Ambri, a startup founded by MIT researchers, is developing liquid-metal batteries that can store power for less than $500 a kilowatt-hour – less than a third the cost of other battery technologies. Liquid-metal sounds fancy, but apparently the materials used are abundant and easily obtainable. (The researchers won't say exactly what the metals are.) The technology promises … [Read more...]
Africa: bigger than you think! Greenland: much smaller.
We've been looking at a lot of maps recently (probably because of the amazing wind maps we linked to), and we came across an old favorite from a few years ago. Kai Krause, German software and graphical user interface designer, has invented a word for the lack of sufficient geographical knowledge. He calls it immappacy: In addition to the well known social issues of … [Read more...]
Rare northern lights captured in UK
The aurora borealis, or northern lights, come in a variety of colors depending on altitude and the behavior of the photons in the Earth's upper atmosphere: At high altitude oxygen red dominates, then oxygen green and nitrogen blue/red, then finally nitrogen blue/red when collisions prevent oxygen from emitting anything. Green is the most common of all auroras. Behind it is … [Read more...]
Bam! You’ve been hit by a solar flare
A solar flare is a sudden burst of light on the sun's surface, usually accompanied by a giant release of radiation into space. At 7:49 p.m. EST on Feb. 24, 2014, what scientists call a significant solar flare peaked. How significant is significant? The classification scale runs A, B, C, M and X, with X being the most intense. The scale is further divided into X1, X2, etc. … [Read more...]
Mapping the beautiful winds
Weather maps used to be primitive and ugly, but technology now allows us better visualizations of meteorological data – especially these gorgeous wind maps. Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg like to create new, artistic ways of observing data. Their Wind Map project from 2012 (see it live at hint.fm/wind) looks like this: Although their Wind Map was conceived as … [Read more...]
The giant flights of the bumblebee
According to the bumblebee argument, the laws of aerodynamics prove that the bumblebee can’t fly. The Smithsonian recently referred to this bit of folklore when reporting the discovery of Michael Dillon, an ecologist at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. Bumblebees, says the Smithsonian, not only can fly – they can fly over Mount Everest: In the mountains of western China, … [Read more...]
Areva & Schneider Electric to collaborate on Greenergy Box storage
The Areva energy company have announced they will collaborate with Schneider Electric on a hydrogen fuel-cell system for use with renewable energy storage. Areva currently employs a system for capturing energy known as Greenergy Box. The Greenergy Box uses an electrolyser and a fuel cell to store hydrogen and oxygen from water electrolysis. It captures energy when usage is … [Read more...]
Battery 101 – how do batteries work?
Creating and storing energy go hand-in-hand. If you’re interested in generating your own electricity, you should have a working knowledge of how batteries work. The definition of a battery What is a battery? The first law of thermodynamics states that energy can be neither created nor destroyed, but fortunately for us, it can be transformed. We can’t store electricity, … [Read more...]
Pulling electricity from the ambient air
This is a nice surprise: MIT researchers made the unexpected discovery that when two or more water droplets merge and jump away from a superhydrophobic [1] surface, the droplets carry an electric charge. How does it work? First, you need the right kind of superhydrophobic surface. Next, add humid air. As droplets condense and form on the superhydrophobic surface, they … [Read more...]
New printing technique uses water instead of ink
A new innovation which uses water instead of inkjet ink may help reduce our paper waste. It’s all possible when printing on paper treated with an invisible dye. The dye becomes visible when exposed to water, then fades away within a single day. This allows the paper to be reused instead of discarded. The longevity of the print depends on temperature. As the water evaporates, … [Read more...]