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3D solar panels can produce 20 times more energy than flat panels

3D solar panels can produce 20 times more energy than flat panels
We see the trend in 3D technology everywhere: Movie theaters, home theaters, game consoles, 3D printers. But researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently discovered that creating a 3D-inspired solar panel not only help to keep up with the trends, it could draw in 20 times more energy than flat panel designs. Traditional solar panels lay flat on a surface or rooftop, facing the sun to collect energy. “I think this concept could become an important part of the future of photovoltaics,” said Jeffrey Grossman, the Carl Richard Soderberg Career Development Associate Professor of Power Engineering at MIT and one of the project’s leaders. The accordion-style arrays also work better because they receive solar energy from all angles rather than in just one direction. Researchers also say the tower style panel helps save space by standing vertically, and the design will be easier to manufacture than the cubes.

Dreaming of Flying | Quite Curious I h ad one of those flying dreams, the kind that we all have at one point or another. This one though, felt particularly special, and I felt the need to record it somehow. My photo turned out much better than I thought it would. An old man saw me editing this photo at Starbucks and took great interest in it since he was a pilot, and curious about anything that flew. How I Did It I wasn’t going to show anyone the un-edited photos to keep up the story that I was a flying superhero, but I’ve been asked “How did you do that?” This weekend I threw a ladder, chair, and some other odds and ends into the car, and went out scouting for a location buy discount viagra for the shoot. Here’s the original, un-edited photo. I actually left the shoot feeling dejected, because I didn’t think I would get anything usable. First of all ,jumping on couch cushions is scary as hell, because there’s a good chance that you’ll either fall on the concrete, or land through the cushion cracks. Photoshop Trickery

365 Songs or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying... Methane Made with Solar Power Will Power Audi Vehicles Gas maker: SolarFuel operates this 250-kilowatt demonstration plant that produces methane from carbon dioxide and hydrogen. Audi is building a plant that will use solar and wind power to make methane from water and carbon dioxide. The plant, which will use technology developed by Stuttgart, Germany-based SolarFuel, is scheduled to start operation later this year. SolarFuel’s process uses excess renewable energy generated as a result of Germany’s push to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. SolarFuel says its approach may be a solution to one of the biggest challenges with renewable energy—its variability. To make the methane, SolarFuel combines two existing technologies. SolarFuel’s chief customer officer, Stephan Rieke, says that the amount of excess renewable energy in Germany grew, in two years, from 150 gigawatt-hours per year to 1,000 gigawatt-hours per year. SolarFuel can’t compete directly with the wholesale price of natural gas.

Anatomy of the Great Adderall Drought Last May, Stephanie Lee couldn’t find a pharmacy in Atlanta that stocked Adderall, the prescription drug cocktail of amphetamine salts that helps her treat her attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. She called her local pharmacy. All amphetamine salts, as well as generic, extended release Adderall XR were nowhere to be found, thanks to a limit set on the amount of amphetamines produced every year by the federal government. Luckily, Stephanie’s insurance covered name-brand Adderall XR, so she was still intermittently able to get her prescription filled. At one point, she was trading some XR pills with her sister-in-law for amphetamine salts because pharmacies were all out. Another time, she went a month and a half without any medication at all. When the shortage began, Stephanie had just begun a new job. Today, Adderall is only legal in the United States and Canada. Everybody’s favorite focus drug For many people with ADHD, Adderall is what best manages their symptoms.

nicolasrapp.com Learn The History Of Physics In 4 Minutes Aristotle was wrong. He claimed that heavier items fell faster than lighter items. Had he actually tested the theory, using a high-tech tool as sophisticated as a ladder, a ledge, or a cliff, he’d have immediately realized that it couldn’t possibly be true. Because Galileo did test the theory, and he found that balls of various mass fell at the exact same rate. And then he skydived off the Leaning Tower of Pisa in celebration just to rub it in Aristotle’s wrong dead face. Well, at least that’s what happened according to this fantastic animation directed by Åsa Lucande for BBC Science. [Hat tip: neatorama]

Future telescope array drives development of exabyte processing Innovations in modern science and computer technology are strongly linked together, and astronomy has unquestionably benefited from the advances in high-powered computing systems. However, the proposed Square Kilometer Array (SKA) of radio telescopes promises to push well beyond the current computing ability of the entire planet: if it works as planned, SKA will produce over one exabyte (260 bytes, or approximately 1 billion gigabytes) every day. This is roughly twice the global daily traffic of the entire Internet, and will require storage capacity at least 10 times that needed for the Large Hadron Collider. The Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON) and IBM announced a collaboration today to develop the exabyte technology needed to support SKA. As the name suggests, SKA will be a connected set of millions of radio telescopes with a collecting area of approximately one square kilometer. The Square Kilometer Array is a scientific collaboration between more than 20 nations.

MyTreeTV 2 : La Physique Quantique : vers la recherche d'un absolu… Bien des physiciens croient que la meilleure façon de décrire le monde de l'atome demeure le modèle mathématique, et qu'à travers les équations nous pouvons entrevoir la façon complexe dont le monde microscopique est ordonné. Mais un orage souffle sur la physique du vingtième siècle, faisant trembler ses fondations et jetant la confusion sur la nature même de ses concepts les plus ultimes. Véritable révolution qui vient jeter un pavé dans la mare pourtant si tranquille de nos croyances acquises jusqu'alors, la physique quantique se révèle une théorie sans commune mesure avec tout ce qu'on croyait savoir au sujet du monde atomique. La théorie quantique décrit un monde étrange, où l'on découvre que la matière qui constitue tout notre univers, et qui semble pourtant bien localisée dans l'espace est en fait « étendue » quelque part.

10 Amazing Underground Homes - Oddee.com (underground, homes...) With the population growing more and more each year, it was only a matter of time before people started building their homes underground like Hobbits from the Tolkien tale. Mankind started off living in caves, and now we realize that "earth homes" are actually a very eco-friendly way to live. These ten underground homes are so amazing they might make you want to set up camp underground too! Cave House in Festus, Missouri This modern and energy-efficient 15,000-square-foot home is built within a sandstone cave in Festus, Missouri. This space was previously used as a concert venue and a roller skating rink! Malator in Druidstone, Wales This contemporary home is touted as one of Wales' architectural masterpieces. "The turf roof, steel chimney and peephole doorway inevitably gave way to its local nickname as ‘the Teletubby house'. Hidden House in Lower Silesia, Poland The Underground House, Great Ormside, Cumbria, England Sedum House, North Norfolk Coast, U.K. Flower Petals in Bolton, U.K.

WƔSƎ — Über die Weisheit von Wirheiten! Oder: individuell betrachtet... WƔSƎ — Über die Weisheit von Wirheiten! Oder: individuell betrachtet dient man selten alleine: Gruppenphänomene die eigentlich keine spürbaren mehr sind, aber als Ich-Konzepte herhalten müssen. Wenn die vernachlässigte Kraft der Natur nicht mehr über seine gebündelte Energie hinauszusehen vermag. — What You See, is What We Are! »Ɣ« gehört zur afrikanische Sprache Eʋegbe und ist ein mich berührender Buchstabe für das fühlbar nachgezeichnete Wort: Ewe. Dass das Protein diese Informationen über so viel Umweltschäden erhalten hat, kann nur an der vielfältigen Streuung der Einzelteile über Jahrtausende liegen. Gruppen fanden sich im Grunde immer mit dem Ziel, der Mächtigkeit egal welcher Natur nicht kraftlos zu erliegen. Die Streuung unterschiedlicher Ansichten zu einer friedvollen Absicht ist ein Erklärungsmodell, das mindestens genauso individuell gehalten werden will, wie die Gruppe die sich darin wiederfinden möchte. Evolution kann man das nicht mehr nennen.

La physique quantique (Philippe Grangier) - Université de tous les savoirs Transcription* de la 574e conférence de l'Université de tous les savoirs prononcée le 17 juin 2005 Par Philippe Grangier: « La physique quantique » La Physique Quantique est un sujet extrêmement vaste, et je n'aurai pas la prétention d'en présenter tous les aspects dans cet exposé. Dans mes exemples, je parlerai beaucoup du photon, vous savez aussi que c'est le « Licht Quanten », le quantum de lumière qui a été introduit par Einstein en 1905 dans un article extrêmement célèbre qui fête cette année son centenaire. Je vous parlerai donc d'idées et de concepts, mais aussi d'expériences, et en particulier de celles que nous avons faites à l'Institut d'Optique à Orsay. Qu'est ce donc que la physique quantique ? Donc la mécanique quantique est une construction intellectuelle tout à fait grandiose, je pense que c'est un candidat valable au titre de plus grande aventure intellectuelle du 20ème siècle, c'est-à-dire plus grande que la relativité, le marxisme, ou la psychanalyse.

P-III autopsy « Sciency stuff For teaching a course I needed to take a closer look at a CPU. I asked around and got my hands on an old P-III Coppermine that was about to get thrown out. I’ll start with a disclaimer: I know virtually nothing about CPUs, so if I claim something to be true, it probably isn’t. The first challenge is to get the actual silicon processor chip off of the plastic bonding board. Click images for full-size. The blue part in the middle is the actual Si chip. Back side of the circuit board containing the CPU. I figured I should be able to remove the chip by heating it. A saw comes in handy sometimes... Below you can see the result. A piece of the processor chip came off. This is the piece that came off. Now the interesting part begins. This is a piece of the processor. Looking closer, we start seeing some structure inside the holes. A processor contains many layers of metal leads in order to connect the transistors at the surface of the silicon chip into useful units. Focus is on upper layer.

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