Harvard`s Black Silicon: 100 to 500 Times More Powerful Than Old Solar Cells
Kept in secret until yesterday, a newly appeared company, named SiOnyx, unveils an invention of some Harvard researchers, that is going to revolutionize the whole industry. Harvard has been studying their "black silicon" for almost ten years, but nothing has come out of their lab, due to internal policies regarding the output of their discoveries to commercial companies.
The Ultimate Hydrogen Storage – Made of Corncobs!
One thing is to be noted here: one gram of carbon made from corncobs has its molecular internal surface equal to a football field, plus it has been proved that boron doping will further increase this capacity in great amounts.
Highly Efficient Flexible Silicon Solar Cells Invented
Scientists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Northwestern University invented a silicon solar cell. The interesting fact is that it's flexible and it can be printed on a curved surface or a fabric. Although solar paint has been produced, there are a few situations where you'd rather use more solid solar cells (like porous surfaces, where paint cannot be applied well).
100 Year-Old Aerodynamics Problem Solved: Could Increase MPG Dramatically
MIT researchers discovered the solution to a problem put 100 years ago by Ludwig Prandtl. It refers to the situation when, for example, a car accelerates up and down a hill, then slows to follow a turn, and the airflow around it cannot keep up and separates from it. This aerodynamic phenomena creates an additional drag, slowing the car, and forcing you to push harder on the pedal, consuming more gas.
New Electric Field Device Reduces Car Fuel Consumption by 20%
Professor Rongija Tao, from Temple University, invented a device that, applied to the vehicle's fuel line, near the injectors, creates an electric field that reduces the fuel's viscosity, so that smaller droplets are injected into the engine, leading to better combustion and increased fuel efficiency as much as 20%.
Einstein’s Refrigerator Using No Electricity/No Freon Revived at Oxford
It seems like Einstein did his best not only in quantum physics, but also in classic, immediately-helpful science. Back in the 1930's, helped by his friend Leo Szilard, he invented a refrigerator that used no electricity at all. Scientists from Oxford are struggling to revive his invention today.
New Graphene Layer to Double Ultracapacitors Storage Capability
Engineers and scientists from the University of Texas at Austin, led by Rod Ruoff, a mechanical engineering professor and physical chemist, have created a one-atom thick layer of carbon, called "graphene", and they put it to use in electrical storage systems, such as ultracapacitors, a viable way to clean and efficient energy storage.
New Fuel Battery Has 3 Times More Energy Than Gasoline!
It's not breaking news anymore, but some scientists from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and others, led by Stuart Licht, discovered a battery that could kick out fossil fuels at the chapter of energy storage capacity.
Gold Nanoantennas Could Harvest Solar Power at Night Time
While the most high performance classic solar cells only use up to 20% of the solar power falling onto them, researchers from DoE, the laboratory from Idaho, found out a way to capture much more from the Sun's energy, the invisible light spectrum, even at night.
Nissan Develops Acceleration Pedal That Pushes Your Foot Back
According to Reuters, Nissan said on Monday that it has invented an accelerator pedal for their future cars that is somehow slapping your foot off it. It can push back on the driver's foot when it detects too much pressure and bad fuel efficiency while accelerating.
