Ned Rasor, Oтец термоэмиссионного преобразователь энергии

Поскольку у Nedа всегда было очень много друзей в сообществе термоэмиссий из России, я попытался рассказать его историю на русском языке с помощью «Google Translate». Надеюсь, ты сможешь это прочитать.EK

    Мне было грустно узнать, что Ned Rasor скончался из-за Covid-19 в канун прошлого года. Мне посчастливилось познакомиться с несколькими очень умными людьми в своей жизни, и Ned был поистине гением.

   Ned был известен созданием термоэмиссионного преобразования энергии. Фактически, Thomas Edison первым открыл это, но не знал, что это такое. Он увидел, что стекло возле углеродных нитей его первых лампочек через некоторое время почернело, но не знал почему. Поэтому он назвал это "Edison Effect," естественно, но не объяснил, что это было и как это произошло. Оказывается, его лампочки работали от постоянного напряжения, а отрицательная часть горячей углеродной нити испускала электроны и выделяла ионы углерода, когда на нее воздействовали положительные ионы. Углерод осаждается на стеклянной части колбы. Использование тепла для кипения электронов стало известно как термоэмиссия, и Нед стал одним из величайших мировых экспертов по этому вопросу.

    Ned полагал, что если бы у него была трубка, заполненная радиоактивным ядерным топливом, она бы начала испускать электроны, и он мог бы собирать электроны и производить электричество! Так родился термоэмиссионный ядерный реактор. Каждый раз, когда он придумывал решение, возникала проблема, но он находил встречное решение и другое встречное решение, и через некоторое время эта чертова штука начинала работать. Компании и правительства всего мира стремились создать эти ядерные реакторы для космических кораблей, которые должны были отправиться на Луну, Марс или в дальний космос.

    Все это произошло в 1950-х и 1960-х, до меня. Я познакомился с ним около 1980 года. Однажды я представил его коллеге как «дедушку термоэлектроники», и это его немного рассердило.

    «Elliot, я слишком молод, чтобы быть дедушкой!» он протестовал. Так что с тех пор я называл его «дядей термоэмиссии». Казалось, это его удовлетворило. 

    Ned и несколько других ученых, включая меня, разделяли общее видение того, что термоэмиссионная версия должна стать международным усилием ядерных космических держав, во многом подобно термоядерной энергии и International Space Station. Мы должны использовать ядерную энергию для совместной колонизации космического пространства. Крупные державы не должны бороться за право оспаривать незначительные религиозные разногласия на Middle East не имеющие стратегического значения для истории человечества.

    Несмотря на это общее видение, мы с Nedом все время ссорились. На мой взгляд, Термоэмиссия была его дочерью - э-э, племянницей - и по мере того, как она росла, она начала приобретать собственную личность и расти способами, которые он не мог предвидеть. Подобно тому, как родителям трудно отпустить ребенка, изобретателю трудно увидеть, как ребенок формирует новые отношения, в которые не входит папа. Тем не менее, я уверен, что Ned мог бы интерпретировать иначе, и это могло бы не льстить мне.

     Тем не менее технология Nedа имела поразительный успех. Наши коллеги в России объявили в конце 1980-х, что они запустили термоэмиссионный ядерный реактор в космос.

    Это вызвало шок в американском аэрокосмическом истеблишменте. Многие из них не могли поверить, что изобретение Rasorа действительно работает. Другие не могли поверить, что российские ученые так далеко опередили американцев. В этом бизнесе неловко, когда вы говорите, что что-то невозможно сделать, а потом кто-то действительно это делает, а затем запускает это в космос, а вы все еще спорите, почему это невозможно.

    Но Ned действительно не считал это личной победой. Он сказал мне: «Эллиот, я сконструировал эти устройства 25 лет назад. Сейчас они для меня старомодны. Скучно! Теперь мы можем добиться большего. Я хочу увидеть, как используется новое поколение термоэлектронных преобразователей».

   Ned делал и многое другое. Например, однажды он сделал термоэмиссионный кардиостимулятор с ядерным источником энергии и испытал его на собаке по кличке «Tick», которую он в конце концов взял в качестве домашнего питомца. У него было несколько других медицинских устройств, которые просто как бы всплыли в его сознании и стали изобретениями, хотя он на самом деле намеренно не решил стать специалистом по медицинским приборам.

   Расскажу одну глупую историю про Nedа. Однажды мы были на конференции в бывшей Республике Грузия, как раз в то время, когда Советский Союз распадался, и курсы обмена валют были очень благоприятными для американцев. Так что у нас была возможность совершить поездку по местному рынку. Мы наткнулись на местный стенд, где продавали украшения, на мой необразованный взгляд, несколько напоминающие стиль Ближнего Востока. Мы не были экспертами, но могли сказать, что это настоящие драгоценные камни, но продавались по очень низким ценам, например, всего несколько долларов.

   Ned посмотрел на них и сказал: «Ого, это действительно дешево! Может, мне стоит купить немного для Genny».

   Всегда было так ясно, что Ned действительно любит и уважает свою жену Genny. Он всегда думал о ней, когда был в отъезде.

   Я сказал: «Ned, я знаю, что ты гений и знаешь гораздо больше, чем я ... но я считаю, что знаю Дженни достаточно хорошо, чтобы сказать, что если ты найдешь для нее подарок, у него должен быть какой-то другой атрибут, помимо того, что он действительно дешевый. ! "

   Ned засмеялся и согласился, признав, что не имеет никакого эстетического представления о модных украшениях. На этот раз он последовал моему совету.

   Ned обладал невероятной энергией и энтузиазмом к науке и исследованиям и смог привлечь к работе на себя самых умных и хороших людей.

   Я продолжал с интересом следить за его последними статьями. Даже на пенсии он создавал новые способы повышения эффективности термоэлектронных преобразователей. Я думаю, что некоторые из них тоже могут сработать.

Ned Rasor, the Father of Thermionic Energy Conversion

 

I was sad to learn that Ned Rasor passed away due to Covid this past New Year's Eve. I have been lucky to know a number of very smart people in my life, and Ned was truly a genius.

Ned was famous for creating thermionic energy conversion.  Actually, Thomas Edison discovered it first, but did not know what it was.  He saw that the glass near the carbon filaments of his early light bulbs turned black after a while, but didn't know why. So he called it the "Edison Effect," naturally enough, but did not really explain what it was or how it happened.  It turns out that his light bulbs operated on DC voltage, and the negative part of the hot carbon filament emitted electrons and gave off carbon ions when positive ions impacted  it.  The carbon would deposit on the glass part of the bulb. The use of heat to boil of electrons came to be known as thermionic emission, and Ned became one of the world's greatest experts on the subject. 

Ned figured, if he had a tube filled with radioactive nuclear fuel, it would start to emit electrons, and he could collect the electrons and make electricity!  So thus was born the thermionic nuclear reactor.  Every time he came up with a solution there was a problem, but he came up with a counter solution, and a counter-counter solution, and after a while the darn thing started to work. Companies and governments around the world stared to actually make these nuclear reactors for spacecraft that were intended to go to the moon or Mars, or deep space.   

All this happened in the 1950s and 1960s, before my time.  I met him around 1980.  I once introduced him to a colleague as the "Granddaddy of thermionics," and that made him a little mad.  

"Elliot, I'm too young to be the Granddaddy!" he protested.  So from then on I called him the Uncle of Thermionics.  That seemed to satisfy him.

Ned and several other scientists including myself shared a common vision that thermionic version should be an international effort among the nuclear spacefaring nations, much like fusion energy and the International Space Station.  

Despite that common vision, Ned and I used to squabble all the time.  As I saw it, Thermionics was his baby--er, niece--and as she grew she started to take on a personality of her own and grow in ways that he could not have predicted. Just as it is tough for a parent to let go of a child, an inventor has a hard time seeing the child form new relationships that do not involve Uncle.  That said, I am certain that Ned would have a different interpretation, and it might not be flattering to me.  

Nevertheless, Ned's technology was an amazing success.  Our colleagues in Russia had announced in in the late 1980s that they had launched a thermionic nuclear reactor into outer space.

This sent shock waves through the American aerospace establishment.  Many of them couldn't believe Rasor's invention actually worked. Others could not believe the Russian scientists were so far ahead of the Americans. It always sucks in this business when you say something can't be done, and then someone hauls off and does it, and then launches it into outer space, while you are still arguing why it is impossible.  

But Ned really, truly did not regard it as a personal victory.  He told me, "Elliot, I designed those devices 25 years ago. They are old fashioned to me now. Boring!  We can do better now.  I want to see a new generation of thermionic converters being used."  

Ned did many other things as well.  For example, once he made a thermionic pacemaker with a nuclear power source, and tested it in a dog named "Tick" that he eventually adopted as a pet. He had several other medical devices that just sort of popped into his consciousness and became inventions, without his really having intentionally set out to be a medical instrumentation specialist.  

I'll tell one silly story about Ned.  One time we were at a conference in the former Republic of Georgia, right at the time when the Soviet Union was dissolving and currency exchange rates were very favorable for Americans. So we had the chance to tour the local marketplace.  We came upon a local stand where they were selling jewelry, to my uneducated eye somewhat similar to a Middle Eastern kind of style. We were not experts, but we could tell, they were real gemstones, but were being sold for prices that made no sense, like only a few dollars.  

Ned looked them over and said, "Wow, this stuff is really cheap!  Maybe I should buy some for Genny."

It was always so clear that Ned really loved and revered his wife Genny. He was always thinking of her when he was away. 

I said, "Ned, I know you are a genius and know far more than me....but I believe I know Genny well enough to say if you find a present for her, it should have some other attribute besides being really cheap!"

Ned laughed and agreed, and admitted he had no aesthetic sense for what constituted fashionable jewelry.  For once he took my advice.

Ned had unbelievable energy and enthusiasm for science and research, and was able to attract some of the smartest--and nicest--people to work for him.  

I continued to follow his recent papers with interest. Even in his retirement, he was creating new ways to make thermionic converters operate more efficiently.  I think some of them might work, too.  

   

By Any Means Necessary-Malcolm X and Donald Trump Share Some Common Ground

 

What?  Did I just compare 1960's Civil Rights radical Malcolm X to President Trump?  Yes, and Americans,  have never really understood either one.  

Malcolm X had a cause that he believed in passionately and he believed in fighting for that cause passionately, even though he understood that the majority was against him, even within the African-American community.  He regularly feuded with Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and had several pet nicknames for him, some of  which cannot be repeated here because they just do not meet social correctness standards of the present century.  Understand, Malcolm X was not about establishing rules of Democracy. He did not just say, "Gee, I've been outvoted!  Well, golly, I'll pack up and go home now."  No, realizing he was in the minority within a minority, he nevertheless solidiered on, fighting for his cause, by any means necessary. 

Those words have a chilling effect on mainstream society and well they might.  MIght they imply protests? Work stoppages?  Boycotts? Political tampering? Some sort of paramilitary action?  Maybe.  If it is necessary to achieve the goal, yes.  

Now, in my personal opinion, I felt that towards the end of his life Malcolm X, started to moderate his views somewhat, and was not interested in creating chaos for the sake of chaos.   But his assassination curtailed that chapter in his life so we will never know how it might have turned out.  

The liberal left has a great deal of difficulty understanding the appeal that the President had to African Americans in the last election, figuring that that the Biden-Harris ticket should have pocketed all those votes more or less automatically. 

Malcolm X was frequently critical of white liberals, comparing them to foxes, while conservatives were more like scary wolves, and African Americans were compared to sheep.  The foxes might seem cute and appealling, but somehow they are the ones that eat lamb chops every night. That line would get a big laugh at his speeches.  White people may not find it so amusing. 

Hence some African-Americans, especially those who favor self reliance and who are suspicious of over-dependence on white liberals, were willing to vote Republican in the last election, though the majority still sided with the Democrats. Some might even be considered to be on the radical left, but were more comfortable with the wolfish Trump rather than foxy Biden.  

President Trump is like Malcolm X in the sense that he also has a cause that he is passionate about and will fight for. He too will fight to win by any means necessary and is not committed to the democratic process any more than Malcolm X was.  If the election did not work, his only question is whether there are other alternatives through the legislature, the courts, the military or some other mechanism that might be used to stay in power.  All that matters is, will it work?  

Thus, it should not be shocking that the President is seeking to overturn the results of the election.The democratic process is not number one on his agenda. 

It is not insane to support the President, just as it was not insane to support Malcolm X.  Reasonable people can disagree about what is reasonable to support. Definitely the alternative to President Trump--Joe Biden as the lawfully elected representative of the American people--is a very poor candidate, the result of a party that has too much power and was able to successfully exclude younger capable candidates.    However, supporting President Trump's ill-advised attempts to stay in office is incompatible with democracy as with we know it.  Americans will have to choose between Trumpism and the will of the people, because they are simply not the same.  Trump seeks to win by any means necessary, not by vote of the Electoral College. 

Chadwick Boseman, Movie Hero Among Heros

 I am stunned by the news of the passing of Chadwick Boseman, who was not just a movie star for me, but an iconic cultural revolution.  I don't really know much about Boseman as a person, but his portrayal of T'Challa, the Chief of Wakanda,  Black Panther was enough to cement his place in history. 

This is not just a movie.  It is the first time Hollywood--as a true reflection of American society-- overcame its stupid racism long enough to make an Afrocentric superhero movie.  I believe it has unleashed a vision, a dream deferred that may awaken the imagination of millions of people

For decades Hollywood turned up its nose at rowdy Stan Lee and Marvel comics, ever since the first superhero movie (Robin Hood, in 1939).  Nobody in Hollywood thought paying customers would want to watch the likes of Spider-man or Captain-America, and if they were worried about those fellows they were absolutely petrified of Africans with their own superhero.  The cultural ramifications were enormous. 

You know what?  They were right.  They showed for the first time a VISION of a leader striving for social justice in an unjust world.  They also showed African controlling advanced technologies at the cutting edge of global advancement.

If you look at past superhero movies set in Africa (such as Tarzan or the Phantom), the African people are poor and technologically backward.  They really need a white fellow to tell them what to do and to save them from bad guys.  

The Black Panther, on the other hand, is visually stunning and beautiful.  If there were no superheros and no action in it all, it would be a great movie because of the lush scenery and the beautiful African costumes, that combine traditionalism and the modern world.  The people never chose to give up their culture to act like westerners.  They kept their culture while advancing in high tech, thanks to their accomplishments, which started with a near magic metal, but spread to metals and other high tech beyond the capabilities of even Stark Industries.  

This is the vision I believe America needs.  Yes, you can be an African kid and you can be on a spaceship that colonizes Mars.  You can invent medicine that cures cancer. You can build a building taller than anyone else has ever built before.  You can do all of these things, and you don't have to give up your identity, your roots or your culture.  This is the vision for  America.

Hollywood, despite its wretchedness and racism was amazed to find that people actually watched a movie about Africans.  The Marvel Crew, with direction and production that relied heavily upon a culturally diverse crew (i.e, with the white guys doing their best to stay out of the way this time) knocked it out of the park yet again.  

My prediction is it is going to change the way children think about themselves.   Superheroes help us to dare to do the impossible.  Up until Black Panther, American expectations for persons of African descent were much more limited.  Truly, fairy tales and superheros have a role in the human psyche.  The ability to dream powerful dreams is very important.  The suppression of these dreams, even in a movie, may seem like a minor thing, but to me it was very wrong and it persisted for decades.  

Chadwick Boseman and his colleagues smashed the stereotypes into pieces. It was a masterpiece, and freeing on so many levels.  

A similar story could be written about Gal Gadot and Wonder Woman.  For decades, Hollywood would not let a female superheroine have her own story, and would not let real-world women direct or produce it.  I can't wait to see the next Wonder Woman.

But the next Black Panther movie will have something missing in it.   I cannot believe that Chadwick is gone.  God bless you and your family, friends and fans.  Your contribution will never be forgotten and it is only now starting to be appreciated.  

Froschauer Bible pictures

List of Johannes Kennel's children.

The Right to Infect

Just because a man makes the decision to use a condom does not mean he is weak and fears becoming pregnant, so why does it offend someone's sense of masculinity to wear a mask to protect others from potential transmission of Covid-19?  

A man wears a condom to protect someone he loves from getting a dreaded disease or having an unwanted pregnancy, right?  So everyone, men and women, should willingly wear masks and gloves to slow down the transmission of Covid-19, by the same logic. 

Then I realized how foolish and naive I am.  The fact of the matter is that in this society, it is indeed a sign of great weakness to wear a condom and to give consideration to the needs of others.  The numbers say that there are enormous numbers of HIV, HERPES, STD and unwanted pregnancies routinely transmitted. The New York Times reported that at any point in time there are 110 million sexually transmitted diseases in the US.  I found that number hard to believe, but checking with the Center for Disease Control in the US, they claim there are 24 million new cases of sexually transmitted cases per year.  That is several times higher than the birth rate.  So totally preventable diseases are more or less freely transmitted in American society.  It is the norm.  

The numbers show that men surely do NOT protect their lovers from these terrible outcomes.  I joked about men having no fear of becoming pregnant, but they are not afraid of getting women pregnant, either.   Condom companies are obviously lousy investments, because evidently almost nobody is using them.  

If you are one of the few men who are using a condom, God bless you.

Evidently, however, many men are willfully transmitting these diseases to women who foolishly trust that their men are telling the truth that they do not have the ability to transmit these diseases ("trust me, I'm sure I'm clean, baby") or that they are willing to be responsible for the outcome ("of course I'll respect you in the morning!").  These are lies, of course.  Numbers this huge cannot be accidental.  There is a very high probability of transmitting the disease, not like Covid-19 in which at any point in time the chances of being a transmitting carrier is rather low.  

Hence, there is a pervasive belief in the right to infect others, and the right to lie.  So if men are not going to wear condoms and are willing to tell lies in order to avoid using them, they sure as hell do not care one iota about wearing a mask to save your life from Covid-19.  Get serious.  Protecting the health of a random member of the public from a serious but usually temporary illness is just not that high of a priority once they have deliberately given their lover a disease that may have lifetime implications. 

Only a minority of people are considerate enough to take even the smallest of actions to help each other..  The rest are just going to cough on you and feel that it is part of their constitutional rights.   It probably isn't, but you would have to go to court to prove it, so good luck with that.     

For that matter, if you get too close, you may also wind up with herpes, AIDS, venereal disease and what will you name the baby?   

No mask.

No condom.

No responsibility. 

No regrets.

In that context, it is very understandable why many people, especially men are offended by the idea of being asked to wear a mask.  Sadly, it is considered un-American by many of us and will take a long time to change.  

I'm wearing my masks and gloves anyway, to protect even stupid people who believe I am un-American and unmasculine.  I accept those terms.   

So Why are New Cases of Covid-19 Decreasing in Sweden?

Why are new cases per capita of Covid-19 apparently decreasing in Sweden even as critics blast the country for failing to control the disease?  This is a statistically significant trend.   I wish to make up my own mind about the situation and I find that the story lines published in media do not make logical sense to me.  

Briefly, the situation is that the Swedish government imposed fewer mandatory restrictions on young, healthy people, while asking older, more vulnerable people to try to isolate themselves.  The rest of the world asked everyone to isolate, healthy or not.  The Swedish idea was that the general population would build up some level of resistance to the disease, keeping in mind that this disease has no cure and that there are no established right answers to refer to.  

This suggests to me that the world urgently needs to be open minded and try to study and learn from what others are doing.  Okay, the entire world has made mistakes starting with the highest medical authorities in the world, but we all have a job to do to look after one another, so let's assign blame later, shall we?  

If the Swedish concept was wrong, what we should have seen is a widespread exponential increase among the young less isolated young people, while the  more isolated elderly people should be about the same as other like countries, right?

Instead, we see the opposite.  The death rate among the elderly was very high early on, among the  highest in Europe.  The incidence of new cases in Sweden is now seen to be significantly decreasing.  This is the exact opposite of what the critics predicted.

Incidentally,  I have noticed that Swedish data for new cases goes up and down with a seven day cycle, apparently because their test rate varies during the week.  I have plotted the per capita new infection rate for Sweden (blue) compared to the same stat for Ohio (red), where I live.  Of course there are a number of variables that affect the number of cases, but Ohio is generally thought to have had a well controlled situation especially early on, while Sweden has become a target for world criticism.    Nevertheless, for months they  tracked similarly, at about 50 new cases per day per million residents (Sweden has about 10.2 million residents, Ohio 11.7 million so we are similar populations too).  Recently Ohio has attempted to restart its economy and is seeing a rise in the number of new cases.  

According to NPR's Bill Chappell, (Swedish Disease Expert Calls WHO's COVID-19 Warning 'A Total Mistake' June 26, 2020) Swedish state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell says  Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, the WHO's regional director for Europe,  made "a total mistake"when it concluded Sweden is seeing a surge of coronavirus cases. Kluge said on Thursday that Sweden, among others, has "accelerated transmission has led to very significant resurgence that if left unchecked will push health systems to the brink once again in Europe." 

Tegnell claims that this big June surge is simply due to increased testing. 

Okay.....so.....IS IT TRUE?   Since peaking on June 24, the Swedish incidence of new cases, is headed distinctly lower.   Are they reporting fake data?  Deaths peaked on April 15 and have been steadily decreasing ever since.  Is it TRUE OR FAKE?  

I've heard some experts say that Swedish society is way for away from being able to resist the disease based on the percentage of people who have antibodies present.  Well, I'm not an expert but it seems to me that  people do not fully understand this disease.  Although many experts are disappointed in the percentage of the population in Sweden and elsewhere that carry Covid-19 antibodies, others have questioned the role that T cells (T lymphocytes) might play in augmenting the human immune system. I'll have to defer to the experts to determine whether T-cells actually change the equation for resisting and slowing down the disease.  Maybe antibodies, T-cells, social distancing and some other x-factor all have roles to play and we ought not just dismiss it as nonsense.  

I think everyone agrees that Sweden would like to have changed procedures to better protect the elderly, because the death rate as of April 15 was much too high, but that's not what this is about, is it?  The question was whether they can avoid the catastrophe of an exponential increase in which  a large fraction of the entire society is ill simultaneously and overloads the medical system.  Instead, we all  hoped to "flatten the curve" to avert a shortage of hospital beds at least until a vaccine or medicines are created.  

I do not wish to use the term "herd immunity" because it is so emotionally charged now that it is a meaningless term.  But what I do want to say is the following:  the numbers now say the number of new cases of Covid-19 peaked on June 24 and have decreased by a statistically significant amount in Sweden, to the point that they are now significantly lower than the numbers in Ohio and the US as a whole.  Either the Swedish government is lying or is not testing or....perhaps it is not so ridiculous to suggest they are succeeding in controlling this disease.  

       

One thing is for sure, there is no let up in relentless criticism of Sweden from the highest levels of international organizations down to supermarket tabloids.

      

Boycott Swedish meatballs at the grocery store if you must.  However, it behooves us to determine whether the numbers are correct before concluding we have nothing to learn from the approach this highly advanced country has taken.