Energy - REALscience

Articles in the Category: Energy

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Computer Science, Energy, Engineering, Environment, Health and Medicine, Video on 07 19th, 2010 | No Comments

Microsoft Imagine Cup Rewards Students Who Solve Global Problems

The Imagine Cup, now in its eighth year, encourages high school and university students around the world to develop software aiming to solve global problems. Team Skeek from Thailand took home the top prize for software design for creating a program that translates text into sign language using speech...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Energy, Environment, Geology, Horizon Oil Spill, Marine Science, Oceanography, Video on 07 13th, 2010 | No Comments

BP Replaces Oil Cap and Runs Pressure Tests to Stop Oil Leak

With a tight new cap freshly installed on its leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico, BP planned gradual tests starting Tuesday to see if the device can stop oil from pouring into the sea for the first time in nearly three months. The next step will be to slowly close the valves on that cap to see if it...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Energy, Engineering, Environment, Video on 02 25th, 2010 | 1 Comment

Bloom Box May Rock Fuel Cell World

With California’s governor and a former Secretary of State on hand, Bloom Energy held its official launch. The clean-energy startup revealed some of its plans for making fuel-cell technology affordable enough for people to buy for their homes. With roots in NASA’s Mars program, here’s...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Biology, Computer Science, Energy, Engineering, Featured Articles, Geology, Global Warming, Health and Medicine, Marine Science, Oceanography, Physics and Chemistry, Politics and Science, President Obama Science Policy, SciClips on 02 3rd, 2010 | No Comments

Science on Track for Big Budget Gains in 2011

The federal agencies submitted their budget requests to Congress this week, marking a big moment for all things science. According to preliminary reports about $148 billion of the Presidents full $3.8 trillion budget is heading for scientific research programs. Photo courtesy of Brookhaven National...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Energy, Environment, Global Warming, SciClips, Solar on 01 25th, 2010 | No Comments

The Sun’s Hot Solar Promise

The sun is one-stop shopping when it comes to finding an unlimited supply of power. But harnessing light and turning it into electricity has proven to be a tricky and expensive proposition. But if we could squeeze our huge thirst for power from the sun, one way to go may be something called “solar...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Backyard Science, Energy, Engineering, Environment, Solar, Video on 01 7th, 2010 | No Comments

A House of Cards in the Columbian Jungle

Dedicated environmentalists, or eccentric architects? Nearly a decade ago, the Jimenez family moved from the Colombian city of Cali to a humble home in the jungle made entirely out of paper. They keep cool, cook, do laundry and demonstrate how to live off the grid by generating their own energy.

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Energy, Environment, Science & Religion, Video, Wind on 12 14th, 2009 | No Comments

Wind Powered Menorah

Two Yeshiva University students are introducing science to religion in the wind tunnel of New York where powerful blasts of air rip down skyscraper lined streets. Wind power offers a new way to power Hanukkah.

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Astronomy, Engineering, Solar, Space, Video on 11 5th, 2009 | No Comments

Contest Begins Elevator Race to Space

Engineers compete and test the potential reality of the science fiction concept of space elevators. The AP’s John Mone on why leaving the Earth, may not require rocket science.

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Adaptation and Extinction, Backyard Science, Books, Ecology, Environment, Global Warming, Physics and Chemistry, Video, Wind on 10 28th, 2009 | 3 Comments

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

They call William Kamkwamba “the boy who harnessed the wind.” At 14, after dropping out of school, the African boy in a rural Malawi village taught himself how electricity works, and built a windmill from scraps and pieces of a bicycle. Now 22, Kamkwmaba has a book, detailing how he built...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Biochemistry, Climate, Diseases, Energy, Environment, Featured Articles, Global Warming, Health and Medicine, Marine Science, Oceanography, Politics and Science, SciClips on 10 1st, 2009 | No Comments

U.S. Chamber of Commerce Calls for Global Warming Trial

The biggest business lobby in the U.S. is pushing for the EPA to hold a public hearing to debate the science of global warming. The move, calling for the Scopes monkey trial of the 21st Century, is proving too much for some chamber members, from big utilities to Nike and Johnson & Johnson. Yesterday,...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Adaptation and Extinction, Energy, Environment, Featured Articles, Global Warming, Politics and Science, President Obama Science Policy, SciClips, Solar, Video, Wind on 09 23rd, 2009 | 1 Comment

President Obama Vows to Fight Climate Change

President Obama Addresses UN Climate Summit In what could be considered his most strongly-worded warning about the threat of climate change, U.S. President Barack Obama told the United Nations that there is little time to act before permanent environmental damage is irreversible. In a stirring speech,...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Biochemistry, Bioethics, Biofuels, Biology, Diseases, Energy, Featured Articles, Genomics, Health and Medicine, New Species, SciClips on 09 22nd, 2009 | No Comments

Synthetic Biology Takes on a Life of Its Own

A Yeast Cell with Synthetic Genes, courtesy of Dr. Pamela Silver, Harvard Medical School Life is often stranger than fiction. But the direction that biology is heading, synthetic life could be stranger than science fiction. The emerging field of synthetic biology is moving closer and closer to creating...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Energy, Environment, Geology, SciClips on 09 15th, 2009 | 1 Comment

Drilling for Heat Triggers Quakes

AltaRock Energy Site in California The search for a renewable form of Earth-generated power keeps hitting a snag. The process to create geothermal heat seems to cause earthquakes–a lot of them. After hitting a fault in Basel, Switerland and triggering a 3.4 earthquake that shook the city, Markus...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Adaptation and Extinction, Biology, Climate, Environment, Featured Articles, Global Warming, RawAudio, Solar, Weird Weather on 06 19th, 2009 | 1 Comment

Dr. James Lovelock Warns

British naturalist Dr. James Lovelock has some strong words for the world. The futurist warns that the Earth is a living organism that is undergoing massive changes. He believes the Earth is sick and in order to heal itself it may need to get rid of a few billion people. But Dr. Lovelock delivers his...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Adaptation and Extinction, Climate, Energy, Environment, Featured Articles, Global Warming, SciClips on 06 5th, 2009 | No Comments

Sinking Kivalina

As the Arctic heats up, indigenous people seem to bearing the brunt of global warming. The village of Kivalina, in northwestern Alaska is the latest victim and is being forced to relocate in a safer spot. The village is suing the largest oil companies in the world–blaming the warming world on...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Energy, Engineering, Featured Articles, Physics and Chemistry, Solar, Video on 06 2nd, 2009 | No Comments

World’s Most Powerful Laser Unveiled

The world’s most powerful laser was dedicated at the Livermore National Laboratory in California. It’s designed to shore up the nation’s aging nuclear weapons and could help generate a powerful clean new energy source. The National Ignition Facility will begin focusing almost 200 giant...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Energy, Global Warming, Solar, Video on 04 28th, 2009 | No Comments

Harvesting the Sun in Israel

For families of this Israeli kibbutz – weaning themselves off the national power grid and transitioning to renewable power is an important task.

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Energy, Featured Articles, Marine Science, Physics and Chemistry, Video, Wave Power on 04 17th, 2009 | No Comments

Public Utility Pushes Tidal Power

We’re now a major step closer to powering our lights and TV’s with electricity from the water. Washington states’ Snohomish County public utility is well on its way to harnessing the power of the tides and turning it into electricity. Working with the University of Washington’s...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Energy, Global Warming, New Inventions, Video, Wind on 03 27th, 2009 | 2 Comments

Kites for Clean Energy

Dr. Saul Griffith unveils the invention his company Makani Power has been working on at this year’s TED Talk. Spoiler alert…it requires giant kite turbines that create surprising amounts of clean, renewable energy.

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Energy, Engineering, Featured Articles, Global Warming, New Inventions, Video on 03 24th, 2009 | 1 Comment

The Bri-Cycle

Cleveland Clinic engineer Brian Sauer, a life-long inventer, built a new battery-powered vehicle, called the Bri-cycle, that looks something you’d see in a science fiction series, is turning heads. Sauer even drove his bricycle in the snow this winter, hitting a max speed of 22 mph on compact...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Adaptation and Extinction, Climate, Energy, Environment, Featured Articles, Global Warming, SciClips on 03 16th, 2009 | No Comments

11 Degrees of Separation

Scientists just met in Copenhagen, Denmark to discuss the state of science surrounding the climate. The prognosis–we’re in serious trouble unless we change course, fast. The news was pretty grim for the most part, with each bit of science raising dire prediction after dire prediction. The...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Animals, Energy, Engineering, Featured Articles, Video on 03 11th, 2009 | No Comments

Hamster Power

Courtesy of Zhong Lin Wang Could hamsters help solve the world’s energy crisis? Probably not, but a hamster wearing a power-generating jacket is doing its own small part to provide a new and renewable source of electricity. And using the same nanotechnology, Georgia Institute of Technology researchers...

Posted by Michael Bradbury in Energy, Environment, Geology on 02 20th, 2009 | No Comments

Geothermal Energy Heats Renewable Options

Poland’s geothermal energy is a seen as a viable alternative to fossil fuels but environmentalists say high costs and bureaucracy could be an obstacle. Parts of the mountain resort Zakopane in southern Poland are heated using geothermal energy, which is being promoted as a cheap and sustainable...

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