First-ever global life cycle assessment of renewable energy future
Trondheim, Norway (SPX) Oct 07, 2014 -
A future where electricity comes mostly from low-carbon sources is not only feasible in terms of material demand, but will significantly reduce air pollution, a study published in the 6 October Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says.
An international team led by Edgar Hertwich and Thomas Gibon from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology conducted the first-ever gl ...
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New Absorber Will Lead to Better Biosensors
Evanston IL (SPX) Oct 07, 2014 -
Biological sensors, or biosensors, are like technological canaries in the coalmine. By converting a biological response into an optical or electrical signal, they can alert us to dangers in our external and internal environments.
They can sense toxic chemicals and particles in the air and enzymes, molecules, and antibodies in the body that could indicate diabetes, cancer, and other disease ...
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The World's 10 Biggest Energy Gluttons
Washington DC (SPX) Oct 07, 2014 -
Next time you get into your car and drive to the supermarket, think about how much energy you consume on an annual basis. It is widely assumed that Westerners are some of the world's worst energy pigs. While Americans make up just 5 percent of the global population, they use 20 percent of its energy, eat 15 percent of its meat, and produce 40 percent of the earth's garbage.
Europeans and p ...
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Batteries included: A solar cell that stores its own power
Columbus OH (SPX) Oct 07, 2014 -
Is it a solar cell? Or a rechargeable battery? Actually, the patent-pending device invented at The Ohio State University is both: the world's first solar battery.
In the October issue of the journal Nature Communications, the researchers report that they've succeeded in combining a battery and a solar cell into one hybrid device.
Key to the innovation is a mesh solar panel, which all ...
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Crumpled graphene could provide an unconventional energy storage
Boston MA (SPX) Oct 07, 2014 -
When someone crumples a sheet of paper, that usually means it's about to be thrown away. But researchers have now found that crumpling a piece of graphene "paper" - a material formed by bonding together layers of the two-dimensional form of carbon - can actually yield new properties that could be useful for creating extremely stretchable supercapacitors to store energy for flexible electronic de ...
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Fast, cheap nanomanufacturing
Boston MA (SPX) Oct 07, 2014 -
Luis Fernando Velasquez-Garcia's group at MIT's Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) develops dense arrays of microscopic cones that harness electrostatic forces to eject streams of ions.
The technology has a range of promising applications: depositing or etching features onto nanoscale mechanical devices; spinning out nanofibers for use in water filters, body armor, and "smart" text ...
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Nanoparticles Break the Symmetry of Light
Vienna, Austria (SPX) Oct 07, 2014 -
Nanoparticles can emit light into ultra-thin glass fibres. Physicists at the Vienna University of Technology have now managed to select the direction of the light using an unusual kind of coupling between spin and the direction of propagation.
How can a beam of light tell the difference between left and right? At the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) tiny particles have been couple ...
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