What if we could use the cold darkness of outer space to cool buildings on earth? In this mind-blowing talk, physicist Aaswath Raman details the technology he's developing to harness "night-sky cooling" — a natural phenomenon where infrared light escapes earth and heads to space, carrying heat along with it — which could dramatically reduce the energy used by our cooling systems (and the pollution they cause). Learn more about how this approach could lead us towards a future where we intelligently tap into the energy of the universe.
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We’ve only been in space for a couple decades and now we are struggling on how to deal with space trash…
How bout you show me one video of a working airlock in space first?
zeebadz10: ‘CT always ‘ should also ask for cornflakes that don’t get soggy because hey, while we’re asking then why not
Space station?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4_JMx986sA
Wow this is amazing, this material is literally something you would expect in some sort of sci-fi movie. Thank you and your peers, sir.
We live in a sci-fi world. We have for the last hundred or so years.
Good.
Mr. Raman is a pretty cool guy.
Brilliant! This has so much potential to improve our environment.
I suppose clouds will block this cooling? Still ideal for deserts.
Not that much. Although they’re very good at reflecting sunlight, they let most IR light through.
Luc Buydens: Maybe it would heat up the clouds from below and cause them to precipitate sooner?
Luc Buydens i think the absorption window model of the atmosphere already accounts for humidity and clouds. So i would assume that clouds dont block the radiation
This is what TED is supposed to be about!
Francis Lai nah. Wage gap!!
A proper TED talk after a long time
we need clothes with that stuff on it asap!!
Like a hat
The solution is having well thermic isolated homes.
With a good isolated room you do not need Air conditioning in summer or heating in winter.
That can be true with mild temperatures, but the majority of cases this is not true. It will definitely help improve efficiency of everything, but with increasing air temperatures, isolating a home will just delay the heat transfer (even at night when the outside is cooler). Not to mention the more people and powered devices inside will heat up the home much faster while isolated without any cooling.
This is completely impractical because you have to have doors and windows. Having completely sealed homes with air locks or whatever is just too impractical, too expensive.
If the electricity is generated from solar, wind, or geothermal energies then cooling systems wouldn’t be attributing to greenhouse gasses, correct?
Perhaps. But why not more solutions, just as skyscrapers have used river water or the like to aid in cooling at lower costs.
How durable is the material- would small scratches cause it to not radiate as well? How expensive would it be at scale?
I’m most skeptical about the scalability of using Hafnium dioxide as one of the layers. Hafnium is pretty rare :/
As with every new techs this is nowhere near optimised for performance or scalability. This is nothing more than a proof of concept, but if they keep working at it this will be aviable to the mass. Excellent use of ancient knowledge and current technology. This guy is a true scientist.
i hope they don’t wait another decade to support these ideas
please, someone send this video to elon musk
Best TED Talk ever
Now this is what ted is supposed to be!
GIVE THIS MAN MONEY SO HE CAN MAKE IT CHEAPER FOR US
Finally a Ted talk that isn’t sjw bs
Using the sun for energy and the space for cooling. Humans are badass…