[Marxism] "Major Discovery" From MIT Primed to Unleash Solar Revolution

[Aaron]

I tried to find more info on the web about this, and the best I could come across was the video at <http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/oxygen-0731.html>. Cutting through the enormous amount of hype, it seems that what these MIT scientists may have done is come up with a better, more efficient way to use electrolysis to produce hydrogen from water.* They have not, apparently, come up with any improvement in the generation of electricity for this process and they certainly haven't found a way to imitate photosynthesis, which would make it possible to produce carbohydrates, and thus fuels like ethanol, directly from sunlight without having to generate electricity.

What they have actually done, despite the hype, may be a step in making solar power and hydrogen fuel cells more practical, but it's not, apparently, a leap.

 - Aaron

* (The inevitable production of oxygen at the same time is of little significance, since the hydrogen can be re-combined with the oxygen in the atmosphere to produce almost as much energy as is produced by combining it with pure oxygen. Unless the hydrogen is going to be used at the same location where it is generated, the oxygen produced by the process will be released into the atmosphere and certainly not shipped along with the hydrogen!)


>Date: Fri, 01 Aug 2008 11:10:41 -0400
>From: Les Schaffer <schaffer at optonline.net>
>Subject: Re: [Marxism] "Major Discovery" From MIT Primed to Unleash Solar
> Revolution
>
>Dbachmozart at aol.com wrote:
>> "Major Discovery" From MIT Primed to Unleash Solar  Revolution 
>>  
>
>god, i love MIT ...
>
>the galaxy-shaking discovery is related to *storage* of energy. you
>still have to collect that energy at the energy densities available here
>on our earth...
>
>makes nice newsprint though...
>
>Les