Electric cars have been hailed as the modern, non-polluting vehicles, but it’s too early to shower them with all the praise, say scientists. In fact, if things don’t change dramatically, electric vehicles may not be very green even in 2030. The problem of course doesn’t lie entirely in the zero-emission electric cars, it has more to do with the generation of electricity for the vehicles.
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National Center for Science Education executive director Eugenie C. Scott will guest start on the first hour of NPR’s Science Friday show for April 10, 2009.

Here’s what we know about Science Friday.

1. Science Friday aims to make science user friendly. We at GP love when folk take a scientific approach to things.
2. Science Friday has four blog writers – Bad Light Bulbs, Spring Buds, My Personal Cyber-Spy, And the Winning Vehicle is….
3. And they have a podcast
4. Science Friday has video archives.  Candy corn in space?
5. Science Friday makes science cool to know – Extinct Genes Resurrected, Spotting Stress in Statues, Dogs Bark, Birds Chirp, Fish Grunt
6. Science Friday tackles the difficult subjects – Texas Schools and Evolution, Obama, Congress, and Climate Change, Predicting Earthquakes
7. Science Friday is inviting the likes of Eugenie Scott of NCSE which defends the teaching of evolution in school.

In any event, it is never a bad thing if folk look at things rationally, scientifically, as long as the folk realize that science does not/cannot answer every question.

A team of Italian scientists have discovered a device crafted by G. D. Botto in 1833 that could help change the way we produce hydrogen and usher us into a tomorrow with clean hydrogen energy that is available cheaply.

Uncovered by a team of scientists the Botto device, uses thermocoupling of two metals to produce electricity that can electrolyze water and produce hydrogen at low costs. But what is thermocoupling? A technique in which two different metals are welded together and the two ends placed in different temperatures.

The Botto device used water at one end and wooden flame at the other to create the temperature difference between wires of Platinum and iron. Modern scientists replaced the wooden flame with concentrated sunlight using mirrors, the costly platinum with copper and used water in the middle to create further temperature difference and hence producing more current.

The small scale device produces 20 mW of energy and this can be further expanded to create more energy that is required for electrolysis and production of large amounts of Hydrogen. It seems the Italians have indeed uncovered a gem from the past, let’s hope they get it working.

Source: Gas 2.0
Image : De Luca, R.; Ganci, S.; and Zozzaro, P. “Revisiting an idea of G D Botto: a solar thermoelectric generator.” Eur. J. Phys. 29 (2008) 1295-1300.