The very famous Sir Richard Branson talks about their 21st century business model that takes into account the whole cycle of energy consumption and carbon output which they call Gaia Capitalism(after James Lovelocks Gaia theory).
The project is a 10 year, $3 billion investment plan on biofuels, renewable energy production and r&d. Focusing on new technology that will reduce carbon emissions of their transport operations.
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Looks like one of the missions of the Mars mission, aside from setting up a base on the moon, is to mine the moon for Helium-3, one of the possible fuel sources for fusion reactors in the far future. Scarce on earth, Helium-3 is said to be very abundant on the Moon’s Surface.
Some pundits however have pointed out that it might not be practical, since sending all those drill rigs to the moon might far outweight the cost benefit we get from mining Helium-3.
Some other issues that cropped up is the 1979 UN Moon Treaty, which states that there is a ban on all exploration without prior consent of member states. However, looking at the Moon Treaty, only 12 countries have ratified the treaty (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Peru, Pakistan and Uruguay.)
Countries who are bent on setting up moon bases haven’t signed the treaty (Russia, China, US)
Original Article here from Wired
A genetically altered yeast strain is said to be able to increase ethanol production by 50% within a 21 hour fermentation period. The key was in making the yeast more tolerant to Ethanol by altering it’s genes.
Article here
Not that it’s meant to power up paper… but rather it’s made out of paper (say what?) And the great thing about it is that its:
Chemically incapable of polluting, releasing toxic ooze or combusting under pressure, the batteries can also be very thin, allowing use in such applications as credit cards and RFID tags.
Original Article here
I posted a while back on the Automotive X-Prize. After which I emailed them and commended them for what they were trying to accomplish. I got an email back from Neal Anderson, no less than a Senior Director of Automotive X Prize.
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Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have been able to measure the excess energy transported out of the cell during metabolism. The excess energy is carried out of the cell via proteins in order to prevent from damaging the cell.
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