New Plasma Device for Energy

New Plasma Device Considered Holy Grail of Energy Generation and Storage

Scientists at the University of Missouri have devised a new way to create and control plasma that could transform American energy generation and storage.

Randy Curry, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Missouri’s College of Engineering, and his team developed a device that launches a ring of plasma at distances of up to two feet. Although the plasma reaches a temperature hotter than the surface of the sun, it doesn’t emit radiation and is completely safe in proximity to humans.

lightningWhile most of us are familiar with three states of matter – liquid, gas and solid – there is also a fourth state known as plasma, which includes things such as fire and lightning. Life on Earth depends on the energy emitted by plasma produced during fusion reactions within the sun.

The secret to Curry’s success was developing a way to make plasma form its own self-magnetic field, which holds it together as it travels through the air.

“Launching plasma in open air is the ‘Holy Grail’ in the field of physics,” said Curry.

“Creating plasma in a vacuum tube surrounded by powerful electromagnets is no big deal; dozens of labs can do that. Our innovation allows the plasma to hold itself together while it travels through regular air without any need for containment.

The plasma device could also be enlarged to handle much larger amounts of energy,” he said.

For the current work, Curry and his team used older technologies to build their prototype of a plasma-generating machine. But a considerably smaller device using newer, miniaturized parts could also be built within three to five years with sufficient funding, Curry said.

“We have a world-class team at MU’s Center for Physical & Power Electronics, but that team will evaporate without funding.”

Author:  Posted May 22, 2013 by RLM Press in Neo-Science

Source: Red Orbit

Video: The Map of Deforestation

Deforestation – the loss or destruction of naturally occurring forests primarily due to human activity – is a growing problem throughout the globe with tremendous environmental and economic consequences.  Deforestation is primarily created by logging, cutting down trees for fuel, slash-and-burn agriculture, clearing land for livestock grazing, mining operations, oil extraction, dam building and urban sprawl. Logging alone, which in many cases is illegal, accounts for the loss of more than 32 million acres of natural forest every year according to The Nature Conservancy.

To imagine deforestation is quite tricky and to nail its patterns down is quite tricky. We know forests are shrinking, but knowing exactly where and by how much often means compiling locally reported data that can be shoddy, incomplete, or outdated according to University of Maryland geographer Matthew Hansen. Better data would be an invaluable tool for resource managers looking to preserve trees, and for climate scientists who want to crunch how much carbon they can store, Hansen realized. So he set about to create the most high-resolution map of global forests ever made, partnering with Google Earth to process some 650,000 images taken by NASA satellites over the last decade.

In the exclusive video above, Hansen takes us on a tour of his new maps and the startling situation they reveal. “It’s a big leap forward in terms of a set of facts, a set of observations on what this dynamic is,” Hansen said.

One of the next steps, Hansen said, is to use the data to gauge exactly what this deforestation means for climate change. Trees are one of the largest “sinks” for carbon dioxide; previous studies suggest forests absorb a third of the carbon released by burning fossil fuels.

Sources:
http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2013/11/watch-mapping-deforestation-google-earth
http://environment.about.com/od/biodiversityconservation/f/deforestation-overview.htm