Perpetual Motion Machines: Part I

Posted on July 18, 2010 by Chris Zach

This is my one and only post, so far, on perpetual motion machines, but I foresee this being a reoccurring topic, so I’m proactively numbering it.

Why do I think perpetual motion machines will be appearing frequently in the news? Because, with today’s focus on clean and efficient energy, we are going to find numerous good-willed, if scientifically challenged, inventors producing machines that seek to defy that little, old field we like to call “physics.”

Background Reading

Perpetual Motion (Wikipedia)

History of perpetual motion machines (Wikipedia)

The Museum of Unworkable Devices

Powertread: Stealing Power from Cars

The first PMM post is highlighting Powertread, a device for capturing energy from cars in traffic and converting it into electricity.

It’s literally a series of tubes filled with water that, when run over, force their contents through a turbine to generate electricity. One car driving over one of the things generates 580 watts of electricity at 36 amps. That’s not an awful lot power, but imagine a dozen of the things lined up at a busy off-ramp, run over by thousands of impatient drivers every day, and you can see the potential. The Singaporean government does too, providing grants to fund the project and two shopping malls there have already signed up to purchase the results.

via Powertread turns gridlock into electricity with a series of tubes from Engadget.com

powergrid-20100716.500[1]

Here’s what’s wrong this idea:

Any energy that is captured by this device must be taken directly from the vehicle crossing its tubes. If the device captured, say, 100 Joules from a passing car, the car itself will end up with about 300 Joules less energy, once the efficiency of electricity generation is considered. (These numerical values are assumptions for the sake of this post.)

In essence, what’s been created is a very roundabout method of electricity generation. Gasoline is converted from chemical energy to kinetic energy in a moving vehicle. This energy is then transferred from the vehicle to water to a turbine blade to a generator. The overall efficiency of this system can’t be greater than 10%, and it will certainly be expensive, to boot.

Now, the argument of the inventors is that cars in traffic will be braking anyway, and this device will slow down vehicles rather than allowing the vehicle’s braking energy to be wasted as heat. From an energy standpoint, that is a more defensible. However, the device is still worthless from a practical standpoint.

First, we are growing our fleet of hybrid vehicles which have built-in capabilities to recapture braking energy and store it in batteries. If cars already have the capability to capture braking energy everywhere they drive, why try to capture energy outside the car only where you’ve placed Powertreads? Second, the energy captured by these devices will be very intermittent-not a continuous flow of steady wattage-and that creates practical challenges for inverters and storage devices. Third, driving over these tubes will feel like hitting a speed bump, and drivers will certainly hate the experience.

I’m glad these inventors are working to help save energy, but I’m sorry to say that they should tread away from the Powertread idea today and start working on something a bit more practical for tomorrow.

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Nice To Meet Your Microbes

Posted on July 18, 2010 by Chris Zach

The New York Times had an eye-opening science story on July 12, 2010 about the recent research and medical advances in the field of human-dwelling microbes. This story is a perfect example of why I inevitably fall back to science as my reading material of choice. (Yes, my “beach reads” are even books about popular science. I read “Cosmos” by Carl Sagan by the pool in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Ah. Heaven.)

The facts in this story prove yet again that, in science at least, truth is often stranger than fiction.

13micro_graphic-popup[1]

I had heard previously of applying this new microbial science as a potential new forensic tool. (CSI needs something new-they use the same human DNA tests every episode.) In this application, they would utilize the trail of microbes we leave behind as tool for identifying criminals. Think living, microbial fingerprints. Here’s an article about microbe fingerprints. (Bonus, the article is written for kids. Kids need science for their futures, and science needs kids for its future.)

I would not be surprised if the link grows stronger between underexposure to bacteria during childhood (too many antibiotics and not enough dirt) and the occurrence of allergies and asthma.

Here are a few excerpts from the NYT article:

“We have over 10 times more microbes than human cells in our bodies,” said George Weinstock of Washington University in St. Louis.

…

The new surveys are helping scientists understand the many ecosystems our bodies offer microbes. In the mouth alone, Dr. Relman estimates, there are between 500 and 1,000 species. “It hasn’t reached a plateau yet: the more people you look at, the more species you get,” he said. The mouth in turn is divided up into smaller ecosystems, like the tongue, the gums, the teeth. Each tooth-and even each side of each tooth-has a different combination of species.

…

Lungs have traditionally been considered to be sterile because microbiologists have never been able to rear microbes from them. A team of scientists at Imperial College London recently went hunting for DNA instead. Analyzing lung samples from healthy volunteers, they discovered 128 species of bacteria. Every square centimeter of our lungs is home to 2,000 microbes.

…

Out of the 500 to 1,000 species of microbes identified in people’s mouths, for example, only about 100 to 200 live in any one person’s mouth at any given moment. Only 13 percent of the species on two people’s hands are the same. Only 17 percent of the species living on one person’s left hand also live on the right one.

…

In addition to helping us digest, the microbiome helps us in many other ways. The microbes in our nose, for example, make antibiotics that can kill the dangerous pathogens we sniff. Our bodies wait for signals from microbes in order to fully develop. When scientists rear mice without any germ in their bodies, the mice end up with stunted intestines.

…

Caesarean sections have also been linked to an increase in asthma and allergies in children. So have the increased use of antibiotics in the United States and other developed countries. Children who live on farms – where they can get a healthy dose of microbes from the soil – are less prone to getting autoimmune disorders than children who grow up in cities.

via How Microbes Defend and Define Us from NYTimes.com

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Moving and Sitting Aren’t Opposites After All

Posted on July 15, 2010 by Chris Zach

I’m happy to see people are doing these studies, but I wasn’t hoping for these results. It turns out that exercising does not make up for the deleterious affects on heart health due to inactivity.

In a study published in May in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, they reported that, to no one’s surprise, the men who sat the most had the greatest risk of heart problems. Men who spent more than 23 hours a week watching TV and sitting in their cars as passengers or as drivers had a 64 percent greater chance of dying from heart disease than those who sat for 11 hours a week or less. What was unexpected was that many of the men who sat long hours and developed heart problems also exercised. Quite a few of them said they did so regularly and led active lifestyles. The men worked out, then sat in cars and in front of televisions for hours, and their risk of heart disease soared, despite the exercise. Their workouts did not counteract the ill effects of sitting.

via Phys Ed: The Men Who Stare at Screens – Well Blog – NYTimes.com

I’m an active person. I enjoy running, cycling, and hiking. But maybe those mobile activities just aren’t enough to keep me safe from the 8+ hours I spend 5 days a week sitting at my desk in the office. I’m not alone–the desk job seems to be the default job in the U.S. in the 21st century.

So, how do we continue to reap the rewards of our technologically advanced, service-based economy, without slowly killing ourselves in the process?

Dr. James Levine, an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic, has one possible solution: the treadmill desk.

In 2005, Dr. Levine led a study showing that lean people burn about 350 more calories a day than those who are overweight, by doing ordinary things like fidgeting, pacing or walking to the copier.

To incorporate extra movement into the routines of sedentary workers (himself included), Dr. Levine constructed a treadmill desk by sliding a bedside hospital tray over a $400 treadmill.

Without breaking a sweat, the so-called work-walker can burn an estimated 100 to 130 calories an hour at speeds slower than two miles an hour, Mayo research shows.

via I Put In 5 Miles at the Office – NYTimes.com

Work-walker? I want to be a work-walker. Not only would it be good for my heart and muscles, but it will keep me more-awake after lunch and add variety to my posture position. Sitting hunched over a keyboard for so many hours is terrible for my back and shoulders. Reports also say that walking helps avoid A.D.D.-like distraction.

Now, would I $400o for a Walkstation? No way. Besides the fact that the name sounds like a Sony gas station, that’s way too much for a desk.

Instead, I’m going to pick up a treadmill of Craigslist and attach a desk myself. I already paid for a mechanical engineering degree, anyway. Hell, an engineering degree is practically a license to be a cheap-o and build my own stuff from scratch.

Typing while walking on a treadmill–much safer than texting while walking across a street!

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Smart Grids and Smart Car Charging

Posted on May 2, 2010 by Chris Zach

The utility industry has some serious work ahead to prepare for the emergence of plug-in electric vehicles from the development pipeline. Customers will be expecting high-voltage power in places where it’s not available today, like parking lots at the office. Customers will also need a way to pay for this electricity, with a new metering and billing system. In the long-run, a smart-grid that can pull power from vehicles, as well as charge them, could help smooth out the variation in solar and wind power.

It’s not surprising that one of the utilities working at the edge of electric car infrastructure is in California — the state leads in renewable energy and energy efficiency deployment as well. Southern California Edison isn’t blanketing its territory with upgrades, an unaffordable venture; rather, it’s using innovative measures to estimate where electric vehicles will be parked in the future and beginning the upgrades far in advance.

It’s refreshing to see forward thinking like this in the utility industry. Between the Smart Grid deployments funded by the recovery act and these preparations for electric vehicles, we’ll have much more flexibility to take advantage of renewable energy and next-gen vehicles in coming decades.

Electric Vehicle-Ready Smart Grid

Electric Vehicle-Ready Smart Grid

Find more details at FastCompany:

One utility that thinks it will: Southern California Edison. The utility covers a massive swath of land that includes 5 million meters, 14 million residents. By 2020, the utility’s customers could have up to 1 million EVs on the road. But SoCal Edison is already gearing up for the early adopters, explained Pedro Pizarro, the executive vice president of Power Operations for Southern California Edison. “If you have a block with three or four Priuses, that’s probably an early adopter neighborhood,” he said. SoCal Edison is in the midst of surveying its customers to find out which ones plan on buying EVs early. The zip codes with the highest amount of early adopters will likely receive upgraded wiring and circuitry that can handle all the excess pressure on the grid from EVs.

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The Dragon and the Elephant (No, not Donkey)

Posted on April 6, 2010 by Chris Zach

I’m filing this under “sunny day leisure reading.”

Yes, this is the kind of thing I would read for leisure… don’t judge.

Next step: Planning a trip to visit China and India and learn about their innovation cultures first-hand.

Description of the report:

The return of the once-dormant economies of China and India to dynamism and growth is one of the most remarkable stories in recent history. The two countries are home to nearly 40 percent of the world's population, but until recently neither had played an influential role in the contemporary global economy.

In the past two decades, China and India have liberalized internal economic policy, treatment of foreign investment, and trade, and have experienced economic growth at sustained high rates. From the point of view of the United States, however, the most important development in the Chinese and Indian economies in the long term may be the strides they are making in developing their own domestic innovation capacities. After a long period of underinvestment, both countries have committed to growing their science and education systems to bolster research and further economic expansion.

Some observers of the recent growth have said that both countries are surging in their efforts to spur innovation; others have emphasized the potential of one country over the other; and still others have suggested that both China and India have a long way to go before achieving innovation-driven growth. With such a range of views, The National Academies set out to describe developments in both countries, in relation to each other and the rest of the world, by organizing a conference in Washington, D.C. The conference, summarized in this volume, discussed recent changes at both the macroeconomic level and also in selected industries, and explored the causes and implications of those changes.

via The Dragon and the Elephant: Understanding the Development of Innovation Capacity in China and India: Summary of a Conference.

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Bikes in ‘da (Ray La)Hood

Posted on March 16, 2010 by Chris Zach

Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood seems to be getting serious about improving the state of non-motorized transportation in America, according to his own blog post.

Considering that riding my bike through DC streets feels about as foolish as diving into a shark tank, this is good news. Hopefully these recommendations will be backed up with the big, honkin’ carrot of federal DOT funding for projects with comprehensive bike and walking path improvement provisions.

Today, I want to announce a sea change. People across America who value bicycling should have a voice when it comes to transportation planning. This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized.

We are integrating the needs of bicyclists in federally-funded road projects. We are discouraging transportation investments that negatively affect cyclists and pedestrians. And we are encouraging investments that go beyond the minimum requirements and provide facilities for bicyclists and pedestrians of all ages and abilities.

To set this approach in motion, we have formulated key recommendations for state DOTs and communities:

  • Treat walking and bicycling as equals with other transportation modes.
  • Ensure convenient access for people of all ages and abilities.
  • Go beyond minimum design standards.
  • Collect data on walking and biking trips.
  • Set a mode share target for walking and bicycling.
  • Protect sidewalks and shared-use paths the same way roadways are protected (for example, snow removal)
  • Improve nonmotorized facilities during maintenance projects.

Source: My view from atop the table at the National Bike Summit

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