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Science
Friday > Archives
> 1999
> August
> August 13, 1999:
Hour One: Old Cells/Fuel Cells
Australian scientists reported this week that they have turned back the clock on the development of early organisms on the early Earth. By studying oily residues bound tight in shale rock beneath northwestern Australia, they have determined that eukaryotic cells (cells with nuclei) may have arisen 500 million to 1 billion years earlier than previously thought. They also found evidence suggesting that cyanobacteria, thought to have been an early source of oxygen on our developing planet, also have had more days on the planet than previously thought. The findings, published in this week's issue of the journal Science, answer a few questions--but also raise many more. We'll talk about how the research was done, and what it all means.
We'll also take a look at recent research into fuel cells, devices that generate electricity from chemicals without burning them. In a fuel cell, hydrogen gas (and sometimes hydrocarbons like methane or methanol) is used to produce electric current. In pure hydrogen fuel cells, the only waste products are water. Fuel cells running on hydrocarbons may produce carbon dioxide as well - but the process is still much cleaner than sooty coal-fired power plants or radiation-producing nuclear reactors.
| Hydrocarbon-based fuel cells are seen by some as less desirable than pure hydrogen cells because of their carbon dioxide production and lower efficiency. However, other fuel cell advocates see hydrocarbon-based cells as a good "transition technology" for use while problems with developing a good distribution and storage system for hydrogen are worked out. This week in the journal Nature, researchers at Northwestern University report an advance in a type of fuel cell running on methane gas. We'll talk to one of the authors of that paper, and to a fuel cell researcher at Los Alamos National Labs who is working on a methanol-based cell that could be used in vehicles.
Join guest host Paul Raeburn for a look at old cells and new technology on this hour of Science Friday. | 
A large-scale cell stack for use as a generator.
Courtesy Siemens/Westinghouse |
Guests:
Roger Buick
Lecturer in Paleontology & Stratigraphy
School of Geosciences
The University of Sydney
Sydney, Australia
Scott A. Barnett
Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Northwestern University
Evanston, Illinois
Shimshon Gottesfeld
Laboratory Fellow and Project Leader for Fuel Cells and Electrochemistry
Materials Science and Technology Division
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos, New Mexico
Books/Articles Discussed:
Related Links:
Fuel Cells 2000
Los Alamos Fuel Cell Education
Fuel Cell Info from the National Renewable Energy Lab
The Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Letter
Natural Gas Fuel
Cells
A Scientific American Fuel Cell Article
The Electric Power Research Institute
The Department of Energy
- This segment produced by:
Charles Bergquist
Web producer:
Charles Bergquist
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