Electricity can be generated via the action of tiny water droplets spontaneously jumping away from superhydrophobic surfaces, and can be harnessed to (potentially) power portable electronic devices, according to new research from MIT. The researchers involved in the new work suggest that such a technology could allow for the creation … [continued]
Scientists were pretty excited when they discovered you could convert light energy directly into electricity by capturing photons in semiconductors, exciting them into “excitons” (bound electron with negative charge and hole with positive), and capturing the resultant current through electrodes. Now a group of four chemists from the University of … [continued]
An entirely new approach to harvesting waste heat — one based on a phenomenon known as the thermogalvanic effect — has been developed by researchers at MIT and Stanford University. The new technique is entirely divorced from the (usually used) thermoelectric effect, which relies on (generally expensive) solid-state materials — … [continued]
Okay, so it ain’t no Egyptian cotton, but a team composed of researchers from MIT, the University of Michigan, and the Indian Institute of Technology has come up with a new way to fabricate a graphene sheet, which overcomes some of the hurdles that have been bedeviling researchers ever since … [continued]
Originally published on 1Sun4All. Watch the discussion between André Borschberg—CEO, Co-Founder & Pilot of Solar Impulse—and students from the MIT Aeronautics Astronautics Unified Engineering class, led by Professor Olivier de Weck. An MIT Unified Engineering & Solar Impulse Hangout On Air The topic of discussion above is the challenges of building a solar airplane, … [continued]
An entirely new way to filter light, one that has long been sought but until now remained elusive, has been achieved by researchers at MIT. For the first time, it’s become possible to selectively filter light according to its direction of propagation — in other words, to filter it based … [continued]
Bacterial cells can be manipulated into creating biofilms that incorporate nonliving materials, such as quantum dots and/or gold nanoparticles, according to new research from MIT. These new “living materials” — which were inspired by complex matrix-like natural materials, such as bone — can be created so that they can perform … [continued]
Imagine human-designed ‘bionic’ plants with enhanced energy production that can perform valuable functions such environmental pollutant monitoring. Sort of like plant-based substitutes for conventional machines. Sounds a bit far-fetched? Well, apparently it’s not — in fact, it’s already a reality. Researchers from MIT have succeeded in substantially boosting the light-capturing … [continued]
Originally published on Solar Love. US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz this week announced $30 million of support for 12 more unique, hybrid solar projects through the ARPA-E program. Actually, it’s through a program within that program — the Full-Spectrum Optimized Conversion and Utilization of Sunlight (FOCUS) program, “which is aimed at developing new … [continued]
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have created a new, novel circuit design that promises to greatly increase the energy efficiency of a number of widely used consumer electronic devices. To showcase the new circuit design, the researchers at MIT have created what is now “the world’s smallest … [continued]
