Have you heard the news out of Hawaii? Former NASA executive and physicist John Mankins captured solar energy from a mountain top in Maui and sent it wirelessly 92 miles to the main island of Hawaii. The team of researchers was only able to send around 20 watts, which is not even enough to power a fluorescent light bulb. Most of the power was lost in the transmission process.

Makins says that the project was limited by budget, and that with the proper equipment he could increase efficiency up to 64%.

Not impressed?

Did you know that 170 million gigawatts of solar energy hit the earth every second? That is more energy than the earth has used since the beginning of the industrial era. Now imagine being able to tap into that source on a large scale. With Mankins wireless energy transfer idea many satellites would be launched with high tech solar panels on them. Then the satellites would relay the energy to earth via harmless wireless energy transfer to receiving stations. Also, with the solar panels in space there is no loss in efficiency due to clouds or night. The energy would be available 24/7.

Mankins says he can get a demonstration system in orbit in around 6 years and have the full system up in around 15 years.

There are scientists in Japan that claim they could get the space-based solar power project started in less than 5 months with less than 1 million dollars. Their concept uses mirrors to focus as much solar power possible into the solar cells, and thus create 5 times more energy than conventional solar cells.

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Watch THIS video, it is worth your time. If you still have more questions, go HERE for the full article from Popular Science

L.J.

Wondering what today’s featured interpretation graphic for google.com means?  Well, it may have something to do with Europe, ancient cultures, and the beginning and end of the universe.  For those that do not know, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is being turned on today.

Europe and the universe

That is correct, they built a multi-billion dollar behemoth underground in Europe to try to recreate some of the things that were going on at the beginning of the universe.  There is no real way to know if they will succeed, but they are planning on flinging particles at each other at near the speed of light with promises that it will uncover new scientific truths.

Ancient cultures

Doomsday!  There were many people screaming that the LHC not be turned on for fear that it would destroy the world: it is expected that some of its experiments will create black holes.  Now, the first work that they’ll be doing over in Europe will not be the full speed, slam-bang stuff that the LHC is capable of, so do not expect the world to implode anytime soon.  There is still some time.  However, we may be able to link the earth’s demise to the Mayan calendar.

The Mayan calendar ends in December of 2012, and there are many opinions as to what will happen at that precise moment.  Could it be that they predicted our demise via a planetary catastrophe caused by smashing particles together?  As far as the stars go, the calendar has made some accurate predictions, so it is appropriate to believe that their scholars and priests must have known about particle physics.  The world is on a crash course, right?

**Leaving the twilight zone**

I [heart] the LHC and the Mayan Calendar.  We’ve been smart in the past and we are only getting smarter.  I’ll see you on New Year’s of 2013.

C.O.

The term “green Google” is particularly interesting, and who is to say that YOU are not the person/group that is going make the difference–there is definitely opportunity out there. Listen, if we are on the eve of the energy technology revolution, it is going to take all of us working together to come out on the other side as winners. Get into the action in any way that you can. Here’s a question: Does drilling get us to the point where we will never have this sort of problem again?

There are some great things going on behind the scenes with the 90 plus companies that want to win this prize, and we are going to look at a few so that you can form an opinion.

Aptera-Three wheelers that are classified as motorcycles.  Both hybrid and electric (100-130 MPG).

FuelVapor Technologies-Another trike, but this one runs on fumes…literally (92 MPG).

MDI/Zero Pollution-This car runs on, get this, air.  Compressed air pushes this car and a secondary fuel makes sure that you get over 100 MPG.

Tesla-You know these guys, they’re the ones that are into building electric vehicles.  Pretty popular with the press.

Venture Vehicles-Zip around on three wheels from Venture and expect 100 MPG from either an electric or hybrid system.

Zap-This company already sells a bunch of cars.  They’re worth a look if you have the time.

As great as all of this is, we can’t let it make us complacent.  Even if new fuel efficiencies take us to places we’ve never been before, and even if we’re saving gallons and money, we still have to keep innovating for the future because the problem hasn’t been solved.

Check out the X-Prize website for all the info.

We were hit hard by something that we read over at Popular Mechanics.  In a writeup by Mythbusters’ Adam Savage, he cites that by 2010, Asia will have 90% of the world’s Ph.D. scientists and engineers.  Now, we understand that Asia represents a huge chunk of the world population, but isn’t America the contemporary vanguard of science and technology?  Don’t we have the best university system in the world?  Aren’t we the number one economic power?

The decline of science and technology must have something to do with a shift in priorities, and it is a sad state of affairs.  Not long ago, the USA was fighting tooth and nail to win the space race.  Tons of kids were inspired to become the next great minds of society, helping the cause in any way that they could.  Perhaps that is the problem.  Perhaps we’re missing that spark, that grand inspiration.  Maybe it’s their early education system that scares children away from math and science.

Whatever the case may be, we need emphasis, action, and determination.  How do we make this a priority?  How do we get each other interested in continuing to cultivate the skills that are necessary to stay on top?  The writers on this site have nothing against Asia and believe that in the end we are indeed a global community, but can you really see a world where we are not #1?

Ken Robinson

Benjamin Zander

These videos can be extremely addictive, so be careful. You could literally spend hours at the computer soaking this stuff in, and it’ll take weeks to make a dent in all of the content. If you are anything like I am you’ll take at least one great thing away from it.