Kent Harrington
Kent is a videographer and professional storyteller. He regularly blogs for AIChE on ChEnected. See his latest posts below. You can also follow Kent on twitter @harringtonkent.
ChEnected contributions
The $1 Million Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X-Prize Winners Announced
The now famous X-Prizes' are global competitions to spur technological innovation.
Nerdcore Science Rapper Defends Darwin's Theory of Evolution—and Is Still Entertaining
New Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Deployed in Atlantic Ocean
The future of offshore wind energy was just towed by tugboat and moored 217 miles off the windy coast of Portugal, far from the shallow coastal waters that are the normal habitat of fixed offshore turbines.
Solar Update: New Solar Plane, Warren Buffet Invests in Solar, Apple Eying Solar Power
Solar energy appears hotter than ever as plans are made for a new solar-powered aircraft and as giants including Warren Buffet and Apple invest in solar power. Read on for an update on the latest in solar energy.
Genetic Tweaking: ISU Researchers Switch-On Two Genes to Increase Algal Biomass
Researchers under the direction of geneticist Martin Spalding, at Iowa State University, have produced 50 to 80 percent more biomass by activating the expression of two separate Chlamydomonas algal genes.
Fukushima Update: Masao Yoshida, Heroic Plant Manager, Hospitalized
Masao Yoshida, a career nuclear engineer and the manager during the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, who bravely led the fight to bring the reactors under control, has stepped down after dire
Scottish Surge in Wave-Energy Innovations
In Europe offshore wind is the great blustery hope among the political class, with new projects announced weekly. But lately, scientists have begun to pay attention to ocean waves, which hold 40 times more energy than air moving at the same speed.
NASCAR Goes Solar—Another Step in the Fossil Fuel Draw-Down
NASCAR has gone solar. Constructed in a former 25-acre parking lot adjacent to the 2.5 mile track by enXco, a renewable energy specialist, NASCAR's $15 million dollar solar farm is made up of 40,000 photovoltaic panels.
Radioactive Orchestra: Making Music with Radiation
The Radioactive Orchestra is an online tool that lets you convert decaying radioactive isotopes into musical notes. Watch DJ Axel Boman, helped by Swedish physicists, translate gamma cascades into music in the right-hand window, and then try it yourself at their website.
Fukushima Update: Japan’s Costly Shift to Fossil Fuels
Fukushima Update: Contract Laborers Report Chaos and Safety Lapses
Five months after the devastating earthquake and tsunami, work to clean up the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant is still ongoing, with reports of safety issues and disorganized efforts.
US Atmospheric Chemists Produce First Estimate of Fukushima Radiation Leak
Fukushima Update: We'll be running a short series with a follow-up on Fukushima. Today's focus: U.S. chemists in San Diego recently released figures radiation measured in California following the Fukushima disaster, with insights on how much radiation leaked at the Fukushima site.
Making Biofuels at 10 Times the Normal Speed of Science
The biomass used to produce biofuel is most easily converted to ethanol, but that has always come with trade-offs. The primary problem: ethanol is less energy dense than petroleum-based fuels, and most vehicles can't burn more than a 15 percent mix of ethanol and standard gasoline.