The purpose of this blog is to have a platform to express my thoughts and ideas that really aren't suited for my other blogs. Some of these ideas are my attempt to think outside the so-call box while trying to come up with a solution to problems. That sort of thought process has been used from Leonardo da Vinci to Jules Verne to come up with ideas that may be ahead of their time. I don't believe there is no such thing as an original idea but it is possible for people to reach those ideas independently. That was the mind set that helped when I wrote my science fiction book Time of Knight. It took some time between putting pen to paper and finally publishing in 2008. Over the years I've seen some of my ideas develop in the real world such as e readers use of stem cells, and 3D medical imaging. Those are the type of ideas I'll express here and possibly will lay the foundation for some one else to build on. In some ways this blog will be a means to channel my inner mad scientist.
In that vein I'll start with one idea which I approached in my book: the use of radiation as a power source. The book takes place forty years from now and the characters were only starting to research the possibility. Yet I think we could be ahead of that pace if efforts are made to explore this possibility. The use of radiation or specifically radioactive material would be tapping an nearly inexhaustible resource. There are obvious dangers but this material has already been produced in mass quantities as waste in our nuclear power plants.
The fact that the radiation can be measured as it moves a needle on a geiger counter hints that an adaption could be made to start a chain reaction. Whether the moving needle remains part of the process or is replaced by another mechanism remains to be seen. I envision spinning gyros that could be in an infinite chain producing kinetic energy. One major issue would be containment. It may turn out that a little material goes a long way and the containment units for the initial part of the reaction may not have to be that large. There is enough existing material already that the current nuclear power plants are unnecessary and could be converted.
That's one thought.
