electricity
An electricity meter that sometimes runs backwards is just one of the cool aspects of Department of Energy near-zero-energy homes. While low or no electric bills are an obvious benefit, high energy efficiency homes and businesses also reduce the amount of electricity that needs to be generated, thus reducing pollution, said Jeff Christian of DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
A method that creates smooth and strong interfaces between metals and metal oxides without high-temperature brazing has been patented by researchers at the National Nuclear Security Administration's Sandia National Laboratories, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and the University of North Texas. The method can improve magnetic random-access memories, which allow next-generation computers to boot up instantly yet retain their entire memories after power interruptions. Depositing flat, nanometer-thin crystalline and ferromagnetic metallic layers on similarly thin oxide layers increases strength, stability, and uniformity of the oxide-metal interface. This reduces manufacturing cost and requires less electricity to produce more rapid magnetic effects for the computer memory.
A research group led by a scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory has discovered a simple relationship that mathematically links the properties of a class of high-temperature superconductors, materials that, below a certain temperature, conduct electricity with no resistance. This new, unexpected law applies to superconductors with very different structures and compositions, and may provide clues to understanding the mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity.
At the U. S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory, a basic research effort to enhance the properties of magnesium diboride, MgB2, superconductors by doping them with carbon atoms has doubled the magnetic field the material can withstand. The work may one day ease the expense associated with current superconducting materials that generate the intense magnetic fields required for such applications as magnetic resonance imaging for medical diagnostics, high-field magnets for research, and superconducting magnets for particle accelerators.
Environmental engineers have removed and replaced one of the most expensive parts of their prototype microbial fuel cell and the device now costs two-thirds less and produces nearly six times more electricity from domestic wastewater. Earlier this year, the team was the first to develop a microbial fuel cell (MFC) that can generate electricity while simultaneously cleaning domestic wastewater skimmed from the settling pond of a sewage treatment plant. Now, they've shown that by modifying their original MFC to make it cheaper, they can also boost electricity production from about 26 milliwatts per square meter to about 146 milliwatts per square meter.
While the memory inside electronic devices may often be more reliable than that of humans, it, too, can worsen over time. Now a team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Argonne National Laboratory may understand why. Smart cards, buzzers inside watches and even ultrasound machines all take advantage of ferroelectrics, a family of materials that can retain information, as well as transform electrical pulses into auditory or optical signals, or vice versa.
Carbon dioxide emissions could be significantly cut if OECD countries used biomass -- fuel generated from agriculture and forest products -- instead of coal to generate electricity, according to a report by WWF and the European Biomass Association (AEBIOM). The report indicates that this could reduce emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main global warming gas, by about 1,000 million tonnes each year -- a figure equivalent to the combined annual emissions of Canada and Italy.
''Waste heat'' might not be such a waste after all. The excess heat produced in everything from microelectronics to large ship engines is generally thought of as a problem for engineers to solve. But a new leap in semiconductor technology funded by the Office of Naval Research could put that troublesome heat to good use.
Researchers have developed a new plastic that conducts electricity, may be simpler to manufacture than industry counterparts and easily accommodates chemical attachments to create new materials. Developed by TDA Research in Wheat Ridge, Colo., Oligotron polymers are made of tiny bits of material that possess a conducting center and two, non-conducting end pieces. The end pieces allow the plastic bits to dissolve in solvents and accommodate specialized molecules.
Despite growing population and increasing electricity production, water use in the United States remains fairly stable, according to a new report released today by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The USGS report shows that in 2000, Americans used 408 billion gallons of water per day, a number that has remained fairly stable since 1985 and a sign that conservation is working. In the report, Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2000, USGS researchers found that the chief water users for the Nation are power generation, agriculture and public water supply. The USGS report also finds that the personal use of water is rising, but not faster than population change.
Government incentives are quickly needed worldwide to extend the life of personal computers and slow the growth of high-tech trash, according to a new United Nations University (UNU) report into the environmental consequences of the information technology revolution. The average 24 kg (53 lbs) desktop computer with monitor requires at least 10 times its weight in fossil fuels and chemicals to manufacture, much more materials intensive than an automobile or refrigerator, which only require 1-2 times their weight in fossil fuels.
Something big may be brewing on the sewage treatment circuit thanks to a new design that puts bacteria on double-duty-treating wastewater and generating electricity at the same time. The key is an innovative, single-chambered microbial fuel cell. A fuel cell operates akin to a battery, generating electricity from a chemical reaction. But instead of running down unless it's recharged, the cell receives a constant supply of fuel from which electrons can be released. Typical fuel cells run off of hydrogen. In a microbial fuel cell, bacteria metabolize their food-in this case, organic matter in wastewater-to release electrons that yield a steady electrical current.
Can you teach a physics class with only comic books to illustrate the principles? University of Minnesota physics professor James Kakalios has been doing it since 1995, when he explained the principle of conservation of momentum by calculating the force of Spider-Man's web when it snagged the superhero's girlfriend as she plummeted from a great height. "Comic books get their science right more often than one would expect," said the gregarious Kakalios. "I was able to find examples in superhero comic books of the correct descriptions of basic physical principles for a wide range of topics, including classical mechanics, electricity and magnetism, and even quantum physics."
Scientists have created a new type of nanotube built of gold, silver and other nanoparticles. The tubes exhibit unique electrical, optical and other properties, depending on their components, and as such, may form the basis for future nanosensors, catalysts and chemistry-on-a-chip systems.
Department of Energy-funded researchers have decoded and analyzed the genome of a bacterium with the potential to bioremediate radioactive metals and generate electricity. In an article published in the December 12th issue of Science, researchers at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, report that Geobacter sulfurreducens possesses extraordinary capabilities to transport electrons and "reduce" metal ions as part of its energy-generating metabolism.
