What are the current limitations of desalination plants globally? | AskScience Blog

Pages

Monday, July 9, 2018

What are the current limitations of desalination plants globally?

What are the current limitations of desalination plants globally?


What are the current limitations of desalination plants globally?

Posted: 09 Jul 2018 02:50 AM PDT

A quick google search shows that the cost of desalination plants is huge. A brief post here explaining cost https://www.quora.com/How-much-does-a-water-desalination-plant-cost

With current temperatures at record heights and droughts effecting farming crops and livestock where I'm from (Ireland) other than cost, what other limitations are there with desalination?

Or

Has the technology for it improved in recent years to make it more viable?

Edit: grammer

submitted by /u/MrTigeriffic
[link] [comments]

What is actually going on when people claim they are "double-jointed"?

Posted: 08 Jul 2018 11:33 AM PDT

What happens to light on opposite sides of intergalactic bodies undergoing the expansion of the universe?

Posted: 09 Jul 2018 05:11 AM PDT

So if two intergalactic bodies are traveling away from each other at or faster than the speed of light, light from one will never reach the other. But what happens to the light on their opposite side? Does light go faster than the speed of light? Or what happens?

submitted by /u/V3NG34NC3
[link] [comments]

Why do stars appear to constantly change colour?

Posted: 08 Jul 2018 11:59 PM PDT

I know this is more of a less complicated 'kids question', but I'm honestly not bothered enough to search for it on Google.

Anyway, when ever I look up at the night sky, any star I stare at seems to be constantly changing colours in a rapid flash.

Does this happen because of the way the light refracts in the atmosphere, or are my eyes just fucked and can't process bright colours properly?

submitted by /u/I_Control_The_Sauce
[link] [comments]

How is it possible to brute force a password when most computers/websites lock a user out after a low number of incorrect tries?

Posted: 08 Jul 2018 11:27 AM PDT

Why are there more islands in the Pacific Ocean compared to the Atlantic Ocean? What causes this difference?

Posted: 08 Jul 2018 05:17 PM PDT

The Pacific Ocean is significantly older than The Atlantic Ocean, does this have anything to do with the amount of islands each contains? Or does the depth of the oceans play a role in it?

submitted by /u/C0mGussler
[link] [comments]

Does the AC frequency affect the molecular conductivity?

Posted: 09 Jul 2018 06:20 AM PDT

I recall reading somewhere that several molecular compounds have different conductivity depending on the frequency of the current; however, I cannot find this anywhere. Does anyone know what is the name of the process when molecules change their conductance based on the frequency of the current?

submitted by /u/StarAvenger
[link] [comments]

If black holes have such a strong pull that not even light can escape, how come this is true even when it has the same mass to something else?

Posted: 08 Jul 2018 10:57 PM PDT

I was under the impression that mass is what determines gravitational pull (generally). We orbit the Sun in the way we do because it has the mass of the Sun (or really, we orbit a point created from the gravitational pull of Sun, Earth, and all the other planets and objects and it just happens to be in the Sun, but that's not really relevant I don't think).

However, if the Sun was instead a black hole with the same mass, wouldn't we still be orbiting it the same way? Yet light still can't escape from the event horizon. How can this be if it's coming from an object with the same mass as the Sun?

submitted by /u/uknownada
[link] [comments]

Is all of the current absorbed by a CPU converted to heat? Or is there a fraction of in that goes into the computational work?

Posted: 08 Jul 2018 01:15 PM PDT

Not really sure of how to pose this. I studied that cmos tech only consume energy when changing state, which is required for it to work, but does ALL of the energy absorbed goes wasted into heat or is there a part that goes into the "work" made to calculate things?

submitted by /u/puppiesshelter
[link] [comments]

Plausibility of a solar shield to combat global warming?

Posted: 09 Jul 2018 03:04 AM PDT

With the news today that we are hitting global records in temperatures and they are increasing year on year without meaningful change to combat global warming I've been wondering about technological solutions.

Wouldn't a 'solar umbrella' at a lagrange point be an effective means of cooling the planet? It would no doubt be highly complex feat but would it work if we could get the material into space?

It seems far more realistic than carbon capture technologies considering the scale and cost and the inefficiencies associated with the technology. At least in my mind.

submitted by /u/rapidtonguelicking
[link] [comments]

When will spaceprobes be able to use electricity as ther propulsion? Does this mean that they could in theory run for forever?

Posted: 09 Jul 2018 12:52 AM PDT

How does Caulerpa taxifolia square with the advantages of multicellularity?

Posted: 08 Jul 2018 11:18 AM PDT

When I ask my friend Google what's so hot about multicellularity, it says:

  • It allows organisms to get larger (not limited by diffusion).
  • It makes specialisation easier.
  • It's more robust because some cells can die without killing the organism.

Cool. Except: Enter Caulerpa taxifolia, the killer app killer alga. C. frickin' taxifolia don't care about any of the stuff I just said. C. taxifolia's unicellular as can be, but

Now if this was some kind of super-fragile trick that only works in some specific environment, okay, I'd let it slide. But this baby is wildly successful in a bunch of places, most of which are full of alga-eating things.

Someone's taking me for a ride here!

  1. If multicellularity is so good, what's C. taxifolia's trick to do better while being unicellular?
  2. Whatever that trick is, why can't I (and large complex organisms in general) copy it instead of being multicellular like a chump?

If y'all need me I'll be by the pond screaming at algae.

submitted by /u/JeremySmokedham
[link] [comments]

What does trigger fruit ripening?

Posted: 09 Jul 2018 01:55 AM PDT

Does it occurs at a certain extent of growth? Can it be induced?

submitted by /u/frankven2ra
[link] [comments]

Do humans know how reflections work from birth, or do they learn it?

Posted: 08 Jul 2018 10:01 AM PDT

A lot of other animals don't understand reflections. Do humans understand reflections from birth, or do we slowly learn how they work? If someone hadn't seen a reflection their whole life, and saw one when they were 50, would they understand it?

submitted by /u/polypeptide147
[link] [comments]

Is gallium used in our everyday lives? Or is it just used to have fun with.

Posted: 09 Jul 2018 02:19 AM PDT

Im basically asking if humans use gallium to do anything scientific, does it have any special properties that other metals do not have (apart from the obvious lower melting temp)

submitted by /u/zacyut236
[link] [comments]

How does real-time ray tracing work?

Posted: 09 Jul 2018 01:19 AM PDT

So I know the basics of real-time ray tracing. But I was wondering what effects this can have on rendered environments and if like motion blur, there are a multitude of ways this can be achieved. And besides that, can it be used for other purposes? Like moving the camera when it comes too close to an object.

submitted by /u/damylolface
[link] [comments]

Will we ever get true color photos of nebulae? If not, why?

Posted: 09 Jul 2018 12:18 AM PDT

All the photos we have are composites and are black and white, but will there ever be a time when we have cameras that can actually show us what the real colors are, if any? If not, why?

submitted by /u/Myson91
[link] [comments]

How many neurons does an average modern neural network have?

Posted: 08 Jul 2018 09:32 AM PDT

It's estimated that the human brain has about 83 billion neurons. I know that there is a huge difference between the biological brain and modern AI's on computers. Im also aware of that the number of neurons is not only decisive for the performance (beacause it plays a huge role how they are connected etc). But putting that aside, I'm interested in the amount of neurons to get a perspective of what modern computers are capable of processing in comparison to the human brain.

Also, on average to how many other neurons is every one of them connected? Again it's estimated that the neurons of the human brain have about 1000 connections.

Thank your for your answers!

submitted by /u/bistdunarrisch
[link] [comments]

Does chaotic motion truly exist?

Posted: 08 Jul 2018 09:18 AM PDT

Hi all,

I've always found the concept of chaotic motion to be very puzzling, specifically the behavior of chaotic motion machines. I am a camp counselor at a summer camp, and our camp recently took a field trip to a science center in our city. I found the chaotic motion exhibit to be the most interesting as it featured one of these machines and allowed the user to witness its unusual and seemingly unpredictable behavior.

My question is this: Does chaotic motion truly exist? If the same amount of force is applied to get the machine in motion, will the behavior of the arms be different every time?

It seems to me like the phenomenon of chaotic motion results from the difficulty to recreate the exact conditions of the last spin of the machine, and this is what I tried to explain to the campers in my group (who were also interested in this exhibit).

Thanks so much!

submitted by /u/WetPretz
[link] [comments]

Why are circuit boards green?

Posted: 08 Jul 2018 10:12 AM PDT

It seems so standard. I'm guessing it's some great, cheap, easily produced insulator to keep the wiring clean, but why is there no variety?

I would imagine that there's alternative methods to build these bad boys, but I've never seen one.

submitted by /u/i_made_reddit
[link] [comments]

Is there a mathematical object which is a matrix but in 3 dimensions?

Posted: 08 Jul 2018 01:09 PM PDT

What I'm imagining is basically have a matrix on a piece of paper and then another matrix on another sheet of paper that lines up with the first sheet and so on.

If it exists, does it have any use in mathematics?

submitted by /u/CallMeAladdin
[link] [comments]

Do negatively charged phospholipids affect the resting membrane potential of a cell?

Posted: 08 Jul 2018 11:46 AM PDT

Phospholipids are a major component of all cell membranes

Do phospholipids like phosphatidylserine and phosphatidylinositol affect the RMP, considering they're asymmetrically spread throughout the plasma membrane?

submitted by /u/diti123
[link] [comments]

How does special relativity account for the magnetic field?

Posted: 08 Jul 2018 06:30 PM PDT

I have read that special relativity makes the magnetic field a consequence of the existence of an electric field. If this is right, could someone please explain how exactly this works?

Thanks!

submitted by /u/overweight_neutrino
[link] [comments]

No comments:

Post a Comment