Humans are Power Thirsty One of the most important things in our modern lives is power. Power from any source seems what we have a burning desire for. At first it was steam power and this ushered in the industrial revolution, which could have happened almost a couple of thousand years earlier, if the ancient Greeks who discovered steam power knew what they had. Water power was used instead. By the way if there are extraterrestrial races out there which are only as old as us, they could be far ahead of us if they took their discoveries in power to the next level as they discovered them, rather than waiting many centuries to rediscover them. Somewhere along the line we discovered oil. At first, we used kerosene, but it didn’t take long to find out oil and oil products could power an internal combustion engine. It displaced steam and electric in cars, because there was a lot of profit in oil so it was forced upon us rather than refining electric power for them. Electric power came about in the form of generators which supplied that power to homes and factories, replacing water and steam power in factories. When the atom was split, we went to nuclear fission, even though it has some obvious drawbacks which would threaten future races of humans far into the future. Those drawbacks included radioactive waste which had to be stored securely for hundreds of thousands of years which was impossible to guarantee. We have been working on trying to develop a fusion reactor for years, which would eliminate some of the waste problems with fission reactors. This brings us to the present time where the search for alternate power solutions is taking place at a hurried pace. One of the things which is not spoken about very much is the fact the oil will not last forever. Countries like Saudi Arabia know this, and they are trying to use their immense wealth to branch out into other fields besides being a huge oil producer, so when the oil does run out, they will have industries to fall back on. We have been looking into new forms of energy and some would seem bizarre to people who were around 50 or more years ago. One of these bizarre forms of energy is zero-point energy. Scientists believe there is energy in space. Some think it might come from another dimension, a sort of energy dimension, and if we are able to tap into this energy, we might be able to get free energy, to the chagrin of the energy companies. I have seen videos of demonstrations where it was claimed the zero energy was been drawn from space and was used to lift heavy objects. It was important enough to the United States for them to send a high-ranking officer to the demonstration. The problem at the time was it didn’t work reliably. Sometimes the inventor was able to tap into this energy and at other times he was not able. That was years ago and by now the problem could be solved. Solar panels seem to have caught on with a lot of people. They are being used to power some buildings along with homes, but they could be a lot more efficient in the future. For now, the installation cost is more than the savings for years for the average home and I can’t be sure if this is correct, but I have heard they may damage a roof to the point it would need to be replaced in about ten years. There is also the problem of the power company having to buy back the excess electricity produced, which eventually could raise the price of electric for those who don’t wish to purchase solar panels. Some have asked why someone would not want to purchase them. The answer is easy, one type of person might be an elderly one who would not live long enough to recoup the savings. Another might be a family who intends to move and so forth. For years the United States and others have talked about using nuclear power to power rockets for space travel. It has never worked out because of several factors, one being the amount of shielding which would be necessary to protect the crew if it was a manned rocket. This was important, because shielding is very heavy and for now lead is the best shielding and also one of the heaviest. A manned rocket would need to shield the crew from the reactor and also shield the crew from radiation in space. Recently the Russians have announced they have tested what they call the most important part of a nuclear engine for space travel, and it was the cooling system which they claim a success. They claim the tests were conducted in conditions as close to space as possible. They still have a long way to go however. They had also claimed they had perfected a nuclear cruise missile before that, which actually makes no sense, since the weight would limit the warhead size, and it wouldn’t be any faster. The only advantage is it wouldn’t need any more fuel to reach any point on earth. In our search for power we have looked in five areas primarily which could be improved, but there are others also. The five areas are: The cheaper the power is for manufacturing the bigger the profit and maybe the lower the price for the product. If a factory could get free or nearly free power it would be ideal. Some factories are using wind power and some solar power, but most are still on the grid. Space travel has seen the Ion engine, which is electric, added to our choices for propulsion. It is faster, holds eight times the fuel and is far more efficient in space, but doesn’t pack enough power to be used on earth. Automobiles have come a long way in efficiency and the gasoline engine has competition with the electric engine, the hydrogen engine and fuel cells. Of the three the electric engine is ahead for now. Home and office power have seen the fuel cells and solar panels appear for office buildings and mostly solar cells for the home. Buy the same token power companies have started to include wind and water power, and a few a different kind of solar power which creates steam. Our devices are very important to us. Where would we be without our cell phones, tablets and computers? In only a few years we have become dependent on them, and with that dependence we thirst for longer life batteries. The most popular battery now is the Lithium-ion battery and it is in our devices. Scientists have announced a new type of Lithium battery which uses carbon nanotubes and they are saying these new batteries will charge a lot faster and hold ten times the energy of the current batteries. Think about a battery which could last for a week or more without a charge.
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