The Next Really Cool Thing by Thomas Friedman

Friedman, T. (2009, March 14). The New York Times. Retrieved March 29, 2009, from The Next Really Cool Thing: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/opinion/15friedman.html

In the opening this article, Friedman gives us the knowledge that the rumors of changing coal to vegetable oil and also the hydrogen powered car are in fact, impossible. With my small amount of knowledge of energy, I had believed this all the way until now. "If I had a dime for every time I’ve heard one of those stories, I could buy my own space shuttle," was Friedman's response to these stories he has heard in reference to using random natural resources and converting them into energy. However, there is an even better 'really cool thing' that scientists have discovered, hence the name of this article.
"The way the N.I.F. works is that all 192 lasers pour their energy into a target chamber, which looks like a giant, spherical, steel bathysphere that you would normally use for deep-sea exploration," is the quote used by Friedman in describing the initial process of this 'really cool thing.' With this process, the outcome is eventually a pellet that carries more heat and more energy than the sun itself, that would give these pellets the ability to drive a turbine and heat homes using that energy. These pellets would be "carbon-free, globally available, safe and secure and could be integrated seamlessly into our current electric grid," says Friedman. Cool huh?
These pellets are still in the testing stage, however, and is said to be complete in about 3 or 4 years.
After reading this article, I became really excited to learn that they have found a potentially new way to convert energy using an environmentally safe resource. I believe we are on our way to saving this planet after all. :)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/opinion/15friedman.html (link to this article)