Tom Murphy

Biography

Tom is an associate professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego. This post originally appeared on Tom's blog Do the Math.

Latest articles from Tom

• A Few Easy Pointers to Increase our Energy Efficiency

  Published 07 May 2012 | viewed 504 times

  I have described in a series of posts the efforts my wife and I have made to reduce our energy footprint on a number of…

• How to Slash Domestic Gas Consumption by a Factor of Five

  Published 15 March 2012 | viewed 1,246 times

  If you are on-board with the sentiment that we should strive to reduce the amount of energy we consume as a means to relieve pressure…

• Pilot Lights, What a Waste of Energy!

  Published 07 March 2012 | viewed 1,148 times

  My personal journey into home energy reduction began with taking stock of past energy use as reported on my utility bills. I quickly migrated toward…

• How to Survive in a Future without Fossil Fuels

  Published 28 February 2012 | viewed 1,817 times

  So far on Do the Math, I’ve put out a lot of negative energy—whatever that means. Topics have often focused on what we can’t do,…

• Which Alternative Energies will Lead us into the Future?

  Published 27 February 2012 | viewed 2,846 times

  When I first approached the topic of societal energy in 2004, I became aware for the first time that our energy future was not in…

• The Age of Fossil Fuels is Far From Over

  Published 15 February 2012 | viewed 1,784 times

  Having looked at the major alternatives to fossil fuel energy production (summarized here), we come away with the general sentiment that the easy days of…

• The Energy Mix that will help us Survive without Fossil Fuels

  Published 07 February 2012 | viewed 2,447 times

  Breathe, Neo. I’ve been running a marathon lately to cover all the major players that may provide viable alternatives to fossil fuels this century. Even…

• Nuclear Fusion: The Power Source of the Future...the Far Off Future

  Published 01 February 2012 | viewed 3,085 times

  Ah, fusion. Long promised, both on Do the Math and in real life, fusion is regarded as the ultimate power source—the holy grail—the “arrival” of…

• Our Energy Future: Can the Ocean Provide for all our Energy Needs?

  Published 25 January 2012 | viewed 1,379 times

  With the exception of tidal energy, our focus thus far has been on land-based energy sources. Meanwhile, the ocean absorbs a prodigious fraction of the…

• The Different Ways in Which Solar Energy can Power the World

  Published 18 January 2012 | viewed 3,993 times

  Who hasn’t enjoyed heat from the sun? Doing so represents a direct energetic transfer—via radiation—from the sun’s hot surface to your skin. One square meter…

• Geothermal's Potential as a Serious Energy Source

  Published 16 January 2012 | viewed 2,607 times

  The Earth started its existence as a red-hot rock, and has been cooling ever since. It’s still quite toasty in the core, and will remain…

• What the Future Holds for Nuclear Power

  Published 05 January 2012 | viewed 3,177 times

  A recent thrust on Do the Math has been to sort our renewable energy options into “abundant,” “potent,” and “niche” boxes. This is a reflection…

• A Detailed Look at Hydroelectricity's Potential

  Published 04 January 2012 | viewed 1,021 times

  Having now sorted solar, wind, and tidal power into three “boxes,” let’s keep going and investigate another source of non-fossil energy and put it in…

• How Viable is Tidal Power for the Future?

  Published 14 December 2011 | viewed 2,251 times

  Now is the time on Do the Math when we scan the energy landscape for viable alternatives to fossil fuels. In this post, we’ll look…

• Solar vs. Wind - Who Wins?

  Published 07 December 2011 | viewed 3,897 times

  For me, the most delightful turn of events in the ultimate nerd-song “Particle Man” by They Might Be Giants, is that after introducing (in order…

• Human Fuel: How Many MPG Can We Get Out of Our Bodies

  Published 30 November 2011 | viewed 1,291 times

  Three previous posts have focused on transportation efficiency of gasoline cars, electric cars, and on the practicalities of solar-powered cars. What about personal-powered transport—namely, walking…

• Will we Ever See Solar Powered Cars on the Road?

  Published 24 November 2011 | viewed 2,186 times

  If you like the sun, and you like cars, then I’m guessing you’d love to have a solar-powered car, right? This trick works well for…

• Solving the Energy Storage Problem

  Published 16 November 2011 | viewed 2,586 times

  If we adopt solar and wind as major components of our energy infrastructure as we are weaned from fossil fuels, we have to solve the…

• Biofuels: Not the Savior we Hoped For

  Published 09 November 2011 | viewed 2,412 times

  When we enter the decline phase of conventional oil—likely before 2020—we will scramble to fill the gap with alternative liquid fuels. The Hirsch Report of…

• Peak Oil - Why We need to Plan Now

  Published 04 November 2011 | viewed 4,610 times

  It was by teaching a course on energy in 2004 that I first became aware of the enormous challenges facing our society this century. In…