Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
Bloom Box Brick Powers Your Home
The Bloom Box is a device that Bloom Energy claims will run on any fuel, from fossil fuel to biomass, and produce reliable electricity for your home or business. Apparently, a brick-sized device could meet the power needs of a typical home and save you money over traditional power sources.
The Bloom Energy website isn't worth visiting; if this story hadn't been on Sixty Minutes last night, I wouldn't have presented it. Apparently, this device is the result of about $400 million in venture capital, and has larger units at work at companies like eBay. So, take it with a grain of salt.
Here is a picture of pair of fuel cells needed for an American home.
The Bloom Box's catalytic plates consist of a stack of ceramic plates interspersed with an unidentified 'cheap metal alloy' - other similar cells require expensive metals such as platinum.
(Bloom boxes for your home)
Although this device obviously requires you to add fuel (gaseous fuel, like natural gas or methane from biomass), the idea of a little box with big power is an enjoyable science-fictional concept. Fans of Robert Heinlein recall the Shipstone from his 1982 novel Friday.
If you like the idea of small but powerful energy-producing devices, you'll be energized by these small-but-powerful stories:
- EEStor Ultracapacitor 'Battery' And Heinlein's Shipstone
- Betavoltaic Battery: 30 Years Of Power
- Hyperion Power Module Neighborhood Nuclear Reactor
From TGDaily; thanks to an anonymous reader who submitted the story tip and reference. Also, you can go can go to Popular Science to see the very detailed Sixty Minutes piece in its entirety - but beware, you'll need to get past the commercial.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 2/22/2010)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 3 )
Related News Stories - (" Engineering ")
Terraformer Industries Make Methane
'Drake was the young spatial engineer he employed to terraform the little rock...' - Jack Williamson, 1942.
Ridiculous 'Ghost Murmur' Tech Still Science Fiction
'...it rears and spreads its fan. It can pick one man out of a crowd.' - Roger Zelazny, 1967.
Infrared Contact Lenses To See In The Dark
'I can see in the dark, Case.' William Gibson, 1984.
Can 'Tactical Umbrellas' Shield One From Drones
'... another corner of his mind began to think about the shields.' - Frank Herbert, 1958.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
Grok And The City Fathers From 'Cities In Flight' By James Blish
'Chris, the City Fathers are not interested in your welfare; I suppose you know that. They're interested in only one thing: the survival of the city.'
Why Not Move A Warehouse District?
'Did you never see a moving house before?'
Will An AI Found A New Religion?
'You must decide how you will worship Me.'
Terraformer Industries Make Methane
'Drake was the young spatial engineer he employed to terraform the little rock...'
I Need An Outdoor Spherical Display
'Usually a spherical display hovered in the centre...'
Worm Disrupts Physics Simulations Undetected For A Decade
'It diverts integers of the data, the fundamental message-units, so that they no longer agree.'
Muxcard Redditor's DIY Credit Card-Sized Computer
It's a computer, but just barely.
'Soft Assembly' Fashions That Fashion Themselves On The Wearer
'Clothes are no longer made from dead fibers of fixed color and texture that can approximate only crudely to the vagrant human figure...'
Orwell's Nightmare Of AI-Written Novels Comes To Pass
'Books were just a commodity that had to be produced, like jam or bootlaces.'
ISS Plagued By Leak - Again!
'There were perhaps a dozen bladder-like objects in the tunnel...'
Ridiculous 'Ghost Murmur' Tech Still Science Fiction
'...it rears and spreads its fan. It can pick one man out of a crowd.'
Outdoor Video Screens Can Be Arbitrarily Large
The Shape of Things To Come
Infrared Contact Lenses To See In The Dark
'I can see in the dark, Case.'
What'll You Have? Extinct Animals Returned, Or Synthetic Eggshells?
'...a new plastic with the characteristics of an avian eggshell.'
Sunbird Pulsar Fusion Like Leinster's Space Tug
'It was a pushpot, which could not possibly be called a jet plane because it could not possibly fly. Only it did.'
RentAHuman App Lets AI Agents Hire Humans
'She wouldn't stop until Antar had told her everything he knew about whatever it was that she was playing with on her screen.'
