Fast wireless charging from Fujitsu

September 17, 2010
Faraday's experiment with induction between co...

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This will be a significant step forward but if only I could also charge my laptop wirelessly as well………

From Asahi News:

Kawasaki, Japan, September 13, 2010 — Fujitsu Laboratories Limited today announced the development of wireless recharging technology that enables the design of magnetic resonance-based wireless charging systems that can simultaneously recharge various types of portable electronic devices. Details of this technology are being presented at the 2010 conference of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers (IEICE), opening September 14 at Osaka Prefecture University.

Electromagnetic induction and magnetic resonance are the methods most often used for wireless charging. With electromagnetic induction, a magnetic flux is induced between the power-transmitting and power-receiving coils, and operates based on electromotive force. This method has been used in cordless phones, among other equipment. The drawbacks are that the method only works over short distances, and the power transmitter and power receiver need to be in alignment, so it is effectively no different than using a charging station with a wired connection. By contrast, the magnetic resonance method, which was first proposed in 2006, uses a coil and capacitor as a resonator, transmitting electricity through the magnetic resonance between the power transmitter and power receiver. This method can transmit electricity over a range of up to several meters, and because a single transmitter can power multiple receiving devices, developments are under way for a broad range of potential applications, charging everything from portable electronics to electric cars.

What Fujitsu Laboratories has done is to develop technology that dramatically shortens the time required to design transmitters and receivers for magnetic resonance charging systems and, in addition, enables accurate tuning of resonant conditions in the design phase, even for compact transmitters and receivers that are prone to influences from nearby metallic and magnetic objects.

Fujitsu plans to continue using this analysis and design technology in research and development on wireless charging systems for mobile phones and other portable devices, and plans to bring products using it to market in 2012. The company is also looking at applying the results of this work to fields other than portable electronics, including power transmission between circuit boards or computer chips, and providing mobile charging systems for electric cars.

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BP Oil Plume was only 1/3 oil, 2/3 was gas

September 17, 2010
Gas from the damaged Deepwater Horizon wellhea...

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Perhaps this helps to explain where all the oil went.

The plumes of oil that spewed into the Gulf of Mexico’s depths this spring and summer in the aftermath of the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout were actually only about one-third oil,  with the remainder consisting of natural gas.

Research reported online September 16 in Science found that in June, marine microbes were primarily feeding on propane and ethane in the oil plumes. “We estimate that there’s about two times as much gas sitting in those subsurface plumes as there is oil — and there’s about a million barrels of oil in them,” says David Valentine of the University of California, Santa Barbara, speaking by phone from a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrationresearch vessel in the Gulf. Chemists had been trying to estimate how much oxygen might disappear as microbes began degrading BP’s spilled oil. It now turns out oil is only a tiny part of the issue. “Probably 66 to 75 percent of the oxygen loss — maybe even a bit more — will ultimately come from bacterial metabolism of the gases,” Valentine projects.

https://ktwop.wordpress.com/2010/09/12/microbes-ate-the-bp-oil-plume/

The new research “is quite solid and something people will be taking seriously,” says Benjamin Van Mooy, a chemical oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.

Terry Hazen of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California and his colleagues recently reported finding substantial microbial degradation of a particular fraction of the spilled oil called n-alkanes in subsea plumes. He says that the work by the Woods Hole team and the authors of the new Science paper doesn’t contradict his group’s findings. “They’re all quite consistent,” he says. Each group looked at different hydrocarbons at different times, and sometimes in different plumes. The environment is dynamic, he notes, and truly understanding what’s happening will take a lot more work.

One big concern since the initial discovery of deep-sea hydrocarbon plumes has been what will happen to oxygen concentrations near the seabed. Some scientists have questioned whether fish-suffocating dead zones might develop. But a September 7 federal study looked for evidence of such oxygen deprivation in plume zones and found none.

Based on four months of sampling data through August 9, “Oxygen levels have dropped by about 20 percent from their long-term average in this area of the Gulf,” said Steve Murawski, chief science advisor to NOAA’s Fisheries Department and head of the largely federal interagency Joint Analysis Group on the BP spill. Oxygen levels in plume zones have stabilized, he said, and “would have to decrease another 70 percent in order to be classified a dead zone.”

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Further proof that glaciers are not well understood

September 16, 2010

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100915140119.htm

Glacial armoring

A new paper in Nature shows that glaciers can both help mountains grow as well as cause erosion. The stubborn certainty displayed by Pachauri and the IPCC about glaciers seems all the more ridiculous.

Stuart N. Thomson, Mark T. Brandon, Jonathan H. Tomkin, Peter W. Reiners, Cristián Vásquez, Nathaniel J. Wilson.Glaciation as a destructive and constructive control on mountain building. Nature, 2010; 467 (7313): 313 DOI:10.1038/nature09365

Glaciers can help actively growing mountains become higher by protecting them from erosion, according to a University of Arizona-led research team. The finding is contrary to the conventional view of glaciers as powerful agents of erosion that carve deep fjords and move massive amounts of sediment down mountains. Mountains grow when movements of the Earth’s crust push the rocks up. The research is the first to show that the erosion effect of glaciers — what has been dubbed the “glacial buzzsaw” — reverses on mountains in colder climates.

Glaciers atop mountains in temperate latitudes flow downhill, scouring away the surface of the mountain. Over millennia, such erosion can reduce the height and width of a mountain range by miles. However in very cold climates such as the Patagonian Andes, rather than scraping away the surface of the mountain, the team found that glaciers protect the mountain top and sides from erosion. The team dubs the action of the cold-climate glaciers “glacial armoring.”

“Climate, especially through glaciers, has a really big impact on how big mountains get,” said Reiners, a UA professor of geosciences.

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PR2 robot now on general sale

September 16, 2010

Asimov’s Laws of Robotics are not yet being put to the test but the PR2 robot’s two gripper-equipped arms, laser scanner and multiple cameras allow it to fold towels, fetch a beer and plug itself into the mains when it needs to recharge.

The New Scientist reports that Silicon Valley start-up Willow Garage has put its PR2 robot on general sale.

The price tag may be a bit daunting at $400,000.

But for individuals with a proven track record in contributions to the open source community, we are also introducing an award which amounts to a $120,000 discount on PR2 purchases. Details on the open source discount are here.

image:http://www.willowgarage.com/blog/2010/09/07/pr2-pricing-and-open-source-discount

Video here

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Oxburgh “Inquiry”: Defendants decide on admissibility of evidence

September 16, 2010

Steve McIntyre is upto his admirable sleuthing again.

The question as to who chose the super-11 “peer-reviewed” papers  has been solved.

Dear Mr McIntyre
In response to your recent enquiry I can provide the following information.

I understand that the list of 11 papers for the Oxburgh review was collated by Prof Trevor Davies, in consultation with others. He was also the author of the statement at the bottom of the list.

Yours sincerely,
Lisa Williams

So the list was not selected by the Royal Society after all, but by Trevor Davies, the pro-VC of the University and former director of CRU. In consultation with “others”. Dare one hypothesize that these mysterious “others” will turn out to be Jones and Briffa after all?

An impartial objective inquiry? Where the defendant decided which evidence would be admissible.

image: sodahead.com

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Riding piggy-back can save the polar bears from melting ice!!

September 16, 2010

Well now….

Swedish Radio reports that a previously unknown behaviour of polar bears has been observed. A cub can travel on its mother’s back while she swims in search of food. “It could be a way for polar bears to cope better than we thought” said Tom Arnbom of WWF. “I think it’s positive” he says. “It proves that the polar bears can adapt if climate changes in the Arctic”

image: Isbjörnar. Foto: Angela Plumb/WWF.

Polar bear with cub

Update: Story also on the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8284000/8284906.stm

Dr Jon Aars from the Norwegian Polar Institute in Tromso describes what happened in the journal Polar Biology. On the 21 July 2006, Mrs Angela Plumb, a tourist from the UK, was aboard a ship in the mouth of a fjord in the Svalbard archipelago.

“The cub was on the back of the polar bear when it was in the water, then it got out of the water and stayed on its mother’s back a little, then she shook it off,” Mrs Plumb explains.

For large parts of the year, polar bears (Ursus maritimus) live among the sea ice, feeding mainly on seals. The challenge for the bears is to navigate the many areas of open water between the islands of floating ice. Seeing the bear had a radio collar, Mrs Plumb got in touch with Dr Aars to report her sighting and asked if this was a common behaviour.

“I hadn’t seen this behaviour before or heard about it so I asked other researchers and found out it is something that has been observed but not frequently at all,” Dr Aars says.

Dr Aars was especially interested if this behaviour might have some adaptive value for the bears. “This could be potentially important because it means that the cubs get exposed to less water. If they are in the water they would have to swim and very small cubs are very badly insulated in water,” he says.

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Renewable Realities

September 16, 2010
Modern wind energy plant in rural scenery.

Image via Wikipedia

Renewable energy sources – when they have become commercial – have their part to play. Engineers and scientists have made remarkable progress in the development of concepts, materials, systems and technologies. But the exaggerations and distortions regarding the possibilities follow a political agenda. Fundamentals and common sense are discarded in the fervour – almost religious – of “environmentalism” and “global warming” and subsidy scams. The realities of what renewables can offer is far from the rosy perceptions that prevail.

It is worth just reminding ourselves of the fundamental constraints which apply:

Generating Capacity: Wind and solar capacity require full back-up capacity but hydro power does not.

  • Wind power is intermittent and cannot be predicted. Therefore generating capacity needs cannot rely on wind power capacity and 100% back-up in the form of alternate capacity is always needed. Since electrical power cannot be stored, wind power cannot follow load needs. Any variation in wind power produced must be compensated for by changing the power generated by some other plant in order to follow load. Wind power cannot be despatched.
  • Solar power (thermal or photovoltaic) is intermittent not only between day and night and between winter and summer but also during the hours of sunshine due to clouds, rain and dust storms. Some little storage of thermal energy (molten salts for example) is possible but storage of electrical power in batteries or the like is not
    Solar Array récupéré de http://en.wikipedia.or...

    Image via Wikipedia

    feasible.

    Solar plant capacity must also be backed up by alternate generating capacity and since this falls to zero every night, the back up required is also around 100% (with some variation due to the particular night time load profile). Because thermal storage can be available some load changing during daylight hours is feasible.

  • Hybrid solar thermal – fossil fuel plants can ensure continuous operation and eliminate the back up capacity.
  • The lifetime of components in a solar thermal plant is drastically affected by the enforced cycling caused by daily starts and stops. (Material fatigue and creep considerations are determined by thermal cycling).
  • Hydro power plants are dependent upon seasonal water levels in reservoirs for large plant or on variations of water flow in smaller run-of-the-river plants. Large plants are nearly always used for base load power (when in-season) and can also be used for power storage of surplus power from other plants if equipped with a pumped-storage facility. Hydro power plants are always included within the generating capacity base and require no back up capacity. However a grid’s load changing needs (to follow load) must usually be provided for by other types of plant (gas or coal).

Availability and capacity factor:

  • Wind power is available only when the wind blows above a minimum value (around 4 m/s) and below a maximum value (around 25 m/s). It cannot operate in gusting conditions. For safety considerations ice formation on turbine blades must be avoided and this gives a minimum ambient temperature for operation as well. Though wind turbine machinery may be available to operate for over 90% of time, the wind or weather conditions are the limiting factor and a wind turbine – dependent on siting – can usually generate power for not more than about 40 -50%  of a year. But it is not possible to predict when it will be in operation and at what load. The resultant capacity factor for a wind turbine is around 20% (i.e. a wind power plant only generates about 20% of its rated capacity on an annual basis).
  • Solar thermal plants  without storage can operate for about an annual average of 8 -9 hours per day. With thermal storage they can operate for about 14 or 15 hours per day and where the solar field is used to augment a fossil fuel plant continuous operation is possible. Without storage, a solar thermal plant has a capacity factor of around 20% which can be increased with thermal storage to about 40%. Currently the cost of thermal storage adds about 75% to the cost of a solar thermal plant.
  • Solar photovoltaic plants cannot use any form of energy storage and therefore have a capacity factor of around 20%
  • Large hydro plants running at base-load have capacity factors well above 80% (in-season).
  • Small run-of-the-river hydro plants can have capacity factors ranging from 30% in seasonal flows and over 80% in perennial flows.



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Beware the Icarus syndrome

September 16, 2010

Like Icarus the global warming believers pay little attention to the sun and its moods. But like the wings of Icarus the demonisation of carbon dioxide is likely to be demolished by the sun. We are now in Solar Cycle  24 and magnetic flux and sunspots continue to be lower than the already low forecasts for this cycle. The Landscheidt minimum approaches and the sun is entirely oblivious of fanciful theories about coming ice ages or the melting of the polar ice caps. The sun will not be denied. The earth will merely adapt to whatever the sun deigns to produce and it might be best if we focused on adapting to whatever the sun does and waste less time on trying to control the climate.

Say Goodbye to Sunspots?

Science reports a new paper submitted to the International Astronomical Union Symposium No. 273, an online colloquium showing that the dearth of sunspots is at an unprecedented low level.

The sun goes through an 11-year cycle, in which the number of sunspots spikes during a period called the solar maximum and drops—sometimes to zero—during a time of inactivity called the solar minimum.The last solar minimum should have ended last year, but something peculiar has been happening. Although solar minimums normally last about 16 months, the current one has stretched over 26 months—the longest in a century. One reason, according to the paper is that the magnetic field strength of sunspots appears to be waning.

After studying sunspots for the past 2 decades the authors have concluded that the magnetic field that triggers their formation has been steadily declining. If the current trend continues, by 2016 the sun’s face may become spotless and remain that way for decades—a phenomenon that in the 17th century coincided with a prolonged period of cooling on Earth. Sunspots disappeared almost entirely between 1645 and 1715 during a period called the Maunder Minimum, which coincided with decades of lower-than-normal temperatures in Europe nicknamed the Little Ice Age. But Livingston cautions that the zero-sunspot prediction could be premature. “It may not happen,” he says. “Only the passage of time will tell whether the solar cycle will pick up.” Still, he adds, there’s no doubt that sunspots “are not very healthy right now.” Instead of the robust spots surrounded by halolike zones called penumbrae, as seen during the last solar maximum (photo), most of the current crop looks “rather peaked,” with few or no penumbrae.

Over a year ago Henrik Svensmark, Professor, Technical University of Denmark, Copenhagen warned “In fact global warming has stopped and a cooling is beginning. No climate model has predicted a cooling of the Earth – quite the contrary. And this means that the projections of future climate are unreliable.”

It’s important to realise that the Little Ice Age was a global event. It ended in the late 19th Century and was followed by increasing solar activity. Over the past 50 years solar activity has been at its highest since the medieval warmth of 1000 years ago. But now it appears that the Sun has changed again, and is returning towards what solar scientists call a “grand minimum” such as we saw in the Little Ice Age.

The match between solar activity and climate through the ages is sometimes explained away as coincidence. Yet it turns out that, almost no matter when you look and not just in the last 1000 years, there is a link. Solar activity has repeatedly fluctuated between high and low during the past 10,000 years. In fact the Sun spent about 17 per cent of those 10,000 years in a sleeping mode, with a cooling Earth the result.

image: http://solarcycle24.com/sunspots.htm

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Gold fever

September 15, 2010
Mojave Nugget, a gold nugget weighing 156 ounc...

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The price of gold hit a record high on Tuesday, with analysts giving a number of reasons for its rise.

Gold generates no income. It costs to store and secure and insure. Yet the flight to gold continues. Gold only beats inflation. It fares poorly when compared to real estate or shares when compared on the basis of real inflation adjusted returns. Gold scores the highest in terms of liquidity, compared to all other investments. Gold can be converted to cash at any time. All gold investments have the same tax concern. Gold, being a commodity, is taxed as ordinary income even if  profit comes from buying a gold ETF. Between the costs of storage, premiums paid and taxes, returns from an investment in physical gold can be eroded quickly unless compensated by the gold price.

Gold price can be very volatile. Over the past three years, gold has seen an increase of 84% in value but has seen gains and losses of over 12% within the same quarter.

Indian households are estimated to hold over 16,000 tons of gold primarily as jewellery.

The BBC reports:

The price of gold hit a record high on Tuesday, with analysts giving a number of reasons for its rise. Both the price of the actual metal and the price for buying it at a future date rose more than 2% to $1,274.75 an ounce. It was the biggest one-day gain for the commodity in four months.

One of the factors spurring investors is gold’s traditional role as a so-called “safe-haven” investment at times of economic uncertainty. On the physical market, demand for both bullion and jewellery has risen ahead of the seasonal Indian wedding period and the Hindu religious festivals that begin in September.

Another driver is more technical – gold is priced in dollars, and any fall in the dollar makes it cheaper to buyers using other currencies. The dollar has fallen across a range of currencies, driven down by a range of factors. Its most remarked upon slide has been against the Japanese yen. It is trading at a 15-year low against that currency. The price of gold has risen 16% so far this year. The World Gold Council’s last report on the gold market predicted that continuing strong demand from jewellery buyers in the two fast-developing markets of India and China, would help keep the price high.

http://goldprice.org/charts/history/gold_all_data_o_usd.png

10 year gold price per ounce

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Indian Minister: Indian IT companies have created 250,000 jobs in US

September 15, 2010
DAVOS/SWITZERLAND, 27JAN10 - Anand Sharma, Min...

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While it is clearly political positioning just before bilateral trade talks between the US and India to be held next week in India, the “global outsourcing” alarmism is not as one-sided as it is made out by opportunistic politicians.

In my own experience transfer of technology across countries within the same company is more likely to lead to an increase in jobs – but not the same jobs – in the country exporting technology.

The Times of India reports that:

Indian IT companies created 7,000 jobs in the US last month and 2.5 lakh (250,000) jobs over the last three years, commerce minister Anand Sharma has said, indicating that recent protectionist measures taken by the US such as hiking professional visa fees and clamping down on outsourcing could hamper such economic activities.

“In times of crisis, countries tend to look inwards but protection can be counter productive. This is the time to encourage global trade flows,” the minister said on Tuesday. The bilateral trade policy forum meeting scheduled next week to be chaired by Mr Sharma and US trade representative Ron Kirk will focus on both issues.

The minister is optimistic that the issues could be sorted out through discussions. “We remain optimistic about the whole scenario but responses need to be calibrated,” he said.

Read more: Indian IT cos created 7,000 jobs in US in Aug – The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Indian-IT-cos-created-7000-jobs-in-US-in-Aug/articleshow/6557684.cms#ixzz0zaEmNB00

Of course it was not so very long ago when US and EU trade officials were berating India, China and other developing countries about the sins of protectionism and closed markets. With the growth in India and China now leading the way out of recession it would be wiser to keep global trade flows open rather than to wave the protectionist flag.

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