Apr
23
Bacteria Make Diesel Fuel On Demand
April 23, 2013 | Leave a Comment
A team from the University of Exeter, with support from Shell, has developed a method to make bacteria produce diesel on demand. Sounding a bit like science fiction the technology still faces many significant commercialization challenges. But the diesel, produced by the special strains of E. coli bacteria, is almost identical to conventional diesel fuel, […]
Apr
22
Blowing Beyond the Solar Cell Limit
April 22, 2013 | 3 Comments
The Shockley-Queisser efficiency limit asserts that the ultimate solar cell conversion efficiency can never exceed 34% for a single optimized semiconductor junction. Researchers at MIT have shown they have a way to blow past that limit. That will raise a cheer to an industry in real need of a major boost. Decades of research on […]
Apr
19
A Booster for Food and Fuel Production
April 19, 2013 | 1 Comment
Hydrogen sulfide, the gas with a telltale rotten-egg smell often called and found in sewer gas could greatly enhance plant growth in low doses. Hydrogen sulfide remains in higher concentrations a deadly substance implicated in several mass extinctions. At high concentrations – levels of only 30 to 100 parts per million in water – hydrogen […]
Apr
18
A Major Step Forward for Plasma Research
April 18, 2013 | 4 Comments
University of Missouri (MU) engineer Randy Curry and his team have developed a method of creating and controlling plasma that could revolutionize American energy generation and storage. The secret to Curry’s success was developing a way to make the plasma form its own self-magnetic field, which holds it together while it travels through the air. […]
Apr
17
The Miracle Breakthrough Microbattery
April 17, 2013 | 3 Comments
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UI) have announced their new Microbatteries that out-power even the best supercapacitors and could drive new applications in radio communications and compact electronics. The press release suggests the new microbattery is the most powerful battery on the planet. They are only a few millimeters in size and […]