For the most part, solar panels in calculators, cell-phone chargers, emergency radios, and the like, are a task done by hand. Individual silicon solar chips, about 0.5V capacity, are broken on score lines by hand from a larger chip,...
One of the problems with electric vehicles has always been the price. Rechargeable battery technology has seen a lot of improvement, but still remains a large chunk of vehicle price. Of course, since EVs are much more economical...
As humanity pushes further into the future, and considering the implications of an already-warming climate, considerations are being taken into the kind of crops that we'll need. Genetic engineering has led to crops that are bug- and disease-resistant, which...
There is no question that climate change has definitely been one of the hottest topics of discussion over the past few decades. Potential rising of temperature might cause increase in sea level, change in weather patterns, extinction of important...
Scientists at the Texas A&M University department of ecosystem science and management are measuring how much would the rate of productivity of forests could increase by fertilization.
In 2011, the US department of Agriculture awarded a five year grant to...
Increased annual energy production at significantly lower cost is the promise that engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas give to solar power plant managers. This will be achieved if the new thermal energy storage system developed by the...
Researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) have created new concentrator solar cells that have a solar conversion efficiency of more than 40% and intensities of 10,000 suns. This is almost as much as the most ultra-efficient photovoltaics...
The U.S. Department of Energy is funding a group of University of Rochester chemists to determine how to increase the output and lower the cost of current light-driven hydrogen-production systems. Hydrogen’s desirability comes from the fact it can be...
The foundry industry, which predates Greek and Roman history, has been invaluable in advancing human civilization and has a technological and cultural significance that is often unrecognized. Without strides in foundry technology, we would have no jet engines, railroad...
In 2009, the founders of the international organization Maker Faire Africa envisioned an environment where inventors and problem solvers could meet annually to focus on finding simple breakthroughs to solve immediate crises in Africa and then determine ways to propagate the...
