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Using algae to clean power plant exhaust
“Bioreactors” filled with algae can clean smokestack exhaust on power plants–and then be processed to produce biodiesel fuel. For his part, Berzin calculates that just one 1,000 megawatt power plant using his system could produce more than 40 million gallons of biodiesel and 50 million gallons of ethanol a year. That would require a 2,000-acre …
Tatooine could be out there somewhere…
Two new studies suggest that planets can more easily form in multiple-star systems than previously thought–which is good news, because it’s estimated that two out of every three stars in the Milky Way galaxy are part of multiple-star systems, many of them binary. Not only that, the studies indicate that once gas-giants have finished forming …
Aw, come on, have a heart! I just printed it…
Scientists have, for the first time, used a form of ink-jet printer to create jets of living cells. Suwan Jayasinghe of University College London and colleagues at Kings College London say their technique, which does not destroy the cells, could be used to grow biological tissue or even human organs. Boy, and you thought your …
A fusion reactor on every desktop!
Well, not quite: but the physicist who first reported on desktop fusion (more properly, “sonofusion”) says he has definitive proof that it works. Others aren’t so sure.
A major advance in space propulsion
The European Space Agency and the Australian National University have successfully tested a new design of spacecraft ion engine that is vastly more efficient and effective than current designs: Once ready, these engines will be able to propel spacecraft to the outermost planets, the newly discovered planetoids beyond Pluto and even further, into the unknown …
Tales of Future Past…
…is the name of this fabulous website that takes a look at how the future (our present) was oh-so-wrongly imagined in the past. (Via Defense Tech.) It puts our current attempts at prognostication in perspective, doesn’t it?
The case of the disappearing teaspoons
I don’t often mention politics in my science column, but I feel it is urgent to bring to the attention of all candidates a new field of research in which Australia has taken the lead and in which Canada, I feel, could make important contributions. I’m speaking, of course, of the study of disappearing teaspoons. …
A natural solution to Regina’s Canada goose problem
The Regina area has been experiencing coyote problems. Regina is also home to a large population of Canada geese, much to the annoyance of users of our large downtown park, Wascana Centre. What do the two have to do with each other? Well, according to a study that reveals just how coyotes are thriving in …
It’s a record-breaker!
The show musical theatre purists love to hate, The Phantom of the Opera, is about to become the longest-running musical in Broadway history. This will annoy some of my friends no end.
Great resource for SF writers (and astronomy buffs)
Via Robert J. Sawyer’s new blog I just discovered Solstation.com, which, as the site says, “provides information and software for those interested in astronomy and in writing, education, or entertainments related to science or speculative fiction.” Check it out!
LSD discoverer turns 100
Via Althouse, I learned that the scientist who discovered LSD has turned 100. I had no idea he was still alive. Having spent a few days between Christmas and New Year’s reworking my upcoming children’s biography of Jimi Hendrix, LSD, as I noted in a previous post, has once again been on my mind. Um, …
My latest live walk and vlog
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