The Burning Answer: A User’s Guide to the Solar Revolution - Couverture rigide

Barnham, Professor Keith

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0297869639 ISBN 13 : 9780297869634

Editeur : Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2014

Synopsis

A user's guide to the solar revolution - and why we must all get on board, before it is too late. We are a cusp civilisation. In just over three generations, we have consumed approximately half the useful oil which took photosynthesis around two million years to produce. In approximately two generations we have used around half our useful uranium resources. We are faced with an urgent choice, the roots of which, Keith Barnham explains, lies in 1905 with the discovery of Einstein's 'other' equation, E = hf. By an extraordinary coincidence, this little-known equation, which began the quantum revolution and could hold the key to our future survival through the generation of electricity from sunlight, was discovered in the same year as E = mc2, the equation that threatens to destroy us. This book will investigate the reasons why scientists exploited the equation E = mc2 for energy generation much faster than E = hf, putting our civilisation on an ever-sharper knife edge. But THE BURNING ANSWER is as much about solutions as problems. Through his groundbreaking research, Keith Barnham offers the controversial promise that, despite our much higher energy demands now than in earlier periods of human evolution, our sun can provide all our primary energy needs again. The sunlight falling on the earth in one hour is more than enough to supply all the energy demands of humankind for one year. This solar technology can save us from the threats of global warming, diminishing oil resources, and nuclear disaster -- provided we don't allow politics to stand in our way.

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

Keith Barnham is Emeritus Professor of Physics at Imperial College London. He started his research career in experimental particle physics working in research laboratories at CERN in Geneva and the University of California Berkeley. Mid-career he switched to researching solar energy and invented a solar cell with three times the efficiency of today's roof-top panels. He lives with his wife, the poet Claire Crowther, in Somerset.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
• Date d'édition: 2014
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0297869639
• ISBN 13: 9780297869634
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 400
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible