We’ve seen Tesla coils before, but nothing quite like this. Rob Flickenger has thrown caution to the wind and has built one extraordinary Tesla Gun. And it really works, complete with an incredible 20,000 volts and 2,000 amps of pure electrifying excitement.

Inspired by the Tesla Gun in The Five Fists of Science graphic novel, this real life Tesla gun is a handheld spark gap Tesla coil powered by a drill battery. It’s about the size of a small rifle and it is able to send out those crazy Tesla sparks at anything within about two feet of its business end. Naturally, it gets pretty hot and heavy pretty quickly, so all the components had to be up for the job.

There is definitely some MacGyver-ing going on with the 18V drill battery, plus the ferrite core of a flyback transformer that came by way of an old television set. The primary coil is made fom high voltage wire and high-density polyethylene insulation, while the secondary coil is made from 2.5-inch ABS pipe wrapped in 20-gauge enameled wire. You get the aluminum toroid out the business end.

Flickenger assures us that while electricity is dangerous, this is no more dangerous than a baseball bat. Tell that to the idiot who will inevitably try to recreate this toy and zap his way straight to the emergency room.

[Source]

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What you see in the above picture is Robojelly, a robot jellyfish designed by the researchers at Virginia Tech, which could be very useful in the future for underwater surveillance or search and rescue operations. You might be thinking that there is nothing new about a robot inspired by nature, but the robot jellyfish has a new trick up its sleeve. Theoretically, the Robojelly will go on working without ever running out of energy, as long as it’s in water.

The Robojelly is powered by hydrogen and is made up of materials called shape-memory alloys. Just in case you are preparing to refer to Wikipedia, shape-memory alloys are materials which are capable of returning to their original shape when heat is applied. The robot mimics a jellyfish’s movements via eight moving segments wrapped in platinum-coated carbon nanotubes.

When the oxygen and hydrogen in the water react with platinum powder, heat will be produced. The alloys will change shape due to this heat and propulsion occurs all thanks to the opening and closing movements of the segments.

The research paper has been published in the journal of Smart Materials and Structures and the project was led by Yonas Tadesse. According to him, “To our knowledge, this is the first successful powering of an underwater robot using external hydrogen as a fuel source”.

In the video, you will find an electricity-powered version of the Robojelly swimming in a water tank. The hydrogen-powered robot needs more work to be done on it and has only been tested while it’s clamped to the tank’s bottom. They are currently working to increase its maneuverability.

So, this is a robot which can stay underwater for a very long time as it can refuel itself from the water around it. That’s certainly very innovative. And yeah, almost forgot, the research is US Navy-backed, and you know what that means. Enemy submarines beware!

[Image Source]

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Although people around the world are concerned about nuclear technology after the Fukushima disaster, many countries are still seeing nuclear power as part of their future. That is where nuclear technology firm TerraPower, which has got the backing from Bill Gates, comes in with their next generation nuclear power technology.

Last week, Gates revealed that his nuclear power startup is in talks with the government officials in China regarding their fourth-generation nuclear power technology.

The Bellevue, Washington-based firm’s next-gen reactors will have a traveling wave reactor design which is supposed to introduce a new age of cost-effective nuclear energy that promises zero radioactive waste and won’t be as vulnerable as older reactors.

In a traveling wave reactor, a small amount of enriched uranium is used to start up and then depleted uranium, a waste product from today’s nuclear power plants, is utilized to produce electricity.

As you might know, today’s nuclear power plants split an enriched form of uranium in a sustained chain reaction to produce heat. This heat is utilized to produce steam which is used for electricity generation.

TerraPower’s traveling wave reactor will convert the depleted uranium into a heavier, less stable form that can be used in a chain reaction. Check out the image below.

The reactors generate their own fuel as they operate, and can run on waste uranium for centuries without refueling or waste removal.

TerraPower have been in discussions with experts in the US, France, India, Japan, Korea, and Russia. Although no deals have been made so far, the company believes that a number of countries are already interested.

According to a statement by TerraPower last week, “Demand is high for nuclear energy technology that converts low-level waste into fuel without reprocessing and sustainably meets global electricity needs. So our conversations continue with many countries that have active nuclear programs. All these nations have some form of advanced fast reactor research facilities and programs“.

The firm is planning to start constructing their first plant in 2015 and have it operating in 2020.

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The researchers have found that applying large electric fields to fires helps extinguish the flames quickly. The phenomenon is possible because of carbon particles, or soot, generated in the flame. Soot particles are easily charged, and respond to the electric field and affect the stability of the fire.

Firefighters currently use water, foam, powder and other substances to put out fires. The technology could allow firefighters to douse flames from a distance, helping to avoid harm to firefighters and further damage to buildings. Using electricity would also cut back on water usage.

In the study, the researchers connected a electrical amplifier to a wand-like probe and used the device to shoot beams of electricity at an open flame that was more than a foot high. The flame was extinguished almost immediately. The results were replicated again and again.

The device consisted of a 600-watt amplifier, which is about the same power as a car stereo system. The researchers believe a power source with only a tenth of the wattage could yield similar results.

Potential applications of the technology include electrical sprinkler systems that would extinguish fires quickly and prevent water damage, and a portable fire flame-tamer that could be carried in a backpack and would target the fire with a handheld wand.

A drawback is that while the technology would excel at fighting fires in enclosed areas, like trucks, planes, submarines, and kitchen fires, the system wouldn’t work as well for large forest fires. Since they are spread over much larger areas, it would be difficult to target the entire area.

Since electrical waves can control the heat and distribution of flames, the researchers suggested that the technology could possibly improve the efficiency of technologies that involve controlled combustion, like car engines.

The U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Energy funded this study.

[PopSci via PR]

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Ready for another green energy alternative? You may already be familiar with solar panels and may have just equipped your home with geothermal heating, but what can you do to convert the sun’s rays into energy that is easily stored and transported?

Researchers from the United States and Switzerland have reportedly put together a prototype generator that offers an entirely different way to capture the sun’s energy compared to a conventional photovoltaic (solar) panels. The prototype has a quartz window and a cavity for focusing sunlight into a cylinder lined with cerium oxide (ceria).

When the sun’s rays heat up the ceria, it will thermochemically break down the water and carbon dioxide that is being pumped into the cylinder. The net result is carbon monoxide and hydrogen, which can then be converted into liquid fuel. This hydrogen feul can then be used with hydrogen fuel cells. Alternatively, the hydrogen-carbon monoxide mixture could be converted into syngas, a combustible gas.

“The chemistry of the material is really well suited to this process,” says Professor Sossina Haile of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). “This is the first demonstration of doing the full shebang, running it under (light) photons in a reactor.”

Now, I’m no scientist, but there are at least two big concerns about such a generator. First, it needs energy to pump in the source materials (water and carbon dioxide). Second, it still outputs carbon monoxide, which to my knowledge, isn’t really a good thing unless you have some sort of greenhouse. At this stage of the game their prototype is very inefficient; fuel created harnesses only 0.7% to 0.8% of the solar energy taken into the vessel. The good news is that ceria is really abundant, so getting that stuff wouldn’t be too difficult.

[GizMag via BBC]

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You may have seen the “conductive” chargers for Wii Remotes, cell phones, and other similar products. These let you charge the devices without having to plug in a cable, but your product still makes physical contact with the charging board.

With the WiTricity wireless power solution, electricity can be sent over short distances using a technology similar to radio transmission. The resonant magnetic coupling can send enough power over the air to charge cell phones and run televisions a few feet away.

The actual technology isn’t there just yet, but they’re working on it. The goal is that we will eventually have a power transmitting unit somewhere in our room and it will be able to provide power to the electronics in the room, thus eliminating the need for multiple plugs and power bars.

WiTricity was founded by an MIT physicist and the goal is to produce a system that could be ready for the masses.

Source: Crunchgear

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