 |
There are currently, 300 guest(s) and 0 member(s) that are online.
You are Anonymous user. You can register for free by clicking here
| |
| |
MIT's Energy 'Manhattan Project'
Posted on Saturday, August 12, 2006 @ 10:43:32 UTC by vlad
|
|
By Mark Anderson / Wired News
Solar cells made from spinach. Algae-based biofuel fattened on
greenhouse gas. Plasma-powered turbo engines. These are just some of
the technologies being developed by a Manhattan Project-style research
effort for new energy technologies at MIT.
Scientists at MIT are undertaking a big, ambitious, university-wide
program to develop innovative energy tech under the auspices of the
school's Energy Research Council.
"The urgent challenge of our time (is) clean, affordable energy to power the world," said MIT President Susan Hockfield.
Inaugurated last year, the project is likened by Hockfield to MIT's contribution to radar -- a key technology that helped win World War II.
"As the example of radar suggests, when MIT arrays its capabilities
against an important problem ... we can make an important
contribution," said Hockfield in an e-mail.
David Jhirad, a former deputy assistant secretary of energy and current VP for science and research at the World Resources Institute,
said no other institution or government anywhere has taken on such an
intensive, creative, broad-based, and wide-ranging energy research
initiative.
"MIT is stepping into a vacuum, because there is no policy, vision
or leadership at the top of our nation," he said. "It's uniquely
matched. MIT has tremendous strengths across the board -- from science
and engineering to management to architecture to the humanities. From
that point of view, it's hugely significant."
Below are some examples of the MIT research projects the Energy Research Council will be sponsoring and developing:
Read the rest of the story here: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71574-0.html?tw=wn_culture_2
|
| |
|
Don't have an account yet? You can create one. As a registered user you have some advantages like theme manager, comments configuration and post comments with your name.
| |
Average Score: 4
Votes: 2
| |
|
|
No Comments Allowed for Anonymous, please register |
|
MIT announces new energy initiative (Score: 1)
by vlad on Wednesday, September 20, 2006 @ 22:06:33 UTC
(User Info | Send a Message) http://www.zpenergy.com | CAMBRIDGE, MA, United States (UPI) -- U.S. scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are starting a project to better understand how to best tackle the world`s looming energy crisis.
MIT President Susan Hockfield said the establishment of the MIT Energy Initiative will allow the school, 'with its unique talents and capabilities,' to address what she called one of the most urgent challenges of our time.
Hockfield says the project will address 'the science, technology, policy, and systems design required to meet the global energy challenge.' She said the program will progressively build focused research programs, coordinated educational offerings and the necessary campus infrastructure, leading to the establishment of a new interdepartmental laboratory or center that will involve researchers from all five MIT schools.
'When MIT focuses on large issues of great public importance, we are able to get things done,' she said.
The initiative will be led by MIT Physics Professor Ernest Moniz and Chemical Engineering Professor Robert Armstrong.
Copyright 2006 by United Press International
Source: http://science.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1203431.php/MIT_announces_new_energy_initiative
|
|
|
Why a 'Manhattan Project' for energy won't work (Score: 1)
by vlad on Saturday, August 12, 2006 @ 10:48:06 UTC
(User Info | Send a Message) http://www.zpenergy.com | BY MAX SCHULZ
An idea gaining currency these days is that the United States needs a new Manhattan Project to solve our nation's energy problems. U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., is just the latest to propose a massive federal government effort to develop alternatives to petroleum and cut U.S. dependence on fossil fuels. He suggested it pursue these goals with the urgency of the World War II era project that rushed to develop the atomic bomb.
A number of other prominent voices claim the Manhattan Project provides a good template for dealing with our energy problems. The New York Times' Thomas Friedman routinely cites the need for a Manhattan Project on energy. So have political strategist Dick Morris and Frank Gaffney of the Set America Free coalition. Various editorial pages around the country have made similar calls for a concerted federal effort to deliver energy independence.
They might as well be calling for a new federal Department of Alchemy to turn lead into gold. The idea of a Manhattan Project for energy is a bad one and provides the wrong way of looking at our energy supply challenges and their attendant geopolitical concerns.
This modern Manhattan Project mind-set says that if only we were to get serious and devote enough resources, we could invent an alternative to oil and solve the 21st-century energy problems our country faces. By "we," proponents actually mean the federal government. And by "resources," they mean your tax dollars.
It won't work. The chief reason is that the type of challenges we face today are so wholly different from the type faced during World War II. The original Manhattan Project brought together the Free World's most brilliant minds to invent the atomic bomb. They were in a race against time; the Nazis were working toward the same goal. Money was no object. With the fate of civilization at stake, the cost to develop the Bomb was of minimal concern. Simply, the Manhattan Project's challenge was technological, not economic.
Read the rest of the story: http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/editorial/15191684.htm |
|
|
Re: MIT's Energy 'Manhattan Project' (Score: 1)
by Koen on Sunday, August 13, 2006 @ 01:38:04 UTC
(User Info | Send a Message) http://no.nl/tesla | MIT can succeed instantaneously: they only have to dig up Philo Farnsworth's fusor device, that was hidden by MIT in their basement somewhere, half a century ago. Farnsworth's fusor patent describes the fusor can operate in a SELF-SUSTAINED mode (meaning it is a working fusion- and energy-generating device). I believe Farnsworth (inventor of television) with respect to this claim, since he was one of the most gifted technicians ever. I read the patent myself, focussing on the claims, and there it was: self-sustaining operation for at least several minutes, the holy grail of fusion research.
Could somebody remind MIT they already have a working device in their basement, that can convert energy ecomically and fully competitive with the fossile fuel based "economy"? Don't be surprised if some MIT PhD reveals a tabletop nuclear fusion device, out of the b(asement)lue.
So, are the MIT heros really serious with their Manhatton project (they must have an ultra bad conscience over Farnsworth fusor device on the background of very serious climate/ecology changes), or are they still fooling us?
|
|
|
We need a Brooklyn Project, not a Manhattan Project! (Score: 1)
by Overtone on Sunday, August 13, 2006 @ 10:24:42 UTC
(User Info | Send a Message) http://www.magneticpowerinc.com | See Bridgewalk, at the top of this site, for an approach to a workable way to reverse the use of fossil and uranium fuels.
Their use can be wound down much faster than might be imagined.
Mark Goldes
Magnetic Power Inc.
|
|
|
Re: MIT's Energy 'Manhattan Project' (Score: 1)
by Sigma on Sunday, August 20, 2006 @ 05:24:45 UTC
(User Info | Send a Message) | However, unlike ZPE, this technology is more rooted in tradition science and therefore may have a shot at mitigating the ecological disaster that we as a species has created. Every day I grow more and more critical of the whole free energy scene... there has yet to be one technology brought to the market, despite numorous claims through the years. I believe that improved efficiency, better materials, smarter devices, and co-generation are probably the best bet as we go into the future. I do believe that nanotech itself offers not only the potential of sustainable energy, but also "free" energy.
Perhaps as we delve deeper into the atomic structure we may, as ElectroDynaCat would hint at, find a way to harness the ZPE field. I guess we will see what happens with this Steorn company, but I have this feeling it won't be much. |
|
|
|
|
