[rescue] Energy

[Kyle Webb]

At 02:52 PM 5/9/2002 -0500, you wrote:
> >In the past three hundred years we have come up with precisely three ways
> >for generating electricity. Interesting chemical reactions, smashing
> >crystals, and moving magnets near each other.
>
>Seebeck effect?  (AKA thermocouples).  Isn't that how the RTGs used on
>deep-space sats work?


Photoelectric effect (solar cells).
Atomic battery effect (not sure what the proper name for it is) where you 
use radioactive emission of charged particles to directly create a current 
(alpha, beta or positron emitters).
Triboelectric effect (static from friction)
MHD generators (uses the plasma itself as the conductor moving through the 
magnetic field, though somewhat close to a standard generator in concept).

One other point is that there are a number of aneutronic fusion reaction 
paths, albeit they aren't leading candidates for power generation at the 
moment.
Sadly, I must agree that fusion seems to be a ways off. It's been "just 
around the corner" for quite a long time, and IMHO will continue that way 
for a time yet.

Kyle Webb