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Issue no. 25, 2008
Published: Aug 22, 2008

Google buries millions in underground power
A better way to make hydrogen from biofuels
Virus helps to build tiny battery
Smart plankton to 'see' underwater
Razor-thin skin protects tiny spacecraft
'Mosquito' morphs into adult-proof ringtones
Google buries millions in underground power
Google is investing USD 10m in a relatively new approach to producing electricity from underground heat which could make geothermal power possible in many more areas of the world.

Google's philanthropic arm, Google.org, has recently declared an interest in sustainable technology. It has already pumped tens of millions of dollars into solar thermal and high-altitude wind energy.

Enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) improves upon the century-old technology of tapping geothermal energy from geysers or hot springs to generate electricity. With EGS, engineers drill shafts down to hot rocks and pump in water to create steam to power a turbine.
New Scientist    Aug 20, 2008 back to top

A better way to make hydrogen from biofuels
Researchers from Ohio State University have found a way to convert ethanol and other biofuels into hydrogen very efficiently. The new catalyst is inexpensive to make and to use compared to others under investigation worldwide. Those others are often made from precious metals, or only work at very high temperatures.

The new dark gray powder is made from tiny granules of cerium oxide - a common ingredient in ceramics - and calcium, covered with even smaller particles of cobalt. It produces hydrogen with 90% efficiency at around 350 degrees Celsius - a low temperature by industrial standards.

The process starts with a liquid biofuel such as ethanol, which is heated and pumped into a reactor, where the catalyst spurs a series of chemical reactions that ultimately convert the liquid to a hydrogen-rich gas. The combination of cerium oxide and calcium prevents 'coking' - the formation of carbon fragments on the surface of the catalyst - because it promotes the movement of oxygen ions inside the catalyst. When exposed to enough oxygen, the carbon, like the biofuel, is converted into a gas and gets oxidised, turning into carbon dioxide. At the end of the process, waste gases such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and methane are removed, and the hydrogen is purified.
PhysOrg.com / Ohio State University    Aug 20, 2008 back to top

Virus helps to build tiny battery
A virus has helped to create a new type of tiny battery, made with a simple stamping technique, that could power miniature devices.

Electronic devices used for controlled drug delivery need to get their power from somewhere. But as conventional batteries are made smaller and smaller, they contain less and less of the materials that actually store charge, causing a decline in efficiency. Now, scientists at MIT have designed a quick method to build a microbattery that relies on a genetically-engineered virus called M13.

They first made a template from polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). After coating it with alternating layers of positive and negative electrolytes, they added the virus. The virus had been designed to have negatively charged amino acids at its surface, so that it stuck to the template, and an affinity for cobalt — a favoured material for batteries. Each virus is a semi-rigid fibre, which tends to pack tightly into a whorl that looks similar to a fingerprint. EThe whole assembly was dipped into a solution of cobalt ions, which coated the viruses to create a very large surface area that could store charge. Stamping the template onto a platinum layer and peeling off the PDMS left behind an array of small dots of the prepared material, cobalt-side down, which formed the heart of an effective battery.
Nature / Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences    Aug 18, 2008 back to top

Smart plankton to 'see' underwater
Gadgets that copy the drifter lifestyle of plankton could improve our understanding of the world's oceans. Researchers at the University of Genoa, Italy, are working on 'smart plankton', which will carry sensors and communicate using flashing lights. Released in groups, they could drift through the ocean collecting data.

This is a watery take on an idea dubbed 'smart dust', already used to monitor environmental conditions on land. The smart dust model uses many small, cheap sensors that communicate wirelessly to track environmental conditions over wide areas. The researchers say that using a similar approach in the oceans will provide greater coverage than static underwater sensors do, and would be cheaper than using autonomous underwater vehicles. The team hope that smart plankton swarms will help environmental monitoring, archaeological surveys and mine detection.

Each sensor will collect data such as water temperature or salinity as it moves with the ocean currents. Information will be relayed from plankton to plankton back to a fixed hub on a floating buoy that collates the data. Smart dust on land communicates using radio waves. But underwater, such a signal cannot penetrate more than a metre or so. Instead, inspired by photo-luminescent plankton, the team's current design uses flashing LEDs to send messages.
New Scientists    Aug 21, 2008 back to top

Razor-thin skin protects tiny spacecraft
Scientists have invented a razor-thin skin that can protect craft against the extreme heat and intense cold found in outer space and withstand micrometeoroids hurtling at thousands of miles per hour. The discovery brings sci-fi micro-spacecraft closer to reality.

Since launching just one pound of material into orbit costs roughly USD 5,000, researchers are now developing miniature lightweight spacecraft to send more probes and satellites up at lower cost. The US military and NASA have already sent a number of test micro-satellites into space. NASA aims to get the first communications micro-spacecraft prototypes operational by 2013.

The thin film is less than a half-millimetre thick, feels like flexible plastic and can alter its colour when given an electrical charge. This change of hue works not just in the visible spectrum, but in the infrared or heat range as well, meaning that it can go from radiating heat in hot temperatures to absorbing heat in freezing temperatures.

The film was cycled repeatedly between -50 degrees to 100 degrees Celsius in a vacuum for three months to simulate the intense heat and cold of space that probes routinely experience. The film successfully endured such tests, and kept items it was wrapped around at 50 degrees to 80 degrees Celsius, which is just fine for spacecraft.
MSNBC    Aug 19, 2008 back to top

'Mosquito' morphs into adult-proof ringtones
A sonic device originally intended to repel teenagers is now being used to create kid-only ring tones. The Mosquito ring tone allows teenagers to program their mobile phones to ring at an extremely high frequency which young people can hear, but most adults cannot.

The ring tones play on the concept that as people age, their ability to hear higher frequencies lessons. Therefore, sound at higher frequencies which most adults cannot hear are clearly audible to teenagers.

Ironically, the concept was first applied as a way to repel teenagers. The 'Mosquito' Sonic Teenage Deterrent was pitched to store owners and local authorities looking to discourage young people from loitering outside buildings.

Soon, however, students realized that the Mosquito concept could come in very handy for sending text messages or taking calls in the classroom, and the ring tone was born. A number of sites have begun distributing the ring tones for free, offering a number of frequencies designed to be heard by age groups ranging from under 60 years old to under 24.
VNUnet UK    Aug 21, 2008 back to top
 
         
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