| Researchers create incredibly thin solar cells flexible enough to wrap around a human hair Apr 4th 2012, 17:50 You've probably heard that the sun is strong enough to power our planet many times over, but without a practical method of harnessing that energy, there's no way to take full advantage. An incredibly thin and light solar cell could go a long way to accomplishing that on a smaller scale, however, making the latest device from researchers from the University of Austria and the University of Tokyo a fairly significant discovery. Scientists were able to create an ultra-thin solar cell that measures just 1.9 micrometers thick -- roughly one-tenth the size of the next device. Not only is the sample slim -- composed of electrodes mounted on plastic foil, rather than glass -- it's also incredibly flexible, able to be wrapped around a single strand of human hair (which, believe it or not, is nearly 20 times thicker). The scalable cell could replace batteries in lighting, display and medical applications, and may be ready to be put to use in as few as five years. There's a bounty of physical measurement and efficiency data at the source link below, so grab those reading glasses and click on past the break. Researchers create incredibly thin solar cells flexible enough to wrap around a human hair originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Apr 2012 13:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink  PhysOrg |  Nature Communications | Email this | Comments | | Self-sculpting 'smart sand' can assume any shape, create instant prototypes (video) Apr 4th 2012, 17:28 A new algorithm developed by the Distributed Robotics Laboratory at MIT's Computer Science could lead to an exciting fast prototyping tool, being dubbed "smart sand." Immerse an object in the sand, tiny cubes that send simple proximity messages to each other, which relay through the swarm and determine which blocks are adjacent to the object to be modeled, and those that aren't. Using this data, it's possible to create a map of the subject to be replicated. Initial tests were performed using 2D models, but has also been shown to work reliably with 3D shapes also. While true smart sand would need "grains" much smaller than currently possible, it's said that this isn't an "insurmountable obstacle." The paper will be presented at the IEEE conference in May, or keep going past the break for the explanatory video. Continue reading Self-sculpting 'smart sand' can assume any shape, create instant prototypes (video) Self-sculpting 'smart sand' can assume any shape, create instant prototypes (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Apr 2012 13:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | MIT | Email this | Comments | |
