Comment Re:"Green Revolution" (Score 1) 262
I do think that the 21st century will have some sort of "green revolution", it's just a name which everyone quickly understands. It's not a perfect term.
I myself don't own - and never had - a car and do everything by bike or by using public transport, so that already helps a little bit in saving energy I think. Furthermore I was also thinking about production/transport/etc. of the solar panels which might also cost quite some energy. So in the end a solar energy panel wouldn't differ that much from electricity coming from the grid. The idea was/is to solar recharge my Asus EEE (~25 watts) while I am not at home/working. And in the evening use the netbook for a few hours. Total energy usage in combination with my LCD monitor - which would use the grid - would be about ~90 watts. In ideal conditions.
I should make a calculcation to see the real difference it makes compared to just using normal electricity from the grid.
But besides that, I think that solarpanels still need to become more efficient. I read already a few times about new technologies discovered, but the hyperlinks I gave are the only systems I know of. And which might be not worth it perhaps. But hey, if *everyone* keeps waiting, current solar companies won't earn enough money to start making more/better solar panels. It would be ideal if I could just put my mobile at my desktop and it recharges via the solarpanel integrated in the backside. And while for other people a car is a toy - which doesn't really help the environment - I think playing with (portable) solar energy is not that bad at all.
Submission + - Portable solar power for your portable hardware
Tjeerd writes: "(To the Slashdot editors, I'd like to start a discussion:) — Because the "green revolution" is accelerating, I felt I could start somewhere myself too. Last week I started with buying a portable solar energy charger for my mobile phone, which allows me to become a little bit less dependent on my local electricity grid and to become a little bit greener and to recharge my mobile everywhere — if there's sunlight. But soon I was thinking of also recharging my Asus EEE netbook with a portable solar energy recharger. I found things like the Portable Power Pack, Foldable Solar Chargers and the Solar Gorilla. The Solar Gorilla looks quite interesting and might be able to recharge my netbook and fits nicely in a rucksack. But because I don't have any experience with these solar devices I'd like to hear from other people who have experience with these or other portable solar devices."
Submission + - Embryo selection
Tjeerd writes: "I'd like to start a discussion about embryo selection. In The Netherlands there is currently going on a discussion about embryo selection, which means that when using IVF you check what kind of genetic defects there are and will also become 100% activated in life. The next step the government possibly wants to start is by making it also possible to select on genetic defects which might have a change to become active in life, like breast and colon cancer. Ofcourse this is a very difficult discussion, because where do you start and where do you end? People are worrying that there is no real limit and you could potentially check for every genetic defect. I think if you are in the situation that you or your family has genetic defects you surely want to check whether your children would get it too. How does the /. community think about this?"
Submission + - IBM Measure Force Required To Move Atoms (ibm.com)
Tjeerd writes: "IBM scientists, in collaboration with the University of Regensburg in Germany, are the first ever to measure the force it takes to move individual atoms on a surface. This fundamental measurement provides important information for designing future atomic-scale devices: computer chips, miniaturized storage devices, and more. An animation of their research can be viewed on Youtube."
Submission + - Start-up warms up personal robots (news.com)
Tjeerd writes: ""A Silicon Valley start-up is developing a hardware and software development platform for personal-assistant robots, autonomous boats and unmanned cars. The privately funded company, quietly started almost a year ago by eGroups founder and veteran Google architect Scott Hassan, plans to make its robotics software open source. That way, it hopes to draw a community of developers to build applications in these respective fields.""
Submission + - Experiment involving rope trick in space goes awry (gulfnews.com)
Tjeerd writes: "Quote from the site:
"Moscow: An experiment that envisaged sending a parcel from space to Earth on a 30-kilometre tether fell short of its goal yesterday when the long fibre rope did not fully unwind, Russian Mission Control said.
It was intended to deliver a spherical capsule, called Fotino, attached to the end of the tether back to Earth — a relatively simple and cheap technology that could be used in the future to retrieve bulkier cargoes from space.""
Submission + - Google testing "My World" for launch later (arstechnica.com)
Tjeerd writes: "Rumors of Google's plans to create a virtual world that rivals that of Second Life have popped up once again over the weekend. The company could now be collaborating with Arizona State University to test the 3D social network, which may be tied into Google's current applications of Google Earth and Google Maps."
Submission + - Cold fusion by US Navy breakthrough
Tjeerd writes: "Gordon's plastic wafer is the product of the latest in a long line of "cold fusion" experiments conducted at the US navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in San Diego, California. What makes this one stand out is that it has been published in the respected peer-reviewed journal Naturwissenschaften, which counts Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg and Konrad Lorenz among its eminent past authors (DOI: 10.1007/s00114-007-0221-7).
More can be read at New Scientist."
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