The ancient, arid landscapes of Australia are fertile ground for new growth, says Douglas MacFarlane, a chemist at Monash University in suburban Melbourne: vast forests of windmills and solar panels. More sunlight per square meter strikes the country than just about any other, and powerful winds buffet its south and west coasts. All told, Australia boasts a renewable energy potential of 25,000 gigawatts, one of … Continue reading Liquid Sunshine
Researchers have developed a tiny silicon-based device that can harness what was previously called waste heat and turn it into DC power. Directly converting electrical power to heat is easy. It regularly happens in your toaster, that is, if you make toast regularly. The opposite, converting heat into electrical power, isn’t so easy. Researchers from Sandia National Laboratories have developed a tiny silicon-based device that … Continue reading Generating electrical power from waste heat
Scientists are developing a “living sensor” that eats hydrocarbons to monitor the country’s extensive network of petroleum pipelines. More than 212,000 miles of oil and gas pipelines traverse the United States, transporting about 16 billion barrels of crude oil, refined petroleum products and liquefied natural gas each year. Thousands more miles of pipeline branch across the ocean floor. Monitoring the extensive network for leaks is a monumental … Continue reading Bacteria-Based Sensor Could Detect Oil and Gas Leaks
We explore how powerful your laser needs to be to get noticed on Mars and beyond. Have you ever played with a pocket-sized laser, wondering how far its light would travel? Could you, a naughty student inside a classroom on Earth, annoy a poor substitute teacher on Mars by waggling your laser pointer at him? The short answer: no. By the time the light finally … Continue reading How Far Can Laser Light Travel?
IISc researchers produce a better water purification membrane | 08/30/2016 Going a step further, a team of researchers from IISc Bangalore has improved upon the water purification membrane they developed in 2014. The membrane allows higher flow rate across it and kills nearly 99 per cent of E. Coli present in water. The results of the study were published recently in the journal Nanoscale. Instead of … Continue reading IISc researchers produce a better water purification membrane
Earth’s temperature dropped during solar eclipse | 08/23/2016 A study revealed that the temperature of the Earth dropped during last year’s eclipse of the sun, Britain’s Met office has said.The Met Office on Monday said it was the first time that satellites had been used to monitor surface “skin” temperatures during a total solar eclipse, Xinhua news agency reported. The research showed the eclipse on … Continue reading Earth’s temperature dropped during solar eclipse
Technology produces clean-burning hydrogen fuel ch Nitesh | 29/01/2015 A new technology based on carbon nanotubes promises commercially viable hydrogen production from water. The new technology is a novel catalyst that performs almost as well as cost-prohibitive platinum for so-called electrolysis reactions, which use electric currents to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. The Rutgers technology is also far more efficient than less-expensive catalysts … Continue reading Technology produces clean-burning hydrogen fuel ch
New quantum approach to big data Geeta | 29/01/2015 Machine learning systems can help researchers deal with this ever-growing flood of information. Some of the most powerful of these analytical tools are based on a strange branch of geometry called topology, which deals with properties that stay the same even when something is bent and stretched every which way. Continue reading New quantum approach to big data
Diesel Is Now Better Than Gas Modern diesel cars emit less pollution generally than cars that run on gasoline, says a new six-nation study published today in Scientific Reports whose groundwork was laid in part by an American chemist now working at Université de Montréal. And since diesel is so much cleaner than before, environmental regulators should increasingly shift their focus to dirtier gasoline-powered cars and other … Continue reading Diesel Is Now Better Than Gas
BRIEF: 5G Internet is the Next Big Thing in Light Pollution The fast-growing next-gen mobile network may threaten future radio astronomers’ ability to detect signals from space During last week’s American Astronomical Society meeting in National Harbor, Maryland, astronomers detailed the rise of a new and unexpected source of light pollution: radio waves. Although the human eye can’t see them, the waves are an important … Continue reading BRIEF: 5G Internet is the Next Big Thing in Light Pollution
