Cool Science thread

[Norseman]

Edit, fuck, DTM beat me to the punch

[J. Barron DeJong]

Putting a bit of a damper on this:

”You've probably heard by now that the Department of Energy will announce tomorrow that one of their fusion machines has achieved the holy grail: net energy production. That is, the energy coming out will be greater than the energy going in.Not to put a damper on the whole thing, but there's a little less here than meets the eye. Here's a very rough block diagram of the energy flow in the National Ignition Facility:”


https://jabberwocking.com/warning-th...t-energy-gain/

No idea how much less of a big deal that makes it, or whether it’s in line with how other places are reporting their outputs vs. inputs.

[mtnjam]

Yep, still spinning those magnets to make current. I get it, that's what the grid and just about everything is designed to do.

I'm just wondering if anyone has looked into alternate forms of mass energy production without having to spin a turbine, like solar except without those pesky photons.

[Dantheman]

Technically there's niche stuff like piezoelectrics and thermoelectrics, but they're not practical for producing electricity at scale.

[crashtestdummy]

Putting a bit of a damper on this:

”You've probably heard by now that the Department of Energy will announce tomorrow that one of their fusion machines has achieved the holy grail: net energy production. That is, the energy coming out will be greater than the energy going in.Not to put a damper on the whole thing, but there's a little less here than meets the eye. Here's a very rough block diagram of the energy flow in the National Ignition Facility:”


https://jabberwocking.com/warning-th...t-energy-gain/

No idea how much less of a big deal that makes it, or whether it’s in line with how other places are reporting their outputs vs. inputs.

That red font is almost invisible to me.

[The Suit]

Putting a bit of a damper on this:

”You've probably heard by now that the Department of Energy will announce tomorrow that one of their fusion machines has achieved the holy grail: net energy production. That is, the energy coming out will be greater than the energy going in.Not to put a damper on the whole thing, but there's a little less here than meets the eye. Here's a very rough block diagram of the energy flow in the National Ignition Facility:”


https://jabberwocking.com/warning-th...t-energy-gain/

No idea how much less of a big deal that makes it, or whether it’s in line with how other places are reporting their outputs vs. inputs.

It's a big deal because they made huge strides in that last step over the past year, but it doesn't mean that commercial fusion energy is around the corner. The energy loss in the lasers is just one of the issues that makes inertial confinement much less likely (in my opinion) to deliver the first commercial fusion vs. magnetic confinement.

[MakersTeleMark]

https://xkcd.com/2710/

[old goat]

Which will come first--commercial nuclear fusion energy, fully autonomous go0anywhere in any condition automobiles, or flying cars. I say none of them.

[Brock Landers]

Fully autonomous cars

[joetron]

Technically there's niche stuff like piezoelectrics.

I visualize acres of late 90s K2 skis shaking in the wind and healing the earth


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[gravitylover]

For years I've had this off the wall idea that roads could be "paved" with piezoelectric generators so that all the vehicle activity on the road would allow the road to be an e-car charging station that would charge the cars as they're rolling along. While I don't expect it would be able to generate enough to keep them fully charged it ought to be able to be a significant range booster. Maybe the vehicles could have pickups like AFX cars or electric trains that make contact with the embedded charging strip in the road. I dunno, just a thought...

[Dantheman]

Israeli researchers discover 100,000 new types of viruses
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/364975

[406]

^^^ they probably found half of them at my son's daycare.

[I Skied Bandini Mountain]

If you've ever played with mud

https://www.iflscience.com/the-secre...-cracked-66976

[Dantheman]

https://hms.harvard.edu/news/loss-ep...on-can-reverse

[PB]

https://hms.harvard.edu/news/loss-ep...on-can-reverse

Volunteering for clinical trials ....

[Dantheman]

Volunteering for clinical trials ....

I'm glad to still be "just" 40 and can afford to wait 10-20 years for the kinks to be worked out. Really though, this is some pretty mind-blowing shit. Crucially, this study represents a number of predictions made in Sinclair's 2019 book Lifespan coming to fruition.

[From_the_NEK]

https://hms.harvard.edu/news/loss-ep...on-can-reverse

Whoa...

[::: :::]

https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgyj...ion-study-says

[whipski]

^^^ they probably found half of them at my son's daycare.

Brilliant!!!

[MultiVerse]

Fantastic use of the Talking Heads to simplify a complicated concept:

[JimmyCarter]

Fantastic use of the Talking Heads to simplify a complicated concept:

This is not my b.autiful .if.

[XXX-er]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-...sity-1.6724175

Canadian team discovers power-draining flaw in most laptop and phone batteries, something that affect all mobile users

[SB]

I visualize acres of late 90s K2 skis shaking in the wind and healing the earth


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Bless their flashy little lights.

[gravitylover]

Liquid and solid at the same time. Finally https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/03/s...ice-glass.html