Illustrating The Search for Hydrino Energy – Kickstarter project
Support the commissioning of over a hundred beautiful scientific illustrations.
The Book
When Randell Mills emerged in 1991 on the heels of the cold fusion fiasco with a new way to extract energy out of hydrogen, few paid attention. But twenty years later, after 100 million in funding, widely published results, and several generations of prototypes, Mills and his team at BlackLight Power are on the brink of commercializing an explosive new energy source. But there’s a catch: if the hydrino atom exists, it overturns a century of thought and reshapes the paradigm of physics for the twenty-first century.
How do we recognize major discoveries? Great minds from peddling fools? Why are we bound by the inertia of past beliefs? This is an inside look at Mills, his critics and collaborators, experiments and technology, patent battles, and the wide range of his ideas, from atomic theory to cosmology, with historical background. It is a personal journey of discovery, a reflection on the nature of science, and the story of a scientific and technological revolution on the brink.
115,000 words / 400 pages including 100+ illustrations.
Read the introduction here.
The Illustrations
The book is addressed to a wide audience; it has an inviting tone despite conveying information that is sometimes highly technical. An important part of the book’s accessibility will be the 100+ figures and illustrations. I have auditioned several artists and found a wonderful scientific illustrator for the project, Seattle local Matt Schmidt.
The Timeline
The project has been 5 years in writing, and represents 15 years of thought (since I was 17). I am finally submitting the complete full draft of the manuscript to my editor on February 8th, at which time Matt and I will jump into intense development of the illustrations. Throughout February and March, you will be able to watch as the illustrations come in on the blog. If all goes according to plan, I will be publishing the book in September this year (2016).
The Author
Brett Holverstott studied physics and chemistry for three years before completing his undergraduate degree in the philosophy of science in 2007. He worked closely with Mills for 18 months at his facility in New Jersey where he created mathematical workbooks and illustrations for Mills’ theoretical work. He worked remotely for several years afterward and is credited on two papers on molecular modeling. Since, Brett has pursued a career as an architect and writer. This will be his first published work.
Alien Energy Fanzine curated by Alien Energy Research Team (published 2013)
As part of our ongoing collaboration with those involved in marine energy, both in Denmark and in Orkney islands, we developed a ‘fanzine’–a fan magazine, inspired by the cut-and-paste interventions during the 1970s. This handcrafted booklet was composed during a workshop by the Alien Energy research team and many of those we are working with in the marine energy industry.
A fanzine (fan magazine) is often an intervention into existing, dominant understandings; it takes existing material and reformats and repurposes it. We used this paper-based format to explore and experiment with how Science Studies and anthropology approaches could form a dialogue with the marine energy industry and its imaginaries – what might move back and forth?
Read the Alien Energy fanzine (via Issuu)
Credits
Those who participated in the creation of the Alien Energy Fanzine were, the Alien Energy research team (Louise Torntoft Jensen, James Maguire, Laura Watts, Brit Ross Winthereik), and…
Jan Krogh, DanWEC Advisor
Hans Christian Sørensen, Wavedragon
Jens Peter Kofoed, Aalborg University
Gareth Davies, Aquatera, Orkney Islands
Sandy Kerr, Heriot Watt University, Orkney Islands
Enrique Vidal Sanchez, Wavestar
Erik Skaarup, Danish Wave Energy Association
Julia Fernandes Chozas, Aalborg University
Lucy Suchman, Lancaster University
Philippe Bonnet, IT University of Copenhagen
Kjell Yngve Petersen, IT University of Copenhagen
Energyscapes: a seventeenth-century city
The energy provided by wind and water was essential to all members of local communities in the past. Everyone had an interest and a shared responsibility to ensure that watermills and windmills were maintained. This image is an early prospect of the City of Exeter, published in 1617 in the sixth volume of Civitates orbis terrarum by Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg. It depicts the network of watermills located beyond the city walls, in celebration perhaps of the technical control of nature achieved by altering the flow of the water through the landscape. In other words it represents an early ‘energyscape’ bringing power and sustenance to the early modern city. Images like this are important for inviting us to ponder today the long history of renewable energy sources in the landscape, and to consider how concerns about energy security faced communities in the past just as they do today.
The…
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British Gas – Energy’s grand journey to your home illustrated
A number of lovely illustrations sharing info about the gas energy journey.
