Group items tagged

Researchers in the US have built a new type of solar cell that emits light as well as absorbs it, making it the most efficient solar cell ever developed. The efficiency of their prototype cell allows it to convert 28.6% of the Sun's energy into electricity.

well, the text is at best misleading ... the most efficient solar cells are well over 35% and approach the 40s with concentration! what they have done is to increase the limit of a single junction cell it seems to me ... still, nteresting though from text most details on how this was done are missing ... paper is not yet published, correct?

I learn of it in a workshop few weaks ago. It's on GaAs and I think that the key theoretical aspects are explained here: http://arxiv.org/abs/1106.1603

It is not new, but I can't remember any discussion on this concept at the ACT

The film Batman Begins shows the character of Batman gliding using a rigid form of his cape. This paper assesses the feasibility of such a glide and finds that while a reasonable distance could be travelled if gliding from a tall building, the speed at which Batman would be travelling would be too dangerous to stop without some method of slowing down.

Captivated by a strange coiling behavior in the grasping tendrils of the cucumber plant, researchers at Harvard University have characterized a new type of spring that is soft when pulled gently and stiff when pulled strongly. Instead of unwinding to a flat ribbon under stress, as an untwisted coil normally would, the cucumber's tendrils actually coil further.

...interesting discovery that can add something to my ongoing Ariadna...

And here you have the paper published today on Science http://www.sciencemag.org/content/337/6098/1087.full

see papers I have just sent you this afternoon ...

Again, amazing insects! Scientists have discovered that Polistes fuscatus paper wasps can recognize and remember each other's faces with sharp accuracy, a new study suggests.

On time for new year ... Ambitious China!

full text available at http://images.spaceref.com/china/ChinaSpaceActivitiesin2011.pdf

Sometime in the last few billion years, disaster struck one of Earth's nearest neighbours. Planetary geologists think there is good evidence that Venus was the victim of a runaway greenhouse effect which turned the planet into the boiling hell we see today. A similar catastrophe is almost certain to strike Earth in about 2 billion years, as the Sun increases in luminosity.

the actual paper: http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.1593 just wondering if their conclusion that the long term solution is to change the orbit of Earth is really the ultimate wisdom ...

Some new field of game for the ACT?

Very interesting paper!

Quote: Recognizing the need to investigate and evaluate visionary aerospace concepts for their validity, several organizations employ specialized groups to do just this, like ESA's Advanced Concepts Team [2], Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works [3] or NASA's Team-X [4].

Researchers in South Korea are the first to make a bendable digital memory that can store data without constant power. Such memories could find applications in electronic paper for more comfortable reading and in wearable computers, which could be used in medical monitoring and treatment.

interesting reflections by MIT head on innovation in US

interesting, especially since in all COmmission papers US innovation is praised and changes expected are only related to China/India (for the better)... Article mixes a lot talk on innovation with numbers that I do not see necessarily connected (trade deficit, GDP growth etc.). Seems to me the real problematique behind the article is only the next planned distribution of federal funds and where they should cut...

well I understand her point. Spending cuts are only vicious short term solutions against economical downturn since growth (GDP is an interesting measure indeed) comes from innovation, research and production. Nonetheless, what she is describing is happening in EU too. So who will take the lead? I am not certain China is the one. In my view, it has not yet solved its domestic issues... and US still has more Nobel Prize than China. One thing for sure, the way it is EU is only a "wagon" of the train...

Corning unveiled a new flexible glass -- called "Willow Glass" -- at the Society for Information Display's Boston Display Week on Monday. It's about as thick and flexible as a piece of paper, while having the strength, durability and other qualities of existing glass.

Secure World Foundation (SWF) is pleased to announce that it will be accepting applications from young professionals for scholarships to aid in traveling to present papers at the 2012 International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Naples, Italy.

...I told you we had to hurry up with our Ariadna! btw, they studied the coiling at the cellular level (but I am scared to read the paper to see if there is something left for us..)

Weird.

This reminds me a 2013 paper on how to perform derivatives, integrals and even time reversal in optical fibres: http://www.nature.com/srep/2013/130403/srep01594/full/srep01594.html "The manipulation of dynamic Brillouin gratings in optical fibers is demonstrated to be an extremely flexible technique to achieve, with a single experimental setup, several all-optical signal processing functions. In particular, all-optical time differentiation, time integration and true time reversal are theoretically predicted, and then numerically and experimentally demonstrated."

Would this kind of computer be more space environment resistive?

Machine breakeven reached at NIF, meaning 10kJ pushed into the pellet and a total output of17kJ. This is however a machine breakeven as it took several orders of magnitude more power to pump and fire 192 ns-lasers to achieve the input, but a tremendous achievement nonetheless after 60 years of fusion research

and I think the actual paper might be this one: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13008.html

What he found was that wind turbines "could disrupt a hurricane enough to reduce peak wind speeds by up to 92 mph and decrease storm surge by up to 79%."

It seems the topic is getting more and more popular and is no longer considered fringe research, as this is a paper from nature climate change!