Related papers: History of Prime Movers and Future Implications
Modeling power-grid systems has got a major importance in present days as transformation to renewable energy sources requires the complete re-design of energy transmission. Renewable energy sources can be located quite far from their…
Molecular motors fulfill critical functions within all living beings. Understanding their underlying working principles is therefore of great interest. Here we develop a simple model inspired by the two-component biomolecular motor Fo-F1…
This article relates two topics of central importance in modern astronomy - the discovery some fifteen years ago of the first planets around other stars (exoplanets), and the centuries-old problem of understanding the origin of our own…
Some established views of the solar magnetic cycle are discussed critically, with focus on two aspects at the core of most models: the role of convective turbulence, and the role of the `tachocline' at the base of the convection zone. The…
The global requirements for energy are increasing rapidly as the global population increases and the under-developed nations become more advanced. The traditional fuels used in their traditional ways will become increasingly unable to meet…
The wide public sees solar energy as the future of mankind, and media channels quite oftenly states that our challenge is to improve efficiencies and reduce cost. However, one may point some unconvenient truth's about the physical limits we…
Potential strategies for the development and large-scale application of renewable energy sources aimed at reducing the usage of carbon-based fossil fuels are assessed here, especially in the event of the abandonment of such fuels. The aim…
Wireless energy harvesting sensor networks constitute a new paradigm, where the motes deployed in the field are no longer constrained by the limited battery resource, but are able to re-charge themselves through directed electromagnetic…
Climate change has become intertwined with the global economy. Here, we describe the importance of inertia to continued growth in energy consumption. Drawing from thermodynamic arguments, and using 38 years of available statistics between…
Solar activity is a process driven by many independent but interconnected phenomena. Although the 11-year cycle is the result of operation of the dynamo mechanism, the cause of longer secular variations is not clear. In search of such a…
I would like to thank Solar Physics colleagues for asking me to write this chapter on my professional life. My main interest has always been focused on the Sun, our star, from the heating of the corona, to the dynamics of prominences and…
We discovered a dynamic phase transition induced by sexual reproduction. The dynamics is a pure Darwinian rule with both fundamental ingredients to drive evolution: 1) random mutations and crossings which act in the sense of increasing the…
The solar cycle and its associated magnetic activity are the main drivers behind changes in the interplanetary environment and Earth's upper atmosphere (commonly referred to as space weather and climate). In recent years there has been an…
Stars play a key role in the evolution of the Universe, as sources of radiation, as dynamical engines, and as chemical factories. Outputs of stellar models are then central to various studies in astrophysics. Stellar physics links…
The sunspot solar cycle has been usually explained as the result of a dynamo process operating in the sun. This is a classical problem in Astrophysics that until the present is not fully solved. Here we discuss current problems and…
Electromagnetic waves carry energy, linear momentum, and angular momentum. When light (or other electromagnetic radiation) interacts with material media, both energy and momentum are usually exchanged. The force and torque experienced by…
It is a common belief that in any environment where life is possible, life will be generated. Here it is suggested that the cause for a spontaneous generation of complex systems is probability driven processes. Based on equilibrium…
Modern social robots can be considered the descendants of steam engines from the First Industrial Revolution (IR 1.0) and industrial robotic arms from the Third Industrial Revolution (IR 3.0). As some time has passed since the introduction…
The Earth is a planet with a dipolar magnetic field which is agitated by a magnetized plasma wind streaming from the Sun. The magnetic field shields the Earth's surface from penetrating high energy solar wind particles, as well as…
Routinely navigating through an ever-changing and unsteady environment, and utilizing chemical energy, molecular motors transport the cell's crucial components, such as neurotransmitters and organelles. They generate force and pull cargo,…