The genetic modification of a human embryo by scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College has elicited both hope and horror.
NASA senior scientist Ronita Cromwell, who we interviewed about NASA's 90 day bed rest study, sent over this picture of her lab. This is where and how you'd be spending three straight months getting paid $5,000 a month to let your muscles atrophy for the good of the space program.
Could you spend 90 days in this room?
See Also:
NASA Offers $5000 a Month for You to Lie in Bed
Q&A: NASA Scientist Fields Your Queries About Lying In Bed for 90 Days
Image: Courtesy of Ronita Cromwell.
A new report from the Department of Energy claims that wind turbines could generate 300 gigawatts by 2030, which would power about 20 percent of the US electrical grid.
The forecasting scenario would require tremendous growth in the wind industry, which currently produces about 17 gigawatts of electricity, or a little over one percent of total capacity.
All by itself, such a change could reduce carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation (think: coal and natural gas plants) by 25 percent and drop water consumption by four trillion gallons. These benefits could be achieved at a cost of about six bucks per person a year, say the report's authors.
"To dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance our energy security, clean power generation at the gigawatt-scale will be necessary, and will require us to take a comprehensive approach to scaling renewable wind power," said Andy Karsner, the DOE's assistant secretary of energy efficiency and renewable energy in a release.
Currently, fossil fuels generate 85 percent of American energy, and about 70 percent of our electricity. Renewables (outside hydroelectric dams) are only responsible for a couple percent of our current electricity capacity. However, wind power has been expanding rapidly, growing 45 percent in 2007, as its cost has become competitive with traditional fossil fuel sources.
Major business players from General Electric to oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens have gotten behind its deployment. Pickens, for example, is planning a $10 billion, 4-gigawatt peak production wind farm. A major driver of these investments is the price of oil, which is sitting over $120 a barrel, with long-term futures contracts also over $100 a barrel. The cost of natural gas is pegged to the price of oil, so rising oil costs make alternative energy investments more attractive. At the same time, scaling wind technologies is bringing their price down.
Continue reading "DOE Report: Wind Could Power 20 Percent of US Grid by 2030" »
After seeing them in Europe for years, I finally had my first smart car sighting in the United States recently. (The fortwo became available in the United States in January of 2008.)
Ranked the highest fuel efficiency car in the United States (besides hybrids), the smart fortwo gets 33/41 miles to the gallon (city/highway) according to the EPA. The drop in efficiency from the European model (50 mpg) is most likely due to the changes that were required to import the car (or EPA's new more realistic testing conditions - including stopping, using the A/C etc.)
With recent surge of gas prices taking us closer to $4.00 a gallon in the United States, I expect to see a lot more of these around town soon. At $11,590 MSRP for the base model they are also a lot more affordable than their hybrid cousins or even a Mini Cooper.
Continue reading "European Smart Cars Are Looking Smarter and Smarter..." »
Last week NASA announced that they would begin working with the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on a joint program to model sonic booms -- a key technology in the effort to create a viable supersonic commercial aircraft in the 2030-2035 time frame (you have to start somewhere).
A breakthrough in lowering the intensity of the sonic boom could allow for supersonic transport over land without "disturbance to the public." JAXA's target is to reduce the intensity of the sonic boom by 50%. The agency is planning to fly an uncrewed demonstrator vehicle, the Silent Supersonic Technology Demonstrator or S-Cube, up to Mach 1.4 in 2012 as a proof of concept.
The goal of the program is to produce an economically viable, environmentally comparable, quiet hypersonic airplane. Such a je