Adventure Ausrama Blog

Science sees life on Saturn's moon Titan. Looking for alien life on planets like our own is tunnel vision. Believing that life can only exist on planets in the "sweet" belt is silly. The universe is a place of commonalities, yes. However, it has many types of environments from the very cold to the extremely hot. Saturn's moon, Titan, could have microbial life even though it is indeed frigid. The body has all the chemical requirements for life creation to occur. Titan is a carbon copy of Earth, except the lakes and rivers are methane not water. Much of new science is bringing down temperatures so that chemical reaction can be controlled, so it is nonsense to premise that there is not sufficient energy for molecular interaction to happen at -179C on Titan. The key chemical hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is present on Saturn's satellite. Martin Rahm of Cornell university holds that the clouds of Titan could absorb energy from the distant Sun. The energy w...

Science sees life on Saturn's moon Titan. Looking for alien life on planets like our own is tunnel vision. Believing that life can only exist on planets in the "sweet" belt is silly. The universe is a place of commonalities, yes. However, it has many types of environments from the very cold to the extremely hot. Saturn's moon, Titan, could have microbial life even though it is indeed frigid. The body has all the chemical requirements for life creation to occur. Titan is a carbon copy of Earth, except the lakes and rivers are methane not water. Much of new science is bringing down temperatures so that chemical reaction can be controlled, so it is nonsense to premise that there is not sufficient energy for molecular interaction to happen at -179C on Titan. The key chemical hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is present on Saturn's satellite. Martin Rahm of Cornell university holds that the clouds of Titan could absorb energy from the distant Sun. The energy would be suf...

Biology: Atlantic Molly fish of Mexico survive high hydrogen sulfide acid. There is hope for the future of fish as the world is polluted more every day. Some fish can live in extreme toxic, acidic environments. For example, the Atlantic Molly fish of Mexico can survive high levels of hydrogen sulfide acid. They are the only fish in volcanic freshwater springs. Mollies do not filter out the toxin. They turn on certain genes that do the filtering job for them. Of the fish's 35,000 genes 170 are enhanced in the process: these linked genes are all involved in removing hydrogen sulfide. If things get serious and species of fish begin to die out, this group of genes could be "spliced" into the gene structure of endangered fish. They would not be the same fish, but at least some vestige of the evolutionary sequence of dying fish would live on. ◆ Biology by Ty Buchanan   ◆ Adventure Australia Funny Animal Photos Funny Weird Things Articles News Reviews ● ...

If you want to clean up the environment get a bike. Not just any bike though: you need a Hy-Cycle with pedal power assisted by hydrogen. A team of developers at the School of Chemical Engineering led by Associate Professor Kondo-Francois Aguey-Zinsou has put a lot of work into the new bicycle. The main problems in the past has been storage and cost. Hydrogen is now safely stored in hybride, a stable metal. This "compound" is then secured in a canister. Hydrogen is fed into a fuel cells that charges a lithium battery. The battery range is 125 kilometers at a cost of $2.00. This distance is sufficient for a day's use on one charge. Major cities across the world have already established bicycle pools where people can collect a bicycle, ride it to their destination and leave it at the nearest bike station. It would not be difficult to hire out the new powered Hy-Cycles at a small fee alongside ordinary bicycles. Improvements are already on the way. The current sto...

It is amazing how people will see something new, then run with it to the extreme saying this will change the world. This is true for virtually all non-fossil energy producing systems, but all of them have drawbacks and none have revolutionized the power sector. The two major problems have been high cost and non constant energy production during the 24 hour period. Scientists have worked on hydrogen systems for decades and success seems very distant. It is not being accepted for widespread use. Actually, hydrogen is a "byproduct" of energy production. When electricity is generated by any method the excess not used at a point in time is passed through water. It splits into oxygen and hydrogen via electrolysis with the fuel stored to be used in the future. When hydrogen is recombined with oxygen, electricity is generate. Heat from the process can also be used directly for heating purposes. As with other environmentally friendly electricity producing methods time will tell if...

Energy created by lasers could be the way of the future. Researchers have used models and they show that lasers can produce "cold" energy by nuclear fusion. A new generation of fast, powerful lasers makes this possible. To achieve fusion a short, carefully controlled pulse is required. The pulse target is hydrogen and boron. Creating neutrons is not the objective because they cause radioactivity. The Australian research is duplicating what is going on at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the United States, but they are using deuterium-tritium fuel. A single laser pulse can generate 500 times more electricity than all the power stations in the US. At first the research team did not believe hydrogen-boron fuel would work. However, models indicated that it was only ten times more difficult than deuterium-tritium. For it to work the laser pulse must be clean, that is, lasting only a million, millionth of a second. Optical energy ...

Griffith University is to construct a building that for the first time in the world has hydrogen power generation integrated into the structure itself. The sun will separate hydrogen from water by electrolysis. Later when the sun goes down the hydrogen will power fuel cells to generate the required electricity for air conditioning and other uses. A proven method of storing hydrogen in metal hydride powder will be deployed. This is safer than keeping hydrogen in tanks which can explode. Initial energy requirements will be met by photovoltaic solar panels on the roof and walls, as well as photovoltaic film on the windows. The hydrogen fuel cell technology has been available for quite some time. It will be fully tested in this new structure. The building itself will be substantial, being "home base" for 80 staff members and 40 PHD students. Eight seminar rooms and two 120-seat lecture theatres will be in use in the six level building. Construction begins in 2011. It will be op...