Shark Fin Design Helps Generate Electricity
Sometimes looking and observing nature can give us clues and answers on how to live our lives.
A company called bioPOWER designed the bioSTREAM a tidal power conversion system that is based on the shape of fish fins. In particular the shape of tuna, mackerel and shark fins is used by bioSTREAM. The undersea currents and tidal movements push these fins and provide motion to the electrical generator.
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Memristor Shows The Future Of PC’s
Back in 1971 Leon Chua, an engineering student studying non-linear circuits, made the assumption that a fourth basic circuit element (besides the the capacitor, resistor and the inductor) exists. He even went all the way to come up with its mathematical expression and its physical behaviour.
Now in HP Labs, scientists manage to create this new element, called memristor. This component can process information in the same manner that the human brain does. It works by remembering how much charge has gone through it and hence it can be used to make memory chips that do not loose their stored information when the PC is switched off.
By having a component whose resistance is increasing depending on how much current has passed through it, PC’s would be able to run not only on 1’s and 0’s but also in in between states, hence carrying more information.
The results from this work will be published in today’s edition of Nature.
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South Pole Steady Cam Video
This is a very beautiful video taken at the South Pole from a steady cam.
2008: The year of Feta cheese, Kermit the frog and potatoes
It seems that we got a lot to look forward to for 2008 according to Nature. According to the famous journal various organisations and countries have declared 2008 to be many things. Lets take a look at the headlines:
-United Nations declared 2008 to be many things such as the international year of potato (suggestion by Peru), international year of sanitation (2.6bn people are with out it), the international year of planet earth (which lasts for 3 years) and the international year of languages.
-Amphibian Ark (a zoo community) declared 2008 to be the year of the frog (to prevent the extinction of 500 species)
-International Coral Reef Initiative declared 2008 (second year running) to raise coral reef awareness and their importance
-Virgin Galactic declared 2008 the year of the spaceship (hoping to make it a reality)
-Greece declared 2008 to be all about campaigning the well known fact that Feta cheese is Greek (apparently some Danish and UK companies dont think so when it comes to money)
-Australia declared 2008 to be the year of boy scouts (why?)
-England declared 2008 the year of the gardens
-European Union declared 2008 the year of intercultural dialogue
So…you got many things to do for 2008
potatoes
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