- For years we have periodically been hearing about amazing
new inventions from the UK.
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- But are these inventions real, practical or believable?
Are British scientists making press announcements of inventions in an effor
to keep themselves in the forefront world of scientific discoveries?
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- Back around 2002 I had a friendly discussion with newly
minted PhD optics scientist which we'll call John. A UK citizen and an
honest man, John moved here from London about ten years ago. John received
most of his training at Oxford where residents living in the UK can get
a free college education. He came here to finish his doctorate and post-doc
work. John and I worked at the same facility together and we had frequent
discussions.
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- One discussion I never forgot went like this: I asked
him, "So what was it like in the UK?" John then related the following
to me:
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- "Everything there is old and a bit dirty. I came
here [United States] because there isn't any research money in England,
just a little here and little there spread all around. Not enough to do
any serious research to get anything done."
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- That was probably the most straightforward assessment
of the state of UK research you've probably ever read. Everything I've
seen to date in the press, media and world economy sadly proves he was
and still is almost 10 years later, spot-on. John is a competent scientist
and I'm happy he found a permanent position with a cutting edge high-tech
company utilizes his talents.
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- But the state of UK research also saddened me, because
part of me is of English (even though I'm mainly German.)
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- One of the greatest life-changing British inventions
from the UK was the magnetron tube during WW2. This tube was originally
developed for radar. Today this same tube with only a few modifications
to make it smaller is used today in every microwave oven. After a prototype
was made, the magnetron was hand carried to America on a plane for further
development.
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- A recent science fiasco from the UK was about creating
big lies about global warming. Apparently when someone with letters after
their name proclaims something, it's immediately accepted as though it
came from the lips of God himself.
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- We shall see from some of the following examples that
perhaps the Brits need to find a real-life Q like the late Q in James Bond
films. But a real Q who makes real innovations, not movie props which appear
to work after using special effects, clever editing and camera tricks.
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- Let's look a couple examples of bogus technology to prove
the point.
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- INVISIBILITY
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- An almost laughable cloaking technology was announced
in October 2007, which works by projecting images of the land behind a
tank onto the other side of a tank. This was dubbed a "James Bond"
device in the article. Although still in it's infancy with major obstacles,
those details never stopped a big press announcement from being made. The
Japanese already have been demostrating the type of cloaking technology
for years, and anyone can do it with off the shelf hardware. No special
materials are needed - EXCEPT a projector more powerful than the noonday
sun. Therein lies the rub...
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- "Now you see it: How the tank might look
with background images beamed onto the side" (photo and quote credit [1])
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- INVENTION TO MAKE BATTERIES OBSOLETE
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- This most recent silly claim comes from a research group.
First, we need to put this Volvo-funded power research into perspective,
the goal of which is to make a non-battery powered electric car.
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- Capacitors are simple electrical devices which consist
of two plates separated by an insulator. These have been around for hundreds
of years. Today aluminized polyester film is used for the plates with an
insulating non-conducting film between them. This basic construction principle
is true, regardless of whatever shape or form the device may be made in.
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- A man named Faraday in the 1800's discovered a unit of
measurement for capacitors. The unit of measurement is simply called a
Farad. A 1 Farad capacitor will provide one volt at 1 ampere for one second.
That's all there is to it.
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- In radios, computers and televisions capacitors are typically
rated with values from billionths of a Farad to millionths of a Farad,
commonly known as microfarads.
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- With that understanding about capacitors, let's take
a look back to the 1990's. At that time, I obtained a new type of capacitor
after reading an article regarding testing performed at a university lab.
It had a rating of 100 FARADS and ran a small DC motor for almost 3 days!
The device was quite small, about ×" of an inch x 1.5" long.
A 300 Farad capacitor today is a magnitude higher than anything you'll
find in any computer, television or radio.
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- These large super-capacitors are readily available. These
are often used with high powered audio amplifiers in trucks and cars to
provide hundreds of amps of instantaneous power for playing loud bass notes
from amplifiers mounted in trunks of vehicles. Nick-named "stiffening
capacitors" these devices compensate for electrical losses in wiring
between the vehicle's battery and the amplifier.
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-
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- A 300 FARAD capacitor readily available since
2005 is also known as a stiffening capacitor. Two screw terminals on the
top this device show the relatively small size. (Photo credit [2])
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- Now let's look at a recent UK capacitor development,
proclaimed to be something totally new:
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- Researcher Natasha Shirshova with her team's
invention
- (photo and caption credit [3])
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- Remember the capacitor mentioned earlier tested back
in the nineties that provided enough power to run a small motor for almost
3 days? Or the photo of a 300 Farad capacitor you saw earlier? The prototype
device pictured above runs an LED for just 20 minutes - yet this device
have been proclaimed to be a breakthrough!
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- Now I'm not trying to put down the hard work of Ms. Shirshova
and her group. But I cannot figure out why they apparently never considered
pre-existing capacitor technology. A news article claims they want to make
a device that will fit in the floor of the trunk of a vehicle. But it looks
like they have re-invented the wheel.
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- Today's capacitors are made using thin conductive films.
A capacitor's power capability is based on the total surface area of the
two plates and the distance between them. The closer together the plates
are the higher capacitance in Farads it will have.
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- It doesn't matter if the plates are rolled up or laid
out flat such as shown in the above photo. Rolled up construction employing
Aerogel is how most high Farad value capacitors are made, not with two
big thick plates as we see in the photo above. In a vehicle, what matters
most is how much space one technology requires over another technology.
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- Often articles with UK innovations have accompanying
comments in the article, or comments from readers below it ranting about
all the UK jobs a given invention will create.
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- I think not. Any invention useful for the UK defense
industry will never make the media and will be classified and probably
will be made in the UK. This type of product will create limited jobs for
limited production runs, strictly for the military. It also holds true
for other countries around the world with their respective classified technology,
too.
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- Other real innovations intended for the consumer market,
no matter what these inventions are will be manufactured in Korea, Japan,
and China in a cheap sweatshop factory. This is the real truth about creating
new UK jobs that Brits have to face. In pre-globalism days, one could hold
out hope for new jobs being created but no more.
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- Every new invention always comes down to the bottom line
net profit from production and sales. But when will the UK finally
invent something new which is both real AND practical? Perhaps the Brits
should stop making hasty technological annoucements of little value, and
spend more time on real innovation instead of re-inventing the wheel.
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- Ted Twietmeyer
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- [1] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-490669/Army-tests-
James-Bond-style-tank-invisible.html
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- [2] http://www.amazon.com/Monster-MonsterCap-MPC-
P300-MCAP-1F/dp/B000ANOAN0
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- [3] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1248829/The-end-battery-
British-invent-material-looks-like-plastic-store-electricity.html
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