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Tom Gheysens

Biomimicr-E: Nature-Inspired Energy Systems | AAAS - 4 views

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    some biomimicry used in energy systems... maybe it sparks some ideas
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    not much new that has not been shared here before ... BUT: we have done relativley little on any of them. for good reasons?? don't know - maybe time to look into some of these again more closely Energy Efficiency( Termite mounds inspired regulated airflow for temperature control of large structures, preventing wasteful air conditioning and saving 10% energy.[1] Whale fins shapes informed the design of new-age wind turbine blades, with bumps/tubercles reducing drag by 30% and boosting power by 20%.[2][3][4] Stingray motion has motivated studies on this type of low-effort flapping glide, which takes advantage of the leading edge vortex, for new-age underwater robots and submarines.[5][6] Studies of microstructures found on shark skin that decrease drag and prevent accumulation of algae, barnacles, and mussels attached to their body have led to "anti-biofouling" technologies meant to address the 15% of marine vessel fuel use due to drag.[7][8][9][10] Energy Generation( Passive heliotropism exhibited by sunflowers has inspired research on a liquid crystalline elastomer and carbon nanotube system that improves the efficiency of solar panels by 10%, without using GPS and active repositioning panels to track the sun.[11][12][13] Mimicking the fluid dynamics principles utilized by schools of fish could help to optimize the arrangement of individual wind turbines in wind farms.[14] The nanoscale anti-reflection structures found on certain butterfly wings has led to a model to effectively harness solar energy.[15][16][17] Energy Storage( Inspired by the sunlight-to-energy conversion in plants, researchers are utilizing a protein in spinach to create a sort of photovoltaic cell that generates hydrogen from water (i.e. hydrogen fuel cell).[18][19] Utilizing a property of genetically-engineered viruses, specifically their ability to recognize and bind to certain materials (carbon nanotubes in this case), researchers have developed virus-based "scaffolds" that
Nina Nadine Ridder

Top 10 Surprising Results of Global Warming | LiveScience - 5 views

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    #4 is pretty interesting 
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    first time I hear about this!!! Is there any peer reviewed paper reference to this? should impact missions like GOCE!!
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    There are (even in Science): http://science-mag.aaas.org/cgi/reprint/314/5803/1253.pdf There is also a group at UCAR (lead by S. Solomon, one of the Gods in atmospheric research) who are analyzing this effect: http://www.ucar.edu/news/releases/2006/thermosphere.shtml
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    for the drag effect, this is well known in fluid mechanics, we use the Knudsen number, which explains this phenomenon ... for a perfect gaz though!
dejanpetkow

Holo-Deck 1.0 - YouTube - 3 views

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    Another Star Trek technology :) Might have an positive psychological effect if astronauts on long term missions could virtually escape their confinement - walking through a labyrinth with the blue sky above them. Ok, ISS does not provide enough space, but on Moon or Mars...
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    Is there not a risk that while walking in circles this way the cable I keep dragging behind will eventually strangle me?
Marcus Maertens

Randall Munroe Finally Finishes His 3,099 Panel xkcd Magnum Opus "Time" | Geekosystem - 3 views

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    Randall Munroe is simply the best.
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    Yeah I remember this comic was tough to hack... With Click and Drag it was peanuts to download all the tiles once you figured out the file name pattern, but with this one some strange server-side event thing was used to feed the images at random time intervals... Nice to be able to see it all finally!
pacome delva

Physics - Fruit flies swim through air - 1 views

  • A new experiment reported in Physical Review Letters shows that—contrary to popular wisdom—paddling can be as effective in air as it is in water. This could imply that insects evolved their flight capability from some earlier swimming trait.
  • Using high-speed video cameras to track wing motion, the team observed certain cases where the flies paddled their wings forward and backward. To confirm that this was indeed drag-based motion, the team plugged their wing data into an “insect flight simulator” and found that they could reproduce the fly’s overall movement. The authors constructed a simple model of paddling, which seems to support the theory that insect wings evolved in water.
johannessimon81

How Building a Black Hole for Interstellar Led to an Amazing Scientific Discovery | WIRED - 2 views

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    Kip Thorne looks into the black hole he helped create and thinks, "Why, of course. That's what it would do." This particular black hole is a simulation of unprecedented accuracy. It appears to spin at nearly the speed of light, dragging bits of the universe along with it.
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