Homework 12

1) Suppose you had a coupon for a free robot. The catch is it can only do one thing. But you can get a robot that will do whatever one thing you like, just not anything else. What would you want your robot to do?

If I had the option for a free robot that could only perform one function, I would choose a robot that could repair any modern electronic device (cell phones, computers, televisions, MP3 players, etc) given the appropriate tools and parts. I find often that when these types of things break I usually throw them away and end up disappointed at the money I lost because it broke—it would be really nice to have a robot to repair that type of hardware!

2) Write or develop an additional significant piece of your project. As a suggestion, consider the connection of robots to your topic. However, if another subject besides robots seems more appropriate, that is just as good. Post the new section on your blog.

I have significantly updated my paper by revising the introduction and history of green energy technologies to flow with the rest of the paper (More Past-->Present-->Future, if that makes sense). I have also incorporated my official "Works Cited" into my paper citing the sources I have used thus far, as well as parenthetical citations. View an updated version here.

Additionally, per this assignment's instructions, I have drafted the following new sections.

Solar Power
As mentioned earlier, photovoltaics were discovered in the early 1800s. However, it wasn’t until the mid-1950s that the technology advanced enough (primarily due to the “Space Race”) to become practical and affordable. Nonetheless, cheap coal stifled solar energy research until the energy crisis caused by the Arab Oil Embargo of the 1970s warranted further research into alternative energy sources. The US Government invested heavily in solar energy research, thus leading to a reduction in price of solar panels and other solar implementations. However, the price of fossil fuels declined as solar panel prices fell, which led to a stagnation of research interest, and an eventual rise in solar panel prices (Southface.org)

As happened with nuclear power, countries outside the United States are beginning to significantly diversify their energy sources. For instance, Japan installed 25,000 solar rooftops in 2002 (Southface.org). Large orders such as this will help to lower costs of this technology; however, it will take more than one order of this magnitude to lower the price significantly enough to make it affordable to the masses.

Geothermal Power
Geothermal energy uses the earth’s heat to produce energy. Geothermal energy applications first surfaced in Italy in 1904 with the invention of the first geothermal power plant. Interest in geothermal power stagnated until the 1960s, when the first geothermal power plant was constructed in the United States. However, even though there was a good deal of initial interest, geothermal applications were fairly expensive to implement, and the falling price of coal and fossil fuels led to a further decline in interest (RPEE-CREST).