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| Acknowledgements | |
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| Prologue | |
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| Questions | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Recommended Reading | |
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| Ancient Days and Modern Times | |
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| Recommended Reading | |
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| Ice-Ages-Past and Future | |
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| The Discovery of Ice Ages | |
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| The Heat Balance of the Earth | |
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| The Sun and Its Spots | |
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| Earth's Orbit | |
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| The Discovery of Elliptical Orbits | |
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| Precession | |
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| Nutation (Wobble) | |
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| Volcanic Dust | |
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| The Cyclical Nature of Ice Ages | |
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| The Croll-Milanković Theory of Ice Ages | |
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| Recommended Reading | |
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| Global Warming Versus Returning Glaciers | |
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| Infrared Radiation and Absolute Temperature | |
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| Greenhouse Gases and Global Warming: Fourier, Tyndall, and Arrhenius | |
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| CO2 and Methane | |
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| The Big Picture | |
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| Recommended Reading | |
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| Earth's Fossil Fuel Supply | |
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| Limits of Fossil Fuels | |
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| Coal | |
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| Natural Gas | |
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| Hydrated Natural Gas | |
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| Oil | |
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| Sequestration of CO2 | |
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| CO2 Level Calculations | |
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| The Unending Carbon Cycle | |
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| Recommended Reading | |
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| Nuclear Power | |
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| Origin of Fuel for Nuclear Fission | |
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| The Energy in Nuclear Fuel | |
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| Nuclear Energy | |
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| Isotopes | |
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| Limits of Nuclear Fuel | |
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| The Basics of Nuclear Fission | |
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| Evolution of Nuclear Reactors | |
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| Present-day Nuclear Reactors and Power Plants | |
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| Used Fuel Rods | |
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| Radiation, Radioactivity, and Health | |
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| Natural Radiation and Radioactive Waste | |
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| Disposal and Storage of Nuclear Waste | |
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| Recommended Reading | |
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| Answers | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Solar Energy | |
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| Using Solar Energy | |
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| Development of Solar Cells | |
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| How Solar Cells Work | |
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| Multiple-layer Solar Cells | |
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| Solar Concentrators and Solar Thermal Systems | |
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| Solar Ponds | |
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| Solar-powered Air Conditioning | |
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| Solar Updraft Towers | |
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| Solar Power Towers | |
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| Other Thoughts and Possibilities | |
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| Recommended Reading | |
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| Wind, Waves, and Tides | |
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| Wind | |
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| Characteristics and Limits of Wind Machines | |
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| Tides | |
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| Newton, the Moon, and the Tides | |
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| Harnessing Tidal Power | |
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| Usable Tidal Energy | |
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| Tidal Currents | |
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| Waves | |
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| Recommended Reading | |
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| Going with the Flow: Water, Dams, and Hydropower | |
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| Basics of Hydroelectric Power | |
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| Water Turbines | |
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| Hydropower Problems | |
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| Hydropower Schemes | |
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| Dam-less Hydropower: Evaporation Schemes | |
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| Dam-less Hydropower: Flowing Water | |
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| Recommended Reading | |
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| Geothermal Energy: Energy from the Earth Itself | |
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| Geothermal Energy | |
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| The Structure of the Earth | |
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| Carnot's Unbreachable Thermodynamic Limit | |
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| Using Water and Soil in Heating and Cooling Systems | |
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| Recommended Reading | |
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| Efficiency, Conservation, and Hybrid Cars | |
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| Efficiency of Fossil Fuel and Nuclear Power Plants | |
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| Cars, Trucks, Trains, Ships, and Planes | |
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| Conservation | |
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| Recommended Reading | |
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| Energy Storage: Macro to Micro | |
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| Pumped Hydropower | |
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| Compressed Air | |
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| Batteries | |
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| Flywheels | |
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| Capacitors and Dielectrics | |
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| Inductors: Storing Energy with Magnetic Fields | |
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| Recommended Reading | |
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| Green Fuel: Biodiesel, Alcohol, and Biomass | |
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| Biodiesel | |
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| Recommended Reading | |
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| Dreams | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Breeding Nuclear Fuel | |
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| Fast Breeder Reactors | |
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| Clinch River Breeder Reactor Project | |
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| Thermal Breeder Reactors | |
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| Breeder Technology Today and Tomorrow | |
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| Recommended Reading | |
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| Nuclear Fusion: Engine of the Sun | |
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| Cold Fusion versus Cool Fusion versus Hot Fusion | |
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| Making Fusion Happen | |
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| ITER, Tokamaks, Magnetic Fields, and Fusion | |
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| The Combined Fusion-Breeding-Fission Process | |
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| Inertial Confinement Fusion | |
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| Accelerator Fusion | |
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| Fusion of Helium-3 and Deuterium | |
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| Lunar Resources of Helium-3 | |
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| Recommended Reading | |
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| Power from the Ocean: Thermal and Salinity Gradients | |
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| Electric Power from Ocean Thermal Gradients | |
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| Electric Power from Ocean Salinity Gradients | |
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| Recommended Reading | |
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| Fuel Cells: Hydrogen, Alcohol, and Coal | |
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| Fuel Cells and Hydrogen | |
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| Fuel Cell Efficiency | |
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| Fuel Cells and Cars | |
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| Storing Hydrogen | |
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| Producing Hydrogen | |
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| Technologies for Hydrogen Production | |
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| Fuel Cells and Coal | |
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| Fuel Cells and Alcohol | |
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| What Happens Now? | |
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| Recommended Reading | |
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| Magnetohydrodynamics and Power Plants | |
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| Faraday Induction and the Hall Effect | |
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| Benefits of MHD Power Generation | |
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| Recommended Reading | |
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| Thermionics and the Single Fuel Home | |
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| How a Thermionic Converter Works | |
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| Engineering Thermionic Systems | |
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| Recommended Reading | |
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| Artificial Photosynthesis and Water Splitting | |
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| Plant Chemistry | |
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| Artificial Photosynthesis and Water Splitting | |
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| Recommended Reading | |
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| Planetary Engineering and Terraforming | |
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| Changing Earth's Albedo: Atmospheric Aerosols | |
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| Tinkering with Planet Earth | |
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| Parasols, Artificial Sunspots, Space Mirrors, Solar Sails, and Space Dust | |
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| White Roads, Reflecting Roofs, and Shiny Balloons | |
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| Back to Clouds Again | |
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| Feeding Algae | |
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| Terraforming Mars (and Maybe Venus) | |
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| What Can Be Done? | |
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| Recommended Reading | |
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| Space Solar Power: Energy and the Final Frontier | |
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| Lagrange and His Famous Points | |
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| Geosynchronous Orbits and Solar Sails | |
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| Beamed-power Microwave Transmission | |
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| Space Elevators | |
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| Electromagnetic Launching | |
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| Recommended Reading | |
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| Nightmares | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Alternative Futures | |
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| Epilogue: ORBITuary | |
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| Credits | |
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| Units for Energy and Power | |
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| Radiation Units | |
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| Index | |