thermal

Planting the heat of Córdoba in summer is impossible. I have tried a personal thermal dissipator to at least try

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I do not discover anything to anyone if I say that In Córdoba it is hotter than on Charmander’s birthday. We have many good and beautiful things, such as the Mosque-Catedral, Medina Azahara or the Alcazar of the Christian Kings. This is the only city in the world with four assets of humanity, The first person to fly did in Córdoba And for having, we have even A traffic light with artificial intelligence. But if there is something we have and that we are left over, it is, without a doubt, heat. There are those who fight this excess of Celsius degrees leaving Fuengirola (also called Córdoba II). Others put in front of the fanunder the air conditioning or call the friend who has a pool at home with the excuse of “how long without seeing us.” I, for my part, have tried in a less conventional way. I have done it with a personal thermal dissipator of Sony: the Reon Pocket Pro. It is put below the shirt, but so you can see the size better and where it should be placed | Image: Xataka Terus dissipator … what? I know it sounds a bit strange (not as much as Go to the gym with an exoskeletonwhich also made), so we go in parts. The Sony Reon Pocket Pro is a portable thermal device that cools and heats the part of the body with which it comes into contact. That part is precisely the upper back area, just below the neck. It is not a portable air conditioning, much less. How does it work? The device incorporates two independent thermal modules in the rear that cool or heat according to the context (then we return to this) and a fan that extracts the heat from our body and expels it above. The two thermal plates alternate, so that when one reaches a certain temperature, the other is deactivated and activated so that the sensation of freshness is constant. These two plates work independently and cool or heat | Image: Xataka How do you get? We have to place it so that the two plates touch our body and the upper air exit protrudes slightly from the shirt. If we wear a shirt, we can use the adapter. The device is slightly curved, thus respecting our natural curve, and has a pair of flexible tubes that are placed around the neck and keep it subject. These, by the way, are not seen, but they stay under the shirt. And yes, they are noticed. The air exit should stay above the neck of the shirt | Image: Xataka These moorings should also be placed below the shirt | Image: Xataka Is it comfortable? Depends. It is acceptable if we take it while we walk or We are perfectly seated (With a straight back), and that weighs about 200 grams. If we change posture, for example, more reclined in the chair or lying on the couch, impossible. As for noise, I have not appreciated that the fan makes more account noise. I wear it right now and in my office, where only the noise of my mechanical keyboard is heard, I do not appreciate it in excess. However, I must say that it seems like a device too large and that finding the exact location in which it must be placed is complicated. It is not so “of remove and put” as perhaps you could expect a device like this, but you have to place it well, in its place, if we want it to work correctly. That it is more or less comfortable will depend, in large part, on the position we adopt | Image: Xataka Ok, but it cools? Let’s go to the point. The Reon Pocket Pro can be used in two ways: manual or automatic. If we establish it in manual, we can configure (via buttons or via app) the target temperature and the device will be in charge of reaching it. If we establish it in automatic, it will use, in addition to the data of the device itself, those of the Reon Pocket Tag to determine the objective temperature depending on the ambient temperature, the humidity and even the exposure to direct light. The problem is that this small sensor works well if it is abroad. If we carry it in the pocket (it is fully designed to hang it on the keys or in the pants), the data can vary. In any case, it works well and if we are going to use it in a room like an office for a while, just leave it on the table and forget about it. Reon pocket tag | Image: Xataka As for the sensation, it is … curious. As soon as we put it, we will notice how the surface of the neck begins to cool (or heat). It is almost instantaneous. With the passage of the latter, the sensation of freshness is improving and, thanks to the two thermal modules that are alternating, it is constant. And yes, cool. Now, the reality is that the one that is: the sensation of freshness, within that it relieves even going down the street, is very localized in the area near the location of the device. The cold mode sensation is the same as if you carry a bag of ice cubes on the back. In heat mode, it reminds me a lot of thermal blankets for neck pain. Image | Xataka On the battery. Using it at a medium cold temperature, the device lasts practically one day. A working day endures it without problem. At a lower or greater temperature, depending on the way we choose, less autonomy. In that sense, the use of hot mode spends more than cold mode, but for obvious reasons I have not used it just during these days. As for the load, it is completed in approximately three hours. So… Is it pleasant? It is, especially when you put it … Read more

We have discovered the largest underground thermal lake in the world. It is at the bottom of a more than 100 meters aser in Albania

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Albania has just been crowned on the world geological map. And big. There, on the border with Greece, a tens of meters deep, an expedition has identified the largest underground thermal lake on the planet. His name, Neuron. Its figures: more than 183 m long, 42 wide and sufficient water to fill A few Olympic pools. The finding confirms the scope of a discovery that dates back several years ago but whose relevance has only been confirmed now, with the help of a Lidar scanner. Its history is as curious as its size. “A steam column”. To understand the scope of the discovery you have to go back a few years ago, at 2021 and 2002, when a team of Czech scientists launched Vromoner, in southern Albania, near the border with Greece. The area resulted especially interesting For geologists because for years the convulsive political context of Balkans had hindered that scientists could thoroughly examine it. There the experts found a vast underground system of thermal sources thanks to a curious track: a steam stream. “From the high vapor column that rose from the limestone massif we managed to locate a chasm of more than one hundred meters deep,” Marek Audy tellsHead of the expedition. They called her atmos. When exploring it, they took an even greater surprise (literally): they found an intense thermal activity and a “great lake.” How large and broad it was, however, it became an unknown that then, for technical issues, they could not clarify. A (huge) suspicion. Which I was clear Audy team was that it had found something big, huge. And again both words can be understood in their most literal sense. The team suspected that the water extension that had been located in Albania was the largest underground thermal lake in the world, at least among those known today. Hence, later the researchers returned to the Sima in a new expedition provided with a reinforced technical arsenal. Thanks to the support of the Neuron Foundation, which contributed funds, the geologists achieved a special lidar scanner and the software necessary to measure the area. The objective of the researchers –The Neuron Foundation reported Before the expedition left – it was to make a map, a 3D model of the underground cave and the lake and even collect samples of animals from the banks. The result of that incursion has been waiting, but it was worth it: today those responsible presume having identified the largest underground thermal lake in the world. A “unique” lake. In a wink to the foundation that supported the project to the lake, Neuron has been baptized. What surprises however is not its name, but its size: 138.3 meters in length by 42 wide with a circle of 345 m. Inside it hosts around 8,335 m3 of thermal mineral water and those who have had the opportunity to visit it highlight the show of its dome, three times greater than that of the main room of the Prague National Theater. “The phenomenon has been subject to a thorough hydrogeological study to confirm its singularity,” The Foundation stands outwhich emphasizes that it is a “unique” lake. And how did they measure it? The team did not start from scratch. Richard Bouda, photographer and member of the expedition, Explain to Euronews that during the first visit they had already prepared a “basic map” with the resources they had. When they returned they did it, however, with a mobile lidar scanner and the system Geoslam which allowed them to precisely probe the cave and the lake. Not just that. They also traced a detailed map of Atmos, including other caves, such as sulfur. “We believe that this discovery will help protect the area and to better understand hydrological flows. Until now, nobody knew precisely how these groundwater connect to the surface,” Bouda comments. The team also trusts that the finding has an impact on the hydrological and geological studies of the region. Images | Neuron 1 and 2 In Xataka | A cave in France hid a strange rock formation. Some researchers believe that it could be a 3D map

The thermal expansion has been a headache for centuries. Now we are learning how to dodge it

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Heat tends to make the materials expand and gain volume, a volume that is then reduced when the temperature drops. This is a problem for architects and engineers since this effect is very noticeable in metals such as steel. What if we could avoid this problem? A new alloy. A group of scientists has created a new alloy that barely shows thermal expansion along a wide temperature fork. The key to development has been in invar, an alloy with similar properties that has previously been deciphered. 100 years of mystery. Invar is an alloy composed of iron, nickel and other elements with an extremely low thermal expansion coefficient, that is, an alloy that is barely dilated to an increase in temperatures. In a fork that covers more than 400 k (that is, more than 400º Celsius), invaria only expands 0.0001% of its length for each degree Celsius (or for each Kelvin). This alloy was created at the end of the 19th century by Charles Édouard Guillaume, who I would receive the Nobel Prize in Physics In 1920 “for its discovery of anomalies in the steel and nickel alloys.” We have needed a century since the award concession to begin to understand the underlying science in this low thermal expansion. Thermal expansion. The phenomenon of thermal expansion is an old acquaintance. As those responsible for the new work explain, this phenomenon is the result of the same movement of atoms (remember that the temperature is nothing other than that). When the atoms get hot, they move more and that makes more space need, then the material expands. This phenomenon, they continue to point out, is inevitable, but understanding it in detail opens the door to create new materials that somehow balance this effect. To study it, the team resorted to computer simulations that allowed analyzing the behavior of magnetic materials on tiny scales. “This allowed us to better understand the reason why invaria is hardly expanding,” said Segii Khmelevskyi, co -author of the new study. The effect is due to changes in the state of the electrons that occur as the temperature increases. These changes counteract “almost exactly” the thermal expansion of the material, adds Khmelevskyi. From theory to practice. Knowing the theory opens the way to the creation of new alloys capable of overcoming thermal expansion. It is precisely what the study responsible for the study did, put their findings into practice. And the result is what they have called Pyrocloro magnet. The new alloy combines more than two compounds: zirconium, niobium, iron and cobalt. “It is a material with an extremely under thermal coefficient above a range of unprecedented temperatures,” says Yili Cao, development co -author. “The effect is because certain electrons change its status as the temperature increases. The magnetic order of the material decreases, which makes the material contract, ”explains CAO. This effect is precisely analogous to the one seen in invar. The secret is irregularity. The team explains that the marked of the effect is also to the fact that the Pyroclloric magnet does not have a perfect network structure, that is, with the atoms arranged forming a regular and repeated pattern, but more heterogeneous. Some areas contain more or less cobalt which makes the material expand and contract in an almost identical proportion. Development details were published In an article In the magazine National Science Review. In Xataka | Cheaper, durable and ecological: a new material with the help of ruthenium wants to change the rules of green hydrogen Image | Your Wien

It was inaugurated in 2014 as the largest solar thermal energy plant in the world. Will close after setting fire to birds

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The huge Ivanpah thermosolar energy plant, opened in 2014 in the Mojave desert, will close after just 11 years of operation. An accelerated end for its history of technical, economic and environmental problems. Context. The thermal concentration energy, once considered one of the most avant -garde technologies for clean electricity generation, is not going through its best moment. Especially in Nevada, where Crescent Dunes fiasco was already very popular. The concentration thermoso use thousands of mirrors, or “heliosteats”, which follow the trajectory of the sun to concentrate its light on central towers. In these towers, extreme heat is used to heat water and produce steam, which drives turbines connected to electric generators. The Ivanpah case. The Ivanpah plant was built with an investment of 1.6 billion dollars in loans from the United States Department of Energy and long -term contracts for important electrical companies. It was the world’s largest solar thermal energy Until the inauguration of Port Augusta In Australia. 11 years after its inauguration, the huge thermosolar has begun to close by not fulfilling its initial expectations. The lack of profitability condemned her. A succession of failures and complaints from environmental groups for their impact on wildlife accelerated their end. A complex technology. One of the main problems has been the difficulty of maintaining mirrors aligned precisely. Technology, which requires an exact monitoring of the sun, has proven unstable and unreliable in practice, says a CNN report. The maintenance of the complex mechanisms and the management of the turbines in turn generate high operating costs, which has made concentration thermosar loses competitiveness compared to other renewable technologies, especially photovoltaic solar, whose prices have collapsed. A Bird Incinerate Machine. Criticisms are not limited to technical aspects. The Ivanpah plant has been questioned for years for its environmental impact, especially in the wildlife of the desert. Environmental groups denounce the irreparable damage in the habitat of species such as desert turtle. But also The death of birds that are incinerated by intense rays concentrated by mirrors. A second Crescent dunes. The case of Crescent Dunes, also occurred in Nevada, reinforces this image of failure of the thermosolar energy. This project, which was intended to be one of the milestones in energy innovation and storage through molten salts, ended up becoming a multimillionaire waste. Developed By the Spanish group ACSpromised continuous production of electricity, even during the hours without light, thanks to the thermal storage in salts. In practice, Crescent Dunes never managed to deliver the amount of promised energy and ended up breaking due to engineering and management problems. In the shadow of the photovoltaic. In short, the rapid drop in photovoltaic technology and its lower impact on wildlife have obsolete concentration thermos. While solar panels have gained efficiency and reducing their installation and maintenance costs, thermosolar plants have lagged behind in terms of competitiveness, which has led to investors and electrical companies reconsidering their bets in this type of projects. In Xataka | The first solar plant of Central Torre to explode commercially is in Seville: a pioneer that has survived more ambitious

In 2011, a collector bought in Morocco a meteorite. It has turned out to be a direct test of thermal water on Mars

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A black stone that had fallen from the sky was discovered in the Sahara desert by a Saharawi group. Selling to the highest bidder, we have known for a long time that it comes from the Mars cortex, but they have had to spend more than 10 years for scientists to desert one of their best kept secrets. A meteorite called “Black Beauty”. Officially called Northwest Africa 7034, the 320 grams rock was found in 2011 in the Sahara desert, in Western Sahara, and later sold to an American collector in Morocco. Its composition is unique among known Martian meteorites. It contains very old and very young minerals glued to each other, but coincides with what was observed by NASA’s rovers on the surface of Mars, so it was part of the Martian cortex when it detached from the red planet. A time capsule. A Recent study It focuses on a zircon grain found in the meteorite. This zircon has no less than 4,450 million years, which places it in the earliest stages of Martian history. The majority of known meteorites that come from Mars are from later geological periods, so NWA 7034 provides invaluable information on what the surface environment of the red planet was long before becoming what it is today. The meteorite that contains the most water. What makes Black Beauty exceptional is that it houses 10 times more water than other Martian meteorites. It was known that by the interaction of the rock with the water present in the crust of the planet at the time of its formation, but the recent analysis of the zircon with modern microscopy techniques has revealed much more information. The fragment contains iron, aluminum and sodium, unusual elements for a zircon of purely magmatic origin. But it is above all the presence of tiny inclusions of magnetite (iron oxide) that suggests that it crystallized under hydrothermal conditions. That is, in the presence of water at high temperature, and in an oxidizing environment. Ancient hot springs. The magnetite is trapped in zones of the zirch that are not altered by radiation, which indicates that they were formed at the same time as the zirch, and not as a result of subsequent secondary processes, the researchers explain. What the study comes to say is that 4,450 million years ago, during what is known as the pre-ondic period of Mars, there were already hydrothermal conditions in the Martian cortex. The Black Beauty meteorite is a direct proof that Mars had water in its formation stages. Favorable conditions for life. The finding reinforces the hypothesis that Mars had from very early the necessary conditions to house life, or at least some environments suitable for microbial life. That there was life on Mars or that it arrived on earth through a meteorite is still two hypotheses for which we have no evidence. However, that a meteorite of 2011 has given us so much information and reasons to continue investigating demonstrates how important the Martian samples can be that NASA and China want to bring in the coming years. Images | New Mexico University, NASA

Change of course: Toyota maintains thermal engines for a reason

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toyotaknown for its innovation and automotive heritage, has left many speechless with its recent announcement in the Tokyo Motor Show. Read also: Hyundai Venue: the cheapest in the United States from Hyundai Although the industry is moving rapidly towards electrification, Toyota has decided to take an unexpected turn in the plans for the rebirth of one of its most iconic sports cars: the MR2. You can read: Scandal at Toyota: it was fined for falsifying data This model, which was initially going to be an electric car, is now scheduled to return with a centrally mounted turbocharged gasoline engine. During the event, Naohiko Saito, head of engineering at Toyota Gazoo Racing (GR), shared details about this decision. “This engine represents the beginning of a new development that will come from racing before mass production. We always learn a lot with this way of working”declared Saito. The statement reaffirms Toyota’s commitment to linking racing technology with its series production, an approach that has borne fruit in previous models. From the FT-Se Concept to the GR Yaris M Concept The future MR2 is largely based on the FT-Se Concept prototype presented in 2023which was initially designed as an electric sports car. However, the brand has chosen to equip it with an internal combustion engine inspired by the GR Yaris M Concept, a vehicle that has been tested in the Japanese Super Taikyu racing championship. This decision not only stands out for its audacity, but also for its focus on efficiency and performance. The turbocharged four-cylinder engine promises between 300 and 400 horsepowerdepending on the version. Its centrally positioned configuration, combined with all-wheel drive, marks a new chapter in the evolution of the MR2. The FT-Se Concept. Credit: Toyota.Credit: Courtesy “This setup is new to us, but “During our initial testing we have seen that the combination of mid-engine and all-wheel drive offers the best results for high-performance driving.”Saito explained. A change aligned with market trends Although Toyota leads in electrification with models like the Prius and the bZ4Xthis decision reflects a growing trend among sports car manufacturers to maintain combustion engines in certain iconic models. Porsche, for example, has followed a similar strategy by preserving thermal engines in the 911although it develops electric versions for other segments. Toyota’s change of direction also responds to the demands of driving enthusiasts, who value the distinctive experience and sound of internal combustion engines. Besides, The use of competition-proven technology ensures that the new MR2 will be a high-performance vehicle. Innovation from the competition slopes The choice to test the engine in Super Taikyu competitions reflects Toyota’s commitment to excellence. This approach not only optimizes powertrain performance and reliability, but also ensures that the MR2 offers a superior driving experience. The GR Yaris M Concept, used as a test bed, has proven to be an ideal platform for experimenting with innovative configurations. Feedback gained from racing translates directly into improvements for production models, ensuring that the future MR2 meets the expectations of the most demanding drivers. The legacy of the MR2 and its promising future The Toyota MR2, first launched in 1984stood out for its compact design, central engine and dynamic behavior. Its return, adapted to current needs and demands, promises to maintain that legacy while incorporating modern technology. With the compact sports car market constantly evolving, the new MR2 could fill an important niche. Its mid-engine and all-wheel drive configuration puts it in a unique category, ready to compete with models from rival brands. Toyota’s announcement at the Tokyo Motor Show marks a turning point in its strategy. The decision to retain combustion engines in iconic models such as the MR2 underlines the importance of balancing tradition and innovation. As more details develop about this highly anticipated sports car, it is clear that Toyota remains committed to delivering exciting, high-performance vehicles.

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