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4th Jun 2006

Oil, Fuel Cells and Alternative Energy


Phil Rosenberg

Chris Smith
Oilseed rape

Powering the generators for this week's show on energy is Dr Nicky White from the Bullard Laboratories at Cambridge University, who describes how oil is formed, how we find and extract oil, and how long oil supplies will last; Professor Lynne Macaskie from Birmingham University discusses how fuel cells can be run on hydrogen gas created by bacteria mixed with sugary waste from the confectionery industry; and Peter Hughes from Hughes Research Ltd. explains how his Electro-Kinetic Road Ramp could soon be powering your local street lamps. In Science Update, Bob and Chelsea reveal how llama spit can be used to spot the ultimate power-up, caffeine, and in Kitchen Science Derek Thorne and Chris Muirhead from Birmingham University reveal a low energy method for chopping your vegetables...

 

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News

 

Hiv Spikes a Thorn in Scientists' Side

2006 marks the 25th anniversary of the diagnosis of the first cases of HIV. Yet despite millions of dollars of global scientific toil, HIV has grown to become one of the worst pandemics ever known with at least 25 million deaths, 40 million people currently in...

 

Right-click To Quit

Researchers in the Netherlands are developing an online computer-generated 'virtual counsellor', dubbed a 'chat-bot' to help smokers to kick the habit. Betsy van Dijk and her colleagues at the University of Twente, together with a Dutch anti-smoking organisati...

 

Belt Up, But Not Too Tightly

Seat belts should be more sympathetic to the elderly according to a recent study. Ruth Welsh and her colleagues at Loughborough University in the UK and Australia's Monash University, found that people 65 and over, and especially women, were significantly more...

 

Going Nuclear

Our world is living under the threat of climate change and we're running out of fossil fuels fast. So how should we solve the coming energy crisis? At the moment, the UK government is deciding whether we should build new nuclear power stations to cope with our...



Questions

 

This morning I listened to the May 14th broadcast. One of the discussions was about the stinging cells (nematocysts) of jelly fish. Someone brought up the point about the ability of certain species to incorporate these stingers into their own tissue and this is a subject I know a little bit about.


 

I understand the basic idea that for every action there is a reaction, which is why I can walk across the ground. But when a rocket is in space and they decide that they want to change the direction of the rocket or slow it down, what's the engine firing against? What's it pushing against to slow the rocket down, because we're told that in space, there's nothing there?


 

What happens to the great hollows that we're leaving below the sea beds when you extract all this oil and gas?


 

I've been following the progress of solar panels and hear that they're only about 16% efficient. What's the score with this?



Kitchen Science

 

Freezing Objects in Liquid Nitrogen

Derek and Chris cool down various objects down to about -196°C and discover their properties have radically changed.




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