Science Art: ITER 3D plasma equilibrium with ripple contours (4071616631)
This image, from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, shows a fusion reaction contained by a force field. The magnetic fields force the plasma – the […]
engineering
The world’s most powerful magnet is heading to an experimental fusion reactor.
New Scientist reports on the latest equipment – a magnet stronger than any other – being sent from California to France for installation in ITER, […]
The US is building a big wind farm.
Bloomberg reports on a Biden-administration initiative to build a massive, $2.8 billion windmill installation off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard: “The whole industry has been […]
Science Art: Owen Magnetic Radiator Emblem
From 1915 to 1922, this was the symbol of electric luxury – or at least a hybrid-electric luxury car. The Owen Magnetic label was a […]
Science Art: Tackles, 1905.
Click to embiggen Pulleys and rope, arranged to make lifting heavy weights easier. I’ve been messing around with boats lately, lowering a 30-foot mast with […]
“Just grow a table.”
MIT News looks at the new science of tissue engineering, taking lab-grown cells and training them to grow objects to order: It takes a lot […]
Lobster-shell patterns make concrete stronger.
Reuters reveals a new technique to strengthen ordinary concrete by imitating the criss-cross pattern of lobster shells: Reinforced with steel fibres, the concrete becomes more […]
The UK has powered up an unusual fusion reactor.
Science magazine takes us inside the Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST) Upgrade, an experimental fusion reactor which has been switched on after a 7-year build […]
Science Art: Close-up view of a rock cutter in the Everglades Drainage District, c. 1920
Click to embiggen This is a machine for cutting through rock in a swamp. Or really, in a very broad, very shallow river – which […]
Science Art: Dynamometer, 3 Feb 1865
Click to embiggen A dynamometer, illustrated by (or for) the United States Sanitary Commission in 1865. A dynamometer measures power output. For an engine, it […]
Science Art: Mechanische Maschinen und Automaten 49, from Bellicorum instrumentorum liber cum …, 1420-1430
This is something I first assumed was a very early typewriter or printing press, from the Bavarian State Library’s copy of Bellicorum instrumentorum liber cum […]
Science Art: H.G. Dorsey: Device for Graphically Reproducing Sound Waves, 1912
Click to embiggen slightly A device from the early 20th century to turn sound waves into drawings – creating some of the first waveform illustrations. […]
Science Art: Photograph taken from a high-speed video camera during a record-setting firing of an electromagnetic railgun (EMRG)…, 2008.
Click to embiggen No gunpowder was harmed in the making of this photograph. That’s just the power of a lot of magnetism making a hunk […]
Science Art: Water-Cooling of the Converter, 1891
Click to embiggen From Wedding’s Basic Bessemer Process, by W. B. Phillips and E. Prochaska, which you can preview here. I found it on the […]
Science Art: Quasi-Poloidal Stellarator (QPS), 2007
Click to embiggen This is a fusion reactor that was never built, a small power plant that takes the principles of a tokamak (use super-heated […]