Comments on: Globe Forum afterword & environmental posts

By: Tweets that mention Globe Forum afterword & environmental posts -- Topsy.com

Tweets that mention Globe Forum afterword & environmental posts -- Topsy.com — Sat, 15 May 2010 23:47:36 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Christopher Mims. Christopher Mims said: Air capture of world's excess CO2 will require 3 TW-decades of energy, says nanotech pioneer Drexler. http://bit.ly/b0rvSU [...]

By: Ciantic

Ciantic — Sat, 15 May 2010 18:11:06 +0000

I apologize high-jacking this thread.

Anyone interested of transferring article “A proximity-based programmable DNA nanoscale assembly line” in Nature to human language?

I’m trying to judge the implications of this, but fail to see what is programmed and what does these kinds of “programs” output?

By: Eric Drexler

Eric Drexler — Thu, 06 May 2010 03:51:40 +0000

@ Chris Phoenix — Thanks, fixed.

By: Eric Drexler

Eric Drexler — Thu, 06 May 2010 03:46:17 +0000

@ mitchell porter — Yes, there are other ways of removing the CO2, though not necessarily more economical. Regarding the thermodynamics, confining the dilute gas (or a material made from it) to a small volume involves a reduction in entropy, and this requires the expenditure of an equivalent amount of free energy, regardless of the source. As you note, though, chemical and biological methods don’t involve a literal compression process.

I’ve reworded the post to say “collecting and storing” in place of “removing”.

By: mitchell porter

mitchell porter — Wed, 05 May 2010 06:53:12 +0000

“Thermodynamics says that removing the anthropogenic excess CO2 will require work of compression amounting to about 3 TW-decades of energy”

What are the assumptions that produce this figure? Surely there are more economical ways of doing it. Carbonation of weathered rock surfaces is exothermic though very very slow. Plants are a lot faster (though still too slow) and so far as I can see there’s no work of compression involved.

By: Aleksander Ciepa?

Aleksander Ciepa? — Tue, 04 May 2010 21:43:01 +0000

Eric, you do not mention nuclear power (fission) often and I am not sure what is your opinion about nuclear as main energy source for humanity that could also be used for reversing some of the damage done to the environment. I specifically recommend reading about the Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) design that is deeply discussed on http://energyfromthorium.com.

By: Chris Phoenix

Chris Phoenix — Tue, 04 May 2010 20:04:11 +0000

Check spelling in your headline…