Researchers at the UC Berkeley and the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley Lab have developed a new lead-free material that generates electricity when exposed to stress. One day, this phenomenon called piezoelectricity could become as common as backyard grills.
I have been to the Netherlands this summer, in my honeymoon. While you travel down their free and super-strictly speed limited highways (120km/h), you'll see a lot of cows on the left... and on the right (the pic above is taken by my wife).
Prof. Bruce isolated the core of the photosynthetic process from certain algae, and proved that, if coupled with a platinum catalyst, it could produce hydrogen in the presence of light. Photosynthesis is at the base of our fossil fuel energy, because it comes from the plants that lived here millions of years ago - indirectly, from the Sun.
The unit has been invented by Pembrokeshire engineer Richard Ayre, featuring three generators mounted on a triangular frame and due to its floating crane it can easily be lowered and recovered from the seabed.
The European Union has an ongoing plan of designing an assisted towing they call "road trains". A road train wants to be a wireless controlled system in which a leader truck, driven by a professional driver is the coordinator, and the cars behind it are the followers. The train is going to run on highways, and all the cars would be free to attach and detach the train at will.
U.S. scientists, along with Swiss-based NLV Solar are searching for a possibility to use pyrite for making efficient solar cells, and replace the expensive silicon with a thinner and cheaper option. "This analysis is truly a blend of semiconductor physics and natural resource economic analysis," he said.
According to a study, there are about 1.5 billion people in developing countries who do not have electricity, the majority of them using kerosene lamps for light after sunset. But now, thanks to the researchers from Denmark, the lighting problem could disappear.
Max Planck Institute for Coal Research and at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces have invented a material in the form of a powder than can transform methane into methanol, which is easier to transport and handle.
These microbes feed on solar power and synthesize both the alkane and olefin molecules. Although the hydrocarbon fuels have only been produced in lab quantities, the company plans a pilot demonstration for 2011.
JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, wants to compete with the United States' PG&E project for collecting solar power from outer space and beam it on Earth through clusters of lasers and microwaves.
