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Francesco Biscani

Rooting for swarm intelligence in plants - 2 views

sciencenews.org/...r_swarm_intelligence_in_plants

BIO

shared by Francesco Biscani on 13 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • Francesco Biscani on 13 Dec 10
     
    Pretty nifty... we should look into this.
  • Luís F. Simões on 13 Dec 10
     
    the cited paper by Baluška et al (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2010.09.003) is a 2 page summary on the view that roots display swarm intelligence. Nothing really new compared to what those same authors have been writing about, but nice compilation of recent references on the subject.
  • Francesco Biscani on 14 Dec 10
     
    Trolled :)
nikolas smyrlakis

Europe's Ambitious 'Green Grid' Plan - BusinessWeek - 2 views

www.businessweek.com/...gb2010017_256132.htm

smartgrid renewable energy north sea

shared by nikolas smyrlakis on 08 Jan 10 - Cached
  • nikolas smyrlakis on 08 Jan 10
     
    The cables would link existing and new windmills off the German and British coasts with Belgian and Danish tidal power stations and Norwegian hydroelectric plants. The €30-billion project would compensate for the irregular nature of renewable energy and provide a steady flow to the countries involved.
Nicholas Lan

Nuclear experts clean radioactive site with Cillit Bang - 1 views

www.telegraph.co.uk/...ive-site-with-Cillit-Bang.html

NRG COTS spin-in

shared by Nicholas Lan on 10 Dec 09 - Cached
  • Nicholas Lan on 10 Dec 09
     
    Use of COTS products for low-cost nuclear reprocessing plant decommissioning. I suggest a brainstorming session for potential spin-in technologies involving walking around digros.
Nicholas Lan

artificial inorganic leaf (AIL) - 1 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...100325131549.htm

nrg nan bio

shared by Nicholas Lan on 29 Mar 10 - Cached
  • Nicholas Lan on 29 Mar 10
     
    bit confused about what they actually have achieved so far but sounds like it might turn out to be interesting. "The scientists first infiltrated the leaves of Anemone vitifolia -- a plant native to China -- with titanium dioxide in a two-step process. Using advanced spectroscopic techniques, the scientists were then able to confirm that the structural features in the leaf favorable for light harvesting were replicated in the new TiO2 structure. Excitingly, the AIL are eight times more active for hydrogen production than TiO2 that has not been "biotemplated" in that fashion. AILs also are more than three times as active as commercial photo-catalysts. Next, the scientists embedded nanoparticles of platinum into the leaf surface. Platinum, along with the nitrogen found naturally in the leaf, helps increase the activity of the artificial leaves by an additional factor of ten."
Dario Izzo

Gardening in space with HydroTropi - 0 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...110119095759.htm

ai bio

shared by Dario Izzo on 30 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • Dario Izzo on 30 Jan 11
     
    Roots in space!!!
  • Luís F. Simões on 31 Jan 11
     
    "Using cucumber plants (scientific name Cucumis sativus)" ...
Luís F. Simões

Shell energy scenarios to 2050 - 6 views

www.shell.com/...shell_energy_scenarios_2050

energy future forecast politics economy climate_change

shared by Luís F. Simões on 09 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • Luís F. Simões on 09 Mar 11
     
    just in case you were feeling happy and optimistic
  • ...7 more comments...
  • Francesco Biscani on 09 Mar 11
     
    An energy scenario published by an oil company? Allow me to be sceptical...
  • Joris _ on 10 Mar 11
     
    Indeed, Shell is an energy company, not just oil, for some time now ... The two scenarii are, in their approach, dependant of economic and political situation, which is right now impossible to forecast. Reference to Kyoto is surprising, almost out-dated! But overall, I find it rather optimistic at some stages, and probably the timeline (p37-39) is unlikely with recent events.
  • Luís F. Simões on 10 Mar 11
     
    the report was published in 2008, which explains the reference to Kyoto, as the follow-up to it was much more uncertain at that point. The Blueprint scenario is indeed optimistic, but also quite unlikely I'd say. I don't see humanity suddenly becoming so wise and coordinated. Sadly, I see something closer to the Scramble scenario as much more likely to occur.
  • LeopoldS on 12 Mar 11
     
    not an oil company??? please have a look at the percentage of their revenues coming from oil and gas and then compare this with all their other energy activities together and you will see very quickly that it is only window dressing ... they are an oil and gas company ... and nothing more
  • Joris _ on 14 Mar 11
     
    not JUST oil. From a description: "Shell is a global group of energy and petrochemical companies." Of course revenues coming from oil are the biggest, the investment turnover on other energy sources is small for now. Knowing that most of their revenues is from an expendable source, to guarantee their future, they invest elsewhere. They have invested >1b$ in renewable energy, including biofuels. They had the largest wind power business among so-called "oil" companies. Oil only defines what they do "best". As a comparison, some time ago, Apple were selling only computers and now they sell phones. But I would not say Apple is just a phone company.
  • LeopoldS on 14 Mar 11
     
    window dressing only ... e.g. Net cash from operating activities (pre-tax) in 2008: 70 Billion$ net income in 2008: 26 Billion revenues in 2008: 88 Billion Their investments and revenues in renewables don't even show up in their annual financial reports since probably they are under the heading of "marketing" which is already 1.7 Billion $ ... this is what they report on their investments: Capital investment, portfolio actions and business development Capital investment in 2009 was $24 billion. This represents a 26% decrease from 2008, which included over $8 billion in acquisitions, primarily relating to Duvernay Oil Corp. Capital investment included exploration expenditure of $4.5 billion (2008: $11.0 billion). In Abu Dhabi, Shell signed an agreement with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company to extend the GASCO joint venture for a further 20 years. In Australia, Shell and its partners took the final investment decision (FID) for the Gorgon LNG project (Shell share 25%). Gorgon will supply global gas markets to at least 2050, with a capacity of 15 million tonnes (100% basis) of LNG per year and a major carbon capture and storage scheme. Shell has announced a front-end engineering and design study for a floating LNG (FLNG) project, with the potential to deploy these facilities at the Prelude offshore gas discovery in Australia (Shell share 100%). In Australia, Shell confirmed that it has accepted Woodside Petroleum Ltd.'s entitlement offer of new shares at a total cost of $0.8 billion, maintaining its 34.27% share in the company; $0.4 billion was paid in 2009 with the remainder paid in 2010. In Bolivia and Brazil, Shell sold its share in a gas pipeline and in a thermoelectric power plant and its related assets for a total of around $100 million. In Canada, the Government of Alberta and the national government jointly announced their intent to contribute $0.8 billion of funding towards the Quest carbon capture and sequestration project. Quest, which is at the f
  • Joris _ on 14 Mar 11
     
    thanks for the info :) They still have their 50% share in the wind farm in Noordzee (you can see it from ESTEC on a clear day). Look for Shell International Renewables, other subsidiaries and joint-ventures. I guess, the report is about the oil branch. http://sustainabilityreport.shell.com/2009/servicepages/downloads/files/all_shell_sr09.pdf http://www.noordzeewind.nl/
  • LeopoldS on 16 Mar 11
     
    no - its about Shell globally - all Shell .. these participations are just peanuts please read the intro of the CEO in the pdf you linked to: he does not even mention renewables! their entire sustainability strategy is about oil and gas - just making it (look) nicer and environmentally friendlier
  • Joris _ on 16 Mar 11
     
    Fair enough, for me even peanuts are worthy and I am not able to judge. Not all big-profit companies, like Shell, are evil :( Look in the pdf what is in the upstream and downstream you mentionned above. Non-shell sources for examples and more objectivity: http://www.nuon.com/company/Innovative-projects/noordzeewind.jsp http://www.e-energymarket.com/news/single-news/article/ferrari-tops-bahrain-gp-using-shell-biofuel.html thanks.
LeopoldS

Gemasolar Concentrated Solar Power achieves key milestone - 24 hours of uninterrupted s... - 1 views

www.gizmag.com/...19098

NRG

shared by LeopoldS on 26 Jul 11 - No Cached
  • LeopoldS on 26 Jul 11
     
    was always a bit sceptic about the molten salt technology but practise seems to show that it works just fine ...
Luís F. Simões

Dutch PlantLab Revolutionizes Farming: No Sunlight, No Windows, Less Water, Better Food... - 6 views

singularityhub.com/...windows-less-water-better-food

BIO agriculture

shared by Luís F. Simões on 15 Aug 11 - No Cached
  • Ma Ru on 15 Aug 11
     
    ... better food?
  • dejanpetkow on 16 Aug 11
     
    I thought insects and bugs would be our (food) future, but maybe it's plants grown via vertical farming...
  • LeopoldS on 19 Aug 11
     
    I doubt that the associated homogenization of food will turn out to be "better" ....
ESA ACT

Mini nuclear plants to power 20,000 homes | - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...re-nuclear-reactors-los-alamos

nuclear innovation energy technology power environment electricity green water

shared by ESA ACT on 24 Apr 09 - Cached
  • ESA ACT on 24 Apr 09
     
    another one - not much detail given though ... anybody has a large garden?
ESA ACT

Space Solar Power Plants, what to expect? - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...7131617.stm

shared by ESA ACT on 24 Apr 09 - Cached
  • ESA ACT on 24 Apr 09
     
    Leo on BBC news
Joris _

Machine Converts CO2 into Gasoline, Diesel, and Jet Fuel - 2 views

www.physorg.com/news178203219.html

NRG technology

shared by Joris _ on 24 Nov 09 - Cached
  • a machine that uses the sun's energy to convert carbon dioxide waste from power plants into transportation fuels such as gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel
  • an efficiency of a few percent
Christos Ampatzis

Plants: Adaptive behavior, root-brains, and minimal cognition - 1 views

adb.sagepub.com/...155.abstract

roots AI bio

shared by Christos Ampatzis on 23 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • Christos Ampatzis on 23 Jun 11
     
    Hello? Tobias, Dario, Luis: Should we take a look?
  • Ma Ru on 24 Jun 11
     
    They are philosophers, and they don't quote your study... might be interesting nevertheless...
Thijs Versloot

Cheap materials could make grid battery storage feasible @techreview @nature - 0 views

www.technologyreview.com/...l-could-help-wind-power-go-big

technology energy battery

shared by Thijs Versloot on 09 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Thijs Versloot on 09 Jan 14
     
    The new battery, which is described in the journal Nature, is based on an organic molecule-called a quinone-that's found in plants such as rhubarb and can be cheaply synthesized from crude oil.
Athanasia Nikolaou

Silk protein and chloroplasts for the synthetic leaf - 2 views

www.iflscience.com/...synthetic-leaf-produces-oxygen

BIO science engineering silk

shared by Athanasia Nikolaou on 05 Aug 14 - No Cached
  • Athanasia Nikolaou on 05 Aug 14
     
    Royal College of Art's Innovation Design Engineering course in collaboration with Tufts University silk lab. Not as good as it sounds as it does not fully mimic the photosynthesis equation (spare C, H atoms)
  • Thijs Versloot on 06 Aug 14
     
    Interesting stuff and I guess it does not need to fully mimic photosynthesis in the end. As long as oxygen can be produced from CO2 and water that would be great enough. Though the carbon has to be deposited somewhere (in some form) and I wonder how one could extract this efficiently. Maybe it can even serve some purpose (as the sugars are doing for the plant)
jcunha

Wireless 10 kW power transmission - 1 views

phys.org/...n-firm-small-solar-energy.html

technology space PHY energy wireless

shared by jcunha on 17 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • jcunha on 17 Mar 15
     
    Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said Friday that it has succeeded in transmitting 10 kW of power through 500 m. An announcement that comes just after JAXA scientists reported one more breakthrough in the quest for Space Solar Power Systems (http://phys.org/news/2015-03-japan-space-scientists-wireless-energy.html). One step closer to Power Generation from Space/
  • Thijs Versloot on 17 Mar 15
     
    from the press release (https://www.mhi-global.com/news/story/1503121879.html) "10 kilowatts (kW) of power was sent from a transmitting unit by microwave. The reception of power was confirmed at a receiver unit located at a distance of 500 meters (m) away by the illumination of LED lights, using part of power transmitted". So 10kW of transmission to light a few efficient LED lights??? In a 2011 report (https://www.mhi-global.com/company/technology/review/pdf/e484/e484017.pdf), MHI estimated this would generate the same electricity output as a 400-megawatt thermal plant - or enough to serve more than 150,000 homes during peak hours. The price? The same as publicly supplied power, according to its calculations. There are no results to boost these claims however. The main work they do now is focused on beam steering control. I guess the real application in mind is more targeted to terrestrial applications, eg wireless highway charging (http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120312-wireless-highway-to-charge-cars). With the distances so much shorter, leading to much smaller antenna's and rectenna's this makes much more sense to me to develop.
Nina Nadine Ridder

To save on weight, a detour to the moon is the best route to Mars - 1 views

phys.org/...ht-detour-moon-route-mars.html

technology space lunar_base fuel Mars_missions

shared by Nina Nadine Ridder on 15 Oct 15 - No Cached
Ethan Evan liked it
  • Nina Nadine Ridder on 15 Oct 15
     
    More arguments for a lunar base? "They found the most mass-efficient path involves launching a crew from Earth with just enough fuel to get into orbit around the Earth. A fuel-producing plant on the surface of the moon would then launch tankers of fuel into space, where they would enter gravitational orbit. The tankers would eventually be picked up by the Mars-bound crew, which would then head to a nearby fueling station to gas up before ultimately heading to Mars."
  • Alexander Wittig on 16 Oct 15
     
    There was a paper with a very similar concept (reaching Mars via DRO) at the AAS meeting in January by Conte et al. First, the total Delta V required for a trip Earth -> LLO -> MLO is higher than Earth -> MLO. The trick is that Earth -> LLO requires less Delta V than Earth -> MLO and hence less mass has to be carried along *from Earth*. Essentially what both approaches have in common is that they say "if there's a free gas station orbiting the moon, it's cheaper to fly empty and fill up there on the way". The AAS paper actually does a decent job at estimating the "real" cost by also including estimates of the cost of a lunar base. https://pure.strath.ac.uk/portal/files/44275737/Conte_etal_AAS2015_Earth_Mars_transfers_through_Moon_distant_retrograde_orbit.pdf
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