Affordable Renewal Energy

Author Archives for Andy Soos, ENN

Photosynthesis


Photosynthesis is the process whereby biological systems convert sunlight into food and the source of all the fossil fuels we burn today. In a way it is the ultimate source of all energy supplies that we use. Glasgow scientists Professor Lee Cronin, …

Science Spending


Science has changed the world. It has created new products and ease of service. What the future will bring is, of course, always uncertain. “It’s not every day you have robots running through your house,” Barack Obama quipped last week at the Whit…

Magma Phase Changes within Planets


There is a weirdness deep inside planets. There are intense pressures and temperatures during their formation. Just as graphite can transform into Just as graphite can transform into diamond under high pressure, liquid magmas may similarly undergo ma…

Dune Flows


Sand dunes flow over the land subject to the winds like ocean waves or rivers. What makes them move? What makes them start or stop? In a study at the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico, University of Pennsylvania researchers have uncovered…

Nano Improved Transformer Oil


Rice University scientists have created a nano-infused oil that could greatly enhance the ability of devices as large as electrical transformers and as small as microelectronic components to shed excess heat. Research in the lab of Rice materials scie…

The Solar Balance


The sun is the base energy source for the Earth. What it emits is either absorbed or reflected. Observations showed some “missing energy” in this balance. Two years ago, scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., …

Ocean Acidity


Nearly one-third of CO2 emissions due to human activities enters the world’s oceans. This is part of the natural recycling of carbon. By reacting with seawater, CO2 increases the water’s acidity (lower pH), which may significantly reduce the calci…

Magnet Soap


A University of Bristol team has dissolved iron in liquid surfactant to create a soap that can be controlled by magnets. The discovery could be used to create cleaning products that can be more easily removed after application and used in the improved …

Shrewbot


One can see, one can smell to “see” the world. Once can also touch but with whiskers? The Etruscan shrew, one of the world’s tiniest mammals, measuring around 4 centimeters long, is the inspiration for a ground-breaking new robot developed to use s…

Maize Strength


Maize is known in many English-speaking countries as corn but is technically a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, m…