Steam from sun without boiling

Recently scientists have come up with interesting new ways to convert water directly into steam without having to boil it. This techniques uses nanoparticles that are capable of absorbing photons , when solar energy is concentrated on these nanoparticles they would absorb the rays. 

When these nanoparticles come in contact with water the absorbed energy converts the water directly into steam. Steam has multiple uses -- One of them is  generating electricity. The other use can be purifying water you can simply collect the steam and condense it to get pure water. This would be very useful for people who don't have access to clean water. 

Imagine you live by the side of the sea or you are travelling on ship. This technology can be used to produce pure water from sea water without having to boil it. The efficiency is pretty high 80 -90% of the energy absorbed is ultimately transformed into heat energy that results in steam. It is much higher as compared to steam engines and steam turbines.

The Rice University video shown below gives a demonstration of how water can be converted into steam directly without having to boil it the only thing you need are those nanoparticles that are capable of absorbing solar spectrum . 

While initially the researchers expect this breakthrough to be used in sanitation but one is sure that it will ultimately expand to water purification and energy generation as well. 

Flying with the sun

Many of you maybe aware of the Solar Impulse planes . Solar Impulse-1 has already flown across Europe and from the east cost to the West Coast of the US. The next version of Solar Impulse , Solar Impulse -2(SI-2) has started its flight, that would encircle the entire world from Abu Dhabi, UAE on 9th March 2015.

It travelled from Abu Dhabi to Muscat, from Muscat(Oman) to Ahmedabad(India) , from Ahmedabad to Varanasi(India) and then to Mandalay(Burma) and is finally at Chongquing(China). The Solar Impulse planes are powered by the Sun. Its wings comprises of solar panels that generates the electricity that fuels the airplane. No other source of energy is used other than solar energy.

In a similar way Google and Facebook plans to use solar drones which are similar to these planes except for the fact that they will be unmanned. They will stay airborne for long periods of time, for months maybe years. 

The drones will be stationed at Stratosphere i.e - 20 kilometres above the surface of the earth. The would be used to beam Internet across the world. According to Google Loons website each drone or balloon(Google originally planned to use atmoshperic  balloons for this project) can provide Internet access to an area of diameter 40 kms. 

This drones will save the cost of lying fibre optic cables which is quite expensive and because of them , we can have access to Internet even in obscure places of the planet. Say in the jungles of Amazon, or in the mountains of Himalayas. 

People can actually stay in these places located far away and difficult to reach but still have access to all the information thanks to availability of affordable Internet. 

The combination of  solar power , Internet access will encourage people to move out of cities and live in more relaxing places that are located closer to nature. 

Reducing SPM

One of the best things that is happening in present time is the public focus and tremendous amount of research going on renewable sources of energy. Across the world in US, Germany, China, Japan and India the installation of solar panels is on a rise. Today more than ever the world needs to go back to nature and this is a very important step in that direction .


 Since the Industrial Revolution the burning of fossil fuels has lead to increase in the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. CO2 is a greenhouse gas that traps heat and results in global warming. Because of the combustion of fossil fuels the amount of Suspended Particulate Matter in the atmosphere has gone up in cities where population is densely packed and inhalation of this SPM results in diseases of lungs and many others including cancer.

The fall in prices of solar panels and the developments in the field of electric vehicles creates an optimism in our minds that very soon the conventional petrol and diesel car will be replaced by electric cars and this electricity may be obtained from the power of the sun.


Already across the cities of India we have hundreds of thousands of e-rickshaws running . This little vehicles can carry 5 people including the driver, run at moderate speeds. In many cities this is replacing the petrol and diesel rickshaws that were a major cause of pollution. The petrol rickshaw owners mix lot of kerosene with petrol to reduce fuel cost. The ignition of such fuel not only damages the engine but releases poisonous gases into the atmosphere.

 The SPM levels in most large Indian cities are alarming use of electric vehicles will solve the problem. The billions of dollars that are spent importing fossil fuel can be replaced with energy worth billions/trillions of dollars from the sun, from wind and tidal power, from bio-gas obtained from industrial and domestic waste.

NATURE

Have you ever wondered why on earth did some chemicals came together in water and formed units that would replicate itself. Not only it replicated itself but this units evolved in time getting more and more complex with innumerable variations. It reached a point where a particular species ultimately had male and female members and mated for new beings to come into existence. Since there animals were genetically more complex , nature had to divide it into male and female members so that the the defective genes of one animal is condoned by the good genes of the other sex. 

But the question why on earth did this set of chemicals had to come together and form life what was the need? Once the first instance of life was created then why did it started evolving and getting better and better. What is need of this process and what is the ultimate goal of this process?

Another question that comes to mind is that --Is it a case that the chemicals came together by themselves or if there is some other influence at work that engineered this process. If there is indeed such influence what is the cause of the the influence and how did the influencing factors themselves originate?

And finally :- Since there are quadrillions of earth like planets across the universe is it possible that life might have evolved in them. Probably at this point of time the life on some of them maybe more advanced than us in terms of intelligence , technology , scientific and spiritual achievements. 

Importance of Scientific Temperment

Scientific temperament is a must , without scientific temperament humans become prey to superstitions and blind beliefs. We live in a country where fraud babas, fake sadhus and other fake spiritual men or astrologers make tremendous amount of money by fooling people. Sometimes people are anxious to know about their future they go to one of these frauds and these frauds would make some predictions about their future show them some problems and give their solutions and what these solutions are ?They would either ask the person to wear a ring with a precious stone like Gometh,diamond,neela etc or would advise them to do a havan besides a fire or do some sacrifice or do some pooja(worship). For centuries India has been under this poisonous influence of these selfish, dirty men and women who make money from people's fear, blind beliefs and superstitions.

When the first Census of India was done 1900 only about 6% of the population was found to be literate. Now being literate doesn't imply being educated. So one can imagine in those days probably only 1 in 200 was educated most people did not know who their rulers were . Infact in one of his lectures Gandhiji said that when he asked some poor villagers whom did they think was ruling them the villagers replied that it was some god that was ruling over them. Now such a nation where majority of the population is illiterate and doesn't even know what is happening in the country are bound to be enslaved by other countries.

In those days the country was suffering from untouchability and an ugly caste system. There were people who thought themselves to be of some high caste and would avoid touching people of lower caste. The people of lower caste cannot go to schools cannot do higher jobs cannot even drink water from the same well as that of the higher caste. If they did the village kangaroo courts would impose severe punishment on them. This subjugation of a big portion of the population was one of the big reasons for the down fall of the nation.

After independence untouchability and discrimination based on caste, creed and religion was made illegal. It has worked but still today there are people who believe in the ugly caste thing. Even today a good number of people don't want to marry their children to people outside their caste. Although in the cities the condition has changed and caste has become a thing of the past.

Even today you find the educated going to these fake men so that they can make their future better. Temples across the nations run by trusts for making money are raking in the moolah. In recent years lots of fake sadhus are found to be in antisocial activities that include money laundering and rapes. The recent case of Asaram from Gujrat and many others across the nation has somehow made people aware but still millions throng to the fake spiritual men.

It is very important that people start differentiating between fake and real. There are of course genuine people , genuine yogis and sanyasis they would put no superstition into your head . The secret is question everything and find out the truth for yourself. Just because some great man has said something you cannot accept it blindly. Old ideas and thoughts have to be challenged and questioned because with time lot of superstitions might have crept in.

Einstein and Music

Yesterday I was reading a book on Einstein's life by Swami Tathagathanada of Vedanta Society of New York. I was pleasantly surprised to know that the great physicist was also a musician and a very talented one . At the age of 5 music was Einstein's inner necessity. Not only did he play beautiful works of Mozart , Bach and Schubert but also improvised them. 

    Einstein's friend Paul Plaut mentioned in 1928 that  Dr Einstein would often play his violin late in the night improvising melodies while he thought over complicated problems. As he got his answer in the middle of playing , he would shout excitedly "I've got it". It seemed as if somehow the solution of his problem came through music. 

We know very well that Einstein devoted his entire life to Physics but what we don't know is the other thing to which Einstein had devoted his life was music. He never discussed music with others but simply said listen, play , love , revere and keep your mouth shut. 

It also states that Einstein found some harmony between physics and music. Maybe it something that's worth doing some research on if music can indeed make the mind work better. 

India - Education, Economy

When Swami Vivekananda was alive ie in 1901 a population census of India was done by the then colonial government. Back then the Literacy rate among Indians was a meare 5.35% , male literacy was 9.83% and shockingly female literacy was a mere 0.6%. Such a nation was bound to be a slave since without education man is nothing but an animal. 

One more fact is that this figures are for literacy. Now literacy is not education. Education is a relatively long process. Being able to read and write was just the begining. By 1941 the literacy rates had risen to 16.10%. Female literacy in 1941 was 7.3% a growth of 1200% over 1941 and male literacy was 24.9% a growth of 270% over 1901. This probably explains why we got indepence in 1947 more educated people around. 

So in 40 years India's literacy increased by 300% and what happened after that which included 33 years of Indian Independence. In 1981 the percentage of literates had gone up from 16.1% to a mere 36.23%.One more thing that is noticeable is that the growth in literacy of India between 1941 to 1951 was very small from 16.1% to 16.67%. So in 40 years the growth in literacy was a mere 125%. Compare that to South Korea in 1945 its literacy rate was 22% which increased to 87.6% in 1970 and by the 1980s its literacy went up to 93%. This shows that the Indian government made very little effort to increase the spread of education in the first 40 years. This explains why South Korea developed so fast and India lagged behind. 

Since Indian Independence the government consisted of people who were not interested in the well being of the nation. They hardly did anything to stop the rapid population growth. Even today each year we are adding an Australia to our population. While South Korea is actually has a birthrate that would reduce its population. The South Koreans are economically prosperous. They became independent much after India . South Korea was a very poor nation when it became Independent but withing a few decades it grew into a very prosperous nation. 

Some of the biggest companies from the world are from South Korea. Although it did have a quite a rough political history but South Korea went through decades of very rapid economic growth and today its per-capita income is more than $35,000. South Korea has one of the most densely packed population in the world it has a population density of 472 people per square kilometer. 

Same is the story of Israel . Countries like South Korea , Israel became independent much latter but today are way ahead of India in economic and technological achievements. India has lot of catching up to do and for that people have to vote for correct people who work honestly for the people. The sooner people realize this in India the better it is.