The following websites provide ongoing, generous support of the SciScoop Science Forum: Krankenversicherung vergleich, Hydroseeding company CDTS Ltd, who also do hydroseeding but spelled differently as Hydraseeding. Finally, if you're in Germany you might like to check out Umzug Angebote Umzüge mit Umzugsfirmen and Handy.
44 government paid scientists using $4 billion of your money every year, $90 million each, are spending on projects other scientists say are nuts. The 44 were identified in hearings by the Joint Congressional Committee on Energy and the Environment earlier this year.
By DV82XL, Section Commentary Posted on Tue May 22, 2007 at 01:41:26 AM PST
It has long been recognised that flight close to a boundary surface is more aerodynamically efficient than free flight. This has led to the design and construction of craft specifically intended to operate close to the ground and fly 'in ground effect'. A great range of Wing in Ground effect craft (WIG) or Ekranoplans, from the Russan, have been manufactured ranging from 2 seat recreational vehicles to 500 tonne warcraft. Despite this ekranoplans have never enjoyed great commercial or military success.
By DV82XL, Section Commentary Posted on Mon May 21, 2007 at 11:41:51 AM PST
Is it possible to have a system of taxation which is simple, efficient, progressive, and revenue neutral replacing all current taxes? The answer, according to University of Wisconsin Professor of Economics Edgar L. Feige, as it turns out, is yes.
By DV82XL, Section Commentary Posted on Wed May 09, 2007 at 11:28:24 PM PST
Snakes are unique animals uniquely evolved to allow them to get into the cracks and crevices of the world. In the absence of a rigid skeleton and protruding extremities, snakes can contort their bodies in order to get into tight spaces, wrap around small supports and move over otherwise unmanageable ground. These serpentine qualities are the inspiration for a new type of robot called a snakebot, being developed by engineers at several universities and corporate design labs around the world.
By DV82XL, Section Commentary Posted on Wed May 09, 2007 at 06:13:57 AM PST
The Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) represents one of the morwe promising future nuclear reactor concepts included in the Generation IV reactors family. The reactor can be operated as a thorium breeder and as an actinide transmuter. In this reactor there is an extraordinarily close connection between the reactor physics and chemical technology, which is facilitated by the specific characteristics of the fuel: a molten fluoride salt mixture circulating between the reactor core and the heat exchanger. The fissionable materials are dissolved in the carrier molten salt.
By DV82XL, Section Commentary Posted on Tue Apr 17, 2007 at 01:03:21 AM PST
The productions of ethanol requires significant energy inputs to grow, harvest, transport, and process the corn and other grains required by the industry. One estimate claims that twenty percent more energy inputs overall are needed to produce a single gallon of ethanol than is contained and released when that gallon is burned as fuel. Prolonged grain cultivation for ethanol production also is likely to be a major cause of the long term exhaustion of farmland with continuing loss of topsoil from the unrelenting tillage of farm land
Thinner is Better - Advances in Thin Film Coatings
By DV82XL, Section Commentary Posted on Wed Apr 04, 2007 at 11:28:05 AM PST
In recent years, thin film science has grown world-wide into a major research area. The importance of coatings and the synthesis of new materials for industry have resulted in a tremendous increase of innovative thin film processing technologies. These films are essential for a multitude of production areas, such as thermal barrier coatings and wear protections, enhancing service life of tools and to protect materials against thermal and atmospheric influences.
By DV82XL, Section Commentary Posted on Mon Mar 05, 2007 at 11:15:04 PM PST
What follows is my analysis of the energy and energy related issues facing the globe today, based on as much publicly available information I could find over the past few years. I cannot claim expertise in these subjects. What I can bring to this topic is, a hair-trigger BS detector, and a jaundiced view of ideal fixes. That is not to say I have become a cynic, only that I have worked on the front lines of technology long enough to know that it is not the elegance of the solution, or its ease of initial implementation that count: it's the compromises and hidden costs that it's going to force that do. I have tried to keep this analysis empirical, not that I distain numbers, it's just that in these cases they are too dependent on initial assumptions or the agendas of those who calculated them, to be of any use in this discussion.Where I have used them the source is given.
By DV82XL, Section Commentary Posted on Wed Feb 28, 2007 at 07:20:13 AM PST
The natural energy of the Universe, the power that lights the stars in the sky, is nuclear. Chemical energy, wind, and water are, from the viewpoint of the Universe, almost as rare as a coal-burning star. If this is so, and if the Universe is nuclear-powered, why then are so many prepared to march in protest against its use to provide us with electricity and preserve our food?
Boiled down to its fundamentals the fear of nuclear energy has its roots in the fear of radiation. Invisible, silent, and thus undetectable by human senses, it is the bogeyman of all things atomic. Fear feeds on ignorance.
