Blue energy, the hidden power of water
This week Norway opened a prototype of an osmotic power plant near Oslo that generates clean, renewable energy from water. Osmotic power plants can be a welcome addition to other clean, renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and geothermal power. It harnesses the global potential to generate as much energy as China consumed in 2002. Read more
Instant photorealistic 3D cloud computing
You may think that’s a photograph of the interior of a car but your wrong. Not about the interior but about the photograph. It’s not real. It’s a rendered 3D model.
Big deal. Any powerful desktop computer fitted with the latest powerhouse graphics card can render a photorealistic 3D model given enough time. You’re absolutely right. But this photorealistic image was rendered in real-time using ray tracing. But it’s more, a lot more. You can render it real-time on any computing device that supports a browser or standard Web services calls, including netbooks and smartphones. How is that possible? Read more
Could a tiny pellet power the world?
One small pellet for man, one giant leap for mankind
Next year might just be the best year mankind and for that matter Mother Earth too, has had in ages. If scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Lab succeed our energy problems will be history after 2010. They are planning to shoot world’s most powerful laser at a tiny pellet containing a few milligrams of deuterium and tritium, isotopes of hydrogen that can be extracted from water. If all goes well they will create a reaction like the one that takes place at the center of the sun, producing an endless supply of safe, clean energy.
This would mean nuclear fusion, the holy grail of clean energy, would finally become reality. But doesn’t this sound too good to be true? Some scientists think so. They warn it’s all ’snake oil’. Newsweek visited the lab about an hour’s drive east of San Francisco.
Focus on the future: the Bionic lens
Even though I’m nearsighted I don’t see myself wearing contact lenses in the near future. It’s a love-hate relationship. I hate them because they irritate my eyes and yes, I’ve tried them for several years. So I wear glasses but would love to be able to wear contact lenses. Not so much because a choice of shades would be nice but but because of what the future of contact lenses may hold in store for us. Let’s take a brief look at what the labrats are working on. Read more
When virtual worlds become ever so real
Virtual worlds are becoming so realistic. The recently released Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has been praised for it’s realism. One reviewer wrote: ‘Some of these unsettling feelings stem from just how incredibly realistic the game looks. The visuals are astounding, and each environment – from snowy mountains in eastern Europe to the favelas of Brazil and a wartorn Washington D.C. – is captured with intricate detail.’
Of course you can take realism to the extreme. And who else but The Onion could come up with this brilliant WORLD EXCLUSIVE. It details Modern Warfare 3, which developer Infinity Ward is apparently putting the “final touches on.. This parody sequel brings true realism of the modern day soldier’s life to your desktop: endless paperwork, boredom and neverending, uneventful routine patrolling in photo realistic detail.
Singularity and the art of mobile evolution
UK based designer Kyle Bean’s Russian Babushka doll style design of the evolution of the mobile phone is not only original, it’s also very telling. He beautifully objectified a piece of recent technological history. His ‘Mobile Evolution’ could be an illustration straight out of futurist Ray Kurzweil’s 2005 bestseller, “The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology”.
Biology merged with machine
In the book Kurzweil examines the next step in the evolutionary process, the singularity, a moment in the future when humans and machines merge and become one. Kurzweil believes this will happen rather sooner then later because exponential growth in scientific and technological developments drives us toward the singularity at an almost unimaginable high pace. Read more
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Who is David?
Easy boys, easy!
Welcome to my personal site. Though I’m a jack of all trades in essence I’m a storyteller. Whether it’s in print, on television, on the radio or live before an audience I thoroughly enjoy sharing my passion for science and technology.
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