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I am currently producing a short, animated video about the flu virus that I intend to either sell, or publish right here on Science of the Times. I had wanted to include a video interview with a flu virus researcher and had lined up Adolfo Garcia-Sastre, co-chair of the Emerging Pathogens Institute at Mount Sinai Medical Center. Read more… »
While pounding away on my gym’s treadmill last night, a ridiculous number of TV screens staring at me from across the room, my eyes fixed on Lou Dobbs’ show. The TV’s sound was turned off and it showed closed-captioning in addition to CNN’s graphics. I was instantly struck by a mismatch between the phrases “antibiotic resistance” in the closed captioning and “killer virus” in the lower third. As just about everyone knows, viruses are antibiotic-resistant to begin with. Read more… »
After taking a short hiatus from writing after graduation from the SHERP program at NYU, I’m ready to launch this blog properly.
What sort of blog is this going to be you might ask? What the heck is a collision of science, journalism and technology? Well, I’m not exactly sure either. But science, journalism and especially journalism fueled by technology (i.e. multi-media journalism) are passions of mine. Read more… »
It can be a little frustrating to know that our excess energy consumption is almost certainly driving up atmospheric CO2 concentrations, contributing to global warming, and the only thing that we can really do to help is to cut back. For example, we might reduce air and road travel, not eat food shipped across long distances and switch to energy-saving light bulbs.
That’s why I’m always on the look out for micro-level technology that could potentially enable the average Joe (or Jane) to actually generate clean energy.
Two new developments in micro-level energy production showed up on the web this past week that look promising. The first, reported on the website Planetsave, is about a regional energy company that is exploring the economics of turning residential rooftop space into energy-producing solar cell arrays. The twist is that the company would rent the space from homeowners and the wattage generated would feed back into the energy grid rather than to the house where it was generated. The company, Duke Energy of North Carolina, thinks that this approach may be more economical than building new coal-fired power plants.
The second development is a nearly silent wind turbine for the home, called the Energy Ball, produced by Swedish company HomeEnergy. The turbine is unique (maybe not?) in that it uses a physics principle known as the Venturi Effect to increase its efficiency. (The Venturi effect is basically the observation that a fluid or gas pushed through a long, thin tube moves faster than through a short, fat one.) Apparently, you can plug this thing right into any free outlet in your house. Unfortunately, you aren’t going to find these in the clearance rack at IKEA–entry level models start at $4,600.
Solar cells and wind turbines are all good and great for homeowners, but what about us apartment dwellers? Stay tuned.
