With all the current concerns of “Global Warming”, I just wanted to share some of my reading materials,

Great Briton has already started the Engineering process to create a Fusion Electric Generator that they plan to be in operation by 2050. That is an ambitious objective considering that this energy is what fuels our Sun and Stars.

How do we turn nuclear fusion energy into electricity?

 November 12, 2010  Ben Harack  Ben Harack’s Blog, Fusion Power

Nuclear fusion power creates very fast-moving electrically charged particles. This post is about the two major methods for converting the kinetic energy of these particles into useful electrical energy.

One of them, heat engines, is a well-proven technology with well-understood operating guidelines and some limitations.

The other, direct conversion, is an very new technology that has not yet had an opportunity to be employed in an industrial setting.

Heat engines

Heat engines are well understood. Almost everyone in the modern world has probably heard of the steam engine, which is an example of a heat engine. Heat engines are a way to convert intense heat into mechanical power.

For electric power production, the steam-driven mechanical power is then transformed into electricity. This is very well understood because we have literally built millions of heat engines. About eighty percent of the world’s electricity comes from steam turbines.

Converting fusion power to electricity through this path requires several energy conversion steps.

1. The kinetic energy of the fusion products is converted into heat when they strike and penetrate the walls of the reactor. The shielding is designed to stop the particles, spreading out their kinetic energy so that it becomes the motion of many particles (heat). This process is nearly 100% efficient. That is, almost all of the energy from the fusions will show up as heat in the reactor shielding. A small amount of it will go into nuclear reactions caused by the particles hammering the shielding (causing neutron capture reactions for instance).
2. The heat in the shielding is converted into mechanical power through the use of a heat engine. These engines are governed by the limitations imposed by the Carnot efficiency. High-quality modern turbines can convert with approximately 33-48% efficiency depending on temperatures, quality, and working fluid. That is, only 33-48% of the heat energy will be converted into mechanical power.
3. The mechanical power is converted into electric power through various generator technologies. These systems are also nearly 100% efficient.

All together, we can see that the biggest losses are made during the thermal to mechanical step. Continual efforts are being made to improve heat engines, but there are some fundamental limits they must obey as per the second law of thermodynamics.

Direct Conversion

Direct conversion is a method by which we can convert fast-moving charged particles directly into electrical current. This is very different from the concept of using the fast-moving particles to cause heat that we then use in heat engines such as steam turbines.

Images for this section drawn from Direct Energy Conversion in Fusion Reactors, by Ralph W. Moir, Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, Livermore, CA.

Electric Potentials

In order to understand why direct conversion works, you need to understand electric potentials. I will attempt to provide an illustrative explanation here in case the reader is not familiar with the physics of this concept.

First of all, what is potential energy? The classic example is a boulder sitting on top of a hill. The boulder isn’t moving, so it has no kinetic energy (which is the energy of motion). However, since it is on top of a hill, a tiny nudge can send it careening down the hill. This means that is has potential energy. In this case it has gravitational potential energy.

As the boulder rolls down the hill, its potential energy is transformed into kinetic energy. Eventually the boulder will come to a rest some distance from the hill since it will lose its kinetic energy as it rolls (to friction and other energy loss forces).

The key concept here is that potential energy can be transformed into kinetic energy. The opposite is also possible. Imagine that you are driving a car on a smooth road towards a hill. Just as you are nearing the bottom of the hill, you turn off the engine and coast up the hill. You lose speed rapidly as you climb. If you were lucky, you will have exactly enough kinetic energy to reach the top of the hill and stop at the top (balancing precariously like the boulder was originally in our first example).

Now, electric potentials are similar, but we do have to deal with some additional complexities. For instance, there are both hills (positive potentials, created by positive charges) and valleys (negative potentials, created by negative charges).

If we look at the simplistic example of a positively charged particle approaching a positive potential, we can use the hill analogy. So if the positive particle is going fast enough, it can climb all the way to the top of the positive potential ‘hill’. The positive potential resists the attempts by the positive particle to climb, since as we all know, positive charges repel each other.

Things get a bit more complicated when we are dealing with a potential and a charge that are of different signs. In these interactions, we can always regard the potential as a conceptual ‘valley’ as far as what the charge sees. That is, a negative charge will be attracted to a positive potential, causing it to go towards the point of greatest positive potential.

If we are analyzing the motion of a negatively charged particle, we can consider all of the hills and valleys to be reversed, since the force on a negative particle is equal to, but in the opposite direction of, the force on a positive particle.

Convert kinetic energy to electric potential

So, now that we have the concepts of electric potentials under our belts, how do we convert the kinetic energy of a charged particle into an electric potential?

It is important to note that the positively charged particles (the ions) are thousands of times as heavy as the negatively charged electrons, but carry practically equivalent charge. An ion might be carrying +2 charge (lacking two electrons around it), while an electron by itself carries -1 charge. This means that the electron has a much larger charge to mass ratio than ions. This means that electrons accelerate much more quickly than ions when affected electric fields (and potentials). This asymmetry allows us to effectively ‘sort’ these particles onto different electrodes.

First we will look at a relatively simple single-stage direct conversion system. There is a detailed image below that shows what we are talking about. In the image below, particles are propagating from the left to the right. The big circle shows a zoomed-in image of the area delineated by the smaller circled area.

The kinetic energy of the positive particles is transformed into potential energy as they climb the potential hill that is created by the Ion Collector (which is at a very high potential of 100 kilo-volts). Ions strike the Ion Collector and ‘steal’ electrons from it. This has the effect of removing electrons from the target plate, thus increasing its positive potential. Remember that electric potential is created by collections of charge. In this case we have added positive charge to an already positively charged plate, increasing its potential.

On the other hand, since electrons are relatively light, we can reflect them away with a grid of electrodes at a relatively small negative potential. In the image below these are labelled as the “Electron Reflector Grid”, which is at a negative potential of -10 kilovolts. The electrons are thus reflected towards the Electron Collector Grid, which is a different collection surface than the positively charged ions. The negative potential will attract the positive ions, but since it is just a grid (not a barrier), and they are moving with great momentum, they pretty much ignore the electron reflector grid as they fly right past and strike the Ion Collectors.

We have thus effectively sorted the incoming particles onto separate collectors according to their charge. We have widened the potential gap between the Ion Collector and the Electron Collector Grid because we have positive current flowing onto the Ion Collector and negative current flowing onto the Electron Collector Grid. This current flow becomes the electric power that we are producing.

This example system has an efficiency limit of about 50% because it is only able to provide one potential for the ions to strike. However, we can expand the concept by creating a potential ‘stairway’. The more energetic a particle is, the further it can go to the right in the image below.

We use a series of positive potential ‘steps’ to slow down the positively charged particles. One can imagine this as a series of steps up the side of a big hill. The more kinetic energy that the positive ion has, the further up the hill it can make it before it runs out of speed/momentum. Again, in the image above, the potential is lowest on the left side and highest on the right side.

In this image, there are 22 ion collectors at progressively higher potentials as you progress to the right. Electrons, as before are reflected by low potential grids (the little dotted half circles) and collected seperately from the ions. The ions end up being sucked in towards the sides slightly by the electron grids and then strike the positive potential plates at each stage.

This 22 stage tester was created in a lab and tested. The test yielded a result wherein 86.5% of the kinetic energy was converted into electricity. This is a much higher efficiency than we can reach using heat engines such as steam engines, which currently max out before 50% efficiency. In the future it may be possible to push the thermal engine efficiency up a few percent, but they are not expected even in coming decades to get anywhere near the efficiencies boasted by the direct conversion method.

That said, we must keep in mind that while this system has been tested on a small scale in a lab, and relies on solid physical principles, we cannot guarantee that it will be able to deliver these efficiencies for a full-sized 1-3 GW fusion power plant. There are certainly some engineering difficulties to be analyzed and overcome before we can claim that this is a fully proven technology like the steam engine is.

Posted December 13, 2022 at 1010 hours by EWV

Scientists have successfully ‘reprogrammed’ ear cells to make them grow the hairs which allow humans and animals to hear sounds.

The astonishing discovery brings us ‘a step closer to developing treatments that regrow the missing cells that cause hearing loss’, although applying the treatment to our species is still a long way off.

A team from Harvard University ‘reprogrammed’ the inner ear cells of mice and made them regrow hairs.

‘This paper is the first to show that, by reprogramming, mature mammalian inner ear cells can be induced to divide and become hair cells, which are needed for hearing,’ said senior study author Zheng-Yi Chen, DPhil, an associate professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at Harvard Medical School.

‘These findings of renewed proliferation and hair cell generation in a fully mature inner ear lay the foundation for the application of reprogramming and hair cell regeneration.’

Hearing loss affects 11 million people in the UK and 37 million in the US.

The inner ear cells of humans and other mammals lack the capacity to divide or regenerate, which means that damage is irreversible.

They worked by turning vibrations in the air into electrical signals which are relayed to the brain, but are easily destroyed by exposure to loud sounds and aging.

There are currently no pharmaceutical treatments available for hearing loss.

Previous research has showed cells can be made to regenerate hairs, but not in ‘fully mature’ ears.

Dr Chen said “it is essential to demonstrate that cell division and hair cell regeneration can be achieved in a mature mammalian inner ear’ if we are to cure hearing problems.

They reprogrammed cells by activating two ‘molecular signals’ which made the cells divide, with some of the cells taking on the properties of hair cells.

‘Our work revealed that reprogramming is achieved by re-activation of early inner ear developmental genes so that the mature inner ear regains neonatal properties, which enables them to re-divide and regenerate,’ Dr Chen explained.

‘The most significant aspect of the current study is the fact that fully mature mammalian inner ear still retains the capacity to divide and regenerate if it is sufficiently reprogrammed, which removes a fundamental barrier that has prevented the inner ear regeneration necessary for hearing restoration.’

The team is now working to make drugs which can stimulate the process of regrowing ear hairs.

‘We hope that our research can serve as a model for regeneration of other tissues with similar properties that are unable to regrow cells, such as in the retina and the central nervous system,’ Dr Chen added.

Along with difficulty communicating, people with hearing loss are at risk for a number of associated medical problems if they do not take steps to seek treatment. The correlation between hearing loss and a number of physical, social and psychological conditions is well-established; one of the most common is depression.

The Correlation Between Hearing Loss and Depression

Approximately 48 million Americans experience hearing loss. New patients experience a variety of emotions including stress, anxiety, fatigue and social isolation, all of which are factors that can lead to depression. A study by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) showed that 11.4 percent of individuals with hearing loss suffered from depression, a significantly higher percentage than those with good (7.1 percent) or excellent (4.9 percent) hearing. Those aged 18 to 69 were determined to most likely experience depression.

People with hearing loss are also more likely to withdraw from social activities. This increases their risk as social isolation worsens depression.

The key is recognizing the symptoms of depression early. Depression can manifest itself with feelings of sadness and hopelessness, and while these are the most common outward signs, they aren’t the only ones. Less obvious symptoms include:

• Fatigue
• Irritability
• Loss of appetite
• Concentration difficulties
• Loss of interest in activities and hobbies that usually bring joy

It often takes a close friend or family member to notice these types of behavioral changes.

Hearing Aids can Help Treat Depression

The earlier you receive treatment for hearing loss, the less likely you are to experience depression. The following signs, established by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, are useful in determining the possibility of hearing loss:

• Difficulty understanding speech, especially in the presence of background noise
• The individual isolates themselves from social gatherings and public situations
• They watch television or listen to music at volume levels others find uncomfortable
• They ask people to repeat themselves

Any of these signs should prompt you to schedule a hearing evaluation with Dr. Jill Davis as soon as possible.

If hearing loss is causing depression, treatment might be as simple as turning on your hearing aids. Researchers at the Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics found that every patient they studied who wore hearing aids showed a significant decline in negative psychosocial and cognitive conditions within 90 days. To reduce your risk of depression, be sure to wear your hearing aids regularly. Depression is a widespread ailment with serious consequences; avoiding it will only lead to worse health long-term.

As young student, I was always amazed at the configurations of the boundaries between East boundary of North and South Americas and the Western boundary of Europe and Africa. They just seemed to “fit” together.

These excerpts from “Google” suggest that all seven (7) continents were one land mass at one time. This scientific explanation also provides answers to some of my other questions over my time searching to answers of WHY?

1. How did humankind migrate across the oceans? Well maybe they did not have to.
2. Yes, there is a logical explanation as how the Indigenous people may have migrated over the “ice bridge” from Asia to Canada. I saw evidence of in Yukon Cemetaries where the practices of placing a deceased belongings into a covered headstone that suggests the Slavic custom
3. Why do the Egyptian Pyramids seem to be alike to the Inca and Mayan Pyramids in the Americas?

Well, I just thought I should share this information with those of you who may have asked similar questions.

Posted September 21, 2022 by EWV