The HERCULES laser at the University of Michigan is the world’s most powerful laser. The beam is equivalent in intensity to focussing all the light from the Sun onto a grain of sand.
Tortoises in the fridge
If tortoises become too warm during hibernation they are in danger of waking up and then not being able to sustain themselves.
So Shirley Neely of the Jersey Tortoise Sanctuary keeps them at a constant temperature in her fridge.
New solar power efficiency record
Sandia National Laboratories and Stirling Energy Systems have set a new solar power efficiency record of 31.25%.
Whilst solar power is only suitable for use in a very small number of areas and doesn’t offer the continuity of service or reliability that is offered by other sources such as nuclear power, the improvement in efficiency is heartening and suggests that further work prove useful.
The Universe is 13.73 billion years old
Anechoic chamber
An anechoic chamber is one in which there are no echoes, they are used for making extremely sensitive sound measurements. Car manufacturers use them to test how much noise an engine makes at different speeds.
The military use them to make sure the enemy can’t hear the tanks coming.
The spiky foam surrounds are designed to absorb all the incident sound and stop any of it being reflected.
