TOWER OF SALT: The 19-megawatt Gemasolar tower near Seville, Spain, uses sodium and potassium nitrate salts to make electricity. Heliostats around the tower focus sunlight to heat a collector to around 550C. The collector liquefies the salts which then power a steam turbine through a heat exchanger. Liquid salt, FTW. More at NewScientist and video on YouTube.
THE OUTERWEBS: It's a big place, Australia, with enormous challenges in bringing Internet to remote locations. The National Broadband Network hopes a new fibre optic network will connect 93% of Australia to high speed Internet. As for the Outback, they believe that TV antennae and unused low-frequency analog television spectrum could do the trick. Turn off that telly and tune in to the Internet. More at DiscoveryNews.
RADIO GIG: Think laser for Wi-Fi: the Plasma Silicon Antenna makes 60 gigahertz Wi-Fi possible. The new antenna uses thousands of selectively activated diodes on a silicon chip to reflect, focus and steer high-frequency radio waves. This Ultrafast Wi-Fi, known as Wi-Gig, allows speeds up to 7 gigabits per second. What comes after Ultra? More at NewScientist.
SPRINTBOT: The Athlete robot runs like a human. Well, 4 or 5 steps anyway until it falls over. Each leg has 7 sets of artificial muscles that correspond to muscles in the human body. The robot's feet bounce off the ground to move it forward, while touch sensors and an inertial measurement unit help it stay upright. That's 5 small steps for a robot. More at Spectrum and video on YouTube.
VIRTUAL PLUMMET: This is the kind of skydiving I could do: no planes involved. As part of Google's Demo Slam one group hung blue sheets, painted with clouds around the sides of a square, put mats on the floor and added a projector above. Then they projected zooming Google Earth images on the floor and took to the 'skies' hanging from wires above the projection. Friends used wind machines and fire extinguishers to provide realistic effects. Looks like excellent fun.
More at DVice and video on YouTube.
- Miraz Jordan knowit.co.nz
Tech Universe: Thursday 16 December
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