The Royal Society Opens up to all of us, It's scientific journals Archive.

Usually closed to public, The scientific journals library of the Royal Society of London will be open to all of us for next two months. Usually it is open only upto 1997, and now we can read all the upto or down to Philosophical Transactions in 1665.
My first choice, second and ..........
Here is the news directly from the source;

Go direct to the Library/Archive

Here is the News Article

The complete archive of the Royal Society journals, including some of the most significant scientific papers ever published since 1665, is to be made freely available electronically for the first time today (14th September 2006) for a two month period.

The archive contains seminal research papers including accounts of Michael Faraday's groundbreaking series of electrical experiments, Isaac Newton's invention of the reflecting telescope, and the first research paper published by Stephen Hawking.

The Society's online collection, which until now only extended back to 1997, contains every paper published in the Royal Society journals from the first ever peer-reviewed scientific journal, Philosophical Transactions in 1665, to the most recent addition, Interface.

Professor Martin Taylor, Vice President of the Royal Society and Chair of the Publishing Board, said: "The Royal Society archive is a unique source of information for practicing scientists, science historians and indeed anyone with an in interest history. The rich, varied and sometimes entertaining archive documents the earliest accounts of the seventeenth centurys new experimental philosophy', through which an understanding of the natural world was acquired by experiment and observation. This provided the foundation of the modern scientific method."

The archive provides a record of some key scientific discoveries in the last 340 years, including Halley's description of his comet' in 1705, details of the double helix of DNA by James Watson and Francis Crick in 1954 and Edmond Stone's breakthrough in 1763 that willow bark cured fevers, leading to the discovery of salicylic acid and later the development of aspirin.

Some of the more obscure papers explore rudimentary prototypes of modern day technology. Trials proposed by Robert Boyle in 1665 hypothesize on the possibilities of blood transfusions, pondering "Whether a fierce dog stocked with the blood of a cowardly dog may not become more tame?". A forerunner for ventilators was also discussed in a paper by Robert Hooke in 1667 entitled "An account of an experiment made by Mr. Hook [sic], of preserving animals alive by blowing through their lungs with bellows".

The archive also contains more amusing experiments and observations such as the use of electrical conductors to cure muscle stiffness and a bizarre description of a "Very Odd Monstrous Calf" which illustrate the inquisitive nature of science's early pioneers.

Professor Taylor added: "In addition to being a valuable scientific resource, the journal archives are also a rich historical record documenting a time which is hard to imagine given the knowledge we have today."

The electronic archive contains papers documenting the discovery of new planets, the first descriptions of organisms through a microscope, and the first account of photography. Early journal papers contain fascinating descriptions of how Captain James Cook preserved the health of his crew aboard the HMS Endeavour and the astonishment of 18th century Society by the performance of a eight year-old Mozart.

The archive will be freely available online until December 2006 and, following this period, will be available as part of Royal Society journal subscription packages or alternatively on a-pay per-view basis.

How Solar Power works Part II

Passive Solar Design for Buildings

One simple, obvious use of sunlight is to light our buildings. If properly designed, buildings can capture the sun's heat in the winter and minimize it in the summer, while using daylight year-round. Buildings designed in such a way are utilizing passive solar energy—a resource that can be tapped without mechanical means to help heat, cool, or light a building. South-facing windows, skylights, awnings, and shade trees are all techniques for exploiting passive solar energy. Buildings constructed with the sun in mind can be comfortable and beautiful places to live and work.

Residential and commercial buildings account for more than one-third of U.S. energy use.[1] Solar design, better insulation, and more efficient appliances could reduce this demand by 60 to 80 percent. There are several hundred thousand passive solar homes in the United States, but there should be many more. Simple design features such as properly orienting a house toward the south, putting most windows on the south side of the building, and taking advantage of cooling breezes in the summer are inexpensive yet improve the comfort and efficiency of a home.

Solar Heat Collectors

Besides using design features to maximize their use of the sun, some buildings have systems that actively gather and store solar energy. Solar collectors, for example, sit on the rooftops of buildings to collect solar energy for space heating, water heating, and space cooling. Most are large, flat boxes painted black on the inside and covered with glass. In the most common design, pipes in the box carry liquids that transfer the heat from the box into the building. This heated liquid—usually a water-alcohol mixture to prevent freezing—is used to heat water in a tank or is passed through radiators that heat the air.

Oddly enough, solar heat can also power a cooling system. In desiccant evaporators, heat from a solar collector is used to pull moisture out of the air. When the air becomes drier, it also becomes cooler. The hot moist air is separated from the cooler air and vented to the outside. Another approach is an absorption chiller. Solar energy is used to heat a refrigerant under pressure; when the pressure is released, it expands, cooling the air around it. This is how conventional refrigerators and air conditioners work, and it’s a particularly efficient approach for home or office cooling since buildings need cooling during the hottest part of the day. These systems are currently at work in humid southeastern climates such as Florida.

Solar collectors were quite popular in the early 1980s, in the aftermath of the energy crisis. Federal tax credits for residential solar collectors also helped. In 1984, for example, 16 million square feet of collectors were sold in the United States, but when fossil fuel prices dropped and tax credits expired in the mid-1980s, demand for solar collectors plummeted. By 1987, sales were down to only four million square feet. Most of the more than one million solar collectors sold in the 1980s were used for heating hot tubs and swimming pools.

Today, about 1.5 million U.S. homes and businesses use solar water heaters—still less than one percent nationwide.[2] In other countries, solar collectors are much more common; Israel requires all new homes and apartments to use solar water heating, and 92 percent of the existing homes in Cyprus already have solar water heaters.[3] But the number of Americans choosing solar hot water could rise dramatically in the next few years. With natural gas prices at historically high levels, solar water and space heaters have become much more economic.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, water heating accounts for about 15 percent of the average household’s energy use.[4] As natural gas and electricity prices continue to rise, the costs of maintaining a constant hot water supply will increase as well. Homes and businesses that heat their water through solar collectors could end up saving as much as $250 to $500 per year depending on the type of system being replaced.

Part III will come this week!
All work belongs to UCSUSA.ORG,

Tags: solar water heaters, Department of Energy, absorption chiller

How Solar Power works Part I

Solar energy—power from the sun—is free and inexhaustible. This vast, clean energy resource represents a viable alternative to the fossil fuels that currently pollute our air and water, threaten our public health, and contribute to global warming. Failing to take advantage of such a widely available and low-impact resource would be a grave injustice to our children and all future generations.

In the broadest sense, solar energy supports all life on Earth and is the basis for almost every form of energy we use. The sun makes plants grow, which can be burned as “biomass” fuel or, if left to rot in swamps and compressed underground for millions of years, in the form of coal and oil. Heat from the sun causes temperature differences between areas, producing wind that can power turbines. Water evaporates because of the sun, falls on high elevations, and rushes down to the sea, spinning hydroelectric turbines as it passes. But solar energy usually refers to ways the sun’s energy can be used to directly generate heat, lighting, and electricity.

The Solar Resource

The amount of energy from the sun that falls on Earth’s surface is enormous. All the energy stored in Earth's reserves of coal, oil, and natural gas is matched by the energy from just 20 days of sunshine. Outside Earth's atmosphere, the sun's energy contains about 1,300 watts per square meter. About one-third of this light is reflected back into space, and some is absorbed by the atmosphere (in part causing winds to blow). By the time it reaches Earth's surface, the energy in sunlight has fallen to about 1,000 watts per square meter at noon on a cloudless day. Averaged over the entire surface of the planet, 24 hours per day for a year, each square meter collects the approximate energy equivalent of a barrel of oil each day, or 4.2 kilowatt-hours of energy.

This figure varies by location and weather patterns. Deserts, with very dry air and little cloud cover, receive the most sun—more than six kilowatt-hours per day per square meter. Northern climes, such as that of Boston, get closer to 3.6 kilowatt-hours. Sunlight varies by season as well, with some areas receiving very little sunshine in the winter. Seattle in December, for example, gets only about 0.7 kilowatt-hours per day.

These figures represent the maximum available solar energy that can be captured and used, but solar collectors capture only a portion of this, depending on their efficiency. For example, a one square meter solar electric panel with an efficiency of 15 percent would produce about one kilowatt-hour of electricity per day in Arizona.

How Solar Power Works!

After posting the last article, I found that the exact article exists elsewhere, at UCSUSA.ORG, Union of Concerned Scientists. I am a member of the organization and we do a lot of environmentally scientifically friendlier advocacy to our country and hence to the world. If you are not a member, please visit the site and join today.
UCS is an independent nonprofit alliance of more than 100,000 concerned citizens and scientists. We augment rigorous scientific analysis with innovative thinking and committed citizen advocacy to build a cleaner, healthier environment and a safer world.
UCS was founded in 1969 by faculty members and students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who were concerned about the misuse of science and technology in society. Their statement called for the redirection of scientific research to pressing environmental and social problems.
The UCS Online Action Network gives citizens the means to keep informed on our issues and to help shape policy by expressing their view to government and corporate decision makers.
After that said the article will comforth in 4-5 sections. Section one will be on line this week.

Solar Energy How TO

I am thinking and preparing an article or a series of articles explaining Solar Power How To. Some times we tend to forget that we need to educate each other. We may know about the subjects that we are interested in but there are millions of people out there that would be glad to have a little guidance.
I have dealt with solar power for decades. I installed my first Solar Panel with water heater more than 25 years ago. Since then I have installed Solar water heaters for tea factories, windmills for villages in developing countries.
Also I have been actively involved with technology development. I would like to share mine and many other solar power expert's knowledge with you. Please await the good news soon.

'light' inventor gets Millennium Technology Prize

Professor Shuji Nakamura is based at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where his research into new sources of light , was awarded this year's Millennium Technology Prize. For what you may wonder? Yes it was for discovering light.The award recognised his inventions of blue, green and white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and the blue laser diode.White LEDs could provide a sustainable, low-cost alternative to light bulbs, especially in developing countries. His other inventions such as blue LEDs are used in flat-screen displays, while blue lasers are already being exploited in the next generation of DVD player."Professor Nakamura's technological innovations in the field of semiconductor materials and devices are groundbreaking," said Jaakko Ihamuotila, chairman of the Millennium Prize Foundation.
The Millennium Technology Prize is the world's largest technology award, equivalent to the Nobel Prizes for science. It recognises technological developments that have a positive impact on quality of life and sustainable development.
It is awarded every two years. The first prize, awarded in 2004, was presented to Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web. Without whose invention, you would not be reading this article.

As LEDs are more robust than traditional light bulbs and use relatively little power they can easily be combined with solar panels to provide lighting in remote areas of developing countries.

In his speech, Professor Nakamura said he would donate part of the prize money to organisations that promote the use of LED lighting in such locations.

Good going Professor Nakamura, keep at it and give us light!

Tags: solar panels

Report from the floor of 21st European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition

Gunther portfolio is on the floor of 21st European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition and is fighting for his coffee with CEOs and a prominent PV research professors during the breaks. Follow the link below to find his flashes!

GUNTHER Portfolio: Light flashes from the 21st European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition

Solar Powered Laundromart that also claims to be the "WORLD'S LARGEST LAUNDROMAT"

But that's not the claim that excites advocates of renewable energy technology. It's that, perched atop the hangar-sized facility in this working class Chicago suburb, is one of the largest, most cost-effective solar systems in the country.

Scaling a ladder to the scorching roof one recent morning, the 61-year-old beamed with pride as he showed off the 36 10-by-4-foot panels that supply his 24-hour laundry with hot water.

Benson's boast about having the largest coin-operated laundry on Earth might be open to debate. At least one laundry in Denver claims to have a few more washers and dryers - though Benson hastens to add that it seems to have less floor space than his.

What's not in doubt is that his $150,000 hot water system has become a darling of environmentalists and officials smitten with the solar promise, heralded as a prime example of how sun energy is practical, simple and cost-wise.

Complete article is available here, original post is By Michael Tarm
ASSOCIATED PRESS