Splitting Water Offers an Inefficient but Effective Way to Store Energy | MIT Technology Review

Splitting Water Offers an Inefficient but Effective Way to Store Energy | MIT Technology Review



Splitting Water Offers an Inefficient but Effective Way to Store Energy

Gas power: A Hydrogenics electrolysis system in Falkenhagen, Germany, can absorb two megawatts of excess renewable energy and store it in the form of hydrogen.







 Germany, which has come to rely heavily on wind and solar power in recent years, is launching more than 20 demonstration projects that involve storing energy by splitting water into hydrogen gas and oxygen.





The projects could help establish whether electrolysis, as the technology is known, could address one of the biggest looming challenges for renewable energy—its intermittency.

Scientists have “unexpectedly” found a vaccine that completely blocks HIV infection in monkeys

Scientists have “unexpectedly” found a vaccine that completely blocks HIV infection in monkeys


Human trials of the surprisingly simple vaccine are now planned.


A new oral vaccine has been found to completely stop rhesus macaque monkeys from being infected with SIV, the monkey equivalent of HIV.


The new vaccine works in the opposite way to most vaccines - by suppressing, rather than triggering, an immune response.

This is because HIV and SIV actually require immune cells known as CD4 T-cells in order to proliferate and establish an infection in the body.

The vaccine works because it's made up of inactivated SIV, but, importantly, it’s given alongside doses of bacteria that are familiar to the body and are recognised as ‘friendly’ - in this case, strains used in probiotics.

http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20142908-26093.html

Aftermath of Colossal Impact Spotted Around Sunlike Star

Aftermath of Colossal Impact Spotted Around Sunlike Star



The researchers detected a huge disk of dusty debris around a sunlike star called NGC-2547 ID8, which lies about 1,140 light-years from Earth in the constellation Vela.

The cloud was likely spawned when two planetary building blocks slammed into each other just two years ago or so, scientists said.

"This is the first detection of a planetary impact outside of our own solar system," study lead author Huan Meng, of the University of Arizona in Tucson, told Space.com.

http://m.space.com/26975-giant-impact-debris-disk-sunlike-star.html?cmpid=514630_20140828_30653986

Tomb Raiders Likely Plundered Ancient Greek Site

Tomb Raiders Likely Plundered Ancient Greek Site


A suspicious hole on the top left of the blocking wall suggests tomb raiders may have pluntered the tomb.


Archaeologists removed dozens of massive stones sealing the entrance of the huge burial complex in Amphipolis, revealing the front of the monument almost entirely.


The tomb's arched entrance was guarded by two headless, wingless, finely carved sphinxes.

Weighing about 1 1/2 tons each, they would have been 6 1/2 feet high with their heads.




A pebbled floor was also unearthed in the center and front of the entrance.

http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/tomb-raiders-likely-plundered-ancient-greek-site-140826.htm

Primeros descubrimientos en la tumba de Amfipoli, del círculo de Alejandro Magno

Primeros descubrimientos en la tumba de Amfipoli, del círculo de Alejandro Magno



Los arqueólogos han despejado la entrada, guardada por dos esfinges y un león, y esperan franquearla en las próximas semanas


Desde hace varias semanas toda Grecia está al tanto de las delicadas excavaciones en la antigua ciudad de Amfípoli, que se encuentra al norte del país en la región de Macedonia.

Se ha descubierto la entrada de una tumba , guardada por dos esfinges con sus cabezas y alas destruídas: miden dos metros cada una, están esculpidas en mármol de la isla de Thásos y pesan tres toneladas en total.

Se han ido revelando ahora parte de un capitel jónico pintado al fresco, que permite pensar que se trata de la entrada de una tumba de un personaje principal de la época.

El mito de Alejandro y su esposa Roxana


Está claro que este enterramiento no es el de Alejandro Magno, como se llegó a decir de forma irresponsable (Alejandro Magno falleció posiblemente de fiebres tifoideas en Babilonia y su cuerpo fue trasladado posteriormente a la ciudad de Alejandría, pero nadie sabe dónde se encuentra).

Amfípolis, una colonia y ciudad muy rica


b.c.atenas


En Amfípolis existía en la antigüedad una rica colonia, dado que la zona era muy fértil y existían minas de oro en la cercanía.

http://www.abc.es/cultura/20140827/abci-tumba-amfipoli-amphipolis-hallazgos-201408261334.html

Alexander the Great-Era Tomb Will Soon Reveal Its Secrets

Alexander the Great-Era Tomb Will Soon Reveal Its Secrets


Two sphinxes stand guard at a tomb more than 2,000 years old in Amphipolis. 25, 2014, showing the progress that has been made clearing dirt from the entrance.


As archaeologists continue to clear dirt and stone slabs from the entrance of a huge tomb in Greece, excitement is building over what excavators may find inside.

It has been quietly revealed over the last two years, during excavations at the Kasta Hill site in ancient Amphipolis in the Macedonian region of Greece.

He later told reporters he was standing in front of an "extremely important discovery."


Since then, tourists and TV crews have reportedly flocked to the heavily guarded site.

http://www.livescience.com/47542-ancient-greek-tomb-entrance.html?cmpid=514627_20140826_30476566

3D-printed vertebra used in world-first spine surgery

3D-printed vertebra used in world-first spine surgery


For the first time, surgeons in China have implanted an artificial, 3D-printed vertebra into a young patient to replace the bone he lost to cancer.

During a recent five-hour operation, surgeons at a Peking University hospital in Beijing were able to remove a tumour located on the second vertebra of a 12-year-old cancer patient named Minghao and replace it with a 3D-printed part.


"This is the first use of a 3D-printed vertebra as an implant for orthopaedic spine surgery in the world," said one of the surgeons, Director of Orthopaedics at Peking University, Liu Zhongjun, in a statement to the press .

According to CBS News , before he made it into surgery, Minghao had been lying in the orthopaedics ward of the hospital for more than two months.

In the past, patients with this condition would have received a piece of standardised, hollow titanium tube as an implant, but the new technique involving 3D-printing technology offers them a much greater customisation and a speedier, more comfortable recovery.

http://sciencealert.com.au/news/20142508-26065.html