There are 160 million set-top boxes in the United States.
That cable box that sits on top of your television and ushers in cable signals and digital recording capacity into tv has become the single largest electricity drain in many American homes. Some typical home entertainment configurations eat more power than a new refrigerator and even some central air-conditioning systems.
Continue reading… “Cable boxes are the single largest nonstop power drain in American homes”
Gemasolar Power Plant
The Gemasolar Power Plant looks like a giant art project. But this symmetrical, circular pattern of mirrored panels is the world’s first solar power station that generates electricity at night.
Continue reading… “World’s First Solar Power Plant That Generates Electricity at Night”
Engineers have developed a new technique for turning sound into electricity, allowing a mobile to be powered up while its user holds a conversation
A dead battery or a lost charger are among the frustrations of modern life for cellphone users. There is now new research that promises a way to recharge phones using nothing but the power of the human voice.
Ford–which is about to release an all-electric version of the Focus–just put out the above map of the United States with the cities it feels are best suited to electric car ownership. And with a few exceptions, it looks like the flyover states aren’t making preparations for the messianic arrival of the electric car. What do you want to bet that in the next presidential election, we’ll add “electric-car” to the litany of liberal-associative words like arugula, lattes, and sushi.
Continue reading… “Will Electric Cars Be The Next Red/Blue Divide?”
Firefighters could someday snuff out flames by zapping them with pulses of electric current.
In some respects, firefighting technology has come a long way over the past several decades–we now have flame suppressing foams and powders for instance, as well as new ways of delivering them to the fire. But fundamentally, we’re still fighting fires the old fashioned way: point hose/bucket/ pressurized container and drench. But a team of Harvard researchers envisions a day when firefighters will snuff out flames not with a physical suppressant but with a blast of electric current.
Continue reading… “Firefighters in the Future Could Fight Fires with Flame-Bending Electricity”
Are smart meters spies?
Coast to coast, from Maine to Marin County, Calif., the number of homes being outfitted with smart meters that keep a close eye on homeowner electricity use is on the rise. And so is the number of folks who think smart meters are a dumb idea.
Continue reading… “Are Smart Meters a Dumb Idea?”
Sample of the conducting film.
A newly discovered technique makes it possible to create a whole new array of plastics with metallic or even superconducting properties.
Continue reading… “Plastic That Can Conduct Electricity”
Want your child to turn that frown upside down? By any means necessary? This feels like it belongs on Arrested Development, alongside the injury-inducing cornballer, but amazingly enough it’s areal thing. And there’s only a “slight twitch side effect!” Hooray for science!
Continue reading… “Smile, Darn Ya, Smile!”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-Ru1eAymvE&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Few areas of science are more controversial than cold fusion, the hypothetical near-room-temperature reaction in which two smaller nuclei join together to form a single larger nucleus while releasing large amounts of energy. In the 1980s, Stanley Pons and Martin Fleishmann claimed to have demonstrated cold fusion – which could potentially provide the world with a cheap, clean energy source – but their experiment could not be reproduced. Since then, all other claims of cold fusion have been illegitimate, and studies have shown that cold fusion is theoretically implausible, causing mainstream science to become highly speculative of the field in general.
Continue reading… “Scientists in Italy Claim to Have Demonstrated Cold Fusion”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.