• Question: does anyone do any research into new tech, energy sources or cars (i.e. fuels etc.)??

    Asked by stakernathan to David, Rebecca, Simon, Verity, Wei on 16 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Wei Xun

      Wei Xun answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Not personally but I know a little about alternative energy sources.

      Did you know that the in the beginning of life of the modern combustion engine, alcohol was used instead of petrol and so did the first Ford car. But high taxation led to the prices of alcohol to be higher than petroleum, which was new and cheap and easy to get at the time, so alcohol engines fell out of favour. Now it’s the other way around and bio-alcohol are once again being developed to use for transport. However, the picture is now more complex, as alcohol were produced from foodstuff that could have gone to feed people. Some people blame this movement to biofuels for the huge rises in food prices we have seen in recent years, but the evidence isn’t clear.

      Back on topic, what’s your opinion on our insatiable thirst for energy? As technology develops we become more and more reliant on energy to function normally, and the global population is growing faster than ever, what if we one day mine the earth dry and then what? Even some renewable energies need time to recover.

      I think it was very interesting that after the terrible earthquake in Northern Japan and the nuclear accident, even big cities like Toyko was having energy shortages and blackouts. The government there have started to encourage people to change the way they live and work to save energy: http://is.gd/FvOyuy. This may only be temporary, but makes you think right?

    • Photo: Verity Nye

      Verity Nye answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      There are people that do that but I’m not one of them and don’t know anybody who works on those things.

    • Photo: David Armstrong

      David Armstrong answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      I am working on advanced materials for nuclear fusion, which is a potential new power source. I have written about the advantages of this elsewhere on the IMASGMOOH website.

      The group I work in also looks into materials for conventional nuclear power (nuclear fission) to make it a safer and more efficient process. You might be interested to look at some of the questions in the energy zone, maybe leave a comment on ones you find interesting!

      In Oxford there is a research group in engineering which are working on cars which use hydrogen fuel cells for their power source. They are less polluting than normal engines.

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