Freeze fracking

Despite the benefits of cheap fuel from fracking, it requires a lot of water and the waste water subsequently needs to be treated. Research is looking into using liquid nitrogen which is available on site and does not need treatment or disposal after use.

Researchers at the Colorado School of Mines claim they have developed a method to unlock hydrocarbons trapped in shale with using any water at all. They are seeking to perfect Cryogenic fracturing, which replaces water with searing cold liquid nitrogen (or carbon dioxide). Used at temperatures below minus 321 Fahrenheit, it is pumped underground at high pressure. Once it comes into contact with the heated, pressurized shale, a reaction occurs which caused the shale to crack open and creates fissures through which the hydrocarbons can gush out.

Nitrogen liquefies at –196 °C.

Massive aquifers discovered in Kenya

Finding fresh water is always good news. Kenya has discovered aquifers containing several trillion litres of water. They used satelite and seismic technology to identify previous unknown water sources.

Following an extensive groundwater mapping project that incorporated satellite observations, seismic information and remote sensing, five vast aquifers have been identified hiding beneath the country's arid northern region. Preliminary estimates put the aquifers' contents at roughly 250-trillion liters of water,

They were identified in a drought area. The largest aquifer is refilled at a rate of 3.4 trillion litres per year.

Turkana hosts a minimum reserve of 250 billion cubic meters of water, which is recharged mainly by the rainfalls of the Kenyan and Ugandan highlands at a rate of 3.4 billion cubic meters per year. This new wealth of water could boost Kenya's share of available water by 17% and alone represents nearly double the amount of water that Kenyans consume today. This groundwater raises the prospect for improving the livelihoods of the Turkana people, most of whom live in poverty and have limited access to basic services and clean water.

Turkana is one of the driest regions in Kenya.

Kenya is planning further exploration.

The Government of Kenya also announced the launch of a national groundwater mapping programme that would be implemented with UNESCO, which would assist county governments in identifying and assessing their groundwater resources.

Of the manifold ways to assist the poverty stricken internationally, providing clean water must be the most useful and cost effective.

Tour of the International Space Station

Astronaut Sunita Williams gives a tour of the International Space Station. It is 25 minutes long, though held my interest. It covers provision of day to day requirements in a weightless environment: sleeping, eating, toileting, exercise, and a few other facts.

Solar ship circumnavigates the earth

This is quite nifty (if one ignores the global warming rhetoric).

60,006 kilometers; crossed oceans; and stopped at dozens of ports around the world. And Friday, having circumnavigated the world, the Turanor PlanetSolar and its crew arrived back in Monaco, where their journey had begun in September 2010.

Shaped like a sleek spaceship, 31 meters, or about 102 feet, long and covered with 537 square meters, or 5,780 square feet, of solar panels, the PlanetSolar is the brainchild of Raphaël Domjan

Christians ahead of the technology curve

I was aware the Bible played a significant role in the development of the book format—the change from scrolls to spine and pages. But apparently Christians were at the forefront of using the newly invented codex for several centuries.

The codex was invented in the late first century AD. Christians may not have invented it, but they were the first ones to popularize it. For the first five centuries AD, eighty percent of all Christian books were on a codex while only twenty percent of all non-Christian books were written on a codex. For the first time in Christian history, followers of Christ were ahead of the technological curve!

Christians were not just taking advantage of advancing technology for the sake of evangelism, but for their own sake.

Coaxial helicopter rotors

I noticed a toy helicopter recently with 2 sets of blades. It was a remote controlled vehicle and I presumed that the blades rotated in opposite directions to solve the torque problem. I thought this a clever solution.

A friend informed me that this is a solution that has been used in real helicopters. I was familiar with fore and aft rotors but unaware that a coaxial system existed!

Top 10 innovations of the last 50 years

This is a list in rough order of what I consider the top innovations over the last few decades. It is hard to rate these, and people value various technologies differently. I am considering the potential number of people that could use the technology and the significance of its effect on our lifestyle.

It is difficult to identify specific items as many of the innovations are dependant on many smaller ones that compose the larger one. The transistor (1950s) is undoubtedly a major innovation, but predominantly in making other useful gadgets. Likewise light emitting diodes (LED) (1960s), and fibre optic cables (1920s–1960s). Some otherwise notable innovations such as incandescent light bulbs (1880s), aeroplanes (1910s), and satellites (1950s) are older than 50 years. High yield grain varieties (1950s onward), a culmination of several breeding improvements, would be in the top 3 of the last hundred years.

Top 10 innovations of the last 50 years

1. Personal computer (1970s)
2. Laser (1960s)
3. Internet (1970s–1990)
4. Retail electronic funds transfer (1980s)
5. Cell phones (1980s)
6. Optical memory storage (1980s)
7. Polymerase chain reaction (1980s)
8. DNA sequencing (late 1970s onwards)
9. Global positioning system (1970s–1990s)
10. Magnetic resonance imaging (1970s)

Other contenders include

1. Flash memory storage (1980s)
2. Digital cameras (1990s)
3. Computer assisted tomography (CT scans) (1970s)

Most of these are electronic devices. This is not surprising given that we live in the electronic age. Or rather the information age; 9 of the 10 concern information access—laser excepted. Many major breakthroughs in physics and chemistry are decades, if not centuries old. And most of the major advances in medicine, while occurring in the 20th century, were more than 50 years ago.

What would you include or exclude in your list?

Chariot skates

I would be interested in trying these out.

Michael Jenkins is an Australian inventor who reckons these can get up to 40 km an hour and go over rough terrain. At £1,000 they are a little pricey though.

Dvorak keyboard

I have been wanting to try a Dvorak keyboard. I did not see them available at computer stores. I had an old keyboard at home so I flicked off all the keys and repositioned them. In Windows Control Panel under Regional and Language Options one can add the Dvorak layout: click Options in the Languages tab. I don't usually have the language bar open but it is now displayed to allow switching back to Qwerty. I have my other keyboard on the desk but need to plug it in as both keyboards have PS/2 connectors, not USB. Though I suspect one could have 2 keyboards attached concurrently. Initially Windows would switch back to Qwerty intermittently, for no clear reason to me, so I switched the default to Dvorak. Why do this? Well it is apparently more ergonomic. Qwerty is designed to minimise stuck typebars. Which was relevant with typewriters in the 19th century but irrelevant now. Dvorak places commonly used letters in the middle letter row. Letter frequency depends slightly on writing style but is generally

e t a o i n s r h l d c u m f p g w y b v k x j q z

So the 10 letters in the Dvorak main row come from the 13 most commonly typed letters. There is dispute whether Dvorak is actually faster. The typing speed record was set on a Dvorak keyboard, but even if speed is similar for both layouts for most people, it is possible that typing strain injuries are less on a better designed keyboard. How have I found it? Slower, especially initially. I was back to looking at the keyboard while I typed. Looking at the keyboard is not much of an issue as I type from thought, not written text. I am still using the old layout at work which may hinder uptake, though I am not certain it is, and either way it doesn't concern me. I see no reason why someone cannot be competent with both and comfortably switch between layouts. However I think it has changed what I type because I have to slow my thoughts to the speed I type. While one can think faster than he types, I could type at a reasonable speed with Qwerty, a speed that matched well enough finding the words I needed to express my ideas. I cannot do this yet with Dvorak. Is my writing better or worse for the slower typing? I don't know. Though improvement in my writing style is more likely to come with practice and better proofreading rather than typing speed. Mistakes on this keyboard are probably more frequent, though I used backspace too frequently on Qwerty. Spelling errors, incorrect doubled letters, missed word spaces. Dropped letters (and I am unaware of it at the time) are more frequent now whereas they were nearly non-existent previously. And of course occasionally confusing key placement for Qwerty location. The letters "A" and "M" are the only letters that are in the same position in both layouts. Punctuation is different and seems a little more difficult and less logical. I will probably persist for a while. Others have suggest Dvorak is too different from Qwerty for the masses to adopt and have recommended an improved but Qwerty-like layout, the Colemak. Though I think the "B" position (Qwerty) is the most difficult to consistently use the correct fingering, and should have been traded for "X" or "Z."

Printing solar panels

Nanosolar have invented solar panels that are produced by printing ink onto them.

Printing is a simple, fast, and robust coating process that in particular eliminates the need for expensive high-vacuum chambers and the kinds of high-vacuum based deposition techniques from industries where there’s a lot more $/sqm available for competitive manufacturing cost.

The article mentions a new milestone in production output (1 gigawatt per year) and the possibility of increasing printing speed.

Meanwhile, Australian PhD student Nicole Kuepper has won an award for developing solar cells that can be produced at low temperature and with cheap materials such as aluminium and nail polish (query acetone). She has developed

a revolutionary solar cell that can be manufactured at low temperatures using everyday items like a pizza oven, nail polish and an inkjet printer.

Solar power is becoming increasingly viable. Cheap solar is around the corner.

Way too long in coming

The idea of using light emitting diodes (LEDs) for lighting is a technology that should already be used significantly in commercial and domestic settings. They are used in newer traffic lights which brings significant savings. Why not in housing? And using different coloured LEDs would mean that ambience could be set with shifts from warm white to cool white as well as a variety of colours.

Philips have decided to light an entire office building with LEDs.


The expectation is that

the world market for LED Luminaires to grow rapidly by more than 30% per year driven by the entrance of LEDs in general lighting, from about EUR 700 mln last year to EUR 1.5 bn in 2010.

Here's hoping for increased availability and decreasing costs over the coming years.

Cool inventions

New Zealand company AgResearch invents mithral.

...demonstration of heat- and stab-resistant fabric that has been developed by AgResearch’s Textiles Group. The fabric is made from a lightweight wool fibre backed with a high-strength gel-spun liquid crystal polymer.

“This fabric can be used as protection in terrorism situations, yet it’s lightweight and gives comfort not provided from the heavy flack jackets normally used in such situations,” says AgResearch Senior Scientist Ian McFarlane.

This wool/ polymer (the polymer is similar to kevlar I believe) blend is heat/ fire resistant. It is a fabric, not a rigid material, yet it is unable to be stabbed thru by a knife. The only negative thing that can be said about it is its name, Natural Easy Care (NEC) fabric.

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Aerogel has a multitude of uses. It is light, strong, insulating, made from abundant materials and now is even lighter and more flexible.

Aerogel, one of the world’s lightest solids, can withstand a direct blast of
1kg of dynamite and protect against heat from a blowtorch at more than
1,300C....[It] is made by extracting water from a silica gel, then replacing it with gas such as carbon dioxide.

Potential uses include insulation, sports equipment, limiting explosion damage, and removing pollution.

While the most common form is made of silica it can be made from other materials such as carbon or include other materials such as platinum. Platinum aerogel has potential as platinum is a catalyst for many reactions including hydrogen and oxygen forming water. It can therefore be used in hydrogen fuel cells but apparently it is hoped it can be used in the production of hydrogen from water.