Slashdot Mirror
Teen's Biofuel Invention Turns Algae Into Fuel
Lasrick writes "Evie Sobczak won a trip to Jet Propulsion Lab for her biofuel invention: 'For a fifth-grade science fair, Evie Sobczak found that the acid in fruit could power clocks; she connected a cut-up orange to a clock with wire and watched it tick. In seventh grade, she generated power by engineering paddles that could harness wind. And in eighth grade, she started a project that eventually would become her passion: She wanted to grow algae and turn it into biofuel.'"
to be a significant power sources without either destroying foodcrops or natural ecologicies, or get more than about 5% efficiency - less than a solar panel.
Makes for a cute story though, as do all these biofuel stories. Keeps everyone hopeful, despite the complete silliness.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
Evie Sobczak found that the acid in fruit could power clocks
You mean she learned exactly how a battery works? OH SHI-
Old is new again!
http://video.pbs.org/video/1216982026
One more invention, and she would have been disqualified from any further participation
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
(Disclaimer: The above are not actually inventions)
And by that, I mean both the Tamba Bay and the Slashdot article. There is nothing anywhere about how she got the biodiesel from algae, which at this point is the only interesting thing about the experiment. It mentions photoautotrophic cultivation, which just means that the algae use light to grow, which is a big no-shit-Sherlock. It mentions osmotic sonication, which is a fancy word for using sound waves and osmotic principles to get the detergent into the cell innards. Google searches turn up no indication of how the experiment was set up, what the actual results or anything of interest. The best thing I got was a list of who else won what other categories at the fair.
So we have two utterly known principles being applied to biodiesel generation from algae, and somehow this makes news as a breakthrough. Yawn.
Which leads me to my second rant: the insistence of news organizations to hail science fair winners as geniuses who solved a problem no one else could (I'm specifically looking at the stories about the kid arranging solar cells in a tree shape). It completely oversells the experiment, turns the kid into something they're not, and covers up the actual interesting item: that you can do cool science in your home that goes beyond baking powder volcanoes. It could even be science that is relevant to an existing topic of interest to actual scientists, which should put the kids on a good trajectory to actually solving the problem. But no, instead we are presented with kid geniuses who solve world hunger, and I get to fend off all kinds of dumb questions and comments about science, the state of technology and why we're not listening more to kids.
Now get off my lawn.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
Wood is a form of biofuel.
See what I did there?
Does "biofuel" still seem like a mysterious magical term.
was disappointed when I couldn't find out anything about what she actually did that was interesting other than recreate existing processes
"Evie?" What is that, one them newfangled California names?
Thorium.
Will negate the need for bio based fuel sources, if half of the hype is true.
China is building 2 reactors now.
Oak ridge had one back in the 60s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9M__yYbsZ4
Some weeks ago there was a story in /. about students who discovered that there might be something going or nearby WiFi hotspots that impact the growth of cress. What is the status of that project today? Have they conducted additional experiments?
More at 11.
The power comes from the dissimilar metals that is plugged into the fruit. The energy comes from thevrefined metals, for examaple iron and copper. Electrons leave the iron are transported through wire to the load. The fruit is a carrier not a source of energy.
Maybe we can use politicians and lawyers as a renewable fuel source. Anybody who so chooses a career gets 20 years then they get tossed in the vat.
she connected a cut-up orange to a clock with wire and watched it tick
A Clock Work with Orange? :)
what the fuck, did someone give her an old Mr Wizard book? Grat's you did every basic lame ass science fair exhibit in the book here is your ribbon, dont let it go to your head
Doesn't even need to be said.
When the only comment scored 5 claims the article is crap. I guess we can trust the wisdom of crowd and skip the paper.
... is that the energy they generate actually cost DOUBLE of what fossil fuel energy cost. And the reason is because maintenance is a hell of a lot more expensive and required more often that people actually think.
.... that quick charging batteries have a SIGNIFICANTLY lower lifespan.
things like this usual turn out to use of resources costing 5X more than the conventional energy it replaces and is more of a pollutant waste problem
its like electric cars whose construction creates more carbon than the lifetime of a conventional car (ontop of getting its power from a fossil fuel plant in the first place)
"For a fifth-grade science fair, Evie Sobczak found that the acid in fruit could power clocks; she connected a cut-up orange to a clock with wire and watched it tick."
You get those novelty clocks via mail order. But the "acid in fruit" is not what powers the clock: you have two electrodes of different material, and the less pure electrode dissolves via normal electrolysis and powers the reaction. The orange just provides an electrolyte that is not powering the clock. And it would not dissolve the less pure electrode without the wiring, so the reaction is not autonomous. The orange is not powering it, it is just a ion trap.
You don't need acid, you can use salt water or vinegar or a number of other electrolytes.
Given the overall low quality of the article, it is not certain whether they are just misrepresenting her. But science is not just about making something happen, but also about finding cause and effect. In particular if one claims a particular cause.
Despite being right on these points, you're still an ass.
100 fat stupid big-mouth know-it-all towering assholes criticize working invention in a nasal smartass tone of voice while ramming another mom-prepared hot pocket into their distended fat neckbeard-encrusted sneering faces.
The only thing that makes threads like this tolerable is the certain knowledge that nobody will ever take any of you seriously about anything.
PETA is going to get her for killing all those creatures
What, can she (or her parents) actually read or something? Amazing! Seriously, nothing revolutionary here, all of these were invented by someone else.
"I call it a Wind-mill!"
"I call it biome-diesel"
next:
"I call it a photo-panel!"
There is nothing "invented" here. Its not like she woke up and thought that algae could be used to make fuel.
Companies have been researching this for decades, and the issue comes back down to the effort to grow algae often consumer more energy then what they produce. The real challenge is not that algae can product hydrocarbons for fuel, its about how to do it at the same or better efficiency then getting oil out of the ground.
Its a nice puff piece, but ignorant "science" reporters think this kid is brilliant and did something nobody though of before, all she did was read about it and created a diorama or something. Using acid in fruit could power clocks, done. Wind power, done. Growing algae for bio-fuel, done.
That kids a phony!
But I can't really blame her; what is worse is when adults are amazed at her "inventions".
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
Seriously are you freakin' kidding me? Yes... Yes.. YES everyone's child is a freaking super-genius. Right. Oh... and gads... this one can actualy READ by the 8th grade. How wonderfully miraculous.