Lifeboat Foundation

Not quite green energy, but a step in the right direction.

This week the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted a patent to Amazon that covers “energy-efficient launch system for aerial vehicles,” meaning Amazon could be working on a way to fling your packages into the air—or space.

While at first a weird concept, it makes sense in context. This whip-like approach could shoot satellites into space as part of Amazon’s Project Kuiper low-Earth satellite constellation or Amazon drones that would zoom off to deliver packages.

Continue reading “Amazon Patents a System for Whipping Stuff Into the Air (or Space)” »

Essentially based on myth the sirius cat people live here. O,.,o.

Sirius, Alpha Canis Majoris (α CMa), is the brightest star in the night sky and one of the nearest star systems to Earth. It has an apparent magnitude of −1.46 and lies at a distance of only 8.6 light years from the Sun. It is also known as the Dog Star, in reference to its position as the luminary of the constellation Canis Major, the Greater Dog.

Sirius appears so bright both because it is intrinsically luminous, with an energy output about 25.4 times that of the Sun, and because of its proximity to the solar system. However, compared to other bright stars like Rigel (120,000 solar luminosities), Betelgeuse (90,000 to 150,000 L_☉) and Canopus (10,700 L_☉), or even Arcturus (170 L_☉) and Capella (78.7 L_☉), Sirius is not exceptionally bright.

Continue reading “Sirius (Alpha Canis Majoris) Facts: Star System, Location, Constellation” »

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Fuel cells turn chemicals into electricity. Now, a U of T Engineering team has adapted technology from fuel cells to do the reverse: harness electricity to make valuable chemicals from waste carbon (CO₂).

“For decades, talented researchers have been developing systems that convert electricity into hydrogen and back again,” says Professor Ted Sargent (ECE), one of the senior authors of a paper published today in Science. “Our innovation builds on that legacy, but by using carbon-based molecules, we can plug directly into existing hydrocarbon infrastructure.”

In a hydrogen fuel cell, hydrogen and oxygen come together on the surface of a catalyst. The chemical reaction releases electrons, which are captured by specialized materials within the fuel cell and pumped into a circuit.

No, these are not pictures of caramel corn—they’re the new close-ups of the sun, taken by the largest solar telescope ever built, and they’re what the Internet has been abuzz about for a week. The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) is able to capture imagery three times more detailed than anything we’ve seen before. What we’re looking at here in this video are huge bubbling cells as big as Texas, transferring heat from the sun’s interior to its surface, but the telescope can also resolve tiny features as small as Manhattan Island within the cells!

The DKIST is about 13 feet wide and has a better-than-bird’s-eye-view at 10,000 feet above sea-level on the summit of Haleakala, a massive shield volcano on Hawaii’s island Maui. The area covered in this image is about 22,600 miles by 22,600 miles, but the cell-like structures shown are about the size of Texas.

This is only the first time it’s been used so far, and scientists are hoping that in the future it will be helpful in predicting solar weather. Scientists still have a lot of questions about the dynamical processes in the sun and space weather is a focus that can have significant impact on the everyday individual. Space weather has a huge influence on our air travel and satellite communication, sometimes causing power outages and system failures, and our technology has only given us about 48 minutes’ notice until now. The DKIST will help us predict solar flares 48 hours in advance and understand space weather like we never have before.

Rocket fuel research has turned to natural gas…

Scientists in Iceland have figured out how to create geothermal energy from super-hot molten rock.

India’s largest commercial oil company, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., will partner with Lod-based energy start-up Phinergy to develop and produce innovative metal-air batteries, often regarded as the solution for long-distance electric-vehicle travel.

Indian Oil said it had bought a minority stake in Phinergy on Tuesday, which specializes in aluminum-air (Al-air) and zinc-air technologies. Unlike conventional lithium-ion batteries that carry oxygen within a heavy electrode, metal-air systems produce energy by combining aluminum, water and oxygen from the air.

The future incorporation of the long-pursued battery solution into electric vehicles, Phinergy said, will enable long-range driving, five-minute energy recharges and lowering the cost of electric vehicles.

Continue reading “Indian oil giant, Israeli start-up to develop metal-air batteries” »