Minuscule Motor Runs on Sunlight
Sunlight powers this little engine, which produces zero waste. The solar-powered four-stroke nanomotor. Energy from the sun drives the movement of the yellow ring structure like a piston. Credit: PNAS Scientists have developed tiny four-stroke ... [... more]
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Body Movement Generates Electricity in Miniature Device
A new class of nanogenerator aims to produce electricity while being smaller and less toxic than traditional batteries. Zhong Lin Wang holds a sample nanowire array that can produce electricity from mechanical energy. Credit: Gary Meek/Georgia ... [... more]
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A Real 'Green' House: No Heating Bill for 25 Years
Mears' previous residence with attached greenhouse and solar collectors. Credit: David Mears Schematic diagram of solar heated residence with attached greenhouse. Credit: David Mears When David Mears and his wife Dorothy put their house up for ... [... more]
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New Flexible Material Conducts Electricity
The polyaniline they made can conduct electricity at ultra-cold temperatures, and duplicates traits heretofore found only in pure metallic materials. A new type of plastic-based polyaniline, a polymer that has the same characteristics as metal, ... [... more]
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Floating Ocean Windmills Designed to Generate More Power
Swaying windmills floating hundreds of miles out at sea could one day help satisfy our energy needs without being eyesores. This figure shows (from left to right) an onshore wind turbine, a conventional offshore unit, and the experimental unit ... [... more]
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Lightning Detector Warns of Imminent Strikes
An Oklahoma University professor has developed a device that can detect when lightning is about to strike. NORMAN, Okla. (AP) -- A University of Oklahoma professor has helped invent a device that measures the likelihood that lightning will ... [... more]
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Pee Power: Researcher Says Urine Deserves Separate Treatment
Toilets would all have to be replaced, but electricity would be saved. Separating urine from the rest of sewage would save electricity at treatment facilities, says Jac Wilsenach, who is getting his Ph. D. by studying the idea. Among the ... [... more]
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Scientists Turn Cow Waste into Electricity
Researchers used microbes found in cow stomachs and dung to power fuel cells. Scientists have generated renewable electricity using natural materials that are cheap and plentiful - cow manure and stomach juices. Microbes living in the rumen ... [... more]
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All Earth's Electricity Mustered to Destroy an Aluminum Can
Actually, four times that much is used. The can didn't have a chance. At a government test site in Nevada last week, scientists generated a brief electrical pulse four times as powerful as all the electricity on Earth. The 650-ton Atlas Pulsed ... [... more]
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Power of Pee Runs a Battery
Scientists have developed a way to turn urine samples like these into electricity to power small diagnostic kits. Credit: AP Photo / Keystone, Fabrice Coffrini Just a few drops of urine on the copper chloride paper layer starts a chemical ... [... more]
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Powerful New Map: Where the Wind Blows
A new map highlights spots where there is enough wind to provide electricity to the whole world âEUR" and then some. Map of global wind speeds observed at 80 m and averaged over all days of the year 2000 at locations with 20 or more valid ... [... more]
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Waste Not: Energy from Garbage and Sewage
New technologies tap garbage and human waste for an energy-hungry world. A microbial fuel cell developed in Bruce Logan's laboratory, shown here powering a fan. Credit: Bruce Logan, Pennsylvania State University A hundred years ago, gas was ... [... more]
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