Around 20 terrawatts of heat, which is about double what us humans use, originates from decaying radioactive materials such as potassium, uranium and thorium. The energy released from these materials is so powerful that they can move mountains, according to research undertaken in Japan and Italy. [Scientific American]
Let us work our personal babelfish on Sanyo’s new Eneloop Kairo. Eneloop means “envelope,” right? Kairo…Kairo means Cairo? Like Egypt? Ahh, these devices are an envelope of heat. And they’re leaving Japan, heading Stateside in time for winter. More »
Any company that’s ever boasted of its green credentials can shove it in the coal burner, after hearing about Helsinki’s Uspenski Cathedral’s data centre, which will use its overheating servers to warm 500 homes joined by a network of pipes. More »
The Gadget: The toasted bliss that is Ardica’s heated jacket pack. I will never brave the cold without one.
Choiix, and its parent company Cooler Master have released their cleverly titled “Ergonomic Metal Sleeve for Heat Dissipation & Screen Protection” to…protect your laptop and dissipate heat I suppose.
Don’t be fooled. Pedalling around on a bike that chills your beers probably won’t result in much weight loss. In fact, you may actually pack on a few as you enjoy the beechwood aged fruits of your labour. The bike has a heat pump attached to the pedals so the more you pedal the cooler the beer set inside the copper coil will get. It is just the incentive the lazy couch potato needs to get up and start moving. Next up, tackling the fresh air of the great outdoors. [PEGE via Treehugger via DVICE]
If you’re planning on a long distance ski trip or a mountain climb this winter, check out Ardica’s new power and heat platform for outerwear. Not only will Ardica-enabled jackets charge your gadgets (up to 11 full charges on your mobile phone and 20 on your iPod), it’ll also keep you nice and warm for either nine hours on low heat or three hours on high. If you’ll be in the cold for even longer than that, just bring along a second battery.
Yes, DARPA does have a reputation for coming up with some seriously far-fetched gadgets, but their Super-Resolution Vision System (SRVS) is not one of them. This project challenges designers to come up with an optics system that utilises heat haze to see further and clearer than ever before. Basically, it takes advantage of an atmospheric phenomenon that occurs whereby images can be magnified for fleeting moments behind the haze.
With gas prices approaching “damn, I’m going to have to start walking more” levels here in the States, everyone’s doing their part to increase efficiency and reduce energy consumption, and that includes the genius farm MIT. The institute already produces 80% of its own energy, courtesy of its on campus “cogeneration plant,” but a few students have found a way to make the system even more self-sufficient using a new thermoelectric prototype. The great thing is the device has the potential for applications beyond the walls of MIT, and already the students are examining ways to apply it to the home heating industry in general.
Scientists at Ohio State University have taken a thermoelectric material that’s been used for decades to power deep-space probes, and worked out how to double its efficiency. That’s good news: thermoelectrics convert heat directly into electrical energy. By catching exhaust heat, the new material may allow car alternators to be replaced… and that’ll push up the efficiency of car engines. The team doped lead telluride with tiny amounts of thallium, which adjusts the crystal structure and increases its heat-electricity conversion efficiency from around 6% to over 10%. Even better, since engineers have years of experience of working with lead telluride, it should be easy to commercialise the product. Environmentalists will have to be pleased, and relax about the high toxicity of thallium, though. [Technology Review]
