SCIENCE!!!

[Lethosos]

A Dyson sphere?

Have an article.

As expected, xkcd is pretty much always relevant.

Close, we're talking about adsorption not refraction. Still, Dyson spheres keeps reminding me of the Singularity. (Accelerando by Strauss is a plausible Singularity result.)

That being said, even a few clusters over both poles would garner more than enough power to deal with today's needs.

[holymage!]

Lightning:

Too unpredictable to be reliable.

lighting will always strike were it has the shortest route to the ground, if you make a really tall thing that would knock out the unpredictability

you do however have a point in the unreliable part, but you don't store all your eggs in one basket right?

[Viktor_Berg]

I've seen some interesting stuff on harvesting power from the boundary interaction where fresh water mixes with salt water.

Though if it involves the ocean I'm a big fan of wave/tidal power generation. I remember seeing a show when discovery green started airing, showing some guys making a small power generator that used waves pushing air in and out of a tube and a bi-directional fan blade turning the airflow into power.

That's an osmosis-based generator, but AFAIK, we don't have the ability to create the membranes needed for that (on a production scale) yet.

[Neowulf]

That's an osmosis-based generator, but AFAIK, we don't have the ability to create the membranes needed for that (on a production scale) yet.

Yeah, I found the wikipedia article and linked it a few posts after.

The good thing is atleast making the membranes is possible, not just theoretical. They have two small test plants running already and that alone will drive a good bit of research into making it economically viable.

[Torezu]

On geothermal, Tesla's opinion (which I tend to trust): http://www.tfcbooks.com/tesla/geothermal.htm

On lightning generators: Why not go upper-atmospheric? Put things in very low orbit to catch all the upper atmospheric lightning...which can be 10+ times more powerful than lightning from the bottom of a storm cloud.

Recent advances in graphene production have increased the probable efficiency of future osmosis power generators by up to 1000 times. No, that's not a typo.

[lukeb28]

On geothermal, Tesla's opinion (which I tend to trust): http://www.tfcbooks.com/tesla/geothermal.htm

On lightning generators: Why not go upper-atmospheric? Put things in very low orbit to catch all the upper atmospheric lightning...which can be 10+ times more powerful than lightning from the bottom of a storm cloud.

Recent advances in graphene production have increased the probable efficiency of future osmosis power generators by up to 1000 times. No, that's not a typo.

Impressive, I never would have thought about low orbit lightning. The only problem I find with that would be transmission back to the surface.

One way around that could be the use of space elevators keeping the meshes suspended. Why do I say space elevator? Because nothing else would be able to stay over the same plot of land for wired transmission at such an orbit. At that point though you may as well just go for solar power grids in space at the end of the space elevator.

[Neowulf]

Recent advances in graphene production have increased the probable efficiency of future osmosis power generators by up to 1000 times. No, that's not a typo.

I read that. I really hope they can get that into production because 1m^2 of membrane to power 3 homes is pretty darn good.

[Torezu]

This is a very thorough treatment of current methods and future possibilities for graphene production, though I did read somewhere recently that efforts were being made to produce it with DNA...

[TheBytemaster]

Impressive, I never would have thought about low orbit lightning. The only problem I find with that would be transmission back to the surface.

One way around that could be the use of space elevators keeping the meshes suspended. Why do I say space elevator? Because nothing else would be able to stay over the same plot of land for wired transmission at such an orbit. At that point though you may as well just go for solar power grids in space at the end of the space elevator.

Maybe we could use some sort of electromagnetic radiation to transmit the energy wirelessly/accidentally fry rebels? Microwave band perhaps?

I read that. I really hope they can get that into production because 1m^2 of membrane to power 3 homes is pretty darn good.

Goodness. I don't think thorium could really beat that, except for portability.

[Neowulf]

Osmotic power is only viable where you have a supply of fresh and salt water, so it's a viable generator in costal areas but is worthless for pretty much anywhere else.

Lucky a significant portion of the human population liked the idea of beachfront property.

[TheBytemaster]

Osmotic power is only viable where you have a supply of fresh and salt water, so it's a viable generator in costal areas but is worthless for pretty much anywhere else.

Lucky a significant portion of the human population liked the idea of beachfront property.

So, in other words, ship-mounted railguns just became that much easier/cheaper to operate/deploy.

If the massive energy needed to power one can be stored in capacitors cheaply enough, I predict future pirates will be armed with miniture railguns. For some reason that thought makes me laugh.

RAILGUNS EVERYWHERE.

Nevermind, once again, my imagination glosses over important details to make something awesome happen.

Wait. How much water would you need?

[dwwojcik]

Hmph. No Osmotic power for the Midwest, then.

For the future, I predict infantry will be completely obselete and only jets and tanks will wage war. Lasers and missiles are the future.

[holymage!]

Impressive, I never would have thought about low orbit lightning. The only problem I find with that would be transmission back to the surface.

One way around that could be the use of space elevators keeping the meshes suspended. Why do I say space elevator? Because nothing else would be able to stay over the same plot of land for wired transmission at such an orbit. At that point though you may as well just go for solar power grids in space at the end of the space elevator.

this will explain everything to that problem

(you can stop at 9:37ish)

[Dentcat]

Why does mobile phone disruption occur in certain places on the planet, like that place in northern Mexico? I do not understand the scientific reasons that any disruption should occur, unless it is owing to the fact random waves from other frequencies in the spectrum are overabundant in those areas. If that is not the reason, please do correct me.

[Lethosos]

Magnetic interference from excessive iron concentrations in the soil/rock.

[dwwojcik]

Well, get out your pickaxes and assorted heavy machinery! At&t wants that iron gone!

[Dentcat]

How does one extract iron from rock?

[dwwojcik]

Crush it then pass a magnet over it.

[Markarthian]

Crush it then pass a magnet over it.

Hmmm... I can tell ya that the rock is mostly magnetic but not all iron, so that's not gonna work.

[dwwojcik]

Hmmm... I can tell ya that the rock is mostly magnetic but not all iron, so that's not gonna work.

Ok, I looked it up and there are a few different ways. -> here <-

[lukeb28]

I just found an awesome sciency gif

Depicts a star coming very close to a black hole and being torn to ribbons!

[Dentcat]

It's beautiful..... Worrying, but beautiful.....

Now I worry what would happen if it was us....

[lukeb28]

It's beautiful..... Worrying, but beautiful.....

Now I worry what would happen if it was us....

That would depend on our orbit. If we were on the far side of the sun in relation to the black hole, our atmosphere would be gone, the earth would become deformed and possibly shatter, but most the chunks would be flung far out into space without a start to call home.

If we were on the other side, then we would probably fall into the event horizon and we would never be seen again.

Of course we die in any circumstance, the acceleration from the slingshot alone would be enough to tear the planet into chunks the size of baseballs if not atoms. I would be astonished if anything larger than a building sized chunk survived.

[TheBytemaster]

That would depend on our orbit. If we were on the far side of the sun in relation to the black hole, our atmosphere would be gone, the earth would become deformed and possibly shatter, but most the chunks would be flung far out into space without a start to call home.

If we were on the other side, then we would probably fall into the event horizon and we would never be seen again.

Of course we die in any circumstance, the acceleration from the slingshot alone would be enough to tear the planet into chunks the size of baseballs if not atoms. I would be astonished if anything larger than a building sized chunk survived.

So, essentially the world goes through a late-season dragonball Z fight? Sounds legit.

[TheBytemaster]

Wait a second. Everyone knows that example of relativity where two people are the same age, one of them goes on a spaceship traveling at relativistic speed, and when the ship returns to earth, a number of years have passed on earth but not on the spaceship. Right?

But why is the spaceship's frame of reference special? Isn't from that perspective, the earth traveling away at relativistic speeds?

Also, a guy I know keeps claiming that noise pollution somehow directly causes ozone layer depletion. Despite the complete and utter lack of evidence/mentioning for this phenomenon presented by every single website I can find.

:facedesk:

(Wait, isn't there an emoticon for that?)