WC Archive

Quantum Dot Solar: About a year ago, we posted a discussion of research on the application of nanocrystals -- aka, quantum dots -- to polymer photovoltaic materials. An update to that research in May brought the potential efficiency of quantum dot solar to 65% -- well above what we see with traditional silicon photovoltaics. And now, we're starting to see that research turn into real products.

Silicon Valley-based Inovalight has come up with a method to make nanocrystal photovoltaics in bulk, resulting in something they call "solar ink." The material should be usable with "roll-to-roll" printing techniques, making it possible to put photovoltaic layers on flexible materials such as fabric or plastic. By adjusting the size of the nanocrystals, Inovalight solar ink can capture energy from light at a wider spectrum than is possible with traditional photovoltaics, including infrared and (according to the Energy Blog) ultraviolet light. Inovalight plans to have commercial photovoltaic products available by next year.

Looking Inside a Virus: Purdue biologists have improved the ability to understand how viruses work by making it possible for microscopes to have look inside -- not by changing the hardware, but by updating the software.

Developing the software package enabled the team to examine the Epsilon 15 virus, a "bacteriophage" that infects the salmonella bacterium, and to resolve features as small as 9.5 angstroms across — less than a billionth of a meter. Until now, the high-resolution device, called a cryo-electron microscope, used to examine such objects could only examine the virus's outer shell.

This will be a step towards a better understanding of how bacteriophages work, and could facilitate the development of more sophisticated phage therapies in days to come.

Phages that attack bacteria are harmless to humans, Jiang said, and for each bacterial species, including those that cause human disease, nature has evolved several phages designed to infect it specifically.

"Phage therapy as an antibacterial weapon was an idea that was introduced in the early 20th century, but it fell by the wayside as antibiotics came to the fore," Jiang said. "It is possible that as we learn more about how viruses work on the molecular level, their promise as a medical tool will finally come to fruition. Until then, software will be the key to focusing our technological eyes, and teams like ours must keep improving it."

Operating system developers could learn a thing or two from these guys -- imagine, a software patch that makes the hardware work better!

(Via Medgadget)

Oh Carbon Nanotube... (etc.): Cambridge University engineers have developed capacitors -- devices that can swiftly store and release electrical energy -- based on carbon nanotubes. Using nanotubes significantly increases the surface area available to the storage material, hence the amount of energy that can be stored. The level of energy storage approaches that of a battery, and the engineers have great hope that the method could lead to so-called "supercapacitors" for use in everything from handheld devices to hybrid cars.

...such nanoscale capacitors might help improve the development of compact and cost effective supercapacitors, which has direct bearing on "electric or hybrid electric vehicles such as the Toyota Prius," Amaratunga said. These supercapacitors could help reduce the amount of battery weight these vehicles carry, thus improving their fuel consumption or performance or both, he explained.

The researchers are currently pursuing supercapacitors for portable electronics "such as PDAs, where the optimization of battery weight and lifetime remains a significant issue," Amaratunga added.

Capacitors are used in hybrids because of the speed at which they can charge and discharge, making it possible to deliver a large burst of energy to start the vehicle from a stoplight. Previous research on carbon nanotube-based supercapacitors has shown an energy storage density nearly 10 times than of commercial capacitors.

I Feel Lucky (Not): If you've ever searched for something on Google, Yahoo or Microsoft's search engines that you, um, might not want other people to know about, pay attention: it turns out that all three of these companies have chosen to retain information about searches that directly ties search terms to Internet addresses. Only AOL does the right thing and discards identifiable data.

This would allow lawyers and government officials to take a peek at what you've been searching for, should they be interested. And privacy laws may be no protection, at least in the US. The federal law that protects electronic communications was written in a way that allows search engines to fall outside of its purview.

Author and entrepreneur John Battelle received word from Google this week that the company can perform two important types of matches. [...]

First, given a number of search terms, Google can produce a list of people (identified by Internet address or cookie) who searched for a given term. Second, given a collection of Internet addresses, Google can produce a list of the terms searched by the user of a given address. That effectively creates an electronic dossier of an individual.

According to C|Net, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft hang onto this data for as long as "it's necessary," which as of now means for the foreseeable future. MS and Yahoo may decide to allow users to erase their histories at some point. AOL, conversely, deletes data after 30 days.

Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Watch has a useful article on how to increase your privacy while using search engines -- and look for a familiar name mentioned in the text!