A superstation for connecting three independent grids could help solar and wind power.  

By Kevin Bullis

A proposed hub for connecting the three independent electricity grids that span the continental United States could make it easier to ramp up production of renewable electricity.

Cool power: These superconducting wires form the basis of power cables that carry far more power than conventional copper cables. Credit: American Superconductor

The project, called the Tres Amigas Superstation, would use superconducting “pipelines” and converter stations to connect three grids: the Western, Eastern, and Texas Interconnections. Connections between the grids have been limited because the grids aren’t synchronized–the AC power is out of phase. Special stations that convert AC power into DC power and then back into AC power in the correct phase are needed to move power from one grid to another.

Only a fraction of 1 percent of the electricity generated in the United States can currently be transferred between the grids, and there is no direct connection between Texas and the Western grid. The Tres Amigas station, which will connect all three grids together in one place for the first time, will initially more than double the ability to transfer power between them, providing five gigawatts of capacity. Eventually, the station is expected to transfer as much as 30 gigawatts of power.

The station will “solve a host of problems” related to renewable energy, says Phil Harris, CEO of the Tres Amigas company, based in Santa Fe, NM. Primarily, it will help address a key problem with renewable sources of energy–their intermittency. Because wind comes and goes and clouds block the sun from time to time, wind and solar power can destabilize the electric grid.

One way to compensate is to make sure that no renewable source accounts for too much of the total power mix–so that other sources can easily fill in when there’s a drop in power. In Texas, however, this strategy would quickly limit the size of wind farms, since the grid there is relatively small. By connecting to the rest of the country, Tres Amigas removes the limit on the size of these farms.

Intermittency can also be addressed by gathering renewable energy over a wide area. That way, a drop in solar power due to a cloudy day in one region could be offset by wind or solar elsewhere. Connecting the three grids makes it possible to draw on a wider variety of renewable sources, especially in the Southwest, which is divided by the borders between them. The station will also provide between 50 and 150 megawatts of battery storage to smooth out power fluctuations on the grid to help prevent outages.

The project could also be a valuable testing ground for direct current superconducting transmission lines, which could have significant advantages over conventional power lines for delivering large amounts of power over long distances, says Steven Eckroad, a project manager at the Palo Alto, CA-based Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), which is studying the potential of superconductors for long-distance transmission. Such transmission lines could collect wind power from the Midwest, where it is abundant, and transmit it to the South, which has fewer renewable resources.  [Source:  http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/23928/?nlid=2507  Note:  Read the comments following the post for some interesting thoughts on this proposal.]

NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of American Superconductor Corp., which makes equipment for power generators and utilities, rose on Wednesday as an analyst reiterated an “Outperform” rating for the company.

American Superconductor shares rose 58 cents to $31.67 in afternoon trading.

AIG shares rise as lawmaker eyes new bailout plan (Reuters)FedEx sees more global demand

Bad news for NASA from the Augustine Commission. Under the current budget through 2015, we can’t even get out of Low-Earth Orbit. What that means is we can only go to the ISS. We can’t even get back to the moon, let alone send people to Mars or beyond. The commission’s recommendations are best summarized in a cool graphic that I found on Universe Today yesterday. See below.

Image via Universe Today

Obviously Obama has to allocate more money to NASA if we are to even think about achieving the current set of goals. (Those being: retiring the space shuttle, developing the new Ares rockets, Orion Crew Module, and Antares Moon Lander, and getting back to the Moon around 2020.) In these times that will be tough, and sadly NASA could get put on the backburner for a few years until we have more economic stability. Let’s hope for the best, though.

In some much better NASA news, the newly refurbished Hubble Space Telescope is working like a charm and is taking better pictures than ever before. Check out some of the gorgeous new images at NASA’s website. You can even download super hi-res versions. Eye. Gasm.

Who knew that we’d be able to build an actual, real-life antigravity device so soon? Scientists have found a way to levitate small creatures as big as mice. We’ve all seen the classroom science experiment where they use a superconductor in liquid nitrogen to levitate a tiny disc. But you can actually do that with almost anything. They key is getting the magnetic field to the right strength. AND there’s a practical goal of this research other than “Holy Shit! We made a mouse float in mid-air! Cool!” The practical goal is to study long-term effects of microgravity on the mice’s bodies, the results of which can be applied to astronauts in space and help NASA plan for missions to Mars and beyond. (Via LiveScience)

Here’s one of those awesome Hubble images:

Image via NASA

Aquí tenemos un vídeo donde podemos observar cómo conseguir que un objeto levite sin usar ningún truco y solo con el poder de nuestra mente, lo que lo convertiría en un buen número para cualquier mago, y que como de costumbre, tiene una buena base física.

¿Qué es lo que vemos exactamente?

Primero, conviene conocer los elementos que entran en juego en el experimento: un simple imán (la pieza cilíndrica dorada), Nitrógeno líquido (ese líquido que vierte sobre el recipiente y que echa humo) y un trozo de otro material.

Así que el único “truco” está en elegir convenientemente este material, el cual debe de ser un superconductor a alta temperatura.

¿Y qué es un superconductor?

Hay materiales que se definen como conductores debido a que permiten que los electrones que hay en ellos (solo una parte, no todos los electrones) se muevan libremente por el material. Dado que los electrones son cargas eléctricas, esto causa que por el material pueda circular una corriente eléctrica, convirtiéndose en un candidato para utilizarlo como medio para transportar electricidad.

El caso más conocido es el del cobre, que por su bajo costo y su alta conductividad es el utilizado para guiar todas las comunicaciones de teléfono y electricidad a nuestros hogares.

Sin embargo, todos estos materiales son conducen perfectamente la electricidad, sino que poco a poco ésta sufre pérdidas que se transforman en calor (el clásico efecto Joule) que ocasionan el calentamiento del cobre. Claro que las pérdidas presentes en el cobre por ejemplo, no son significativas salvo que trabajemos con unas corrientes enormes.

Pero a comienzos del siglo XX se descubrió que ciertos materiales, a temperaturas muy bajas, de unos pocos kelvin ( 0 K (kelvin) = – 273.15 ºC ), se comportan como conductores perfectos, esto es, no presentan ninguna pérdida u oposición a la corriente que circula por ellos, lo cual les convierte en los materiales idóneos para conducir corrientes eléctricas.

El único problema que presentaban es que para que se comporten de esa forma era necesario que su temperatura fuera esa tan baja. Pero varios años después se fue descubriendo materiales que mantenían este comportamiento hasta temperaturas de unos 100 K ( – 173 ºC ), y actualmente se está consiguiendo construir materiales que son superconductores a temperaturas de unos -100ºC.
Por supuesto que una de las búsquedas más importantes actualmente es la de conseguir un superconductor a temperatura ambiente, lo cual acarrearía grandes avances tecnológicos.

Sus propiedades y nuestro experimento

¿Y por qué tenemos que poner un superconductor debajo del imán? podríamos (deberíamos) preguntarnos.
La razón es que una de las propiedades que tienen estos materiales es que si están en presencia de un campo magnético (en este caso el creado por el imán), éstos se oponen totalmente a dicho campo, creando uno de sentido opuesto e igual intensidad, actuando de forma análogo a como si fuera otro imán, pero orientado con los polos opuestos al imán “real”.
Esto causa que ambos campos se repelan, por lo que el imán sufre una fuerza repulsiva hacia arriba que contrarresta a la de la gravedad, obteniendo un imán flotante y bastante estable.

Por último, cabe destacar que el Nitrógeno líquido (que se encuentra a unos 77 K, -196ºC ), se usa para enfriar el material superconductor hasta dicha temperatura, ya que a temperatura ambiente, como podemos observar no se comporta como superconductor.
Una buena imagen son los últimos segundos del vídeo, donde observamos cómo al irse calentando el material, sus propiedades de superconductor van desapareciendo, y por tanto ya no se crea ese campo magnético que repele al imán y éste va descendiendo debido a que la gravedad sí sigue haciendo su efecto.

Filed under: Health — farmerjaneusa at 2:21 pm on Thursday, July 16, 2009 Edit This

Colloidal silver is nature’s own little wonder metal, with its ability to kill disease causing organisms. It is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, one of the most powerful antibiotics known to man.

Dr. Bob Beck helped to popularize colloidal silver once again.

If you would like to learn how to make colloidal silver watch this video: Ormus Labs on YouTube

Read my posting on Blogger for more information on colloidal silver.

vite, prend ton écharpe et éteint la lumière, on va rater le train volant

remember when carl newman was, like, the greatest figure in music?

Last week on the arxiv the Yale group headed by Rob Shoelkopf reported that they had successfully performed two 2-qubit quantum algorithms: Grover’s algorithm and the Deutsch algorithm. They couple two transmon qubits via a microwave cavity. They performed both these algorithms with a fidelity of greater than 80%.

So how does it all work? The key to this paper seems to be that they were able to control the coupling between their two transmon qubits. By bringing them into resonance with the microwave cavity – near to an avoided crossing with energy levels which were not populated by the experiment – they were able to get a nonlinear coupling between their two qubits. This allowed them to create a controlled phase gate between the two qubits, and to demonstrate the two algorithms. The coupling between the qubits originally was approximately 1.2 MHz which they were able to ramp up to 160 MHz by this method.

The decoherence times in this experiment, which have always been a killer for superconductors in the past, were approximately 1μs some 3 orders of magnitude above where they were before this effort began! These long decoherence times allows them to get approximately 10 gates algorithms to run (in 100ns).

This was truly a remarkable experiment, combining all the ingredients- single qubit rotations, two qubit interactions, measurement (with 90% fidelity) and initialization. Can they keep pushing down the decoherence rates? Can they scale this system up? There seems to be no fundamental reasons stopping them moving forward. Exciting times.

Paper: Demonstration of Two-Qubit Algorithms with a Superconducting Quantum Processor.

Authors: L. DiCarlo, J. M. Chow, J. M. Gambetta, Lev S. Bishop, B. R. Johnson, D. I. Schuster, J. Majer, A. Blais, L. Frunzio, S. M. Girvin, R. J. Schoelkopf

System: Superconductors (transmon qubits)

Algorithms: Grover, Deutsch

Qubits: 2

Reference: quant-ph/0903.2030

Simon Trpceski was a delight to interview, and I pronounced his name correctly you’ll be pleased to know. It turns out that in his spare time he writes pop music, he tells me that at home in Macedonia, he is almost better known as a pop star! He sadly didn’t sing anything for us, but I am going to pay close attention to the Macedonian entry in next years Eurovision song contest.

Simon played the Grieg piano concerto in the opening concert of the festival for the LSO. He was fantastic. He talked earlier about the simplicity of the folk music he played on accordion as a child and how the Grieg was very similar. Of course, it’s the hardest thing in the world to play a simple melody and make it sing, but he did it beautifully. I look forward to seeing him play in London next year.

The second half of the show was devoted to Brahms 1^st symphony. Its one of my favourite pieces and a joy to play. Daniel Harding is the conductor in residence this year and he seems to be enjoying himself. In fact, in the programme for the festival he is described as the “European Super conductor”. I always thought that was something to do with quantum mechanics, but Dan doesn’t seem to mind, he’s so relaxed he’s probably following the path of least resistance anyway. Still whatever you call him, he does make the symphony very exciting indeed. The audience gave us a standing ovation which was our queue to move next door for a party where we all danced to a fabulous big band.

This morning, I managed to sit by the pool for a while before the rehearsal. I haven’t mentioned the weather, it would seem like I’m bragging, and if you are reading this in Britain then lets just say its a bit nicer here. However it was soon time to go to the huge arena opposite the hotel for the LSO Pops concert. Tonight is was all themed around speed. I was nervous as it would mean playing fast-a lot. I was right, flight of the bumble bee was the second piece followed by a bit from Harry Potter where the woodwind players zoomed around like broomsticks. But the prize for the night has to go to Carmine Lauri our leader. He stood up in front of a sea of people and played Moto Perpetuo unbelievably fast. I don’t quite know how he does it-his fingers were moving so fast they were a blur. I saw him afterwards by the pool drinking a beer-well deserved, but I’m sure he was probably dipping his fingers in the water to cool them down when nobody was looking. Tommy Pearson was compere for the evening and did a great job keeping the evening flowing along nicely.

I am writing this bed, despite some of my friends going out, I have turned in for the night for tomorrow its my turn up the front. Bryn and I are the soloists in the first half, playing Mozart’s Flute and Harp concerto or as its known here, the Flat and Sharp. I don’t get to stand up at the front very often so I am a bit nervous. No, terrified actually, and to make matters worse we have Mahler 1 in the second half. before that however I have a pre concert interview to do with the soloist. As even I can’t talk to myself for 45 minutes, I’ll be having a chat about harps and strings and things with Bryn before the show.

I’ll let you know how we get on…

Jeff Peckman

Go to Jeff’s Home Page

Denver UFO Examiner

UFO technology might shield against ‘solar storm’

April 4, 10:27 PM · 6 comments

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UFO technology might provide the best shield for Earth against a devastating solar storm. The potential death of millions of Americans alone from severe space weather was predicted in the March 23, 2009 New Scientist article, “Space storm alert: 90 seconds from catastrophe”. This kind of electromagnetic storm could happen as early as 2012. It would likely be catastrophic for the major power grids and everything connected to them.

One way to prevent this catastrophe might be found in technologies used by extraterrestrial vehicles (UFOs). These vehicles are assumed to use zero point energy and other advanced technologies. These technologies are known to draw unlimited free energy from the quantum vacuum. By drawing from the quantum vacuum, they might also be super-conductive.

A unique feature of super-conductive materials is called the Meissner Effect. “The Meissner effect (also known as the Meissner-Ochsenfeld effect) is the expulsion of a magnetic field from a superconductor.” – Wikepedia.  It can also can be seen at work in ’levitation’ (see second photo), which might also come into play with UFOs.

The Meissner effect is known to occur at super-cooled levels. But ‘room temperature’ superconductors are being developed. This means the Meissner effect might also occur with room temperature super-conducting materials used in advanced clean energy technologies. The combination of the Meissner effect with these special materials and the clean energy devices using them, might be the ultimate key to protecting Earth against a devastating solar storm by expulsion of the magnetic interference.

Whistleblowers with the Disclosure Project have already confirmed the existence of zero point energy technology that has been back-engineered from crashed UFOs. The technology, they say, is being kept from the public by the military and by government contractors. One of the main goals of the X-Conference 2009 is to compel government officials to release UFO ‘X-files’ on energy technologies of extraterrestrial origin. The conference will be held at the Gaithersburg, MD Hilton from April 17-19.

It does not matter if the super-conducting materials and clean energy technologies come from humans, like Tesla, or extraterrestrials. Projects are already underway to bring these technologies to market within 1-3 years. This could happen even under normal circumstances with adequate funding. But if the projects are fast-tracked and on a scale that America uses for war, the technologies could reach the market within months.

A couple of related articles (below) have referred to this prediction of global catastrophe by suggesting the immediate development and application of advanced clean energy technologies. They propose that these technologies can supply energy to buildings without connecting to major power grids. But getting “off-the-grid” is only part of the solution.

Clean energy supplied by wind and solar through the major power grids would be as vulnerable to disruption by a solar storm as energy based on dirty fossil fuels or nuclear power. Even renewable energy sources that are “off-the-grid” and serving individual buildings would not be immune to disruption.

Time is of the essence. The immediate objective should be to apply the Meissner effect to zero point energy technologies using room temperature super-conducting materials. The benefit of this kind of global clean energy revolution might just save the planet during a massive solar storm.

Pumping billions of dollars into propping up or even replacing obsolete energy grids and primitive energy technologies is a waste of time and taxpayers money. These ‘UFO’ and human designed technologies should be aggressively developed and implemented with a “do or die” attitude. Then, even if the solar storm does not happen, a rapid global transition to clean, abundant energy will still have been achieved. Without a great sense of urgency, politicians and the energy industry will continue to drag their feet.

Related articles:

2012 may bring the “perfect storm” – solar flares, systems collapse

Electrical power grid to be blasted by 2012 solar storms

CEO of NASA contractor Lockheed knew of extraterrestrial UFO visitors

For more information:

X-Conference 2009

Denver UFO Examiner: UFO technology might shield against ‘solar storm’

Originaly seen here, and stolen without shame…

InfoSearch Media – What people are saying

Zeropoint Technologies has reportedly received endless positive reviews from customers who have tried their monatomic gold products.

“…Some positive feedback has included reports of increased physical and mental energy. Others have said physical pains have vanished and that they have increased strength and stamina, and increased sex drive.

Others have also stated that they experienced increased strengthening of the immune system and improved mental focus and clarity. Some people may experience a feeling of pure energy flowing through the chakras. Others have said they feel a drip from the roof of their mouth that is like a nectar substance.

Monatomic elements are superconductive and when they are ingested into our bodies, they change our cellular structure into one that is also superconductive. The cells become superconductors for an increased flow of photons. The electrical output can also increase your electromagnetic field. The increased energy you feel when ingesting monatomic elements, such as monatomic gold, is unmistakable.

According to David Hudson, the ORMUS elements connect with the non-physical reality through what is called the zero point. One way to look at this idea is that there is endless potential for new energy. Some believe that consciousness influences matter. Many studies of these materials consist of looking for and understanding the linkages between consciousness, matter, and all that exists, the oneness seen by Bohm, Everett, Bohr and other such pioneers as the quantum domain.”

Kirlian Photograph of Human Fingertip showing Energy emissions before taking Zynergy(Gold and Indium)

Kirlian Photograph of Human Fingertip showing Energy emissions after taking 6 drops of Zynergy(Gold and Indium) in water.

Ascend Health To The Next Level – Read comments from users of White Powder Gold at ZP Tech.

ormus

]]> http://ormes.wordpress.com/2009/02/25/ormus-the-matrix-of-consiousness/ Wed, 25 Feb 2009 01:54:27 +0000 ormes http://ormes.wordpress.com/2009/02/25/ormus-the-matrix-of-consiousness/

]]> http://mfkzt.wordpress.com/2009/02/25/ormus-white-powder-gold-secrets-revealed/ Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:59:00 +0000 mfkzt http://mfkzt.wordpress.com/2009/02/25/ormus-white-powder-gold-secrets-revealed/

]]> http://ovrec.wordpress.com/2009/02/10/schetches-about-superconductivity-ii/ Tue, 10 Feb 2009 11:13:39 +0000 Ovrec http://ovrec.wordpress.com/2009/02/10/schetches-about-superconductivity-ii/

From: Kittel – Quantum theory of Solids Ch. 7 & 8

Electron-phonon interaction

From:
Tinkham – Introduction to Superconductivity (2004) Dover
Kittel – Introduction to Solid State Physics
Ziman – Priciples of the Theory of Solids 

London’s Penetration Depth:

Careful comparison of the rf penetration depths of samples in the normal and superconducting state have shown that the actual superconducting penetration depths are always larger than the predicted London’s one The qualitative explanation of this excess required the introduction of an additional concept buy Pippard: the Coherence Length .

The Coherence length is a measure of the distance within which the superconducting electron concentration cannot change drastically in a spatially-varying magnetic field. Also Coherence length is a measure of the range over which we should average to obtain .

The assumption in the derivation of the London equation is that the superconducting wavefunction is “rigid” and unaffected by the application of a magnetic field. This is obviously not correct because we know that a strong enough magnetic field can destroy superconductivity. We need to calculate the change in the wavefunction produced by the perturbation acting on the superconducting ground state. 

London equation is a local one. Pippard introduced the coherence length while proposing a non local generalization of the London equation. This was done in analogy to Chamber’s nonlocal generalization of Ohm’s law (for the anomalous skin effect).

where  is the Fourier transform of that in the London theory is considered as a constant. 

The range of  will be the Coherence length .

View Current Vlog – Meta 10
View Full Mash – Meta 00 – Meta 10

The META mystery is starting to cook – as Professor Y starts to experiment with the Anti-gravity material using the Quark Microscope of friend, Dr. ZigZag.

This is the eleventh installment of the META nano anti-gravity sci-fi mystery vlog. Click here for the full mash. Here is the current META verse and once again, it would be cool to see someone else create a Zen Mix for the poem! Please do and post a link in the comments.  Thanks Don for the shoot!

It will come to be that Professor Y uses the quark microscope of Dr. ZigZag (pioneer of artificial intelligence using molecular computing) to examine an anti-gravity fragment. With the quark microscope, Professor Y finds a way to increase and decrease the gravity field through quantum superconductor techniques.

META is a sci-fi story based in the times of the Dan Zen game, Save Earth.

A premise has been written in the form of a prophetic poem. The verses will be put into a Zen Mix and will be posted here over the next while.

We would like to encourage this type of story telling using Zen Mix. And indeed, if anyone would like to make a mix of any of the META episodes, please feel free to post the link to the mix in the comments of the episode post. It is so easy to do that we started our first one with an eight-year old daughter! Click above…

Show us that you are destined to be a star!

1. Record yourself with a digital camera saying the poem below
2. Upload this video to blip.tv
3. Take a picture for the background and post it on flickr.com
4. Go to zenmix.com to mix the two and then post the link here

You can use our background – just look beneath any mix to find out what video or background url was used and copy it into your own mix – remember copyright though. You are free to use our backgrounds for META.

Here is the META verse 09…

It will come to be that pilots with greater than average merit points will form a council that governs the usage of the anti-gravity material. A councilor’s vote weighting will be equal to their merit point weighting.

Here is the META verse 08…

It will come to be that the material of the sphere is anti-gravity and cracks along its circles and segments. Professor Y distributes the material to the surprised and gratified pilots based on their standings.

Here is the META verse 07…

It will come to be that once the macro-crystalline sphere is mapped, the patterns when substituted with 0-9 form PI to over a million decimals and Professor Y shatters the sphere with a frequency resonance

Here is the META verse 06…

It will come to be that Professor Y makes a secret deal with the World Government that if he cracks the sphere, he will get all the material!

Here is the META verse 05…

It will come to be that millions of patterns in grids in sectors in quadrants are mapped and tagged with pilot names including missed patterns which gain the pilots merit points. The pilots will perform with efficiencies and acquire standing.

Here is the META verse 04…

It will come to be that Professor Y sets up SensoryNet remote controls and a fleet of volunteer pilots fly probes which spray oxygen against the sphere surrounding Earth to map its macro-crystaline structure.

Here is the META verse 03…

It will come to be that Professor Y determines the material of the sphere to be macro-crystaline with ten circular segmented patterns. Professor Y proposes that by mapping the patterns he can formulate a frequency to crack the sphere.

Here is the META verse 02…

It will come to be quite the task for the world government whose eyes turn to Professor Y for aid. Mad Inventor, Professor Y, will have just made the owners of velcro rich by designing velcro self cleansing environmental filters.

Here is the META verse 01…

It will come to be that on the eve of forming a world government a sphere of undetermined material surrounds earth letting sustenance in but not much out. It is assumed that the sphere is alien in construction – none claims responsibility.

Here is the META verse 00…

It will come to be that a new organization called the Free Nations will play watchdog to the United Nations and in 2020 after years of policy battle, the two will combine to form the World Government.

Even if you do not create a mix for META, you are welcome to leave your comments!

All the best,

Dan Zen

Ja que ahir vam fer l’experiment de fer levitar un imant sobre un superconductor davant dels alumnes de Centelles, avui us mostro 2 dels millors vídeos que he trobat al youtube sobre el tema.

En aquest primer vídeo es pot veure perfectament l’efecte d ela levitació ja que utilitzen una peça de ceràmica superconductora i un imant molt grossos. A mé està molt ben gravat (sense que l’aigua condensada per efecte del N₂ efecti a l’enfocament de la imatge).

I en aquest 2n vídeo podreu escoltar tota l’explicació teòrica sobre la supeconducció, amb esquemes dels camps magnètics i tot, sobre una gravació també ben feta i, a més a més, un prototip a escala d’una de les aplicacions tecnològiques de la superconducció, els vehicles que leviten sobre les vies (molt interessant ja que respecte als vehicles convencionals s’evita la pèrdua d’energia per fricció de les rodes amb la via (és clar que sempre quedarà la fricció de l’aire… o almenys per ara…)).

“I’ve eyed the quantum string theory scientist’s talk; his request is interesting that you need to paint the walls inside with a superconductor. I use it. We see you setting a table for one high being to arrive.”

Today’s anagram came from the randomly chosen comics shown with the golden highlighting in the collage below, “Arranged into the proper sequence every question in the universe can be answered with those letters. This is my genius. I guess I didn’t notice. What’re you talking about? It totally fits…it…uh…This I gotta see.”

On page 97 of the book I got from the library, Physics of the Impossible, one of the sentences I have been using words  (like “room-temperature” in the post still levitating) from for my quantum string is, “One possibility would be to coat our walls with a room-temperature superconductor, assuming that such a device could be created one day,” and yeah, there is a table set in the last post, table’s set. It makes sense if aliens came to have a little chat over dinner it would be in the middle of a cornfield, right? It follows a couple of other posts on the same subject. I let the universe say what it needs to when I anagram.

Seapower, Airpower, Landpower — we have them all at the PatriArt Gallery. Finest military themed art prints, posters, and greeting cards.

American Superconductor Corporation, announced that it has supplied critical components to the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division (NSWCCD) Ship Engineering Station Philadelphia for a high temperature superconductor (HTS) degaussing coil system that has successfully completed initial electrical testing onboard the USS Higgins (DDG 76), an 8,000-ton Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. Powered by AMSC’s HTS wire and magnet cable technology, the coil system will undergo U.S. Navy sea trials over the next two years on the Higgins.

Read more about this vital step toward electric drive on US Navy warships.

“Se pueden comprobar el efecto Meissner (característico de materiales superconductores). Para ello se enfría la pastilla obtenida sumergiéndola en nitrógeno líquido (contenido en un recipiente de poliestireno expandido) e inmediatamente se coloca sobre un pequeño imán. Se observa como la pastilla levita sobre el imán.”

Mi pequeño YBa₂Cu₃O₇ no lo ha conseguido (oooohhhhhhhhhh!), no ha levitado; tras pasar mil penurias en su creación (un horno mufla empezó a echar humo por culpa de una resistencia y un horno tubular olía a “yogur” porque perdía oxígeno), no superó su gran prueba: levitar!. Pero lo que sí consiguió fue una gran expectación entre mis compañeros de laboratorio.

Por lo menos se fue con honor al bote de residuos sólidos…