Slashdot Mirror

this has always puzzled me.
i can't see believing in god as something that can withstand simple questions.

Many scientists are religious and find no contradiction between science and religion. As an excellent example, the Nobel Laureate Inventor of the Laser recently received the Templeton Prize for his writings about the convergence of science and religion (scroll down to the 2005 prize). The text of his writings can be found here.

"Hydrogen is a Boondoggle. The energy density is so low, that we might as well use batteries if we're going to power vehicles with it." -StCredZero

Energy released when oxidized:

Hydrogen: 141.86 MJ / kg
Gasoline : 47.5 MJ / kg

So maybe the engineers that decided to use hydrogen for fuel for the space shuttle, liquid fueled rockets and hypersonic scramjets instead of gasoline aren't that stupid after all.
The small scale storage however, as in a car tank, still takes some more space than gasoline tanks. And storage in gaseous form at high pressure presents a potential exploding hazard if the containment is broken. Liquid Hydrogen, I am told: is barely more dangerous than gasoline(just don't touch it at its liquid temperature at normal pressure of less than 20 K = -253 C = -424 F). Like gasoline in real life, it shouldn't usually explode in an accident because it can only react as much as it gets oxygen which is limited by the surface area exposed to air. Some H evaporating will cool the remaining liquid H down (same effect as is used in a refrigerator). And if it evaporates without burning up right away, it will rise up and away very quickly since it is so much lighter than air.
Hydrogen reacts with oxygen from the atmoshpere (combusts) to form Dihydrogen Monoxide, which is ... .
On top of the higher energy density per mass unit than just about any other substance obtainable in big quantities, hydrogen has a higher combustion pressure (burns faster) than gasoline which means higher conversion efficiency can be achieved when used in internal combustion engines. Hydrogen isn't limited to be used with fuel cells, it can be used in combustion engines in the same way as gasoline is used. BMW has actually been testing a prototype since a couple of years whose engine can be fueled off liquid hydrogen as well as gasoline. It has one tank for each and can switch between them.
http://www.wheels24.co.za/Wheels24/News/0,,1369-13 72_1233189,00.html
http://greenvilleonline.com/news/specialreport/200 3/06/09/200306098048.htm
http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_38/b3699304.ht m
http://www.bmwworld.com/hydrogen/stragegy.htm
http://www.google.com/

It is expected go into series production "soon" . They've built a racing car demonstrator based on the technology as well. http://www.rsportscars.com/eng/articles/bmw_hydrog en.asp

Biodiesel, even if CO2 neutral (amount absorbed during plant growth = amount released through its combustion) tend to emit some other undesirable substances into the atmosphere. But of course it IS vastly superior to fossil fuels based energy in terms of emissions.

More research and support is needed to further develop and assess promising new sustainable non-polluting energy technologies like biodiesel or hydrogen from algae and others. And to START IMPLEMENTING ones that prove viable.
Unfortunately the bush administration decided to drastically cut sustainable energy research spending and energy efficiency improvement programs, and to rather grant subsidies and tax cuts of billions of dollars to coal, gas, oil and nuclear electricity generation companies(1 Site of potential interest: http://www.nationalpriorities.org/).

Well, it got from the Chunnel to the field where those pictures were taken. I imagine it would be similar to the procedure used for moving a nuclear reactor:

Here's the plan. A 133-foot-long tractor-trailer with 192 tires and 16 axles (this from the Orange County Register) will take about five days to crawl about 17 miles on Old Highway 101 and Interstate 5, under the guard of Marines and, at one point, state park rangers.

It will inch along about eight miles of beach over interlocking mats that will be continuously moved from the back to the front, so the 192 tires don't sink in the sand.

Then somehow it will be loaded onto the barge.

Best use of the word "somehow" I've ever seen :P