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A Cry Heard Round The World: Kim Sun-Il died desperate and alone, but he did not die unheard.
Looking At And Longing For Mars: Reflections on a childhood dream.
A Robot May Not Harm a Human Being. Is The Opposite True?: Thoughts on the future rights of artificial intelligence.
Long After The Boys Of Summer Have Gone: What makes a relationship work?
Winter Of Our Feline Discontent: What the cat wants, the cat gets. But what DOES it want?
To Tell The Truth: There may be no honor among thieves, but can't we find it even in a few good men and women?
Should The Human Brain Retire?: We know that we cannot win forever. We know that machines will continue to improve. So why don't we let the human brain retire gracefully now, with honors?
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Published: Sep 16, 2005 01:41 PM
Mon - October 20, 2003
Surfs Up! Power Up, Dude!
What do cell phones and super soakers
have in common?
In
a discovery that could have vast implications for how we power everything from
mobile phones to the national electric grid, two U.S.
researchers have demonstrated a new way to produce energy by flowing water
through micro-sized
tubes:
- The technique is based on understanding that when a non-conducting glass container is filled with water, the glass develops a tiny electric charge while the water takes on the opposite charge. The Canadian researchers hypothesised that if the water was continually pumped through tiny glass tubes, the water would continually sweep away the tiny charge and generate an electric current. To their delight, they were able to illuminate a real light bulb by exploiting this coupling between an electrokinetic phenomena and the flowing water.
It will be interesting to see whether this technique eventually transforms Niagara Falls, the Mississippi River, and the Amazon Basin into virtually inexhaustible power supplies, converting the term "hydroelectric power" into an oxymoron.