Technology, Science and the Environment.

[leicsmac]

16 minutes ago, dsr-burnley said:

Are they saying that hydrogen can be produced emission-free, or are they just saying that once it has been produced, this vehicle doesn't create any further emissions?

One would assume the latter, which is a positive step.

[davieG]

 

Raja Mukherjee  · 

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The latest news on hydrogen fuel cell trains in India highlights the country's preparation for a nationwide fuel network plan.

This initiative is part of India's efforts to embrace sustainable transportation solutions, with hydrogen ICE vehicles operating at lower pressures compared to fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs).

Additionally, the United States is set to introduce its first zero-emission, hydrogen-powered passenger train in southern California in 2024, indicating a growing global interest in hydrogen trains.

[leicsmac]

These are all good parts of a solution, but unless places like India ditch their reliance on coal and oil for power generation ASAP it's simply not going to be enough.

[davieG]

Jeenawilder  · 

 

In the late 1970s, NASA and Rockwell International collaborated on a groundbreaking study to design a single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) spaceplane concept called the Star-Raker. The goal was to create a spaceplane capable of horizontal takeoff and landing, revolutionizing space transportation by offering operational flexibility and the ability to carry heavy payloads to low Earth orbit.

The Star-Raker was envisioned as an enormous vehicle that could carry a 100-ton payload and launch heavy space-based solar power satellites into a 300 nautical mile Earth orbit. It was designed to have a multicycle airbreather ramjet/cryogenic rocket engine configuration, with three LOX/LH2 rocket engines based on the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) and ten turboramjets.

However, the Star-Raker project never progressed beyond the conceptual stage. It was canceled after a test flight ended in an accident when the vehicle landed with three of its four legs deployed, causing it to tip over and explode. The project faced challenges and funding issues, leading to its discontinuation.

Despite its cancellation, the Star-Raker concept continues to captivate the imagination of space enthusiasts and engineers. Its innovative design and ambitious goals reflect the ongoing pursuit of more efficient and cost-effective means of space transportation.

 

[davieG]

Jeenawilder  · 

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The German armored steam locomotive DR #19.1001, also known as the 19 1001, was a unique and innovative express train steam locomotive operated by the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR) during World War II. Manufactured by Henschel, this fully streamlined trials locomotive with factory number 25000 was an experimental design featuring a single-axle drive to each axle, a method commonly used in electric locomotives. The locomotive's four driving axles were each driven by a separate steam-driven motor, showcasing innovative technology for its time.

At the end of the war, the locomotive remained in the vicinity of Göttingen and was subsequently transferred to the manufacturer on the orders of the American occupying forces for repair. After the necessary repairs were completed, a short test run was conducted between Kassel and Wabern. Recognizing the locomotive's special nature and innovative technology, the U.S. Army decided to ship the 19 1001 to the United States. The locomotive was then exhibited alongside the class 52 2006 condensing locomotive at Fort Monroe in Virginia, starting in March 1946. Subsequently, the locomotive was used in the U.S. for a number of test runs.

This unique locomotive, the only one of its kind built, played a significant role in the post-war period, serving as a testament to technological innovation and the exchange of knowledge and expertise between nations during a pivotal historical era.

German armored steam locomotive DR #19.1001, with its experimental design and innovative technology, had a remarkable history that extended beyond its wartime service. Its transfer to the United States and subsequent use in test runs underscore its significance as a symbol of technological advancement and international collaboration during the post-war period.

[leicsmac]

12 minutes ago, davieG said:

Jeenawilder  · 

 

In the late 1970s, NASA and Rockwell International collaborated on a groundbreaking study to design a single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) spaceplane concept called the Star-Raker. The goal was to create a spaceplane capable of horizontal takeoff and landing, revolutionizing space transportation by offering operational flexibility and the ability to carry heavy payloads to low Earth orbit.

The Star-Raker was envisioned as an enormous vehicle that could carry a 100-ton payload and launch heavy space-based solar power satellites into a 300 nautical mile Earth orbit. It was designed to have a multicycle airbreather ramjet/cryogenic rocket engine configuration, with three LOX/LH2 rocket engines based on the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) and ten turboramjets.

However, the Star-Raker project never progressed beyond the conceptual stage. It was canceled after a test flight ended in an accident when the vehicle landed with three of its four legs deployed, causing it to tip over and explode. The project faced challenges and funding issues, leading to its discontinuation.

Despite its cancellation, the Star-Raker concept continues to captivate the imagination of space enthusiasts and engineers. Its innovative design and ambitious goals reflect the ongoing pursuit of more efficient and cost-effective means of space transportation.

 

Reusable SSTO is the manmade nuclear fusion, the Holy Grail, of spaceflight.

 

And like those things, it's bloody difficult to achieve/find. The differences between aerodynamic and astrodynamic flight affecting practically everything from engine design to hull structure design (among other difficulties) is an engineering challenge that's beyond us right now - or at least beyond a truly massive injection of resources and time (it is theoretically possible with currently existing technology).

 

Hopefully though one day we might get there.

[davieG]

Boneyard Safari  · 

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This photograph was taken on July 15, 1945. The man standing beside this device is Norris Bradbury who was described by someone several years ago as the mechanic who had helped assemble the device (not completely inappropriate, but that "mechanic, Norris Bradbury, had a doctorate in physics and went on to become the second Director of the Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory). The device was referred to as "The Gadget," and it consisted of a collection of carefully assembled explosive lens arranged in a spherical pattern much like the outlines commonly seen on volleyball. Early the next morning, on July 16, 1945, those conventional explosives were detonated simultaneously and resulted in a highly symmetrical pressure wave that literally imploded a small spherical chunk of metallic plutonium. There was a very small hollow spot in the center of that chunk of plutonium containing two elements that when crushed together released neutrons triggered plutonium nuclei to split (or fission) into two fragments and releasing energy. That relatively small sphere then released in total the equivalent of nearly 10,000 tons of TNT. It was the first man-made nuclear explosion and was conducted at Alamogordo in New Mexico and was referred to as the Trinity test.

.

The device was identical in concept and general configuration to the weaponized version of the bomb dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.

.

The reason for the July 16 test was to confirm that the implosion weapon would work. The first bomb dropped on Hiroshima (on August 6, 1945) in Japan was a uranium "gun-type" device that the developers had no doubt would work.

[davieG]

Victoria Gill
Science correspondent, BBC News
@vic_gill
Published
22 July 2024
Scientists have discovered “dark oxygen” being produced in the deep ocean, apparently by lumps of metal on the seafloor.

About half the oxygen we breathe comes from the ocean. But, before this discovery, it was understood that it was made by marine plants photosynthesising - something that requires sunlight.

Here, at depths of 5km, where no sunlight can penetrate, the oxygen appears to be produced by naturally occurring metallic “nodules” which split seawater - H2O - into hydrogen and oxygen.

Several mining companies have plans to collect these nodules, which marine scientists fear could disrupt the newly discovered process - and damage any marine life that depends on the oxygen they make.

 

Full story here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c728ven2v9eo

[MPH]

4 minutes ago, davieG said:

Victoria Gill
Science correspondent, BBC News
@vic_gill
Published
22 July 2024
Scientists have discovered “dark oxygen” being produced in the deep ocean, apparently by lumps of metal on the seafloor.

About half the oxygen we breathe comes from the ocean. But, before this discovery, it was understood that it was made by marine plants photosynthesising - something that requires sunlight.

Here, at depths of 5km, where no sunlight can penetrate, the oxygen appears to be produced by naturally occurring metallic “nodules” which split seawater - H2O - into hydrogen and oxygen.

Several mining companies have plans to collect these nodules, which marine scientists fear could disrupt the newly discovered process - and damage any marine life that depends on the oxygen they make.

 

Full story here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c728ven2v9eo

 

ah yes… how very human of us….

[ozleicester]

1 hour ago, davieG said:

Victoria Gill
Science correspondent, BBC News
@vic_gill
Published
22 July 2024
Scientists have discovered “dark oxygen” being produced in the deep ocean, apparently by lumps of metal on the seafloor.

About half the oxygen we breathe comes from the ocean. But, before this discovery, it was understood that it was made by marine plants photosynthesising - something that requires sunlight.

Here, at depths of 5km, where no sunlight can penetrate, the oxygen appears to be produced by naturally occurring metallic “nodules” which split seawater - H2O - into hydrogen and oxygen.

Several mining companies have plans to collect these nodules, which marine scientists fear could disrupt the newly discovered process - and damage any marine life that depends on the oxygen they make.

 

Full story here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c728ven2v9eo

something something, profit, jobs and growth, something, free market something something

bloody JSO protestors painted a road orange

Edited 23 July by ozleicester

[leicsmac]

....all I'm saying is that there is a reason a lot of natural disaster movies begin with human hubris looking for a quick profit while not really mapping out the consequences of messing with complex natural systems.

[Jon the Hat]

4 hours ago, davieG said:

Victoria Gill
Science correspondent, BBC News
@vic_gill
Published
22 July 2024
Scientists have discovered “dark oxygen” being produced in the deep ocean, apparently by lumps of metal on the seafloor.

About half the oxygen we breathe comes from the ocean. But, before this discovery, it was understood that it was made by marine plants photosynthesising - something that requires sunlight.

Here, at depths of 5km, where no sunlight can penetrate, the oxygen appears to be produced by naturally occurring metallic “nodules” which split seawater - H2O - into hydrogen and oxygen.

Several mining companies have plans to collect these nodules, which marine scientists fear could disrupt the newly discovered process - and damage any marine life that depends on the oxygen they make.

 

Full story here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c728ven2v9eo

“I first saw this in 2013 - an enormous amount of oxygen being produced at the seafloor in complete darkness,” explains lead researcher Prof Andrew Sweetman from the Scottish Association for Marine Science. “I just ignored it, because I’d been taught - you only get oxygen through photosynthesis.

 

What a remarkable statement.  I mean who needs oxygen?

[leicsmac]

11 minutes ago, Jon the Hat said:

“I first saw this in 2013 - an enormous amount of oxygen being produced at the seafloor in complete darkness,” explains lead researcher Prof Andrew Sweetman from the Scottish Association for Marine Science. “I just ignored it, because I’d been taught - you only get oxygen through photosynthesis.

 

What a remarkable statement.  I mean who needs oxygen?

Tbh if you saw any chemical element being produced through a process entirely novel to scientific knowledge, the standard procedure is to wait for extraordinary evidence to prove it and not jump to conclusions until then.

 

We knew about chemosynthesis creating other elements, but had no idea it could happen with oxygen, particularly on this scale.

[Jon the Hat]

17 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Tbh if you saw any chemical element being produced through a process entirely novel to scientific knowledge, the standard procedure is to wait for extraordinary evidence to prove it and not jump to conclusions until then.

 

We knew about chemosynthesis creating other elements, but had no idea it could happen with oxygen, particularly on this scale.

its a hell of a find that is for sure.  Might one assume a serious amount of pressure is involved rather than just leaving the magic potatoes on the side in the kitchen and enjoying the boosted oxygen levels?

[leicsmac]

2 minutes ago, Jon the Hat said:

its a hell of a find that is for sure.  Might one assume a serious amount of pressure is involved rather than just leaving the magic potatoes on the side in the kitchen and enjoying the boosted oxygen levels?

There's definitely a factor that causes this to happen in that place and nowhere else, perhaps it's the pressure, perhaps it's something else, perhaps it's a combination of factors.

 

Should be good to investigate - and, at least for now, tell the money-grubbers with their dredgers to stay away.

[Grebfromgrebland]

24 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

There's definitely a factor that causes this to happen in that place and nowhere else, perhaps it's the pressure, perhaps it's something else, perhaps it's a combination of factors.

 

Should be good to investigate - and, at least for now, tell the money-grubbers with their dredgers to stay away.

I'm not sure it will. Complete societal breakdown and environmental collapse is factored in to the plans of the super rich. 

[leicsmac]

Just now, Grebfromgrebland said:

I'm not sure it will. Complete societal breakdown and environmental collapse is factored in to the plans of the super rich. 

Then they have grossly underestimated the scale of the consequences and grossly overestimated their own ability to survive such a changed world in the luxury they are accustomed to.

 

I don't believe that so many people - or at least the smart people advising them who would have their own personal stake in the matter - would be that stupid.

[leicsmac]

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cne4n2xdylvo

 

[Trump] talked about the power needed to mine cryptocurrency. “You need tremendous amounts of electricity” he said, adding he would build powerplants “to get that done” and would be “using fossil fuels”.

 

ObLog entry 8538062:

 

"Following the observation of the catastrophic population crash and civilisational collapse on the planet Sol 3 in the past decade, further research has found records that indicate the successful encouragement of producing a digital entity/"currency" with absolutely zero material value, using incredibly inefficient, polluting and carbon-intensive methods, may have been a key factor in the changes that led to that catastrophe.

 

I leave it to the reader to gauge just how lacking in foresight a supposedly advanced species can be when such decisions apparently gain enough popularity to be approved and implemented."

Edited 28 July by leicsmac

[Daggers]

The State of the UK Climate 2023 report provides the latest comprehensive review of the UK’s changing climate. It examines how the UK’s climate last year compares to previous years, including information on notable meteorological extremes through 2023, how the UK extremes are changing over time, sea level rise around the UK and nature’s response to the weather and climate.

The paper was published in the Royal Meteorological Society’s International Journal of Climatology on Thursday 25 July.

 

 

State of the UK Climate 2023

Mike Kendon, Amy Doherty, Dan Hollis, Emily Carlisle, Stephen Packman, Mark McCarthy, Svetlana Jevrejeva, Andrew Matthews, Joanne Williams, Judith Garforth, Tim Sparks

https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.8553

 

 

 

[leicsmac]

12 minutes ago, Daggers said:

The State of the UK Climate 2023 report provides the latest comprehensive review of the UK’s changing climate. It examines how the UK’s climate last year compares to previous years, including information on notable meteorological extremes through 2023, how the UK extremes are changing over time, sea level rise around the UK and nature’s response to the weather and climate.

The paper was published in the Royal Meteorological Society’s International Journal of Climatology on Thursday 25 July.

 

 

State of the UK Climate 2023

Mike Kendon, Amy Doherty, Dan Hollis, Emily Carlisle, Stephen Packman, Mark McCarthy, Svetlana Jevrejeva, Andrew Matthews, Joanne Williams, Judith Garforth, Tim Sparks

https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.8553

 

 

 

Key finds from this:

    The UK recorded its warmest June on record by a wide margin in a series from 1884, with a major North Atlantic marine heatwave a significant contributing factor.

    30°C was recorded in September in the UK on seven consecutive days, for the first time on record.

    Scotland had its wettest 2-day period on record on 6–7 October in a daily series from 1891.

    Storm Babet brought the UK's most impactful weather event of the year. England and Wales combined had its third wettest 3-day period on record on 18–20 October in a daily series from 1891.

    Winds from storm Ciarán on 2 November had the potential to be as severe as from the ‘Great Storm’ of 16 October 1987, but the strongest winds missed the UK to the south.

    The UK recorded its wettest September to December period since 2000 due to persistently wet and unsettled weather, including the sequence of named storms from Agnes to Gerrit.

[leicsmac]

@MarshallForEngland and @Kisnorbo fox...

 

If I may, the problem with the occlusion of opinion and fact that goes on often via the Internet is that people not only apply it to issues like the one in the AITN thread, but also to matters like the ones expressed above. That has obvious and well documented negative consequences when it is applied to democratic policy on science.

 

What, exactly, I wonder, is the solution there? Or should we even bother to fix it at all?

[Guest MarshallForEngland]

51 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

@MarshallForEngland and @Kisnorbo fox...

 

If I may, the problem with the occlusion of opinion and fact that goes on often via the Internet is that people not only apply it to issues like the one in the AITN thread, but also to matters like the ones expressed above. That has obvious and well documented negative consequences when it is applied to democratic policy on science.

 

What, exactly, I wonder, is the solution there? Or should we even bother to fix it at all?

I am afraid I know so little on the topic of climate change that I have nothing meaningful say about it. In general though my opinion is that everybody should be able to say what they want to and continued dialogue will bring us closer to the truth. And I don't trust anybody in this world, myself included, to reliably categorise different topics as ones which can be argued about and ones which can't. 

[leicsmac]

14 minutes ago, MarshallForEngland said:

I am afraid I know so little on the topic of climate change that I have nothing meaningful say about it. In general though my opinion is that everybody should be able to say what they want to and continued dialogue will bring us closer to the truth. And I don't trust anybody in this world, myself included, to reliably categorise different topics as ones which can be argued about and ones which can't. 

Fair enough.

 

My own thoughts on the topic is that while that last sentence is well meaning, it ends with a world where no one is invalidated but no one is right, and on certain topics where swift and unified action is a necessity, such as more than one scientific issue, that leads nowhere good.

[davieG]

 

Taqwa Real Estate & builders  · 

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Researchers at Denmark Technical University (DTU) have developed a groundbreaking battery material using potassium silicate, a mineral found in common rocks, that could revolutionize electric vehicle (EV) batteries. Unlike lithium-ion batteries, which are costly and environmentally harmful, this new material is cheap, eco-friendly, and more efficient.

Developed by Mohamad Khoshkalam, the paper-thin, milky-white material conducts ions well at around 40 degrees and can be produced in an open atmosphere at room temperature. This innovation promises to enhance battery capacity, reduce charging time, and improve safety by eliminating combustible liquids.

With the potential to enable EVs to travel up to 1,000 kilometers on a 10-minute charge, this solid-state battery technology could become a game-changer. Khoshkalam has patented the material and founded K-Ion to develop battery components, with a working prototype expected in 1-2 years.

#EVBatteries #PotassiumSilicate #EcoFriendly #FutureOfTransport #BatteryInnovation #LithiumAlternative #CleanEnergy #ElectricVehicles #SustainableTech

[Daggers]

4 hours ago, davieG said:

 

Taqwa Real Estate & builders  · 

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Researchers at Denmark Technical University (DTU) have developed a groundbreaking battery material using potassium silicate, a mineral found in common rocks, that could revolutionize electric vehicle (EV) batteries. Unlike lithium-ion batteries, which are costly and environmentally harmful, this new material is cheap, eco-friendly, and more efficient.

Developed by Mohamad Khoshkalam, the paper-thin, milky-white material conducts ions well at around 40 degrees and can be produced in an open atmosphere at room temperature. This innovation promises to enhance battery capacity, reduce charging time, and improve safety by eliminating combustible liquids.

With the potential to enable EVs to travel up to 1,000 kilometers on a 10-minute charge, this solid-state battery technology could become a game-changer. Khoshkalam has patented the material and founded K-Ion to develop battery components, with a working prototype expected in 1-2 years.

#EVBatteries #PotassiumSilicate #EcoFriendly #FutureOfTransport #BatteryInnovation #LithiumAlternative #CleanEnergy #ElectricVehicles #SustainableTech

I used to cover at least one amazing battery breakthrough a month. After a number of years of none of them making it from a University press office into the real world I stopped bothering.

 

To re-write that article's heading: "Cheap electric car batteries will not be made soon because the boffins haven't even got to the working prototype stage".

 

...But then that would be a lot less racey and attract far fewer readers.