Harvest and Hunger The Saskatchewan Council for International Cooperation is hosting an event in Saskatoon on November 10th called Harvest and Hunger. The event sets out to answer three questions: Who controls the world’s food? Who has power in the global food system? Who doesn’t? What are people doing – both in Saskatchewan and around […]
Tag: Science
Curtis Dorosh: Green living, building, and volunteering
How to live green? Build green buildings? Put our efforts towards a better future? Curtis Dorosh has spent much of his life trying to answer these questions. Collected here are some of his answers.
How to argue with trolls and extremists
How to argue against those who will never change their mind, and who will undermine your attempts to discuss things meaningfully. These are our best tips for how to deal with trolls and extremists.
Power system performance metrics
Everything has its price. Every form of power production has costs in dollars, time, land, materials, pollutants, greenhouse gas emissions, and human deaths. We look at the most important factors for analyzing the feasibility of a proposed power project. Considering only some of these factors will lead to an incomplete picture of power system costs.
Fusion fast ignition systems
Fusion ‘fast ignition’ systems are some intriguing new possibilities for fusion development. They may make it possible for humanity to achieve functional fusion reactors in a few decades.
Laser implosion fusion reactors
Laser implosion fusion is a proposed method for creating nuclear fusion power plants. It is showing some great promise, being the most likely candidate for the first fusion method to reach net energy gain. Exciting new developments may make fusion power a reality in the coming decades.
Lindsey Simpson of TEDxMcGill on volunteerism and planning major events
Lindsey Simpson, one of the organizers of TEDxMcGill, talks in this interview about why she likes to volunteer and work hard to plan such big events. TEDxMcGill is an externally organized TED event in the city of Montreal, Canada on November 20th, 2010.
Interview with wind power guru Paul Gipe
Wind power expert Paul Gipe advocates that we deliberately create our green energy future rather than wait around for it to happen. He says that we should aim to democratize our energy production for a more prosperous future.
How do we turn nuclear fusion energy into electricity?
How do we turn fusion power into electricity? There are two main methods. We can use heat engines like steam turbines or we can use a very new system called ‘direct conversion’ which has some interesting properties.
The basic realities of fusion reactor design
Issues and difficulties with creating a physical system for nuclear fusion. To succeed, we must face temperatures that vaporize all known materials and other requirements that make this the most difficult technological endeavor of our age.
Fusion fuel cycles: What they are and how they work
There are a number of different fuels that can be used for creating fusion power. Here we look at the useful ones and look at their advantages and disadvantages. Different fuel cycles require very different implementations.
Helpful tools for understanding nuclear fusion
These are the concepts I found to be very useful during my fusion research. Here we define ignition state, Lawson criterion, fusion performance parameter, and energy gain factor Q.
The science behind fusion power
In order to understand nuclear fusion at a deep level, you must have a strong grasp of a number of areas of physics. I have collected here some resources for learning these skills. The general areas are electromagnetism, nuclear physics, thermodynamics, and plasma physics.
Science denial: Vaccines, vitamins and GMOs
Michael Specter delivered a clear and powerful message in his talk at TED in 2010. Vaccines save lives, yet people fear them. GMOs are primarily opposed for reasons unrelated to the method of their construction.