energy
A $30,000 electric vehicle with 400 miles of range that charges in under 10 minutes remains a pipe dream over the near future.
The futuristic weapon could be ready for the battlefield in 5 years.
As wind power grows around the world, so does the threat the turbines pose to wildlife. From simple fixes to high-tech solutions, new approaches can help.
Decades ago, a disaster left three million acres of land uninhabitable and killed between 85,600 and 240,000 people. Chernobyl? No. Banqiao dam in China.
Scientists have been chasing the dream of harnessing the reactions that power the Sun since the dawn of the atomic era. Interest, and investment, in the carbon-free energy source is heating up.
The term “zero-point energy” has at least two meanings, one that is innocuous and one that is a great deal sexier (and scammier).
A massive nuclear fusion experiment just hit a major milestone, potentially putting us a little closer to a future of limitless clean energy.
McDermitt Caldera, the site of an ancient volcanic eruption, straddles the border of Oregon and Nevada.
Experiments on suborbital rockets are revealing how to make a better iron furnace.
In many ways, it was worse than Chernobyl.
The National Ignition Facility just repeated, and improved upon, their earlier demonstration of nuclear fusion. Now, the true race begins.
Ironically, the company did so using technology perfected by the oil industry.
Science fiction met nuclear fission when Hungarian physicist Leó Szilárd pondered the explosive potential of nuclear energy.
The biggest nuclear blast in history came courtesy of Tsar Bomba. We could make something at least 100 times more powerful.
The material is both stronger and lighter than those used to make conventional power plant turbines.
There may be more energy in methane hydrates than in all the world’s oil, coal, and gas combined. It could be the perfect “bridge fuel” to a clean energy future.
The robot can drive heavy steal beams into the ground at a rate of 1 per 73 seconds, which will help expedite solar farm construction.
Old coal mines can be converted into “gravity batteries” by retrofitting them with equipment that raises and lowers giant piles of sand.
Apart from the energy needed to flip the switch, no other energy is needed to transmit the information.
Innovative thinking has done away with problems that long dogged the electric devices — and both scientists and environmentalists are excited about the possibilities.
Capacitors, acid batteries, and other methods of storing electric charges all lose energy over time. These gravity-fed batteries won’t.
It was a particularly good year for biotech and medical technology. There were also notable advances in energy.
Some solar cells are so lightweight they can sit on a soap bubble.
Lithium-ion batteries pose challenges for our transition toward renewable energy. Sodium-sulfur batteries might be a solution.
Once water gets more than about 200 feet deep, building on the sea floor is out of the question.
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
Its implications go well beyond the Earth itself, affecting even the future of space travel.
Nuclear fusion has long been seen as the future of energy. As the NIF now passes the breakeven point, how close are we to our ultimate goal?
If you gave me $400 and I gave you $3.15, would you consider yourself wealthier? That’s a financial analogy for the supposed fusion power “breakthrough.”
They are expected to be cheaper to build and even more reliable than today’s nuclear plants.