Seaweed - the fuel of the future?

Gizmag | New and Emerging Technology News

 

One of the biggest criticisms leveled at biofuels that are derived from crops such as wheat, corn and sugar cane, is that they result in valuable land being taken away from food production. For this reason there are various research efforts underway to turn seaweed into a viable renewable source of biomass. Now a team from Bio Architecture Lab (BAL) claims to have developed a breakthrough technology that makes seaweed a cost-effective source of biomass by engineering a microbe that can extract all the major sugars in seaweed and convert them into renewable fuels and chemicals.

 

Common Recording Problems

If you're having trouble with the sound over-peaking on a recording, it is usually caused by one of three main things:

1. Poor quality microphone, or possible just working too close to it without a windshield.
- wind blasts from the mouth can cause a low-frequency pop or rumble, and often sound distorted as the mics innards are working too hard!

2. Overloading the input amplifier (often called "preamp" - a preamplifier that brings up the level on the input to the main mixer).
- many basic systems have no adjustment for the preamp, but it's obviously worth experimenting with levels if you have the chance....

3. Overloading the digital recorder - if you over-peak when recording digitally, then you will get a nasty crackling sound. On old analogue machines you would have got a bit of distortion and the recording might still be usable, but you have to be more careful with high levels in digital systems.
- the best way to get around this is with a software plugin such as a compressor or limiter. Either (or both!) of these will help to reduce the peaks while not producing any distortion (providing they are set up correctly...).

The white light technology that could finally make 3D awesome - without glasses

The white light technology that could finally make 3D awesome - without glasses: "The current generation of holograms are generally monotone creations, requiring a single color laser to construct. However, Japanese researchers have devised a new type of hologram technology that could be just around the corner."

How physics simulations and GNU emacs found their way into Tron Legacy

How physics simulations and GNU emacs found their way into Tron Legacy

Software developer JT Nimoy has an amazing collection of images from Tron Legacy on his site, where he explains all the math, physics, and old-school computer geekery that he put into making Flynn's digital world.

"I started with a regular physics simulation where a particle has an upward force applied at birth, sending it upward while gravity pulls it back down resulting in a parabola. I then added particle-children, followed by various artistic styles, including what our team has called "egyptian" across several jobs — which is a side-stepping behavior. We were trying to create fireworks that looked enough like real fireworks but had interesting techno-aesthetic. As a homage to the original Tron character Bit, we used icosahedrons, dodecahedrons, and similar. I was disappointed that Bit isn't in this one. After doing this simulation, I've grown more aware of how often fireworks are used in movies."

Apple granted patent for holographic technology

Apple granted patent for holographic technology

Start saving up your money, and get ready to throw those shiny new iPhones and iPads in the garbage, because they could soon be obsolete. The iMblinded (probably not it's actual name) is Apple's next all-consuming piece of personal technology. It will allow its users to see actual 3D holograms on their palm-top computers.

How does it work? The images will be displayed through a screen that consists of many tiny little plastic domes. As anyone who has played with glass bowls or prisms knows, when light hits the edge of a surface, it is deflected a little from its course. The screen underneath the domes will send out certain images. If they hit one section of the domes, they'll be deflected one way. If they another section, they'll be deflected another way. The technology would work by using the domes to deflect one image to your left eye, and a slightly different one to your right eye. Your brain will then integrate those two different views to form a 3D image.

Many will be excited at the prospect of this new technology. Others — for example people who don't want to have to engineer 3D websites, have light deflected into their eyes at movie theaters, or listen to their friends obsessing about their new toy — won't be as eager.

Boeing to mass-produce record-breaking 39.2 percent efficiency solar cell

Boeing to mass-produce record-breaking 39.2 percent efficiency solar cell

When it comes to solar cells, everyone is chasing the highest conversion efficiency. Although we’ve seen conversion efficiencies of over 40 percent achieved with multi-junction solar cells in lab environments, Boeing subsidiary Spectrolab is bringing this kind of efficiency to mass production with the announcement of its C3MJ+ solar cells which boast an average conversion efficiency of 39.2 percent.

As far back as 2006 Spectrolab was achieving conversion efficiencies of over 40 percent in the lab with its high-efficiency multi-junction concentrator solar cells and it reached a peak of 41.6 percent with a test cell last year, setting a new world record. The company’s newest terrestrial concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) cell, called the C3MJ+, uses essentially the same technology as its record breaking test cell and follows on from its C3MJ solar cell in production since mid-2009 which boasts a conversion efficiency of 38.5 percent. The C3MJ+ solar cells

"Given the new cells' close similarity to our existing production cells, we believe that our current C3MJ customers will be able to easily upgrade for more efficiency," said Russ Jones, Spectrolab director of CPV Business Development.

Spectrolab claims the title of the world’s leading supplier of solar cells for satellites with its cells supplying power to around 60 percent of satellites currently in orbit, as well as the International Space Station. Boeing hopes to transfer that success to the terrestrial solar cell market with the new high-efficiency solar cells that are expected to be available from January. And it won’t be resting on its laurels. It expects Spectrolab will achieve a 40 percent average production efficiency for terrestrial solar cells in 2011.

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'Plastisoil' could mean cleaner rivers and less plastic waste

'Plastisoil' could mean cleaner rivers and less plastic waste

A new cement-like material that could be used to form sidewalks, bike and jogging paths, driveways and parking lots, may be able to lessen two environmental problems, namely plastic waste and polluted rainwater runoff. The substance is called Plastisoil, and it was developed by Naji Khoury, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Temple University in Philadelphia. In order to make Plastisoil, discarded polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottles are pulverized and mixed with soil, and then that mixture is blended with a coarse aggregate and heated. The result is a hard yet non-watertight substance, similar to pervious concrete or porous asphalt.

With traditional concrete and asphalt paving, rainwater stays on the surface and runs into the storm sewers, accumulating oil and other road filth along the way. With pervious surfaces such as Plastisoil, that water is able to go down through them, and into the soil below. This certainly reduces the amount of pollutants entering the rivers, although Khoury and his team at Temple are currently trying to determine if Plastisoil could even serve as a filter, that removed pollutants as the water filtered through.

Khoury said that it uses less energy to produce one ton of Plastisoil than one ton of cement or asphalt, and that it’s less expensive to manufacture than similar products. It takes 30,000 PET bottles to make one ton of the material, although he is hoping to be able to use other types of plastic in the future.

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