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Hydrogen Properties for Energy Research (HYPER) Laboratory Cool. Fuel.

Welcoming and Congratulating Carl Bunge!

Carl Bunge has set the bar VERY high on entrances to the HYPER lab.

After starting undergraduate research in the lab this last fall as a senior, he just found out he will be awarded a NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship (NSTRF) to begin graduate studies in the Fall of 2016. Carl’s undergraduate work was with HYPER graduate student Ian Richardson, who was the first NSTRF recipient at WSU and has had the fellowship for the last two years. Carl’s research topic will be extension of the Heisenberg Vortex tube for in-space cooling of liquid hydrogen tanks.

The NSTRF is the most prestigious … » More …

Initial thoughts on the thermodynamics of societal phase change

DARPA recently released a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA-16-32) titled “Next Generation Social Sciences.”  The need to hit the reset button on psychology is partly due to a recent finding that less than half of the research findings are actually reproducible. As stated in the BAA, DARPA:

“is soliciting innovative research proposals to build a new capability (methods, models, tools, and a community of researchers) to perform rigorous, reproducible experimental research at scales necessary to understand emergent properties of human social systems.”

For many of you that read this blog, you’re aware that I regularly dabble in integral psychology through the application of historical meme transitions … » More …

The potential of the Hydrogen Fueled Farm

As you likely know, Whitman County (the home of WSU-Pullman) is the Saudi Arabia of wheat. We’ve produced more wheat than any other county in the United States every year since 1978. Of course it helps that we have a land mass equivalent to the state of Delaware and average just 6 residents per square mile.

What you may not know is the considerable potential for hydrogen to fuel these farms. This is a topic we’ll dive into considerable more detail over the coming years. Let’s overview the pieces for now:

Farmers are incredibly familiar with the … » More …

Forget space elevators, we need a space pipeline!

A few years ago I attended a seminar on using extremely long carbon nanotubes for a space elevator. And so I started thinking…

Here’s the wiki for the space elevator concept. Here’s a graphic:

To be clear, space elevators may be harder than controlled thermonuclear fusion to achieve (that’s at least 50 years out). Although carbon nanotubes may have the strength to make it possible, the very best we can do could be ~1m in length. Compare that to the image above and you see how far we have to go. Not to mention running an … » More …

ME 527 Lesson 25: Corresponding States

We’re now shifting gears, and deviating from the syllabus, to touch on a classic topic that will set the stage for our Fluid Friday discussions this Friday.

A fantastic book I’ve recently discovered covering the last half of class is “How fluids unmix: Discoveries by the School of Van der Waals and Kamerlingh Onnes” by Johanna Levelt-Sengers. The book covers the primary historical context from which we can understand the status quo. Levelt-Sengers studies in Kamerlingh Onnes’ lab under Michels and is very familiar with the historical background.

The real triumph of the Van der Waals equation started from the very beginning. Van der … » More …

Lessons learned from the first five years: Building community

A letter came in the mail the other day that I’ll be granted tenure in August… and so it goes.

Looking back on the last and first five years at WSU there are a lot of lessons learned.

One of the most important being how to build a supporting, thriving community. I remember my old boss Dave Bahr asking me, “So what are you really trying to do?” My immediate response: “build a community.” I naively told my friend P.K. that it would take 3 years to build community, he laughed and said “eight.” In short, I had no idea what it took to build community, I just … » More …

Lessons learned from the first five years: What to teach

A letter came in the mail the other day that I’ll be granted tenure in August… and so it goes.

Looking back on the last and first five years at WSU there are a lot of lessons learned.

One of the most important being what to teach. Dr. Chuck’s adage is best, “Always remember what you’re teaching your students, because all they remember is confidence.” That’s confidence in both you and themselves. Even that simple word, confidence, is complicated.

I was lucky that my first class was undergrad thermodynamics — a foundational class with a well established process, one that I was well prepared to deliver. … » More …

Lessons learned from the first five years: How to spend your startup

A letter came in the mail the other day that I’ll be granted tenure in August… and so it goes.

Looking back on the last and first five years at WSU there are a lot of lessons learned.

One of the most important being how to spend your startup. This is one of those things that everyone has an opinion about, so listen politely, do what you think is best. What I’m about to tell you is something that I was not told, nor have heard, which is why I’m telling you.

The first and most important thing to do when you get to WSU … » More …

1. Focus, 2. Flow, 3. Flourish.

Are the three things every researcher needs to achieve.

We’re always told to focus, as a verb, to pay particular attention to something. The steady march of improving technology always ensures a greater ability to focus in finer detail. Drill down to derive a more discerning definition. The epitome of our legalistic research milieu.

Your reward for being good at focusing is being doomed to just that. You’ll get more projects requiring more of your focus in more areas with more people. This fractioning of your time into smaller and smaller fractals of focus can’t be good. After enough fractioning, pretty soon your not focusing at all, … » More …