Word: sunlights
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...rock and derive their energy from inorganic chemicals. The SLIMES are independent of the world above, so even if all of it were burned to a cinder, they would carry on and, given enough time, probably evolve new life-forms able to re-enter the world of air and sunlight...
...sins, Kenley "felt a strong connection with the perpetrator." Standing in the entryway, contemplating his freshly-acquired knowledge of the sins, he was suddenly drawn to the fire extinguisher. The extinguisher showed no directly apparent blemishes. But Kenley's intuition made him look closer, and as he moved, the sunlight illuminating the glass on the extinguisher's case revealed the word "sloth" etched into the glass. It was scratched out and barely visible. It sent a chill up his spine...
This creates an additional conundrum. Because a polluted cloud does not rain itself out, notes University of Colorado atmospheric scientist Brian Toon, it tends to grow larger and last longer, providing a shiny white surface that bounces sunlight out to space. Indeed, one reason the earth has not yet warmed up as much as many anticipated may be due to the tug-of-war between industrial aerosols like sulfuric acid (which reflect heat) and greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (which trap it). Ironically, then, the cost of reducing one kind of pollution may come at the price of intensifying...
...engine to produce thrust powerful enough to boost a spacecraft to a speed of 100 miles a second. It is also possible to build a nuclear-powered jet to do the same job, if the political objections to nuclear spacecraft can be overcome. The quantity of energy available from sunlight or from a nuclear reactor is large enough to take us on trips around our solar system, if we decide to spend the money to do it. We may or may not decide to build a 100-mile-a-second spacecraft within 100 years, but we know that...
...years. The engine would have to deliver about a megawatt of power for every pound of weight of the ship. There is no way an engine that small and that powerful could keep itself cool. Even if the fuel is something exotic like antimatter, carrying far more energy than sunlight or uranium, the problem of cooling the engine remains insuperable. Travel to the stars within this century, using any kind of engine we know how to build, is not going to happen...