August 12, 2008 – 1:55 pm
The recent energy crisis and soaring oil prices have compelled the human race to look for alternate energy sources, such solar, wind, geothermal, nuclear and bio fuels. Harnessing of nuclear power is getting new impetus.
June 12, 2008 – 2:44 pm
The biggest impediments to widespread adoption of photovoltaic cells as a routine source of energy are the cells’ inadequate efficiency and high cost. According to EE Times, IBM has taken a major step toward removing those barriers. Critical to the new development is the devices’ cooling mechanism, which employs a liquid metal layer of gallium […]
May 24, 2008 – 7:11 am
Cleveland Botanical Garden and Kent State University’s Liquid Crystal Institute today officially launched a pioneering research project to explore the potential of liquid crystal technology for creating more sustainable, energy-efficient greenhouses.
May 13, 2008 – 10:37 pm
A new catalyst developed by Hitachi Maxell Ltd. can generate about 4.8 times the oxygen-reduction current per unit area than existing platinum catalysts. The new catalyst, for use at the cathode of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC), is a gold-platinum particle 2 to 3 nm in size. Platinum is a common catalyst for […]
April 20, 2008 – 6:32 pm
Carbon cages can hold super-dense volumes of nearly metallic hydrogen. Hydrogen could be a clean, abundant energy source, but it’s difficult to store in bulk.
March 16, 2008 – 3:47 am
Taking a page out of a science fiction story, researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Webb Research Corporation (Falmouth, Mass.) have successfully flown the first environmentally powered robotic vehicle through the ocean. The new robotic “glider” harvests heat
March 3, 2008 – 8:04 pm
If you could hold a giant magnifying glass in space and focus all the sunlight shining toward Earth onto one grain of sand, that concentrated ray would approach the intensity of a new laser beam made in a University of Michigan laboratory.
“That’s the instantaneous intensity we can produce,” said Karl Krushelnick, a physics and engineering […]
February 22, 2008 – 6:18 pm
It’s one of those everyday annoyances, finding yourself with a flat battery in any one of the gadgets we carry around constantly now. I would love the option of charging your phone or your ipod while you’re out and about. And it looks like that may be possible soon, with a recent report […]
February 16, 2008 – 6:41 am
The world is almost certainly going to remain hooked on fossil fuels—oil, coal, natural gas—for decades to come, despite our best efforts to cut back, the chief scientist for British Petroleum said during a recent campus talk.
Physicist Steven Koonin spoke to a crowd gathered at the Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center to hear the […]
January 26, 2008 – 5:41 am
A national team of scientists led by experts at Durham University are embarking on one of the UK’s largest ever research projects into photovoltaic (PV) solar energy.
The £6.3million PV-21 programme will focus on making thin-film light absorbing cells for solar panels from sustainable and affordable materials.
