50% More Efficient Nanowire Solar Panels February 21, 2019
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Gallium arsenide nanowires can convert up to 33% of incident light to electricity if arranged like a stand of trees. A team at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EFPL, because my French is merde) has made a prototype of these light funnels and found that it may collect up to twelve times the light. Where did I get that 50% figure in the headline? That’s the “in practice” value (33% efficiency), compared to the conversion of silicon-based cells (currently[0] about 20% efficient).
Also, since they are really skinny wires, there isn’t much mass which is good considering the cost of gallium arsenide. When I say skinny here I mean tens of nanometers thick: “Arrays of nanowires would use at least 10 000 times less gallium arsenide, allowing for industrial use of this costly material. Translating this into dollars for gallium arsenide, the cost would only be $10 per square meter instead of $100 000.”
Right then, let’s review: cheaper, lighter and more efficient. The team thinks they can mount them on flexible substrates, too, so there should be additional deployment modes.
[0] See what I did there?
Fluorescent Pink Flying Squirrel February 8, 2019
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Not a punk band name, the North American flying squirrel fluoresces pink at night under ultraviolet light. Not a mistake, either:
“I looked at a ton of different specimens that they had there,” Kohler said. “They were stuffed flying squirrels that they had collected over time, and every single one that I saw fluoresced hot pink in some intensity or another.”
In order to expand the search, the team at Northland College in Wisconsin went to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and gathered more specimens. In all, they researched over 100 specimens ranging across numerous states, all confirming the “pink theory.”
I mean it’s not hunter’s orange, but it’s a start.
Tentacle-nosed Catfish February 8, 2019
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This is one of six catfish species recently discovered in Amazonian basin rivers and streams.
Cute little creatures, aren’t they?
Stuffilike.net 