Ultrasound On A Chip
The latest episode of BBC Click is a must-watch.
One section is about a new ultrasound device from Butterfly Network.
Their product called Butterfly iQ; is an ultrasound sensor on a chip, that converts a smart phone into a full function medical ultrasound machine.
But as an engineer, who knows a bit about this sort of technology, I doubt that all the applications are medical ones.
Typical hospital ultrasound machines cost tens of thousands of pounds, but the price of the sensor on the Butterfly Network web site is in the order of a couple of grand. Software is probably extra, but even so, Southampton Hospital has bought four and one is in their paediatric ambulance.
I have one big question.
Is the device open source? This would enable, an imaginative programmer, as I once was, to convert the device, so that it is able to perform an important application.
I would be very disappointing if it wasn’t!
To get a snapshot of the power of ultrasound, read the Wikipedia entry for ultrasound.
A Video
I found this on the Internet.
As you can see, it’s not very big.
Conclusion
This is an amazing development and it will revolutionise so much of healthcare and other fields.
Fracking Hell…Is It The End?
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article in yesterday’s Sunday Times.
The article is an interesting read.
These two paragraphs are key.
Activism by Extinction Rebellion and growing public concern about climate change have weakened the chances of an industry once expected to create 64,500 jobs ever getting off the ground.
Cuadrilla Resources, the fracking company most active in Britain, has in recent days been removing equipment from its sole operating site in Lancashire. Petrochemicals tycoon Sir Jim Ratcliffe has vowed to pursue shale gas exploration overseas because of “archaic” and “unworkable” regulations at home.
But I think it’s more complicated than that!
I sometimes go to lectures at the Geological Society of London and two stand were about fracking.
Two were about fracking.
Fracked or fiction: so what are the risks associated with shale gas exploitation?- Click for more.
This is a video of the lecture.
What Coal Mining Hydrogeology Tells us about the Real Risks of Fracking – Click for more.
This is a video of the lecture.
This is a must-watch video from a good speaker.
I have also written several posts about fracking, with some of the earliest being in 2012-2013.
I have just re-read all of my posts.
- In the posts I have tried to give information and at times, I have said we should start fracking.
- But we should only start if we know what we’re doing.
- In several places I ask for more research.
However, there are some interesting facts and inconvenient truths about fracking and natural gas in general.
- Russia earns about €300billion a year or twenty percent of its GDP from gas exports to Europe. See Should We Nuke Russia?.
- Putin backs the anti-fracking movement. See Russia ‘secretly working with environmentalists to oppose fracking’.
- Fracking techniques is used in the Scottish Highlands to obtain clean water from deep underground. See the second Geological Society of London video.
- About forty per cent of gas usage is to heat housing. See the second video.
- The eighteen percent of the UK population, who don’t have a gas supply are more likely to be in fuel poverty. See the second video.
- Scotland has more need for energy to provide heat. See the second video.
- Natural gas with carbon capture and storage has a similar carbon footprint to solar power. See the second video.
- Cowboy fracking, as practised in the United States, would not be allowed in the UK or the EU. See the second video.
- We have no historic earthquake database of the UK, which would help in regulation and research of fracking. See the second video.
- Fracking has brought down the price of gas in North America.
- In the United States fracked gas is cutting the need to burn coal, which produces more pollution and carbon dioxide to generate the same amount of energy. See A Benefit Of Fracking.
The article in the Sunday Times says pressure against fracking has started the shutdown of the industry in the UK.
But there is another big pressure at work.replacement of natural gas with hydrogen.
- This would reduce carbon emissions.
- It can be used as a chemical feedstock.
- It could be delivered using the existing gas network.
- The gas network could be changed from natural gas to hydrogen on a phased basis, just as the change from town to natural gas was organised around fifty years ago.
But it would mean that all gas users would need to change their boilers and other equipment.
Put yourself in the position of Jim Ratcliffe; the major owner and driving force behind INEOS.
INEOS needs feedstocks for chemical plants all over the world and affordable natural gas is one that is very suitable, as it contains two of the major elements needed in hydrocarbons and many useful chemicals; carbon and hydrogen.
If local sources are not available, then liquefied natural gas can be shipped in.
The Hydrogen Economy
It is possible to replace natural gas in many applications and processes with hydrogen.
- It can be used for heating and cooking.
- Important chemicals like ammonia can be made from hydrogen.
- It can be transported in existing natural gas etworks.
- Hydrogen can also replace diesel in heating and transport applications.
There is also a possibility of measures like carbon taxes being introduced, which using hydrogen would reduce.
There’s more in the Wikipedia entry for Hydrogen economy.
Have Jim Ratcliffe and others done their predicting and decided that the demand for locally sourced natural gas will decline and that the hydrogen economy will take over?
But there will need to be a readily available source of large amounts of hydrogen.
I used to work in a hydrogen factory at Runcorn, which was part of ICI, that created hydrogen and chlorine, by the electrolysis of brine. In some ways, the hydrogen was an unwanted by-product, back in the late 1960s, but similar and more efficient processes can be used to convert electricity into hydrogen.
The latest idea, is to cluster offshore wind farms around gas rigs in the seas around the UK. The electricity produced would be used to electrolyse water to extract the hydrogen, which would then be piped to the shore using existing gas pipelines.
It would be a way of reusing infrastructure associated with gas fields, that have no gas left to extract.
There would be no need to build an expensive electricity cable to the shore.
The Dutch, Danes and the Germans are proposing to build the North Sea Wind Power Hub, which is described like this in Wikipedia.
North Sea Wind Power Hub is a proposed energy island complex to be built in the middle of the North Sea as part of a European system for sustainable electricity. One or more “Power Link” artificial islands will be created at the northeast end of the Dogger Bank, a relatively shallow area in the North Sea, just outside the continental shelf of the United Kingdom and near the point where the borders between the territorial waters of Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark come together. Dutch, German, and Danish electrical grid operators are cooperating in this project to help develop a cluster of offshore wind parks with a capacity of several gigawatts, with interconnections to the North Sea countries. Undersea cables will make international trade in electricity possible.
Later, Wikipedia says that ultimately 110 GW of electricity capacity could be developed.
So could these planned developments create enough hydrogen to replace a sizeable amount of the natural gas used in Western Europe?
I suspect a lot of engineers, company bosses and financiers are working on it.
Conclusion
I have come to the following conclusions.
- Fracking for hydrocarbons is a technique that could be past its sell-by date.
- The use of natural gas will decline.
- INEOS could see hydrogen as a way of reducing their carbon footprint.
- The heating on all new buildings should be zero carbon, which could include using hydrogen from a zero-carbon source.
There are reasons to think, that electricity from wind-farms creating hydrogen by electrolysis could replace some of our natural gas usage.
Does This Bank Launder Money?
I always associate Tide with a brand of washing powder.
So does the bank of the same name launder money?
Renewable Energy Outperforms Fossil Fuels For A Whole Quarter
The title of this post is the same as that of an article in today’s copy of The Times.
This is the introductory paragraph.
Wind and solar farms and other sources of renewable power have produced more electricity than fossil fuels for the first time in a three-month period.
This is a good figure, but how do we compare with the rest of the world.
This Wikipedia entry is entitled List Of Countries By Electricity Production Prom Renewable Sources.
These are some example percentages of renewable energy production.
- Albania – 100 %
- Australia – 14.5 %
- Belgium – 16.6 %
- Brazil – 80.4 %
- Canada 65.0 %
- China – 24.5 %
- Denmark – 60.5 %
- Egypt – 8.2 %
- Ethiopia 93.6 %
- France – 17.5 %
- Germany – 29 %
- Hungary – 10.1 %
- Iceland – 100.0 %
- India – 16.88 %
- Indonesia – 15.9 %
- Iran – 5.8 %
- Iraq – 6.4 %
- Ireland – 24.7 %
- Israel – 2.5 %
- Italy – 37.3 %
- Japan – 15.0 %
- Kuwait – 0.1 %
- Libya – 0.0 %
- Malaysia – 13.7 %
- Netherlands – 12.1 %
- New Zealand – 83.9 %
- Norway – 97.2 %
- Poland – 13.7 %
- Qatar – 0.3 %
- Pakistan – 32.7 %
- Russia – 16.9 %
- Saudi Arabia – 0.0 %
- South Africa – 3.2 %
- South Korea – 2.8 %
- Spain – 38.1 %
- \sweden – 57.1 %
- Switzerland – 59.8 %
- Taiwan – 4.2 %
- Turkey – 32.9 %
- UAE – 0.3 %
- United Kingdom – 27.9 %
- United States – 14.7 %
Figures are for 2016
Are Extinction Rebellion Counter Productive?
I am coming to the conclusion that Extinction Rebellion are a bunch of climate-change fascists of the left, that mirror, the racist and immigration fascists on the right.
Both have unrealistic ambitions and just like Hitler and Stalin want to control out lives and give themselves and their acolytes absolute power.
In my mind, there is no difference between the extreme left and extreme right. For instance the extreme-right is generally thought to be anti-Semitic and who is being accused of that now? The once respectable Labour Party, which is now more useless than a chocolate teapot.
I am scientifically green and have been so since my I left Liverpool University round fifty years ago.
I have believed in global warming for about thirty years, ever since I was told by a guy on the NASA team, that measured the Earth’s temperature from satellites, that the world was warming up.
No matter what Bolsonaro Trump, Xi Jinping and other leaders say, global warming is a NASA fact!
But large numbers of people don’t believe in good scientific practice and behaviour.
- Some are anti-vaccination.
- Some believe in homeopathy.
- Many believe in religion, some of which are totally bonkers!
- Some think the 9/11 attacks were faked or carried out by the Israelis.
- Some believe the moon landings were faked!
- Some believe in log fires.
- They drive hundreds of miles to work every year.
- They drive their children everywhere.
- They never talk to anybody of a different race or religion.
- Some have a holiday home in Cornwall, North Norfolk, France or Spain.
There is only one way to convince morons like these to change to a more scientifically-green lifestyle.
By nudging them to it, by showing them it can be better and more affordable.
Extinction Rebellion and their ilk just alienate Middle England and they push green issues under the carpet for another day.
Incidentally, we need politicians at both a National and local level to stop playing stupid games about Brexit and get on with the job of improving the lives of all of the residents of the UK.
Should We Have An Electronic Vote On Brexit?
We need to do something quick and radical to sort out Brexit.
Surely, if electronic voting is good enough for Estonia, it’s good enough for us!
Also if we can work out a secure system for Strictly Come Dancing and Love Island, we must have the technology for a secure vote!
Try getting that proposal through the House of Commons
Boris Gets Screwed, Glued And Tattooed
I voted Remain, but just wish that this Brexit rubbish can be sorted one way or another!
With my circumstances as a non-driving, single pensioner living alone in a comfortable house with a more than adequate pension, Remain or Leave will probably make no or little difference to the rest of my life.
But other things could!
- Increasing air pollution in London and other cities.
- Global warming.
- A government that raided my pension fund or pursued policies that would reduce its value.
- The closure of more restaurants that are good at gluten-free food!
- A government that didn’t back public transport.
- Increasing violence on the streets.
- A government that didn’t back serious research in Universities.
I have listed them in a rough order.
Should We Leave Now?
I actually feel now, that we should leave the EU, as to disobey the referendum would set a bad and dangerous precedent.
Especially, if we have a second referendum, in the hope of getting a result more acceptable to government and/or parliament and it proves just as close.
Imagine a controversial referendum in the future, such as bringing back the death penalty or imposing high carbon taxes.
If the government and/or parliament does’t get an acceptable result, will they go for further referendums until they do?
Where Now?
Boris is in a corner of his own making!
In the days of Rab Butler, Joe Grimond and Harold Wilson, the solution would have been to call in The Queen, who would give the nod to the next Prime Minister chosen by the Great and Good of the strongest party in the House of Commons.
Now with more democratically elected party leaders and the Fixed Term Parliament Act, such old-fashioned methods are now considered undemocratic.
But will the current crop of comedians in the House break the deadlock?
Conclusion
House Of Cards has nothing on this!
Austria Scraps Its Sun Tax
The eye-catching title of this post is the same vas that of this article on PV Magazine.
This is the introductory paragraph.
The nation’s political parties have found agreement on a green electricity package which is expected to create stable conditions for the next three years. From next year, €36 million will be made available annually for the further support of PV systems and energy storage.
As to the Sun Tax, this is explained further on.
The association has already seen one of its other demands met with the cancellation on Thursday of the ‘sun tax’ on the consumption of power generated by householders with rooftop arrays. Under the previous rules, solar households could consume 25 MWh of self-generated solar free of charge but then had to pay a €0.015 levy on every subsequent kilowatt-hour consumed during the life of the PV system.
|All parties seem pleased with the scrapping of the tax.
New Windfarms Will Not Cost Billpayers After Subsidies Hit Record Low
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Guardian.
This is the first paragraph.
The UK’s next wave of offshore wind farms will generate clean electricity at no extra cost to consumers after record low-subsidy deals fell below the market price for the first time.
I have deliberately chosen to print this report from the Guardian, as they generally research carefully what they print and wouldn’t print anything that was parroting government PR.
Until they or another trusted source says otherwise, I’ll believe that we’ll be getting cheap wind-generated electricity.
There is another fact about this announcement; the timing!
Did the government deliberately time, something that even The Guardian would feel is good news to appear on the day when everyone is travelling to the Labour Conference in Brighton?
