We’ll never be happy…

Depressing thought this Valentine’s Day: humans are hard-wired to perceive a scarcity of whatever it is they actually want.

Psychologists report that people will always feel that there isn’t enough of what they want to have: money, an attractive partner… The experiment used a reward/rule system to determine how people perceived the available opportunities to profit, and they were almost always conservatively pessimistic.

We probably have all felt this way at times, but it’s a little disconcerting to have it so blatantly proven, don’t you think? How can we be so … pathetic?

Solar Power Record

Reports today that a new record has been set in the efficiency of solar-generated electricity: slightly more than 31% efficiency on a particularly cold but very sunny day in New Mexico during January.

This technique is different to the photovoltaic panels seen on house roofs or solar vehicles, the kind that generates electricity directly from solar radiation but which can only manage a maximum efficiency of about 14%.

Rather, this facility uses an array of mirrors to reflect and focus the sun’s heat onto a central, sealed ‘engine’ containing hydrogen where heat transfer causes pressure changes that drive a generator.

Parts of Western Australia, the Northern Territory and South Australia could use this kind of technology in the future to generate clean, sustainable energy.

Moon, cubed

The Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn & Titan, launched in 1997, has sent some fantastic photos home but this one of Epimetheus, one of Saturn’s 60 known moons, bears some special examination.

At just 116km diameter Epimetheus never became ball-shaped under its own gravitational pull when it formed. The result is a roughly cubic shape, probably the result of several large meteor or comet impacts over the life of the solar system. A real oddity.

Disco Inferno

Recently there has been a lot of interest in equipping police and military organisations with technology that is non-lethal but still gets the job done.

Tasers and pepper spray are big here in Australia – especially at the tennis – but overseas there are moves afoot to use sound and millimetre-band radiation to disperse crowds or protect buildings.

Case in point: The Inferno, which is described in this Wired blog as a terrifying experience never to be repeated. Generating sound at a volume slightly less than a 747’s engine, this alarm system is a force to be reckoned with.

An unpleasant experience is certainly preferable to a fatal one, but I got a wry smile from the quote by its inventor when asked about future applications: “Right now, I’m just having fun!”