Explaining Science With Ten Hundred Words!
Author: Anthony Darby; Published: Apr 26, 2013; Category: Energy, Energy Education; Tags: energy education, STEM, Technology; Comments: Comments Off
Ask an engineer what they do for a living and sometimes you’ll get a mouthful of jargon and very little understanding of what he or she actually studies.
That’s where the “Ten Hundred Words of Science” challenge comes in. Inspired by internet comic artist Randall Munroe, who recently used only the 1,000 most common words in the English language to describe the Saturn V rocket, scientists from every field are now experimenting with this limited word list to explain their own work.
Go HERE to view parse impenetrable scientific terminology into everyday language when describing complex science!
One example is the web comic panel “The Up-Goer Five” shown as a snapshot below. In this annotated blueprint, he describes each piece of the complex rocket that took American astronauts to the moon, eliminating complicated technical terms in favor of explanations everyone can understand.
Cool stuff!
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Space? Petroleum Engineering? Yes, There’s a Connection!
Author: Anthony Darby; Published: Apr 4, 2013; Category: Energy, Energy Education; Tags: Earth, energy education, Engineering Careers, Petroleum, SPE, STEM; Comments: Comments Off
Just like with any industry, there is always an eye to the future. This also rings true regarding the future of petroleum engineering. In the March issue of the Journal of Petroleum Technology (JPT), an article titled “Exploring the Deep Earth and Deep Space: What role does the petroleum industry play?” dove deep into the subject.
The article has interesting points about the future of petroleum engineering in space including how exciting hydrocarbon discoveries of mind-bending quantities are being made in the far reaches of our solar system and even in our own Milky Way galaxy.
It also references a new paper by scientists on NASA’s Cassini-Huygens mission, which finds that blocks of hydrocarbon ice might float upon the surface of existing lakes and seas of liquid methane, and ethane on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.
Keeping alive the interplay between advances in understanding deep Earth, deep space, and the needs of the petroleum industry may lead us to a future shaped more by the intersection of these pursuits.
What do you think? Would you take your career to space?
Send us a note to energyed@SPE.org if you would like a copy of the article.
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Report Says U.S. on Track to Produce More Domestic Crude Oil Than it Imports
Author: Anthony Darby; Published: Mar 21, 2013; Category: Energy, Energy Education; Tags: energy challenges, energy education; Comments: Comments Off
For those of you living in the United States, we wanted to share an interesting finding from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). According to their March energy report, the U.S. is on track to produce more domestic crude oil than it imports from overseas sources by the end of 2013. Furthermore, the report says that when it happens, it will be the first time since February 1995 that domestic crude production has outstripped imports.
According to the report, increased shale oil production in Texas and North Dakota gets the credit for this shift, with some estimates suggesting that domestic sources will be out-producing imports by as much as two million barrels per day by the end of next year. What’s more, monthly U.S. crude production could even reach eight million barrels per day in 2014, highs not seen since 1988.
Here is EIA’s chart showing the long-term trend:
Visit HERE for more on this EIA’s report. What do you think of the report’s findings?
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Disclaimer: This blog post, is in no way, a direct reflection of Energy4me or any of it’s constituents. The purpose is to serve simply as a news source of applicable industry news.
IEA Says U.S. to be Biggest Oil Producer by 2020
Author: Anthony Darby; Published: Nov 15, 2012; Category: Energy, Energy Education; Tags: energy education, natural gas, oil, Petroleum; Comments: Comments Off
According to a new forecast by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the United States will overtake Saudi Arabia to become the world’s biggest oil producer before 2020 and will be energy independent 10 years later.
The U.S. is experiencing an oil boom in large part thanks to high world prices and new technologies, including hydraulic fracturing, according to the report, that have made the extraction of oil and gas from shale rock commercially viable.
“The United States, which currently imports around 20% of its total energy needs, becomes all but self sufficient in net terms — a dramatic reversal of the trend seen in most other energy importing countries,” the IEA stated.
Iraq is set to become the second largest oil exporter by the 2030s, as it expands output to take advantage of demand from fast growing Asian economies.
Read the IEA report in the World Energy Outlook HERE.
What are your thought s on this projection? What does this news mean in your part of the world? How will it affect you?
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Save Money, Be Energy Efficient!
Author: Anthony Darby; Published: Sep 13, 2012; Category: Education outreach, Energy, Energy Education; Tags: Education, Energy Conservation, energy education; Comments: Comments Off
Did you know that a typical American family spends nearly $2,000 per year on their home energy bills? With much of that money, however, is wasted on air leaks and drafts- accoring to www.Energy.gov. Here’s a new blog post courtesy of the site!
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With fall right around the corner — and cooler temperatures on their way — we are relaunching our EnergySaver.gov website with fresh updates that will help you and your family save money by saving energy.
Our Energy Saver site is well known for practical tips and advice on making homes more energy efficient, but we’re adding a new feature called “Savings Projects” — articles with easy, step-by-step, do-it-yourself instructions to home energy efficiency improvements that will save you money. The first two projects, which focus on caulking and weatherstripping, explain how to seal air leaks around windows and door frames, with information on the expected costs and the time needed to complete each project. Each one will provide visitors to the site with low-cost ways to lower their energy bills.
Energy Saver Tips, one of the site’s most popular features, offers practical ideas for reducing household energy consumption — such as using a programmable thermostat to reduce heating and cooling bills or upgrading light bulbs to save money. The site also provides information about local tax credits, rebates and energy efficiency financing that may be available in your community.
As part of this upgrade, we’ve also incorporated EnergySaver.gov into our Energy.gov platform, which will give it more visibility and make it easier to access important Energy Saver content from throughout the agency’s website.
The bottom line is this: saving energy saves you money. In many cases, families can cut their energy bills by as much as 20 or 30 percent by making energy efficiency upgrades like the ones found on EnergySaver.gov. And don’t forget to bookmark the site, because we’ll continue to add new “Savings Projects” and other valuable information that will help you and your family save money by saving energy.
Read more at http://energy.gov/articles/new-energysavergov-save-money-saving-energy. Join the conversation on Facebook— www.Facebook.com/Energy4me. You can also connect with us on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/Energy4me!
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The story of petroleum and how it shapes our world. Also download lesson plans that relate to the book.
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