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Swiss researchers have developed a solar energy method using synthetic quartz to achieve temperatures above 1,000°C for industrial processes, potentially replacing fossil fuels in the production of materials like steel and cement. Instead of burning fossil fuels to reach the temperatures needed to smelt steel and cook cement, scientists in Switzerland want to use heat from the sun. The proof-of-concept study uses synthetic quartz to trap solar energy at temperatures over 1,000°C (1,832°F), demonstrating the method’s potential role in providing clean energy for carbon-intensive industries. A paper on the research was published on May 15 in the journal Device. The...

I just read “Steel: from Mine to Mill, the Metal that Made America” (2015) by Brooke C. Stoddard. The engineer in me recommends it. The history buff in me recommends it as well. Copper, bronze, and brass are far simpler for primitive manufacture than is steel. Copper is an element, bronze and brass are alloys of copper and tin or zinc, respectively. Steel is an alloy of iron and a low but nonzero amount of carbon. And also, importantly, no phosphorus, which some iron ores contain. Iron ore is iron oxide, and it must be reduced chemically by carbon while...

This Friday will mark the release of the May unemployment report. A report that will reflect the last effects of the Obama trillion-dollar stimulus and of the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing (QE2). The report is likely to show that job creation is mediocre at best, with unemployment insurance claims continuing well above the 400,000 weekly level, housing in a double-dip recession and the gross domestic product contracting to a paltry 1.8 percent growth rate for the second quarter of 2011. The situation is so dire on the economic growth front that The New York Times has awoken from its slumber...