Ever wonder what goes into an LED light bulb? Well Todd did and you can too because he posted a great tear down of one that failed. Pretty good info if you are thinking of taking one apart.
Category: Discovery
Photovoltaic Hornets?
Researchers have discovered that a species of hornet might be able to convert sunlight directly into energy via pigments in it’s exoskeleton…
Ishay found that shining light on the hornets—live, anesthetized or even dead—could produce voltage differences of several hundred millivolts across their hard exoskeletons, which suggested that the cuticle material making up the exoskeletons was effectively an organic semiconductor converting light into electricity. Indeed, Ishay even found that shining ultraviolet light on an anesthetized hornet would wake it up faster, as though the light were recharging the insect.
If this proved to be an accurate assessment of the insects abilities it might be possible to ‘grow’ photovoltaic cells.
(Thanks to special field researcher Greg for this link)
Programmable Self-Folding Origami
Only a matter of time until technology like this becomes common in everyday items. I want a bed that will make itself when I get out of it in the mornings. 🙂
(The device)… consists of a thin sheet of resin–fiberglass composite, just a few centimeters across, segmented into 32 triangular panels separated by flexible silicone joints. Some of the joints have heat-sensitive actuators that bend 180 degrees when warmed by an electric current, folding the sheet over at that joint. Depending on the program used, the sheet will conduct a series of folds to yield the boat or airplane shape in about 15 seconds. The folding-sheet approach is an extension of the field of computational origami, the mathematical study of how flat objects can be folded into complex, three-dimensional structures.
New Element Officially Added
Set another place at the periodic table, we have another confirmed guest!
Set another place at the periodic table, we have another confirmed guest! It’s not every day that science updates the classic chart of the atoms that make up our universe (well what we know of it so far…)
A team of scientists, lead by Sigurd Hofmann at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung (Centre for Heavy Ion Research) in Darmstadt, Germany are credited with its discovery.
“The new element is approximately 277 times heavier than hydrogen, making it the heaviest element in the periodic table,” the scientists said in a statement.
Hofmann and his team first synthesized the element in 1996 by firing charged zinc atoms through a 120 meter-long particle accelerator into a lead target. The zinc and lead nuclei were fused to form the new element.
Go science! Too bad you can’t get a sample of it, the lifespan of this element is measured in seconds. Wikipedia has a gob of tech on it if you want to sound all smart like to your friends: Wikipedia – Element 112
[via Periodic table adding new element – The Register UK]
Want your own periodic table of the elements? I bet you do! Amazon has a nice periodic table of the elements for less than $10. Buy it and I get a tiny kick back, we all know how that works.