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The Plasma Magnet Drive: A Simple, Cheap Drive for the Solar System and Beyondby Paul Gilsteron December 29, 2017 Can we use the outflow of particles from the Sun to drive spacecraft, helping us build the Solar System infrastructure we’ll one day use as the base for deeper journeys into the cosmos? Jeff Greason, chairman of the board of the Tau Zero Foundation, presented his take on the idea at the recent Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop. The concept captured the attention of Centauri Dreams regular Alex Tolley, who here analyzes the notion, explains its differences from the conventional magnetic sail,...

Conventional jet engines generate thrust by mixing fuel with compressed air, then igniting it. As the burning mixture rapidly expands, it gets blasted out of the back of the engine, propelling the craft forward. On the other hand, a plasma jet engine does away with the standard air and fuel mixture. Instead, it makes use of electricity to compress and excite gas into a plasma — an extremely hot, dense ionised state comparable with the insides of a fusion reactor or a star — then generate an electromagnetic field from it. Plasma engines have remained in experimental stages for quite...

From zebra stripes to a honeycomb lattice, nature features breathtaking patterns. Now, physicists based in China have found a way to recreate these natural motifs in 3-D — using just a little electricity. Their new device discharges plasma — air and argon gas charged with electricity — or the same stuff found in neon lights. Using different voltages, the researchers were able to create various 3-D shapes in the plasma. “To experts, this work could advance the development of plasma physics,” co-inventor Lifang Dong of Hebei University told the NewsHour. “But to non-experts, it could explain a whole range of...

A University of Montana professor who studies astrophysics has discovered how water ions escape from Saturn's environment... UM Professor Daniel Reisenfeld is a member of the Cassini research team... One of the instruments on Cassini measures the planet's magnetosphere - the charged particles, known as plasma, that are trapped in the space surrounding Saturn by its magnetic field. One of Cassini's past discoveries is that Saturn's plasma comprises water ions, which are derived from Saturn's moon Enceladus, which spews water vapors from its Yellowstone-like geysers. Knowing that the water ions would not be able to accumulate indefinitely, the team of...

Researchers could be one step closer to producing energy through nuclear fusion with word that a device called the stellarator is set to go online later this year in Germany. The largest contraption its kind, the Wendelstein 7-X fusion device is housed in a branch of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) near Munich. It won’t actually produce energy, the Institute said, but will be used to test the “specially shaped magnet coils which produce a magnetic cage which confines the plasma and keeps it away from the walls of the plasma vessel.”

If you think the image above looks frightening, you’re right. The crazy contraption pictured in the image is the first portable railgun, a futuristic projectile launcher associated most commonly with the military or NASA. The man in the image above isn’t in the military, and he’s not a NASA engineer. Instead, he’s a civilian who used some engineering smarts, some widely available parts and a 3D printer to create a functioning weapon that can fire graphite, aluminum, tungsten and even plasma projectiles at speeds of more than 560 mph. And then there’s the best part: There are videos of this...

European Space Agency Cluster II satellites observe equatorial noise waves inside the Earth's magnetosphere. Credit: ESA/Yuri Shprits ********************************************************************************************************************************************************** Since the early 1970s, orbiting satellites have picked up on noise-like plasma waves very close to the Earth's magnetic field equator. This "equatorial noise," as it was then named, seemed to be an unruly mess of electric and magnetic fields oscillating at different frequencies in the form of plasma waves. Now a team from MIT, the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Sheffield, and elsewhere has detected a remarkably orderly pattern amid the noise. In a region of space...

The Mystery of Stonehenge, Ancient Petroglyphs and Crop Circles There are many theories about the origins and functions of Stonehenge. Only through exploring the significance of the electromagnetic universe do we begin to understand the implications of this great stone megalith. Revelations have appeared via another great mystery, crop circles but in a formation so obtuse it was largely bypassed.In 2009 at Manton, Wiltshire, UK, a stand alone pattern appeared. A peculiar stark design, it attracted little in the way of analysis going largely unexplored.However it is a major key to much crop circle imagery and meaning; that Earth life...

US researchers have developed a new way to create glowing orbs of plasma similar to ball lightning in the lab, allowing them to study their chemical and physical properties. The work could help scientists unravel the mysteries of this very rare natural phenomenon.Ball lightning has been known for millennia, but its rarity and short lived nature – typically lasting between 1 and 10 seconds – has prevented it from being studied and understood. In recent years, however, lab experiments that mimic ball lightning have been developed.One method involves a glowing discharge produced above an aqueous electrolyte solution. However, high...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7Bj2qCDqEg&feature=youtu.be

is it any different than donating blood? what's it pay in your area? how often can you typically donate per month?

From National Geographic:Clouds of charged particles stretch a quarter the way to the moon, experts say.Clouds of “cold plasma” reach from the top of Earth’s atmosphere to at least a quarter the distance to the moon, according to new data from a cluster of European satellites.Earth generates cold plasma—slow-moving charged particles—at the edge of space, where sunlight strips electrons from gas atoms, leaving only their positively charged cores, or nuclei.(Find out how cold plasma might also help explain why Mars is missing its atmosphere.)Researchers had suspected these hard-to-detect particles might influence incoming space weather, such as this week’s solar flare...

Police said Saturday that thieves had broken into the prison at New Plymouth, on the west coast of the North Island, just before midnight and stolen a large plasma television. "If any members of the public saw anyone carrying a big TV at that time of night, or heard or saw anything in the area of the prison, let police know,"

Washington, D.C. (February 20, 2011) -- Big screen Plasma HDTV were the big winners of this year's Super Bowl TV battle, according to The NPD Group. The research firm says unit sales of Plasma sets jumped 45 percent during the week leading up to this year's Super Bowl, which was played on February 6. (The increase is compared to last year's pre-Super Bowl week.) Actual revenue from Plasma set sales rose 11 percent this year compared to last year's Super Bowl week. In contrast, LCD unit sales rose just 1 percent for the 40-inch and above category, NPD reports. The...

By Greg Tarr -- TWICE, 5/12/2010 Portland, Or. - Plasma TV shipments rose 14 percent between Q1'09 and Q1'10 according to a new study release Wednesday by Quixel Research. The firm's Q1 2010 USA Large Area Display Report revealed that unit sales of 40-inch-plus plasma TVs registered a larger volume increase than the 40-inch and larger LCD TVs in the period. "Plasma TV sales are still strong because they provide a great value, and when consumers do a little homework, they understand that Plasma TVs offer picture quality that is just as good and sometimes better than LCDTVs," stated Tamaryn...

I am right now seriously in the market to get a new 40" to 42" flat-panel HDTV to replace my old 27" Mitsubishi CRT television set. Right now, my primary choice is the new 40" Sony KDL-40EX500 (I had considered the 40" KDL-40VE5 but most places wanted US$200 more for the set). From what I've read online, most people like it, and the suggested retail price of US$899 is quite attractive, especially since the KDL-40EX500 has 120 Hz refresh rate. I would like to hear suggestions on alternatives from LG, Samsung, Sharp and Toshiba that I should consider (I'm willing...

Researchers have demonstrated a prototype device that can rid hands, feet, or even underarms of bacteria, including the hospital superbug MRSA.The device works by creating something called a plasma, which produces a cocktail of chemicals in air that kill bacteria but are harmless to skin. A related approach could see the use of plasmas to speed the healing of wounds. Writing in the New Journal of Physics, the authors say plasmas could help solve gum disease or even body odour.

Sacramento, Calif. (AP) -- Power-hungry TVs will be banned from store shelves in California after state regulators Wednesday adopted a first-in-the-nation mandate to reduce electricity demand. On a unanimous vote, the California Energy Commission required all new televisions up to 58 inches to be more energy efficient, beginning in 2011. The requirement will be tougher in 2013, with only a quarter of all TVs currently on the market meeting that standard.

Scientists claim to have created a form of aluminum that's nearly transparent to extreme ultraviolet radiation and which is a new state of matter. It's an idea straight out of science fiction, featured in the movie "Star Trek IV." Fusion is a dream of scientists who would create cheap and plentiful power by fusing atoms together, as opposed to nuclear fission that generates electricity today.

Though it looks like a tiny purple blowtorch, a pencil-sized plume of plasma on the tip of a small probe remains at room temperature as it swiftly dismantles tough bacterial colonies deep inside a human tooth. It’s not another futuristic product of George Lucas’ imagination—it’s the exciting work of USC School of Dentistry and USC Viterbi School of Engineering researchers looking for new ways to safely fight tenacious biofilm infections in patients. Two of the study’s authors are Chunqi Jiang, a research assistant professor in the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering-Electrophysics, and Parish Sedghizadeh, assistant professor of clinical dentistry...