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Issue no. 36, 2009 Published: Nov 06, 2009
Light down a wire for solar power
Betting on a Metal-Air Battery Breakthrough
New technology gives higher yields
Study dismisses notion of internet isolation
Xerox claims breakthrough in printable circuitry
Winery waste makes fuel
Smart spectacles aid translation
Scared of flying? Press the fear iButton

Light down a wire for solar power
Solar power could be produced cheaply in specially designed optical fibres, say researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, US. The work makes use of nanometre-scale wires built around optical fibres like bristles. Those wires give the light much more surface area to interact with, leading to higher overall efficiencies. However, only the ends of the fibres must be exposed - they funnel the light elsewhere for power generation. Instead of roof-sized panels, small collectors could be used on the roof, with the real machinery of solar power generation tucked away, for example, between a home's walls. The most efficient solar cells are those based on silicon, which absorbs light, generates electrons, and shuttles them around to create a current. Recent years have seen leaps and bounds in the use of so-called dye-sensitised solar cells, in which the electrons are released from special dye molecules designed to absorb sunlight. While dye-sensitised cells are promising because they make use of cheap and robust materials, they are comparatively inefficient. The new method starts with commercial optical fibre, like that used in telecommunications, with the outer layer stripped off. The team then creates a 'forest' of zinc oxide nanowires around the fibre, and deposits the dye molecules over them. This creates a much larger effective surface area that helps to boost the cells' efficiency.
BBC News / Angewandte Chemie Nov 04, 2009	back to top

Betting on a Metal-Air Battery Breakthrough
A spinoff from Arizona State University says it can develop a metal-air battery that dramatically outperforms the best lithium-ion batteries on the market, and now it has the funding it needs to prove it. The US Department of Energy last week awarded a USD 5.13m research grant to Fluidic Energy toward development of a metal-air battery that relies on ionic liquids, instead of an aqueous solution, as its electrolyte. The company aims to build a Metal-Air Ionic Liquid battery that has up to 11 times the energy density of the top lithium-ion technologies for less than one-third the cost. It says the use of ionic liquids overcomes many of the problems that have held back metal-air batteries in the past.
Technology Review Nov 05, 2009	back to top

New technology gives higher yields
One of the greatest challenges of this century is making the food supply secure in a world that finds itself under increasing pressure from the growing population, changing food patterns and changing climate. The use of new molecular technologies for plant breeding is essential to increase both yield and stress tolerance in our crops. The new technology is based on insights in epigenetics. The 'epigenetic' component is like an extra dimension on top of the genetic code of a living organism that is affected by the environment and in turn changes the activity of the genes. The efficiency of energy production is strongly related to its epigenetic code. By using a 'smart' selection adapting the epigenetic code, Bayer BioScience's hope is to use the technology in breeding and to develop improved yield varieties. Using this method in rapeseed it has been proved that rapeseed varieties can be selected yielding between 8% and 20% more than the common varieties. With the help of researchers at VIB-UGent and UA, the underlying mechanism was unravelled and the technology further developed. The result is a very efficient technology based on mechanisms such as energy metabolism and epigenetic regulation, which occur in all plants. The applicability of the selection system is also confirmed in rice, but should in principle be applicable to all crops and should provide the possibility to make selection processes more efficient. Another quite important advantage is that the more energy-efficient varieties do not require more water or fertilizer to produce higher yields.
Science Daily / Flanders Institute for Biotechnology Nov 04, 2009	back to top

Study dismisses notion of internet isolation
A recent study has suggested that the internet is not making people more isolated, as some have argued. The study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that, contrary to popular belief, the use of internet services has not hampered the ability of people to socialise. The study was a follow up to a 2006 survey which suggested that people have become more isolated since the mid-1980s, and less likely to form close ties with people in their communities. The latest study, however, suggests that the use of internet technologies is having the opposite effect. The survey found that, rather than weakening the ties people have with their closest social circles and immediate community, the adoption of technology has allowed people to expand their social networks and open up relationships with larger, more diverse groups of friends. The study comes amid ongoing debate about the long-term effects of the rise in social networking and community-based web services. In the enterprise space, administrators are faced with weighing the risks and benefits such services pose to both employee and corporate performance.
VNUnet UK Nov 04, 2009	back to top

Xerox claims breakthrough in printable circuitry
Xerox is claiming a major breakthrough in the field of printable circuitry with a new form of 'silver ink' that could allow electronics to be produced more cheaply and flexibly. The company has developed an ink that aligns its molecules to conduct electricity more efficiently. This means that electronics circuitry can be printed on new materials without needing a clean room, dramatically reducing costs. Part of the problem with printable circuitry is the high temperatures required by traditional metallic inks, typically more than 800 degrees centigrade. This makes it impossible to print circuitry on some materials, such as plastics. However, the new ink is liquid at much lower temperatures, about 140 degrees. This opens up new areas for which printable circuitry has not traditionally been suitable.
VNUnet UK Oct 30, 2009	back to top

Winery waste makes fuel
As if turning grapes into wine wasn't enough, now wineries are aiming to transform their wastes into fuel. The first example of a new renewable method for generating hydrogen fuel from wastewater is now operating at a California winery. The refrigerator-sized generator takes waste from the Napa Wine Company and feeds it to microbes inside. With the aid of a little electricity, these naturally occurring bacteria break the organic material in the wastewater into hydrogen gas. There is a lot more energy locked in the wastewater than is currently used to treat it, according to researchers. Eventually, the winery would like to use the hydrogen to run vehicles and power systems. Napa Wine Company's wastewater comes from grape disposal, wine making, cleaning equipment and other processes. The company already has on-site wastewater treatment and recycling, and the partially treated water from the hydrogen generator will join other water for further treatment and use in irrigation. The experimental generator will continuously process about 1,000 litters of wastewater a day. In the future the company hopes to generate more energy in the form of hydrogen than was used to treat the wastewater, thus making the winery a net power producer.
MSNBC Nov 03, 2009	back to top

Smart spectacles aid translation
Spectacles that can provide subtitles have been created by hi-tech firm NEC. Resembling glasses but lacking lenses, the headset uses a tiny projector to display images on a user's retina. NEC said it planned a version that used real-time translation to provide subtitles for a conversation between people lacking a common language. NEC said the Tele Scouter was initially intended to be a business tool that could aid sales staff who would have information about a client's buying history beamed into their eye during a conversation. But it could also be put to a more exotic use as a translation aid. In this scenario the microphone on the headset picks up the voices of both people in a conversation, pipes it through translation software and voice-to-text systems and then sends the translation back to the headset. At the same time as a user hears a translation, they would also get text subtitles beamed onto the retina. The Tele Scouter will be launched in Japan in November, 2010.
BBC News Nov 05, 2009	back to top

Scared of flying? Press the fear iButton
People scared of flying can now press a button on their iPhone to help them deal with their panic. Virgin Atlantic Airways has launched an application for its Flying Without Fear course which boasts a success rate of over 98%. Apps are a source of information, games and other novelty ideas for users of Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch devices. The airline said in a statement that this app was designed to help people overcome fear, be it of the unfamiliar aircraft, the strange noises a plane makes, or of losing control. The airline developed the app with Mental Workout, a company developing software to help people resolve issues and increase mental performance. A spokesman from Mental Workout said an estimated one in every three adults were scared of flying. The Flying Without Fear app has a video-based in-flight explanation of a flight, frequently asked questions, relaxation exercises and a fear attack button for emergencies with breathing exercises.
Yahoo / Reuters Nov 03, 2009	back to top