New class of nanoparticle brings cheaper, lighter solar cells outdoors. Think those flat, glassy solar panels on your neighbour’s roof are the pinnacle of solar technology? Think again. Researchers in the University of Toronto’s Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering have designed and tested a new class of solar-sensitive nanoparticle that outshines the current state of the art employing this new class of technology.
This new form of solid, stable light-sensitive nanoparticles, called colloidal quantum dots, could lead to cheaper and more flexible solar cells, as well as better gas sensors, infrared lasers, infrared light emitting diodes and more. The work, led by post-doctoral researcher Zhijun Ning and Professor Ted Sargent, was published this week in Nature Materials. Collecting sunlight using these tiny colloidal quantum dots depends on two types of semiconductors: n-type, which are rich in electrons; and p-type, which are poor in electrons. ‘NSA-Proof’ Email Service ‘ProtonMail’ by Harvard and MIT Students becomes massive success | Hack Read. Necessity is the mother of invention, the old adage has proved its worth again when a group of Harvard and MIT students came together to create an NSA-proof email service. ProtonMail, the new email platform launched at European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) by five security experts ‘who were drawn together by a shared vision of a more secure and private Internet,’ is probably safer and secure than Lavabit, Snowden’s defunct email service.
The service has many benefits over conventional email service providers. As the founders explain: They are incorporated in Switzerland, which is well known for offering the strongest privacy protection to both individuals as well as countries. The site uses end-to-end encryption and intense user authentication measures, implying that the data transmitted through their services is inaccessible to the ProtonMail team itself, let alone other people. It is free forever and does not allow tracking or logging of personally identifiable information. Fun, interesting science? 10 amazing online sources. In today’s TED Talk, Tyler DeWitt makes a fantastic case for a simple idea: make science fun. Educators and writers get caught up in the idea that science needs to be taken seriously, and forget that the best way to get kids interested is to… make it interesting. Too much emphasis on being accurate can lead to lessons that are incomprehensible, or just flat-out boring.
The money quote from DeWitt: Tyler DeWitt: Hey science teachers -- make it fun“If a young learner thinks that all viruses have DNA, that’s not going to ruin their chances of success in science. Now to the good news. Minute Physics. Vi Hart. It’s OK to be Smart. Comics! I F***ing love science. There are lots of wonderful places to find science news. Of course, there is our very own TED-Ed. There’s also The Story Collider, the story-telling event dedicated to how science makes a difference in lives and changes people. Artificial graphene could outperform the real thing. A new breed of ultra thin super-material has the potential to cause a technological revolution. “Artificial graphene” should lead to faster, smaller and lighter electronic and optical devices of all kinds, including higher performance photovoltaic cells, lasers or LED lighting.
For the first time, scientists are able to produce and have analysed artificial graphene from traditional semiconductor materials. Such is the scientific importance of this breakthrough these findings were published recently in one of the world’s leading physics journals, Physical Review X. A researcher from the University of Luxembourg played an important role in this highly innovative work. Graphene (derived from graphite) is a one atom thick honeycomb lattice of carbon atoms. This strong, flexible, conducting and transparent material has huge scientific and technological potential. The University of Luxembourg is heavily involved in cross-border, multidisciplinary research projects.
Forsiden - Green Carbon. How to Heat Your Room for 15 Cents a Day. This video shows us an ingenious way to heat a whole room for under 15 cents a day or possibly even cheaper if you find cheaper candles. It’s simple, here’s what you need: Tealight candlesA metal bread panTwo terracotta pots, one smaller than the otherA lighter/matches to light the candles Image: Youtube DIYheatingvideo Related Posts « 22 Medical Studies That Show Vaccines Can Cause Autism Judge who Ruled Raw Milk Illegal In Wisconsin Conveniently Now Works For Monsanto Law Firm » Quantum mechanics and the new technological future. Federico Pistono Interview.
'Quantum Internet': Towards realization of solid-state quantum network. (Phys.org) —Researchers at TU Delft in the Netherlands have managed to bring two electrons, three meters from each other, into a quantum- entangled state. This result marks a major step towards realizing a quantum network that can be used to connect future quantum computers and to send information in a completely secure way by means of 'teleportation'. The results have been published online on April 24 in Nature. Entanglement is arguably the most intriguing consequence of the laws of quantum mechanics. When two particles become entangled, their identities merge: their collective state is precisely determined but the individual identity of each of the particles has disappeared. The entangled particles behave as one, even when separated by a large distance. Einstein doubted this prediction, which he called 'spooky action at a distance', but experiments have proven its existance.
Prof. Entanglement over a distance of three metres Co-financed by the FOM Foundation and in cooperation entity. Why Computing Won't Be Limited By Moore's Law. Ever. In less than 20 years, experts predict, we will reach the physical limit of how much processing capability can be squeezed out of silicon-based processors in the heart of our computing devices. But a recent scientific finding that could completely change the way we build computing devices may simply allow engineers to sidestep any obstacles. The breakthrough from materials scientists at IBM Research doesn't sound like a big deal. In a nutshell, they claim to have figured out how to convert metal oxide materials, which act as natural insulators, to a conductive metallic state. Even better, the process is reversible. Shifting materials from insulator to conductor and back is not exactly new, according to Stuart Parkin, IBM Fellow at IBM Research.
What is new is that these changes in state are stable even after you shut off the power flowing through the materials. And that's huge. Power On… And On And On And On… Enter the IBM researchers. The implications are clear. Moore's Law? Copenhagen Fablab | Kultur og Fritid. Målet med Copenhagen Fablab er at stille faciliteter til rådighed, hvor københavnerne kan udvikle og afprøve gode idéer. Når man har udviklet sin gode idé, er man forpligtet til at dele idéen med det globale fablab-netværk, og man må ikke benytte fablab-faciliteterne til serieproduktion af idéen.
Copenhagen Fablab er en del af det globale fablab-netværk, der udspringer fra MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, USA), og er i dag udbredt til over 40 lande. Copenhagen Fablab anerkender det globale fablab-charter, der stiller krav om offentlig adgang, udbredelse af fablab-chartet, fælles standarder mellem fablabs for hvilke maskiner der stilles til rådighed, og endelig krav om deling af fablab-produkter i fablab-netværket.
Vil du modtage flere nyheder om kulturlivet i Valby? Klik her og tilmeld dig vores nyhedsbrev: Kultur Valby Ekstra. Hvornår er der åben? Hvad koster det? Vi har skiftende beholdning af følgende materialer: Hvilke faciliteter stilles til rådighed? Spørgsmål? 19-Year-Old Student Develops Ocean Cleanup Array That Could Remove 7,250,000 Tons Of Plastic From the World's Oceans. 19-year-old Boyan Slat has unveiled plans to create an Ocean Cleanup Array that could remove 7,250,000 tons of plastic waste from the world’s oceans. The device consists of an anchored network of floating booms and processing platforms that could be dispatched to garbage patches around the world. Instead of moving through the ocean, the array would span the radius of a garbage patch, acting as a giant funnel.
The angle of the booms would force plastic in the direction of the platforms, where it would be separated from plankton, filtered and stored for recycling. At school, Boyan Slat launched a project that analyzed the size and amount of plastic particles in the ocean’s garbage patches. His final paper went on to win several prizes, including Best Technical Design 2012 at the Delft University of Technology. Slat went on to found The Ocean Cleanup Foundation, a non-profit organization which is responsible for the development of his proposed technologies. . + Boyan Slat. How a Handful of Countries Control the Earth's Most Precious Materials. To see a list of the raw materials that comprise a cell phone or a computer is to burrow to the planet's core.
Some of the names are familiar -- gold, tin -- while others sound as exotic as the places from which they come -- tantalum, indium. As our gadget dependency grows, so does our appetite for these bits of Earth. In fact, demand for the 14 most-critical minerals for today's electronic technologies may as much as triple over the next 20 years, according to the European Commission. Myriad factors -- volatile markets, low substitution rates, export restrictions -- make some materials more precious than others. "The era of access to easy resources is over," says mining analyst Paul Bugala of Calvert Investments.
And while governments may be eager to cash in on their mineral wealth, "the track record for developing countries taking advantage of natural-resource wealth in a sustainable way is really short," he says. Brazil: The majority of niobium makes its way into structural steel. UTEC - Potable Water Generator. PBS Off Book: Will 3D Printing Change the World? Build your own Electric Car! Google's self-guided car could drive the next wave of unemployment | Technology | The Observer. Almost without noticing it, our world crossed a significant threshold last week. Jerry Brown, the governor of California, signed into law a bill that will allow driverless cars on to his state's roads from 2015. Insofar as most people noticed this event at all, they probably sniffed derisively. For some, it'll be seen as an example of techno-hubris – "flags on the moon stuff" – as one of my acquaintances put it.
For others, it will be seen as yet another confirmation of the proposition that the continental United States slopes gently from east to west, with the result that everything with a screw loose rolls into California. Governor Brown signed the bill at Google's HQ in Mountain View. At the ceremony in Mountain View, Google's co-founder, Sergey Brin, announced the company's intention to bring autonomous vehicles to the market in five years.
Ignore the evangelism for a moment and think about what Google has achieved. This isn't just about cars, by the way. So where did the jobs go? Printing 3D Houses. 3D printing. 11 Emerging Scientific Fields That Everyone Should Know About. Ellen Jorgensen: Biohacking -- you can do it, too. Availability: DOW POWERHOUSE™ Solar Shingle. The popularity of DOW POWERHOUSE™ Solar Shingles continues to grow – and so does their availability in the U.S. and Canada. Click on the map to be contacted by a Dow Solar expert who can answer your questions about financing, tax credits and more. Or Call 855-DOW-SOLR (855-369-7657). View CanadaView United States Contact us if you’re interested in more information about Solar Shingles coming to your area. If you are a custom home builder or roofing installer, contact us for more information.
The computer that never crashes - tech - 14 February 2013. A revolutionary new computer based on the apparent chaos of nature can reprogram itself if it finds a fault OUT of chaos, comes order. A computer that mimics the apparent randomness found in nature can instantly recover from crashes by repairing corrupted data. Dubbed a "systemic" computer, the self-repairing machine now operating at University College London (UCL) could keep mission-critical systems working.
For instance, it could allow drones to reprogram themselves to cope with combat damage, or help create more realistic models of the human brain. Everyday computers are ill suited to modelling natural processes such as how neurons work or how bees swarm. Today's computers work steadily through a list of instructions: one is fetched from the memory and executed, then the result of the computation is stashed in memory.
He and UCL's Christos Sakellariou have created a computer in which data is married up with instructions on what to do with it. Build yourself a brain More from the web. Sculpteo’s 3D printing service brings designs to life. Spend a few minutes talking with Clèment Moreau, and you're apt to start dreaming up your own three-dimensional (3D) creations: a customized toy, a work of art, or even a working robot. But as co-founder of 3D printing company Sculpteo, Moreau is less interested in hobbyist-only pursuits than he is in what professionals can do with the still-nascent technology. Sculpteo is a 3D printing company, but it doesn't make 3D printers.
With facilities in France, America and Israel, Sculpteo maintains its own manufacturing operations for 3D printing services. Companies and individuals send in their 3D renderings, and Sculpteo prints their designs using a process that involves lasers and plastic compounds reduced to a powder form. This is almost the reverse of the engineering revolution sparked by Henry Ford with the Model T automobile. The limitations of in-home 3D printing First, the technology requires a level of technical expertise few consumers possess.
Bringing ideas to life. TEDxHamburg - David F. Flanders - "3D Printing: This Century's Most Disruptive Innovation?!" Will Robots Create Economic Utopia? The robots are coming! Every day it seems we hear another story blaming robots and automation for the disappearance of not only menial jobs, but middle-class ones as well—the kind of work that pays enough to fund a pension, a health-care plan, and a home mortgage. The deepening gloom over jobs runs deeper than robots. The rapidly spreading digital economy has reached critical mass, transforming industries and replacing workers of all kinds. Think high-speed trading on Wall Street. Forget these jeremiads. Boilerplate talking points in Washington, D.C., about cutting taxes or hiking spending seem beside the point.
Will there be jobs? For another, it isn’t hard to see where at least some job growth will occur in coming years. Problem is, home health care is an occupation that has one of the highest concentrations of low-paid jobs set to grow by 2020, according to calculations by the Economic Policy Institute. Boosting the pay rewards to work at the same time is critical. Soon, 3D printers could be building houses on the Moon out of lunar dust. A non-causal quantum eraser. Norwegians trap sunlight with microbeads, produce solar cells that are 20 times thinner, cheaper. Viewpoints ~ Opinion & Analysis.