The Power of the Sun in the Palm of Our Hands
Filed under: Alien Intelligence, Aliens, Animal Intelligence, Discoveries, Science, Science Fiction, Technology, The Future
We could soon harness the power of a sun in a laboratory setting, ala Dr. Octopus’s mad scientist escapades in Spider Man 2. Or at least that’s what this experiment hopes to prove (report from WIRED.)
The project at the Lawrence Livermore National Ignition Facility plans to ignite a miniture star in a controlled lab environment using lasers. This tiny nuclear reactor could produce tremendous amounts of energy. For example, our sun blasts about 386 BILLION gigawatts of energy into space. A large nuclear reactor generates 1 gigawatt. Do the math. Even if we could create a star hundreds of billions times smaller than our sun, the energy output would still be massive. This could solve all of our energy problems as long as we can control the nuclear fusion and harness to power of a star. Worst case scenario = the destruction of earth if the star we build powers out of control.
This building could soon be home to a man-made baby star.
Is Glow-in-the-Dark Genetic Engineering the Solution to the Energy Crisis?
Filed under: Biology, Discoveries, Genetic Engineering, Science, The Future
The video says it all. What’s next? Can you imagine a world full of glow in the dark humans?
Some say this could be a solution for the energy crisis and global warming.
“If humans glowed in the dark, they wouldn’t need lights. Lights in our homes, cities, et cetera eat up a tremendous amount of energy,” says Physicist Peter Pablano. “Glow in the dark powers could save the climate, since the reduction in energy consumption would lead to a massive reduction in carbon emissions.”
What do you think? Should the Obama administration push forward with a policy of genetically engineering the American populace to glow in the dark as part of their energy policy?
Is Viral Power the Solution to the Energy Crisis?
Filed under: Biology, Conspiracies, Discoveries, Genetic Engineering, Science, Viral Intelligence
Viruses suck. They’ve killed millions of people. They make us sick. We have to get shots of their dead bodies to build up our immune systems. They are just nasty little life forms that endlessly replicate and harm. Despite all this, researchers at MIT think they’ve found a redeeming purpose for viruses. That purpose is battery power. Read here.
In short, scientists genetically engineered viruses to mimic the properties of the positively and negatively charged ends of a battery through which power flows. These new virus built batteries allegedly have the same power capacity and performance of as cutting edge batteries developed to power things like electric cars.
But many are skeptical of depending on viruses for one of our most valuable commodities, energy. Anti-Viral Anything (AVA) president Vlad Soresh had the following to say: “Given the history of our relationship with viruses, can we really depend on them for our energy? I think they’ve proven time and time again that they want to cause nothing but harm to mankind.”
Despite criticisms like those, the genetically engineered technology is a major breakthrough in battery research.
What do you think? Can we trust viruses to supply us with energy?