowing the reaction to continue until the aluminum
has been used up. The aluminum has a strong attraction to the oxygen in
the water, and when water is added to the pellets the oxygen is
stripped out of the water molecules, leaving free hydrogen gas as a
byproduct.
This technology is being looked at to allow the conversion of cars and
trucks to hydrogen, but the prospects aren’t quite as good as a first
glance might suggest.
Because the alloy is used up during the reaction, new pellets need
to be added periodically and the waste materials need to be recycled.
Internal combustion engines are only about 25% efficient so
existing engines would require more frequent fueling than with hydrogen
fuel cell electric vehicles.
Additional energy and effort is required to replace the pellets and process the alloy after use
However, using the pure hydrogen generated from this process, a fuel
cell system would run at closer to 75% efficiency, reducing the
previously mentioned problems by 2/3. Fuel cells have long been touted
as being the ultimate in power generation for mobile uses, but the
complexity, inefficiencies and cost make them remain impractical for
general transportation uses when compared to the simplicity of battery
electric vehicles for urban use. The technology does become far more
favorable when used with fuel cells instead of internal combustion
however. For general urban transportation, I favor
solar/wind/geothermal powered battery electric vehicles, but there are
several other applications for which on-demand hydrogen fuel cell
systems would be ideally suited:
Rural vehicles that wouldn’t have easy access to a charging station
Emergency response vehicles that require operation at all times
Larger devices such as lawn mowers, tillers, chainsaws, backup generators, cooking devices, etc
Emergency power generation in case of a natural disaster
These applications would benefit from the ease of fueling (just add
water!) and clean operation that on-demand hydrogen would provide.
Because they would not be part of normal urban usage, the hindrances of
the system would be minimized and would remain cost-effective.
Source: the green geek
