oritonic1 - Slashdot User

Submission + - At least 300 tonnes radioactive water leak found at Fukushima, discharge ongoing

Submitted by AmiMoJo on Tuesday August 20, 2013 @06:22PM

AmiMoJo writes: Radioactive water has leaked from a storage tank into the ground at Japan's Fukushima plant, operator TEPCO says. Officials described the leak as a level-one incident — the lowest level — on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (Ines), which measures nuclear events. This is the first time that Japan has declared such an event since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. A puddle of the contaminated water was emitting 100 millisieverts an hour of radiation, equivalent to five year's maximum exposure for a site worker. In addition up to 300 tonnes a day of contaminated water is leaking from reactors buildings into the sea.

Submission + - Germany Produces Record-Breaking 5.1 Terawatt Hours of Solar Energy in One Month 2

Submitted by oritonic1 on Tuesday August 20, 2013 @10:21AM

oritonic1 writes: Germany is rapidly developing a tradition of shattering its own renewable energy goals and leaving the rest of the world in the dust. This past July was no exception, as the nation produced 5.1 TWh of solar power, beating not only its own solar production record, but also eclipsing the record 5TWh of wind power produced by German turbines in January. Renewables are doing so well, in fact, that one of Germany's biggest utilities is threatening to migrate to Turkey.

Submission + - $375,000 Lab-Grown Beef Burger to Debut on Monday (sciencemag.org) 1

Submitted by sciencehabit on Friday August 02, 2013 @03:19PM

sciencehabit writes: If you take some scientists' word for it, the biggest agricultural revolution since the domestication of livestock is starting on Monday—in an arts center in London. At a carefully orchestrated media event, Dutch stem cell researcher Mark Post is planning to present the world's first test-tube hamburger. Its patty--financed by an anonymous billionaire--is made from meat that Post has laboriously grown from bovine stem cells in his lab at an estimated cost of $375,000, just to prove a point: that it is possible to produce meat without slaughtering animals.

Submission + - BMW Debuts 2014 i3 First Electric Vehicle Made Primarily of Carbon Fiber (inhabitat.com)

Submitted by Elliot Chang on Monday July 29, 2013 @01:21PM

Elliot Chang writes: BMW debuted its 2014 i3 EV in New York City this morning. The new car is the world's first purpose-built electric vehicle made primarily of lightweight carbon fiber. See photos of the i3 here.

Submission + - Norwegian Town Creates Artificial Sun to Light Up Dark Winter Days (inhabitat.com)

Submitted by oritonic1 on Tuesday July 23, 2013 @11:58AM

oritonic1 writes: During their long, cold winters, the Norwegian town of Rjukan doesn't enjoy much by way of daylight—so the town (population 3,386), installed three giant sun-tracking mirrors to shine a steady light over a 2000 square foot circle of the town square.

Submission + - Jimmy Carter Calls Snowden Leak Ultimately "Beneficial" (rt.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn on Thursday July 18, 2013 @09:11AM

eldavojohn writes: According to RT, the 39th president of the United States made several statements worth noting. Carter said that 'America has no functioning democracy at this moment' and 'the invasion of human rights and American privacy has gone too far.' The second comment sounded like the Carter predicted the future would look favorably upon Snowden's leads — at least those concerning domestic spying in the United States — as he said: 'I think that the secrecy that has been surrounding this invasion of privacy has been excessive, so I think that the bringing of it to the public notice has probably been, in the long term, beneficial.' It may be worth noting that, stemming from Zurcher v. Stanford Daily, Jimmy Carter signed the Privacy Protection Act of 1980 into law and that Snowden has received at least one nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Submission + - Swedish Machine Turns Sweat into Perfectly Good Drinking Water 1

Submitted by Taffykay on Thursday July 18, 2013 @08:30AM

Taffykay writes: Swedish designers developed the Sweat Machine to drain perfectly good drinking water from sweaty clothes! PR Agency Deportivo has teamed up with UNICEF to show off the machine at the Gotha Cup youth soccer tournament in order to highlight how many people around the world lack access to basic drinking water.

Submission + - Aerovelo's Human-Powered Helicopter Wins Elusive $250,000 Sikorsky Prize

Submitted by oritonic1 on Thursday July 11, 2013 @11:54AM

oritonic1 writes: Since 1980, several teams have tried (and failed) to build a human-powered helicopter that could win the elusive $250,000 Sikorsky prize. But a Canadian start-up, Aerovelo, has finally taken the crown with Atlas, a human-powered craft that managed to stay at least 10 feet in the air, for 60 seconds, within a 30'x30' area.

Submission + - Solar Impulse Airplane to Launch First Sun-Powered Flight Across America (inhabitat.com)

Submitted by

markboyer

on Thursday March 28, 2013 @01:59PM

markboyer writes: "The Solar Impulse just landed at Moffett Field in Mountain View, California to announce a journey that will take it from San Francisco to New York without using a single drop of fuel. The "Across America" tour will kick off this May when founders Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg take off from San Francisco. From there the plane will visit four cities across the states before landing in New York."

Submission + - Foster + Partners and ESA to 3D Print Building on the Moon (fosterandpartners.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 31, 2013 @01:42PM

An anonymous reader writes: Internationally acclaimed architecture firm Foster + Partners built the Hearst Tower, the Millennium Bridge, and the Gherkin here on earth — and now they're setting their sights on outer space with plans to produce a 3D printed building on the moon. Today the firm announced that it has partnered with the European Space Agency to develop a lunar base for four people that can withstand the threat of meteorites, gamma radiation and temperature fluctuations. Since transporting building materials to space is a challenge, the team is considering using on-site 3D printing as a solution.

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